Navigation
After returning from the Sydney tango festival a couple of days ago, I am even more convinced now that good navigation on a crowded dancefloor (or some would call floorcraft) is a separate skill that needs to be taught separately. As visiting maestros at a festival usually have limited time (and in my opinion should be charged with presenting fresh and even challenging concepts for a community to derive the maximum benefit of having them) at any one place, this particular “bread-and-butter” skill for a the social dancers is really the responsibility of local teachers.
Fundamentally I believe good navigation has a lot to do with one’s attitude. Mind you, although the onus is on the leaders mostly, followers can and should play a part too. For example, common sense would dictate that if the floor is somewhat crowded then we all need to be patient, and move slower than usual to avoid collision. The floor space available is shared by all, so legs and arms need to be kept tighter to the body as necessary. Tango is not a race and we are certainly not in competition to see how many rounds of the dancefloor we can complete in one song, so what’s the hurry?! đ
A good friend Jean-Michel has provided some excellent advice on the specifics for leaders, which is really worthwhile to spend some time to put into practice:
- âSaber Milonguearâ Part 1: the obvious codes of the milonga
- âSaber Milonguearâ Part 2: the hidden codes of the milonga
To finish off, I will borrow a quote from the same post attributed to Cacho Dante, a well known milonguero and great Tango teacher:
âBailar bien no es igual que saber milonguearâ (To dance well isnât the same as knowing how to dance social).
Let’s all have a happy and harmonious dancefloor whenever we step into a milonga!
Reconnect with Troilo
Back when I started collecting music (and made heavily use of Stephen Brown’s excellent website) I quickly took a liking to the Anibal Troilo/Francisco Fiorentino combination. Over the intervening years I was to learn that due to the complexity inherent in Troilo’s music, it is in general more difficult to dance well to Troilo. This has also been borne out by my personal experiences and observations over. I suppose, perhaps as a result, and in conjunction with changes in musical taste, Troilo gradually fell out of favour, to be replaced by either the more rhythmic orchestras such as D’Arienzo, Biagi, and Rodriguez or the lyrical orchestras such as Di Sarli or Donato. However, and ironically, as I tried to put the advice of from a recent class with Javier into practice, namely to dance slower, I am rediscovering a liking for the syncopations of Troilo, albeit leaning more to the instrumental pieces (from early to mid 1940s) this time round.
New old CDs
Recently saw some good deals on certain gems of tango music online. Well, how could I pass on the chance to add to my collection!? So, after a relative lull, I made my orders of a number of CDs, this time around concentrating on materials from the 1920s to early 1930s. My final “targets” included music of Francisco Canaro, Edgardo Donato and Osvaldo Fresedo.
Since the parcels just arrived today, I have only had a chance to listen to the Canaro (1926-1927). From the front cover photo, it appears that Canaro himself might have been playing in the orchestra at this point in his career. The music is slow-paced and more intimate (though not as sweet as Di Sarli’s Sexteto sound), quite a big contrast from his grander and more upbeat sound in his 40’s output. Well, now really can’t wait till my copy of La Cumparsita – Tango Argentino (Francisco Canaro), which took me quite a while to track down a reasonably priced copy (as mentioned here) arrives. It will have some rare tracks not available elsewhere…
Some reflections
Simba’s reflections on 10 years of learning and dancing tango struck a chord with me. There is certainly a few parallels between his and my experiences. For instance, I started on the tango journey close to 10 years ago, also in a tango desert of a community. When I went to my first tango festival in Taipei in 2003 (the inaugural Taipei Tango Festival), I met Javier Rodriguez and Geraldine Rojas for the first time. Although I had seen them in CITA videos prior and been utterly impressed, I have to say the meeting with them did not have such a lasting impression. They were certainly brilliant dancers for sure, but I had other concerns to deal with – like, being to dance well technically… đ By the time I had matured more as a dancer, Javier Rodriguez was already with a different partner when I saw him again.
This is something Simba mentioned that stuck with me especially.
Before we can expect people to find their own tango, they have to see the real tango. Smell the real tango. Touch the real tango. Listen to the real tango. And feel the real tango.
Thinking back, I guess this was probably the main driving force in persevering with bringing international teachers like Javier Rodriguez to Singapore in the past few years, despite the expenses involved. Realistically, one or two encounters with good teachers – famous or not – will not dramatically improve how one dances*. In addition, no doubt each of us who perseveres with tango will discover his/her path to the final destination. However, as of now I firmly believe that it’s important to have the right image early on, an goal of the tango (although not necessarily in the technical sense) that has come before and something that can carry the torch for.
* Incidentally, this is important for event organisers and participant needs to realise in order to manage their expectations.