In response to Simba and Tangocommunter‘s recent posts.
I’ve encountered among contemporary artists an almost consistent fear of structure. “Oh it’s so restrictive” they moan. To me this exposes their misunderstanding of the structures in question. They view structure as a shell that inhibits and restricts their growth, an exoskeketon.
It doesn’t have to be. Structure can be endoskeletal. Supporting you from the inside and affording both flexibility and stability. Well devised structures can include a redundancy that allow you to slip out the odd prop or two when they are not needed. Structure is the giants shoulders that allow us to reach further.
It’s the inability to view structure in this way that prevents musicians from exploring danceable tango. Add to this the restriction that comes from playing in groups that are too small. You’re not going to get the same opportunity to improvise in a trio than you are in a sextet. You are going to be spending too much time being support for your other two musicians to get the feel for improvisation. Now in a group of six if one member wanders off a little it’s less likely to bring the whole thing crashing down.
If you listen closely to some golden age tango recordings you will hear not a group of straight-jacketed musicians but six or so lads that drink, play cards, womanise and perform all night long. What is missing at times from modern recordings is that sense of the camaraderie of working musicians instead of the seriousness of suffering artists.
And finally of course you’re not going to get the same experience playing tango as you are playing jazz because, guess what, it’s not jazz.
WELL said! Those who lack structure are usually the ones putting it down. It takes discipline to be creative. Creativity can flourish if you give it a system and variables, but it’s just chaos if you have nothing to tie it down.
I enjoyed your post
Pete | The Tango Notebook
So I will try and put this in context of the dance and in relation to the “step merchants”:
“step merchants”, by offering set sequences, offer “structures”. This means that they afford “stability” but also “flexibility”. Well devised sequences or “structures”, “can include a redundancy that allow” dancers “to slip out the odd prop or two when they are not needed”. So I would say that “Step Merchants” are “the giants shoulders that allow” dancer “to reach further”.
Yes “well devised sequences” can “include a redundancy that allow” dancers “to slip out the odd prop or two when they are not needed”. But note the qualitative. Yes it’s entirely possible to create something in your students through wielding sequences. But there are those out there who burden their students with collections of steps, simply churning out one sequence after another with no regard to development or understanding.
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Give a man a fish: feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish: feed him for life.
Give a man a cat and he’ll be fishing for the rest of his life.
Very interesting in the context of the dance indeed. I think you are absolutely right that giving structure/sequences with an undertanding of the dynamics of the dance is very important.
I guess it depends on the level of the students too: I notice that sometimes beginners can be overwelmed if you try to introduce them to the concept of the dance, improvisation, etc… They just dont know what you are talking about! So giving them structure is very good.
It’s only once they encounter the limits of the structures themselves (ie: being stuck on the dancefloor because they cannot do their last side step as there’s a wall or another couple in the way
) that they will ask for an understanding of the dance, how to develop the structures. Then is a good time to introduce them to destructuring.
Sorry I just ruined your music section, but the same thing happens with music… and painting: one cannot do good abstract/modern art without being able to paint a bunch of flowers properly first.
Which just goes to show that tango is not something that you can teach but is something that the student must learn.
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Walk, you must young Luke.