From BBC news
Scientists discovered that people move faster when reacting to something than when they perform “planned actions”.
Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8493092.stm
Perhaps this explains some of the differences between leading and following. Why some followers bolt at the slightest intention and why some leaders are constantly frustrated.
To those who complicate tango it can always be made simpler
To those who simplify tango it will always reveal complexities.
Not a photo of mine but one taken at a photoshoot organised by me and currently entered in the Tangozapa photo contest, see here: www.tangozapa.com/enrique-y-marion-dusk and vote here: www.tangozapa.com/gallery
There’s a trip to Buenos Aires at stake.
Voting ends January 31st
Written about swing rather than tango, it’s an interesting read all the same
A good dancer is not the sum of their steps.
Technique will only make you not bad.
Being able to earnestly and honestly engage with your partner is the mark of a good dancer.
Dear God I needed that.
Tango is sensory overload. Be it through multiplicity of steps or depth of embrace.
["Just enough education to perform" was the title of the third album by Welsh band Stereophoincs]
My position regarding the teaching of tango is the typical Irish response of “Well, if I was going to there, I wouldn’t be starting from here”. People can take their tango where they like to but if they don’t have a good starting point, if they don’t set their students first steps in the right direction, then they are doing them a disservice.
A long time ago I established that the basic-eight is not the corner-stone of tango. That instead the foundations of tango lie in the walk. But because my education had been step based there was still something missing.
That missing piece was the bedrock on which the foundations were laid. That missing piece was a simple understanding of the music. Not a complex understanding, I had been introduced to answer-response phrasing, a simple one. Something that could be put forward to a student in their first class. A key that would help them unlock the three minutes of music ahead of them.
Oddly enough that key is offered to every student, except it it is disguised. It is hopefully safe to say that there isn’t a teacher of tango who doesn’t at some point during a students first class tell them to step on/off (delete to taste) the stressed beat. And with that piece of information the student marches off like a metronomic mechanical monster chewing their way through steps.
The hidden key is implied in the statement “step on/off the stressed beat”. If you are to step on/off the beat, then when there is no beat do not step.
Yes this is linked to further concepts like cadencia and medio tempo. But at its simplest it unlocks the tango puzzle. Allows you to hear the instruments breathe, talk to one another, talk to you. Suddenly you don’t have to fill the silence with step on step because you are both in conversation with the music.
The galling thing is that it is such a simple direction, such a simple concept that I really have to wonder why no one mentioned it to me before now.
[Acknowledgements] Adrian & Amanda Costa’s musicality class.