Limerick Tango

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.

Which comes first: the music or the dance?

Maybe, just maybe, she’s as interested in the music as you are.

I would like to begin by thanking Adrian & Amanda for travelling to Ireland, to début in Limerick of all places. For their fantastically clear and precise teaching. For their warmth and for their elegance. I think the happy glow on the faces of the class participants said it all.

Thank you to Brigitte of Paris-Tango.co.uk for helping to arrange for Adrian & Amanda’s visit to Ireland.

I would like to thank the class participants who put up with the 30 minute delay to allow those driving through the torrential rain make it for the start of the class.

I would like to thank those people who drove through the torrential rain when lesser souls would have given up and turned back.

I would like to thank those people who after driving to Limerick through the rain and home again on the Friday night, got up on Saturday morning and did it all again.

Specifically I would like to thank Monica, Louise and Sabina for putting on a wonderful spread. Louise again for manning the door.

All the ladies for the wonderful birthday waltz.

Those that came, that don’t dance, because it was my birthday and they wanted to see what it was all about.

If I didn’t get to dance with someone or didn’t get to speak to someone my apologies there were things coming at me from left, right and centre.

Thanks to Tango Fiesta Dublin (formerly Tango Essence) for partnering me in this venture and making it possible to bring Adrian & Amanda to Ireland.

Finally thank you to everyone, you made it a fantastic night.

Let go of everything except the leader

[Backdated]

When I was a younger dancer and being taught sequences I had a terrible habit of just going blank. This was because I knew what the sequence involved and thought I could let my mind wander. To use an example that involves bringing her to the cross and then lead something else. I would start off for the cross, let my mind wander, then suddenly find her in the cross wondering what it was I was to do next.

Because I avoid sequences as much as possible these days blanks haven’t been a problem. Until now. Now that I have two routines to rehearse the blanks are back.

Just another reason that I’m unlikely to do a rehearsed tango performance ever again.