The Beijing papers

VII-What does come to mind when you hear the word tango?


The most frequent answer to that question are these two words:
"sensuality" and "elegance".

In this article I wish to talk about the latter.

Talking about elegance is not so easy.
In fact, I feel a bit daunted by this word. I will try to write
modestly about elegance, since writing about it presumes that one is
in possession of the concept and this may sound conceited.
I am in no way an  "arbiter elegantiae", like they used to say in the
days of old, but I nevertheless feel compelled as a tango teacher to
bring up this important topic.

The popular psyche is right in stating elegance as being one big
concept in argentine tango. Elegance is indeed in the tradition of tango.
I totally concur with Noel Strazza  (ref: Beijing papers no.6) on the
importance of conveying the tradition in tango teaching, and this,
regardless of the style of dancing you might prefer.
As for myself, I like both: classical AND "nuevo".
In my mind, both styles should convey the defining elements that give
tango its very special identity and make it the powerful and beautiful
art it is.

Furthermore, elegance usually flows in the wake of a good dancing
technique and is indicative of things going in the right direction.
But, unfortunately, elegance like grace cannot be conjured up by magic
wishful thinking.
It is something that will come or not come, but when it will, it will
come "naturally" so to speak.

Someone once defined good manners by "the noise you do not make when
eating soup".
Elegance would be a bit like good manners for that matter. It is often
what you do NOT do or what you do so effectively and economically that
gives an "effortless" feeling in the lead and the movements when dancing.

An example: yesterday night, Felicia and I we were teaching the ocho
"cortado", the subject of our Sunday class.
One way of leading it would be to make your follower mirror your steps
in the cortado.
It is an effective way of learning at the beginning. Both roles are
making the same movements (but for the cross).
An elegant way though, would be to lead it in such a way that it would
be the lady that does the cortado while the leader would refrain from
mirroring her steps. He would lead it in an invisible way instead, and
even better, he would dance the cortado in her feet and body.
The visual this way would be less cluttered and the feel would become
concentrated, compact and effective.

Sabor y rithmo!

Elegant leaders know how to dance in the feet and body of their
followers and how to keep it simple on their side (Ying), especially
when the followers are doing something beautiful (Yang).
It does not mean that leaders cannot shine at times! If they want to
do something more outspoken, they will re-appropriate the Yang side
and keep their follower in Ying simplicity.
It is a very good basic principle of opposition and complementarity
that is present in all art forms.

Another example of elegance would be for repetitions.
"Good taste" in the classical definition calls for three not more.
More is to be avoided. It is fastidious, heavy handed and kills what
it wishes to serve.
Here is an example in music: take a theme or part of a theme a
composer wants to highlight.
He writes it once, repeats it to highlight and emphasize it, then
repeats the theme again and expands it with an additional part and/or
fuses it with the rest of the phrase.
It avoids repeating to sound like a redundant loop on a scratch record…
Even if the theme is beautiful, it cannot be repeated ad nauseam.
It is the same with gastronomy. Tiramisu taste good and almost
everybody likes it, but would you serve it on every course of a six
course meal?

So, back to our ocho cortado.
It is a sequence, which is fun to repeat. (Think three times max!)
The third time, you would expand it at the end by linking it with a
new sequence that would take over at the cross (for those who do know
how it goes).
For example, a possibility that comes to my mind would be to use the
energy of the cortado to bounce her foot at the cross than unwind it
in a volcada and finish it with a back step.
This would allow us to use the energy of the cortado and the cortado
step would become the first step of our next sequence.
The lady side would be to vary the colour by adding adornos every time
the cortado is repeated so it is not done with a Xerox machine kind of
look and feel.

But, for those two examples on elegance and taste, it is important to
come back to the BFF (the big five fundamentals) and work especially
on your spiral and on your walk.

To develop a beautiful walk is something so satisfying that everybody
should strive for it and work at this on a regular basis…(no partners
required!).

We always hear that tango is based on walking.
Indeed, it is true. The problem with this though, is that there is an
undertone of facility to it, something that is given already, since we
all know how to walk isn't it?
It would be a mistake to confuse walking in the street and the
beautiful tango walk.
The tango walk in its apparent simplicity (another characteristic of
elegance) hides in fact an artful technique that implies mastering the
various elements of the walk and presenting them in their proper order.

It is not without reason that the old milongueros in Buenos Aires, men
who have danced for fifty years plus, would not say after a nice dance
evening: "tonight I have danced well",
They would rather say: "tonight I have walked well".

To talk the walk like this speaks volume don't you think?


I shall end here for the moment.
It is time for me to go for my daily tango walk practice…

Love to all,
and see you on the dance floor!
Richard S.

The Beijing papers

IX- on accuracy and tango misconceptions.

On the 8th and the 9th of September 2006, every tango aficionados in
Beijing will be going  to
Tanghost, this Norwegian production that blends theatre with the
argentine tango.

In the Tanghost program it is written: "Pablo Veron is such a smooth,
anti-cliché dancer, that one wonders if the un-initiated even
appreciate the technical mastery he exhibits. His kind of
understatement and subtlety is what we appreciate in great artists of
any genre."

Accurate, and well said indeed!

In the Beijing paper no.7  I was talking about elegance. I mentioned
that elegance was often manifested by certain things that one will not
do. We can add to this: the apparent facility of one's technique that
manifest itself in a series of effortless actions. This is the art
that hides the art.
Pablo possesses this special gift and this is very rare indeed.
When a dancer embodies this form of grace, it is very difficult not to
watch him all the time.
I have noticed that, to a great many deal of onlookers, they watch
more Pablo than his partner.
In the classic book of elegance it should be the woman who shines and
the man who comes second.
But, with Pablo, it seems utterly difficult to find him with the
equivalent female partner.
I know of very few that can balance the act and match his presence.
Is this a blessing or a plight?

Dancers do not create anything tangible but themselves. To embody
one's art is the most difficult and fragile of situations. Do we ask a
painter to look like is paintings?  Once everything is said and done,
the painting remains and constitute a vivid testimony to the talent of
such painter. For a dancer, though, it is extremely fragile since you
have to breathe tango in your body and no external medium can be a
repository of you art. Lose it, lose all.
Pablo is constantly under scrutiny. When it is written about you "best
tango dancer on the planet"  one can imagine the pressure to live up
to such expectations.
Besides, I  do not know what to make of such a phrase. It sounds like
a curse or a lie.
If it is a lie, well, no big deal.
But if it is true, it means that you are alone.
We humans do not like to be alone, especially tango dancers.
We need two to tango!

Does it mean that Pablo would be forever dancing his solitude?

During the press conference on wednesday night Per-Olav Sorenson the
director of Tanghost quoted  this sentence: " tango is an encounter
between two people who dances  their solitudes".

Maybe it appears like that to the observer. But as a tango dancer, let
me tell you that I totally disagree.
This is not what we strive for.
We dance tango to reach out, to create harmony, not to express our
solitude with the other and use him/her as an instrument to that end.

If  somebody dances for that, what a pity.
This amount to dying from thirst at the side of the fountain.

Imagine, you are holding somebody in your embrace, close to your heart
and you do NOT engage in a conversation… Really, what a pity!

You are having somebody who wishes to open up to you in accepting the
invitation to the dance
and you settle for a soliloquy? What a misery.

It may sound witty to say such a thing about Solitude, but there are
other means of expressing it and us, tangueros, have better things to
do when we dance.

You want to talk about solitude?  Fine, do as Ibsen did and write a
play about it.

You want to dance tango?

Open your heart, listen and connect!

Love to all,

Richard


This paper will conclude the series of the Beijing Papers for the
summer of 2006
There are nine Beijing Papers altogether plus three supplements.
They are published on the Beijing, Shangaï and Hong Kong tango forums.

The Beijing papers

VIII- In appreciation of Pablo Veron


Attention all tangueros and tangueras,
If you want to see  a male dancer that posseses elegance, grounds
beautifully, has a relaxed torso (and arms) and lead from his  center,
go see Pablo Veron who will be visiting Beijing this week.

Pablo Veron has always been a great source of inspiration for me

I  know Pablo Veron for seven years now.
I discovered Pablo in  Sally Potter's film  The Tango Lesson in 1999.
In 2001, I was a student in his  tango workshops in Montreal, Canada .
Summer of 2002 I started going to his private studio in Montreal and
started training with Noel Strazza*  his newly found partner from
Buenos Aires.
I have never stopped training with Noel ever since.

For those who do not know him please visit his webpage: www.pabloveron.net
The picture on the welcoming page is Pablo and Noel.

You will read there some of the praise that was lavished upon him and
prestigious awards he received from everywhere.

Some say he is the best, some criticizes him, but nobody can deny that
he is a formidable dancer. One has to see him on stage to realise to
what extent this is true.

In Tanghost, Pablo assume three roles: actor, dancer and choreographer.

I do not  know if the dancing in the Ibsen's play will be  impressive
or subdued since it is a theater play . He does dance with one of the
character, an actress I think, and  I  am not too sure to what extent
he can expresses himself in the dancing.

In any cases it is worth seeing to watch him move, he is a cat!

I still remember to this day a tango choreography  that he danced last
fall in Montreal.
A dance number that he prepared for "le gala des Étoiles" (gala of the
stars) in which he danced a tango with two women. The music was
Bajofondo, alternative music.
A few days after the show he decided to give an impromptu performance
of the piece during the late hours of a  milonga (dance evening). A
gift from Pablo to the Montreal tango community.
Nobody saw that coming.  The floor cleared, the light dimmed, the
music started, the two followers, Noel his partner and Carole, another
tango teacher in Montreal, started dancing their part. Pablo was
behind a pillar. After a while he just came out, jumped over a table
and did about three spins on himself  before stopping squarely on a
very strong accent in the music.
We were all stunned and new that this was a moment. (As I am writing
this my spine is tingling). He literally exploded there. Then, with
incredible aplomb and virtuosity he danced the two women inside out.
When it stopped , we were so flabbergasted that nobody  couldn't utter
a sound. Time seemed suspended. Then applause fused from every corner
of the room.
It was so incredibly powerful, beautiful, on the fringe of tango and
modern dance so out of the ordinary, it was art! Great art!

So, the million dollar question now:
Do I  think Pablo Veron is the best tango dancer in the world?
Or like they say on the flyer of Tanghost: "the best tango dancer from
Argentina"

No, I cannot say that, there are other great tango dancers.

Contrary to them though, Pablo can dance everything: modern dance,
tap, body percussion and a mean salsa.
Plus he is the embodiment of both the tango tradition and modernity.
Pablo has both the elegance and the audacity.

I will simply say that Pablo is the best full fledged dancer that
dances argentine tango in the world!

Don't miss him…

Richard


* to better know Noel Strazza and know more about Pablo, please do
read The Beijing Paper no.6, (already posted on the Tango Ren).

The Beijing papers:

VI-

We will conclude this series of six articles on tango with a
substantial interview that was realised last spring  in Montreal, Canada.
Enjoy!



Sensitivity, the senses, the sensation of silence and heightened
awareness.
A tango conversation  between  Noel Strazza and Richard Sagala

(translation from French: Carole Newman

Presentation of Noel Strazza:
Buenos Aires-born Noel Strazza has studied the tango with its
Argentine masters.  A gifted professional dancer, with a rigorous
training in both  classical ballet and contemporary dance, Noel's
versatility has enriched many distinctive dance companies. She has
featured in numerous international festivals.
Her dance partnership with Pablo Veron began in August 2000 and has
taken the couple all across the world to teach and perform.
To name a few,
here are just some of the places  and circumstances in which Noel has
found herself over the last five years:
A tour of Korea and Japan with Pablo Veron, October-December 2005
Guest appearance with Pablo Veron at the « XXII Gala of the Stars »,
Place des Arts, Montreal, September 2005
« Tango Sinfonico" with Pablo Veron and the Potsdam Kammerakademie
Orchestra, Germany, August 2005
Tour of Australia and New Zealand with Pablo Veron, October 2004
Show with Pablo Veron and the Buenos Aires  Tango Via Orchestra at the
Theatre de Chaillot, Paris, June 2003
Show  with Pablo Veron and the Quintango orchestra in May 2002 at the
2002 Washington Tango Festival in the National Building, Washington D.C
Show with Pablo Veron and the Color Tango Orchestra at the Fireworks
Tango Festival of Los Angeles, July 2001
Show with Pablo Veron at the Gran Ballo di Gala, Salone di Prima
Classe della Stazione Maritima in Genoa, December 2000.
Show with Pablo Veron and the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the
Varmland Classic Festival, Karlstad, Sweden, August 2000
Noel also teaches regularly in her adoptive hometown of Montreal at
the Studio Tango as well as in Buenos Aires.

  The Interview begins….
-Does the tango, independent of passing crazes and period dance
styles, have a definitive character all its own? And can we pin down
exactly what its underlying essence is?
  N.S. Yes, I think it always comes back to the same thing, this
feeling of connection between two people coming together as one, of
two completely different energies meeting to create something quite
magical together: of being able to feel deeply, and enter into a game
that is really a conversation, and then to be able to dance all that.
  That for me is the very essence of the tango, this sense of
connection and improvisation. It is that which is so enriching and
ever-present, and yet which tantalisingly changes each time, depending
on our partner, our own state of mind at the time, the stage of life
we're at, our reaction to the music – all these things are in
permanent change and evolution. If I think of the Twenties, of the
Eighties or even of my day today, that fact never alters. That is the
tango's lodestar, guiding the dance, be the style more traditional,
more modern, or the accompanying music modern or traditional.
-Connection and improvisation, then.  So is connection an attribute
exclusive to the tango and not to other couple dances?
N.S.  No, not especially.  It's difficult because we tend to make an
abstraction out of the word "connection", whereas I find it a very
concrete thing.
-Then let's talk concretely about it.
N.S. We need connection in all couple dances.  I don't know them all,
but I'm familiar with some of them through having danced them.  The
minute we no longer dance alone, we need connection:  Usually one
person leads and the other follows.  The tango is the dance "par
excellence" to distinguish the leader and follower roles, so I don't
know whether connection has more rapport with the tango per se but,
yes, its strong role identification perhaps makes it even more
noticeable. It also seems to me that, in the other dances, there are
far more cues to help couples follow each other in the dance than in
tango.  In the tango there now exists a nomenclature that is being
elaborated as we speak but, before that, hardly any signals existed.
-Before when?
N.S. I'd say that from the Nineties onwards, when the craze for what
was called the new tango - the « nuevo tango »- first appeared, a
group of people began to identify certain dance codes or, to put it
better, a nomenclature for teaching purposes.  They began to accord
tango a terminology in order to better identify individual steps or
sequences. But not to the point of robbing the dance of its rich
potential for improvisation. Quite the reverse….
-So this nomenclature is truly useful for teaching ?
N.S. I think so. It's useful, but you also have to know how to teach
what has been passed down through the oral tradition and not abuse it
with this kind of codification. If not, the whole thing could become
artificial and choreographed, which goes entirely against the grain of
tango. So I believe that this ascribing of a terminology, this
codification, can only help if one incorporates it into teaching as a
means of explaining the dance, but not it as an end in itself, since
we'd risk losing sight of the dance's true nature.  And we mustn't
forget that those who have embarked on this work are people who have
come up through the tango tradition, and very much so, and know
exactly what tango was, and where it was coming from. But they had
difficulty in studying with masters who didn't have at their
fingertips the wherewithal for transmitting their knowledge.  So these
people undertook the task of rendering transmissible what they
themselves had acquired from the oral tradition by using as an
intermediary a little decoding process to throw light on the subject.
-We've spoken of the Nineties, but put in the context of the entire
century, are we speaking here of a natural evolution in the dance, or
a revolution? How are we to view the arrival of modernism in, let's
say, the last fifteen years?
N.S. I think we're talking of an evolution.  We must learn to be more
willing to embrace this idea of permanent evolution, yes it's exactly
that, an evolution, but not a linear one. At any given moment it might
seem that nothing new is happening and yet, ten years hence, something
will erupt onto the scene; it's an evolution, but one that is neither
continuous nor regular.  A growing number of people are dancing, but
only a handful will emerge, and bring either new or different
dimensions to more or less alter the evolution's course.  I'm talking
of the one-offs who have left their indelible mark on the dance. But
surely everyone should have their own style and, since we're talking
of an improvised dance, for me, the ideal would be to have as many
styles as there are dancers.
-Would that indeed be the ideal?
N.S. Absolutely, that would be the ideal, but at the same time we are
all human beings, seemingly alike in that we are all beings with two
legs and a heart… but there are times when one of our number stands
out from the rest as having a presence which is that much more
different.  But I'm not sure that there are that many actual
differences in style.
-So the tango encourages the dancer to express his own style and
personality but are we in danger of trying to cultivate originality
for originality's sake, to the detriment of the core values of the dance?
-N.S. I think we have to let things be. The person who is going to
break out is going to do so even despite himself.  It's not by
shutting oneself up in a room of wall-to-wall mirrors with the
intention of creating a new movement that a new movement appears. One
has no control over that.
We're also talking about a degree of talent here, inspiration, a
tenacity for work and research… if you like that sort of thing then
you have to dig deeper.
-It's necessary to study, then, but is it possible to do so without
masters?
N.S. I think so.
-Can one then learn tango without the tutelage of a teacher?
N.S. Without the direct influence of a teacher, yes I think so.  But,
nevertheless, it's important for each and every dancer to find a
suitable "master", be it a source of reference, be it a partner, or a
role model one admires, who will help us establish certain benchmarks
and set us on the right path to our own evolution.
-However, if I can draw on personal experience here, when you consider
that it's more than three and a half years now that we've been working
together, all this heightened consciousness and awakening to the real
sensations emanating from the correct movements  and the exchange of
energy that it induces, never could I have done it alone, or with a
partner, or through all the workshops in the world.
N.S.  Ah! Thank you… (she laughs)
No, it's true, it's very true.

-So I find it very strange, this idea that one can learn this dance
without working one-on-one with a teacher who is guiding our progress.
N.S. Yes, that's so. We need a hands-on mentor, and I would say that
in the life of every dancer, no matter who, there needs to be someone
he can talk to, engage in a free exchange of ideas, an exchange of
presence and energy.
-There's a saying in Zen, « Ishin Denshin »,that means that the Zen
spreads from my heart to your heart, from my spirit to your spirit.
Is it the same in the tango?
N.S. Yes, you could say that.
-Or from my body to your body, from my feelings to your feelings?
N.S. From one being to another with all that  being has as such; they
have a body, a heart, a skin, a spirit, a sense of music, a sense of
life – a sense of all that, I think, and all that is what is going to
be brought to the connection, on their meeting in the dance.
-It seems to me that, in your teaching, you attach great importance to
quality, am I right?
N.S. Quality in what sense?
-In the sense of the genuineness that emanates from the right feelings
that  get generated by the excellence of the movement, from clarity,
that sense of truth, really, that we find in all good art form...
N.S. Yes, quality in the sense of honesty in fact.  There is no
quality without honesty, I believe, and when one speaks of connection
and this profound capacity of being able to let go in an
improvisation, all that must stem from honesty.  You can't improvise
on the basis of falsity.  You can't give something to someone else if
you're not prepared to commit yourself to the other with complete
honesty and feel that the other absorbs it equally into what is their
total honesty.
The minute one tries to fake this channel of communication through
false interpretations, the underlying truth has evaporated, the
improvisation no longer exists and, in the final analysis the
connection isn't there either.
  -Do you see it as your duty as a teacher to bring each of your
students to a realisation of this notion of honesty that is in the
centre of a good dancing technique?
N.S. Yes, completely.
-Even though that person only intends to take one or two lessons and
just wants to amuse himself ?
N.S. Yes, because the tango is a form of amusement for me too. I enjoy
the feeling it gives. I've been very fortunate in finding the tango to
give me that.  I certainly didn't come to the tango in order to dance…
I've danced all my life. I came to the tango because I couldn't
comprehend how one person could invite you to perform just one
movement with him, and then that situation would repeat and repeat
itself until the couple was dancing an entire dance solely on the
basis of step-by-step improvisation and the communication between
them. I couldn't understand it. Even when I was doing duos and pas de
deux I never felt that. The duos in contemporary dance and in ballet
consisted of movements that each of the two learned on their own and
then someone put them together. It wasn't a question of intense
communication all the time, all the time, all the time. That's why I
wanted to know more about the tango, so that I could take it all in.
And that's what attracted me, and amazed me, and that's what I try to
communicate. And I even try to convey that to the person who just
wants a little light entertainment from the dance, by trying to make
him see that the more he takes it up, and the more it appears hard to
understand, the easier it's going to be in the end; no-one's being
forced to learn complicated steps and hyper-difficult sequences, but
if some-one can learn how to connect in all simplicity with another
person then he'll have in his grasp all the enjoyment of this dance.
And if that person can't fully appreciate the significance of that,
then they must be made to realize that maybe they should be learning
another dance…(laughter)
I'm not going to torture anyone, but I'm going to try my utmost to
convey what the tango's essence means to me, and do it in the most
simple and enjoyable way I can.

-So this mysterious connection that unleashes the freedom to
improvise, that's what fascinated you?
N.S. Yes, quite, because at the time I was a member of a contemporary
dance company that was doing choreographies to Piazzola pieces.  The
choreography consisted of bits of contemporary dance interspersed with
bits of tango choreography. But when I saw that, and when I saw the
people who were actually dancing the tango in the tanguerias and
milongas, I was in no way seeing the same thing.  So when I saw myself
on video doing my little tango steps, I said to myself, we're not
doing the tango at all… but I didn't understand why.
So I said to myself that I really had to find out what the tango
actually was in order to know whether I was dancing it or not.  I'm
insisting on this point because this is something I've lived and felt.
  No–one actually taught me. Well, yes, they taught me, but I wasn't
entirely sure, because I was just listening to their words.  I finally
convinced myself of the truth through my own physical efforts, because
the teachers had given me sufficient input for me to be able to take
myself to the point of being able to feel tango in my soul and with my
body.
-You always attach great importance to the student's transcending the
technical skills you're trying to develop in them in order to feel
their effect at a sensory level. I can certainly bear witness to that.
And even though you are not a leader when we're dancing, you always
succeed in guiding me and making me experience the proper feeling that
should arise from the technique, and one that I must learn to
recognise…it's quite exceptional!
N.S. Thank You! (laughter)
-So, from those empty steps on stage at the beginning, you embarked on
and orientated your research towards discovering some real emotions
that would take you to the core, and capture the essence of this dance?
N.S. Yes, that's right. When I'm teaching someone, I would like that
person to dance as they would wish, but I'd also like them to master
certain technical elements so that, once again, they can create their
own style, their own way of moving, of dancing. One can't get to that
point without working on deep personal feelings. So I try to make it
so that this person appropriates whatever has come up in the lesson
through what they were feeling, and not through thought processes nor
constant repetition of mere technical movements, because, when all's
said and done, it would be very easy to forget all that.
And in contrast, a feeling is something one's never going to forget.
A genuine feeling, you're never going to forget it.
-So no putting it on; it's got to be real?
N.S. Yes, it's got to be real, but yes one can also put on an act.
Providing it's done consciously, it can be fabulous. But not while
you're learning, more as a trump card maybe.
-Is improvisation very difficult?
N.S. Well, it demands great … the Spanish word <entrega> comes to
mind. Let's call it being able to give oneself with utter  conviction,
to give oneself completely.
-For the leader does that mean giving oneself through the act of
offering, the "yang" idea, and for the follower, through the act of
receiving, the "yin" concept? Can we speak in terms of such polarity?
N.S. As far as roles are concerned, the more the connection grows, the
more comfortable the improvisation becomes and the more the roles
begin to merge.  Initially, there is an invitation from the leader to
perform a movement and an acceptance of that movement by the follower
that effectively transforms it. So the follower is replying; the
leader replies in his turn, the follower replies to that, the leader
replies once more, and this game of responding invites us to grow
within the improvisation, and one becomes increasingly alert and more
and more aware and sometimes one can no longer feel who is leading or
who is following…. even though one really knows deep down who the
leader is and who is the follower.
- I think these are key issues for you. It seems- and correct me if
I'm wrong- that you sincerely believe it to be absolutely necessary
for the leader to be directive and really lead, and not as one
sometimes hears to the contrary, to soft pedal a little in order to
blur the lines somewhat. Do you see the bond between leader and led as
hierarchical?
N.S. For me, no.
-Because it's by consent?
N.S. Exactly. That's how it is in tango; I learnt it like that, and I
enjoy it.
-Is it a fundamental characteristic of the dance in your opinion?
N.S. For me, yes, because this is tango that I am dancing. When I
dance this dance, when I dance the tango with all its tradition and
feeling, it ought to be like that.
And I wish to add this, a lot of people use the word "tradition" or
think of tradition as something old: "Everything traditional is old
they would say".
But for me there's no connection between what is old and what is
traditional.  Tradition is more akin to something that is linked to
the very essence of a given thing.  You could say it's old because it
began a very long time ago… but for me something that is traditional
is rooted in feelings, in essence, and even though it did begin a
long, long time ago, tradition is very rich and extremely important.
Whether one dresses in period clothes or not, draws on steps from a
certain era or not, dances in period style or not, tradition is there,
even if one is dancing to the most off-beat music, dressed in the most
outlandish clothes and with the wildest hairdo thrown in for good measure.
And what I admire in those whom I consider to be great dancers, is
that I see reflected in them a tradition; I see the essence of tango,
be they older or extremely young, ultra modern in style or more
conservative.
-Can you describe for us some key elements of this tango tradition?
N.S. Everything we've been speaking of: well-defined roles, this sense
of connection, this game we call improvisation, two energies meeting
to create something magical, all that is to do with tradition. And
it's not dependent on any particular style. Style evolves, the style
of the steps evolves and the abrazo (embrace) evolves, but tradition
is tradition and the essence of tango remains the essence of tango.
-Has improvisation always been part of the tradition?
N.S. Yes, absolutely, even though all down through the years, there
have always been people who have choreographed the tango.
Choreography's a legitimate way of doing it. But in creating
choreography, the starting point is always improvisation, and you draw
on the sheer magic of being able to improvise; you invent sequences
and other elements. Then you go on to select some of these and bring
them alive and juxtapose them in a way that blends well with the
music, and then costume the piece to help it tell a particular story…
-And it's not the reverse? That you start off with a step sequence
that you know will make a strong visual impact and try to fit it into
a given piece of music?
N.S. Yes, you can do that too, but where have you got that step
sequence? From improvisation!!!
-By concentrating too much on choreography, don't you risk losing the
elemental quality of the improvisation?
N.S. You have to be vigilant, you have to know what you're doing!  If
you want it to still look like tango, you must always leave the door
open a little in order to keep the fresh air of improvisation
circulating and refreshing the whole thing.
-When Pablo and you mount a choreography, is there any built-in
flexibility during performance that allows chance elements to arise
spontaneously and prompt improvisations or, conversely, do performance
pressures, technical challenges and audience expectations force you to
place every single step and control everything?
N.S.  No, no, no, not in my experience, and especially with Pablo. He
often keeps large sections totally unchoreographed and there are even
times when we want to dance what we'd planned in the choreography but
we never make it because, in the dancing, something has come up
whereby improvisation just takes over because it's stronger than what
we intended. But then I've had the good fortune to work with Pablo,
who is an improviser par excellence, and an extremely good
choreographer too.  Working with him, it's never been difficult to
keep the spirit of improvisation alive.
-You're dancing with no safety net?
N.S. Exactly.
-There's risk taking?
N.S. Spot on, absolutely! And personally, I revel in the permanent
dizzy heights of it all!
-So it's not a source of anxiety to be eliminated?
N.S. On the contrary, it's a source to cherish, to nourish, because it
helps us maintain this state of heightened awareness that so
characterizes the tango.
-I once remember your taking me to task over the fact, that in the
course of improvising, I relax the lead and chance takes over. Does
chance have a place in improvisation?
N.S. Yes, chance can make us lose track, and for me – I don't know how
other couples react- but for me the lead is paramount.  The more
absorbed I am in my own role, the more I communicate, and the more I
feel I'm an equal partner.  That might seem paradoxical but I feel I
have more freedom when I am better led.  The better I'm led, the more
I feel I'm being encouraged, and the more ample is my response.
-So to be led with conviction doesn't make you feel more confined?
N.S. No, not at all; I try to give my partner confidence and I think
that any leader who feels confident, the more confident he feels, the
more his partner can commit totally to him and the more totally he can
commit to her. It's at that point that they establish communication.
Never fear giving too much; the more one gives, the more one's going
to receive. So the more I let myself go, the more at ease he'll feel,
and the more he's going to allow me to do what I want as well.
-What is it that characterizes the follower's role?
N.S. In the first instance, you could say that one is there to be
invited.  I really like to refer to the lead as an invitation.  For me
the lead is not like driving, the lead is an encouragement, an
invitation. So, from this invitation, a conversation springs up. You
can start to communicate and for me that's what the lead is. And to
abandon oneself to the lead in fact, rather than say `abandon", I'd
prefer "empty oneself", be in neutral, without colour, simply there,
present and transparent….
So, through that invitation, I  am going to reflect the colour of the
dance: black, blue, red, pink or green, depending on who's inviting
me, depending on the music, depending on my state of mind, depending
on whether it's raining or not, depending on… so many things. That
initially is what the role of the follower is. So far so good, but it
would also be good if the leader could abandon himself to listening
and replying.  It's just like a conversation.  You're not speaking
right now because you're listening to me but, if I say something, it's
because I want a response from you, and then it's my turn to remain
silent and listen to you.
-You talk of emptying yourself, a creative emptiness.  Is that
something you try to teach your female students?
N.S. Yes.
-We say in Zen that "the empty hand can receive everything".
N.S. That's a beautiful analogy.
-We also say that the main attribute of a vase is its emptiness, the
mere fact that it is empty: A full vase is no longer useful.
N.S. Yes, but the "vase" in question has a soul; it has a shape, a
colour, a presence.  But not all vases are alike; each differs in
form, qualities and presence. And a sense of her own unique presence.
This is what I try to instil in my female students.
Empty, yes, but with a strong presence, capable if receiving what the
leader is going to give: Not empty, as in dead, without energy.
-What are the basic techniques a follower must master to allow herself
to evolve and achieve full expression in the dance?
N.S. I'd say they were to acquire a sense of silence, an active
silence. A state of awakened awareness.
To be calm, alert, silent and completely aware.
-And inversely, for the leader, what would be basic techniques for a
good leader who wants to flourish and achieve his potential in the dance?
N.S. You've asked me a difficult question because it sets me thinking
of what I would want in return from someone else… because just now we
were talking of my role. But, in the other's shoes, I think he should
be able to offer a tremendous sense of connection with the music.
-Even before his connection with his partner?
N.S. Yes, and that helps him enormously to establish his presence and
determines what sort of invitation he can extend to his partner.
-Does he guide from his musicality or according to his dance technique?
N.S. Musicality is a most important element of technique. Musical
instinct is paramount.
And it's the prime motivation to dance after all.  One has always
danced because there has been music, no?
-This musical dimension, does it apply to both partners?
N.S. Yes, of course.
-But it's primordial for the leader?
N.S. For both.
-So for a dancer to develop in the most complete sense, together with
his technique must come a commitment to develop his musical instinct.
Or is that already a given like the colour of his eyes and not
required to be improved through hard work and research?
N.S. No, a bit of both, but you can study and study and study; it's
rather like being able to move well.  Some people are considerably
more gifted in this area.  It's the same thing with music.
-But aside from one's innate capability, where musicality or sense of
rhythm are concerned, can one boost and further evolve these?
N.S. Musicality is very important, extremely important. It's a hyper
important fountain of inspiration. It's a motivation for even moving
at all. And as a tool in the dance, it helps with leading and responding.
-Freedom in the dance, is it the reward of hard work and effort, or
can one avoid the work and enjoy instant freedom?
N.S. No, I think you have to work to get to that point.
-Work a little, or total dedication?
N.S. Depending on the degree of success you want, but no it's not
easy.  (laughter)
It's difficult, and the more you want to delve into the dance, and the
more you want to enrich your experience and go for quality, the more
effort you must make, and the more you must work.
-Is it reasonable to expect that, if someone only wants to expend
limited but well-directed efforts, if they're well-orientated, they
can reach an acceptable level vis-à-vis the quality of their dance?
N.S. Yes, it is an accessible dance, but you mustn't think that you
can avoid having to learn the basic techniques that the tango
tradition requires of us.
-So the amount of effort to be put in can vary?
N.S.  It all depends on what your aims are.  It's a dance in which you
might need to be extremely supple in order to achieve certain goals.
But it's not necessary to go to those lengths in order to say one
dances tango. Virtuosity and acrobatic contortions are on a completely
different plane and must be seen as separate from the dance itself.
-In our work together, you seem to make much of « intention », and I
know of few people who have conceptualised and insisted on intention
quite as much as you, as a crucial component of leading. Could you
tell us more about it?
N.S. I see intention as a concentration of all our energy and all our
being, and a prerequisite to the invitation to execute a movement.

-It seems that it's the initial phase of preparing to move, right?
N.S.  It's a way of harnessing energy; a way of deciding what amount
one is going to call upon in order to accomplish a given aim.
-It appears to me to be more akin to the realms of transmission and
communication than to any physical action you transfer to your
partner's body, if I understand rightly…
N.S. Yes, that's right.  It is what precedes, and ultimately results
in an action.  To have action without intention is like producing an
action without having adequately invested in it.
-Can you clarify that further?
N.S. It's like an intermediate stage between an idea and its
enactment.  You have an idea: you're going to amplify that idea
through intention and finally end up with an action but, before
arriving at the action, a degree of intensity is also involved. So
there is an intention, accompanied by an intensity, and it's all going
to result in an action. Whether that action be short or long, a pivot,
a voleo, a jump, a pause, a suspension, it doesn't matter what the
movement is that you are inviting the other to participate in. What
does matter above all things is that it is preceded by the intention
of what one wants to provoke.
Intention, invitation, execution.
It's all done almost imperceptibly, but distinctly just the same.
-You were speaking of the pause just now. Is making more pauses to our
advantage, in your opinion?
N.S. I believe it's an open choice and each person must do as he
pleases. Personally, I love it.
-But is it necessary?
N.S. Me, I love it. The pause is a silence… Silence contains movement;
silence is an internal action, and it's a very rich element that makes
an enormous contribution to the dance. But it remains a personal
choice.  It's like using double time and acceleration, that's
personal. Even so, these are important elements that I try to convey
to my students so that hopefully they will add them to their palette
and eventually use them in their own dance. To me these seem more
useful than teaching fixed step combinations and predetermined
sequences.  And even if I do teach a set sequence, I invite students
to include what elements they already command such as silences,
pauses, accelerations, different dynamics, and discrete quality of
movement. So, ten people could perform this same sequence, ten times
in ten different ways. In fact the same person could do it ten times
in ten different ways, and that's what is so rich about this dance.
-We spoke of evolution at the beginning of this interview and how we
should view the future.  Have we invented all there is to invent in
the tango?
N.S. No, most certainly not, not even just in terms of combinations.
We're far from having explored them all.
-Faced with seemingly endless choices, of schools and style, what
advice would you give a student to help them find their bearings?
N.S. You have to dance, search, explore, and follow your own instinct!
In my own research, never has anyone told me what to do, never.
-Is that because good teachers didn't exist or because you hadn't
found the right person to direct you?
N.S. It doesn't work like that in Buenos Aires where I learned to
dance; it doesn't work like that at all. The way they learn there is
far more, one might say, teach–yourself. So, for a while, you go to
someone you've come across, to master certain aspects that respond to
a pressing need at the time, but it's difficult. There is no one
person of whom you could say, so-and-so is my teacher, he's my master,
and to whom you would stick like glue and in order to learn everything
there is to know. Anyway, that was my experience.
Before, when there were more of the old dancers around, young dancers
would approach them hoping to learn from them. Not that they had a
school or that they were teachers even. It was more like" Alright,
come round and we'll eat and I'll show you a few steps" or "Come and
have tea at my house with your partner and I'll show you some stuff."
Or " Come this weekend! We're going to watch so-and so dance and you
should see how he moves." It was like that.  You were always
responsible for your own research.
It's not necessarily like that in other parts of the world, like here
in Montreal, where there are schools with  organized syllabuses and
set timetables -levels one, two, three, four, five, six; that didn't
exist at all there and no-one learned like that in Argentina. It was a
question of going out dancing, taking a course here and there, picking
up everything, writing your own book…studying and constructing your
own dance.
You're on your own!  (laughter)
« Here! I'm showing you this and don't ask me any questions about it
because I don't know what the hell I'm doing" (laughter)
  … and that without any ill-will at all. But since the Nineties, far
more dancers have begun to teach, tour the festivals and organize
workshops on a regular basis. So there are more opportunities for
taking courses, and if you like a certain teacher, you can follow him.
  But don't forget that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get
special attention or a rapport in strictly the personal sense…
-Believe me that, where I'm concerned, I consider it a pleasure and
privilege to have had the opportunity to develop such a rapport and to
have enjoyed your teaching for several years now. Finally, many thanks
Noel, for giving us this interview and accepting to become
"god-mother" to our tango  club.
N.S. The pleasure is all mine.


Montreal, 2006-03-09                                  All rights reserved

The Beijing papers


III-the twelve most common mistakes in Argentine Tango


(listed increasingly by order of importance)

12-Moving on each and every beat.

11-Going faster than the music.

10-Taking diagonal steps.

  9-Go around step i.e. leader wants follower to take a front step and
follower in fear of a collision     tries to avoid him by going around
leader.
Same with leader who walks around follower for fear of hitting her.

  8-Trying to lead more than one step at a time, followers adding (not
led) steps of their own,
shifting weight unexpectedly etc. Leaders thinking that the follower
should know the
sequence, lead first step and wait for her to complete it.

  7-Fall on each step by inclining the axis instead of pressing the
ground with conviction.

  6-Using the arm on the open side to lead or, for the follower, to
keep balance.

  5-False pivots: pivots that are not led (no spiral), forced on, or
self induced by the follower (example: instead of spiralling, follower
swings her shoulders or hips back, or both of  them to trigger a pivot.

  4-Attacking the axis of partner. Leaders: hovering over her, pushing
with the upper part of torso. Followers: Arching your back, bending at
the waist, shoulders, in a word not keeping your axis.
Arching your back has terrible consequences, makes both leader and
follower to fall in their steps.

  3-Leading a step and not listening to the response of your follower.
You end up dancing faster     than her. Danger to hit her or spoil her
dance.

  2-Dance Alone: Narcissism/ Onanism:
For him: not connecting with her, using her as a prop, a trophy or a
tool at hand for showing
off.
For her: not connecting, using him to get into a  state of self
induced trance, while being oblivious to her partner, oblivious to the
moment, trying too look pretty and /or showing off.

1-Allow tension to build in/ contaminate your dance. Tension= self
destruction.




Next week, the title of the article of  The Beijing  papers will be:

IV- how to correct the twelve most common mistakes in Argentine Tango.


See you on the dance floor!

Richard S.

The Beijing papers

V-Your most precious asset in tango. Is argentine tango easy?


What is your most precious asset in learning argentine tango?

You!
Your attitude, to be precise.
Helpful to know this right?


But then, what?

"Know thyself"

It was true twenty-five centuries ago, it is still true now.

Indeed, knowing oneself better might definitely help in learning the
dance.
To know oneself implies asking us the right questions.
The first one should be:

"Am I a person who wants to know with exactitude what I am learning?
Or am I cutting corners a little and may be ready to cheat a bit to
get results faster?"

A bit in your face kind of question isn't it?

An honest answer can help you a great deal toward the acquisition of
the correct dancing technique.
If you would answer the question with something like "I will eagerly
cut corners to go fast because I am not willing to spend too much time
on tango" you are now in possession of a very useful piece of information.
It means that you will try to dance with what seems first hand obvious
and useful to you and, well,… that may cause you a bit of a problem
down the road (!)

Trying to simplify and not bother too much is not bad per se, but, in
tango, the first idea that comes to mind is rarely the good answer.
Are you surprised? This might not fare well with some who have been
told that tango is easy isn't it? So our next question will be:

Is tango easy or difficult?

We sometimes hear tango teachers saying that tango is easy and accessible.

Being a tango teacher myself please let me tell you how I feel about this.

If I must answer the question "Do I believe that argentine tango is
easy and accessible?"
and must answer yes or no, I would answer: "Yes it is".
But, this said, I would feel very uncomfortable, almost like having
told a lie.
It is very convenient to say it to attract newcomers and especially
convenient to seduce them if you are selling instruction in the dance.

Maybe lying and saying half truths are a certain form of art for some
professions, but lying and the art of tango are mutually exclusive in
my opinion.
In fact, what could be more ethical, and closer to the truth for me,
would be to say:

"Providing that you have the fundamentals right, argentine tango is
relatively easy and accessible".

The problem here is to get these fundamentals right.

Although everything in this magnificent dance is natural and organic,
it is very difficult to figure out the fundamentals by yourself
without some competent help from outside.
Invariably, what first comes to mind or what a beginner would
understand is rarely the right way.
In other words, you can go to workshops, watch and study tango videos,
go dancing AND  still acquire all kinds of bad habits through ideas
that might seem useful at first but are in fact counterproductive and
soon will make  your dance so mediocre and frustrating that you might
lose interest in tango altogether.
For a list of some problems that may arise from not having the
fundamentals right, please refer back to The Beijing papers no III:
the twelve most common mistakes in argentine tango.

In this current paper, I will mention two technical elements that are
generating some problems to a majority of tangueros.

The first one, I mentioned before in previous Beijing papers  is the
tilting of the axis; the second one will be the apparent fascination
of some with the free leg.

I-Tilting of the axis:

Maybe you have heard the expression:

"Tango is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire".*

The teacher in me concurs 100% with this witty observation.
The horizontal desire may be so strong that, most of the time, I do
not see the vertical expression at all…

Let's look at the technical side of it. Yes, tango is based on walking
and to acquire a good tango walk is the goal of all good dancers.
Paradoxically, the idea of moving forward, walking, is a source of
problems to a lot of people.
In the pursuit of their horizontal desire, they think linear and not
vertical. In layman terms this mean that they keep too much intention
forward and fall more than walk on each and every steps.

Want to fall? Tilt that axis.
Want to walk the tango walk? Ground and control from the supporting leg.

The easiest way to impose a step on your follower is to tilt your axis
forward while pressing in her sternum. She will fall, you will fall
and you will be a bit closer to your horizontal desire.
If you fall in love, well, I stand corrected.
If you just fall, and your dance amounts to a pile of falling steps,
maybe I can offer help.
Falling is the preferred option of those who do not know how or cannot
ground properly.
It is almost intuitive since grounding is far less obvious to master.
I could describe the physics of grounding in a precise manner to you
but, to ground properly is not something that could be mastered
reading about it. Feeling it is better.  Again, a one to one meeting
with your teacher is advisable here.

  II- The fascination of the free leg.

Where we land in a step seems to attract more our attention than the
cause of what has triggered this step in the first place
It is a bit like an archer who, oblivious to his bow technique, is
totally focused on the arrow once it has been shot and observes it,
maybe shouting some encouraging words at it while it 's in flight in
hope that it may better reach  the center of the target.
A Zen expression says that "when the wise points to the moon, the fool
looks at the finger".
When we walk forward, especially if we do not have a proper posture
(and look at the ground), we might find it very interesting to observe
and play with our free leg in front of us when we should be paying
attention to our supporting leg instead.
The supporting leg, which is responsible for grounding and the
movement in the foot of same leg, is where the
intention-preparation-traction is, it is where the size, quality and
flavour of the step lies.
Again, something to be felt under the guidance of your teacher.

Argentine tango is indeed relatively easy when the fundamentals of the
technique are FELT and rightly understood.

Next week, more about sensations.

Love to all,
And see you on the dance floor.

Richard S.

Next week in The Beijing papers:

VI- sensitivity, the senses, the sensation of silence and heightened
awareness.





* This very witty expression is (rightly or wrongly) attributed to the
writer Georges Bernard Shaw.

The Beijing papers


IV- how to correct the twelve most common mistakes in Argentine Tango


(listed increasingly by order of importance)

12-Moving on each and every beat.
Correction: Please don't move all the time. Pause. Especially at the
end of phrases, listen to the music, suspend, breath with it.

11-Going faster than the music.
Comment/Correction: For leader, invite  follower to step on the beat
but don't force her. The man proposes, the lady disposes. If she is
slower, dance slower. You have to show rythmical precision in your
lead but not impose your beat on her. Besides, being a little late in
grounding the next step is better than anticipating it. Follower,
please remember that you are responsible for the precision of the
compass (rhythm). This is critical, in giros (turns) for example.

10-Taking diagonal steps.
Comment: Very common among beginner followers. Followers should not
take diagonal steps in tango!  Followers do that because they often
are not too sure if the man wants a back or side step so they aim in
the middle. Please do not allow this bad habit to creep in your
technique and spoil it. Leaders: make sure that you are clearly
indicating a back or side step. If you want her to go diagonally, lead
a small pivot first than a back or front step.

  9-Go around step i.e. leader wants follower to take a front step and
follower in fear of a collision     tries to avoid him by going around
leader.
Same with leader who walks around follower for fear of hitting her.
Comment: Common among beginners of both roles. You must remember that,
when walking, you are moving together. It means that you will take his
or her spot and there will be no collisions. If you hit, it is because
you are not properly grounded and your arms are spaghetti. For
leaders, it means that you must feel that your follower has started
moving before completing your step. For followers, do not collapse
your arms and forget to ground.


  8-Trying to lead more than one step at the time, followers adding
unled steps of their own,
shifting weight unexpectedly etc. Leaders thinking that the follower
should know the
sequence,will lead first step and wait for her to complete it.
Comment: For leaders, only think one action at the time i.e.: a weight
shift, a pivot, a step.
For followers, do not try to resist where the energy takes you, be
like water, go to the point of least resistance. Do not think! If you
think you may change your mind and make a move of your own which will
result in a bad situation. If your body feels it has to go sideways to
the left for example, go sideways to the left. If the leader was
expecting something different, he will rectify his lead. Please note
that I am saying "If your body feels" and not "If you think".


  7-Fall on each step by inclining the axis instead of pressing the
ground with conviction.
Comment: You must never fall in tango. The same way you do not fall
when going down stairs…
Tilting the axis is a mistake that can make you move when you should
be using grounding and traction. Traction is like the rubber of tyres
on the ground. Lose it, lose all. Aim at continuous traction in the
sole (ball of foot) of the supporting leg.

  6-Using the arm on the open side to lead or, for the follower, to
keep balance.
Comment: again this is compensation for a lead that is not efficient
and/or keeping balance for a follower who is not secure. Answer:
Ground! The magic word.

  5-False pivots: pivots that are unled (no spiral), forced on, or self
induced by the follower (instead of spiralling, follower swings her
shoulders or hips back, or both.
Comment: This is common to both roles who do not use the spiral to
their advantage.
No spiral, no life. Please take a lesson (private preferably) on this
whenever you can. Spiral, both in leading and in following makes those
pivots natural and with an organic feel.


  4-Attacking the axis of partner. Leaders: hovering over, pushing with
the upper part of torso. Followers: Arching your back, bending at the
waist, shoulders, in a word not keeping your axis.
Arching your back has terrible consequences: it will make  both leader
and follower to fall in their steps.

Comment: Both roles are responsible for their own axis. Both have to
find, keep, offer and maintain their axis at all time.
No banana posture!

  3-Leading a step and not listening to the response of your follower.
You end up dancing faster     than her. Danger to hit her or spoil her
dance.
Comment: to talk (lead) is fine. To listen is even better. What is the
use of all this florid language if it is not understood? Talk from the
heart, in a simple, direct manner and wait to see if it is
acknowledged. Talking alone is no good. And, you did not come that
close to her (to him), not to listen…

  2-Dance alone: Narcissism/ Onanism:
For him: not connecting with her, using her as a prop, a trophy or a
tool at hand for showing
off.
For her: not connecting, using him to get into a  state of self
induced trance, while being oblivious to her partner, oblivious to the
moment, trying too look pretty and /or showing off.
Comment: It may take two to tango, but just one couple is even better!
A couple means two people who care and listen to each other. Not two
solitudes that try to use each other to their own advantage.
And, please stop thinking visual. You are blind! You are inside your
couple, your dance, your moment. If it looks good to onlookers it's a
bonus (for them). If it's not looking much, who cares, you do not even
think about that, you are to busy connecting, being in the moment.
Show tango might draw people to the dance but it's a plague on the
social dance floor.
Want to show off? Try ballroom where everything, from your attitude,
your dress, down to the hand placement (and the matching colour of
your fingernails) is designed to please a judge with a score card in
his hand… They even have their own kitchissimo tango… Plus, if you do
good you will get a trophy with your name on it.
1-Allow tension to build in/ contaminate your dance. Tension= self
destruction.
Comment: Need I say more?
Want to read more about tension? Please read The Beijing papers no.I:
how to maximize your experience during milongas.

Next week, the title of the article of  The Beijing  papers will be:

V- Your most precious asset in tango. Is argentine tango easy?


Love to all and,
See you, all relaxed, on the dance floor.

Richard S.

The Beijing Papers

II-Musicality for tango dancers.

Musicality for tango dancers: a quandary.
What means musicality for tango dancers?
The definition of musicality as it could apply to dance is not at all
obvious.
Musicality is pertaining to music. Dancers, well… dancers dance, they
do not make music per se.
How does musicality then enters into the realm of dance?
Let's answer by looking first at the meaning of this word in its
original context.
From a musician point of view, musicality is the art, the quality of
what is musical. It refers to some value added content that is more
than the correct execution of the notes on a score.
Musicality is what will distinguish a performer from another.
Musicality is what will make the music so wonderfully expressive under
the hands of a good artist.
Dancers, like musicians, are performers and both have in common the
possibility of adding value to their art when they perform.

In a dance perspective, should we talk about danceability instead?
Such a word falls short and merely indicates a music that could easily
be danced to.

Therefore, for lack of an adequate dancing related word, let's borrow
the word musicality and connect it with tango dancing.
Does it make sense though?  In our understanding, yes definitely.

In the following lines, we will try our best to demonstrate how
musicality and dance are, in fact, the two sides of a same coin.

Let's consider the art of choreography for a moment.
Imagine that you are a ballet master who is commissioned to stage a
ballet on a chosen musical work.
Your language consists of steps and sequences of steps and your task
is to organise them and make them fit with the score. There is no
doubt in your mind that you will not throw them at random, counting on
the technical excellence of your dancers and their rhythmical
precision to create a piece of beauty.
You definitely will try to make them blend well and integrate
seamlessly, synergistically if possible with the music. If you are
talented for that matter you will gain a reputation for being an
excellent choreographer.
Dance and music are two Siamese twins.
With the difference though that social tango is not set dancing  like
classical (or tango) music is set on a score. It is all improvised,
more like jazz.
But, even if it is improvised, it is nonetheless a spontaneous
choreography.

It is a choreography in the sense that a good tango dancer, an artist,
will not throw sequences of steps regardless of the musical phrase.


The phrasing of the music:
Music is a language, and like all languages, it possesses a structure,
a syntax and is organised into chapters, paragraphs, sentences with
punctuation and articulation. Think of a singer for a moment. A singer
has to breathe, a good singer will do so by integrating his needs of
breathing with the musical phrase. In the mind of the composer, the
phrase has to breathe on it's own as well. The singer will then study
the score and will find the articulation, the places where the music
breathe and will attune it with his own needs.

A dancer will do the same.  He will "breathe" his steps, so to speak,
and will integrate them to the music.
From the phrasing, he will improvise what does integrate and blends
well. This will confer to his dancing a pertinence, a sense of harmony
in relation to the music.

Musicality is something immediately perceived and felt by followers
and is usually the most important quality they would cherish in a leader.

The late Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla used to despise tango
dancers that were not listening to his music. He felt abused by people
who would only use the rhythmical beat as a drive to make them move.
Out of respect for all these first rate composers and the beautiful
music they have written for us,  let's integrate musicality in our own
tango dancing!
From now on, please bear in mind that the classic tango scenario is
not represented by a sextet (like the orchestra Color Tango) which
means six musicians PLUS eventually two dancers, but is in reality an
octet composed of eight dedicated individuals striving to serve the
music written on the score.
They both are in possession of a different medium (dance, music) but
the goal is the same: to reveal the beauty and add expression to the
music.
By playing musically the notes on the score, musicians will strive to
make it happen in the audible dimension; dancers for that matter will
improvise sequences of steps and will project their musicality in the
tri-dimensional space.

The art of argentine tango calls for musical dancers.
Social dancing with musicality is felt as deeply satisfying in the
intimacy of the dancing couple and can be beautiful to see as well.

Throughout the 20th century, argentine tango was endowed with a
considerable amount of first rate music.  In fact, the production of
good music continues to this day
To serve it better, it behooves dancers to develop their musicality
potential by dancing, of course, and by studying it.
They will follow a path similar to the one followed by gifted
musicians: play music and go to class to develop both your technical
skills and your musicality.

In the coming weeks, there will be a musicality workshop here in Beijing.
It would be worth your while to attend.
Welcome to all!

Richard S.


Richard Sagala bio notes:
Canadian born musician and dancer, a certified music teacher, Richard
Sagala has been teaching and performing argentine tango in Canada, USA
and now China.
While a student in the conservatory of music (where he graduated with
four diplomas: DEC, CES, DES, Premier Prix), Richard studied classical
ballet and got involved in ballroom dancing from 1990 to 1999.
Richard discovered the art of argentine tango in 1999 and has pursued
it relentlessly ever since training with the best and brightest
everywhere.

In China, Richard teaches with Beijing tango. You can get information
about workshops, regular and private classes by writing to
beijingtango@...

Beijing, July 17, 2006

The Beijing papers

This series of 6 articles on argentine tango wishes to be a modest but
positive contribution to the Beijing argentine tango community.
They will be distributed via email every week or every second week
until the 11th of September.

Here are the titles of the articles that will be published in the
coming weeks:

-How to maximize your dancing experience during milongas
-The twelve most common mistakes in argentine tango
- How to avoid the twelve most common mistakes in argentine tango
- Our most precious assets in argentine tango
- Musicality for tango dancers
…and maybe more, once these topics will be covered.



First paper

How to maximize your dancing experience during milongas

In a young community, or in a community in constant state of flux with
a large turnover like Beijing, characterised by few people with long
tango experience, a certain attitude during milongas (dance evenings)
will help you bloom in the dance and develop your dancing skills.

Let's start by looking at some basic factual evidence: there is
usually a gender imbalance in favour of men in any tango communities.
Generally speaking, dance appeals more to women than men.
In places like Beijing this is especially acute.
Men dancing tango have usually a short dance history, and/or due to
work obligations etc are more likely to come and go.
Typically they will be new to it, or will have learnt it just enough
to reasonably enjoy themselves and not be rebuffed by the ladies. Once
they feel they are there, they usually stop learning.
Only a few of them wish to take it to the next level. This is true
here, this is true everywhere.
There are a number of reasons for that, and they are good reasons too.
First, men are usually more challenged by dancing than women, they
find it rather difficult, and argentine tango is a difficult dance.
Second, to learn it properly, you need the sustained presence and
attention of a good teacher that you trust.
Third, you have to commit to that teacher and take lessons regularly,
preferably private ones (the best way to learn) and this implies an
investment in time, effort, and money.
Fourth, you have to practice.
The milonga, the dance evening, is not a practice per se .
To find and keep a good practice partner is difficult. Many women
would say that they would eagerly volunteer for it but, due to the
emotional nature and difficulty of the dance, practice can be rather
technically frustrating and/or emotionally bumpy.

Solutions:

The first thing that all building tango communities should do is to
nurture their (too few) leaders.
In other words, dance with them. This happens usually naturally since
the odds are in their  favour.
But the question here is:

How do you build confidence in your new leaders while not letting
their lack of skills  potentially destroy your own dancing?

I mean this regardless of the level of the follower.
Typically, I am thinking here at a leader, a newcomer or a rather
poorly trained one that is tense, uses force, hints more than leads,
and expect you to know, and/or precipitate everything.
Let's take tension for instance. Due to the intimacy of the dance, if
he is tense, he will make you tense.
A tense body cannot dance. Period.
Tension is like noise. If you have too much background noise on a
record, as it amplifies it will eventually take over and drown the
music altogether.
Can you relate to this?
Did you experience tension?
Did you feel exhausted after dancing or felt pain in your body tension
induced?
If affirmative, you know that this is not pleasant.
In fact, this is terrible.
Why? Because if you allow tension to be part of it, you tell your body
that this is normal and it  will remember it as such. Tension then
will creep in and may become intertwined with your dancing technique
to such a degree that it will do to your dancing what excessive noise
does to music.
Please, ask yourself these questions:
Am I tense when I dance?  Where am I getting this tension from?
From the leader or am I bringing it to the dance myself?

In any case here is what you should be doing:
Stop being tense!
How?
a) center yourself and learn how to breathe properly from your center
(from the belly).
b) be nonchalant, don't try to be perfect. Accept that what works
works, what does not work does    not work at this point in time.
c) be humorous, relax and have fun with your friends. When you dance,
try to focus and concentrate a bit but not too much…
d) still stressed? …have a glass of wine. (although for leaders
alcohol makes you rather sluggish).
e) don't go to a milonga to dance away your problems. This bad energy
will only make matters
     worse. If you need to transfer bad energy find other outlets or go
to a therapist, they do
     that for a fee.



f) tango is fun. You can make it deep fun, serious fun, artful fun,
passionate fun etc.
     But nonetheless it's fun!

Obviously, these are general pieces of advice, but what can you
specifically do when you have accepted an invitation and you are stuck
on the dance floor with a tense and rather insecure leader?
You have to manage the situation now.


Here is how:
Usually we accept an invitation at the beginning of a tanda (a group
of three or four songs in the same style).
Etiquette requires that you dance more than one (one song is
considered rejection), so you are there for two songs minimum.
What to do then?
First, if you feel tension, the first thing that must pop into your
mind is: "ahah! tension here,
I will be as calm as he is tense to start with. I will not allow
tension to creep in my body and destroy my dance".
Second, tension leads normally to the use of force and this is
confrontational in nature.
In other words, you meet tension with tension.
You don't want to lock horns with him.
So what do you do?  You absorb it.
Example: He wants you to take a step back but can't lead it and uses
his left hand to push your right hand to try to move you. The worse
you could do would be to step back. Why? Because it does validate it
and tells him "it's OK to lead me that way".
No, you don't do that. Instead, you just let your arm become like
cooked spaghetti  and drop it. Maybe he will try a couple of times but
will stop when he sees that force does not bring any results.
If he gets the message, and usually leaders get it because they do not
use force for force sake, but
because they usually do not know alternate or better ways to get what
they want…
So, if you see now that he still wants this back step, because he
makes it clear through his intention and his body language but has
stopped pushing with his arm, take it!
OK, you may have compensated a bit, but you remained calm and cool
and, more important, you made him feel that he can get results by
other means.
As you dance with him, you see that he tries something else, a giro (a
turn) for example but is not too sure as how to lead it, and you feel
that he is at the point of tensing up or forcing you into it; go
ahead, compensate, do it and stay cool.
Send him good waves too, I mean, that you appreciate his dancing,
especially his calmness with the intent message that just being there
with you simply  walking  is good enough and that he must not try all
kind of things fearing  that you might get bored.
Body language does speak volumes!

Now, let's shine the light on the follower.
In this next example, we assume that our leader is an "enlightened
beginner",
Which means, somebody who assumes who he is as a dancer, that does not
want to show off; someone who just wants  to enjoy himself and make it
equally enjoyable for his partner in a way that allows  both of them
to connect to the music, with each other, and keep things cool and
relaxed.
But the follower now is tense. She is a beginner, maybe a bit of a
perfectionist, or she does not want to disappoint him etc.
If he senses that, his duty now is to show her that everything is cool.
He will keep things simple to make her relax. He will watch her body
language.
Example: He locked her in a close embrace where the bodies touch. She
has accepted
the embrace but is arching her back considerably. He should read her
body language. It means that she is not too comfortable that way…than
he will relax the embrace and let her come back straight. She pushes
on his left hand, he relaxes his left arm to defuse it. If she has
balance issues,
(because of high heels etc), he offers more support with his right arm
around her while maintaining a good presence  and support on the left
side of her thoracic cage.
And he does not forget to send her good vibes too…
As he sees that she is relaxing and regains confidence, he might try a
few simple steps he masters well.
If she tenses again, drop it off, simplify to the max, slow down and
never forget that:
Tango is not about steps, Tango is about connection!

In all cases, you should be surprised how fear is what often gets in
the way and prevents us from dancing properly. Fear is the great
inhibitor and can be overcome quite easily with a good, positive and
affectionate partner.

We said at the beginning that tension kills the dance, creeps into the
other and spoils everything.
It is a vicious circle.
But in tango we have a virtuous circle as well, meaning that what you
do well is also absorbed by the other who will reciprocate and invite
you to give more etc… we can create harmony this way. The dance then
will become magical.
You do not have to be an advanced dancer for experiencing tango
moments. To be an "enlightened beginner" is more than enough.

Now let's consider another potential source of tension:
What do you do when being an  "enlightened beginner"  you  have
accepted an invitation from an advanced tango dancer?

Example:
Mister Big has extended an invitation.
It can be rather stressful indeed. What to do now? your palms are
sweating, your heart is racing, you are nervous…

Mr Big may be your teacher, or your friend's teacher or you have seen
him on stage etc.
Now you want to be at your best, rise to the occasion and shine… what
should you do?
Nothing!
Remember the phrase of the architect Mies van der Roehe:
"Less is more"

It applies here 100%.

First, if your hands are sweating and your heart racing let it happen
(breath correctly though).
What is is. We do not lie in tango. (anyway we cannot lie, you can
try, but it does not work…)
Second do not, I repeat, do not excuse yourself (true at the
beginning, the end  AND during the dance… even if things go a bit astray).
If you are a beginner or an intermediate it is not your problem. There
is no shame in that
HE has extended the invitation, you did not ask anything,  so HE must
take care of you.
Plus, if he is so good, he should be able to make you dance, right?
That is one of the reasons why it is the men who do invite according
to tradition. If they do not want to dance with you, their loss!
If they invite you, they have to make sure that you will have a good time.
They have to behave like a real "caballero" (gentleman). This is very
much in the tango tradition
By the way, this etiquette would be known to an "enlightened beginner"
too.
The man is there to take care of the lady and not the other way around.
(and certainly not to correct her and give her free dance lessons on
the dance floor…)
Beware gentlemen, even if your follower should beg for advice, do NOT
give dance lesson on the dance floor, this is bad form.
There are outlets for that: Practicas!
What is a Practica?
A Practica is an informal dance where people go to practice their
steps between partners and friends and help each other. It could be
supervised or not.

So, with a good dancer, the follower must simply do nothing… But what
exactly does this nothing means?
To answer this properly, first let's remember what we have said
regarding the attitude of the follower with a beginner leader.
We talked about how reducing tension by way of compensation or
anticipation while the follower has to remain calm and tensionless all
the time.
But for the calm, the rest of it is wrong now.
In fact, compensation, anticipation, decoding in the mind of the
follower etc, all this is normally to be avoided.
In the first situation, she fills the blanks a bit, now she must not
do that at all.
A good leader will (must) dance in her body. He will control her
pivot, make sure where her axis is at all times. He will trigger the
movement by using his/her spiral and will lead by invitation only.
To lead by invitation might be a bit confusing at the beginning. Let's
explain it a bit.
The invitation means that, from the energy it feels, the body of the
follower will move accordingly.
There is no push-pull at all but
grounding-spiral-intention-preparation and release.
Let's not dwell too much on these technical (cryptic?) words as it
would lead us to too technical a discussion.

In the first case the follower helps a bit, in the second case she
just let it happen.
Passivity? Not at all.
Empowerment instead.
In the first case:
Her mind thinks, her body dances.
In the second case:
Her body thinks, her mind dances.
(the best way to climb the stairway to tango heaven…)

Her role as a follower is to connect, amplify and beautify the dance.
Add colour and flavour to the dish if you want.
Once, I asked my former teacher in Montreal Noel Strazza (Pablo
Veron's partner), what are the essential qualities of a good follower?
She answered:
"To be silent, empty, and awake"
From there, she feels that she can add fragrance, colour and flavour
in a complementary way while giving herself totally, being totally
free at the same time, be totally in the moment.
These words are worth meditating by all followers, but let's be even
more practical.
To do nothing means to be totally grounded, on axis (offering your
most perfect posture), in possession of your spiral, peaceful and
calm. Now your body is tuned like a good violin and ready to sing.

You can embellish (add adornos) but do not backlead or take any steps
of your own, do not even think of that.
Just be there.
The most beautiful gift you can give your leader is: Freedom.
Freedom for the leader means options.
Example:
Let's take a giro, a turn from a side step to the right (seen from the
perspective of the follower):

a) from a beginner point of view:
The beginner takes a side step to the left, starts turning his
shoulder, the follower understands it as a turn and triggers the
sequence of a giro taking in succession a back-side-front-side, than
the beginner pushes her back (sigh! he should not be pushing) to
continue walking etc.

b) from an advanced point of view:
The leader invites her into a side step of a certain width controlled
by pressing the ground, this is validated by a corresponding pressure
on the left side of the follower rib cage. Once the step is landed, he
grounds and invites her to ground, then start spiralling from the
muscles of his back. She mirrors this. Once the spiral has reached
the proper degree in his-her torso, he grounds more and relaxes (flex)
a bit the knee of his supporting leg, she mirrors it, and this creates
an inner tension in her spine. Once it has reached sufficient
potential energy, she lifts the heel of her supporting leg and a pivot
occurs naturally. The leader, taking advantage of the pivot, gives it
an extra impetus in his spiral which triggers a rhythm of simple or
double time (quick-quick-slow). Then, while remaining on the same
spot, in his mind and body he dances each and every step of her giro
by feeling her body going from a pivot to a back step to a circular
side step where he pivots her again to prepare her for the front step,
than pivot, than side step, than he grounds and let the pent up energy
of the turn dissipate. Once all is quiet again, he invites her to a
walk, in order to contrast circular with linear energy. She will be
doing this with her eyes closed and will realise (or not) after the
fact that she just did a turn there. In fact when we enter in the the
"flow" of tango, we do not even remember what we did (we don't even
care), we just remember how marvellous it was that night dancing with
such and such person.

Alternate scenario:  after the side step he spirals her, grounds,
everything looks very much as if a turn will start imminently, than he
changes his mind and transforms her back pivot to a front one and it
becomes a front ocho etc.
Why?  maybe because there was no room anymore on the dance floor for a
turn, or maybe because he thought that on that particular spot on the
music it was more interesting choreographically speaking  to do a
front ocho; or maybe just because he felt like it…
Total freedom, total spontaneity!

A follower that gives options to her leader opens doors to his creativity.

Let's not forget that we are always thinking about a relatively
beginner follower.
And we reiterate that it is the problem of the leader to find the
steps that will make her feel comfortable.
If it is only walking, well, if he is good he will make walking feel
creative and wonderful.
If walking is too difficult, he can spot dance her.

Finally,
What to do when you, an "enlightened beginner" leader have extended an
invitation to a female tango star and….gulp! she has accepted.
Chill!
But don't freeze 

Offer your most beautiful connection, lose yourself in the music and
do keep it simple.
Create the magic!
Do not try to dance above your level.
Please, do keep it simple.
Bear in mind that this woman dances complicated steps every day with
the best in the trade…
and may be a bit tired of that too. The fact that she has accepted to
dance with you, could be an indication that she would be perfectly
happy with: fresh, spontaneous and sincere!
Besides, you are not Pablo Veron. 
Yes, it could be nice to try these complicated sequences and off-axis
turns you learnt somewhere in a workshop. Indeed she would make them
feel gloriously beautiful if you master them well, but what if you do
not lead them properly?
Is it worth the risk?

In a word: No!

She would not resent you, but you might resent yourself though. It
could be enough to bruise your ego and make you become frustrated and
self conscious at once. Bye bye the connection, bye bye the magic, and
welcome frustration.
Indeed, it can be rather frustrating to have had the opportunity of
your lifetime to play on a Stradivarius and, instead of playing music
you know, feel and play well, you tried a complicated piece that
resulted in a bunch of wrong notes and no music at all…

Less is more!








Conclusion:

Flexibility and awareness are paramount in dancing argentine tango.
One size fits none.
Have more than one style of dance to offer. If you do have to
compensate, being fully aware of it will prevent it from generating
unconscious ingrained bad habits that practice would only make
permanent. But try to keep all this (these sins…) to a minimum, use it
sparingly  and with the idea of serving a better purpose like building
up confidence in your leader or to battle the evil of tension. Be
vigilant.

Said otherwise, just remember that with a proper attitude and
flexibility in your dancing, tailored to the reality and the
circumstances you are in, you can make argentine tango a qualitative
and fulfilling experience, enriching your life in so many ways while
discovering the specificity and the inner beauty that each dancer,
each milonga or each tango community has to offer.

Love to all,
And see you on the dance floor!


Richard S.





Richard Sagala bio notes:
Canadian born musician and dancer, a certified music teacher, Richard
Sagala has been teaching and performing argentine tango in Canada, USA
and now China.
While a student in the conservatory of music (where he graduated with
four diplomas: DEC, CES, DES, Premier Prix), Richard studied classical
ballet and got involved in ballroom dancing from 1990 to 1999.
Richard discovered the art of argentine tango in 1999 and has pursued
it relentlessly ever since training with the best and brightest
everywhere.

While in China, Richard teaches with Beijingtango. You can get
information about regular and private classes by writing to
beijingtango@...

À tous les membres et amis du club de tango de Concordia CTC

Ce jeudi le premier juin, dernière soirée de la saison au CTC.

À compter de 21:30 milonga-happening avec des surprises et des
musiciens live.

Le violonise exceptionnel Carmen Piculeata* et la guitariste Ioana
Gandrabur* seront des nôtres!
En compagnie d'autres musiciens (interprètes-compositeurs) qui se
joindront à nous pour faire de cette soirée un évènement mémorable.
Venez danser et écouter de la musique...

Le CTC compte déjà soixante membres et est ouvert à tous.

Prière de noter que le CTC fait relâche cet été et que la rentrée est
prévue pour la fin septembre dès le retour de Richard de Beïjing.

Site du club: www.rsagala.com/clubtangoconcordia.html

*écoutez un extrait d'un tango interprété par Carmen dans la section
multimédia du CTC et faites plus ample connaissance avec Ioana
en suivant ce lien: http://www.rsagala.com/ioanagandrabur.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: khripin <cyk2@...>
Date: May 22, 2006 1:25 PM
Subject: [universitytango] Re: Bootcamp Teaching Ideas... help!
To: universitytango@yahoogroups.com



  Wow, there are actually too many posts for me to keep up with, so
  someone might have already posted something like this, but here are
  two ballance excersises from tai chi that I can actually feel an
  immediate benefit from:

  1.  Leg swings - Stand on one leg, toe slightly out, knee soft, and
  swing free leg back and forth.   Play with low and high amplitudes,
  stay relaxed, allow the body to spiral and arms to swing opposite.

  2.  One-leg squats - Stand on one leg as above, the other leg extended
  forward and down (higher is better, but you cant go so high that you
  get tense).  Hold your arms up and relaxed.  To get ballance benefit
  you only need to go down 3-4 inches, but people build crazy leg power
  this way by going all the way to the ground.  Also to get ballance
  benefit you need to stay real relaxed and relax everything you dont
  absolutely need to be using.  Repeat 3 times, switch legs, and do this
  several times.

  When I do these, I can feel a real improvement when I go into the tai
  chi form.

  Enjoy!

  Constantine
  Lehigh U tango







  ________________________________
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  ________________________________



--
http://web.mac.com/dania.a

Meditating while dancing no, but tango transe, which is a form of
losing oneself in the moment, yes.
I have practiced Zen meditation (Soto)in a dojo for a few years
now and this helps immensely with the posture, breathing and
centering. Plus you are not distracted by technical issues.
Next fall I will definitely try to start a Tango dojo here in Montreal.
Cheers,

Richard


--- Dans concordiatango@..., "ninoba7" <ninoba7@y...> a écrit
>
> Hello,
> Have you ever experienced meditating while dancing tango? I'm
> curious about that. It seems almost impossible for me, a beginner:
> the technique issues demand most of my attention!  What about you?
>
> Have a nice day :)
>
> Nidia
>
> P.S.  Interesting!:
>
> Tango Zen Retreat in Spain
> Candeleda, Spain, July 21-28, 2006
> http://www.TangoZen.com/spain
>
> Tango Zen: Walking Dance Meditation
> "How can you dance tango without legs? Come and experience…"
>
> Please come and discover, explore, and let go of yourself through
> Walking Dance Meditation. Join us in 7 days of meditation, tango
> dance, relaxation, discussion, and fun with Chan and Eugenia Park
>
> Tango Zen is Walking Dance Meditation. Tango Zen is known to help
> establish balance, calmness, groundedness, centering, and harmony in
> mind and body. This Retreat introduces Tango Zen, an innovative yet
> natural idea of meditating while dancing Tango.
>
> Tango dancers said Tango Zen helped enhance understanding of posture,
> groundedness, connection, sensibility, movement, balance, centering,
> all of which are essential for dancing.
>
> Daily schedule of the Retreat includes morning Tango Zen (Walking
> Dance Meditation) session, afternoon Tango class/Practica, and
> nightly
> milonga (Tango dance).
>
> Space is limited. Register early!
>
> Contact Chan (TangoZen@) if you have any questions. For
> details, please visit http://TangoZen.com/spain.
>
> What they say about Tango Zen:
>
> "It really was one of the best weeks of my life and I appreciate the
> constant care and attention you gave us, a very good example of zen
> in
> practice!"
> -- Jenny, UK
>
> "I enjoyed the workshop very much. I think that it is great to
> approach or reapproach tango with a zen perspective. For true
> beginners, it gives them a solid foundation and direction and for
> those with some experience, relearning or learning in a different way
> is a wonderful experience."
> -- Iris, Brussel, Belgium
>
> "Thank you Chan and Eugenia for a relaxing and enlightening workshop.
> I left feeling limp as a wet noodle and very content. A most
> interesting experience--the people who were there for the
> meditation --who did not know tango--they were so focused on the
> connection--I found dancing with them to be far more pleasant than
> dancing with partners who know a lot of moves but seem to forget that
> they are holding another person. They seemed to enjoy the process of
> experimenting--rather than get caught up in the perfection of a move-
> a far more delightful way to learn."
> -- Chris, Baltimore, Maryland
>
> "Though it appears that Zen meditation is a discipline in
> 'introspective meditation', Chan and Eugenia showed us how to walk
> the 'meditative walk' with a partner and not be distracted by
> anything around us. It truly was a great meditative and communal
> experience I suspect only a few people actually achieve in dancing
> tango."
> -- Andy, San Francisco, California
>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shu-Yee Chen <chenryi@...>
Date: May 7, 2006 10:31 PM
Subject: [universitytango] Boston Tango Festival Major Discount for Students!!
To: universitytango@yahoogroups.com


  Dear fellow tango students,

  The Boston Tango Society and MIT Tango Club is presenting the 3rd
annual Boston Tango Festival between 14-18 June. There will be a HUGE
discount --50% for any students. Therefore, please spread the words to
your club member about this information and the MIT Tango Club board
would love to help out when any student-groups across the country.

  This festival will feature multiple workshops with World-Renowned
Masters from Argentina and Multiple La Milongas, some with live music,
and a Surprise to be announced. All Details can be found at the BOSTON
TANGO FESTIVAL WEBSITE (see Link Below).

Note: SOME AREAS OF THE FESTIVAL WEBSITE WILL BE UPDATED,
INCLUDING ARTISTS, REGISTRATION AND LINKS AREA, SO CHECK IT OFTEN.



http://www.bostontangofestival.com/home.htm


Registeration will open soon!


On behalf of the MIT Tango Club,
Shu-Yee

MIT Tango Club
Come Dance With Us...

Website:
www.mit.edu/~tango
E-mail:
tango@...
For further information contact: tango@...





  ________________________________
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  ________________________________

Hello,
Have you ever experienced meditating while dancing tango? I'm
curious about that. It seems almost impossible for me, a beginner:
the technique issues demand most of my attention!  What about you?

Have a nice day :)

Nidia

P.S.  Interesting!:

Tango Zen Retreat in Spain
Candeleda, Spain, July 21-28, 2006
http://www.TangoZen.com/spain

Tango Zen: Walking Dance Meditation
"How can you dance tango without legs? Come and experience…"

Please come and discover, explore, and let go of yourself through
Walking Dance Meditation. Join us in 7 days of meditation, tango
dance, relaxation, discussion, and fun with Chan and Eugenia Park

Tango Zen is Walking Dance Meditation. Tango Zen is known to help
establish balance, calmness, groundedness, centering, and harmony in
mind and body. This Retreat introduces Tango Zen, an innovative yet
natural idea of meditating while dancing Tango.

Tango dancers said Tango Zen helped enhance understanding of posture,
groundedness, connection, sensibility, movement, balance, centering,
all of which are essential for dancing.

Daily schedule of the Retreat includes morning Tango Zen (Walking
Dance Meditation) session, afternoon Tango class/Practica, and
nightly
milonga (Tango dance).

Space is limited. Register early!

Contact Chan (TangoZen@...) if you have any questions. For
details, please visit http://TangoZen.com/spain.

What they say about Tango Zen:

"It really was one of the best weeks of my life and I appreciate the
constant care and attention you gave us, a very good example of zen
in
practice!"
-- Jenny, UK

"I enjoyed the workshop very much. I think that it is great to
approach or reapproach tango with a zen perspective. For true
beginners, it gives them a solid foundation and direction and for
those with some experience, relearning or learning in a different way
is a wonderful experience."
-- Iris, Brussel, Belgium

"Thank you Chan and Eugenia for a relaxing and enlightening workshop.
I left feeling limp as a wet noodle and very content. A most
interesting experience--the people who were there for the
meditation --who did not know tango--they were so focused on the
connection--I found dancing with them to be far more pleasant than
dancing with partners who know a lot of moves but seem to forget that
they are holding another person. They seemed to enjoy the process of
experimenting--rather than get caught up in the perfection of a move-
a far more delightful way to learn."
-- Chris, Baltimore, Maryland

"Though it appears that Zen meditation is a discipline in
'introspective meditation', Chan and Eugenia showed us how to walk
the 'meditative walk' with a partner and not be distracted by
anything around us. It truly was a great meditative and communal
experience I suspect only a few people actually achieve in dancing
tango."
-- Andy, San Francisco, California

Dear concordia tangueros/as:) i came accross these videos on Sharna's
website. we were discussing groundedness and using the potential
energy of the ground for anchoring, power and stability- and i find
this to be a perfect and beautiful depiction of this:) what do you
think?
http://www.sharnafabiano.com/   and then click under 'video' (there is
non direct link)
hugs,
dania

At last the sun after many rainy days!, and a moment to come here.
I was thinking of Rumi's poem all the week long (I love it. Thank
you, Richard).  It describes just what I experience....in my
dreams.  Only in my dreams so far.  I'm just learning to dance
tango, trying so hard not to get discouraged.  If dancing tango
depended only on the personnal effort, I would be more confident
about the possibility of feeling myself one day "rising above both
worlds, tearing my heart to pieces and giving up my soul"...but
as "it takes two for tango"...it takes two to explore this corner of
the universe (or maybe more than two, a whole community?).

Some months ago, when I was about to remove tango from my life, I
found this encouragement letter addressed to a tango student:

"Tango: A Great and Terrible Gift
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 11:05 AM, To: TANGO-L@...,

Subject: Scorched!

Dear Marisa,

It was very compelling to read your message a few days ago...I
sympathize deeply with your feelings of frustration and anxiety. You
asked for suggestions to help shift your attitude, so I am writing
in with that request in mind.
You have received some tremendous advice so far...I suspect bits and
pieces may prove very useful to you, but ultimately, you will find
your own way, as we all must. In case this helps you on your path to
recapturing your joy for the dance, I have discovered that
maintaining my balance in tango (technically AND emotionally - no
small feat, let's face it!) requires equal time devoted to learning
and PRACTICING not only my technical lessons, but my emotional ones.
This includes hanging on to my sense of humor for DEAR life (again,
no small feat).
Attaining technical prowess is only ONE level of this dance (I, too,
am a recovering perfectionist). Through the experiences tango
provides, both on the floor and within the social milieu in which it
exists (and therein slumbers yet ANOTHER monster, eh?!), I continue
to encounter my self in all my "glory/gory-ness," with all my
strengths and weaknesses exposed equally.
How I choose to interpret and assimilate those physical and
emotional "discoveries" determines whether or not I take pleasure in
the dance on multiple levels...kinda like life (sorry to state the
obvious metaphor, but there it is).
Your tenacious commitment to perfect your technique is a fantastic
thing you have inside you. I hope you continue and I hope you can
reject the limitations about your abilities as decreed by
others...or even yourself. The tango is a great and terrible
gift...so admit that you have quite simply entered a SERIOUS
relationship with an art form wherein the possibilities for self-
expression are profound...but such a gift requires work and
discipline...therefore, it will challenge and test, bring pleasure
and pain, bring out your best and worst and everything else in
between...why else do we love it so? The tango is a demanding, often
playful, always gorgeous, sophisticated, primitive, deceitful,
sensual, SMART, multifaceted, brutally honest mistress, even when
she is absolutely uncompromising and takes NO prisoners whatsoever.
How remarkable and lovely for us that we are required to merge with
fellow dancers to receive this gift; the pleasure and richness of
connection with another human being...and at its VERY best, that
rarest of creatures, the joy of creating a totally unique,
collaborative work of art.
Hoping this helps and wishing you many years of rich and wonderful
tangos to come,
Deb"

And now that I feel inspired, I will practice the "ocho" while doing
the dishes :)

Nidia


--- Dans concordiatango@..., "Richard Sagala"
<rsagala@r...> a écrit
>
> Hello Nidia,
> Welcome to the CTC!
> This is a beautiful poem indeed.
> Thank you fo sharing it with us.
>
> Indeed, tango covers 360 degrees.
>
> It is both sensual and spiritual.
> I remember having seen (on film)  the moment when the mandala is
> complete and with a stick they just delete it with a stroke of the
wrist.
>
> What do you think of this poem on dancing by Rumi.
> If you have more of them, please post them.
> Richard
>
>
>  "Dancing,is not just getting up any time, painlessly, like a
speck of
> dust blown  around in the wind.
> Dancing, is  when you rise above both worlds,tearing your heart to
> pieces and giving up your soul".
>
>
> Rumi (XIIIth century)
> ---------------------------------------------------------------

dear tangueros/tangueras, hope you are enjoying the blossoming spring days :)
i stumbled across an 8min bbc talk of tango. thought some of you would enjoy:)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2002_42_thu_02.shtml
it's a pleasant listening
dania

Hello Nidia,
Welcome to the CTC!
This is a beautiful poem indeed.
Thank you fo sharing it with us.

Indeed, tango covers 360 degrees.

It is both sensual and spiritual.
I remember having seen (on film)  the moment when the mandala is
complete and with a stick they just delete it with a stroke of the wrist.

What do you think of this poem on dancing by Rumi.
If you have more of them, please post them.
Richard


  "Dancing,is not just getting up any time, painlessly, like a speck of
dust blown  around in the wind.
Dancing, is  when you rise above both worlds,tearing your heart to
pieces and giving up your soul".


Rumi (XIIIth century)
---------------------------------------------------------------




--- Dans concordiatango@..., "ninoba7" <ninoba7@y...> a écrit
>
> Hello all,
> My name is Nidia and I'm very happy to join this group. I just
> wanted to share  the tango poems I like the most. I found it
> somewhere in the web, long time ago. It touched my soul of incipient
> tanguera...I hope you enjoy it  :)
>
> Tango # 22
>
> I am the pen
> With which you write your poems
> Across the floor
> Fleeting ephemeral lines
> Like sacred Tibetan sand paintings
> Meticulously crafted by worshipful monks
> And brushed away
> When they are complete
> As a reminder of life's illusory nature
>
> We are two happy and focused monks
> Diligently practicing our own religion
> Our own ritual art
> As we create
> This elegant ephemeral tango
> This pure pursuit of grace
> That only we will remember
>
> (From The Secret Diaries of Sonia D'Angel)
>

Hello all,
My name is Nidia and I'm very happy to join this group. I just
wanted to share one of the tango poems I like the most. I found it
somewhere in the web, long time ago. It touched my soul of incipient
tanguera...I hope you enjoy it  :)

Tango # 22

I am the pen
With which you write your poems
Across the floor
Fleeting ephemeral lines
Like sacred Tibetan sand paintings
Meticulously crafted by worshipful monks
And brushed away
When they are complete
As a reminder of life's illusory nature

We are two happy and focused monks
Diligently practicing our own religion
Our own ritual art
As we create
This elegant ephemeral tango
This pure pursuit of grace
That only we will remember

(From The Secret Diaries of Sonia D'Angel)

Congratulations John!

Although I wasn't in the audience, I know  your work  for having heard
it previously with the choir.

I wish to add this:
I am always surprised by the number of intelligent people that belongs
to the CTC,
and the fact that a great number of them are artists. We will support
our own that is for sure.

Danse du Python?
I am for it!  But nobody is allowed to wiggle.
There is no wiggling in tango.
;-)

Richard


--- Dans concordiatango@..., "tankyette1"
<tankyette1@y...> a écrit
>
> Thank you, tango club members, for your show of support by
> coming to hear my African Dreams during mid-lesson. Your
> presence buoyed my spirits and calmed my nerves. Shall we
> now cultivate the African tango? (à la danse du Python) :)
>
> a bientôt,
> John
>

Thank you, tango club members, for your show of support by
coming to hear my African Dreams during mid-lesson. Your
presence buoyed my spirits and calmed my nerves. Shall we
now cultivate the African tango? (à la danse du Python) :)

a bientôt,
John

...for having given generously her time in translating the Noel
Strazza interview in english.
This substantial interview is long and requires almost twenty minutes
to read; so on can imagine how long it took Carole to translate it
properly.
Plus, the interview was conducted in french and is of a spanish
thinking person.
It required extra efforts and lucidity to grasp rhe finesse of it all.
Carole, being a private sudent of Noel for more than two years now,
knows perfectly well how Noel talks and  expresses herself.

This is first class translation and a must read by all serious tango
students.

You can find  the Noel Strazza interview in the library section of the
site:
http://www.rsagala.com/library.html

Enjoy, and please share your thoughts on the forum.

Richard

Le site est super. Je suis fière de faire partie du club. Merci pour
avoir parti ce club et pour l'enseignement illuminé et inspirant.
Finalement, une place ou l'on peut perfectionner notre art, tout en se
concentrant sur les bonnes choses et non un agenda basé sur des
transactions pécuniaires et des pas mécaniques montrés vite et sans
âme. L'Art en sa pur forme, guidée par une personne plein de passion
et de talent et sa charmante partenaire, un lieu ou l'on partage notre
amour du tango, ça c'est le Club de Tango de Concordia! On est les
tangueros et tangueras les plus fortunés à Montréal. À jeudi!
Christine aka ici, comme Dolarosa7...

This forum is open to all members and friends of the CTC.
It is a place where you can share ideas, find partners and try to
discuss issues that will help you grow in tango.

Bonjour à tous les membres et amis du CTC, ce forum se veut un lieu
pour échanger des idées, discuter et s'amuser, et surtout vous aider à
mieux vous épanouir dans votre apprentissage de cette magnifique danse
qui a tant à vous offrir.

Richard