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Argentine tango blog
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Current blog
Can you lead your partner to shift her weight by shifting your own weight? This is the question being debated at Tango-L lately. My answer is no.
In the way I dance tango, weight shifting per se is not a lead at all. I lead the follower by moving her body axis. As long as I don't move her axis, I can do all kind of steps with my feet: shift weight, do grapevine, whatever, and my partner will not step (for example, independent shift of weight at 1 min 40 sec and at 4 min 10 sec in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MesNethpYxA ).
Alexis Cousein wrote:
Nobody is claiming that you necessarily lead a weight shift of the follower through your own weight shift, except when the frame is locked (i.e. when your axis and hers are moving in unison).
My "frame" is always "locked" -- I dance in close embrace. That does not mean that, when I shift my weight, the follower will do so too. Unless I move her axis, of course. My feet, on the other hand, can be decoupled (dissociated, in the common dance instructor parlance) from my chest.
Thus "my weight shifting isn't a lead at all". Moving her axis is. Hence the word "balance" in my signature.
Leader can also do the opposite: keep the weight on one foot and move her around without shifting his weight from that foot (at 3'37" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_60K2dAvGc ). Osvaldo Cartery does this all the time (I copied his step in this clip).
April 21, 2008 - IxD programs in Europe
Six 10 minutes long presentations at Innovationsforum (2007) from various IxD programs in Europe. An introduction of the school, and one or two student projects from the school.
The presentation by the representative of Extreme Green Guerilla on mail service via migrating animals (at 19 minutes) is "totally rad".
Schools:
Royal College of Art, London
Design InteractionsRavensbourne College of Design and Communication, London
MA Interactive Digital Media
MA Online MediaSchool of Arts & Communication, Malmö University
Interaction Design ProgrammeUdK Berlin
Digitale KlasseHGK Zürich
Interaction Design ProgrammeFH Potsdam
Interface Design Programme
April 17, 2008 - Good tango reads
Tango and Chaos by Rick McGarrey
Rick went to Buenos Aires many times, had met milongueros, interviewed and filmed them. He analyzes the dance, the music, the traditions, the etiquete, and the culture of the dance we all love — tango. Well-written and informed opinion.From the site:
"I once asked a friend what it was about tango that grabbed him. I thought he was an unlikely candidate for tango addiction because he’s an African-American from Philadelphia with an Ivy League degree, and a background drenched in jazz and big-city culture… but he got hooked nonetheless. He said, simply, 'It’s because the music is so powerful.'"
New "nuevo tango" by Terence Clarke at BlogCritics
An insigtful article on nuevo tango in Buenos Aires and around the world. What it is, what it is not.From the article:
"Under the tutelage of such as Gustavo Naveira, Fabian Salas, Geraldine Rojas, Eziquiel Paludi, Federico and Ariadne Naveira, Mariela Franganillo, Pablo Pugliese, and their advanced students — youthful maestros who well understand and respect the traditions of old tango and are adding to those traditions new dance sequences of breath-taking innovation and beauty — the new Argentine tango is a thing to behold. This is terrific, but there is also a broad sweep of unintended hilarity accompanying a lot of the tango being danced now. I had at first thought this was taking place only outside of Argentina.
There is a kind of (for lack of a better term) tribal European dance that many people believe is tango, which is indeed called tango, in which the basic precepts of Argentine tango dance are being ignored, things like a proper lead, following the music, knowing the history of the dance and the music, respecting your partner, dressing well. These are concepts one would think would be the bread and butter of tango, which has traditionally been the most difficult social dance in the world, and one of the most beautiful."
Tango Fuego blog by Alex Long
Alex has sound opinions and does not hold back in expressing them. Very active blog.From the blog:
"I just woke up, wide awake from another tango dream.
The only thing I remember from the dream is that this song was playing. A vals.
It's my favorite vals..."April 14, 2008 - Language metaphor for UE disciplines
This metaphor came up at our last IxDA Colorado meetup (which was quite lively, by the way).
"IA handles nouns, IxD — verbs, Visual Design — adjectives."
This is rough division, of course.
Will Evans has extended the metaphor further:
"Content Strategists are nouns,
IAs is the grammar,
IxD is the verbs,
Visual is the adjectives,
Experience Architects are the poets....I know there is a Haiku in here somewhere"
April 12, 2008 - What kept me busy last month
http://www.authenticsauna.com - User profiles, competitive analysis, IA, wireframes, visual design, branding, templates, coding, SEO, content layout, some copy.
Old site for comparison: http://www.springssauna.com.
------------------------
Acid jazz. Sundays in Manitou Springs.
March 18, 2008 - 'Seduced by Tango' - tango documentary
Robert Duvall, Pablo Veron and Catherine Tatge are planning to shoot tango documentary 'Seduced by Tango'.
That's interesting by itself, but what I especially like about their approach is that they try "reality documentary": they solicit video submissions to be in the documentary via YouTube (dance and interview). I hope they will add the links to submitted clips at their website.Details are here: http://www.seducedbytango.com/
The one thing I didn't particularly like was the (optional) music to dance to in the video: while they are looking for social dancers, the music in the download is not the tango I would choose to play or to dance to at a milonga.A few interviews submitted via YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQcS5Gp6HFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKA6e1h6hwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVCRlQDT48II love the different perspectives.
March 18, 2008 - The inception of IxDA Colorado
It's official: Laurie Lamar of Industrial Wisdom and I have started IxDA Colorado, the local chapter of IxDA. As of today we are nineteen people strong. We are planning our first face-to-face meeting for April 10th. It would be interesting to meet others in the field.
The excitement is mounting.
"Serendipity – is like looking for a needle in a haystack and discovering a farmer’s daughter."
Julius Comroe, Jr. via Matt Jones (Dopplr)February 16, 2008 - Good talks from the first IxDA conference (Interaction 2008, Savannah, GA)
The Design Ecosystem by Bill Buxton, Microsoft Research.
Design culture - right tools, process, technique, partners, attitude (and design politics of mutual understanding of business, design, and engineering goals). Many ideas bring along good ideas, thus the importance of "throwaway sketching".
Concept Models, A Tool for Planning Interaction by Dan Brown, EightShapes
Mind mapping to analyze and understand domain. Concept models (Joseph P. Novak from Cornell) precede flowcharts and wireframes, at the very least vocabulary is agreed upon. They define scope - inventory of concepts (list of nouns from domain experts) and interactions (remove redundancy). "Views" and "components". Validation - implications (importance, what is missing etc.). The concepts from the expense report as an example. Circling nouns in the requirements doc is an interesting approach.
User Interface Design in an Agile Environment Jeff White and Jim Under, Jewelry TV.
Description of Agile development (role sharing, mentoring, sprints, team ownership).
"Design Studio" - brainstorming with examples:
- define user goals, IA (the data, the objects, the interactions, which should be included in the prototype), scenarios (empathy), tasks, concept models - 5-6 days to 1 month
- brief engineers
- everyone comes up with possible sketches (~2 h, 4-7 concepts per person, not one elaborated concept)
- the sketches are discussed (facilitation), agree on the best ideas (explain why): 2 minutes per concept presentation, 8-10 minutes discussion (write good/bad ideas from the concept on giant post-it notes)
- take a break, review the goals. Consolidate good ideas into one design.
Redesigning Sony Ericsson's Product Catalog by Saskia Idzerda, Media Catalyst
Good, practical and illustrated story of website re-design with international perspective. Agile prototyping. As far as I could see, the sliders were tested with one pointer only. I wonder, if the testing results would be different, if the sliders had two pointers to select a range of values. Also"green" is not good indicator of size. Good observation on limitations of usability testing vs. statistical analytics (multivariate or A/B tests).
Designing for Flow by David Cronin, Cooper.
Nice examples of design for the "flow". The "friction" term in the end of the talk is unfortunate choice of word, since the word's main meaning is feedback (also important for the flow experience), not manageable challenge/stress. .
Everyday Objects by Bill DeRouchey, Zibi Design.
Illustrations of cross-pollination design concepts. Icons, buttons, colors, shapes, motions, gestures, UI personality, focus, affordances, constraints.
Classic Design Movements and IxD by Chris Bernard, Microsoft
Mostly Bauhaus ideas etc. Collaboration mashup as a new movement (Gray Album etc.). Sustainability, diversity, accessibility.
Don't Make Me Click by Aza Raskin, Humanized.
Good interface is no interface. This talk needs slides. Shovel as an example of overdesigned (surrounded by machinery from Microsoft), and overprettied (encrusted with diamonds by marketing) product.
February 12, 2008 - Zarandeo, armonisacion or, simply, wiggle
Apparently there is a name for everything in Argentine tango. A simple wiggle (at 20 seconds in the clip) has two: zarandeo and armonisacion.
February 10, 2008 - Boolean logic ("AND", "OR" questions) in a graphical user interface
Present Boolean logic as a two step process in a guided/faceted search/navigation. Peter Morville's collection of these patterns on Flickr and one of the examples.
February 7, 2008 - Villa Urquiza style
I have heard about Villa Urquiza style for the first time about four years ago. Ever since I have puzzled what does it mean. I think I have better perception now that we have had a brief discussion at Tango-L.
C. has sent me an article by Victor Hernandez about Villa Urquiza style:
There was, however, one very particular “barrio” among so many, which concerns our story today for the “salon” style that it developed was something incredibly unique. This barrio is situated north of Buenos Aires (actually northwest), very far from El Puerto, San Telmo or La Boca. It extends on both sides of General Urquiza. During the last fifty years, the finest tango dancers and milongueros that Buenos Aires has ever produced were trained in this area.
Historic family clubs like “Sunderland” or “Sin Rumbo” had their addresses there and benefited from the genius of “Milonguita”, the legendary dancer who never went on a stage (“It is not worthy of a real milonguero.”) but left his legacy to names like Gerardo Portalea, El Turco Jose, “Finito” Ramon Rivera, “Lampazo” Jose Vasquez, Miguel Balmaceda and, of course, “Virulazo”, the one and only, who came to New York with Tango Argentino. Many of them are now gone, but the “Milonguita style”, today know as “Villa Urquiza”, remains with its firm, straight, elegant way of delivering the foot in long steps, caressing “el piso” simply and continuously but exploding suddenly, if need be, in a display of complex figures that the “open” space between dancers allows. Never losing embrace, never losing contact.
From now on when you hear the expression “los viejos milongueros”, you’ll know what they are talking about!
Not long ago, the very respectable Buenos Aires newspaper “El Clarin” published an interview with somebody named Ricardo Ponce. Not many “milongueros” know Mr. Ponce by his real name nor by his day job (as a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance). But just say his “night” nickname (“El Chino Perico”) and I can guarantee you that you will get some reaction, respect and admiration.
For El Chino Perico – a legend in his own right – is one of the last masters milongueros. This living bridge connects today through the Villa Urquiza style (“Milonguita” was his idol and teacher) a whole new generation of contemporary names perhaps more “familiar” nowadays. Names like Miguel Angel and Osvaldo Zotto, Roberto Herrera or Sebastian Misse.
For reference here is a clip of El Chino Perico mentioned in the article (the clip is from 1989) and from the same video Oscar "Pichi" Callegari.
These two couples do have distinct style, which includes open frame with resulting upright posture. Due to the open frame the style allows various saccadas in the turns. I think, it would be fair then to call the historic Villa Urquiza style a variation of open frame dancing. I have not seen this style in the social dancing at Sunderland, when I was there couple years ago (a few recent clips from milonga in Sunderland can be found in this list of Buenos Aires milongas). It is, of course, fairly common style in varios tango performances these days.
Villa Urquiza style is also mentioned in the recent Tango Noticias interview with Geraldine Rojas and Ezequiel Paludi. From private reply to my post:
In part II Geraldine is asked about the "villa Urquiza style" and gives a good answer. Her mother and step-father coined the term, just as Lapadula came up with "estilo del centro" and Naveira with "nuevo" and Salas with "cosmo" and Miller with "close embrace."
And from another private reply:
I first heard "villa urquiza" from Ney Melo, who posted two of your example videos, so you can get a good idea of what Ney thinks by looking at some of his videos also, most of them out there are probably with Jennifer Bratt.
If you ask me, he will characterize it as more upright on the posture, more "v" and a little looser on the embrace (can at times be a little open), and a lively style with lots of movement.
Finally, a clip from the movie 'Tango Bar' showing Villa Urquiza style.
February 6, 2008 - Five good vals tandas
De Angelis:
1. Flores del alma - sweet slower vals.
2. Ilusion azul - quicker, intro fits well with the end of the Flores.
3. Pobre flor
4. Soñar y nada masThis tanda has nice energy hump about it. The duet in the end of Flores del alma builds up the energy and Ilusion carries it over to Pobre flor. Soñar y nada mas is good lyrical and slightly slower finish.
Biagi:
1. El Ultimo Adios
2. Dejame amarte aunque sea un dia
3. Dichas, que vivi
4. Viejo portonVery nice, driven tanda of energetic valses.
Laurenz:
1. Paisaje
2. Temblando
3. Mendocina
4. MascaritaCanaro:
1. En la noche azul
2. El vals de estudiante
3. Salud, dinero y amor
4. La ZandungaOne of the quicker, fun Canaro tandas.
Rodriguez:
1. Mariquita no mires al puerto
2. En el Volga yo te espero
3. ¡Uno que ha sido marino!
4. BrindisAs with a lot of Rodriguez valses this tanda has a bit of circus carousel flavor.
February 3, 2008 - What defines tango music for dancing
To me, as a dancer, good tango arrangement has to include these five elements:
1. A variety of rhythm: single-, double- and occasional quadruple-time beats, as well as silent, implied beats.
2. Smooth, flowing melody.
3. Surges in the melody (that “swinging” feel).
4. A variety in the arrangement, where different instruments or voice interweave and come to forefront of the orchestra.
5. Bandoneon.As a dancer I hear and express the qualities 1-4 to in the dance. Bandoneon, with its ability to produce in a skillful hands either bellowing, or sharp accented, or quick keyboard sound (all three can be overlaid), is particularly suited to express these qualities. Here is good introductory article on Bandoneon technique (PDF file).
Tango vals and milonga share the same five qualities. In vals they are overlaid on top of vals signature "1-2-3-pause" phrase. Some turns fit this signature perfectly, hence turns are often used in vals. However vals need not to be limited to turns. Here is an example of perfectly musical vals dancing by Alberto Dassieu with few turns.
Milonga has more incesant drive than tango (silent beats are de-emphasized). That's why "electrons-plus-drum" adaptations of milongas (Milonga Sentimental, Baile a Beneficio) by Otros Aires manage to stay fairly close to the original feel. Classic tangos by the same band (La Yumba, Niebla del Riachuelo), of course, are necessarily bastartized.
By the way, if you you are interested in the electronic tango, Otros Aires is a good choice - by far better than the mechanical compositions of Gotan Project or the plain dumb arrangements by Bajofondo Club.
February 2, 2008 - Anti-social networking
The poplularity of social networking sites is declining most probably due to market saturation. Good article by Adam Greenfield on why social networking websites are dumb. To wit, the sites are not nuanced enough to reflect the complexity - change over the time, polarity, distance and, most importantly, inexplicitness, of the relationships.
Not quite related, except that it is about relationships is 'Why nerds are unpopular' - the nerds happen to have autotelic personalities in a vacuous environment, where the only definition of success is popularity.
February 1, 2008 - On racism and civility
Jeff Gaynor wrote (Tango-L):
"[OK, I'm at a University and feel strongly that scholarship is both craft & calling. Bad work should not be excused.]"
OK, fair enough. Let's take look at your arguments.
"Political Correctness" is just revival tent moralizing made respectable enough for yuppies and mostly the supporters of the more extreme ends of these movements do so on strictly moral grounds, which in their estimate excuses any other shortcomings."
In one sentence you have used a stereotyping ad hominem: "yuppies", and an unsupported attribution of the poor quality to discredit the opponent. Do you base the attribution on suspicion, a hunch, a gut feeling or on "good scholarship"?
"There have been several books written (such as Black Athena) that try hard (and with often astonishingly poor scholarship) to support various claims. The recent "Tango, An Art History of Love" is pretty much in this vein too: The author, an art historian, knows virtually zilch about dance or music but writes a corrective tome demonstrating that Tango is almost wholly African and broadly hints at systematic oppression to hide the fact"
You didn't present any evidence, instead you make an ad populum argument:
"(ok, you Argentines tell me if you're a bunch of racists since that's what he called you.)"
1. Did the author call all Argentineans en toto racists?
2. Do you have any rigourous evidence to contrary? Do you expect the racists (there are racists in all and any cultures (see below)) to openly admit they are racists in the post-Hitler times and on the open mailing list? If you do not expect this open admission, what purpose does this ad populum argument serve?
3. A good movie made in Argentina and showing casual racism in Argentina is 'La Cienaga' (2001) by Lucrecia Martel."Just because the claim is at least partially valid does not excuse slovenly scholarship, the introduction of identity politics and ideology."
Indeed. Is "yuppie" an identity disease?
Racism is evolutionary advantageous (from the selfish gene perspective), primitive instinct. One of the functions of neocortex is to be aware, to control, and to subvert the primitive instincts. At least some "yuppies" among us have learned how to do just that. It's called "civility".-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More on civility
My message on racism and civility has been censored by the Tango-L moderator. These days it is exceedingly simple to start a mailing list, so I started one - Tango-L (uncensored). The purpose of the list to give an outlet to the messages unreasonably censored by the anonymous moderator of Tango-L.
Here are the reasons given for the censorship:
"Your message was too big; please trim it to less than 5 KB in size. This is because it was sent in HTML instead of plaintext. Please review the FAQ at www.tango-L.com for instructions on correcting this. In addition, you may wish to take this opportunity to remove all personal attacks from your post. Your points may all be made without attacking the individual making them (try removing the word "you" in all its instantiations and rephrase making reference instead to the posting in question). In other words, try to demonstrate your claimed "civility.""
The email by the moderator was not signed. Since we do not live in the Austrian empire, I have chosen to not discuss civility with the unnamed entity (I am all too familiar with the futility of Kafkaesque pursuits).
The civility in communication means addressing the subject and the methods used to discuss the subject, all the while avoiding personal attacks and labels. Mealy-mouthedness is not a requirement, in fact it often prevents the civility in favor of insinuations. Addressing a person by name, as well as signing your messages by the real name, is a part of the civil discourse.
The methods of civil discourse vary, but they certainly do not exclude Socratic questioning. Since Jeff is at a university, he should not be surprised by the Socratic method.
In my reply to Jeff I have analyzed his arguments and have given an example of depiction of present day racism in Argentina. I have further explained why racism is here to stay and why this primitive instinct should be managed. Thus I have addressed the substance and the rhetoric methods he used in his message. I have also addressed Jeff directly, because I was writing to him about his arguments.
January 31, 2008 - On dancing to nontango music
Music inspires and defines the dance.
If DJ were to play a kizomba in a dance hall (at "milonga"???) I would be delighted to watch people dancing kizomba. As far as I can see it is a graceful dance, which fits that music well.
When polka is played in a dance hall, dance polka – if you were to try to dance tango to polka music, no one would stop you (I think), but, frankly, you would look silly.
And of course, if the DJ were to play AC/DC people could dance the ‘Rock’n roll is not pollution’ dance. Again I would watch, and if the fit is good, might even admire the style, but, personally, I would rather dance tango. Can you imagine dancing the 'Rock'n Roll is not Pollution' dance to 'Melodias Porteñas'?
January 29, 2008 - On grace (in tango and in interaction design books)
Tango is the dance of shifting axis and dynamic balance. Connection between the two dancers is needed to communicate the shifts in the body axis and the mastery of dynamic balance by each of the dancers in required to maintain steady connection. The subtlety of the shifts in the axis of the couple is what gives tango its smoothness, unpredictability and grace.
Those dancers, who are not aware of these fundamental principles of lead and follow communication resort to all kinds of replacement techniques. One is to hop up and down to indicate that the step is about to be executed – this technique is often employed by complete beginners.
Another replacement technique is what I call “polka style” tango. Here the leader shakes up and down his left arm to beat the lead. You can find "polka tango" dancers everywhere including Buenos Aires. The result can be comic as in this clip (at 2 min 50 sec) or more subtle as, when Ricardo Viqueira does it. Ricardo is a good dancer, his steps are fun to watch, yet when Ricardo dances, his tango is not nearly as smooth as it can be. For examples of smooth, balance-and-axis based lead see this playlist of milongueros (a great example of smooth milonga dancing from the list - compare to Ricardo’s milonga).
There are few books in interaction design, which can be referred to as graceful. Mostly they are of, what is referred in the trade parlance, the “click’n shit” variety (numerous “PHP and SQL bibles” come to mind). To find some well written books you have to look at the long established fields or for the specialists in the well-defined niche discipline. Edward R. Tufte has written four exemplary books on information visualization, which are pleasure to see, to hold, to read and to think about. Another instant classic is Robert Bringhurst’s ‘The Elements of Typographic Style’ on typography and page layout. Yet another is the concise book on good writing habits – ‘The Elements of Style’ by Strunk and White.
Interaction design is too fresh a field, I guess, to produce comparable, thorough, yet enjoyable texts. The closest I could think of is ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ by Donald Norman. The text is appropriately lucid, but the form is rather poor. Reading useful ‘About Face’ by Cooper and Reimann is like chewing on wet paper – the substance is there, but the flavor is rather unappetizing. Even the metaphors are purely utilitarian. Oh well, new editions of the book are still coming out… .
'The Elements of Typographic Style' is complemented very well by 'Helvetica', the new documentary about graphic design and typography. The movie sings odes to one of the commonest fonts these days - the reassuring, unembellished HELVETICA, helvetica.
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