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Argentine tango blog
/ with Interaction Design interludes / by Oleh Kovalchuke |
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January 2005
Jan. 31, 2005 - Geography of tango festivals in Northern America.
Stephen Brown has compiled new list of tango festivals in Northern America. Below I have added couple he had missed.
If you have nothing better to do you can spend entire year hopping from one festival to another. This proliferation of festivals suggests to me that tango is still very young in the US. A day might come when there will be no need to travel to a specific place on a certain date to get to dance with good and different dancers. Then the tango will mature in this country too.
3rd Michigan Tangofest http://www.umich.edu/~umtango/events/ 8th Annual ValenTango http://www.claysdancestudio.com 8th Annual Weekend of Tango http://www.tampatango.com New Jersey Tango Extravaganza http://www.tangoextravaganza.com 4th Annual DC Tango Marathon http://www.le-tango.com/ Atlanta Tango Social http://www.atlantatangofestival.com/ Neo-Tango Festival http://www.tango-renaissance.com/ Toronto International Tango Festival http://www.tangofest.ca/ 5th Annual Memorial Day TangoFest http://www.tango.org/dance/ Tango Fantasy http://www.TangoFantasy.com Toronto International Tango Festival http://www.TorontoTangoFestival.com Boston Tango Festival http://www.bostontangofestival.com/ 8th Annual Nora's Tango Week http://www.tangoweek.com/ Montreal International Tango Festival http://www.festivaldetangodemontreal.qc.ca/ New York City Summer Tango Festival http://www.celebratetango.com/ 2nd Annual Seattle Summer TangoMagic http://www.claysdancestudio.com/ Planet Tango's New Orleans Tangofest http://www.planet-tango.com/ Meet in the Middle http://thelearningdepot.com/murrays-1/tango-festival.htm HollywoodTango Festival http://www.hollywoodtangofestival.com/ 6th Denver Labor Day Milonguero Fest http://www.tango.org/dance/ 9th Annual Portland TangoFest http://www.claysdancestudio.com/ 7th Annual Fandango de Tango http://www.learn2dance.com/ Random
Puting words in perspective - stirring collection of quotes. Someone had to compile those. Fascinating thing is that there is no need to add any comments beyond those quoted.Jan. 29, 2005 - Situation with milongas in Buenos Aires
After recent fire at a disco club in BsAs all dance venues in the city center has been closed for a while. A month later the situation with milongas improves. Here is updated info: a web page by Shahrukh Merchant and recent email by Julio C.
Jan. 28, 2005 - Basic step examined
Good analysis of tango basic step coming from who else, but Brigitta Winkler via Sean in Pittsburgh, PA. About thousand possibilities and those are only for simple walk, which I think is the most basic of the steps, not counting numerous embelishments.
I have found that a dancer's choice of words when thinking about the dance can cripple their dancing. In my experience, the worst case is misusing the word "step" to refer to a figure. The 8 count basic is a figure, not a step. This may seem like an obvious and trivial point, but the distinction is important. To think of any figure as "basic" is incredibly limiting. In my experience, leaders who think of figures as "steps" are not able to improvise their dance. Likewise, followers who think of figures as "step" are prone to anticipate.
If you can accept that figures are not steps, then we can discuss the basic steps with an eye toward improvisation. I have heard many different ideas about what the basic steps are, but for me, the best explanation came from Briggitte Winkler at a workshop she taught in Ann Arbor last May. She introduced the idea that there are only 3 steps in Tango (and all 3 can be considered basic). These are: open, cross forward, and cross back.
The open step is pretty straight forward: the free leg moves away from the axis, either forward, to the side or backwards. In the cross forward step, the free leg crosses the body's axis and passes between the body and the partner. In the cross backward step, the free leg crosses the bodys axis in the space opposite the partner.
When combined with your partner's 3 steps, these three steps give 9 basic possibilities for movement with your partner: (L = leader, F = follower o = open, xb = cross back, xf = cross forward)
Lo+Fo, Lo+Fxb, Lo+Fxf,
Lxf+Fo, Lxf+Fxb, Lxf+Fxf,
Lxb+Fo, Lxb+Fxb, Lxb+FxfThis is a nice tool to develop improvisational skills without getting bogged down in too many ideas. If you always lead back ochos Lo+Fxb, try Lxf+Fxb, or Lxb+Fxb. These possibilities require pivots and/or shifting between parallel and crossed systems. But it is not necessary to think about either pivoting or footwork. Choose a different basic step, and let your body make the necessary accommodation.
Earlier I mentioned that an open step can go in any open direction. For simplicities sake, consider that there are 8 possible directions to travel in: forward, backward, to either side, or in any of 4 diagonal directions. In addition, the follower can move either with the lead or counter to the lead. Theoretically, with 9 basic step pairs, 8 directions for the leader, and 2 follow dynamics, there are 144 options. I say theoretically because there are some that I just can't make work.
Of course, we can vary the size of the steps too. For simplicities sake, let's use 3 sizes: tiny, average, and large. Multiply 144 theoretical possibilities by 3 sizes, and we have 432 options, using only 3 basic steps. Of course, I shouldn't have limited leading the follower to the same size step as the leader. That eliminated another 864 options.
A lot of people came over to thank me for DJing on 14th at Mercury. More importantly as a result I got four more DJing gigs: TTH last Saturday, Dave asked me to DJ at practica in Turnverine on February 1 and 8 and Mercury again on 25th. Now that I found myself unemployed financing tango with tango begins to make perfect sense.
Jan. 21, 2005 - Female singers
Extensive discussion of female singers on Tango-L and why they are not better known. Here is good post from Alberto Gesualdi. It seems that consensus is that there are quite a few good female singers, but few danceable records with females singing hence the songs are not played at milongas. Personnaly I like to listen to Libertad Lamarque in spite of her very thin voice, she is very soulful, but the records of hers which I have are not for dancing.
Random
Onibaba 8/10 - some sexual motivations and symbolism are (naturally) similar to those in The Mystery of Rampo even though it is different movie altogether. Works both as a story and as a fable. The reasoning behind the rise of religious mythology (the hell story) is beautifully illustrated. Great performances especially by the older woman.
Rashomon 8/10 - we all live and then tell our own single-person blockbusters
Hite Report on the Family - truly random book in it's approach, worh skippingJan. 17, 2005 - A problem dancing with the followers trained in the open embrace
One of the most common problems with the followers trained in the open frame attempting to dance in the close embrace is that their posture is pulled too far back from solar plex and up, which cripples connection, communication with the partner (the grossly exaggerated form of this posture is done by ballroom dancers). I have experienced this problem so many times especially with nuevo tango dancers.
Alexis Cousein wrote a lot about necessity of dancing in open embrace to be a good dancer and a bit about the magic of getting in close embrace:
Actually, the *very best* dancers will alternate between the three styles according to their movement, the music and the inspiration of the moment (and in a social dancing setting, the room on the floor ;) ) even within one dance - there's something magical about feeling your follower's hand sliding around your shoulder when you're going from an open to a closed embrace :] ...
Magical indeed. It's only when you separate from the close embrace to execute another exceptionally difficult step that you begin to feel like a bummer.
Jan. 15, 2005 - Women in tango, 100 years later
Ch, the frustrations of emancipation:
I still, as I stated 5 years ago, wish we could go back to those days where men had to buy tickets to get a chance to take a milonguera out on the dance floor at all. Where men trained in secret and competed with each other in order to impress those few women present, and raise their chances with them.
Sorry the days we have reached now, where it is actually the other way round: where women now compete with each other to impress the few guys present, but are limited to their mediocre lead in the dance in spite of all their training and where, I have been told, at one ballroom dance hall in Tokyo, it is actually the ladies who have to buy tickets and give them to a few gigolos to get their turn on the dance floor..
I, for one, would certainly prefer to go to a milonga, have the 300% or so surplus of eager men line up to take turns to dance with the few of us, and where I would, for a small fee, oblige them and have them take me out on the floor as "una mina para variar". And make a small bundle, while I do.
And:
Having always heard about those multitudes of men working so hard on their moves and competing so fiercely over the few women in the milongas (who were prostitutes), it had never occurred to me that these men would have to pay for a dance, to boot!
I'm probbly naive, but I sort of always assumed that the milongas were where those prostitutes would go hang out after a long day's work, to relax and kick back and finally have some FUN where THEY get to pick the very best dancer to dance a tango with. It sure beats needlepoint! [this is a very true statement - OK] Man, this beats going to dinner or the movies, rock climbing, golf, watching reality shows, going to a milonga with modern demographics.
It makes me wonder, if those "prostitutes" were in a position to make a living off the milongas, maybe at least some of them weren't actual prostitutes in the literal sense, but rather taxi dancers. This was a common practice in the dance halls of Europe even in my parents' and grandparents' generation. Of course that would not have kept the classes who get to write history to turn up their noses and call them prostitutes.
What's to be done? Why, women should start dancing with women of course! Or is it already done?
Personnally I agree with both and think prostitutes were better off than housewifes with comparable income. Better educated, more exposed to the world beyond the needlepoint. The note about classes who get to write history explains a lot. It's different nowdays of course since women do not have to rely on sex as the only tool of survival be it in marriage or on the street.
Jan. 14, 2005 - Tango - intimacy without resposibility
From the message by Ecsedy Áron (Budapest, Hungary):
In the "western world" everything is for sale, true privacy is rare..., so people try to find (create...) a world where they have intimacy for each others sake..., where intimacy is not provided in exchange for sex (or it's possibility) or they just simply want to experience deep emotions without all the responsibility (again: our life is a big responsibility in general - especially in the big cities) and problems of a relationship (OK: this is more complex, I won't go there).
Another way to put it is that tango is cure for alienation. Why bash the western world though? Alienation is rather common to contemporary society.
I think we are lucky to have tango to experience the intimacy without any consequential responsibility. In very many other instances we refuse intimacy to one another because we of the weight of consequences, often imaginary and selfimposed.
Deb Sclar has pointed out that both leader and follower are responsible for maintaining the intimacy during the dance. This point is of course irrelevant because I am talking about the responsibility after the dance - there is none.
Is this notion of lack of responsibility after the dance ludicrous? I think not. Moreover I think it’s good and crucial for maintaining the intimacy experienced during this dance. Otherwise I would have to start dating every single girl I have danced with. Now that would be extremely strenuous and maybe even verging on ludicrous.
Jan. 13, 2005 - Licensing tango music to play at your local club
Stephen Brown, the ever abundant source of useful info, provided a link to relevant discussion from 1999.
Jan. 12, 2005 - The future of tango
The future looks bright as long as students embrace it:
East Coast (Yale): http://www.geocities.com/yaletangoclub/Tine.html
West Coast (Stanford): http://www.stanford.edu/group/tango/
North (Ann Arbor): http://www.umich.edu/~umtango/
and smack in the middle (Boulder): http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~tango/Talking of Ann Arbor, Ramu Pyreddy is visiting Denver and had DJed yesterday at practica in Turnverine. Good if not surprising selection of songs. A bit of trivia: Tom told me that there are as many dancers in Ann Arbor as in Denver.
Denver is experiencing a surge in tango interest in January: about one third increase in attendance at practicas and milongas - New Year, fresh expectations, I guess.
Random
The Mystery of Rampo - now available on DVD, withstood test of time and viewing on smaller screen, even though I would downgrade it now to 8/10. Score borrows heavily from Nino Rota.
Pink Martini - Lovely lounge mussic. Sympathique is cute alt tango, Una Notte a Napoli has good potential too.Jan. 11, 2005 - Portable DJing
Tom Stermitz recommends JVC Kaboom boombox for a "modest" price of $250 for small classes and milongas. I prefer external computer speakers in a duffel bag to connect to my laptop. You can get a set with comparable specs but better frequency response (20 - 20000 Hz) for under $100 at your local computer store. Added bonus: you can put laptop in the duffel bag too.
If you are serious about professional level of DJing and/or have money to spare read this post from Michael Knowles.
Jan. 10, 2005 - Nuevo style - a perspective from the mist of olden times
Stephen Brown posted link to some discussion on Nuevo tango on Tango-L from 1999. Some quotes:
close embrace tango *forces* you to dance in a more simple but subtle way (which can become playful, unles you make it bland), while open frame tango seems to induce some leaders into a folly of complicated steps (giros with enrosques, a few ganchos thrown in for the leader, lots of saccadas -- wait, I've forgotten to insert a barrida somewhere ;) ).
I dance both forms of tango with equal pleasure, and there is a fundamental difference (at least, I *feel* entirely different -- I can't dance close embrace with people I don't trust entirely either). But it is not in the way it allows for this subtle interplay of leader, follower, and music.
It looks to me that what is called "new tango" is merely an analysis of movement, which regenerated steps milongueros (many of them gone by now) were able to do in much less casual fashion, but on the positive side does indeed offer a good method for generating new steps.
Above all, term "new tango" is tightly connected with the emergence of "tango business", and has more to do with the ways people are making their living with tango than with the music which dictated the emergence of tango styles in the past. I think TangoKinetics would be a much more appropriate name, and might one day find its way into the ballet classroom as well...
The only thing I find new is the total ignorance of the other partner (by man), and the introduction of a kind of aerobic or gymnastic rhythmic... I once shaw Chicho in La Estrella. He might as well have dancing with a plastic doll. It would have had the same effect.
There you go. The more we change, the more things stay the same.
Jan. 9, 2005 - The elusive Nuevo style
A summary of Nuevo style discussion.
There is no Nuevo Tango dance style because a) the Nuevo is teaching approach, not the dance style (Rai the Iron Logic, Tom Stermitz, Brian Dunn, Jay Rabe), b) the dance styles of Nuevo system instructors are too diverse to fall under one style (Tom Stermitz, Jay Rabe) and c) everyone is using crossfeet steps and ocho cortado anyway (Brian Dunn).
However if there were Nuevo Tango dance style it would be concerned more with placement of partner’s feet than with connection with a partner to the point where embrace would be flexible enough to open to execute especially exciting back sacada.
Tango de Salon/Tango Milonguero is about the embrace, "Estilo Nuevo" ist about possibilities of movements. In Tango de Salon the emphasis is on the embrace and the connection to your partner, that is why your possibilities are limited and maybe not even that important. "Estilo nuevo" focuses on the possibilities, that's why the embrace may be changed or opened.
... just watching the difference on the woman's faces. In milonguero style, their faces look much like a pleasurable trance...soft and very pretty. The minute they open up and start the "other tango" that same face becomes tight and straight, needing to concentrate on the steps. I have seen this over and over again.
It would also seem to be less concerned with subtle rhythm changes than traditional tango. The hypothetical Nuevo tango dancers would go to Fusion Tango milongas and share their joy on Tango-L (hey Joe, virtual you, I went to authentic milonga on the same day and was satisfied too; do dance with men if that’s your thing; in fact from the written above it follows that Nuevo tango is not very intimate dance really, so dance your heart away with men even if it is not your thing).
Another thing about Fusion Tango milongas (I wrote about it before I believe). Swing music is bouncy. That’s why Swing, Lindy Hop and Charleston are bouncy dances too. Why force smooth tango steps to swing music?
Jan. 8, 2005 - Tango Nuevo and Argentine Tango. What is the difference?
From an interesting article juxtaposing Argentine tango and Nuevo tango by by Igor Polk (San Francisco).:
In my point of view these are very different. First of all Tango Nuevo is created by Gustavo Naviera and Fabian Salas. They openly proclaim their authorship. The story is there, you can find it on Internet. I like Tango Nuevo. I learn and dance it. It is fun and good exercise. But I do not like when Tango Nuevo is called Argentine Tango. It is not. Something is missed in this extract called Tango Nuevo. For now I just say that the difference between Tango Nuevo and Argentine Tango is the same like the difference between frozen microwave food and mom's dinner. Like between Sprite and Champaign. Like between root beer and Beck's...
...
Nobody can say that Tchaikovsky ballet dances are real russian or persian dances, right? But somehow people think that show tango is what the real tango is.The missing part according to Igor is connection. Read on at: http://www.virtuar.com/tango/tango_weblog.htm#tangonuevo
Christopher L. Everett pointed out that there were innovations in tango before nuevo. Most notably Petroleo has introduced giro and other steps to the dance in the fourties in response to changes in the music rhythm during that time
Just like Petroleo reinvented steps in response to new rhythm of tango music of the 40s, Nuevo Tango looks natural to less rhythmic music, which traditional dancers consider to be music for listening - because it does not feel right for dancing in the traditional style - they feel uncomfortable changing the rhythm of their steps, I guess.
And thus, since dance represents music it is fairly safe to predict that as long as traditional music is prevalent at milongas (and I have not heard any alternative or even modern tango in BsAs), nuevo will remain at the fringes of tango dance.
Update
Apparently there is no distinct Nuevo Tango dance style according to Rai the Iron Logic, Tom Stermitz, Brian Dunn and Jay Rabe. Brian also informs that crossfeet walk and ocho cortado were introduced to tango only in the eightees.
I had a mental picture of Nuevo style as wide flowing steps in very fluid open embrace with a lot of sacadas, boleos and other impressive if physically demanding moves. I saw some people dancing this way and heard others referring to it as Nuevo tango. I still think this style of dancing does not work well with D’Arienzo. It fits nicely to Pugliese of La Yumba period, to Di Sarli and some Piazzola.
However if there is no such style as many people have pointed out (or rather the picture I had is not of Nuevo tango) then the point is moot, there is nothing to discuss really and everyone can return to kitchen to see if there are any munchies left.
Jan. 7, 2005 - Pattern approach to teaching tango - language metaphor
From a post by Bruce Stephens:
One teacher who influenced me strongly likened tango to a language, and suggested that learning patterns is something like learning and reciting poetry (or perhaps memorising phrases from a phrase book). Both of those can be valuable, but there are probably more effective ways to learn a language.
Jan. 6, 2005 - Teaching (and dancing as a result) patterns
Among the list of articles Susana Domingues posted to the Tango-L there is one passionately defending the eight-count basic step as a teaching tool:
Appearing on the Tango horizon is a philosophical debate over the teaching of the 8 count basic and the seemingly opposing view that a student must be shown only the walk as a beginning. Advocates of this idea also seem to resist the naming of patterns. They wish not to limit students to only a few set patterns and instead wish to help student leaders to arrive at patterns themselves...
Correction: student leaders should not arrive at patterns themselves. It's patterned thinking idea. Instead they should avoid patterns like a plague, creating new dance, which interprets the music on a spot. Starting with simple walking and adding walk variations one at a time.
Tom and Andy have already pointed out that the difficult issue of dance musicality conveniently brushed off in another article at the same website: (I am currently of the opinion that it is impossible to teach anyone to interpret music... A teacher of Tango attempts to teach a synopsis of a history of patterns which define "Tango"...) is not difficult at all and results from the pattern teaching approach of the instructor.
Here is another interesting article on pattern teaching: Intelligent Dancing by Richard Powers in Stanford.
This is authority-based ballroom dance. The standardized syllabus, the studio and the trainer are all precisely specified authorities, carefully controlling every detail, every shape and nuance of one's dancing. Here are the judges who will determine if you are doing it correctly. Here is the Silver Level award to certify that you satisfied the authorities. So right from the beginning they give you a blueprint of your dancing, and your job is to automatically follow that plan, that map.
That's what the word authority means. It literally means they are the author of your dancing. Not you.
That's okay. Many people need that level of authority in their lives, or they simply want someone to tell them exactly what to do, so I'm certainly not saying that this approach to ballroom dance is wrong. This is exactly right for many people. And to give authority-based ballroom studios further credit where it's due, self-esteem may be boosted when these criteria are successfully mastered.
But you can also gain positive self-esteem from self-authored dancing. Or better yet, co-authored dancing, where both dancers collaborate on creating the dance.
There is a fundamental difference between these two approaches. If the stimulus-response relationship of a situation is automatic, as it is in authority-based ballroom dance, we can't, by definition, consider the response to be as intelligent as self-authored spontaneous freestyle dancing.
Leonardo Da Vinci wrote, "Anyone who relies upon authority uses not his understanding, but rather his memory."
As I see it, this is a choice between art and craft. Art involves creativity, spontaneity and self expression. Craft is skillfully creating something which might be aesthetically pleasing, even beautiful, but without the emphasis on personal creativity and self expression.
Picasso and Degas created art. Painting by numbers is a craft. So I think of freestyle partnering is the art of dancing, while following a syllabus or trainer is the craft of dancing. Nothing is wrong with crafts — they can be very beautiful. You might do a good job of coloring within the lines and the result might be pretty, but someone else is the author.
Ballet is another authority-based dance form, as it should be (you don't see much freestyle improv ballet!). Ballet is an art for the choreographer but it's a craft for the dancers. George Balanchine said, "Dancers are my instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays." And the dancers are happy to accept that. It's the same in some ballroom studios, where the syllabus creators, often long-dead, were the artists and the dancers are the artisans.
It's your choice. Both options are valid and each has millions of devotees. Choose the one which suits your personality the best.
All I can add is that if you choose Argentine tango, you have chosen the art form where there is very little room for "eight-count basic step" pattern.
Jan. 5, 2005 - Evolution of follower's role (leader's perception of it, actually)
Some striking parallels in the evolution of social perception of women's role in sex (see The Hite Report) and in couple dancing (see Richard Power's article on following) in the last century:
From:
Never should the so-called gentler sex be quite so gentle and acquiescent as when dancing. No matter what her views on suffrage and feminism may be, it is a woman's duty to let the man lead on the ballroom floor. His is the guiding spirit; hers, the following. He is the pace-maker; she is his shadow.
To:
The best dance partners now know that a part of great leading is following. This means he is perceptive and responsive to her situation. He visualizes where his partner is going, where her feet are, where her momentum is heading, which steps flow smoothly from her current step. He knows and he cares what is comfortable for her, what is pleasurable or fun. He dances for his partner's ability and comfort.
I am going to DJ at Merc on January 14th. Before my previous DJing forray to Denver I have switched from WinAmp to Windows Media Player 10. What an improvement! Even comparing to the previous version 9. Granted there are still some usability snags (this is what I currently do for a living, cannot pass without noticing), yet overall this is the software to get for DJing: song rating, browsing/search for a song without interrupting playing song or indeed leaving current playlist, making changes to the playlist on the fly, burning/ripping CDs - all are very easy to perform.
Jan. 3, 2005 - Close embrace styles, cultural and physical
According to Igor Polk (San Francisco):
Cultural division (includes open embrace styles):
- Candombe - a black dance
- Canyengue - a street dance
- Orillero - a gaucho dance
- Salon - an upper class dance
- Apilado - a heart dance [? - OK]
- Show - a flashy dance
- Nuevo - a rotation dance [? - OK]
- Jaimes Friedgen & Rachel Smith from Seattle - martial arts dance
Mechanical (based on physical structure of connection) division:
Pseudo Close Embrace style 0. "It is danced and lead similarly to open embrace via frame (arm connection). It is essentially open embrace style danced in touch with each other."
See also On dancing close and close embrace dancing.
Style #1. It seems that the defining feature of this style is resistance from the follower: "Level of contact varies, but in accordance with rules of lead, there is resistance, it is created by a force directed horizontally between chests."
Style #2. Apilado. Connection at chest level only. Bodies off dancers form /\ - inverted V shape. Maria Plazaola dances this way.
Style #3. Connection at chest and especially at stomach level (inverted Y and often X, especially with those followers who switch from open to close embrace without being aware that change in posture is required too).
I find inverted Y connection with both leader and follower still on their own balance quite comfortable.
Style #4. Canyengue and Candombe. Connection extends to hips with possible separation of embrace:
"Canyengue. Everything is in a very tight close contact: chests, stomach areas, arms, and one hip. Movements are very limited. Can not say anything else, since this is a style I never really danced in. I want to try ! It is similar to Candombe style, but woman chest is close to the center of man's chest. Canyengue is slower dance than Candombe. Marta and Manolo are good at it.
Candombe. It is very similar to Canyengue style but even more shocking. A woman is leaning very tight on a man's right site completely relying on him to maintain the balance. Man is leaning to her to keep that bridge-like position. He is leaning to the right, since she is on the right: the right side on the man's chest is located right between women's chests. Man's right arm is around her waist. She looks right to the same direction like he. The music is fast and energizing - african roots. A lot of hip movement. I have to tell you.. but I have no words to explain how great it is!"Style #5. V-Frame. Not a close embrace really.
So, in my opinion, Igor lists only three distinct close embrace styles of tango: #2 - Apilado, #3 - Connection extends to stomach and #4 - Canyengue/Candombe.
I fall under class #2.5 - inverted Y shape. Connection at chest and upper stomach level. Gravitating toward pure #3 when I dance milonga.
Note on style #3: I notice this kind of embrace in ballroom dancers who try to dance Argentine tango (definitely) and in many followers trained open embrace who try to dance in close embrace – they are not aware of correct posture, which makes communication in close embrace possible and enjoyable. The distance between connection point and the feet becomes much shorter, as a result dance becomes less flexible, more strenuous. The inverted V connection (style #2, see this picture) seems to be a bit physically strenuous too. Naturally in this posture there is no need to separate for any steps – there is so much room between dancers’ feet and bodies.
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