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Argentine tango blog
/ with Interaction Design interludes / by Oleh Kovalchuke |
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June 2005
Jun. 30, 2005 - If picture is worth a thousand of words...
...than a movie can make you a billionaire? Here is clip from milonga at Maipu 444, Buenos Aires.
This is how most people dance at most downtown milongas in Buenos Aires. I call this style milonguero. Someone might call it grilled cheese on a stick. It does not matter really. This is also prevalent style at major milongas in Villa Urquiza (Sin Rumbo, Sunderland (one of my favorite milongas in Buenos Aires) and Imagen).
Don't you wish someone would take similar movie of milonga in the fourties or in the beginning of twentieth century to take a glimpse at how people danced at the time (not staged movie but documentary)?
Jun. 29, 2005 - "If you can’t see it, you can’t dance it"
So says Rick McGarrey. He has shot some 30 hours worth of video of milongueros dancing at Buenos Aires milongas. Here are some snapshots from the videos illustrating elements of milonguero style. At the page dedicated to one of the milongueros, “El Gallego” (Jorge Garcia) Rick mentions that Jorge used to be a boxer. That explains where his peculiar grounded light footwork comes from (I saw Jorge dancing many times at Viejo Correo and El Beso, like any other milonguero's his style is very unique, different from his brother "El Flaco" who has probably the best milonga style I have ever seen).
Random
"Manufacturing Consent" by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. Where "Attack Poodles" makes fun of visible reperesentatives of mass media propaganda (and therefore misses the point to some extent), this book explores the system behind the propaganda, as well as presents compelling statistical analysis of the "stay the course" bias in the allegedly "liberal" media (on some facts of media freedom see "The Corporation").Jun. 18, 2005 - Cortina length
40 seconds is about right.
Cortina is played to clear the floor, to change partners and the mood of the music. It's like a sip of water to rinse your palate before you proceed to taste another dish. In BsAs cortina is played as long as people are still on the floor and a bit more for cabeceo - depending on the size of milonga it takes anywhere between 45 sec to 1:30 minutes to clear the floor (in BsAs everyone returns to their tables after tanda is finished). Sometimes live music is played for cortinas in Salon Canning on Mondays - in this case cortina could last 3 minutes or more, way too long.
In the US about one third to one quarter of the crowd remains on the floor regardless of cortina length (almost everyone leaves after milonga tanda to catch a breath, cool down). The bulk leaves 5 seconds into cortina, another group leaves about 25-30 seconds into cortina. Hence 40 seconds is about right. I have been to milongas where about 10-15 seconds cortinas where played - in this case I couldn't understand why the DJ played cortinas at all.
Random
"The Corporation" - this movie is not to be missed to get a broader picture of current world. Views accross the spectrum are presented. Some things are not supposed to be for sale. Slavery was one example. Healthcare, in my opinion, is another. In this case inefficiency is morally reasonable trade-off. The solution is the usual - be informed, make informed decisions (for one small instance you will start buying only organic milk after you see this movie). With current state of the media it appears that documentaries are going to be great hits for some time to come. Complementary to "The Corporation" is "Enron. The Smartest gays in the room" - in depth case study of one of the corporations (an experiment on shared (ir)resposibility is very enlightening).Jun. 17, 2005 - Improvization in tango and jazz
Steve drew analogy between learning tango and jazz:
There are three principal methods for teaching Argentine tango: step patterns, small elements, structural systems
In learning to play jazz music, there are analagous pedagogical concepts:
step patterns [open frame - OK] = memorized pieces of music
small elements [milonguero style - OK] = short phrases
structural systems [nuevo style - OK] = scales and chord progressionsNo one learning to play jazz would even expect to develop sufficient skill in playing jazz by learning only to play memorized pieces of music, short phrases or scales and chord progressions. They learn all three. In tango, however, most dancers develop most of their knowledge through only one of the three principal teaching approaches.
What is the consequence? To continue with the over-generalization, the poorly educated salon style dancers try to improvise by using the various patterns they have learned and find trouble with navigation and rhythm. The poorly educated milonguero-style dancers have good navigational skills and are free to express the rhythm, but the dancing lacks any sense of composition or style. It's just noodling. The poorly educated nuevo dancers are busy pursuing the movement variations in their system whether it fits the available space or rhythm of the music. None of these dancers really has the skill for expression--self, musical or any other kind.
Wrong analogy. While pattern dancing is not musical indeed the last two styles do have the skills for self-expression to their specific varieties of music.
Dance improvisation with paterns does not fit melody very well (you needs to know _all_ tangos and all your patterns very well to be able to attempt somethimng like this, not on social floor of course).
Mlonguero "noodling" is well structured (composed, styled) by melody and therefore is not random really (it is true that milongueros do not ignore rhythm, yet it is an urban legend that milongueros ignore melody - in fact the workshop I am going to teach in Glenwood Springs next month will be dedicated entirely to giving dancers the tools for expressing rhythm _and_ melody).
Nuevo dancers can be rhythmic when they dance to "nuevo" music (with few syncopations).
Random
Another analogy found in "Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "The inmates are running the asylum". Both guys use concrete examples to quickly assess viability of assumptions. Cooper builds fictional yet well defined personas to see in his mind if specific software feature is helpful to users, Feinman uses examples provided by theory creators.Jun. 16, 2005 - Pictures from Buenos Aires
Here are some pics from the last trip to Buenos Aires:
Carlos Rojas has asked on Tango-L:
"At El Beso en BA, there are a couple of corners in the dance floor where most couples enter the dance floor, sometimes there are so many people trying to enter the dance floor that it takes almost an entire song, sometimes one is unlucky to be right behind, then what does one do?"
The El Beso navigational problem is solved simply: since it happens in the beginning of the tanda the middle of the floor is fairly empty so if you wish to progress you simply move into the second lane. However if you dance at Wednesday matinee in Salon Canning where by the third song of the tanda couples progress approximately one meter per minute because it's so crowded (the most tightly packed yet orderly milonga I have ever been to) - now there you really need to hone your turns-on-the-spot skills. By the way not all milongas in BsAs are crowded especially in winter.
Random
Two books:
"Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman!" by Richard P. Feynman - occasioanlly annoyingly coy. It was curious to see the transition from "what is [annoyingly] clever" to "what is needed" in his motivation since I went through the same at some point. The same transition has happened and is mentioned in Alan Cooper's book on interactive design "The inmates are running the asylum". Since the inmates are still mostly young interactive design has to be separate discipline.Jun. 15, 2005 - Quality of dancing, navigation and show festivals
Burak "El Turco" wrote on Tango-L:
"Imagine everybody does ocho cortado's or gyros in same way. Since if you learned how to dance close embrace the different ways of doing the same move is quite a bit limited. Therefore, you will see an uniformed dance floor. Which might be so satisfying some people, this makes me sad."
There is no reason for your sadness, cheer up, El Turco: in my dancing in BsAs I have not encountered two followers who would feel as if they are doing ocho cortado or giro in the same way (notice that I am not talking about sequence of their footsteps).
and
"They [opininated instructors or friends who suffered in BsAs milongas] don't want to see other styles in the same dance floor because they think other style dancers causes problem in Ronda formation."
Several obvious questions:
Would you like to elaborate why this desire to maintain ronda flow and therefore not to bump into other dancers is wrong? A follow up question: in this case who creates the conflict on the dance floor? Related line of questions: being an instructor do you have an opinion on this subject? If you do does it make you an "opinionated instructor" by any chance?
and
On festival division: If there is a market for people who wish to learn show tango the show festivals should be organized. To my knowledge there are quite a few show tango oriented festivals in this country already (the festival in Austin comes to mind). It would be useful for attendees if these festivals were clearly defined as such. Milonguero weekends in Denver are clearly defined as social tango oriented festivals. Hence show dancers know that they would experience conflict of style and do not come to these festivals. Hence the conflict of styles is avoided once more. Why even bring it up?
Jun. 14, 2005 - Conflict of styles? What conflict of styles?
A discussion on conflict of different tango styles on Tango-L. I do not see any conflict of styles at all since they are quite well separated by function and in space. Fantasy style belongs to shows and I do not think there will be any competition in this medium from milongueros any time soon (unless general public will suddenly get enlightened about intricacies of social tango).
Milonguero style belongs to social dancing and I do not think there will be any competition from fantasy style at milongas any time soon.
Nuevo style is relatively new dialect in tango language and as such it remains on fringes of social dance in Buenos Aires. In fact if you are nuevo dancer and wish to dance in Buenos Aires your choice of milongas will be rather limited, I can think of only four out of hundred or so. Of these four one is practica.
Would I go to dance at these milongas? No (beyond curiosity visit to see what if any I am missing).
Have I seen milongueros at these milongas? No.
Would I impose my style on a follower who dances in different style? No.
Have I seen nuevo dancers at other, not nuevo milongas in Buenos Aires? Yes.
Have they been dancing nuevo style at those milongas? No, they have changed their style to milonguero*.
Therefore is there conflict with nuevo style in BsAs? No, they are physically separated just like milonguero and fantasy styles.Once more the conflict of styles is entirely artificial notion composed of electrons in the net.
________________________
* I do not know if nuevo dancers have experienced any inner conflict of interests when they switched from nuevo to milonguero style at traditional milongas in BsAs. Hence there is still a possibility for inner conflict of interests among nuevo dancers. However I personally have not experienced it.
The more we practice the more refined become our actions. There is much more refinement in subtle invisible shifts of balance leading to tight highly charged embellishments by follower than in well executed back sacada. Of course to partake in this intimate conversation one need to understand the language. Therefore tango shows are not for connoisseurs (otherwise the paying audience would be too small).
Jun. 7, 2005 - Milongas rely on repeated business from customers
A friend had been chastised by host at BsAs milonga when he changed his table to the one closer to the floor as opposed to the one in the boonies assigned by the host. As a result he had to leave the milonga.
Milonga incident - well, #1 you are a couple - often that means you do not have to do cabeceo, #2 your have probably came to this milonga for the first time, #3 you are tourists - summarily those three factors virtually guarantee you back row sitting. Since milongas depend a lot on repeated business these rules are sensible. Host always decides where to put you at more traditional milongas in BsAs therfore it was rather severe breach of etiquette. Try this next time (not at this milonga - it was effectively killed by now): it can be useful and fairly common to politely complain about the table as it gets asigned - hosts might relocate you either right away or later on as tables free up. Calling ahead to reserve a table also could help.
Jun. 6, 2005 - Two main types of good followers
Overall follower’s styles are more uniform in BsAs than in the US. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since tango came to the United States and is promoted in the country by many different people, not all of them are good instructors or good social dancers for that matter. There are not so hot instructors in BsAs too but if you live there it is relatively easy to find your way to the better ones.
After about one month of dancing in BsAs I began to distinguish two somewhat distinct types of dancers. One type of dancers dance more upright. Because of this they have exceptionally easy, quick and sharp turns. One example was student of Alicia Ponce. A slight variation of this style was when I had to change my upper body to be more concave. This happened with two shorter followers.
Another more common style is more inclined (a hybrid between inverted Y and inverted V). This style leaves a lot of room between leader and follower’s feet and therefore makes it very easy to play with follower’s axis and with rhythms. One example was student of Gavito and Maria Plazaola. Ana Maria Shapira teaches this style too.
Ricardo Vitord was one of visiting instructors at the festival. He is a good dancer, I saw him at milonga at hotel BAUEN in BsAs. He told me that he does not teach steps instead he teaches how to dance with a heart. Looking at him dancing I say having good footwork does not hurt either.
Jun. 1, 2005 - How do I tell if a social dancer is good.
By looking at the dancers:
Follower
- Embrace - left hand on leader’s left shoulder or on his spine opposite to his solar plex (I call the later one "desperation" - it looks dramatic but feels quite nice and in fact improves connection somewhat). Embrace predicts connection level to some extent.
- Graceful ankles. Good dancers in BsAs have them and good dancers who visited the city for longer than two weeks tend to acquire those. Those followers who have them went beyond following the steps.
- Feet are always on the ground or close to the ground. I do not have to worry about hitting furniture, other dancers or myself by flung out foot/leg – as a result I have predictable, well defined dance space to dance in.
Leader.
- Quiet shoulders, gliding feet (quiet shoulders of course result from good balancing either in buttocks or by using entire leg, I saw both in Buenos Aires). Caveat: Nuevo dancers can also display these qualities. Since I am not a fan of Nuevo style I also look at embrace, connection at chest level. Also see below on rhythm. Nuevo style is not overly rhythmic.
- Dancers in Buenos Aires refine their dancing to the rhythm, the best of them are able to dance effortlessly to one rhythm while leading follower to a slower or quicker rhythm. For instance leader dances to a rhythm of bandoneon while leading the follower to step to a slower playing violin or to a singer. Or leader dancing to pizzicato of violin while the follower dances to the main rhythm of bandoneon.
By dancing with the followers:
All good followers in Buenos Aires have different personal styles. Some are very grounded as if they step one foot under the floor surface, others very dynamic, yet others calm, smooth and steady. What common is universally good uninterrupted connection at the ribcage and exceptional responsiveness especially during turns, which tend to be rather quick. The later of course is result of very often rotational nature of the dance at BsAs milongas.
I have just returned from almost three months of nightly dancing at BsAs milongas. Naturally I was eager to see if and how different it would be to dance back in the USA. Denver festival provided just the venue. My first impressions were somewhat disappointing. Moreover I think I was disappointing leader to some of the old friends too.
Followers in BsAs tend to have more rigid bodies (this of course leads to their higher responsiveness). I think this could be because they have to do so many grapevines in any direction when they dance. I got used to this good responsiveness and so tried to lead my turns in Denver with the same gusto I used to in BsAs. It didn’t work quite well with some of the followers. I bet they felt my lead as excessively rough. In turn I felt as if I had to drag them through the turns. What to do? I got accustomed and like the BsAs style. There were five or six exceptions (these included all followers who stayed in BsAs for extended period of time). I guess I’ll have to become more selective? Or send batches of people for extended practice in BsAs? Or move to BsAs like some of tango expatriates? In fact the later two could be valid options – I am seriously considering joining tango tourism business in BsAs.
Jun. 1, 2005 - The end of this blog it is not.
I will continue to write if a tango related thought worth writing about happens to pass through my head. An extended trip to Buenos Aires has changed my perception of tango somewhat hence a few more entries to this blog.
Mar. 1, 2005 - The end of this blog?
The reason I had started this blog was to figure out what tango means to me. I think I've got a good grip on that meaning by now (incidentally the meaning kept evolving over the years) and so the reason for writing this blog seems to disappear. Being on a border of Prime Minister and Discoverer personalities in Kingdomality terms I have to go on to explore other ideas, of which Kingdomality itself looks very promising (analytical, innovative and helpful) ahoramismo. Get the book at Amazon and check your personal profile at Kingdomaility web site. Incidentally I think Kingdomality concepts go far beyond team building, career management and applicable to tango too (for instance, Maintainers learn tango via patterns, Explorers are into Nuevo etc.).
Different kind of test (less engaging), same result. My type is INTP, most suitable for start-up technologies, scientific and academic organizations. Lyuda is ENFP, most suitable for communication, arts, counseling and personal development. We have two letters in common (besides last name).
Couple impressions from Valentango in Portland, OR.
Unfortunately I can write objectively about last the two days of the festival only: I went there with rather bad cold. So I spent first three days sweating in bed and nights sweating at milongas - not too pleasant or exciting partner for close embrace dancing. The little I saw of Portland looks like a beautiful hilly city hidden among trees.
The festival takes place in the less than glamorous part of the town on the left bank of rather wide river. This part of the town must have been very popular in the fifties and still has some of that flavor. On the right bank of the river they have well kept downtown again with emphasis on trees and wide side walks - an unusual thoughtfulness in American architecture. Right above downtown proper - small, a bit cartoonish China town. That week the city hosted Jazz as well as Film festivals in addition to Valentango - looks like fun place to live.
I am sure if I were healthy I would have a lot of fun at this festival. As it is only last two days were enjoyable. Here is me dancing with Liya (Santa Fe, NM) and Daniel (Portland, OR), two exceptional and very different dancers. The music, the venues and the organization is geared toward social dancing (as opposed to shows). It was very easy to get everywhere without car. If you want to dance with other good dancers from all over the country it is a good place to be.
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