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Argentine tango blog
/ with Interaction Design interludes / by Oleh Kovalchuke |
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July 2005
Jul. 30, 2005 - The best form of flattery
I have noticed that couple people in Denver are trying to imitate some of my steps, that rhythmic staff I have absorbed in Buenos Aires. However they try to do them in open frame! What they fail to comprehend of course is that they are approaching them from the wrong end (the feet in this case) because a) they look goofy since they have to make much larger steps (especially for sacadas) and b) they will not get the same effect since those steps are fun because they play with subtle changes in balance, which can be felt only in close embrace. Yet the mood is: flattered.
Jul. 29, 2005 - Tango does not equal sex
One more bit of wisdom from Hyla Dickinson:
The men who are pursued by women are almost always as irritated by these women, as the women who have been posting, are irritated by the lecherous men. In both cases, the people who are doing the imposing are thinking only of what they want, so caught up in their desire or fantasy that they don't really look at the desired person and notice their actual behavior and feedback. It is not really very flattering or attractive to have someone ignore or disregard your demeanor and behavior and general signals of intent.
Needless to say one observes this kind of behaviour mostly from beginners who mistook "Tango is intimacy" message to mean "Tango is sex". The confused beginners have not had a chance (have not found the communication technique) to discover the appeal of tango intimacy and hasten to replace it with cheap and quick imitations.
Once a man or woman has put in several years of work on the dancing itself, and money to classes, privates, etc., he or she does not like the dancing to be seen or used only as a means to someone else's end. For me, since the dance itself is so much a reason for being at the milonga, the very fact that a partner views the dance only as a preview for dating, is a turn-off.
Jul. 28, 2005 - How does tango experience rate?
John Ward from Bristol, UK wrote in reply to "Owning Mahowny" experience rating analogy:
I would agree with Oleh Kovalchuke that best tango is 100 and second-best 80. I would put sex at 70, about the same as ballroom foxtrot.
John, you should really consider doing sex in close embrace. Give it a thought, it might improve your numbers.
Actually as any other joke this one has a bit of truth in it - considering that tango is another form of intimacy.
Jul. 27, 2005 - Enlightened dogmatism.
Derik Rawson wrote a while ago about dogmatism of milonguero style dancers:
"As time went on, I also saw the local group here, which now "preaches" her [milonguero - OK] style, become more and more anti-social and dogmatic, so I just let them go off and do their thing."
First of all I would like to suggest that anyone caught arguing with Derik should be spanked.
Now as a way of clarification of Derik's most probably valid observation here are two quotes from my old posts on connection:
"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, 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."
and
"Fleeing connection – it's like stepping into thin air or chasing a ghost, very frustrating. Experienced with advanced dancers trained in open frame who have no problem doing the footwork however essentially dance with themselves."
It is possible to lead these followers, but the essence of tango, connection is lost. And so the "anti-social and dogmatic" behavior is natural result of not willing to endure frustrating tangos. To clarify it a bit more here is analogy from movie "Owning Mahowny" where gambling addict rates his next best experience compare from the high he gets from gambling at 10 (gambling is 100). If the best experiences from dancing close embrace tango were at 100 than I would rate an average tango with good connection at 70 and the best salsa experiences I ever had would be at about 50 (I do not dance tango in open frame, hence the salsa comparison).
By the way the dogmatic behavior can be observed in Buenos Aires as well: if you try to dance in open frame salon style there you will sit and observe people dancing in close embrace for the rest of the milonga. To avoid this it might be useful to take some lessons in close embrace before going to milonga as Sergio Vandekier had advised:
"If you are a Salon dancer but wish to go to a particular club where Milonguero is done, try to go to the lessons that are usually taught before the milonga. This will familiarize you with the style and some of the people."
I should add though that one lesson before milonga most probably will not be sufficient. Also if you dance in open frame salon style I would like to sincerely wish you good luck finding a milonga where milonguero is not "done" in Buenos Aires.
Jul. 26, 2005 - On tango posturing and on simply being human.
Another post from Hyla full of beautiful little gems:
It seems to me that Trini's objections are not to the delightful delicious little naughtiness of shared references to private acts performed in public; she is objecting to those icky, inartistic, overt and clumsy gropings which are merely nasty and tasteless. How many of us women have been subjected to those awful dances where the man's only conception of tango is that it is "really sexy to have a woman draped all over you", so all he does is maneuver you into some awkward and uncomfortable but suggestive pose (ignoring line of dance, the music, navigation, lead/follow etc.), then shuffle himself around and haul you into yet another uncomfortable and stupid pose, this time gazing meaningfully into your eyes, and so on with a specially dramatic pose at the end? This is not dancing, it is not sexy, suggestive or seductive; it is gross and unpleasant and no fun at all.
Being a leader I have not experienced these moments, but I certainly can easily remember couple examples of some leaders dancing this way. I found them funny, but then again I wasn't in those leaders' arms.
When I agree to dance with a man, I agree to participate in a lovely connection with seduction or suggestiveness as possible parts of the game to a lesser or greater extent. I do not agree to be mauled, humped or used as a masturbation post. Now, during the course of the dance, maybe we renegotiate aspects of what we are willing to do together. Some guys maybe I'd be more willing to be a bit more, umm, explicit? naughty? with. Some will be encouraged into a very very open embrace. Sometimes it is clear that we are understanding the most explicit of moves as simple physical dance challenges. Sometimes we negotiate a sort of goof off riff doing "sexy" or "suggestive" moves so asexually that it becomes quite funny. Maybe we negotiate a continuation of the game beyond the milonga. But this all comes from that same listening and sensitivity. We need to read one another's intentions. Without that, it's not seduction, it's "tango rape", or at least "tango harassment".
And here's almost the opposite: we dance very close and never do anything that would look the slightest bit sexy from outside but it feels like something very special--not from rubbing or intertwining, but from just the closeness and sharing, the tightening of the embrace at a crucial moment, the breathing together, standing still together in the most attentive way possible. If I were to compare this to sex, I think that I would say that it is not so much like the sex act itself, but like those moments of extreme closeness that come after the act. Or like those moments in a long and successful relationship when you feel so close to the loved one, so in harmony, that you can eat a meal together each lifting the fork or water glass in concert and people at the restaurant ask you which anniversary you are celebrating, without ever having seen anything so overt as hand-holding. "Food I ate with you was more than food, wine I drank wit you was more than wine". Now, to be able to experience THAT in a three minute dance is pretty special.
Maybe that is what Randy found so sad about the paid dancers. Those women would never be inspired to work on themselves or their dance to the point where they could experience that closeness. They are paying those guys for a service, and to the guys, as Randy says, "It feels like work". They are ashamed. These poor women will never have the incentive to bring their dance up to the level where it can be a *shared* pleasure. They are paying only for their own pleasure, and thus the young men withhold that part of themselves that brings the dance to the next level. The women never get the 3 minute affair, they get a chaste version of the bathroom stall quickie. They get only the mundane of both worlds, the best of nothing.
Jul. 25, 2005 - Connection, input from an active follower.
Hyla Dickinson from Seatle has posted some very eloquent thoughts on role of follower in achieving that elusive perfect connection with a partner. Here are excerpts:
...listen to the music. I would change my breathing, the tension or density throughout my body, the weight of my footfall. I would alter the feel of the embrace, snuggle in or be more aloof... This is something that the more sensitive and musical leaders will always notice, even when I don't notice it myself. It is a "hidden" part of the conversation.
...When my body responded to the mood of the music with a different density or alertness or tension, they would mirror that, or pick up on it in some way. They would alter their own interpretation to include my limited one, or breath deeply so I could feel it bring us closer together into the embrace, the music, the dance.
These musically sofisticated followers are rare and very exciting to dance with. They do need to know and feel music very well though to pull off this kind of meaningful contribution (Hyla is also a tango DJ).
And from leader's perspective (Ramiro Garcia):
I have come to appreciate and understand several pieces of music that were opaque to me before, or I was simply indifferent to, because I was able to perceive how my partner was experiencing the music. Their bodies, their energy, their movement, transmitted their feeling to me. They were marvelous experiences. Subtleties in the music which I was not aware of at all became apparent. Patterns and harmonies that I didn't know existed, suddenly became part of our dance.
Jul. 23, 2005 - More workshops.
I have been invited to come back to give couple more workshops in Glenwood Springs. This time (Aurgust 13) I plan to teach three different types of turns at advanced workshop and varios rock steps in fundamentals.
Jul. 19, 2005 - 100 tango festivals around the world in 2005.
Some curios numbers on international growth of tango festivals over the years. Each dot represents a dot. Adapted from Tobias Conradi at Tango.info (includes links to festival websites).
1996.1
1997.1
1998..2
1999...3
2000.......7
2001.........9
2002.................17
2003.................................................................67
2004................................................................................80
2005....................................................................................................100Geography is fascinating too. Mostly Europe and North America, but more recently also Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Brasil. Notice that Tobias' list is not comprehensive. Still the overall trend of grouth which begins to level off should hold.
From the same site complete discography of Reliquias label.
Random
Harry Potter 6 is out. Have to make some time to read that. So far (page 75) a page turner as usual. Update: overall not as good as 4 and 5.
The Yes Men documentary. Overall as any pranks it is not terribly exciting. In fact boring. However the PowerPoint presentation on keeping slaves in their natural habitat while reaping all the usual rewards of slave labour was quite true, simple and therefore brilliant. Similar prankster movie is coming out - The Edukators.Jul. 14, 2005 - Another tango blog.
Came accross another tango blog. Tango Beginner by "Pablo" in New York City. Pedro must be very gifted - he has learned and can remember sixty patterns, I can hardly remember three. He also must be very stubborn since he remains a beginner after one and a half years of learning patterns. Being in Buenos Aires twice and having sat through milongas there he still persist in learning show tango at CITA, jumps for example. There is of course an easier way to learn social tango. This is how the term Milonguero style was born.
Anyway he gave this seminal quote by Gavito:
"I step on the string bass, I lead the woman on the violin; if tango was supposed to be danced on the beat, then one drum would be enough, no need for a full orchestra."
This is indeed how milongueros dance in Buenos Aires by steping to one beat while leading followers to another. This is exactly what I was teaching at Glenwood Springs "Tango the dance of bumblebee" workshop.
Jul. 12, 2005 - Origins of term Milonguero style.
From Trini of PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society:
It might be useful to explain why Susana Miller used the term "milonguero". She began learning tango in the academies in the 80's. She told us that she was famous for being one of the worse dancers there. So she decided to just have fun instead. Started learning from the milongueros.
Maria Cieri, widow of Rodolfo Cieri, told us that the academies only started popping up in the 70's, after the military government ended. The problem was that tangueros now had to put groups of novice men and women together. In earlier days, novices would learn from experienced dancers (Maria learned from her mother, Rodolfo from his father) in personal settings. The predominant solution to public classes was the 8-count base.
When she was here, Maria taught the 8-count base in our class for novices. However, she also told us that neither she nor Rodolfo used it themselves or were taught with that method. But when they were asked to start teaching in the 80's, they adopted that convention, just like other dancers who became teachers. They also knew that it resulted patterned dancers, but no one knew then how to teach actual lead/follow in a groups. The teachers themselves had been taught by friends and family.
Susana chose the term "milonguero" to differentiate her style from what was being taught in the academies. The name will probably stick until someone comes up with a better name.
Basically milonguero style term was born as a way to teach improvisation in tango (as opposed to pattern teaching). Unfortunately too many people took pattern teaching as the only authentic way to teach (they did not know a better way) and this tradition perpetuates itself due to inertia.
Jul. 11, 2005 - Tango workshops in Glenwood Springs.
Good things happen if you get excited about what you are doing. I was because the material I taught (how to dance to one rhythm while leading/following to another) has never been taught in Colorado before. I have learned this stuff by observing milongueros in Buenos Aires and had to work out a way to teach it to others (it took me three days to select appropriate music and to figure out easy, step-by-step approach).
The workshops were a failure of marketing and smashing success for students who attend in spite of the marketing failure. Several people came over at the subsequent milonga and expressed regret for not attending (after talking to those who did attend). A few wanted me to return in August and asked for privates. There is a possibility of teaching a workshop in Las Vegas (one of the students was Bob visiting from Las Vegas, he liked the workshop a lot).
Jul. 10, 2005 - Randy does Rio or why do people need tango tourism services.
Randy went to Rio de Janeiro and had a few tango tourist mishaps (and part II). Admitedly some of the misadventures have happened only in his head. Still there is a grain of wisdom in his observations. Here is quote:
There is a reason why people hire tour guides and travel in packs when they are in foreign countries. It isn't because they can't find their way around by themselves. A decent guide book and the help of locals could get them most of what they want. Nor is it fear of getting shortchanged or robbed. Common sense precautions, such as not flashing wads of money around in public, will prevent most crimes of opportunity. Nor is it because they can't speak the language. People everywhere want to help travelers. They will find ways to communicate no matter what the linguistic obstacles.
No, the reason people don't usually travel alone to foreign countries is because they don't like feeling stupid. And even if you've been there before and speak a little of the language, it is guaranteed that you will do and say many more stupid things than usual.
Needless to say tango culture in Buenos Aires is more elaborate than in Rio. Tango tourists would be well advised to use a tour guide.
Jul. 7, 2005 - Spanish, the tools. How to type Spanish letters on English keyboard.
Martin Waxman prvided these shortcuts on Tango-L:
1. On the keyboard numeric keypad, press NumLock so that the NumLock light comes on.
2. Hold down the Alt key.
3. On the numeric keypad on the right of the keyboard, type the following 3 digit code.
4. Release the Alt key.Alt+160 = á
Alt+130 = é
Alt+161 = í
Alt+162 = ó
Alt+163 = ú
Alt+164 = ñ
Alt+165 = Ñ
Alt+129 = ü
Alt+173 = ¡
Alt+168 = ¿
Alt+174 = «
Alt+175 = »
Alt+167 = º
Alt+166 = ª
Carlos Gavito has died today. It is a great loss indeed. Last time I saw him couple months ago he was a frail man. Yet he would come to milongas anyway if not to dance than simply to be with friends. And surrounded by friends he always was. I am DJing tonight at Mercury Cafe. Carlos will be surrounded by friends once more at midnight when a tanda in honor of this great person and dancer will be played at milonga in Denver.
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