In favor of bad technique

Ladies, you will need technique classes to wear these.
But why would you?

How important is technique?  As Dieter, a tango teacher in Germany once said, "In Tango, Technik ist alles. Alles!"  We would never say technique is everything for art or for making love, and so such a statement does not work in tango either.  The technique-is-everything notion is doubly erroneous for tango.  Isn't tango is a combination of art and making love?

Maybe the question about technique's importance should not be how but rather why:
So why is technique important?  Technique as expressed in ballet and stage tango is for the wrong reasons and is a dead end.  Technique, I believe, is a way to enjoy our art throughout our lives.  Sure, without technique, a dancer or any artist becomes limited in their own expression, but if given a choice, I am in favor of bad technique over a lack of artistic expression or passion for the divine spark within one's partner.

Before the technique nuts hunt me down, torture me with high-flying boleos and gancho me to death, hear my story:

As a musician I was a technique nut.  My teacher was a technique nut.  Ron Falter was a clinician for Ludwig Drum company, and he would go all over the country giving drum clinics on technique.  So I was his disciple -- probably his most devoted disciple.  We were like Gnostic musicians, he and I.  The only portal into the Truth of Music was through technique.

The end of Gnostic-Musicianship
As a young teen, I was always hanging out on the university campus where I took music lessons.  One day, I walked into the University band room, and a cohort musician, Brian, was there playing very well with the varsity University Jazz Band.  I realized something at that moment.  His teacher was a learn-by-doing teacher.  Technique was secondary to playing a lot.  This was the moment of my musical enlightenment, my epiphany.  I was no longer a technique Gnostic.   I slowly broke away from my teacher.  I played with a lot of musicians.  That is where I really learned to be a musician and not a technician.

I moved to San Francisco, and joined the Eddie Money Band.  Everyone in Eddie's band took lessons.  It was the assumption.  At the time, I thought I had graduated from music lessons; so this was an important moment in the art school of life -- always have a coach.  Eddie's outgoing drummer recommended Chuck Brown, who was the most renowned teacher in the Bay Area.  But Chuck Brown seemed to be more of a technique freak than my first music guru.  However, since Chuck was sought out by famous drummers, I was resigned to believe technique-Gnosticism was a fact of life. 

However, unlike all the other students I knew, Chuck Brown did not have me focusing on technique so long.  I am not sure why.  His technique was remarkably different than Ron Falter's.  I was not eclectic.  I fully learned to devote myself to play with Chuck's powerful method.  But soon we went on to other things in fusion and jazz music.  Along the way, however I learned something about technique that I had never realized:  It is not to play faster or be more awesome; technique is to help with endurance and avoid injury.   I remembered that the drummer who had recommended Chuck Brown to me had told me said that he would have had to give up playing had he not learned Chuck's technique.  This was the essential lesson on technique!

Technique was indeed essential, but why!?  What I learned about music from him transformed the way I played.  I believe that Chuck Brown's influence may have made me the close embrace tanguero that I am.  Before Chuck Brown, I had double basses, flipped my sticks high into the air.  I had seven tom-toms and 6 cymbals.  I was a show drummer from a show-drummer gambling casino town.  After my lessons with him, I most often was playing on a small drum set -- both in size and the number of drums.  Through technique, I had a large sound but on small drums.  My transformation was towards music and less towards show, and I no longer had back pain.  I played powerfully, without pain and with endurance.

I still have the show-drummer in me.  And I sometimes feel like a racehorse inside of the milonguero outward covering.  But being "tasty" and going small takes discipline and a reverence for the music.  From Chuck, I learned that no note (or step) should be taken without it being essential.  Count Basie would say, "It is not what you play, man; it's what you don't play."

To a ballerina who has become a great tango dancer, she would define technique and "bad" technique differently than someone with no ballet background.  She gets her accolades from the moves most unlike tango and most like ballet and gymnastics.  But remember that as gymnast or a ballerina she must retire early because she will be broken by her technique for show.  The toe shoes must come off.  To me, tango is about life-long artistry and social connection, not about being awesome while you are young and able.

I learned that technique life long artistry until we die from Chuck Brown.  But even if technique helps us to preserve ourselves, that is not everything either!  Art and passion and making love always come first to the milonguero.

Sure, I have the highest value for technique.  But I am fully aware that "Technik ist nicht alles.  Nicht Alles!"



Photo credit for ballet tango stilletos -- yes ladies these shoes are for sale.  Buy them here but wear them only at home or over at his place. NEVER walk in them, okay?  ;-)

Wanted: Tango Percussionists

One example of using one's feet for percussion.

The word tango, like he word milonga, can mean several things.   Tango once meant a drum or a place where blacks would meet and dance to the drum beat.  Tango is still that.  But where are the percussionists now?  Every instrument in tango is used as a percussion instrument.  Name one that is not!

Okay, give up?  Every instrument is used at times in a tango orchestra to slap out a rhythm.  The string section tends to use the handle or back of their bow to do it.  Everyone else uses their hands except the pianist to tap on their instruments.  The piano itself is, of course, a percussion instrument because the strings are struck with hammers.  That accounts for all the percussionists, right?  No!

There are some percussionists who are often not recognized in the orchestra:

You are that percussionist in the tango orchestra!  A dancer is a percussionist, and the floor and partner is his or her instrument.  I do not mean this in a poetic way.  This is literally true.  Anyone striking any object to create or play along with music is a percussionist.

I invite you to stop dancing and join the tango orchestra as a musician!

A good place to start is to stop taking classes on musicality -- well, not quite.  How about at least thinking about these classes as musicianship classes?   Musicality classes are for people who are trying to understand music as outsiders.  How about being a musician?  Be an insider -- a musician, not a dancer hoping to understand music from the outside!

Musicianship is not for advanced dancers.  It is for everyone, because in reality you and I are not "just" dancers if we are tangueros/-as.  I think it is too easy to be a sloppy musician if we do not really join the band.  Don't leave it up to the pianist or bandoneónista to be musical!  It's your job too!  That is, it's your job to be musical if you have dedicated yourself to join the orchestra as a tango percussionist.  Maybe it is not a conscious thing, but I think the best social dancers are percussionists.

As a jazz drummer, I played many different objects with both feet and hands (see the photo above).  As a tanguero, I use only my feet and legs.  I sweep (barridas), make grace notes (toe taps), and establish clear rhythms in synchronization to the music.  Besides the floor, there is my tanguera.  She bushes me, taps the side of my foot, scadas me, ganchos me.  We are the cello and violin playing each other.  As instruments of music, I am hers and she in mine as living, breathing instruments.

When I embrace another tango percussionist on the dance floor (a tanguera), I hope our goal will be to join the orchestra as musicians and not as dancers.  Anyone can get up and move, but can we embody the music as musicians?  I imagine that she and I have joined the orchestra as percussionists in the orquesta que no es típica.  The floor is our percussion instrument.  We do not dance to the music, we play in the orchestra.  

Won't you join the orchestra?  When we all join the orchestra, we become the community tango orchestra.  All the milonga spirits -- African diaspora slave musicians, European immigrant tango musicians and composers -- will be smiling.  If you have joined the orchestra, then you have come home to what tango started as.  Tango is a drum.  Be a tango percussionist and join the orchestra.


Photo credit:
http://www.drummagazine.com/lessons/post/foot-pedal-fanatic/

Next blog:  As tango percussionists, we will explore why "percussion" technique has nothing to do with how good you look or how awesome you play.

Also planned:  Legato percussion -- tango percussion plays with and stretches time one moment and establishes the beat at another. This is what I call "time keeping" vs "lyrical percussion." It is important to know when to make these transitions within a song. And it is easy. It is not just the woman's job to be lyrical or the man's job to be the time keeper.

Music Workshop: Thinking in Six

J.S. Bach:  Handing over a minuet to Anibal Troilo
to add the cruzado.  See the smirk on his face?

Today's workshop is on the vals.

Our goal is to improve our ability to improvise away from the pulse in three, and understand the African cross rhythm (cruzado) that makes the tango waltz (vals cruzado) so unique and fun for dancers.

A waltz or "vals" in Spanish has 3 beats per phrase, right?

Well, that is the smallest view of what the vals is.

Six better describes the vals.

If we were to compare vals to a language, then a word is 3 beats, a phrase is 6 and a sentence is 12 beats.  Just like in language, when you first went to school and learned about words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs, you were already practicing these things without knowing what they were.  Similarly, you may be doing very complex steps in your vals, but perhaps it will be helpful now that you are more advanced to understand more about what you are doing.  The more long-range goal is for tango dancers to construct poems and short stories that delight their partners via knowing musical phrasing.

So let's get started.

I am going to start with an example out of  Europe to help demonstrate thinking in six, but the objective is not praise the huge and known influence of Europe but to uncover the African "cruzado" rhythm.  On our way to Argentina, we are going to start in Europe, go to Africa and then use the trade-winds to land in Buenos Aires.

The vals cruzado is a waltz within a waltz from Africa (3 beats against six), but Europe had a similar phenomena that did not make it to Argentina: The Baroque dance and music (below) is also in six-beat phrases. In the following example, if one thinks in 6, notice what happens on 2 and 6!  This is a common form of Baroque dancing in which dancers bob down on the beats 2 and 6 of each phrase.

As I mentioned earlier, if you count in six, they are bobbing slightly down on 2 and 6.  That is the typical cross rhythm of their dance.  The "cruzado" (meaning cross) is a sub-rhythm of the Argentine vals that at times is found also in Baroque, but Baroque was not the "cruzado" (cross rhythm) influence -- Africa brought that influence.  In Latin percussion we call this counter rhythm the "trecillo" -- a part of the Afro-clave rhythm of nearly all of the forms of music in Latin America, including tango.  The cruzado started in 6/8 sacred rhythms in Africa.  I will write more about that later in a blog in which I will demonstrate the African influence with instruments and the Afro-clave in other forms of Latin American music as it relates to tango.

Many people, including musicians, are not aware intellectually of this sub-rhythm; so let me explain:  The vals cruzado has a waltz within a waltz.  Sometimes it is very explicit, sometimes subtle, the cruzado (cross rhythm) is always there, and is the distinctive element of what makes the vals the "tango waltz" --  also called the vals criollo from its African roots.   To be sure, many musicians do not seem to know this, but it is nonetheless the fact.

Percussionists (tango dancers) need to know about these rhythms.  You are percussively expressing yourself, striking your instrument (the floor) as a part of the tango orchestra.  So my fellow percussionists, if you think in 3, a waltz has its emphasis on the first beat of each group of three (1**/1** etc.).  If you think in 6 beat phrases (as the above dancers above have to), the same emphasis is 1**4**/1**4**).  You will feel he musical phrasing more easily if you feel this in six.  Practice counting at times when you are listening to the vals.

Now let's add the African influence, also called the trecillo, by dancing on 1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.

For those used to watching young, flashy dancers, the following clip with very few views on YouTube will not be immediate appealing.  However, this older couple are truly dancing 3 against six many times.  I found this video clip because I was looking for someone dancing to Anibal Troilo's "Un Placer."  I discoverd Héctor and María Eugenia, dancing in this clear example of a very explicit cruzado rhythm in the vals.  Check this out!




Now, go back and start a little before the 1 minute 30 mark.  Here you will see how Hector does not only the cruzado against what she is doing but he has a very nice poetic pause in the middle of it all. Wonderful!  Then keep going until the end of the song which ends with the cruzado being slammed out by the orchestra throughout the whole last phrase.

Okay, one more?

Here is a wonderful example of this within a vals with "percussionists" Julio Balmaceda and Corina playing the dance floor.  Please focus again, just for this workshop, on counting in six.  If you pay attention you will observe many times when they both dance this cruzado, the cross-rhythm, together or when one does and the other stays with the bass (1**4**/1**/4**).




I recommend that you go back and look at watch him at the 56-second mark stay in the cross rhythm (1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.) for a long while as she stays in the normal vals rhythm (1**4**/1*34**/1**4**/etc.).

This weekend, if you are out dancing, pay attention to the Saints watching over the dance floor -- all the dead musicians that have made your world of dance and music so enjoyable.  Among the many friendly spirits will see many great Argentine musicians.  Behind them you will see a guy wearing a really cheesy wig.  That's Bach.  And if you really pay attention, when he watches vals cruzado he is smiling a lot more than usual.  Among the friendly spirits, please pay attention to the African drummers who are playing the cruzado rhythm -- the three African beats playing against the six European beats of the vals cruzado!


Photo credit:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Sebastian_Bach.jpg

Tango Percussionists Wanted

One example of using one's feet for percussion.

I invite you to stop dancing and join the tango orchestra as a musician?

A good place to start is to stop taking classes on musicality -- well, not quite.  How about at least thinking about these classes as musicianship classes?  Musicianship is not for advanced dancers.  It is for everyone, because in reality you and I are not dancers.  Most of us are just sloppy and or unimaginative musicians, until we join the orchestra as percussionists.  Maybe it is not a conscious thing, but I think the best social dancers are percussionists.

The word tango, like he word milonga, can mean several things.   Tango once meant a drum or a place where blacks would meet and dance to the drum beat.  Tango is still that.  But where are the percussionists now?  Every instrument in tango is used as a percussion instrument.  Name one that is not, but there are some percussionist who are unrecognized.

You are that percussionist in the tango orchestra!  A dancer is a percussionist, and the floor and partner is his or her instrument.  I do not mean this in a poetic way.  This is literally true.  Anyone striking any object to create or play along with music is a percussionist.  A pianist presses a key and a hammer strikes a string.  Thus a piano is a percussion instrument.  A vocalist clapping his hands is a percussionist.  A bassist using the back side of her bow against her stings is a percussionist. Of course the pianist is a percussionist/keyboardist.  Anyone who uses hammers, fingers, hands or feet in a musical way is a percussionist.

As a jazz drummer, I struck many different objects with both feet and hands.  As a tanguero, I use only my feet and legs.  I sweep (barridas), make grace notes (toe taps), and establish clear rhythms in synchronization to the music.  Besides the floor, there is my tanguera.  She bushes me, taps the side of my foot, scadas me, ganchos me.  We are the cello and violin playing each other.  As instruments of music, I am hers and she in mine as living, breathing instruments.

When I embrace another tango percussionist on the dance floor (a tanguera), I hope our goal will be to join the orchestra as musicians and not as dancers.  Anyone can get up and move, but can we embody the music as musicians?  I imagine that she and I have joined the orchestra as percussionists in the orquesta típica.  The floor is our percussion instrument.  We do not dance to the music, we play in the orchestra.  

Won't you join the orchestra?  When we all join the orchestra, we become the community band.  All the dead African slaves, tango musicians and composers who we highly esteem will be smiling.  We have come home.  Tango is a drum.  Play it.  Percussion is central to what we do at the milonga.

Photo credit:
http://www.drummagazine.com/lessons/post/foot-pedal-fanatic/

Next blog:  As a percussionist, we will explore why technique has nothing to do with how good you look or how awesome you play.

Arriving at the end of the tanda with two women

 With great talent or "two left feet" the solution is the same:
Listen to La Música

My purpose at the start of every tanda, is to arrive with two women present, or at least one. 

Let me explain.

The surest way to stumble around and displease a tanguera is to continually focus on the series of steps one has learned in tango school.  If your art was oil painting, "steps" could be translated as "painting by the numbers."  Painting by the numbers is a type of art but not truly artistic.

Oil painters have their visual inspiration.  For us, music is our inspiration.  I constantly tell myself to listen to this inspiring Lady -- la Música.  I tell myself:  "She should center you, inspire you."

Remember the song, "Words get in the Way?"  There's an old tango called "Steps get in the Way," isn't there? Maybe it was a vivid dream I had.  The words were going around in my head as I woke up last night:  

Los pasos no markan el compás
Porque me enseñaron tantas cosas,
Que ya no puedo sentir lo demás.

My steps don't go to the beat
Because they taught me so much
That the steps confused my feet.
[Translated with "poetic license."]


Gentlemen:  Whenever I have ever felt intimidated from a woman who says something insensitive, such as "how long have you been dancing" and generally wants to know my pedigree, or seems to wonder before our first step if I am appropriate for her most esteemed level, I go back to la Música -- not steps I have learned.  "She" believes in me and gives me grace when I listen to her.  "She" is not to be impressed but impresses anyone who listens and follows her lead.   ¡La Música!  What a kind and impressive woman.  She makes me want to embrace even the insensitive mortal in front of me and go on a special trip, called tango.  Maybe there is still hope for the insensitive one.  Maybe "by grace she will be saved."*  Even if this mortal tanguera doesn't join me, as long I have been faithful to La Música, I have done my part and at least I arrive at the end of tanda with one woman.


Stated in other terms:  If the steps get in the way, if I try to impress the woman who cannot be impressed, I arrive at the end of the tanda all by myself.  


No mortal woman can make you dance to the music.  Only the immortal, goddess, La Música, can make even two left work perfectly well.


Bon voyage!




*Sorry, Saint Paul of Tarsus.  I don't think you meant it this way.  But what the heck.  It works for me, and God loves it when people find grace somehow!




Photo Credit of 2 left feet:  http://four4fourtwo.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/two-left-feet/

Musicality Workshop: Triplets

These triplets cry out for food

Having baby triplets from dancing tango is very, very rare. In fact, I have never heard of it!

These triplets cry out
to be danced!

Also rare in tango -- but not THAT rare -- are musical eighth-note triples (the first line in the musical notation on the left ). The first line to the left shows triplets that are groups of three beats for every beat of the pulse.

In this "workshop" on triplets, I have three video-clip examples of couples who dance the triplets in the music, Buscandote played by Osvaldo Fresedo's orchestra, composed by Lalo Scalise.  This tango has a nice little example of triplets at three points in the song that changes the way the dancers dance.  Most dancers at a milonga continue dancing on the pulse, which is entirely okay, but since triplets are rare, I am suggesting that it is nice when a couple pays attention to them if they know the song well.  You will see how these very musical couples dance triplets with the musicians during our moment together.  I suggest you make a cup of coffee and relax.

Disclaimer:
This blog is a workshop.  I do not expect it to be an easy theme.  I am assuming that you just love the music and hear the pulse.  That is all you need, along with a little patience to understand this concept.  If you did not read my blog, "The Pulse vs. the Music Itself,"  I suggest you read that first.  Today's blog is explicitly about dancing to what the musicians are playing in the form of eighth-note triplets.

I stole the below video clips from Terpsichoral Tango Addiction, a fellow tango blog writer.  She had her Facebook friends vote on which style they most liked of several couples.  That was hard because all the dancers are so talented.  For the purpose of this musicality workshop on triplets, I chose only three couples who truly paid attention to the triplets rather than dancing on the pulse through the triplets, as some of the others did.

You may enjoy the many wonderful things each couple does, but let's focus simply on the triplets -- just one little, dainty and delicious aspect of the song, okay?  There will be no guess work of where these triplets are.  I will show you.  I give you exactly where they are musically and the approximation where they appear as far as time goes in the video clip.  Of course if you wish to watch the whole video of each, that is even better.

Here is the road map:
Assumptions:  First let's agree on how to count the phrases:  When counting 1-2 (not 1-2-3-4), each phrase is normally 8 measures of these two-count measures in Buscandote.

Intro:  The intro is 8 measures.  The last measure of the phrase has the first set of triplets (at around the 14-second mark of the song).  I suggest you watch all the couples and see how each responds to the triplets. [Watch at least a few of the videos below and you can hear the triplets at the very end of the intro; then return here.]

Now you know what I mean by triplets.  After the intro, there are three more phrases without triplets (listen carefully for the start of each phrase rather than just counting because some phrases have an odd count).


The Bridge:  This is a middle part and the triplets are about at the one-minute mark.  Most of the dancers do their most explicit interpretation of the triplets here because the triplets go one for longer (7 triplet-beats rather than 4-triplet beats).

One more phrase of 8 measures sets up the vocals.

The Vocals:  The first phrase of 8 measures ends with triplets at about the 1:37 mark from the start of the song.

The last four phrases of the song have no triplets.   For the few of you who get into counting the phrases, you will notice some unusual phrases of 7 measures.  These have no large significance for a dancer who is simply listening and improvising to the music.  Choreographers know exactly how long each phrase is, but for most of us, this is not important.

A side note for musicality:
You might notice the power of the strings, because Fresedo had a large string section.  He also uses a percussionist, playing the vibraphone and other percussion.  But the one instrument I want you to listen for is the harp.  How many tangos have a harp? What do some of the dancers do with the beautiful sweep of the harp especially after the second set of triplets?  If you watch YouTube videos of Buscandote, only a few of the couples play with this magical moment.

Couple Number One
Let's start out with one of my favorite couples is Sebastián and Mariana.  Soon there will videos of them from the Tango Element Baltimore Tango Festival, which you must see.  They were mind-expanding inspiring.   Of the three videos here, they are the only couple who together nails each of of the sets of eighth-note triplets as eighth-note triplets.  The intro triplets are at the 4-second mark. The second set is at the 55-second mark.  During the last set of triplets at the 1:26 mark and right after the first verse of vocals, they do something that is extremely remarkable.  Mariana dances a syncopation of triplets starting on the downbeat and Sebastián dances on the upbeat from her.  That means that he starts on the second note of the first triplet -- a very nice lyrical way of interpreting the triplets.  These people are professionals; do not try this at home!  :-)




Sebastián and Roxana are up next (below).   At the intro they are preparing with their embrace in a very sensual way.  She makes some slight weight changes to the triplets in the intro.

At the Bridge (the second set of triplets), he dances with the triplets.  Although this looks like quick-quick-slow, if you count the triplets as 7 beats, he is clearly dancing on (12*/4**/7).  She is dancing on the pulse.  Also he also nicely catches the harp at the end of the phrase [1:22].   They both dance the triplets together at 1:54 (1*3/4**).  The stars are rests.




Looking at only the triplets from all these wonderful dancers, clearly Fabian and Lorena (below) both interpret the intro triplets in the most sophisticated way.   I have saved the best for last!

The Intro
In the intro both "recognize" the triplets with adornos, dropping the first and doing the last three beats.  I think they have the best start of all the couples I could find on YouTube. [Play the entire intro and return here. The triplets are at the 14-second mark.]

The Bridge
At the bridge, Fabian walks backwards and she forwards on the triplets.  I will avoid being too technical about this; so just watch what they do first, and see what you can see! This is the longer set of triplets, counted "trip-a-let, trip-a-let, one."  The steps are like this: 1 2 3/ 1 2 3/ 1**.  What they do is dance 1 * 3/ 1 2 3/ 1.  Also note what he does with the harp at the end of this middle group of triplets.  This is in my opinion the best use of the harp of all the couples presented here. [Play the video about at the 50-second mark and return here.]

Triplets at the Vocals
At the vocals they both do the most amazing displays of triplets with teamwork:  She is walking the triplets in a very strong female role during his extended planeo.  They get applause -- but too soon -- which masks the triplets somewhat.  The most amazing part is how Lorena steps through the triplets and he responds with some nice triplet toe touches, using the same rhythm they did in the intro.  They end this last set of triplets very exactly and with a sacada too!  Wonderful.




A post script for ONLY those interested in how triplets are shown musically.  Line one is the "pulse."

As I said earlier tango usually does not have too many eight-note triplets (the third line above).  So below I will give the breakdown of "normal" notation (which does not have a bracket with "3" or "6" above it, as you see above).

An Obscure Footnote (don't read this if you already feel over-loaded):
In reality tango has an undercurrent of quarter-note triplets nearly all the time.  Some people do not feel this and even deny that it is there.   This tango feel is also in kizomba, some Middle Eastern music and even much of hip hop.  Musicians know it ias the 3+3+2 feel of tango.  Many tangos are very subtle and some deny the 3/3/2 feel. For me that is like denying the existence of God.  I really don't want to argue what people cannot sense (with tango or God), but in my opinion tango is not tango without this sometimes explicit, sometimes subtle undercurrent of quarter-note triplets.  It is certainly always is explicit in milonga and candombe.  In di Sarli, Fresedo and Pugliese -- just to mention a few, this undercurrent is on the "2" of each of the 3/3/2 feel; so it looks like this:  *2*/*2*/*2.  Also, in the Vals Cruzado (tango waltz) there is an undercurrent of three's present.  If you think in six or twelve beat phrases (rather than just little chunks of 3 beats) you will hear this undercurrent in the tango waltz.  If you feel the vals in 6-beat phrases you will notice an undercurrent (the "cruzado") that is three-against-six.  Many dancers dance this undercurrent at times and feel this but have no idea what this undercurrent is.  And that is good to mention:   It is not important that anyone intellectually understand anything I have mentioned here.  If you feel it; that is enough.  The problem is that many people do no feel these things, and once they are pointed out, they may be on their way to enjoying tango a bit more.  Consider this "exposure."  This article may be too intellectual, but one day it might all dawn on you, as it did me.  I did not hear these things at first but now they are the driving force of how I dance and enjoy this wonderful music.  With my music background, I started after the fact of feeling the music trying to understand what was happening.


Photo credit:
Baby triplets http://geniuspregnancy.com/news/eighteen-year-old-birth-triplets.html
Music graphic of triplets http://www.drumsmylife.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10177

Developing Originality

There's nothing new under the sun?  There is you!  Wondrously unique.

A philosophical and somewhat cynical view of the world says that "originality is dead" and that there is nothing new under the sun.  Well, that is a cranky-old-man view of the universe.  Once we start getting older, we too easily can intone what the stoic biblical writer said:

“That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes


The same writer said that there was a season for everything:  A season for war and a season for peace, as season for tango. . . well, not tango, but the other things.  You see, tango is new and original!


This is your season to be original.  


You have learned what the masters have done, but now it's your turn to be more of who you are and not just copy greatness.  If you are a young person at heart, everything is new from your perspective.  And isn't that the perspective that should be central -- not what others have done or said, but what you are discovering all for yourself?  Just because someone else has been to  Laguna Arenál in the Cloud Forest in Costa Rica, does that mean that you shouldn't discover it all for yourself?


My earlier post on the insight I got from a conversation with an artist friend has had immediate results to help me understand my own path in tango as an art.


The day after I posted The Unbalanced Tango Faculty, I was dancing at the "Milonga de Los Santos," in Washington DC, and a few new insights about originality in tango came to light.  In Friday's blog on the "unbalanced tango faculty," I imagined a fictitious university called "The University of World Art," and I imagined that tango had its own college -- "The School of Tango."   I was thinking that my expression of tango was mostly in the area of recognizing and valuing the social aspect of tango.  I mentioned that I was a small-time teacher in this fictitious university.  I portrayed myself only interested in the social tango and the connected tango walk insofar that a simple expression of tango would help me as a trauma therapist (using tango therapy).


However on Saturday night, a tanguera friend, Carol, commented that I do a lot of "steps" that no one else does.  She had said this before, but this time I was more aware of the value of originality from my conversation with my friend, Alex.  As a trained artist, a painter, Alex had mentioned "originality" as one of the three things that art instructors obsessed on.  The other two were skill and the expression of some social theme or value.


Why Originality is Natural
Think snowflake.  Original. Unique.  Each brain, each soul, each person is unique.  Therefore we should fully expect that we all have the innate ability to develop originality.  But there are obstacles to this natural fact.  I think I know why originality is sometimes stunted -- not only in tango or any art but also in much of how we think:


We copy too much. 


I have discovered this all by mistake in tango.  If I had a lot more money, I would be taking private lessons and more group lessons so I could copy the masters.  However, at the moment I hardly can pay for milongas; so dancing with others has been my "School of Tango."  The "faculty" consists of teachers like:

•  Classic tango composers, such as Biagi and di Sarli,
•  Lots of tangueras, with their own unique response to my attempt at accompanying them on the wooden path,
• Watching others dance live or on film clips.    

Picasso's work you may have never seen:
He knew the basics first.  

Don't get me wrong; I have had some very important teachers, and I mention them in my meager, low-budget Tango Résumé.  I value teachers because I learned this from being a musician and a late-blooming athlete.  Great musicians and great athletes often continue getting coaching throughout their lives.  Both Pablo Picasso and Tiger Woods learned from their talented fathers, learning the basics from the start.  Without coaching, surely both would not have done well with originality and a higher development than their initial coaches, and then later their continued growth with truly great coaches.  Especially for people like me who have less talent, we need more time with the masters.   I know that I have a deficit in having good coaching, but also, it has unwittingly pushed me to listen better to the tangueras with whom I dance.  Often they have danced with great tangueros, and they respond in different ways than I expect.  Because of this, for example, I have learned to do a triple volcada and other "1000-dollar moves" because I am paying attention to how these ladies respond.  Also, even a beginner tanguera can allow something that I would have never thought of without her.  What a great "School of Tango"!


So value the basics and copy the best, but then eventually develop your own style.  This is easy.  The task is philosophical and psychological.  First, we must value originality, and see it for its natural value.  The biblical writer was 90% right and 10% wrong.  And the 10% has transformed the world he knew to the one we know.  Secondly, let's face the facts!  How can we deny our own brain's uniqueness, and thereby allow this uniqueness to play itself out along with other influences from others?  I know many  musicians who did a terrible job of copying other musicians, but people liked the way they played.  Originality sometimes is the outcome of not being a very good copycat.  Technical skill along with listening to the music and your partner will bring originality to your dance.


Ultimately for everyone the the "teaching faulty" should be the music and the many tangueras/tangueros and coaches with whom you can co-discovered a new expression of art.  Has it been done before?  Who cares if it feels new and is new to you.  So try to experience originality as a child does.  "Becoming as a child" or having "the beginners mind" is the cornerstone for the artist who values originality and the wonders of life.  


Back to Carol's Comments:
After our first song of the tanda, Carol told me, "That was wild!"  I wasn't sure that "wild" was good.   She assured me that "wild" was good.   "Well, the music made me do it!" I said.  Osvaldo Pugliese made me do it.  I had very little choice in the matter.


Then during the very next dance I discovered a new turn I had never done before.  I will call it "vuelta de ochos caminandos de Carolina" (description below) because Carol inspired it.*  So originality is listening to who you are, who she is, what the music is saying and coming out with something new.  Perhaps the move might be new ONLY TO YOU, but who cares if someone else has done it if you stumbled onto it all by yourself?  Others may have seen a pristine waterfall in the Amazon, but if you stumble upon it yourself, then you too have "discovered it" just as much as Cristobal Colón "discovered" America in 1492.

At the milonga be original
unless you see this sign.

So go out and discover your own New World of originality, your own "America."   But if you do, dance with the Natives and then go home.  You don't have to take over anything or kill anyone.  It's bad tango etiquette.  If only the Spanish and Pilgrims had known tango etiquette the world would be a different place!   












*Attribution to the music and partner:
Magic moments and discoveries must be recognized and appreciated -- like blessings.  I highly suggest that you recognize the music and your partner's role in this magic if you want to develop "Good Tango Karma."   




Very obscure foot note about the move I named after Carol:  
The description of this particular move is a series of about three or four back ochos for her while the man is doing ochos caminandos.   The name "caminando" is because both are taking the same amount of steps (walking together).  The man has his right foot forward (when the turn is counter-clockwise).  A clockwise turn is difficult in close embrace but is possible and requires the man's left foot forward.  The man must over-step the last part of the ocho (on the unison fourth step) in order to make her pivot to make a full circle.  If you have any questions or want to see this, I may record this and put it on YouTube.






Light bulb photo credit:
http://davidmichaelangelosilva.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/originality-is-dead-but-its-okay/  

The Unbalanced Tango Faculty

The Tripod of Tango: Skill/Social Value/Originality

I realized something about tango during a conversation about tango and art.

Alex, a painter and graphic artist friend of mine, told me about his experience in a prestigious school of art in California.  He had a great instructor, who pointed out three schools of thought that pervade at most large schools of art.  His mentor told him to look for three types of teachers who have their special focus:

1.  The Obsession for Skill as an artist.

2. The Obsession for Originality as an artist, to do things others have not done before.

3. The Obsession for Social Meaning -- to create art that speaks to the larger human condition.

This same teacher, however, pointed out that no matter which school of thought you followed, the artist will die poor if he or she does not create something aesthetic that others can understand.  Skill, originality and a social meaning have no value if people cannot understand it or are not drawn to the artist's intended message.

Skill by itself has no soul.  Originality can be simply weird or too visionary for it to be appreciated.  Social meaning can be a preaching stump for some "enlightenment" that will only embarrass the same artist in 20 years.

Imagine now if we look at tango as it is taught and practiced today throughout the world.  We hear so much in classes about our stances and balance.  So, one might think that tango, as an improvisational dance with intricate balance issues and changing of individual and shared axies that tango itself would be taught in a balanced way. But it is not.

One might think tango as a socially rich dance with an intricate social etiquette, that it would be taught with a balance of technical skill, social sophistication and a keen eye for original expression that values the larger social picture. But it is not.

One might think that tango as a remarkably original art form as we see at the highest levels of the performing arts (unlike in ballroom dance which looks more and more the same at the highest levels) -- that TANGO of all art forms would look like a tripod, a very balanced structure of Originality/Skill/Social Value.  But it is not.


At the University of World Art: 
The school of tango's faculty is unbalanced 

Our schools of the Art of Tango are very lopsided.  The majority of our teachers in tango are following the Obsession for Skill path. 

This is the sad state of affairs for tango.  Imagine if a school of jazz -- perhaps the most improvisational music since baroque -- just worked on skill, intonation and theory!  Imagine if sociologists, community activists and social rights organizers were mostly interested how well their plans could be implemented rather than how many lives were positively impacted!  Imagine if the school of Arts & Sciences at any university had no faculty member interested in the principles of exactitude and technique to add to the social impact and original expression of the arts? 

The School of the Art of Tango has an overwhelming faculty obsessed with Skill & Techniques.  The head librarian has all the steps ever created all neatly cataloged.  Sure, the teachers may be very balanced as dancers with originality.  In fact they may be sought out as performance dancers because of their originality and musicality as their most salient strength.   They may love their work for the social connections and the social meaning of human connection between dancers.   However, they do not help their students with floorcraft or community building.  Instead, they teach steps they most like or what their students want to copy.  They teach without pairing it with a particular piece of music that spawned it.  The Skill & Techniques Faculty may dance well in close embrace, especially when dancing just for fun, but they teach open embrace because social connection is secondary to opening up and showing one's skill with sacadas, ganchos, vocadas, colgadas and boleos.  Skill is what the vast majority of teachers hammer.  You will NOT get good grades in the School of Skill & Techniques if you dance musically while in close embrace.  No cool scadas, colgadas, volcadas?  You'll get a C and not be allowed to perform with the top students upon graduation.

Practice what you preach
Okay.  I too am an unbalanced teacher.  I admit it.  My ability as a teacher is only to get people to walk, to listen each other's souls and the music.  I am a very lopsided teacher.  My methods are only focused on connection because I use tango as trauma therapy.  An amazing thing happens, however, in therapy.  People learn to dance well and fast.  Their musicality is outstanding.  But my focus is all about the social aspect first.  That is my bias, my own obsession as a non-tenured teacher in a small, windowless room at the School of Tango.  At my closet-sized office, I have over my door my own "tripod" of balance.  Although I do believe in the balance of Skill, Originality and Social Value, my little sign reads:  "The heart.  The soul.  The connection of two."  Yet, doesn't this sound rather primal too?  To me it sounds like what tango was and not what it has become.  It sounds like a Buenos Aires with no dance studios and tourists. 

The world of tango teaching is not all bad out there.  Tango is resilient.  Often the people who once just loved Tango Nuevo with a strong electric bass and drums and were "step collectors" magically fall in love with the classics, the social embrace and the simplicity a musically inspired tango walk.  Also, teachers of social tango abound who know about the art of balance.  You must find them (or be one yourself).  Excellent skill-focused teachers respond to their students too; so tell your teacher that you want to develop your own expression of tango; tell your teacher you want to develop a way of dancing that will connect you socially to people for the rest of your life.  I have had had some great teachers who taught from the heart and practiced a balance of social value/skill/originality.  Without them as my guides, I would not enjoy tango as much as I do.

While out on a search for your teacher, look for balance.  Balance looks like a tripod.



Post a Comment:  If you cannot post easily to this blog, please send a comment to mark.word1@gmail.com.  I have had email from readers who have said their comment "disappears" after they send it.  So please copy your comment before sending it forward!  I'd love to hear from you.


Photo Credit, and to see the artist's work go to:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/tango-kimberly-eshelman.html

Wide Spectrum Tango

How wide of a spectrum is your taste for tango?

I am more and more aware of how tango dancers are like musicians.  Some musicians find themselves out of work because of two things.  First, they want to play what they like.  So if they only like 1950's country western, they find themselves in a niche that may never have a revival and their audience may die off before they do.  


The second type of musicians have a wide spectrum except their "spectrum of light" is not in the visible spectrum of the majority of people (red through violet).  It is like being able to see a band of light invisible to the naked eye, such as x-ray light or infrared, but your friends and audience cannot see what you do.  


Some dancers will find themselves not out of work like these musicians but perhaps out of inspiration to dance because of having either a narrow spectrum of tastes or a spectrum that most other dancers don't "see."   It is true that some people turn to socializing or just listening to the music, and it is not an indication of snobbery or a narrow spectrum.  Much of Piazzolla's work, for example, is not something that many tangueros/tangueras in Argentina would dance to.  However, they may have a deep love for this music.  Also, in Columbia, where Gardel died, one can hear tangos being played on the streets, but less dancing.  Again, listening is okay, and an perhaps an indication of a wide and discriminating taste of tango -- perhaps more discriminating than mine, because you will find me on the dance floor for anything, kind of like clapping between the movements of Beethoven when I first heard his work live for the first time.  I was a boy from a small town in Nevada.  I had a passion for Beethoven's music but little cultural development.  (Luckily, I wasn't the only one clapping.  There were other small-town people in the audience too.  We just did not know better.)


Having a wide spectrum which normal people do not have, however, can be a good thing.  This may be a "visionary" taste and appreciation.  This person can be very alone unless people join the vision.  Rembrandt's use of shadow was not appreciated in his lifetime.  He stood alone.   Being visionary is the way that new music is created.  Classically trained musicians disliked cords that jazz musicians played.  A C minor 7th with an added 9th would have made Bach roll over in his grave.  Rock 'n roll musicians loved playing cords, like C major 6th, that jazz musicians hated or felt were too simple.  They put their noses up in the air and stopped working as much.


It's ideal to have a very wide spectrum of tastes in tango.  If your tastes are either very narrow -- one composer, let's say, or one era, then milongas will become very disappointing.  You can tell yourself that you have discriminating tastes, but that could be tantamount to refusing to share a glass of wine with a friend because she only has white wine and not the quality that you allow your taste buds to experience.  That is the problem with developing tastes in anything.  Sometimes it is a great advantage of not becoming to trained in things.  This is the paradox of becoming more sophisticated in any art. 


The task at hand is psychological.  If the goal is individualistic, then you will find this path very interesting and deep.  However, if your goal in tango in your life is social, then the realm of tastes of your friends will be important as much as your own.  Also if your goal is social, you will minimize the mumbling under your breath (negative self-talk) when you consider the context of a milonga.  Are you in NYC at a milonga, or are you at a milonga in the middle of Nebraska?  The context is important in a social setting.  (Sorry, someone in the middle of Nebraska may have one of the best milongas in the world; so I offer apologies now.)


I knew a man who had nothing good to say about a local production of Amadeus.  First this was poor social skills on his part, because my friend had given us all a free ticket to the play.  Then my friend put on a party after the play.  Why was this guest being so critical of a gift?  Secondly, he did not take into consideration the context.  He was used to going to NYC; however, this play was in a small town outside of Boston.  Would I ever invite him to a high school play with my children in roles if he didn't understand the concept of context?


Similarly, if I go to El Paso to dance, I would go there because I have good friends there.  I would also know that the DJs may not play the repertoire of tango I enjoy, nor even follow the idea of tandas.  I would expect to hear a lot of tango nuevo songs, played over and over and sometimes in the same night!  But I would dance with friends and enjoy myself in that context. 


I should mention that I worked a lot as a musician.  As long as I was playing I enjoyed the music.  I wouldn't go home and listen to much of what I played, but I enjoyed a wide spectrum.  Musicians who had a small spectrum we called "bag" musicians.  "That is his bag; he only plays 40's Jazz," we'd say.  Also, I saw embittered musicians who hated new music.  They just wanted to play their "bag." 


Musicians who were working appreciated the dancers, our colleagues on stage, and the challenge of doing whatever genre we were playing in an authentic way.  It is a challenge to play simply and authentically.   There are lots of ways to make yourself challenged.  We could exchange places -- I would play the bass and the bassist the drums.  Or I once learned to play country western left handed -- making yet a new challenge.  


I would not say that the narrow spectrum tango mind is a disease.  We are all born with a no-spectrum tango mind, unless our parents played it loud enough to hear it from the womb.  For different reasons we may grow up to expand our love or tango, or it stays very narrow.

My spectrum was very narrow (that is, NO-Specturm tango) until I heard it as an adult.  Then I noticed, as many many people, that I preferred tango nuevo because as an American I was used to a stronger bass and the presence of drums for dance music.  But my spectrum keeps growing.  I love it all, but of course, I have many favorites.

So when I hear someone refuse to dance because they are waiting for a tango they like, I wonder if they are enjoying listening or are they sitting there tortured by the music they do not like.  If I have a hurt foot or an aching back, of course, I am going to be choosing the music very carefully before I dance.  However, many listeners and dancers who justify their "tango bag" will ultimately have no reason to be at a milonga.


Recently I went to an alternative milonga.  Now it is true that I felt that the DJ chose some music that was very difficult to dance to, but I did enjoy myself in the social context, and I was exposed to some music that truly was great and it inspired new ways of moving.  I smiled and held friends in my arms.  Considering the context -- a milonga that I purposely chose because it was very close, that I knew the DJ's vision of danceable music is different than mine, and that it drew a certain crowd -- how could I complain?


May your spectrum grow from the middle of the tango rainbow!


Photo Credit:
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/aadams/story/mysteries_of_color_and_light/

Good Tango Karma

This way to good karma

Imagine if ideas for dance steps were the same as writing a novel.  Each tango move, let's say, were a story in and of itself.  Imagine for a moment -- just pretend --  that each tango step were intellectual property.  Now let's also assume, that unlike in the world of intellectual property and commerce, that in the tango world we all agreed to share and simply give credit where credit is due.  


This world already is very real in the world of Karma -- tango karma.


These are the steps to good tango karma:

1.  The music inspires and gives you a totally new idea.  You silently or openly acknowledge the music when some new beautiful movement results.  The music includes so many things:  The composer, the musicians and the DJ.  Go over and thank the DJ and find out what he or she knows about the music.

2.  You are dancing with a women or a man who consummates this new idea from the music and takes you to a new place you never have been.  I try to remember this woman by naming the step after her.  Sometimes it is only for that moment, and I cannot go back to remember her or the movement, but I recognize the magic of that moment and from where it came.

3.  If you are a teacher, you take this new move to a tango class and teach this inspiration taken from the music and your partner.  You give credit to these sources of inspiration and ideas.  Also, you might mention the composer and orchestra who inspired the move.  Why not PLAY this music too?  If your partner is there at the class, you demonstrate the new step together.

Giving credit opens up a whole new world of the joy of movement, of a community which embraces each other.  In literature or scientific journals not giving credit (even in a foot note) would be grounds for a law suit and/or being severely reprimanded by the professional community.

I have suggested in early posts la Música is the true leader.  But music is much more.  It is our great inspiration.  Our partner corroborates in the inspiration.  So this is "tango karma":  If you really want to be prolific with ideas and the beauty of tango -- acknowledge your sources of inspiration.    If you do not want to have bad karma, tango teachers, always teach with the music that inspires a step.   Certain orchestras make you dance differently.  Mention that.  And if you really want to have good karma, mention the tanguero or tanguera who inspired the new idea.  If the idea was taught by an old milonguero/milonguera, give credit.  It is probably too late now, but wouldn't it be nice to know who inspired him or her -- which composer, orchestra, piece of music and person in his or her arms?


This is the way to good tango karma, and much more enjoyment in this art of movement.

Photo credit (not sure who did the original photo -- but found two sources) and two good articles:
http://cherylkicksass.blogspot.com/2011/06/clear-evidence-laws-of-karma-are-for.html
http://suddenlysinglejourney.com/2011/05/05/happiness-is-creating-karma/

Cathedral Organ Tanguera

Strike a key and then wait for the sound.

Dancing with some women is like playing a cathedral organ.

Let me explain: Lately I have figured out a way to dance with women who are chronically behind the beat. I have to have body language that is 1/2 beat ahead of the music, which is okay musically, but very complex for a tanguero.

However, if the woman is actively in her feminine role, my role is easy because she is following the true leader -- the music -- whom I too must follow.

If the woman is fully aware of the music, the tanguero does not have to pretend he is playing a church organ, which has to be one of the hardest instruments to play. First of all, by itself a cathedral organist is using all ten fingers and both feet.  That is hard, but the most challenging musical challenge is that what the organist hears is often delayed from what all the fingers and feet are doing!  In some cathedral the pipes are so far away that the delay can be a full second off!  It is unfathomable for me to think of the training and discipline to play in this way. Yet as a tanguero, I have insight to a degree of the task of the cathedral organist because of some women and their delay.  Click here on this mind-blowing video link that demonstrates the sound delay at St. John's Cathedral in NYC.

This is not God's Design:  Delayed Tangueras

A tanguero should not try to fix a woman who does this at a milonga. In a practica he can at least suggest that it feels as if she is listening way too much to the tanguero and not enough to the music. I have seen huge changes in women after saying this.  And they sometimes say, "Free at last!  Free at last!"  It's a holy cathedral moment.

I will fault no tanguera or tanguero for not being in the music because they have been taught to lead or follow each other.   This is a teacher problem not a student problem.  Once we begin on the leader/follower analogy we are already on the wrong path.  No wonder musicality is such a chore sometimes and in mostly in "advanced" classes because we have to go back to being new tangueros/tangueras and start listening with the "beginner's mind"!  Why not have the beginners mind even while you are a beginner and learn from the start that the music is the true leader?

Women who depend too much on the man will slow him down and make his musicality miserable or very difficult.  (Ladies, don't complain that men who do not follow the music if you are not following the music yourself!)  On the other hand, too often men who are not listening to her sense of the music and her abilities as a tangera end up "dancing" but not to the music.

El Rol Femenino y Masculino
The following tango training video is incredibly illustrative of this concept of delay. The teachers use the "military analogy" of leader/follower, but they really have caught the spirit of both people being active. I am in a job that has me surrounded by female colleagues. Much of my work is intuitive as a therapist and I regularly have men and women crying in my office. Not a typical "man-job." However, in tango I am fully in my male energy. On the other end of the spectrum I know tangueras who are surrounded by men in their work, and they love tango because they feel fully in their feminine energy. Lead and follow is really a very poor analogy, but it is here to stay. I like "yin and yang" or "male and female energies" to explain what is going on when the Leader (la música) takes us out onto the dance floor to follow "her voice."

So watch this video and notice the terrible delay of a woman who is far to passive, relying on the man too much and dancing behind the "compas" (pulse) of the leader's bidding (yes, that's the music).



Thanks to Modern Tanguera who introduced me to this video.  Visit her blog at:  http://moderntanguera.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/leadership-and-followership/

Photo credits:
Organ console http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/nyregion/26organ.html
Lady on organ:  http://churchorganist.blogspot.com/


Extra Credit:
Just for the fun of it and if you are interested, here is another video (secondary to the organist link above).  Watch this organist at Notre Dame in Paris. The delay on this central organ is not that bad, but he must play ahead of the beat because the choir is standing by the pipes.

An Open Letter to Tango Musicians

The Pan American Symphony Orchestra (PASO)

Some musicians may be open to hear what their most attentive audience wants.  What would you say to them if they would only listen?  Below is a letter to tango musicians and more specifically to the director of the Pan American Symphony.  I did get a response, which was basically, "thanks for writing."  So the letter goes unanswered.

If you have been following my blog, the series on musicians "killing" tango came from my first draft to the director of PASO (below).  In my very first post in which I mentioned PASO, I included a video of clip of the Pan American Symphony Orchestra, but I realized something in talking with my dance partner after posting the video clip and article.  I was lamenting to her that I would have liked to dance to such great live music. My partner countered that not everyone wants to dance but just "intensely listen" to the Orchestra. The words "intensely listen" hit me. I realized that if I am dancing, only then am I really listening intensely with my whole brain.  She agreed that this too was her experience in tango.  Sitting and intensely listening to tango is only valid for musicians actively playing tango.  I know this feeling of intensely listening in two ways only -- playing music to any kind of music or dancing to tango.

I can only speak for myself, but when I am dancing to tango more than any other dance music, my mind, body and soul are engaged, not just my ears and brain.  Perhaps this phenomenon could be called, "intense listening-via-participation."  I make pauses as a dancer because the music does when I dance tango; I may have been stepping only once per measure at the start of the song, but during the variación at the end of the piece, my steps may become only a blur, mirroring the virtuoso bandoneón's climax.  Sitting could be intense, I suppose, but it is not participatory and way too cerebral for a music born out of the African canyengue clave (tresillo).*

Musicians often want people to stop and listen to them and "fully enjoy" or "to fully take notice" to their art.  However, I believe that this is a mistake with tango and most Latin American music, which is both a psychological and a somatic experience.  Latin American musicians distinguishes themselves by wanting people to be moved to dance to their music.

So it is not just one person or orchestra tipica, but to all modern tango composers and musicians for whom I write this appeal:


Sergio Alessandro Buslje,
    Artistic Director and Conductor
Pan American Symphony Orchestra
125 Michigan Ave., NE
Washington , DC 20017
panam.symphony@gmail.com


Estimado Director Buslje:

I fully enjoyed the quality and passion of the Pan American Symphony Orchestra's performance I recently attended.  Your mission statement on your website and the breadth of what you are doing to promote Latin American music is impressive.  More than having a mission statement, your fulfillment of this mission is highly esteemed by critics.  You are with out a doubt influencing modern tango composers and musicians.  For this reason, I hope to appeal to you as a life-long musician and a dancer that you change your presentation slightly.  I suggest that at some point in your concert you allow common people to dance to your music.

I think this is really the spirit of tango -- the people's dance.  Tango has survived especially because of dancers, as has been the case with other Latin American music.  Jazz is no longer a dance "in the street," but tango, cumbia, salsa and samba are.  A dancing public demonstrates something essential about Latin America.

My experience from living in Latin America, being a dancer, and from being a Latin percussionist is that Latin Americans hold their music close to their hearts but "listen" through their bodies as dancers.  I hope that whenever you perform in the future that at least at some point you invite the public to dance.  Doing so would teach the unknowing public a great deal about what Latin American culture and music has to offer the world:  A music that moves the soul and body.

What are you thoughts about this?

Sincerely,

Mark Word

Washington, D.C.

PS to my readers:   Since I received no response to this, perhaps some other musicians you know would benefit from reading this and the series, Musicians Killing Tango:  Click on the links -- Part One; Part Two; Part Three (part 3 included DJs as proxy musicians).  I believe that if musicians read these articles, they will get insight into a great business plan for themselves.  Musicians who value the dancer are doing themselves a business-wise favor and at the same time keeping the music they love truly alive.  My experience has been that modern tango ensembles and composers too often are influenced by Piazzolla or other composers who were not thinking from the dancer's perspective.  Then these present musicians get a gig to play live tango and wonder why people don't like live musicians.  It isn't the live music so much as the musicians not knowing what is danceable and loved by dancers.  Those who love to dance need to help out the sometimes unwitting musicians who want to please dancers but do not know why they are not invited back.  Dancers must find a way to tell them how to please the audience-that-moves!  I hope these blog discussions help create a better musician-dancer alliance.

*The tango clave is denied by many musicians and ignored by most authors.  The Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clave_(rhythm) is an example of forgetting tango's clave, while mentioning even the tresillo in Middle Eastern music and southern Asia!  However, if you love tango and know tango, the tango clave is clearly there and omnipresent even in silence.  More on this subject will follow with videos of each of the claves.

Photo credit:
http://www.panamsymphony.org/about2.html