Skip to main content

Music & Tango


So sad they've split up! Would have learnt a wealth of information from them about music, musicality, steps and really listening to the structure of Tango on another level. Time to find Erdemsel somewhere in this world then!

This brought me back to a concept that I think is really relevant for Tango though, in order to understand Tango beyond dance steps, it's the realisation that the evolution of this dance is so much a combination of lifestyle, of music and of tradition.

For me, the Universe of Truths in Tango consists of :

- Embrace
- Music
- Movement

What is real Tango? Is it the lost years of the 30's? Where we only play 'Golden Age' stuff and conform to a notion of 'tradition'.Where we look at old recordings and find confusion in the boxy, non-disassociated steps of the past maestros. Where up to now I look at the elderly women who have more meat, who have seen more, and wonder why the maestros call them '80 kg of Tango'. How does this embodiment come about? Do you only achieve that when you've lived through heartbreak and done your miles on the floor?

I am thankful that I began my journey with MTango. I am thankful I then discovered and paired it with MATC. One provided me the range, the other provided me the basics and technique drilling that I still use today. I often think that my learning of Tango is so much like my learning of English, diving into the deep end of books without knowing quite the 'why' or the 'how'. Up to this day I still don't understand Grammatical Structure but who needs that when you can write a full analysis and score 6/6 for 2 units of A level English Literature right ;).

Back to this. I've always loved it when maestros do demos at the end, that connection, musicality and demonstration is far and beyond what they end up performing to at 11pm dressed in their finery's. No, here they are stripped down, raw, having fun, and it shows in the ease of the movement, the seeming flow of it.

Once upon time in a Mexican restaurant, someone by the name of Cikgu told me that - he wasn't feeling the music, halfway through dancing, he realised that, the fleeting sentiment was lost. I didn't quite get him then, but I think I do now.

Tango is NOTHING without the music, without the bandoneon sounds, without the violin wavering on it's top note. It's like a great curry missing the curry leaves. Or Assam Laksa without the prawn sauce. Which is why I need to learn more about the phrasing, about the music and the origins. How to read a score is akin to how to move to it.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020

Ah 2020. You have been upended in the most ridiculous way possible by a virus that has destroyed every single activity we do for fun, leisure, pleasure, necessity, survival. Because, humans. Was so looking forward to a year of dancing starting with the Taiwan Valentine's Tango Marathon, leading into STM v5, London, Portugal and maybe BA by the end of the year. Guess what! ALL GONE, DESTROYED. It has been a year since I went to a marathon/event. I am probably the saddest I have been when it comes to the dance front. 11 years ago I made it such a part of my identity that it has accompanied me through the years of visiting different cities for work, for holiday, for weddings, for connections, for reunions with exes, for meeting new interests. Shaped my 20's like nothing else has and only grows stronger year after year. 2020 was the reset required. Mentally, emotionally. This relationship with Tango remains my strongest and most developed of my many relationships with many a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Malaysia Prelims & Tango Festival - Musings

Off the back of a weekend that required me to leave work early and sleep cray hours to finally get back into a semi-human mode of work and sleep. Thoughts? When I first started tango, I jumped straight into a Fire & Ice festival in Ann Arbor January of 2010. That was my first taste of a tango festival which was relatively social and a good scene in hindsight. Coming back to Malaysia I've participated in the KL Festival every single year, Singapore festival twice, Taiwan festival once (24 hour on a whim - fuck it all flight), Shanghai festival once. Other than that the flavour of the day nowadays is definitely geared more toward marathons/encuentros, and for a good reason. Festivals in this part of the world are seriously so tipped toward a certain "type" that it is far more worth my money and sanity to go for the social dancing rather than the festival format. Granted, lessons were good, always learning, picking up new things. Competition was, so-so for me, was...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Unselfish Lead

Been putting on the hat of a leader over this past week and enjoying it even more. Yeah I have no idea how to do giros or sacadas, and don't talk about ganchos either, but what I've figured is that as long as musicality is there, as long as connection exists, both parties enjoy it. This has made me wonder about something though-I always thought that leaders were having all the fun at the start-in the sense that the steps that are taken in this dance are dependent on the leaders to have trained and learnt them-as a follower you can follow even if you don't know much about what you are doing, as long as the leader does. All the classes then seem to be about the leader's steps. But then I've also come to realise that, as a leader, you are expected to craft the dance to understand the steps through the viewpoint of the lady, and maybe this is where many teachers don't emphasize enough. That every step you take, you have to realise what signals you are giving ou...
Post a Comment
Read more