The more and more I think about WHERE I want to be with this dance, the more I'm leaning toward being a visually fun and fantastic person to watch. I know, everyone says the best Tango can never be seen, and I do not disagree with that, in fact I wholeheartedly agree, but at the same time, I find that putting on an 'act' or a persona, allows me end up inhabiting my moves so much more. That the fact that you can fake it til you make it actually has some truth to the matter.
When we see teachers, and when we see professionals dance, all I see is the gloss and polish and shine. The confidence is palpable, sometimes because they have a set choreography (which can either be discernible or not), sometimes because they have practiced together since they were 5 and know how just about every sequence will feel like before it is done.
Practice. One thing I've always tried to not do is..not practice. I have always felt that practicing takes away the rawness of matching energies, of being surprised. Couple that with the lack of leads here and every-time we dance its almost practicing anyway given multiple tandas with the same person through the night. I have to attribute all of my basics shaped to the mistakes that have come about with different leaders, to the differences and adjustments I have had to make with arm position, arm pressure, arm everything. To the pointed toes and pigeon-toed mistakes of the beginning, pointed out from left to right and left again until the heel caps have been worn out every which angle and every which way.
Maybe why rawness is so prized above everything is that, that was the genesis of an attraction to Tango anyway. That the DNA of it originates from the experimentations and the fooling around of someone or the other way back in 1920 that led to this move or that move. That anyone's first encounter with it, is not in the precision of a turn or an outstretched big toe, but in the raw feeling of delight of communicating with someone without words or physical gestures, but through an invitation and a sensation. That original cathartic release, I daresay, is what we hope to achieve again through conscious creation this time.
Maybe the rebelliousness of none practice from me comes with the forced practice in just about every other area. Swimming. Piano. Violin. Basketball. Math problems and memorisation. Some enjoyable, some thoroughly detestable (but of course highly usable later).
Tango to me was meant to be raw. But the more I progress the more I realise its a rawness that has been cultivated. A rawness that comes about from a thousand hours of balance work, another thousand hours of pivoting, two thousand hours of walking backward and so on and so forth. It is shaping your own physical being to high-strung precision so that the guy can be all the way off, or all the way on his own axis and it wouldn't matter to you. He could be flailing around like a drowning man hung onto you like a buoy and you would still be there, cool calm and collected. (Hopefully visually saving the dance).
Yes, visuals do matter. Yes, practice does matter. Even if it is not for a performance, but for making yourself into the best dancer you can possible be. To give yourself and to give your time and effort into something that brings joy to yourself, and hopefully to your partner. That is what keeping the mental image of what you look like at the forefront a boost.
This just got picked up in an even more succinct manner - https://www.facebook.com/notes/veronica-toumanova/why-tango-is-tough-on-women-and-what-to-do-about-it/10153143007602499
When we see teachers, and when we see professionals dance, all I see is the gloss and polish and shine. The confidence is palpable, sometimes because they have a set choreography (which can either be discernible or not), sometimes because they have practiced together since they were 5 and know how just about every sequence will feel like before it is done.
Practice. One thing I've always tried to not do is..not practice. I have always felt that practicing takes away the rawness of matching energies, of being surprised. Couple that with the lack of leads here and every-time we dance its almost practicing anyway given multiple tandas with the same person through the night. I have to attribute all of my basics shaped to the mistakes that have come about with different leaders, to the differences and adjustments I have had to make with arm position, arm pressure, arm everything. To the pointed toes and pigeon-toed mistakes of the beginning, pointed out from left to right and left again until the heel caps have been worn out every which angle and every which way.
Maybe why rawness is so prized above everything is that, that was the genesis of an attraction to Tango anyway. That the DNA of it originates from the experimentations and the fooling around of someone or the other way back in 1920 that led to this move or that move. That anyone's first encounter with it, is not in the precision of a turn or an outstretched big toe, but in the raw feeling of delight of communicating with someone without words or physical gestures, but through an invitation and a sensation. That original cathartic release, I daresay, is what we hope to achieve again through conscious creation this time.
Maybe the rebelliousness of none practice from me comes with the forced practice in just about every other area. Swimming. Piano. Violin. Basketball. Math problems and memorisation. Some enjoyable, some thoroughly detestable (but of course highly usable later).
Tango to me was meant to be raw. But the more I progress the more I realise its a rawness that has been cultivated. A rawness that comes about from a thousand hours of balance work, another thousand hours of pivoting, two thousand hours of walking backward and so on and so forth. It is shaping your own physical being to high-strung precision so that the guy can be all the way off, or all the way on his own axis and it wouldn't matter to you. He could be flailing around like a drowning man hung onto you like a buoy and you would still be there, cool calm and collected. (Hopefully visually saving the dance).
Yes, visuals do matter. Yes, practice does matter. Even if it is not for a performance, but for making yourself into the best dancer you can possible be. To give yourself and to give your time and effort into something that brings joy to yourself, and hopefully to your partner. That is what keeping the mental image of what you look like at the forefront a boost.
This just got picked up in an even more succinct manner - https://www.facebook.com/notes/veronica-toumanova/why-tango-is-tough-on-women-and-what-to-do-about-it/10153143007602499
Comments
Post a Comment