April 30, 2011
Tango as a Philosophy
Tango is different things to different individuals: for men, it is leading; for women, it is following; for beginners, it is steps; for seasoned dancers, it is the expression of music and feelings; for lovers, it is a relationship; for attention seekers, it is a show; for heterosexuals, it is a gender expression; for homosexuals, it is a gender-neutral play; for social dancers, it is a dissipation for personal pleasure; for professionals, it is a job to entertain audiences; for casual enthusiasts, it is a recreation; for devoted milongueros, it is a lifestyle; for foreigners, it is a simple interest or fascination; and for Argentinians, it stands as a deeply ingrained emblem that bears their history and culture... We all dance tango differently because of who we are and how we understand tango.
Tango philosophy involves issues that make us different. The following is an incomplete list of such issues. Each may have many answers. Some answers may be more or less correct or incorrect, others may just be personal preferences and neither right nor wrong. But collectively these opinions and preferences decide the way each of us dances and behaves, and divide us into diffferent categories. Studying and exchanging views on these issues can help deepen our understanding, learn from each other, improve our dance, and, hopefully, achieve mastery through a comprehensive grasp of all aspects of tango.
1. What is tango
2. Why people dance tango
3. The gender roles in tango
4. The relationship of the two sexes
5. Gender neutrality vs. gender expression
6. Independence vs. interdependence
7. Feminism and its impact on tango
8. Individualism and its impact on tango
9. Individual performance vs. teamwork
10. Tango as a skill vs. tango as a fellowship
11. Elitism vs. populism
12. Steps vs. chreography
13. Cultural bias and impacts
14. Social tango vs. performance tango
15. Close embrace vs. open embrace
16. Embrace-oriented style vs. step-oriented style
17. Movements vs. feelings
18. Romanticism vs. gymnastics
19. Prioritizing look vs. prioritizing essence
20. The unity of form and content
21. Classic tango music vs. alternative music
22. Dancing steps vs. dancing music
23. Dancing to rhythm vs. dancing to melody
24. The danceability of tango music
25. Tango styles
26. Three theories on leading
27. Self-centered leading vs. partner-centered leading
28. Active follow vs. passive follow
29. Simplicity vs. complexity
30. Elegance vs. fanciness
31. Comfort vs. beauty
32. Reform vs. tradition
33. Creativity vs. standardization
34. Imitating steps vs. developing skills
35. Progressive dancing vs. spot dancing
36. Cabeseo vs. verbal invitation
37. Artistic sublimation vs. vulgarism
38. Liberty vs. milonga codes
39. The freedom in tango
40. Tango and the outlook on life
41. A dance that teaches the world to love
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Do you regard all of these pairs of concepts as strict dichotomies? I think some of them are actually hard to separate out, such as "movement orientation/music-feeling orientation" or "personal enjoyment versus show-off" (we want to look good while we're dancing so as to get more dances and hence more enjoyment!) or "elegance vs. comfort" (if your aesthetic involves a very natural, smooth look, which is also comfortable to dance) or "rhythm versus melody" (I am still sceptical as to whether we can really dance to the melody, as opposed to the rhythms within the melody). It sounds as though there is potential for some interesting discussion.
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We hope beauty and comfort go hand in hand, but that is not always the case. Movement oriented dancers like to do fancy stuffs that catch eyes and use whatever embraces that help to expand movement possibilities, often at the cost of their own and their partner’s comfort. On the other hand, those who dance for personal enjoyment may be embrace specific, use simple steps, focus only on personal feelings and don’t care much about how they look.
ReplyDeleteDance to the music does not only mean stepping on the beat, it also means dancing with cadencia. When in motion, the body produces a momentum in each step, which can be maneuvered by accelerating and then halting the body motion to create a lilt or cadence in the horizontal direction, like a wave of motion across each step in correspondence with the rhythmic flow of the music. The rhythm is faster, regular, and less emotional. The melody is slower, more sentimental and often irregular. Dancers with good musicality can use different cadencia and other means, such as slow motion and pause, to express different emotions.
ReplyDeleteTo: Terpsichoral. I certainly appreciate your comment. But, in reply to your statement that reads “we want to look good while we're dancing so as to get more dances and hence more enjoyment!”. It seems that you’re dancing to impress others instead of concentrating on your partner and how she feels and how you connect with her. If she is pleased with your dance, I can guarantee she will tell other ladies and they will want to dance with you. If she is not pleased with your dance because you are focused on putting on a show for others, then she will tell her friends and they won’t want to dance with you.
ReplyDeleteI’ve seen this happen so many times at Milongas.