Let's continue our first taste of tango with this one ...
.. chosen for the music.
Bahia Blanca by Carlos Di Sarli.
A sweeping classic that contains all the elements of tango music - gorgeous sweeping melodies, huge percussive "get off your bottom and walk to the music" sections ... the ever-so-interpretable pauses ...
People go to a milonga intending to dance with several others. Only dancing with your own partner is the exception, not the norm.
Walking over to someone and asking them to #dance is considered VERY BAD MANNERS. It places pressure on the invitee, and the act is very publicly visible.
Instead, a silent subtle, almost invisible, look and nod - the "cabaceo" - is used to invite and accept. Declining is without injury - you act as if you didn't notice the invitation.
Now, the cabaceo is a skill to be developed too - like much in tango - it isn't easy, and you risk making a fool of yourself, or going home without a single dance - a rite of passage for tangueros and tangueras.
A lot has been written about the cabaceo - you can read some here:
Let's also bust the myth that creativity is only in leading and following is a passive responsive act.
Sure - as beginners, leaders are learning to lead, and followers to follow
But as dancers progress and become advanced - followers express themselves within the framework of following - and good leaders listen and create the space for followers to do that.
Leaders and followers who can do this are in demand !
At a social dance evening, called a "milonga", three kinds of music are played for us to dance to:
tango
vals (walz)
milonga
Yes, confusingly, the 3rd one shares the same name as the evening.
The order isn't random, 3 or 4 songs of the same kind are played as a "tanda" with a pause in between. It is during this pause we invite a new partner to dance, or we take a break.
We'll hear some tango, vals and milonga music in the following posts...
The most common music we dance to is generically called tango.
Unlike most dances, there is no identifying rhythm. You can identify a quickstep or a chachacha by their rhythm. Not tango.
Tango is basic 4-beat bar but it is the wider structure and style that is characteristic (but not defining) of tango music. And that changes over the last 100 years too!
Here's a nice video explaining the basic structure of #tango#music and how we choose to #dance to it
Now the milonga stands out as quite different as it has a strong driving syncopated rhythm which has its roots in African music according to the historians.
It is pretty high energy and playful, but because it is part of the tango world, the best milonga has beautiful melodies and inviting phrases and pauses, and opportunities to dance over and around the beat.
Leonardo Acosta is someone who spent a lifetime dancing tango - first in Argentina, then later in the UK.
His style is what some call "porteno" - very musical, more playful but still very grounded and earthy. Street tango, perhaps.
I was lucky to have spent years learning from him.
He was a believer in a masculine lead - ad he taught me the importance of being grounded, lowering your centre of gravity, keeping your feet on the ground.
Again, continuing the idea of strength in simplicity, elegance and a groundedness ..
.. here is Geraldo Escobar and Milena Plebs.
You can enjoy the video, but if you want, try see how his movement has a low centre of gravity, his axis is rarely off centre, and his feet rarely off the floor.
"Direct your energy down into the floor, not up in the air" is what he told me, paraphrased.
Gustavo Naveira is a legend, and one of last of that generation of "milongueros".
Enjoy the dance - but watch it again, and observe how his energy is low into the ground, his movements simple, firm and deliberate, his feet almost gripping the floor ... like a panther stalking prey...
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