Tango is Life

Robert Fulghum on Starting Tango in his Seventies

Michael

Robert Fulghum has started writing abuot tango. Our paths have crossed only obliquely from time to time, since I first met him when he officiated the wedding of my one-time colleague Peter Steinbrueck. He is a man of exceptional passion and kindness. I was thrilled to see that he had taken up tango.

Here is the closing paragraph from a post of his:

A dear friend died last week. Died, as we say, peacefully in his sleep after a long life and a quiet retirement. His files were organized, his basement and garage clean, and all his dues paid up. A tidy end. Not for me. My goal now is to dance. All the dances. As long as I can. And then to sit down contented in a chair after the last elegant tango some sweet night and pass on because there just wasn’t another dance left in me.

Corrida Coincidence

Michael

There is a particular model of tango festival workshop that often leaves me a little frustrated. You might call it the Here's a Figure - Hope You Learn Something model. Sometimes there's a deeper lesson that is best taught through the dynamics of a particular figure, such as when Jaimes Friedgen or Homer Ladas teach methods of opening and closing the embrace. But sometimes, it's just a figure that the teacher thought might be fun.

There were a lot of these types of workshops in the intermediate track of the recent Seattle TangoMagic gathering. At first, I felt my dissappointment growing, even as I committed myself to learning everything I could from them anyway. Then a certain coincidence began to take shape. Nearly half of the workshops in that track - and almost all of the figure based workshops - were in some way working with the corrida or the rhythm of the corrida.

Ed Loomis' Tango Terminology has a pretty standard definition of the corrida: "(also: corridita, a little run) from correr: to run. A short sequence of running steps." But obviously, there is a lot more to it than that. Rick McGarrey says: "Using corriditas with various combinations of cadences is the core of tango. All the good dancers build their tango around it—and the only way to use them in a milonga is to be able to start and stop and change directions quickly! And if you want to do your runs when the available space closes up, you'll have to curve them. The smaller the space, the more you curve them... and eventually they will curve in on themselves, and spiral down to a single spot. Your corrida will evolve into a giro."

Right from the start, Rachel Greenburg's relatively simple musicality workshop laid a groundwork. Later, Diego and Negracha Lanau taught a figure that incorporated the corrida (or the corrida rhythm) in three ways. They emphasized floorcraft by using a figure that ended with non-traveling steps, recognizing that on a crowded dance floor, you're not likely to have much room in front of you after a corrida. Obviously, there were quick-quick-slow rhythms in the simple turns workshop that Robin Thomas and Marika Landry taught on the second day. Sergio Natario and Alejandra Arrue taught a very challenging linear figure that I won't endeavor to describe, which also incorporated the corrida in various ways. (I'm finding that this is a figure that stuck with me as a learning tool more than many others, for some reason.) Finally, on the last day, Alex Krebs' tango rhythms workshop explored the corrida in a very pure way, dispensing with figures and music entirely. It would have been interesting to start with that one.

The only workshops that were completely unrelated to the corrida were the two taught by Homer and Cristina Ladas. The first was entitled "Intentions and Invitations" but practically speaking was focused on walking in tight circles on the inside and outside. The second was on transitions of axis. Neither were figure based and both were excellent.

I would enjoy more experiences like this, where several instructors teach an aspect of a single minute element of the dance. There is such richness to be found in the counterpoints, the parallax views, and the contradictions. Somewhere in all that, we make our own synthesis and find our own dance. Or so I would like to believe.

Listening to the Follow

Michael

Finally, after the chaos of the holidays, Eleanore and I are practicing again. it means that tango is more on my mind these days and as a result I have some new abstractions to fuss with. As I've said often enough, I think too much.

I'm thinking about listening. It's not like the concept hasn't been important before this point, but right now it occupies the center of my thoughts. Improving my tango listening skills has become my main focus.

We have to listen to our own body, so that we know where our weight is, where our momentum is, and where various parts of our body are, in relation to each other. We have to listen to the floor itself and stay connected with it. We have to listen to the music, of course, on many levels. We have to listen to the environment of the dance floor, because we're dancing with everyone there, not just with ourselves. And we have to listen to our partner.

It's listening to my partner that has occupied most of my attention recently. Follows are used to thinking in those terms, of course. Leads will naturally give a nod to the concept, but this focus of mine feels like much more than that.

I have often said to friends of mine who were beginning follows that I worried that I wasn't good enough to dance with them. We've all seen experienced leads take an absolute beginner and make them either look good or at least have a very nice time dancing. Personally, I have a hard enough time just dancing with a new, but experienced, follow. Therein lies my interest in listening.

It's almost as if every follow has their own language. (Im sure this is true of leads too.) One person takes big steps in response to a given lead and another person takes several small steps and another does something else entirely. Experienced leads seem to be able to pick up a new follow's language really quickly. This is a skill set distinct from tango vocabulary, combinatorial ability, musicality, or floorcraft. I want to learn it.

I suspect that, just as there are things that make one lead's language easier to understand than another's, there are things that make each follow easier or harder to understand. For example, the other night, when Eleanore made a point of keeping her legs as straight as she could, I was suddenly much more aware of her leg position and momentum. In terms of physics, that just makes sense. I wonder what else there is that makes one follow clearer than another, in this regard.

So, this will be my focus this year. I think that means I should be trying more exercises such as the one that Jaimes once taught in his Five Steps to Tango Enlightenment workshop, in which he had follows arbitrarily change weight whenever they felt like it, challenging leads to pay attention and keep dancing. I think it also means dancing with lots of new people, something I'm still terribly shy about (very much for this reason). And I think it means asking the folks that I do dance with regularly to experiment with me. If you have any advice about it, I would be delighted to hear it.

Ochos in the Snow

Michael

I just got a lovely note from the author of a blog called http://mytangoyear.blogspot.com/. I like her writing and I encourage you to check it out. Or you can look at the pictures of her Ochos in the Snow.

Tango Video Project

Michael

I've become a fan of the Tango Video Project, because now I don't have to start something like that myself. Now I just want the ability to collaborate on marking up segments of the video for study purposes. For example, I would love to be able to see five or six different interpretations of an ocho cortado. The site already has support for tagging which means there is the potential for other types of comparisons and collections. Really well done!

Tango is Flirting

Michael

Something obvious occurred to me the other day, as I was practicing with Eleanore: Tango can be a kind of flirting.

A good friend of mine presented a workshop recently on the topic of flirting. I'm not so sure that a good definition was really offered, but that wasn't really the point of the workshop. For me, flirting is all about playful invitation.

I have gotten to the point in my dancing where I am just comfortable enough that I can be playful with the many little invitations that are the core of leading. Or at least, I can be playful with Eleanore, whose responses are familiar to me.

All the Meat on the Fire

Michael

I'm relishing Rick McGarrey's stories, pictures, and advice at Tango and Chaos in Buenos Aires, especially his explorations of the codes of the milonga. He starts with a story about being scolded by a milonguero for half-hearted dancing. That's where he learned the phrase "Todo la carne en la Parrilla" -- all the meat on the fire. This vegetarian loves the phrase!

Tango Lyrics are Simple Enough for Language Study

Michael

Like many English speaking tango dancers, I've developed an interest in learning Spanish. When I was an arrogant teenager (as opposed to an arrogant adult), I chose to avoid Spanish as a language alternative in school because I associated that choice with the less ambitious kids. Foolish mistake. Fortunately, growing up with several other languages in and around my home (Swedish, German, and English) and studying other romance languages in school (French and Latin), has prepared me at least a little for learning Spanish as an adult. One of my regular exercises is learn the lyrics to tango songs, for which I use several lyrics sites, including (the TangoDC.com Lyrics Homepage. Although they sometimes have the structural challenges of poetry, tango lyrics are not known for their sophistication.

Reflections from Reiko: New York and BsAs, Young and Old

Michael

I received an email a little while back from a dancer named Reiko, who has been traveling to New York and Buenos Aires and sharing some of her thoughts about tango along the way. Here are her latest thoughts from Argentina:

I had a great time in New York. I went to a milonga each night at a different place. I found that there are many more good dancers, leaders, than in Japan. I got acquainted with some guys and exchanged email addresses. I'll meet them again when I am back in NY in April.

About the style and quality of tango in NY, I found it a bit more like a show, which is quite understandable. At one milonga, we had a demonstration by professionals from BsAs and I didn't know then I was going to see the female dancer a few days later in BsAs. She was highly praised by New Yorkers but here I heard somebody saying that she was just doing gymnastics. How come this difference?

I am avoiding to go to the milonga where a lot of tourists go. Instead, with a help of an American lady who has lived here for ten years (orginally from Chicago. You might have heard of her name, Janis Kanyon), I am going to where local milongueros go. I prefer dancing with the elderly, not the young. They seem to have a heart for tango, which I can share in the dance.

On the other hand, I would like to take lessons given by youthful show dancers. I want to know how much I can follow them with my own understanding of tango. Or if there is something I haven't known about, it will surely be a pleasure to find it.

-- Reiko

If you have any thoughts on the differences she mentions, please feel free to write to me with them!

I'm Looking for a Tango Partner

Michael

I have figured out that I am way more committed to tango if I have a partner who is equally committed. Having a partner worked out really well for most of the first year of my tango study, but she has moved on to her diverse range of interests. I've compiled more information about me as a student of tango, what I might have to offer a potential dance partner, and what I'm looking for. I know it might take some work to make a compatible match, but if you have any leads, would you be willing to pass on my information to them or make an online introduction? Or if you're interested, drop me a line.

Gender & Choreography: an Irrational Tango

Michael

I just read Don Herbison-Evan's 2003 essay on Gender & Choreography: an Irrational Tango and I found some of its insights intriguing. He tracks the evolution of western dance from the precise sequence of figures to more creative ad hoc choreography. So much of the history of western dance seems tied up with class issues, it makes me wonder about the historical trajectories of other traditions, such as those of Africa or Native America. Of course, it also made me wonder where tango, with its freedom from prescribed figures (as I have been studying it anyway) fits into his schema.

The Cycle of Learning

Michael

In a piece he calls Effortless Mastery of Argentine Tango, Stephen Brown describes the cycle of learning as I've experienced it in tango and in every other discipline. He takes the classic four stages of learning -- unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence -- and places them in a cycle or spiral path. In other words, we need to get used to the idea of going through this process over and over again, in order to progress. Learning is not a linear process with a defined end point.

The Tao of Tango

Michael

What an incredibly frustrating book! I loved the exercises, because approaching tango from the bottom up as a mindfulness practice really works for me. I enjoyed the insights about the relationship between the assertive aspects of leading and the receptive aspects of following, and how they each contain the other.

But the author's insistent connection of the energy of leading with men and the energy of following with women made it very hard to get the good stuff out of the book. I found it transparently sexist, but in the kind of sexism that you from people who are confident that they are just expressing how things are and not making a value judgement. Indeed, the author goes to great lengths to distance herself from traditional sexism, which is what makes it all the more maddening. Why, I would ask her, can't she just call it assertive and receptive energy, rather than "male" and "female"?

Tango Zen: Walking Dance Meditation

Michael

Despite typos and despite the fact that there can't be more than 2000 original words in this tiny $10 paperback, I still really enjoyed Tango Zen: Walking Dance Meditation, by Chan Park. It's inspirational and worth studying.

Seattle Tango Magic 2005 Photographs

Michael

Jennifer and Robin of New York post pictures from a great many of the tango events that they attend, often with a few shots to set the stage, with the rest being closeups of couples on the dance floor. Check out the familiar faces in their recent shots from the Saturday Night Grand Milonga at Seattle TangoMagic. The jump up a level to look at galleries from the Friday milonga and the outdoor, afternoon milonga on Sunday. Or do what I did when I first found their galleries and look through all the pictures to find the faces of friends who travel the tango circuits.

My Feet Hurt

Michael

It wasn't as challenging as Valentango, but my feet still hurt after nine hours of lessons and another couple of hours of practice and social dancing at the Seattle Tango Magic weekend.

The Milonga class on Friday was challenging. The teacher didn't expect to have to teach and she seemed better at showing than telling. But she handled questions well. It had some interesting quick step work that felt very natural at times.

I took two classes from Hsueh Tze (of Boston, I believe) and it was all about playing with cross position steps. It was very playful and just the kind of variation teaching that I have been wanting.

Today's first class was on elegance and rhythm by El Flaco and Syvina. El Flaco is an older milonguero who oozes charm and grace. Much emphasis was placed on staying in touch with the floor and in touching feet. The class was taught in Spanish with a translator.

The very last class was Jaimes' Cortado work. He covered some of this in his private class with our group in the Spring before he shaved his head and went to China. But he has really gotten the teaching of this down. My favorite part of the lesson was to learn that I want to be able to do everything without arms.

Snow rubbed my feet after my nap.

New Mandragora Tango Orchestra MP3s

Michael

The Mandragora Tango Orchestra out of Minneapolis has released 5 MP3s of recently recorded songs. These folks are fun and talented. If you like these songs, you can check out a few others on their web site, including a tango cover of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit!

A Few Thoughts on Listening

Michael

I have been thinking a lot about listening lately. I have been thinking about how few people in American culture seem to know how to ask questions in a conversation and how many people think listening is waiting to talk. I have been thinking about listening as a metaphor for the kind of communication that I teach my nonprofit clients, who are striving to build deeper relationships with their stakeholders. I think about it often in the context of my intimate friendships, which always serves to remind me of what an active process listening is. And finally, of course, I think about listening in the context of tango.

Last Spring, I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop that Jaimes taught entitled "Five Steps to Tango Enlightenment". In it, he emphasized that tango was about paying attention (listening) to your body, to your partner, to the music, and to the dance floor. I found that beautiful, accurate, and deeply useful in its implications, despite its simplicity on the surface.

Focus for a moment on the idea of a leader listening to their follower. At first, it's easy to see that in terms of a moment. In this moment, what leg are they on? In this moment, how is their balance or where is their momentum?

But there is more to it than the moment. There is a rhythm of communication between leader and follower. Each lead can be seen as a question and the response is the answer. In fact, for me, it's far more powerful to think of them as questions than as statements. Some answers will delight us and some will befuddle us, but regardless of our reaction, the answers given are the answers given. It behooves us to listen to them.

Murray Pfeffer's Online Tango Course

Michael

I am charmed by the language and idiosyncrasies of Murray Pfeffer's Online Tango Course. The fragment sentences, the odd punctuation, and the author's voice actually make the whole thing feel rather unscripted, which is admittedly peculiar for a carefully outlined, written tango instruction.

The course covers close embrace and, from what I can tell, is a little old fashioned in places. There are parts of it that I don't entirely understand, because he uses a vocabulary with which I'm unfamiliar. To me, this all just speaks to my desire to expose myself to more instructors. I want to understand as many teachers as I can, regardless of shared language.

On Modes of Learning

Michael

Snow and I went to practice at the Dance Underground last night. I learned again the value of just having a sensitive, consistent follower.

At first, we tried to talk through various things we were trying to learn. We got some things out of that, but it also put Snow very much into her head, which made it harder for her to just relax and follow. Everyone is so different! For me, the cognitive component of learning really complements the physical component. But for Snow, they are very different modes of interaction.

In the latter half of the practica, we took a different approach. Snow just followed, to the best of her ability. That gave me freedom to experiment. What happens when I do this? Well, that was unexpected. Will it happen again? Cool. So long as she was consistent, I was able to learn how to lead her. And that meant we felt much more connected at the end of the practica than during the earlier part.