Tango is improvised? People say that, but I wonder if it's the right word. You could say disco is improvised: it's not really a partner dance and you can make up your moves as you go along, wave your arms around, jump up and down, throw your head back and forth. In tango you are holding your partner close to you; there are limits.
Ricardo Vidort said you can make up moves in tango, but tango itself is a limited framework, which is part of the beauty of it. I think 'making up moves' is more like finding new connections between things you've done hundreds of times, and practised through dancing. In effect, you've practiced over and over again even the simplest things like taking a step forwards until, as Fred Astaire (who practised obsessively) said, 'your body tells you what to do', you no longer have to think about it or make a conscious effort, your body is free to dance, to be spontaneous. Astaire's dance, of course, at source wasn't in the least spontaneous – it became spontaneous with practise.
Tango might be spontaneous, rather than improvised. There's an element of freedom, but so much of what forms the dance is very far from being improvised. Part-improvised, perhaps, in the way musicians improvise music: their music arises from working on practising their instruments, practising improvisations over and over again, probably studying harmony and counterpoint, and listening closely to improvised music, too.
"Tango is improvised? People say that, but I wonder if it's the right word."
ReplyDeleteOne definition of improvised is performed without preparation. Tango dancing is improvised in this sense in that it is without preparation specific to each performance e.g. it is without choreography. But as you say, it sure includes much other preparation. So perhaps the other definition made from materials already to hand is nearer to what's meant in the case of tango dancing.
Tricky things, words. Good that we have dance to communicate those important things words cannot. :)
I think "improvised" is the right word to describe social tango. Neither the man nor the woman knows what will come next; it depends on the traffic, the other dancers, the moment's inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThe improvisation comes of course, as you indicate, within a framework of style and technique. Otherwise, yes, you'd have the chaos of disco.
All of that freedom within the constraints of the tango is what is so absolutely gorgeous! No 3 of these and 4 of those, but any number you choose. Someone makes an error or another couple truncates your plans--voila! a new step!
The basic step? the walk. The basic beat? your heart.
Like democracy--it's freedom within limits.
Thanks Chris and Tangocherie. Tricky things, words, I agree! & it's great to have an activity when we can enjoy their absence. I still think 'spontaneous' describes tango well, and yes, it is freedom within limits. But really I'd place emotional response to the music above everything else: that's dance, isn't it? It's in emotional response that partners share something profound.
ReplyDeleteAs for its communicative aspect, I think that tango dancing is "a tricky thing" too. For people like us dancers it might be easier to communicate through the dance than through words, though. Whether the partner understands is another question...
ReplyDelete"& it's great to have an activity when we can enjoy their absence."
Absolutely agreed. In a world with so many means of communicating through words it's great not to have to talk for once.
"it is freedom within limits"
I like that one from tangocherie very much. Freedom is so much more enjoyable within limits that provide some safety to rely on, isn't it? On a floor with too much improvisation I don't feel very comfortable.
"But really I'd place emotional response to the music above everything else: that's dance, isn't it?"
I'd say "emotional response to the music and the partner together with the partner." I don't think that any other dance or music provides us with that as much as tango.
"For people like us dancers it might be easier to communicate through the dance than through words, though. Whether the partner understands is another question... "
ReplyDeleteI think it is very much the same question. If you haven't made yourself understood, you haven't actually communicated.
It's remarkable what substitutes arise when dancing has nothing to say, nor even the means to say it. We have a beginner in my home city teaching what he calls "conversation-style tango". The subject of this conversation is the just the steps themselves. In its bizarre language of signals and predefined moves, there is nothing else that can be said. Watching this dancing like listening to two people at a cocktail party taking turns to blurt noises at each other, unaware that the noises made by everyone else are words that carry meaning. After a few classes "designed to extend your repetoire" of meaningless noises, you'd think they'd twig to the pointlessness of it, but seemingly they never do.
One of the many mysteries of tango... ;)
"If you haven't made yourself understood, you haven't actually communicated...It's remarkable what substitutes arise when dancing has nothing to say."
ReplyDeleteIn my English-English dictionary I find:
to communicate
1)to share information with others by speaking, writing, moving your body or using other signals
2)to talk about your thoughts and feelings, and help other people to understand them
What I meant was that even if your aim is to share information with your partner or even if you want to help your partner understand your thoughts and feelings, you can never be sure that he/she gets the message, right?!
I have danced with men who /communicated/ that they wanted me do all sorts of fancy moves and steps. When I refused to follow they just tried again, and again, and again. Does that mean that I have not communicated that I felt unable to do them? Well, at least I've tried.
When dancing, I sometimes have the impression - I'm almost/ absolutely certain that I got through, that my partner understood, but it might still be an illusion. Perhaps what he understood was something else than what I tried to communicate.
I don't mind, as long as his reaction makes me feel good.
Tricky thing, communication. ;)
"I have danced with men who /communicated/ that they wanted me do all sorts of fancy moves and steps. When I refused to follow they just tried again, and again, and again. Does that mean that I have not communicated that I felt unable to do them?"
ReplyDeleteYou communicated "I can't do that" just fine. But unfortunately this means "... so try it on me again" to a guy who's spent hours in classes with a teacher telling him to do just that on girls who tolerate it because, like him, they are under the deep misapprehension that this is how people learn to dance tango.
Each time you refuse his class move but then let him try it again, you're communicating that you like this so-called dancing enough to want to continue it with him.
Alternatively you could communicate that you prefer a guy who dances to please the girl rather than himself and/or his teacher. One way being to say "That's enough, thank you" and walk back to your seat.
"Alternatively you could communicate that you prefer a guy who dances to please the girl rather than himself and/or his teacher."
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chris, but I have already found that out myself - and act accordingly. Meaning that I choose very carefully who I dance with. However, if I still make the wrong choice, I try to stay with him until the end of the tanda, so to not embarrass him in front of other people.