Coming Up: Refresher #2

So we worked on posture, walking and rhythms in the first Refresher. This time around we will move on to double time steps forward and walking in two lanes, and maybe we'll get around to revisiting the cross already. We hope you are all coming - please let us know now!

Coming Up: Refresher #1

Next week Tuesday, on the 28th of July, we are running the first of three Refresher workshops designed to keep everyone up to scratch between terms. The purpose is to repeat everything we have done and possibly go a bit more indepth here and there. There will be no new material per se, but new insights might still be had. We hope everyone will manage to come.

Looking Back: The Taunton Milonga

The downside first, shall we? Not everyone was there, which was a bit sad.
With that out of the way, I must say how damned proud I was of every single one from the Taunton group. There was a perfect line of dance. I didn't see a single collision. And best of all: each and every one was dancing to the music. Makes me giddy thinking about where this group is heading.

The End Of Term Milonga

The Tango Triad, #2 & 3: Milonga and Vals

Milonga and Vals have their firm place in every proper milonga. We will do a bit more specific work on both dances in the future, but for now my advice is just to keep it simple. Here are two very nice examples of good dancing, one milonga and one vals.
See Thorsten Zörner and Adriana Duré dance the milonga "Saca Chispas" by Julio de Caro here.
See Martin Ottmers and Alison Dobson-Ottmers dance the vals "Acuerdate de Mi" by Carlos Di Sarli (with Jorge Durán) here.

The Music of Lesson 8: Tanturi

For dancers of sufficient skill and a love of rhythmic dancing, there is little better than the orchestra of Ricardo Tanturi. The insistent, almost frantic beat urges on, while the rather complex rhythmic sub-structures invite a variety of syncopations, hesitations and changes in step frequency. Tanturi, despite often being labeled mediocre, was very popular in Buenos Aires in its time, and continues to be beloved today. The two great singers of Tanturi's orchestra were Alberto Castillo with his unmistakeable slightly nasal (and typically porteño) style of singing and Enrique Campos (best known, perhaps, for his wonderful rendition of "Una Emoción") with his straightforward simplicity.
See Ruben Harymbat and Enriqueta Kleinman dance to "Recuerdo Malevo" here.

Lesson 8: Revisiting the Cross, plus Milonga Primer

In our final lesson of the Groundwork course, we revisited the cross, which was introduced in lesson 7. Refer to that entry for pointers.
We then proceeded to talk about the upcoming milonga on 7th July, discussing the How and Why of tango etiquette. Things to remember are: use the cabeceo (catching your intended partner's eye and confirming with a slight nod, possibly involving other slight head gestures) as soon as you have decided you want to dance this tanda. A tanda is a set of (usually) four tangos, valses or milongas, usually all by the same orchestra from the same era and with the same singer, if any. So for example you might hear the tanda start with Carlos di Sarli's 1939 "Corazon" (there is a later version with another singer...). You would then be correct to expect the next three tangos to be Di Sarlis from roughly the same time (1939-1940) and featuring the same singer (Roberto Rufino).
After the tanda you will then hear a cortina ("curtain"), a short piece of non-tango music, during which the men walk the women back to their tables (after profusely praising their dancing as well as their beauty, of course...). Time to relax, get a drink, look around for other partners, sit down, walk around etc.
Feel free to dance as much or as little as you like. There is no need to dance to every tanda.
Finally, we quickly checked the boxes on milonga and vals, the two other dances of the "tango triad." Both have a fixed rhythm, thus urging us not to pause, never to stop. Remember to keep it simple. Use weight changes, and especially with the milonga, short steps expressing the rhythm.

The Music of Lesson 7: Don Osváldo Pugliese

Osvaldo Pugliese was the foremost proponent of the avantgarde of tango musicians. He followed in the footsteps of Julio de Caro, the creator and early figurehead of the avantgarde movement who tried to "push the envelope" of tango music from the 20s on.
Pugliese played the piano and had a sizeable number of hit recordings, some his unmistakeable arrangements of other composers' creations, some composed by himself. He composed one of his greatest hits, "Recuerdo", at the age of... well, accounts vary, but he was no older than 19, possibly younger.
After the fall of the military junta following the Falklands war, his orchestra became the first to perform in the prestigious Teátro Colón, the opera house of Buenos Aires.
Pugliese is usually played towards the later stages of a milonga. It is romantic, refined and of great emotional depth, demanding total immersion.
See him play "La Yumba" at Teátro Colón here. Or click here for the short version.
See Pocho and Nely dance to "La Tupungatina" here.

Lesson 7: Two Lanes and the Cross

One particular "step" that can emerge almost naturally from walking in two lanes is the woman's cross. It happens when the man turns his torso back to the straight forward position, thus leading the woman to step in front of him again with her left foot. It is important that the woman does not anticipate the step but allows it to be entirely led by the man's torso movement. As usual, the woman's free leg just follows the movement of her center. As the man leads her center over and slightly beyond (and to the woman's right of) the supporting leg's position, the woman's free leg "falls" into the crossed position. The weight change to the crossing foot should also be entirely led and not be done automatically.
The woman's cross is one of the most beautiful movements of tango and, if done well, just feels absolutely great for both partners.
Note that the cross is structurally a double-time step, and as such it changes the walking system from parallel to crossed. For this reason, the man usually closes his position and changes weight with the woman, thus restoring the original parallel system.

Lesson 6: Walking In Two Lanes

Normally we walk in the same lane, so the man's left foot always moves in front of the woman's right foot, his right foot in front of her left. We are using the parallel system and walking in one lane. In this lesson, we introduced walking in two lanes (while still remaining in parallel system, more on crossed system later).
The man shifts his lane of walking to the left by stepping forward and across with his right foot - this involves a little pivot of the left foot, either before or during the step. During this process of shifting lanes, the torsos of man and woman stay connected, facing each other normally. This means there is no internal change in the embrace of the couple. The hips and torso now point in different directions - the pelvis is always aligned with the direction of the step, while the torso is always aligned with the position of the partner's center.
Moving back in, thus sharing the same lane again, requires the leader to step back in with his left foot, again doing a crossing step that stops his axis from tumbling sideways or having to do an "open step" (the only open step that is really ok is the proper sidestep).
If we combine the above with a double time step we get a nice and simple little element that facilitates rhythmic dancing rather well. One crossing step with the right foot out to the left for the man (this is the slow one), then back in and again in-lane with two quick and short steps, and slowing down with one slow longer step.

The Music of Lesson 6: Fresedo

Osvaldo Fresedo's orchestra was known for catering to the upper crust of Buenos Aires. His style evolved over the years from strong rhythms slightly dominating the dreamy melodic parts as in "Mariposita" or "Tigre Viejo" to a smoother style where the melody, often carried by main singer Roberto Ray's buttersmooth voice, came to the foreground. Fresedo was the mentor of Carlos Di Sarli, but his orchestra undoubtedly deserves its place among the greatest of all time on its own merits.
Here are some examples of dancing to Fresedo:

Teté & Silvia and Maxi & Milva dance to "Mariposita"
Brilliant musicality, especially from Teté.

Marek Szotkowski & Veronique Bouscasse dance to "Nieblas del Rachuelo"
Elegant and refined, influenced by the style of Buenos Aires' Villa Urquiza barrio.

Osvaldo & Coca dance to "Tigre Viejo"
They are incomparable, this is how Tigre Viejo must be danced!

The Wonder of Youtube: Some Examples of Excellent Dancing

Here are some examples of people dancing to the orchestras we have used for the lessons. None of these couples are doing "show tango" even though they are, of course, doing a show in the strictest sense. Still, it is pretty much tango de salón, with maybe a little kick here and there which wouldn't be appropriate on the social dance floor. Oscar & Mary Ann Casas are examples of classic Buenos Aires style social dancing, Detlef & Melina dance a modern social style informed by the old milongueros, Javier & Geraldine are possibly the most celebrated show couple ever (but their performances are mostly based on salón tango), Carlitos & Mamié dance a rather breathtaking style quite their own, and finally Osvaldo & Coca are an older couple that has famously won the tango salón championships a few years ago.

Angel D'Agostino (with Angel Vargas) - Oscar & Mary Ann Casas dance "Notas de Bandoneón"

Carlos Di Sarli (instrumental) - Detlef Engel & Melina Sedó dance "Nueve Puntos"

Francisco Canaro (with Roberto Maída) - Javier Rodriguez & Geraldine Rojas dance "Poéma"

Enrique Rodriguez (with Roberto Moreno) - Carlitos Espinoza & Mamié Sancy dance "Yo No Se Porque Razón"

Edgardo Donato (with Horacio Lagos) - Osvaldo & Coca Cartery dance "El Adios"

The Music of Lesson 5: Donato

Safe and steady, that is the music of Edgardo Donato, but it is not the whole truth. He is deservedly a favourite among dancers of all levels - there is deep feeling there, added to by the voice of Donato mainstay Horacio Lagos, and there is a deep rhythmic layer in his tangos, valses and his excellent milongas - his trademark piece "Ella Es Así" is one of the best-known and most popular milongas ever.

The Music of Lesson 4: Rodriguez

The music of Enrique Rodriguez is quite unmistakeable, it has that special sound of his. His orchestra was versatile, able to play all kinds of music, not just tango, vals and milonga. For that reason, be aware when buying his CDs that they will often contain rancheras, paso dobles or fox trots. The two main singers of Rodriguez' orchestra are Roberto "Chato" Florez and especially Roberto Moreno, who is one of my absolute favourite singers. Words fail me - just listen to him.
Rodriguez' music is easy to dance to, with its clear beat and nicely predictable yet interesting rhythmic patterns, and at the same time offers enough "meat" even to more experienced dancers, allowing them to coax intricate rhythmic steps out of that rich tapestry of sound.

The Music of Lesson 3: Pirincho

The orchestra featured in our third lesson was that of Francisco "Pirincho" Canaro, a man who clawed his way up from poverty to become "richer than Gardel" in the true sense. Canaro did much for tango. Even though he is not generally considered one of the greatest artists, he is acknowledged as a capable composer who could sometimes produce gems of utter beauty like the fabulous "Poéma". His music moved the dancers, and this built his success. He used bigger and bigger orchestra setups, effectively establishing the "orquesta tipica", an ensemble of at least 10 musicians, as the basic setup for the dance halls. He used a variety of instruments, pushing the boundaries there, too. Being first and foremost a businessman, he nonetheless advanced tango and brought it into a new era. For today's dancers, Canaro is a rich source of reliably danceable and often highly enjoyable music with a variety of very good singers, Roberto Maida and Ernesto Famá being prominent among them.

Lesson 5: Double Time in the Forward Walk

In our fifth lesson we combined our rhythmic proficiency with our growing skill in walking and introduced the proper double time step in the forward walk. The main difficulty here is always the expectation (mainly on the leaders' part) that this is going to be difficult. The main cure is keeping one's cool. Slow and steady does it, and that goes for the women, too. The follower should not try to anticipate and "help" by being quick - just the opposite is the right way of doing it. Stay calm, don't be quicker than you need to be, maintain posture and connection.
The length and timing of the quick steps are being communicated by the twist of the torso - our usual countermovement, as we use it in any other step, no matter its length or speed. With our slow-quick-quick-slow pattern we use the same speed with our torso movement - a long, slow turn of the shoulders for the slow steps, a quick and short movement for the quick ones.
Remember to make the quick steps short lest you start running about. Half the length of the normal step preceding them is about right for the two quick steps.

Lesson 4: Finishing Traspiés

The last lesson before the práctica saw us working some more on traspiés, the "stumbling steps" of tango. Where before we had used it in a hesitating fashion (half step-stop-finish the step), we now withdrew the forward foot back to the neutral position after half stepping on it. So we begin a step, then pull back - maybe as if we stepped on someone's toes. The resulting traspié is both a very nice and simple rhythmic tool and at the same time very useful for navigation on a crowded dance floor.
We now have a nice set of tools to dance the music in a simple and intuitive way: simple steps, weight changes in double time, simple time, half time, two different traspié types, and the always-useful pause.

Lesson 3: Step Frequencies and Other Things

In Lesson 3, we worked some more on posture and walking technique. Remember to keep a straight axis through your torso, with the energy going up and forward in the upper part of it and the energy dropping heavily from the lower part, the pelvis and the legs. Walking should be done with a minimal expenditure of strength, and as little tension in the hip and leg muscles as we can manage. Imagine the leg being a freely swinging pendulum hanging from the torso.
We practiced step frequencies in the weight changes: double time, simple time, half time, pauses. You can practice this alone, without need for a partner. And don't bother counting: the beat you hear is the emphasized beat, and stepping on each of these is what we call simple time. Don't worry about measures and musical phrases.
In the weight changes, make sure you use joints as needed. You cannot do quick changes (double time) when trying to move the axis as a whole - your ankles and knees need to work with the music, too. Just put the weight down on the foot on the beat you want to hit.
Finally, we introduced a simple method of doing double time in forward steps: the traspié. The traspié is a kind of stumbling step, or hesitation. We take the step, but stop short of finishing our axis transport, pushing back a bit instead, then finishing the step after all. The easiest way of doing it is just not allowing the forward knee to bend after placing the lead foot. The straight leg almost automatically pushes us back from the floor, we rock back, then forward again, this time allowing the knee to bend normally, which results in our axis going forward and finishing the step. Voilà.

The Music of Lesson 2: "El Señor del Tango"

Carlos di Sarli's music is widely regarded as the epitome of tango. It has everything that is typical of tango, and everything that is in tango has been refined and sometimes whittled down to the essentials in his arrangements. It is, simply put, exemplary tango.
Di Sarli was known as somewhat difficult, and his perfectionism sometimes got him in trouble with his musicians. It also, however, gave us a number of incredibly beautiful and at the same time eminently danceable tangos. All periods his orchestras went through have something to offer to both the music lover and the dancer: there is his relatively simple yet appealing music from the late 20s with his Sexteto, then (after quite a long break) the amazing recordings with Roberto Rufino and with Alberto Podestá, two brilliant singers. Then there are his classic and widely popular instrumental recordings, and finally his slow, rich late recordings with singers like Mario Pomar, Roberto Florio and Jorge Durán.
Di Sarli was a pianist of extraordinary skill - his style is unmistakeable and is an irreplaceable part of his orchestras' expression. Listen to his incredible left hand play and you will never mistake his orchestra for any other.
When you start buying Di Sarli CDs, make sure you get his recordings with Rufino and those with Podestá as well, and then throw in some of his instrumentals as well - they are very popular for practice, and with good reason.
Simply go to Mike Lavocah's site (see the link on the right) and follow his advice there.

Lesson 2: Introducing Simple Rhythmics

In the second lesson on 12th May we repeated what we did the week before, and then added what I call step frequency - simple time, double time, half time, and pauses. To keep matters simple, we worked with weight changes, not with actual double time forward steps. Also, we didn't yet really work with all possibilities, instead concentrating on double time.
These quick weight changes require a good connection between the partners, with the woman being attentive and maintaining her apile (forward energy) and the man remembering to not just do the weight changes himself, but actually leading them.
The music we used was that of Carlos di Sarli - more on him in a later post.

The Music of Lesson 1: "Los Angeles"

For the first lesson in Taunton, we used the music of the Golden Age orchestra of Angel D'Agostino. D'Agostino himself was a pianist, and his preferred singer was Angel Vargas, one of the all-time greats among tango singers. Vargas' singing had an incredible immediacy - I somehow think of him as sitting on a bar stool and talking to me instead of singing to an audience.
D'Agostino is not usually regarded as on a par with Carlos Di Sarli or Osvaldo Pugliese artistically, but his music is very, very good and very popular with dancers all the same. It has been said that his arrangements were always done with good taste (unlike those of some other orchestra leaders, who, between spells of greatness, had lapses now and then). He never tried noticeably hard to be original or clever, yet his music has it all: a strong compas (beat), interesting rhythms, beautiful melodies and that incredible singing by Vargas.
When played at a milonga at the right time, when the dancers are ready for it, Los Dos Angeles (the two angels) can be sublime.
Good music to practice to. Get "Tangos de los Angeles Vol. 1" (and , if you like, the other three in the series) from the "Tango Argentino" series. Buy it locally from Mike Lavocah, cheaply from Zivals, or easily from Amazon. See the links on the right.
You can watch the Angels on youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2203qy8wwE
And here watch Oscar and Mary Ann Casas dance to "Notas de Bandoneón" by D'Agostino/Vargas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzh-accjq1M

Lesson 1: Posture, Embrace and Walk

In our first lesson we worked on the most fundamental aspects of the tango dance: posture, embrace and the walk. A few reminders so you can practice without fear of introducing mistakes:
- The torso is always kept energized (with energy flowing mainly upwards and slightly forward) and straight, with the axis slightly leaning forward to keep the weight centered on the forward part of the foot. Remember reaching for the cookie jar, or imagine you are walking against a strong wind.
- The pelvis and legs are always heavy and relaxed, with energy flowing downwards into the ground. With each step, we relax the free leg's energy and let it "drop" towards the floor as we move our axis on it.
- We step on the beat, meaning our foot connects with the floor on the beat. More on this later on in the course.
- We used the practice hold, i.e. the woman is leaning on the man's chest with her hands, the elbows are kept locked so there is a direct and strong connection between her core and the man's.
- The next step embrace-wise was the open embrace, where we connect via our arms with no torso contact. This is useful for practicing because we reduce the risk of stepping on each other's feet and we also can look down now and then to check our relative positions.
- The close embrace is the real embrace used in tango. It is more important than any "steps" or "figures", so make sure you make it work comfortably.
- Before you start walking together, use weight changes to harmonize your movement together. When you are sure you connect well and you have identified the beat, start walking.
- We always walk in the ronda, meaning we dance in harmony with all other couples on the floor, making sure we don't collide. The ronda flows counterclockwise around the outside of the floor. Do not overtake couples dancing close to the outside boundary.