Linear Vocabulary - Introduction
A lot of people teach this much earlier. They'll say this is where beginners should start: learning the theories of tango and some cool understandings. We're suggesting that you start this after you go through some of the beginning series because we think it helps to have a little structure before we ask people to dance without structure.
One of the things that appeals to many people about the dance is the fact that you almost have to be present and active and communicating with your partner in each moment. Because you never really know, as the follower, what will happen from one instant to the next. For the leader, you have to be actively deciding what is happening at each moment.
- Artist Name:
- Astor Piazzolla
- Song Title:
- Adiós Nonino
- Artist Website:
- http://www.piazzolla.org
We found this particular rendition by looking at the Mandrágora Tango website
(Paraphrased from wikipedia): Piazzolla's tango was distinct from the traditional tango in its incorporation of elements of jazz, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of counterpoint, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. As Argentine psychoanalyst Carlos Kuri has pointed out, Piazzolla's fusion of tango with this wide range of other recognizable Western musical elements was so successful that it produced a new individual style transcending these influences.
- 00:04
- So, this series of chapters is about a structural approach to learning tango
- 00:09
- Often we teach combinations, right?
- 00:12
- When we started, we said, "Here's the basic, here's a front ocho", and we taught you vocabulary.
- 00:16
- But, in the oncoming two series of chapters, we're going to teach you, hopefully,
- 00:22
- how to begin to think about freedom in tango, right? That, at any point, you can do anything.
- 00:28
- But there's almost too much choice, so let's make that very microscopic.
- 00:32
- You're standing in one place,
- 00:34
- you can walk forward, you can walk back, you can walk side,
- 00:37
- you can change weight, or you can wait.
- 00:39
- Right, so that's sort of this series, this is what this is about.
- 00:42
- And then we'll also talk about how to actually make that functional.
- 00:46
- So on that note...
- 00:51
- So, if we say you can walk forward, and I'm sort of leader-centric
- 00:56
- So, for the followers, you'll be walking backward,
- 00:57
- We can go: one, two.
- 01:01
- Or we can go backwards: one, two.
- 01:05
- Or we can go side to side: one, two; or you can change weight.
- 01:14
- Or you can just wait, and then do something.
- 01:18
- Well, when you wait - you look enchanted, that's the kind of waiting.
- 01:20
- Right, right, wait and look enchanted.
Right. - 01:23
- And when we do this, one key thought is that you're want to bring your energy through your partner in every direction.
- 01:29
- So, for example, if I want her to go, let's say away from the camera,
- 01:36
- I'll really go straight through her, so there'll be the sense of... this.
- 01:42
- And likewise, if I want her to go side, you'll see that as she stands here,
- 01:47
- I really go... through her.
- 01:50
- And so I'm not using my arm to do this, I mean, of course, she catches the arm. But I use my whole body to go through.
- 01:57
- And when David's using his whole body to go through, it's like a train at you, and you go.
- 02:04
- And so, if we just do this for awhile, we can walk forward...
- 02:08
- Change weight...
- 02:12
- Walk side...
- 02:18
- Go back...
- 02:24
- Change weight and stop,
- 02:26
- And then carry on again.
- 02:28
- And that - that's really dancing.
