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By rusty, February 22, 2010

I was recently asked what I thought about a new student coming to and advanced class and this was my answer:
The process reminds me of math – and though I never got higher than geometry and basic calculus, it is similar in that it is a build of component understandings and functions. If you can master algebra a lot other math components fall into place, if however you never quite get a+b=c then you will struggle with even a simple x,y axis equation much less curves or algorithms.

In the end tango is seeing clearly your body in relation to itself, gravity, time and space and then its juxtaposition and relationship to your partner’s discreet state in relations again to time and space. When you accomplish the forward lean and walk, you will be amazed how many movements and steps suddenly open up to you. It may even seem at times that progress ceases then, a light goes on and twelve steps all fall into place at once.

1. First you see you and fully observe your own position clearly; all the way to the discrete state of your being, recognizing all parts of your body and its appendages as you flow through space and time with the music.
2. Then you see your partner and respect and observe her position in its discreet state and movement all through and during movements.

These juxtapositional elements are quite complex; the dynamic relationship that we have with each other, the music, the floor, the crowd and time and space are staggering. Actually it is quite amazing that we have brains that can make these computations so easily – and here is the key word: after – after we have the muscle memory and know exactly what our own body is doing, everything gets easier.

Take heart here. There are folks in the Tuesday class that have been dancing 5 to 10 years. Tango is a slow burn. Lots of reinforcement and lots of practice. I have seen lots of instructors try but I have yet to see anyone come close to creating a short cut to tango

Tango is a journey that will  last you a life time. There is no destination and there is no hurry. Take your time, learn a good foundation but most of all do not become discouraged!

Love Light & Gratitude,
Rusty

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By rusty, December 12, 2009

When we went to Australia in June of 2009, we gave away our TV because it consumes so much time and we get hungry when we watch TV. So nowadays we watch a lot of Ted.com and they have the most interesting videos and they are usually around 15 minutes long and I don’t get hungry when it is that short; as a by-product most of them are NOT a waste of time.

This is a video talk by Benjamin Zander a world class conductor getting people excited about classical music:

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By rusty, December 9, 2009

I have been watching Susana Miller teach tango all week. It is amazing how easy she makes the style of milonguero available to everyone. She is crisp and clear – but then that is what milonguero is about.

It strikes me when someone is struggling within their body, that is when they need milonguero the most. It is more organic and easily accessible because it moves closer to the heart and the rhythms of the heart.

The milonguero style is such a strong foundation, I can see now why I struggled with some movements for so long in the early years of my dancing. If I had had this foundation under my feet back then, I feel like I would have gotten the clarity I reached after five years in only three years of dancing; but how can I ever know.

With this in mind we shall make this available for any and all to discover by teaching it every Thursday night @ 7:PM. Susana has been kind enough to donate a huge part of this past week to teaching me to teach in her style/method of teaching. At the end here she told me she is excited that I will do this because in her words: “You have everything you need to do this, you have the experience, the talent, the techniques and steps to keep the community interested in milonguero.” But of course I don’t call this final, I call this as I move into my ninth year of dancing, a stepping stone to the next decade!

Susana said a milonguero with 60 years of dancing approached her the other day and said: “You know, Susana, this past year, I really think my walking is improving!”

That is and will be me, the perpetual student. I am and will be the perpetual student.

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By rusty, October 13, 2009

A tried and true format in the structure of a milonga is there for us to follow and emulate in Buenos Aires. The music selection is an intricate part of the reason tango keeps us growing. A driving factor in tango being so popular and addictive is the fact it is still mainly danced to the original songs that were mainly recorded from the 1930s to 1950s. There are literally thousands of danceable tango songs from the golden era of tango and it will take you years to hear them all, then even more years for you to recognize and then more to get to really know them. Tangueros have depended on these songs for their musicality and their floor craft since they were first played. There is a structure to the music and the way a milonga comes together.

It is no accident that the popular method of organizing a milonga is T-T-V-T-T-M (tango-tango-vals-tango-tango-milonga). It is a structure on which the milonguero can depend. It is no accident that the mood of an entire tanda is the same even to the point of having the same orchestra from the same year with the same sound and rhythms to the songs (for instance Rodolfo Biagi used to play piano for Anibal Troilo, when Biagi formed his own orchestra the sound of Troilo’s music changed radically, so you wouldn’t want to mix songs with and without Biagi’s famous rhythms in a Troilo tanda because it would disrupt the flow and connection developed by the milonguero) – tango is a complicated dance and there are nights and partners where it takes all 4 similar songs to create a good connection – a milonguero depends on this structure to create confidence in his partner. It is important the flow of the milonga that the a vals and a milonga appear in the proper place so that the experienced milonguero can select his partner based on the genre of song coming next – there are partner’s where one can connect better for a vals than a tango or a milonga, and it fits within the structure if one knows and can depend on what is coming next. Give me a good DJ and ( if I have been dancing and not talking for several tandas in a row) I can tell you the mood if not the coming orchestra that the next tanda will be and most certainly the genre. This isn’t just important to the milonguero, it is the hallmark of the advanced and seasoned milonguero to create a real and true flow of well managed and connected dances.

Continuing to dance to these early compositions has allowed tango to keep its original essence and culture, where the evolution of other dances has caused them to lose contact with their roots. Since we continue to dance to the same music it is an actual advantage for dancers that have been around for some years, it takes years to really come to know the original recordings that are played at milongas all over the globe – because they are complex and they are so many. But is a comfort to know that if I dance in Buenos Aires or London, I will hear my favorite orchestras playing my favorite Di Sarli or Pugliese composition.

The traditional music really does drive the movements we dance to – the music and the movements all evolved together – it is because of the traditional music that we learn and eventually make tango our own; mess with the music and you mess with tango itself. Still a certain amount of alternative is maybe needed to bring in new blood, but it should never be allowed (on a regular basis) to over shadow or out play the original recordings.

Folks say there should be new tango songs written and added to the mix and wouldn’t that be great. But how can this happen? Imagine Buenos Aires 1945… Di Sarli is playing in this barrio, Troilo is playing across town and over here in a little club by Puerto Madera D’Agostino is playing… they are all vying for your business and patronage they are all striving to write a better more danceable piece.

In my opinion – given the evolution of the music – unless there were suddenly competitive frame work of orchestras competing for the dancers, there can’t be new recordings to compete fully with the traditional music, because without numbers of orchestras all feeding off of one another’s talents and inspirations. The original essence can’t be recaptured in newly composed tango songs. This era of tango was a phenomena that can’t be artificially reproduced.

Could it happen again? Maybe, but wouldn’t mean that suddenly there were scores of talented musicians forming orchestras all competing and striving to get the milonguero to come and dance in their venue to this new piece that was written for the dancer by the dancer because of the dancer? Modern orchestras have become known for not being there at the milonga to please the dancer but to more to flaunt their talents and wares (though this is by no means always the case). This truly was not the case in Buenos Aires during the golden era, quite the contrary, the orchestras were there because of and for the milonguero the dancers affected the music as much as did the musician and most of the musicians were dancers. This would be a hard phenomenon to replicate – but given the powers of tango, truly who knows?

It isn’t an accident that tango is still danced to the old recordings (though I remember specifically when I thought it was just an unexamined fluke, and found it uncomfortably strange that this dance was locked into a paradigm of dancing to these old recordings). These aren’t just my opinions tango is a worldwide phenomena that started before any of today’s living milongueros were even born. Something magical happened in Bs As in the middle of the last century and we wouldn’t be hooked on this dance without each and every orchestra that ever played a milonga in Buenos Aires during this time frame. Tango was created like a magical king wave, one that we are still all surfing today. The culture and music and codigos are all a part of the tango process. As you begin to travel and dance you will see more about what I mean.

This was and email to a student that asked me to post it… thanks, Jim.

Love, Light and Gratitude,
Rusty

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By rusty, June 15, 2009

Stuart Brown – a renowned psychiatrist, says play is more than fun. Play has a biological place in our lives as important as nutrition or sleep and dreams. He says that play is hugely important in learning and crafting the brain. Improvisational play is a very important part of how we to learn improvise and solve problems.

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary says Improvise means: to make or fabricate out of what is immediately on hand.

On the other hand, the definition of Choreography is: the art of symbolically representing dance.

Whereas Dance is: to move up and down or about in a quick and lively or frolicking manner.

So to choreograph a dance is to make a symbolic representation of moving about in a lively or frolicking way – as opposed to improvising your dance, which would mean that you would make a lively or frolicking motion out of whatever is at hand.

Do these two meanings seem different to you?

Do you only practice with a serious demeanor, or do you play in your practice? If you take all of your practice time too seriously you may be missing a fundamental method of learning that is a prerequisite not just to enjoying tango, but also in actually engaging yourself and your partner fully into the dance.

Not only can you take the joy out of your dancing by being too serious, you will be blocking an important part of your learning process.

Want to play some tango?

Love Light and Frolic,
Rusty

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By rusty, June 3, 2009

Every once in a while someone shows up in one of our classes that is confused as to their process of learning. A couple of years ago I had a very sweet, articulate and intelligent lady tell me that she was a kinesthetic learner, so my giving her information on how to be on balance was of no use to her. Yet when she went to stand on one leg her hips were frozen and she could not fully acquire an axis. Still she said, “I will learn to dance by following my husband.” I have seen this work with women that are very good at being in their body and if the men she dances with are well balanced and have enough skill to dance for two. But it has its limits and won’t take you to the heights that can be obtained by developing understanding, discipline and technique.

Ultimately she and her husband decided to do private lessons. I asked her indulgence in some mechanical coaching – at first she resisted, but she was resisting strangely enough because she was trapped in her head and she subscribed to a notion that women inherently dance better than men. This had led her to believe that whatever was going wrong in her dancing was the fault of her husband. Yet she was not maintaining an axis and yanking on her poor husband to the point he couldn’t even walk.

Live in your head dance in your head...

She thought she was in her body, but she was in her head… I could tell because her gaze was turned inward and her eyes were looking up and to the left, she was surrendering too much of her own balance to his lead. This caused her to loose her sense of her own body because she was allowing her steps to be his steps instead of feeling the lead and then taking a step, she was waiting until he dragged her from her axis and then she had no grounding or center. From where I stood it was an easy fix because the mechanical issue was easy to remedy: she simply didn’t have her body over her foot as she walked. We did impulse training and soon she was taking a step with the leader instead of making him drag her off of her axis.

In the end she did eventually realize she had been dancing in her head and not in her body. She is a professional woman with a PhD. She had lived in her head getting her degree and she lived in her head as she practiced her profession. Like so many academics, she had unconsciously slipped into a life style where she subconsciously believed her body was a vehicle to carry her head from point A to point B.

She had this revelation one night as she and her husband were doing the impulse training exercises I had designed for them. She said suddenly she was moving with a lithe and grace that she had never expected and suddenly she and her husband were floating together for a few moments. She said broke down and wept. When she finally got in touch with her body and began to move with grace and willingness, she realized how far from her connected to her own body she had been. She said this realization provoked a sadness that she had been so disconnected, but at the same time it released an elated joy in finding that she was graceful after all.

Men are renowned for doing this with emotions; they think they are in their intellect when they are actually acting out an emotion like anger or frustration.

If you are to learn something kinesthetically it is a good thing, but you won’t learn it from the right side of your brain. You will learn it by getting into your body, moving and listening to gravity as you go. So perhaps the oxymoron is if you “think” you are a kinesthetic learner, perhaps your brain says that to keep you from leaving your brain alone while you journey into your body. You will need to turn on your observer, turn off your thinking brain and allow the body to move freely, without forcing or micromanaging your activities.

The younger you are the easier it is to get in touch with your body, perhaps because as we educate and age our opinions and habits slowly send us further into our intellect instead of into our bodies. This is why – on the average the younger the quicker you will learn to dance. Some people do learn to dance just by dancing, but you won’t do that while hanging around in your head. And even that may have limits as to how well you can grow into an advanced dancer.

If feel you are having trouble connecting to your body, try playing. Playing has the potential to take you into your body in ways the intellect cannot. Plus it has the power to reconnect you with your body in the pure ways we did as children. Roll on the carpet, tumble, jump, run, kick, skipping. Play leap frog. Move in “contact improvisational” methods (Contact Improv Website) to get better at reading your partner.

Role Playing is a popular method of learning tango and is the fundamental ways in which all dance is taught. It is basically walking through patterns and movements that we are taught or observe in others. But this method of learning only goes so far and will leave the connection to your partner your body as it moves around your partner weak and contrived. Though this type of learning is valuable and necessary, in the end we are only acting like we are dancing tango by imitating what we think we see.

Creative Playing can be very useful in learning tango. Creative play would be diverging from tango the dance to find body skill sets that already exist within us that relate to how we function in the dance. Everyone has something they have done with their body that they already know how to do, like wrestling, martial arts, ballet, running, sports, walking et cetera. Try moving with your partner as you intentionally mess up our own posture so you learn the consequences and results of imbalance and posture. Wrap your arms around one another and try to mold and shape with one another into as many forms and shapes as your flexibility will allow. A gentle standing tickle session can be enlightening. Chasing one another around the room trying to corner or trap one another is helpful. Taking turns being leader and follower can open new doors of learning.

Constructive Playing helps your kinesthetic awareness. Try looking at the shapes and movements in tango and walk very slowly in and out of these shapes as effortlessly as possible. Look at the shape and juxtapositions of each partner, create that shape in the two of you, now walk back or forward one step, and then move back into the shape (Keeping mind that sometimes the shape is derived by being in Cross System). Notice as you try this exercise: Are we still in our embrace? Is our embrace still comfortable? Are we facing each other? Can we soften and be malleable as we maintain this shape?

This type of exploration can help you break down the dance into its fundamental states of walking around each other and can offer new ways of communicating and interacting in the dance – and in so doing many times we come up with a new steps or patterns that are better suited to our kinesthetic abilities. Many times a self-constructed pattern is easier to learn, remember and use on the dance floor than one that is handed to us by an instructor or another dancer.

If you have lost touch with your body you can be reintroduced to your body via your brain so long as you engage the intuitive (right) side of your brain more than you engage the logical (left) side of the brain. If you find yourself trying to over analyze a movement, let go and move – pull out the stops, stop stopping and walk around the room until your footfalls are in unison with your partner once again! In these moments try something more playful, something less challenging – or something startlingly challenging to snap you out of your head and back into your body.

Thoughts to live and dance by…
Love & Light,
Rusty