Many people have said they have experienced both tango Hell and tango Heaven. I think the main reason that people go to tango festivals and encuentros and marathons is in search of tango Heaven. Or the more final version is just giving up, which is a way to end a succession of moments of living in Tango Hell.
I posted on Facebook the below "tango thought experiment," I was totally bewildered with the responses. Many said that they would never do it. I will post in the comments some of their answers without giving their names, but really? Please note, that the following tango thought experiment is the ideal local milonga. For a local community, I tried to imagine tango heaven. I like supporting my local milonga, which is not nearly as ideal as the one described below. I dance with people of all levels and love the social connection.
Would You Volunteer to Live in "Tango Town"? PLEASE COMMENT: Why would you go or refuse to go to "Tango Town" as described be low?
. . . . . . . . .
Tango Thought Experiment: Let's say that some social scientists receive a huge grant from a multi-billionaire tango dancer to study the behavior of tango dancers for 5 years. The grant's purpose is to study tango social behavior. The main elements of the study:
The community is picked from a gender-balanced 150 participants will have a good to excellent level of skill.
The incentive to participate does not stop people from working, but the will be given a total of one million euros, paid a yearly sum (paid in monthly installments) of 100-thousand euros and a 100-thousand bonus at the end of each year. In five years, this is one million euros.
New ideas from the outside come from regular new teachers who come to teach and dance at the two weekly milongas, staying for two weeks.
Participants can invite friends to come dance for a week. Ten visiters each week are possible.
The experiment is set in a medium-sized city where you can work and play if you wish.
Your Contract:
You must not travel to dance other than Tango Town's wonderful dance hall. It has free refreshments and orderves, has a wonderful floor, and is set near a lake and not far from the ocean. It is okay to leave on vacation for a total of 30 days per year, but not to dance elsewhere. The purpose is to see what happens if good dancers stay to develop their own local milonga community.
As long as you follow the contract, you will be given €100k a year (paid in monthly installments).
You will be given an additional bonus of €100k for staying for each completed year (given at the end of each year completed).
You must attend the two main milongas. Of course practicas, group lessons, private lessons and other milongas are allowed when in Tango Town.
The social scientists will study why some will leave, why others will stay for the money, or hopefully, because it is their tango heaven. You agree to participate in questionnaires and interviews.
If you would decide to go or even not go, you might need a "tango therapist" to help you appreciate the power of social tango to make you grow psychologically to get the most out of being part of a community of dancers with all of its challenges. NEXT post: How to survive "Tango Town" (your local milonga. The follow-up is how to survive/thrive by going dedicating at least more time to your local community. Your Local Milonga: How to Survive "Tango Town".
See the below comments. Even with the above great conditions for a local milonga, notice the aversion to building a local scene. Many comments will blow your mind. Add your own mind-blowing comment below!
From the EU: "That's an interesting thought experiment. My short answer: No. I wouldn't join in the first place. Why? I think it would have a negative effect on my improvement in Tango."
UK: "Social tango at its best: And we would over time develop our own tango style and most certainly our own set of rules (i.e. no polyester shirts on the dance floor)"
From Germany: "Would rather be broke and travel. Leave, meet new (tango) people, learn, discover. Have actually lived in a kind of closed tango community (minus the $$$) in a 'past life'."
Berlin: "I wouldn't stay if hardly anybody held a job or a serious commitment to the community or to society (other than tango)."
USA, Idaho: "I wouldn’t stay. The first couple of months would be nice—getting to know people and dancing. After a while, a lot of tango “inbreeding” would happen, distorting the dance and boring the most skilled dancers. The occasional outside guests wouldn’t be enough to nurture the growth of the tango town’s inhabitants. After five years, nobody from the outside world would be able to enjoy dancing with any of the “mummified” tango town dancers." USA, Texas: "That's a whole year of life that cannot be given back to you. I want a rounded life with other experiences and opportunities is a life with choices. A life without choices is a prison." [Nothing in the though experiment says you cannot do anything else.]
USA: "If you ever check out Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, you'll understand why I choose to leave despite how "good" a deal it is on the surface - one man's heaven is another's hell, as they say." [I suppose that means he is what Rubin calls the "rebel tendency." :-) ]
USA: "I'd stay .... regardless ... I'm addicted to tango."
Part I: Tango Chose You Part II: Who Chooses the Tango Embrace?
You don't choose your preferred tango embrace. Your partner doesn't either. There is a better question:
Which tango embrace chose you?
Imagine how freeing it would be to see clearly the centuries of history that led up to you at a milonga, holding the person in front of you, and dancing that particular tango. Imagine the awe. You could see that not only did tango itself choose you, but the embrace chose you as well. This is my tango philosophy, stealing from many ancient and modern philosophers, and even physicists.
I'll speak from my own experience first: I didn't choose a warm tango abrazo. I was conditioned to a warm embrace from my parents' warm embrace. (My wife desperately sought out the tango embrace from a chronic lack of human warmth from many close to her.) Also, I had the luck of having early relationships with partners who were warm and affectionate and non-judgmental. I was destined to dance in a close embrace in tango. The embrace chose me. And now, I make even fewer choices with the embraces. My tango community is mostly among "milongueros" who prefer a close tango embrace. There isn't a hesitation at milonguero events to figure out which embrace one dances. It's "predestined" to be a warm, close embrace. Talented milongueros can do an infinitude of things in this embrace, especially with musical nuances. Also, I no longer live in America, which has long suffered under a long tradition of believing dancing was a sin, and other such prudery. I am not blaming anyone's culture for forming them. We are all formed by our culture, by its language, its myths and customs. But I am asking my readers to be aware of influences from our cultural history that form the "choices" we think we are making to eschew or accept a close embrace in dance. It's a new way of thinking about the subject: Did I really choose tango or a close embrace? Or did tango and the embrace choose me? Let's think together.
Lady's Choice? Some say it is the lady's choice that dictates the embrace. Not at an encuentro, and certainly not in Buenos Aires! According to many scientists, psychotherapists, and ancient-to-present-day philosophers, the way one embraces someone in tango is not really anyone's personal choice. When I visited Europe, I was uncomfortable with the first woman who held me close, but I took lessons and got over it. It was an issue of a lack of competence that quickly faded, not the closeness. When someone is uncomfortable with a close embrace, which is easily detected, I keep my distance, of course. That is rare, but that is probably because I no longer dance in the US. But Perhaps You are Different (you say)? I reserve a slight possibility that some very aware people rebel against their predestined choices and algorithms. A true choice is most often a very difficult decision for someone. If it is an easy decision, it is probably just a compliance with what was predestined human behavior. For the person who is aware of their frigid and standoffish culture after visiting Latin America, she or he may break away to experience something different. For the woman whose partner refuses to dance, she may take a dance lesson and enjoy dancing in spite of her partner's anti-dance culture. For the aware person, perhaps struggling with PTSD from sexual trauma, it is a hard but conscious choice influenced by a therapist who says, "face your fears" through exposure therapy via "tango therapy." Then there is the person who breaks away from their chronically jealous partner, who perhaps dances in a close embrace but forbids her. She dumps him. Maybe these rare people, making tough decisions have made a true choice. It's hard to say because there are countless other algorithms making the choices before we think we are choosing our path in life.
So, what truly free choices will you make? What if you had only a handful of truly free choices in your life? Yuval Noah Harari, author Sapiens, noted in a talk that if Free Will exists, it is very limited to perhaps 2% of our choices in truly conscious individuals. I think our choices are far fewer than 2%. Imagine that each of us could see the algorithms that influence our daily "choices." We would stand aghast that so much of what we do is pre-ordained. AI knows our next choice of what we buy better than we do. Relatively simple computer model algorithms figure out our buying habits, and without our awareness, manipulate us. Our daily choices are far more complicated than simple computer-generated algorithms that come from limited data about us. But if an algorithm is simply a set of rules followed to reach an outcome, then perhaps even the 'spiritual' prompts we feel profoundly are part of a much deeper, more ancient code.* Many of our apparent choices are preordained and that is good. You "chose" to drive on the correct side of the road today? Thank goodness for predestination! :-)
Perhaps you and I can reserve the possibility that we make a few truly independent and radical decisions in our lives—or perhaps what we perceive as 'divine intervention' is simply our destiny asserting itself. I was offered a music scholarship when I was a musician breaking into the recording industry in San Francisco. I was playing in front of huge crowds. Why would I go to school at moment like that? I immediately rejected the scholarship. But at the time, I felt that God was telling me to accept. I argued with God, but complied with the Voice. Was this a sign I had broken away to truly make an independent choice or just another part of a destiny I had not chosen? It's impossible for me to know, but in retrospect, I suspect it was not an independent decision or example of Free Will. Sorry, now we enter into yet another aspect of our own choice versus destiny: One's mystical or spiritual life enters into the subject of destiny, too. Free Will may be one of the most accepted beliefs in the world, but I suspect that it is the human ego pretending to be the captain of a ship that was launched centuries ago, stuck in currents and winds that guided the course more than the captain's compass.
When the music starts, so does the predestination. If one is fully conscious and perhaps, like a child seeing a milonga for the first time, we hear the music start. Each couple follows certain preordained customs: He nods his head to invite her; she accepts; the man catches the oncoming man's eyes before entering the dance floor. With polite permission, the couple enters the ronda. They embrace, breathe and catch the downbeat. The music is a slow Di Sarli. His huge violin section preordains slow and sweeping movements for us. The music insists, the beauty of the moment and of the power of human connection all insist. I claim no personal choice during such moments. The moment chooses, the partner and I harmonize, and all of this unfolds because of centuries of precursors. Why resist what we were called to do? I submit and participate in my destiny as an amazed observer in the miracle of this moment of tenderness in the often chaotic cosmic order.
Any comments are appreciated. Please be patient while I weed out spam messages. If you have not read Part I, Tango Chose You, then please do check it out.
These great thinkers would say that tango chose you*
I love the beautiful, poetic idea that tango chooses us, and we are merely submitted to its pull. At least for me, I am persuaded that tango chose me. I say this not only as a poetic idea but also as a philosophical and even scientific hypothesis. I am also persuaded that tango chose you, too.
That, I realize, is a shocking statement in a world that generally believes in a so-called Free Will — something that some say God gave us as a blessing — or is it a curse? However, many ancient and modern philosophers, physicists, and even theologians have questioned Free Will. I rejected their ideas until recently. [For the portrait above, see the footnote below.] But for now, let's focus on the beautiful, poetic idea. Maybe you, too, feel that there is something deeply true about tango choosing us. So I will express it first in poetic terms before considering predestination philosophy.
This is my story:
Tango Chose Me Tango beguiles me. I have no choice. T called me once, and I turned away. The DJ played a crackly old disk, Recorded with one mic last century-- An acoustic nightmare for my ears. I left the place, vowing never to return. The seductress's voice of salsa Forced me into my dance shoes, not Tango. But years later, T's name was again invoked In a bicycle shop. "Come dance it once," said the flirty one. How could I say no? I had no choice. Salsa gave way to tango that night. The warm embrace, The unprescribed infinitude of steps, The hidden African voices, deeply buried By instruments from Europe, And the abrazo community of dancers. I had no choice. Tango chose me.
You May Believe in Predestination (without knowing it) Most modern people agree with predestination without thinking about it. For example, these days, the whims of the god of thunder, or some other god, are not consulted by the meteorologist. Nor do you have fear of a man on the corner who tells you lightning will strike you. Instead, you consult the weather "forecast" to know your future danger of a lightning strike if you are concerned by his curse. The weather forecast nowadays is a result of the use of computer models and satellites that attempt to summarize the endless factors that predetermine our weather. If the forecaster gets it wrong, we do not return to consulting the gods.
Some background to Tango (and everything else) choosing us, not us choosing it Let's get the free-will ego out of the way. According to Stoic philosophy, for most of our lives, we have regretted or been proud of our choices. But were they really our choices or the consequences of many hidden factors? Does the stream choose its own course? Or is the stream's course determined by countless factors on the day you observe the new swerve in its marvelous course? Here are some examples:
Did any person who has ever lived choose to use his or her parents' language, or the language of their culture? Did Free Will help with that decision, or was it predestined?
If parents go to college, do their children “choose” college too, or was it a statistical probability to follow patterns of behavior of their family or clan?
What about "exceptions"? Should I be proud that I was the first person in my bloodline to graduate from a university? No! Many factors brought that all about. These factors humble me more than make me proud.
Even the free-will ego manifests itself in people on a spiritual path. At a retreat, five Buddhist monks told us of their calling. Every single one of them "chose" their monastic path because of unfaithful women in their lives. The current of life chose their monastic path.
I have met many Argentinians who never danced tango until they moved to America and Europe. From new circumstances, tango chose them because in their new country, they wanted to rediscover their national identity. Tango chose them.
One of the most powerful influences that determines our wrongly perceived free-will choice comes from our social environment. In the famous 'Rat Park' experiments, researchers found that rats in a cold, isolated cage would choose drugged water until they died. They were predestined by their environment. But when rats were moved to 'Rat Park'—a community with space, toys, and other rats—they chose the clear water. They chose life. Awareness of our environment's influence on our decisions, even in a luxurious 'cage,' is what finally allows us what the philosopher, Yuval Noah Harari, called the 2% small-but-mighty freedom to choose important changes. This is only possible when we become aware of internal and external algorithms influencing us. What are some of the few real choices that you can make? In our tango park, are you stuck on using only the open embrace? Are your figures disconnected from the music? Are you shunning people at a milonga, refusing to even smile at them? Can you choose something new, or will you go to your grave like this? Can you open up the embrace because there is more room, and your partner seems uncomfortable with a close embrace? Are you a teacher or an "advanced dancer" who hasn't taken a lesson for a decade? Tiger Woods has a coach. What makes you so special? Making real choices usually means leaving a comfort zone, breaking the algorithm. Face your fears and your perception of having infinite choices via your Free Will. You only have a few if you become more aware of your algorithm of predetermined choices.
Destiny and Tango Tango is not something special. Nor am I. But without tango or any individual on the planet, the universe (as a puzzle) would not be complete on God's table.** There would be missing pieces. We may be insignificant, but nevertheless, necessary to complete the "puzzle" of the Universe.
Tango chose you, too.
**Note: God's table as described by Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein.
______________ Coming soon in another blog post: Which Tango Embrace Chose You?
*The "portrait" above is of thinkers—which I requested Gemini to "paint"—who were convinced that Free Will is the ego's delusion. It represents over 2,000 years of reasoned thought. Predestination has merely changed names—from the Logos, to Grace, to Decree, to Substance, to Physics, and finally to societal and biochemical Algorithms. (Yuval Noah Harari didn't want to be in the same room with Calvin and Saint Paul, but he belongs among them as a modern philosopher of history and the dangers of AI.)
Baruch Spinoza (Seated, far left): Viewed the universe as a singular, deterministic substance where everything follows mathematical necessity.
Albert Einstein (Standing, back left): A fan of Spinoza who famously said, "God does not play dice." He believed even our "free" actions are part of rigid physical causality.
Marcus Aurelius (Seated, center-left): The Stoic Emperor who believed in the Logos—a divine order. He taught that we must find peace by flowing with the cosmic river, not fighting it.
John Calvin (Standing, center-back): The architect of "Double Predestination." He believed every soul’s destination was written before time began. (A brittle cosmology I personally reject.)
Arthur Schopenhauer (Seated, center-right): A bridge to the modern era who noted, "A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants." He understood that our desires (like the urge to dance) come from a source deeper than our conscious "choice."
Saint Augustine of Hippo (Seated, far right): Argued that the human will is "shackled" by its own nature and needs an outside act of Grace to be moved. Perhaps, for some of us, Tango is that grace?
St. Paul (Standing, far right): The biblical source of the "Potter and the Clay" metaphor. While a pillar of history, I often wonder if he was predestined to favor "Decree" over the fluid experience of ergos (works).
"Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." --Epicurus
Epicurian philosophy is simple: Seek pleasure and avoid pain. So you might think there are many Epicurean tanguer@s out there, right?
The problem is that Epicurean philosophy is a wisdom tradition, not a lifestyle. Seeking pleasure often has no philosophy or ethical basis.
Sure, there are many who seek pleasure and avoid pain, but may lack wisdom entirely. A philosopher thinks deeply about this principle of pleasure and pain. One of my greatest pleasures in life is to dance. But it took a while for me to find some wisdom of how to be wise enough to create life-long pleasure and to avoid loss, pain, and distress.
Pleasure without Self-Harm
I started thinking about this Pleasure Principle as I was trying to help a patient of mine suffering with sleeplessness. I think he considered himself a true Epicurean. He explained that he wanted to enjoy life. So that meant that he wanted to enjoy his cigarette before bed, drink whiskey before bed, and watch TV in bed. Of course, all of these things undermine good sleep and were harming his health. Pleasure without self-harm takes some wisdom.
Tango and the Pleasure Principle
I recommend lots of pleasure. But I want to be an Epicurean Tanguero. My tango path for many years was not as an Epicurean philosopher. I have more and more pleasure in tango, but that was made possible because of becoming wiser--joining the Epicurean wisdom of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain for the long-term good.
If I want more pleasure and less pain, I know that I need to . . .
Dance less so I can have good sleep.
Dance less so I can have good foot care.
Wear special earplugs* so I am not deaf later in life. (Get a good decibel app.)
Dance in moderation in order to have plenty of other helping activities that will maintain my tango to be long-lived--such as . . . >Tai chi for balance >Working out for stamina and strength >Yoga for flexibility >Breathing practice for lung capacity and body awareness >Mindful meditation for flow and calming the inner-voice that is not mine.
The path of a philosopher for me is to have ecstatic moments in tango but not at the expense of not taking care of my body's health, my psychological wellness, and my spiritual life.
The Pleasure Principle, philosophically practiced, makes our tango glow, and allows us to be an asset to the tango community, which by the nature of any community will need more wisdom and less shallow pleasure-seeking. Seek pleasure; eschew pain. But be a true Epicurean Tangue@.
* In order to maintain one's hearing acuity, young or old, I suggest getting good quality earplugs, even some made just for your ears. Some milongas employ partially deaf DJ's who blast their music. In the workplace, your employer must provide hearing protection over 85 decibels. I know DJ's who blast music over 100 decibels all night. Avoid these deaf DJ's if you can, or simply do as I do: Wear earplugs specifically made for ... wait for it ... DJ's. Whatever you do, don't tell them to turn down their music. They're deaf and won't hear you. :-/
Music's Essential Elements: Melody, Harmony and Rhythm.
If tango dancers really wish to dance musically, they must at least sense which of the three elements of music is the fundamental block. I realize that there are many more elements (see link at the bottom), but let's keep this discussion on what is the essential of the essential. Among these three blocks, even the focus is often questionable. which is the one essential one? Are they all essential? No. However, if you watch the camera man's focus on music performance, the limelight is often on the melody. Also, much discussion on the Internet on the essential blocks starts with the melody. It's true in tango that I often dance the melodic line, but the best musicians who play/sing the melodic line are exceptionally connected to where the rhythm is! Are you?
This poem is dedicated to the hundreds of soldiers I have met as a therapist who have started talking again after being afraid to tell their story. It is an honor to meet the real boys and girls in my office. They do not know me as the "tango therapist," but, as you might imagine, I do tell them to also learn to dance along with learning to talk.
Discussion:
A friend asked me after my last post on the body as the primal musical instrument if each person has at least a latent ability to dance. I answered her in the words below, and then was inspired to write the above poem.
"Not every person weeps, but doing so is uniquely human. Not every human being can talk, but that is uniquely human. Not everyone can sing, but that is uniquely human. Not everyone dances to music, but that is uniquely human. Sometimes we teach each other not to be human; otherwise, we would do these things naturally."
Through tango I have discovered that the most primal musical instrument on earth is the human body. Each body contains its own rhythm, called a pulse, and internal music. Of course, many will dispute this, but it was the acceptable theory during one of the most amazing periods of artistic human development: The Renaissance. The power of musica instumentalis is that an orchestra or musician can give two or more people a common pulse.
I love this ceramic piece from Picasso (shown to the left) because it shows the power of musical expression to make the animal within us dance. Only the child human animal dances without instruction to music; so what looks like a goat is actually our unique brain delighted by music so much that we human beings are moved to dance. The flutist and the dancer are one.
I found this ceramic Picasso work of art because recently I remembered something important about my first instrument (other than my body). I was looking for a picture of a plastic flute I had in fourth grade. As a fourth grader, I had to learn to play the flutophone. Before a big concert, all three classes at my school came together and we were playing together. It sounded pretty darn good, I thought. But then the music teacher asked everyone who took the music test and got a 80% or above to play. Most of us put our instruments to our side and just listened.
Flutophone
It was amazing! What a difference between muddled music and a clean rhythm and clear melody! This was a huge realization of what musicality is -- it is clean rhythms and clear (even if dark or raspy) tones.
I was not good as a flutist, so I was one of the many who only listened. But the music became a part of me. This experience resounded in me. I wanted to be a part of it. That is what music does: It has the power to move us psychologically and bodily.
I eventually dedicated myself to being a musician in fifth grade after hearing a cellist play for the first time. I was so moved that I had to learn to be a musician. I played later in string orchestras as a bassist. A year later in fifth-grade summer school, I started as a percussionist, which became my main instrument as a musician in symphonic orchestras, jazz bands and combos. The electric bass brought me to dancing salsa, learning latin percussion, and then I discovered the most amazing instrument through tango: The body.
Now I am more musically aware than ever since I learned, through tango, to embody music, that is, use my body as my primary instrument. My music is movement as a body-musician. Body-musicians (like singers*) use their body to create musical expression with instrumentalists or as soloists. Tango body-musicians join with tango orchestras, usually in duets on a floor of many duets of body-musicians, which is called in tango a "milonga."
If anyone asks you if you play an instrument, the answer for tango dancers is: "Yes. My body."
*Theories of musica humana did not consider the voice as part of the body but instead musica instrumentalis. I like this idea that the voice is a separate instrument from the body, but music departments and even my musicians' union when I was a professional did not allow singers in to the union because of the belief that the voice was not an instrument. During the Renaissance the belief was that the voice box was a separate instrument and was not musica humana: "Musica quae in quibusdam constituta est instrumentis (sounds made by singers and instrumentalists)." An easy way to settle this philosophical hair-splitting is simply to allow the body to be an instrument! The body includes the voice box, a pounding heart, vibrations of multiple organs, the buzzing and frequencies of molecules and atoms. When we move our mind begins making its own music. Therefore, I believe that dancing and singing are examples of how we, especially when aware, become body-musicians.
I once tried to understand religious grace.
I watched the cruel ones claim salvation's grace.
The cruel bully at work, proclaims his salvation:
"Not by works, but by grace we are saved,"
He announces--in all of his proud gracefullness.
I find heavenly moments at the milonga.
A refuge from the the cruelties of the world.
I ponder how a dancer embodies grace --
Its essence, not given but striven for.
Do not angels work on their grace of flight?
The Grace of Embrace is my heaven on earth.
Its warmth is the likeness of celestial grace,
Movement in tandem with the divine.
It is not Soul alone who embraces me
But dual grace, a duet, a harmony of two.
Spirit's grace stays on axis when I wobble.
She doesn't leave me when I stumble.
She directs the heavenly choir of dead musicians,
Beating out canyenge rhythms on my soul.
This is truly Amazing Grace.
Post Script: Before I was the "tango therapist," at work I would send out a few friends messages of "tango theology." So this is another part of me -- the Tango Thelogian: Notes on Tango Theology: Christian theology, the idea of God's grace is that it is an unmerited gift of God, from a letter written by St. Paul. Ephesians 2:8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,not of works, lest anyone should boast. . I do not think Paul is saying this in the way that it has been misused over the centuries. The context is talking about "works" and the discussion is that the new believers had to be circumsized -- good that he cleared up the issue of "works." That would have been a bloody problem. James 2:18 addressed the misuses written after St Paul: "But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." Grace is not given even though not unmerited! So my definition, as I have learned from tango's help is this --Grace: An awakening to our merited divine beauty. Divine grace and the grace of a dancer are expression of the same thing: Elegance and refinement and movement before and with God and her creation." Don't look for this definition in any dictionary.
J.S. Bach: Handing over a minuet to Francisco Canaro
to add the cruzado (cross rhythm). See the smirk on his face?
Today's musicality workshop is on the vals. It will take some concentration, unlike many blog posts aiming for an easy reading experience. If you are serious about musicality, then stick with me. Go slow. It will be worth it. Dancing the cross rhythm is like flying, and partners will love it.
Our goal in this workshop is to improve our ability to improvise away from the pulse in three, and understand the African cross rhythm (cruzado also, called criollo) that makes the tango waltz so unique and fun for dancers. Important: Many people already briefly dance the crossrhythm, and I hope this workshop will expand your ability to dance longer in this crossrhythm feeling.
History: Thanks to Francisco Canaro, the expansion of the modern milonga includes both the valscriollo and the milonga. These "criollo" influences came from Peruvian, indigenous, and African influences in the music of South America. Few dance teachers are aware of what these influences are. As a result, we have whitewashed these African influences out of the music. The true vals criollo is not to be heard in many vals tandas at milongas, but even if the vals is clearly a Viennese waltz, one still can use the concepts we are covering here. OTV and Canaro are your best sources for the valscruzado. Let's get into it.
A waltz or "vals" in Spanish has 3 beats per phrase, right?
Well, that is the smallest view of what the vals is.
Six beats better describes the vals crillo.
If we were to compare vals to a language, then a word is 3 beats, a phrase is 6 and a sentence is 12 beats. Just like in language, when you first went to school and learned about words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs, you were already practicing these things without knowing what they were. Similarly, you may be doing very complex steps in your vals, but perhaps it will be helpful now that you are more advanced to understand more about what you are doing. The more long-range goal is for tango dancers to construct poems and short stories that delight their partners via knowing musical phrasing. Followers can also influence this feeling; so it is not information for leaders.
Before getting into all the details, I want you to dance the melody (this is called musicality) of even a vals, something that I rarely see on the dancefloor. After the melody in the below vals, you will hear a very clear cruzado rhythm. Dance on this clear rhythm. If you don't get it, just keep listening. Feel it in your body as a child does. I see people hiding behind cool figures and endless turns to hide the fact that they are just pounding out the downbeat of the vals. So dance by yourself. Feel the cruzado before we break it down and expand your future use on the dancefloor. This is by OTV.
The European Example The vals cruzado is a waltz within a waltz from Africa (3 beats against six), but Europe had a similar phenomenon that did not make it to Argentina: The Baroque dance and music (below) is also in danced in six-beat phrases. In the following example, if one thinks in 6, notice what happens on 2 and 6! This is a common form of Baroque dancing in which dancers bob down on the beats 2 and 6 of each phrase--clear six-beat phrases!
As I mentioned earlier, if you count in six, they are bobbing slightly down on 2 and 6. That is the typical cross rhythm of their dance. The "cruzado" (meaning cross) is a sub-rhythm of the Argentine vals that at times is found also in Baroque, but Baroque was not the "cruzado" (cross rhythm) influence -- Africa brought that influence. In Latin percussion we call this counter rhythm the "trecillo" -- a part of the Afro-clave rhythm of nearly all of the forms of music in Latin America, including tango. The cruzado started in 6/8 sacred rhythms in Africa. I will write more about that later in a blog in which I will demonstrate the African influence with instruments and the Afro-clave in other forms of Latin American music as it relates to tango.
Many people, including musicians, are not aware intellectually of this sub-rhythm; so let me explain: The vals cruzado has a waltz within a waltz. Sometimes it is very explicit, sometimes subtle, the cruzado (cross rhythm) is always there, and is the distinctive element of what makes the vals the "tango waltz," coming from its African roots. To be sure, many musicians do not seem to know this, but it is nonetheless the fact. They often feel it, but are not aware of its origins.
Percussionists (tango dancers) need to know about these rhythms. You are percussively expressing yourself, striking your instrument (the floor) as a part of the tango orchestra. So my fellow percussionists, if you think in 3, a waltz has its emphasis on the first beat of each group of three (1**/1** etc.). If you think in 6 beat phrases (as the above dancers above have to), the same emphasis is 1**4**/1**4**). You will feel he musical phrasing more easily if you feel this in six. Practice counting at times when you are listening to the vals.
Now let's add the African influence, also called the trecillo, by dancing on 1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.* You must feel this first before being able to eventually feel the upbeat of this. I call this the upbeat cruzado).
For those used to watching young, flashy dancers, the following clip with very few views on YouTube will not be immediate appealing. However, this older couple are truly dancing 3 against six many times. I found this video clip because I was looking for someone dancing to Anibal Troilo's "Un Placer." I discovered Héctor and María Eugenia, dancing in this clear example of a very explicit cruzado rhythm in the vals. Check this out!
Now, go back and start a little before the 1-minute 30 mark. Here you will see how Hector performs not only the cruzado against what she is doing, but he has a very nice poetic pause in the middle of it all. Wonderful! Then keep going until the end of the song which ends with the cruzado being slammed out by the orchestra throughout the whole last phrase.
Okay, one more?
Here is a wonderful example of this within a vals with "percussionists" Julio Balmaceda and Corina playing the dance floor. Please focus again, just for this workshop, on counting in six. If you pay attention, you will observe many times when they both dance this cruzado, the cross-rhythm, together or when one does and the other stays with the bass (1**4**/1**/4**).
I recommend that you go back and look at watch him at the 56-second mark stay in the cross rhythm (1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.) for a long while as she stays in the normal vals rhythm (1**4**/1*34**/1**4**/etc.).
This weekend, if you are out dancing, pay attention to the Saints watching over the dance floor -- all the dead musicians that have made your world of dance and music so enjoyable. Among the many friendly spirits will see many great Argentine musicians. Behind them you will see a guy wearing a really cheesy wig. That's Bach. And if you really pay attention, when he watches vals cruzado he is smiling a lot more than usual. Among the friendly spirits, please pay attention to the African drummers who are playing the cruzado rhythm -- the three African beats playing against the six European beats of the vals cruzado!
___________________________________________
*Musicians only: The cruzado rhythm came to Argentina via Peru. The val cruzado's other feature was also borrowed at first by Canaro, and copied by others, which was to have two singers with a statement and response. I am not a musicologist, but I sense that the vals cruzado came first from Africa to Peru before being imported to Buenos Aires via Canaro. But the Africans and indigenous peoples of South America have Bach and Mozart and so many others also discovering the "organic" cross rhythm. In Europe it is called the "hemiola," a European concept of the same thing. The Peruvian cruzado is often an upbeat crossing rhythm 3 against 6 beats. The downbeat cross rhythm is (1*3*5*/1*3*5*/1*3*5*/etc.) and the upbeat cross rhythm is (*2*4*6/*2*4*6). The reason this upbeat cross rhythm is so danceable is that the downbeat lands on 4. The regular rhythm hits on 1 and 4: (1**4**/1**/4**). Extremely wonderful genres of dance music have these elements: Reggie uses exactly the same upbeat curzado feel) but in 4/4 time (3/3/2 on upbeat *2*/*2*/*2).
Others are examples:
Traditional jazz in 4/4 time: (1**4*6/1*4**6/1**4**/etc.). The down beat (1) is played, but the 2nd beat is clearly in the feeling of jazz. The above rhythm is the cymbal rhythm of the drummer. (You must count fast to get the sense of this rhythm, but start slow.)
The jazz walz is full of these cross rhythms on the downbeat or upbeat cross rhythm. I will give you an example I immediately found on YouTube, with the sheet music notation! Please notice that since the piece is written in 3/4 it takes 6 beats (two measures) for the cross rhythm to be represented. The cross rhythm (on downbeat) example starts at measure 41 and is a regular theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3KTlZND0uc&list=RDP3KTlZND0uc&index=1
Hip-hop and Kizomba are the down-beat cruzado rhythm (changed to the 4-beat feel, called the "trecillo" in Spanish. Tango dancers know this as the 3/3/2 rhythm, which they rarely danced but dancers have heard of it. (If you don't believe me that dancers do not dance it, watch what happens when Di Sarli, D'Arienzo, Troilo, or Pugliese play 3/3/2 rhythms (often on the upbeat 3/3/2) but no one, even professionals stomp out the pulse.) Let's not fool ourselves--tango's great African rhythms have been whitewashed or "gentrified." There are wonderful but rare exceptions. Play this tanda from Troilo and watch what happens on the dancefloor with experienced dancers. It doesn't have to be this way, but teachers have refused to learn and teach rhythms, unlike tap dancers and many African and Latin American teacher-dancers.
Comment or "like" Tango Therapist's (Musicians who Dance Tango) Facebook page at this link or below. Please be patient. I have to approve comments because of so much spam.
