Her Empty Chair at the Milonga (poem)

We leave her chair empty, hoping she will return.

The chair she always found 
Is empty--no red, tattered shoe bag
Reserving her spot as she danced.

I notice the lonely chair
The first night of her absence.
I ask about her.
I call. She says she's on holiday.
Tango's become a chore.

Days turn into months
Without her presence.
Her loss is my absence.
The bell tolls for me too.
Her loss is our absence.
It is us; it is me.

I mourn my own frailty to abandon
Love or kindness or an embrace.
The struggle of being fully engaged in life,
The drama surrounding waking in an embrace,
The drama surrounding the walking embrace
Can be more than we --
More than I--can stand.
Is it worth it?

Why do we quit love?
   The love of movement,
   The love of being held,
   The love of a walking as one?
Ask any lover, and the voice will belie
The connection the heart desires.
The excuses of disconnection are many
For which our heart has no words or reason.

So this is my song to you, tanguera!

(I pull out my guitar and say...)
Se llama este vals cruzado...
Silla de Soledad

There's a season for all of these things,
But your hand in mine--that lasts forever.
There's a song in your soul which still sings,
Of the bonds inside you, you must sever.

There's a season to make bonds anew,
When the soul again needs you to share.
There's a cry out of empty dance shoes
Which is asking you once more to dare.

And a haunting song plays still within,
From a tango played deep from your heart.
"Tell me when you'll return to your place!
And when will your soul's dance yet start?"

So do what your soul now most loves.
And when you return I'll embrace you.
So do what your soul now best does.
And when you return, I'll embrace you.

When you return.
When you return.
And when you return, 
I'll embrace you.

Note:  "Silla de Soledad" means 

Chair of Loneliness  

The idea for this poem came from an announcement from a fellow tango blog-ista, "the Tango Bitch," who was a bit disillusion with the milonga scene (22 Apr 2011):   http://thetangobitch.wordpress.com/.  Be kind to those around you. Embrace them and let their soul get out on the playground to play with other.  We need each other.

Photo credit: 
http://visualphotos.com/image/2x2689642/empty_chair_casting_shadow

Musicians Killing Tango part 2

The Piazzola Theater:  Where is the dance floor?

ango musicians who compose or play tango do so because they love it.   In part one, my major point was that Latin American music has tended to live on and on because the dancer is not forgotten, as it was in jazz music.  Many forget too, that rock 'n roll was at first a partner dance like swing.  Then it became free-style dance, but the dancers were eventually forgotten as bands became more and more complicated.  Try dancing to "Black Dog" by Led Zeplin with 4.5 beats per measure!

Although I am being provocative with my title, tango dancers are a big part of the problem too because now tango dancers are not supporting the musicians who are attempting to provide good dance music.  Too many DJs play terrible music both musically (out-of-tune, weak orchestras) and with poor fidelity just because it is "classic."  (There will be more about DJs in part 3.)  Tango music lovers -- mostly dancers outside of Latin America -- also hold to some extent the four deadly assumptions that kill tango.  These assumptions are ingrained in non-Latin culture; so it is not just musicians but dancers who also endangering tango--an attempted homicide not by intention but assumption. Here they are -- the four deadly assumptions:

1.  The "truly listening public" assumption:   The belief here is that people who are dancing are not really listening. I myself am a musician, and I used to have a sense that people dancing were not truly listening to the music. The focus was on their partner, the crowd, the atmosphere and the music was just in the "background." I was wrong. Tango is an impovisational dance, and dancers are truly listening to the music because their whole body/mind/spirit is invoked to participate in the composer and musicians are creating. Musicians from Latin America would not for a moment believe people dancing are not really listening; so this assumption is Euro-centric in its origins. Afro-centric musicians (playing mambo, cumbia, danzón, guaguacó, samba and tango) normally understand the body/mind link to true listening.

2.  The "music appreciation" assumption:  In order to preserve music, one must appreciate it and understand its origins, and of course, great orchestras need to play it. This too is a Euro-centric idea which had its greatest proponents during the Romantic Period in Europe. The idea was for great composers to make symphony music of folk song melodies to immortalize them. The reality over and over is that music that loses its dancers, loses its listeners. Just in the last 100 years this process has been seen with many types of popular music dying out.  A person over 45 years old has already experienced this:  The developmental model of a dying form of popular music is that the music is popular and people are singing and dancing it. The musicians who have great dance bands start putting on performances (for example, Count Basie). The people stop dancing at the musicians put on "shows."  Meanwhile a new generation comes along with music that has them singing and dancing. Then the process starts all over with musicians and composers again forgetting the dancers. But this did NOT happen in Latin America -- at least in all cases.  Salsa (renamed by  a New York promoter from mambo) has long been well and alive with new hits every year.  

3.  The "ballet assumption" or "court dance" assumption:  This assumption believes that great music needs great dancers to express it. This is yet another elitist Euro-centric idea. Royalty, or highly trained dancers preclude commoners or less trained dancers to participate in this music except as those who must "stand aside," as their bodies are shackled from dancing. Commoners are serving the guests but not dancing.  Although dancers appreciate that tango shows value the idea of dancers being included, the assumption was that it must be stage tango dancers, who not only are highly trained, but many of their moves are closer to ballet than social tango.  So where are "the commoners" who really know social tango?  They are the Argentine waiter staff serving the tables!  Or they the "commoners" are tourists who have saved their money to be elite during an expensive tango vacation -- "royalty" -- for a day.

4.  The Serious Music Assumption:  This is by far the most harmful assumption.  It was Piazzola's assumption -- that dance music is not serious music.  Now his assumption continues because great musicians want to play his works.   This assumption, I think, is the fear that if great tango ensembles and even orchestras had people dancing then the ensemble  would be perhaps "only" a dance band.  Highly respected musicians in Latin America, uninfluenced by European notions, would never consider this assumption as having intellectual validity.  Great musicians in Latin America gauge their success by how they inspire people to get out of their seats with the joy of movement.

Assumption Destruction:

Music which forgets its dancers dies. 

If left to politicians who disallowed tango to be danced, if left to musicians who would have everyone sit down, tango would be all but dead except for people listening to Public Radio or elite concert goers. However, this is a new time in human history. We have recordings and people love to dance to these recordings. It is not just the old music. What is recorded is the spirits of musicians who respected the dancer.  Tango seems to have survived in spite of modern musicians who continually are interested in composers who historically downplayed or even despised the tango dancer, such as Piazzola, who was highly influenced by classical (Euro-centric training).

My fellow musicians:  Your influence to present the spirit of Latin American music is not alone a musical influence, it is a cultural influence.  Latin Americans hold their music close to their hearts but "listen" through their bodies as dancers.  I hope that whenever you perform in the future that even if it is a show that at least at some point you invite the public to dance.  That would teach the unknowing public a great deal about what Latin American culture and music has to offer the world:  A music that moves the soul and body.

Part III of Musicians Killing Tango will look at the hope (and danger) dancers have through the modern tango DJ.  And for those who have been asking, I promise this month that I will continue with more about the essential rhythm of tango, the "clave" of tango, which many even deny. (Are they deaf?)  I promise to be provocative on this one too -- as always.

Photo Credits:
Piazzola Theater:  http://www.piazzollatangoshow.com/seccion_detalle.php?idseccion=

Musicians killing Tango, part 1

ango musicians are more passionate than the majority of tango dancers about tango.  They live it, breathe it and dearly love it.Why would they kill that which they love?

Ask jazz musicians why they killed jazz!

Well, jazz musicians will deny it.  But let's do some detective work.  Jazz as a popular music is dead.  It was marginalized by rock 'n roll in the late 50's.  In the 1930's and 40's, everyone was dancing to live bands in America and around the world.  The great jazz musicians were playing for dancers before they started doing sit-down shows.  This is the first clue in our detective work:  When dancers sit down, the end is near.

I am a jazz musician.  I played jazz before I played rock.  I played it professionally at age 13 before I ever played a rock n' roll gig.  I love jazz, but I colluded in keeping it dead (because it was already dead as a popular music when I started playing it).  I liked to play the complicated stuff, and I did not appreciate the dancer.

That changed when I was in graduate school many years later.  I decided to take a dance class.  I was exposed to all the ballroom dances, but I fell in love anew with swing era jazz, which once had filled dance halls with foxtrot and swing dancers.  I should add that upon learning how to dance to jazz, I immediately became a better jazz musician.

Later, when I started learning to play bass, I picked up a book called "Afro-Cuban Bass," and when I started to learn to play salsa, I was so excited about it that I immediately took a dance class.  This is what I knew I had to do to understand this music.

At that time, I was also influenced by a film I saw on a type of music that eventually would change my life profoundly.  The music?  Tango.  In that documentary, an veteran bandoneón player asks a younger player/composer what he imagines when he is playing his new composition.

"I see people in a club sitting, sipping on their wine, and listening with their heart and soul," he told the older man.

I would have thought that the older man would be glad that the new generation was composing tango music.  Unexpectedly, the older musician chastises him:  "You will kill tango when you forget the dancer."

While watching the film, I immediately thought about the mambo king, Tito Puente, in an interview talking about how he composes and plays around the dancer's experience.  Musicians from Latin America tend not to be overly influenced by Euro-centric ideas of shackling the listeners' feet to their chairs.  Euro-centric ideas have the audience obediently paying attention to the music like little disciplined children in the strict musical world of "sit still and watch" and "look but do not touch."  Although the European influence to tango is huge, the way it is danced and the role of the dancer is true to its African and Latin roots.  Music in Latin America is psychosomatic -- an experience of the psyche and the soma (mind and body).

Nothing was said in the film about jazz dying, but I had seen that happen, and I have watched rock become so complicated that something had to take its place too as a dance music, such as during the disco music era and the advent of hip hop and rap.

What will become of tango?  The good news I can say now (for a happy ending):  Tango will not die.

There are great musicians of all Latin American genres of music who haven't forgotten the dancer.   Also in Latin America when I go to functions, dancers of all ages get up to enjoy the music together.  As long as the culture of tango follows Latin culture, tango may be saved from its own end.  The question now is -- will dancers support these wise musicians?  Will tango dancers corroborate with the few musicians who value the social (not stage) dancer?

My greatest hope is that I fully expect that the best tango music has yet to be written and that it will be for dancers!

Coming soon...

Part 2 of Musicians Killing Tango follows soon.  What do you think the "Four Deadly Assumptions" of musicians would be?

Part 3 of Musicians Killing Tango reveals some insights of the advent of DJ's, a look at other Afro-Latin dances who are losing dancers (and other gaining), and finally an appeal to milonga DJ's to reward modern composers who have not forgotten the dancer-friendly musician by playing their work at milongas.

See you soon.

Photo credit:  http://photobucket.com/images/death%20tango/

Mother's Day

Te amo mucho, Mami

Sometimes love is blind.




Better than the Gods 

She loved me unconditionally.
She loved me
Before I knew what love was.
She cared for me when I could not,
And when I was sick.
I met her when she was already forty.
She was experienced in life --
A wise soul ...
She showed me what others just talk about.
Unconditional love she gave me
Whether I was good or bad.
Even the gods cannot give me that.
And if the gods should decide
That she be in heaven
And I in hell,
She will still abide in my heart forever.


In dedication to the little girl, Ruth Irene Austin, who changed her name 
and became my mother as Ruth Word.

Live Tango Music on a Grand Scale

Pan American Symphony

Just by chance, I was invited to a dinner to hear the Pan American Symphony near Washington D.C.  I was not expecting that much--to tell you the truth--but they were very good.  The bandoneonista from Uruguay was featured with a new tango he had composed, which had won a Latin Music Grammy award.  

It was a magical evening to hear live tango on such a grand scale.  What a shame not to be able to dance!

Luckily I sat in the back of the room and was able to get up and at least feel the music in my feet.  So here is a little taste of what I saw and heard.




For more information about the Pan American Symphony:  http://www.dctangofestival.com/about-PASO.html

Tango Hands

One hand is yours,
One hand is mine.
We desire of harmonic synchrony,
A tandem hope in a world of chaos.

Our hearts pound together.
We listen for an internal beat,
Intertwined with the orchestra's,
The momentum of moments in music.

Marcela & Gavito:
Cathedral Door, apilado

Our bodies form a cathedral door's arch,
A human structure of holy communion,
Leading to a sanctuary of the Triunity
Of Music, Movement and Embrace.

We congregate to celebrate life,
Unafraid to embrace even a stranger,
In a world which vainly seeks connection,
Holding devices not hands or souls close.

She openly adores the divine with me.
We stand in awe of One made from two,
We do not pray that heaven soon come;
It has found us in this very moment.

Such is the tango prayer.

Tango Therapist's Facebook Page or Google+ Link to posts

Photo credit:
Hands http://www.davidsanger.com/stockimages/8-801-5804.tango
Apilado https://www.pinterest.com/pin/513762269961034151/ 

Gift of Tango to an Old Man

Grant falls in love with tango.

When I took my car in to get it fixed, I met Grant, who had been working on my car.  After dozing in the waiting room with the recap of the royal wedding on the TV, Grant returned with my keys in his outstretched hand.  He reluctantly handed them back to me, and said, "What was that music in your car? I didn't want to get out of the car!"

At first, I thought he was referring to public radio and the Baroque music I had been listening to.  But then I realized that he had been working also on my CD player because the CD loader was sometimes sticking.  He described the haunting "accordion" music.  "Oh, that's a bandonión, a squeeze box with buttons, not the accordion," I explained.   "The music is tango,"  I said.

He followed me out to the car, as if he didn't really want me just to drive away.  I turned around and he was  still standing there.   "I will tell you who was playing if you'd like,"  I told him.

"That would be good," he said.

I turned on CD player in my car.  "The composer was from Uruguay, and that is a harmonica," I told him.  He got my email address, so I could send him the names of some good tangos to order.  He took the email, and started to walk away.  I realized that he might not even have email or a computer.

"Hey, Grant," I shouted.  He came back and I gave him the CD.

I cannot expect you to believe me, but it seemed like the man nearly cried for happiness.  I said, "Take this home and make love with your wife to this music."  He smiled.  "I will!"

Now, the gift of that CD just doubled.


PS:
Grant is not that much older than I.  I too am an "old man" -- in love with tango as if I had never heard it before each time it comes across my ears.

Photo credit:
http://www.craigdailypress.com/photos/2010/feb/28/

Psychiatry on the Dance Floor

Is your movement a goal or a process?

Diálogo Tanguero 
Psychiatry on the Dance Floor

Prologue:  Lately, I have had wonderful discussions with tangueros and tangueras all over the world and so I hope to bring their wisdom to Tango-Beat.  This is the first Diálogo Tanguero (Tango Dialog) of  what I hope will be many to come.  My conversation below is with a forensic psychiatrist in one of the most populated cities in the US.  Over a cup of coffee, she told me about incidences that influenced her from her childhood, and how these influenced her pursuit of happiness through tango.  An earlier post “Tango Start Line” was about dancing for only your partner and not competing or dancing for the onlookers.  This dialog grew out that article.

Tango-Beat:
What brought you to tango?

María:
I grew up in Colombia, and I listened to tangos all the time.  My siblings thought I was strange because they were listening to rock ‘n roll, but I was influenced by our father who constantly would listen to tangos and boleros.  I loved these classic tangos.  I knew all the words to them by heart.

Mark:
You are a forensic psychiatrist, and you are summoned internationally in your work.  No one would ever guess that at night you come out as a tanguera!  And I am sure that few would ever guess you are a tanguera aficionada when you present papers to audiences, appear in court for victims or that you are treating patients.  My experience is that when we dance you are absolutely 100% connected to me and to the music.

María:
At work I present myself as plain as I can, with little makeup and very conservatively dressed.  Tango lets me be as feminine as I want to be, and that has really been wonderful for me.  Also, as a child I always knew that one day I would be dancing tango.  The reason for this is that my father always listened to tangos, and I have been listening to them since the time I was inside of my mother’s womb.

Mark:
You told me that you guide your tango teachers away from technique, choreography, and competition.  Instead, you are interested in the simple passion of the music and tango as a social dance.  Tell me why.

María:
I think I learned how unimportant competition is early on.  I want to dance it for me and my partner, not what others think or see.  When I was 12 or 13, I participated in an all girl’s bicycle competition in my neighborhood’s club.  My cousins Gladys and Nubia, who were 6 and 8 years older than I was at the time, also participated.  In the middle of the competition, a girl ahead of me tripped over something and fell off the road into grass and mud.  Behind her I fell with others.  My cousin Gladys, came to help me to get back on my bike.  I still remember telling her, “You shouldn't stop for me!  You could win the competition.”  She answered, “It doesn't matter; the important thing is that we are all going to make it to the end. . . .Who cares about being the winner or not.”

On life's track: Against others or with others?

Since that day, Gladys became my favorite cousin, and what she taught me that day stayed forever with me.  Approximately two and a half years ago, when I started taking tango lessons, I remember telling my first tango instructor, “I just want to learn to do it correctly, but overall I want to enjoy it.  I don’t want to compete.”  I don’t plan to be a tango instructor, though if one day it I teach, it would be to help others less advanced than me to get better.  Being on a stage in order to have ovations from the public is not my goal.  All I care about is to dance this music with all my heart, because I love it.  

Mark:
But you have through your passion learned good technique, I think.  I danced with you when you first started and you have really become very good in a short time.

María:
Well, thanks.  But I think that I have learned quicker because I never forgot about dancing just for my partner.  With my teachers, I have had that very clear, that my wish is to be a good dancer, but technically good dancers often are sitting.  My hope has been that anytime that I attend a milonga, I’ll be asked to dance all the time, not because I am the best on the dance floor, but because men will be able to tell that I have passion for tango and I dance it with my soul.   So, my hope is always to be dancing to the end, like in my bike competition, where I did not win, but I was able to finish despite the bumps on the road.

Mark:
Well, I feel this when I dance with you.  It doesn’t take a forensic psychiatrist to analyze this!  You have rediscovered your passion for tango that you knew as a girl.  Now, you are dancing to it, but it has been moving your heart for a long time.  What a great story, María!

Photo Credit:
http://www.thevelodrome.com/community-programs/bicycle-racing-league/

Tango Dreams

I have dreams from time to time in which I fly.  I love flying.  It is so wonderful it wakes me in my delight and concern that it will end too soon.  Before I wake, I feel as if I must remember how this works.  Why couldn't I fly before?  Can I do it again?  All these thoughts make me lose elevation and I must land.  Upon landing, I wake, sad that it was a dream.

Tonight, I know that I will not wake up from these dreams anymore.  I will fly and not fear that I will forget because starting today, I will remember the fact that I can fly.  In my dreams I can -- every night, even before I sleep.  With my passion to fly, I am not limited by worry about my technique of flying.  Before writing this, I never realized the antidote to this sad ending to my dream.  But now I know that I will be free to fly without worry of waking to be disappointed.

The reason I will no longer be awakened from flying is something I learned from working with combat vets.   I will not go into it right here, but one of the single most rewarding things of my work as a therapist with soldiers is that although they had nightmares every night for years, with a new nightmare mitigation technique, the horrific dreams suddenly start to disappear.  Eventually they stop having to use toxic medications to induce and maintain sleep.  It is all about embracing the producer and director of your dreams -- you.  The producer is the raw passion of the film making what we do in our head both asleep and awake and is the limbic part of our brain.  The director is the technique, the cerebral cortex that tames passion and at its very best, makes passion sublime.  This concept has been around for centuries as "sublimation" -- that what makes passion sublime.  Unfortunately, the word "sublimation" has changed in its meaning to become "stuffing your passion."

Perhaps you will ask, what use is this if you cannot really fly?  Mentally when I fly, you will see that I am more serine and happy.  Being more serine and happy has multiple uses, don't you think?

I now have the ending to dream, and it has a wonderful ending:  I fly without worrying about technique because my passion got me to take flight, and hard-earned technique will follow because I am enjoying myself and I am willing to work for the next level.  In other words, passion is what makes us work to have technique that allows us to keep flying higher and longer.

Finding the ending of my stress dream, comes out of my life experience as a tanguero.  This is yet another practical application of what I have learned as a tanguero.  The soaring that tangueros experience all the time is very much like this dream.

I am suggesting that you more assuredly can soar in your practice of the walking embrace, commonly called "tango."   Nightmares have an overly active producer, and tango dancers often have an overly active "director," stealing away the very basis for the creative work of art you are about to paint upon the floor.

Give up the worry about your technique (although that  is very important) and put it into context of art and love!  Tango is an art and much more than that.  It is the art of flying with another person.  The arts hit their highest of highs through technique, but what makes them have the energy to take flight and soar?  It is your passion for art and love.

Let's say that we are both authors.  We write a novel about tango.  We have passion about what we write.  It is important to have good spelling and grammar.  But without our passion we have nothing.

Tango is love -- the love of movement and connection with another.  Let's say that we are lovers.  If were are truly lovers we would love each other with all our hearts and minds, and I would hope that our technique makes it all the better. But without our passion, our technique is nothing.

My best moment in tango is when I hold a woman, no matter how old or young, comely or plain, as the only woman in the world.  There is no technique to open your heart to the transfer of energy between two souls, but technique will help to transform this moment to be sublime.  And when this happens technique seems so important, and I can for a moment believe that technique brought me to this heavenly place.  However after a moment's reflection I will return to my heart:  Passion was what made us take flight, to soar; technique allowed us to fly high and long.

Will you fly with me?  With us?  Try it in your dreams.  But practice it with the soul who has assented to hold you as you go down the wooden path together in this magical, walking embrace, you and I call tango.



For a perhaps more balanced view of technique and it's importance, see this post:
http://moderntanguera.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/technique/

Photo credits:
http://vi.sualize.us/view/9f878a2f026418e54ca53b7917b261e9/  flying dreamer


http://www.dreamstime.com/dancing-water-image12124506 dancing water.

Tango Start Line

Where are you in the line-up of dancers? How many are ahead of you or behind you?

It does not matter if you are an elite dancer. The great competition is within--and it is a grueling competitive event:  An obstacle course!  The quest is to be the best you can. For dancers I think it is the quest to be able to dance with yourself and with other souls freely -- not merely to be one of the best in the crowd.

How Close Embrace Feels to Penguins

I have heard that penguins like close embrace tango because it simply feels good to be close to another.  This is how it feels to me too.

I am not a zoologist, but a limited study shows that penguins enjoy close embrace tango even if there are height differences with their partner.  Here's some evidence for this assertion:

High Risk Tango Stocks

Tango-Beat News Release:
High Risk Tango Stocks Crash

I would like you to be your own consumer advocate for what has become a hightly unregulated industry:  Tango.

People are buying High Risk Stocks in risky tango ventures -- thinking that social tango needs the whole floor to oneself as others enjoy watching you.  Commodity Funds in a bag full of steps and combinations.  Mutual Funds with fund managers (teachers) who have a large management fees but with a fund that usually has few dividends in making people feel good about themselves.  I recommend  Bonds:  Bond with the person in front of you and dance with their soul.  Make the tango walk the most important thing you do, and turns will start happening just so you don't bump into your friends, with whom you have also bonded.

First of all, we need to have a way to measure the risk of your investiment by knowing your Mutual Fund Manager, that is, your tango teacher.  We all want quality Mutual Fund Managers in our tango community, but unfortunately some have AUTISM, and you may not even know it!

Never heard of AUTISM?  It's the American Unqualified Tango Instructor's Society Membership.  No one is perfect but you don't want any teacher who has too many qualities for full membership.  My admittedly sarcastic litmus test for AUTISM teachers follows, but I promise at the end to present the solution.  It is remarkable, and NOT my idea.  Also, you will find NOT ONE item below that has anything to do with what you previously might have thought as being as "unqualified" -- such as "lack of experience."

How does your teacher score for AUTISM?   (5 is "very much so" and 0 is "not at all".)  There are eight items. Forty points means full membership and your Tango Mutual Fund is on it's way to being just paper receipts without any value (you give up dancing and your investment was poorly spent time and money).

The AUTISM litmus Test:

• First and above all:  Make money.  Lots of it.  If someone wants to learn a volcada in a private lesson, don't suggest they need to learn to walk first.  Focus on what they want and it will cost them $560 at minimum to get that volcada, and then they might realize they cannot walk.  Now there is more money to be made!  [5= "very true of my teacher" and 0= "not at all true."]
  
  
• Focus on technique and the science of tango not on the art of tango, after all tango, art and even holding a person's hand are all about technique and have nothing to do with heart-felt connection, right?
  
  
• Focus on making wanna-be stage dancers.  When they finally look good they will feel good not so much about dancing but especially about how they are making money as teachers too!|
  
  
• Criticize lack of talent and slow learners -- their own internal critic will make you feel just like the parent who couldn't be pleased.  Some will stay in your classes because they are used to criticism from their critical parents.  It feel like home to some students!
  
  
• Make sure that everyone knows that your way is the right way/the only way.  Only through you can they know the Way, the Truth, the Light.
  
  
• Use every opportunity to make tango your business (teaching on the dance floor) or doing an exhibition on the social dance floor among social dancers to demonstrate at every opportunity your awesomeness.
  
  
• Make the assumption that being able to dance means being able to teach.  My motto is:  "Isn't that obvious that my greatness touches every aspect of anything I try?"
  
  
• Give them a fish (not a fishing pole)!  Every legitimate tango move must come from some book or secret connection with a particular barrio in Buenos Aires.  No legitimate move could just spontaneously come from the music or the wonderful connection with a partner.  It comes from the Holy Book of Tango Steps, which is written in Hebrew.  You need a priest to translate it into English for you at the reasonable rate of $90 an hour.

There are so many wonderful teachers out there.  Look for one the way a great athlete does -- one that has results, and let those results be in making you feel good about yourself as a social dancer.

Where are these great teachers?  They are out there.  Some are professional and full-time teachers.  But others are just teaching for fun.  YOU are one of them.  Go to prácticas and help beginners, but start with some qualification like, "I am just one person, and each person has their own way."  Or, "This is just how understand what tango is."  Good teachers being omni-present in the tango community is not my idea.  Clay from Portland writes this (I give the link below the quote):

Teachers. The next tricky question [about community building] is who should teach? The answer is...you, along with everyone of your friends, neighbors, and acquaintances that knows the least thing at all about tango! I know this is contrary to everything you've heard and thought about tango, but tango is a folk dance and should be shared and taught by everyone. That's the way it originated, and that's the way it will promulgate. This is not rocket surgery, my friend, and the idea is to have fun and enjoy. Remember, everyone of those people that your neighbor, relative, and clumsy former student starts teaching is one more body brought into the tango community—and probably a body that would never have been there otherwise. Furthermore, once they see you dance and hear what a superior teacher you are, they will all end up as your student anyway.

Please go to his link on community building:  http://www.claysdancestudio.com/building_community.shtml
He also has a general page with many resources:  http://www.claysdancestudio.com/what_clay_says.shtml

Final Note:  My intent is NOT against good professional teachers.  It's all about BONDS -- connecting to others through tango as a social dance.  Sure, I love the visual effects of professional stage tango dancers, but I often just leave the room and rest at festivals during "show time."  It is truly all about BONDS and not HIGH RISK STOCKS.  Professional teachers are my among my coaches, guides and even my friends.  Find a great professional teacher!  But also learn from every soul who assents to dance with your soul.  That is where you will learn the most about tango.

Lovers at First Sound (poem)

Lovers at First Sound

Two vistors at the milonga

Sit at the tables, just to watch.

Their eyes follow a dancing couple,

And whisper,

"Certainly they are lovers.
The way they look at each other
In silence and nod;

How without a word

She follows him out to dance."

He leads her by the hand in silence.
They share a knowing, silent stare.

They come closer and lean together,
Connecting, heart to heart as lovers do.

Watching each others' hands,

They connect as if it were their ritual.

A new phrase in the music suddenly becomes
The movement of two who have become one. 

"Certainly these two are lovers.

Surely, they have danced for years.
Look how their legs entwine,

Their passion!"
The two visitors whisper.

The couple dances a silent conversation, not a word,

They paint a masterpiece of love on the wooden floor,
A mural of their lives together, their passion.
How many times did they practice that --

The perfectly punctuated movements to the the music?

"Surely that must be their favorite song,
Danced a thousand times," she whispers.

And then suddenly -- or so it seems to the visitors –
The dancers stop. . .magically stop with the music.
He leads the third vistor, his dance partner, to her chair.

And the others overhear him say:
 "I so enjoyed dancing with you,
  I hope we can dance again tonight
  and anytime you might come to town!"

"But certainly they were lovers!"

Those watching silently wonder.

And yes,

They were lovers.

For that moment.

For that tango.

Lovers at first sound.

Note:  

This is a revised poem that originally appeared in November 3, 2009 as my first tango poem on Tango-Beat, titled "The Three Guests."

If the Cello could play the Violin

If the Cello could play the Violin
What music would he play?

If the Violin could play the Cello,
What song would she first play?
If she could hear his harmony,
What would she sing?

I hear a tango, inspiring mortals to dance.
I see the Cello, painting a canyenge background.
I feel her wet, soft tear
Fall upon the Cello's shoulder.

I hear the Violin recite a sonnet,
A story of love, joy and sorrow,
Told by her four vocal cords with his bow.
I feel his sonorous lows, rocking her,
Her soprano melody playing my heart.

You are that Violin.
I am your Cello.
Let’s play a heavenly tango.
Together.
Each other.
For our souls to dance.




Photo Credit:  http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Bereny_Robert-Woman_Playing_Cello

Tangueras choose their men like golf clubs

Tangueros I think you will understand this.

Advanced tangueras chose their partner just like any golfer would chose the right club for the task before them.  Is it a long drive?  Are they in the sand pit or on the green?

Similar to a golfer, a tanguera avanzada will choose a putter-milonguero for a transpie milonga.  The 5-iron, the guy in the nice tie and dapper shoes for the vals.  And Mr. Wood, is her driver for long shots.  Perfect for music by Pugliese (here's a link: Osvaldo Pugliese).


This being true, gentlemen, why would you ever get her to respond to a cabeceo* before the music starts?  That would be like using a driver on the wrong part of the course!  She may know that you are great with everything except music from Di Sarli (Carlos Di Sarli); so she is avoiding you only because she doesn't know which club she needs!  

I received an insightful comment from an advanced tanguera, which I have added to the Tango Etiquette Page (CLICK HERE -- it's always in the right margin on my blog).   This is some great advice for both men and women on the cabeceo:

Graduate-level Cabeceo:  Gentlemen, pay attention to this tanguera's advice (Señorita N.) if you feel you are ready for dancing with the more advanced ladies who have different tangueros for every flavor of tango:  "For the cabeceo, the guys should always wait to hear what the music is before looking for a partner.   There are men with whom I would dance a tango or a vals, but never a traspie milonga.  You can acknowledge me as you dance by and then I will know you will will soon look for me.  The porteños do it by raising their eyebrows as they lock eyes.  Men, if you are only dancing with the young and pretty in the sparkly dresses, then you are missing out on some of the best dancers in the room. There is a reason all the young women flock to the milongas with the 70-year old me
n in Buenos Aires.  And it is not because they are tall and good looking, or have a large repertoire of steps.  It is because we old ladies have taught them how to cherish a partner."  


Now you have it gentlemen:  Golf does not mean "Gentlemen Only; Women Forbidden. It means "Girls Only Love Fun."


Give them what they want only after the music starts.


*A cabeceo is a nod of the head to someone who allows eye contact (usually between "sets" [tandas], thus avoiding asking someone to dance who might not wish to.  To see the fuller discussion on this go to:  http://tango-beat.blogspot.com/p/los-codigos-tango-etiquette-made-easy.html, which has links at the bottom for even more info.

Musicality: the Pulse vs. the Music itself

Preface:  I originally wanted to write about musicality when I started Tango-Beat in 2009.  However, I was distracted by the richness of the psychological aspects of tango, then poetry took over too.  My first thoughts for a tango blog was to do what I had done in Germany and in Austin, TX with Salsa:  I taught percussion to dancers as a way to understand how to dance salsa. Tango has rich rhythms, and has far more diversity of what dancers can do with their bodies than salsa ever will -- as much as I love salsa.  So here it goes...

Just like in medicine:  Let's start with the pulse.  Is there one?

The Pulse is not the Music
Here is something that you may have never considered.  Dancers often dance on a pulse that the musicians are not playing.  Perhaps you have heard Spanish speaking dancers use the word "el compás" for this concept of a steady beat or tempo?

It is common to see people dancing to the music of a canyenge or tango rhythm with 6 notes per measure and the the dancers are taking four steps, only two of which are coinciding with what the musicians are playing.  The musicians are creating this pulse, but are not playing the pulse.  In fact, this is the main difference between dancers and musicians.  Dancers dance on the pulse (like tapping one's foot), but the musicians are only creating the pulse by playing with and around the pulse.

I found the perfect piece of music to convey this concept.  In the following video the bassist creates the sound of a heart beat -- perfect for "the pulse," ¿no?  The musicians come in and play around this pulse, using yet another rhythm that is the essence of tango/canyenge (1**4**7*| 1**4**7*).  We will return to this important rhythm as the essence of tango in a later post.  For now, get the sense of the pulse being mostly what all the musicians are NOT playing, but rather are playing around.  Also when you dance by yourself or with someone start to notice when you are dancing to the pulse versus doing some step that leaves the pulse and does what the musicians do.  I see advanced dancers who rarely leave the pulse.  More about this later, but please believe me that quick-quick-slow is just an extension of the pulse, unless the musicians actually played it.

Enjoy the pulse and notice the musicians playing around the pulse with this first video:




That was easy, right? You felt the pulse and the way the musicians played with and around it, right?

Some homework:  If you watch videos of performances of great tangueros/tangueras, watch when they often receive applause, or even better -- when they do something that moves you emotionally.  This moment is often when the couple has left the pulse and joined the musicians, even if it is briefly.  People talk about the couple's "musicality" mostly when they leave the pulse.

I am going to make this easy by giving you your first video to consider.  Please watch this next video and tap your foot or clap to the pulse of the music. Notice how wonderfully Daniela and Luis sometimes do things that "play around the pulse" and how this brings an artistic value to the beauty of their flowing movements using the pulse.  Also, notice how some sweeping movements follow the violins.  Luis gives Daniela time to play along with the musicians, using so-called ornamentos.  Often these are done on the pulse but she leaves the pulse and also often joins the musicians with her ornamentos.

I hope you could see with new eyes concepts of musicality.  Watching several times is even better.  You will see new things each time.

In the my next post on musicality, I plan to write more about the pulse that the music makes versus the music itself, but the above video should get you thinking inductively about this first.  The goal is to help take you a more expansive level of musicality in your dance improvisation.

PS:
Please give me feedback at mark.word1@gmail.com or leave a comment!

Being great: In your dreams, Tanguero

Dualing Tangueros:  Who will win?

I had a dream last night.  I dreamed that I was dancing near an experienced tango teacher, and although I did not look up, I could tell that all eyes were on him.  He was swirling around, doing all sorts of cool moves.  My job was mostly just to creep behind him and make sure that he didn't hurt my tanguera with high-flying boleos, ganchos or simply slam into my tanguera as he went forward and backwards in the space that all we lesser tangueros were humbly providing him.

This was my realization:  Why should I be so meek, dancing just for one person, the woman in front of me?  In my dream I reasoned that if my partner were sitting at the tables, she too would be watching his awesomeness.  She would not notice me -- the guy who was taking subtle steps and moving to nuances in the music.  She would not see how I had connected directly to my tanguera's heart and entire being.  She would not see that I was dancing with my partner's soul, led to move only by the music rather than showing off what I just learned from a stage star.

I woke up and looked at the clock.  It was 5 a.m.  I remembered that even though it is Friday, I have the day off.  So I went back to sleep.  But I started dreaming again.   I felt myself loosening my connection, as I considered my partner sitting there watching this great show going on next to me.  I thought that this woman who had melted into my embrace with her eyes closed surely would be watching the great tanguero, just as every eye was on him now.  She too would be amazed at that whirlwind giro with 12 different sacadas ending in a nice barrida.  Surely, my partner would have swooned with how the tango star had led his partner to four salsa-like turns and ended with sentada.

My dream continued.  I took action.  Like dualing tangueros, I opened up and did things he couldn't. Using my knowledge as a percussionist, I was now dancing on the upbeat as she stayed in the downbeat, allowing her to make these great egg-beater turns and colgadas.  She continued dancing on the pulse and I now was doing these truly amazing turns while dancing in a syncopated canyange rhythm.  I was truly awesome.  Finally like him.  He backed off and now was protecting his partner from my moves.  I was winning the dual!  People were watching me, the former meek milonguero!

Then I woke up.  It was April 1st.  I was relieved.  It is better to be a fool on the social dance floor in one's dreams than in real life.

When art becomes at its center a competition we all lose

Happy April fools day everyone!




Photo credit:  Tango Fire advertisement at top.
For dualing pigs:  http://sean-ashby.blogspot.com/2010/06/dueling-banjos.html