To me, musicality is more important than steps in tango. I will happily dance with someone who has five moves, but uses them in varied ways, skillfully exploring tango music (and vals and milonga). I know that for some dancers, the feeling of confidence comes from knowing moves. For me, I prefer to have the moves serve the musicality rather than the other way around.
An orchestra a week
Do you want to expand your musicality? What can you do to move beyond moves, into dancing? This was my reason for introducing my Thursday class to one orchestra each week.
You might not be able to identify the orchestra, the song, or the decade but spending time listening to a song WHILE dancing in class gives you time to try out different ideas and figure out what might work for you when at a milonga. When on the dance floor, navigation, social needs, and other elements can crowd out learning about the music; so, trying this in a class or practica works well.
Does this song suggest that you move slowly instead of stepping on the beat for a while? Does it suggest long pauses or short pauses? Does it TELL you what to do, or whisper it to you?
But I like steps!
If your dance is ruled by steps, you can still approach the music your way. For example, can you walk to the cross in musically diverse ways, or do you always do the same thing? Can you pause at the cross? Can you move slow motion into the move? Try innovative ways to use each move and — voila! you have four or five possibilities instead of one!
This can be difficult with the moves that you learned as a baby tango dancer because you have danced them one way for years. My suggestion? As you learn a new move, immediately play with different ways to musically include it in the dance. Try fast! Try very slowly! Make it stretchy or brisk. Vary the size of the step and see what happens in the music.
Canaro this week
This week, we will explore Francisco Canaro’s music. There are tons of milongas and valses in his recordings, so we will do all three dances this week! Come try new things!