| To Dance is to IMPROVISE and to IMPROVISE is to experience...FREEDOM! By Jean-Pierre Sighé
T hat is and has always been our motto at Tango Magdalena / The Magdalena Technique ®, ever since we accepted the pleasure to share with others, the information we were fortunate to receive, from the beginning of our Tango journey. As years go by, it is more and more necessary to encourage folks to endeavor in learning HOW to improvise and quit learning or memorizing steps and figures. Music, therefore Rhythm is at the core foundation of any dancing. Without the Rhythm, no dancing would make sense. The improvisation, therefore, is guided, inspired, nurtured by Rhythm and generally speaking, by Music. To dance can also be viewed as projection of movement, circumscribed by Rhythm and Music. To listen to Music and begin to move to it, is an instinct inscribed in the psyche of any sentient Creature. Because it is a natural instinct, the move must come from the heart and the Soul and not always from the mind. This is where an enormous misunderstanding shows up in general and more specifically in the Art of Tango. I will here only focus on the latter. In Tango, everyone is quick to acquiesce to the self-evident notion that, it is an improvisation. Bravo! But then, a very peculiar thing follows right after that assertion: people spending an awful amount of time learning and memorizing sequences of steps and obscure figures. No one dare asking the simple logical question that goes something like this: ” if Tango is an improvisation, WHY should I learn and memorize a bunch of steps and figures put together by someone else?” I have always been baffled by the fact that some students in Tango seem willing to just swallow anything taught to them as a credo, very much the same way they approach religious dogmas. That original error then, stays with them , for about a good year...or two, before they wake up. By that time, many bad habits had already taken hold, making their Art of dancing Tango, a quietly frustrating experience that only few admit to. Very strange! True and good dancing that brings the fulfilling experience of FREEDOM, has spontaneous movement generation embedded in it. What about choreography? some might ask. Fair question that deserves attention. Choreography as a solo dancing or in a partnership or a group, has its rightful place in the scheme of dancing. The story telling that the director endeavors in putting forth, by itself, justifies selecting specific moves. They are to be projected at specific moments to produce the desired emotion or impression in the viewer, essential for the dancing to accomplish its goal thereof. In the social dancing of Tango, the story telling unfolds as the dancers move, under the guidance and inspiration of the Music. The instant, innocent, felt emotion must be manifested in the moves and steps that the dancers create. Two important things must here, combine in order to make it happen: a) a good understanding of WHAT the Tango Music IS; b) the steps or series of steps that best, instantly, translate the message from the Music. Although it sounds complex, these qualities can easily be acquired, provided the learning is structured to nurture a certain standing. For instance, the TRUE notion of the relationship between the AFRO CULTURE at the Root of Tango, must be dispensed ( ie: in “Tango, The Art History of Love “ Professor Robert Faris Thompson did his part in dispensing such knowledge) as opposed to the badly simplified and tendentious claim that “Tango was created in the brothels of Buenos Aires.” This tendentious over simplification, has actually robbed many from the discovery of ALL the layers of Tango dancing and the Tango experience. From the Candombe, through Milonga and to Tango, a certain Root is present and has always been. Only by understanding that Root, can a dancer, formulate the appropriate, innocently felt movement and steps. Anything short of that standard creates the space for unfulfilled emotions and poor dancing altogether! Hélas! I will re-emphasize this: in order to stay true to the improvisational nature of Tango dancing, one must learn HOW to generate INSTANTLY the steps and figures; one must also learn about WHAT in the Tango Music is the permanent and indelible AFRO element from the descendents of the African slaves in Buenos Aires. Any attempt to bury this Truth will always fail and will only produce more incoherent stories about Tango, as we have today. More lies will not make it easier, but harder! So, Tango demands and commends that IMPROVISATION be its modus operandi! Punto! For that matter, the standard for any demonstration or performance by any Tango Teachers visiting any city should be done in the three suggested stages, as follow: 1/ The Male Teacher invites ANY BEGINNER female in the room and dances a full song. (Beginner here applying to anyone who has from 0 (zero) to 1 year in Tango) 2/ The Female Partner Teacher in turn invites ANY BEGINNER male in the room and dances a full song. (here too, Beginner, applying to anyone who has from 0 (zero) to 1 year in Tango). 3/ Then the Teachers dance their routine. Hopefully, they would have the integrity to ACTUALLY improvise, instead of coming up with the usual choreographies that get boring, very quickly. Will we ever see that applied? I hope someone somewhere starts applying this protocol. The general level of the understanding of Tango, thus, would dramatically improve. In Music learning, there is a Method that teaches to the student the Rules of the Scales. Without the knowledge of those Rules, it is impossible to know HOW to improvise. To memorize a bunch of phrases put together by a Music teacher WILL NEVER TURN A STUDENT IN MUSIC INTO AN IMPROVISER, capable of instantly express a variety of emotions with musical phrases. Impossible! In the same way, in Tango, there is a similar Method that allows our students at Tango Magdalena / The Magdalena Technique ®, to become the creators of THEIR OWN STEPS AND FIGURES. The experience of Tango is quite different with the right tool, the right approach. Since everyone says it is an improvisation – as indeed it is- may the deeds manifest the theory. My own journey of learning Tango taught me the precious Method. “ My Tango Journey: my Meeting the "Master of the Masters",Carlos Eduardo Gavito “
© April 2019
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