Music, pause, silence

This year I came across Miloš Karadaglić playing classical guitar.  It is his most understated playing, the playing that includes pause and silence, that I most enjoy.  The local guy I met in Salon Canning, was the one who told me about Gavito talking about the silence between the steps:  El tango está entre paso y paso, allí donde se escuchan los silencios y cantan las musas.  (Also referenced here)

Gavito, also said, apparently something like: "A good dancer is one who listens to the music. We dance the music not the steps. Anyone who aspires to dance never thinks about what he is going to do. What he cares about is that he follows the music." I can't find a reliable Spanish version or source for this but I am glad somebody said it, because "anyone who aspires to dance never thinks about what he is going to do" rings true for me, when I dance in the guy's role. 

In the woman's role I can tell instantly when a guy is thinking his dance and when he is not.  Based on dancing since 2012, I can say that most guys dancing socially here in Europe, think dance to a greater or lesser extent. Vanishingly few dance the actual music and that, I think, is a direct consequence of the tango dance class industry. You generally have to go to a country's top milongas for good dancing and even then it can be a question of hunting for it.  Or you go to the international events around Europe. Other than that you're generally looking for the one or two guys at regular milongas that can dance.

The tango dance class industry is something countered by prácticas where there are no classes, no steps taught or techniques. Experienced people dance with new people albeit some unfortunately do teach steps. Nonetheless, at the one I run I'm pretty sure the new people pick up that, listening to our partner, we dance the music.

Postscript: Just after finishing this piece I bumped into one of the new, young dancers who have come to my práctica. He said that listening, following the music in dance, rather than thinking about steps was the thing he had taken away from his visit and that it had informed his approach to the other dances he does too. Music to my ears.