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| Andrew Tryon |
I will get round to that interesting comment about creativity and technique. Meanwhile, thoughts along the way.
First we would need to agree what technique is. If it's this (for women) I have nothing generous to say but at least she's not playing with herself.
Technique is not something I am focused on. I am not a technique zealot in the sense that some people bang on about the T word as the be-all and end-all. And nothing infuriates me more than people talking woolily about "the basics" without specifying what they mean, then, when pressed, reaching for "technique", again without defining it. Or vice versa. A recent (and typical) conversation in a practica went like this.
- So you're learning to lead in class? What are you doing?
- Oh, well, not steps, just the basics.
- Ah, and what's that?
- Well, technique.
- How do you mean?
- Well, just the basics, ocho, cross.
- Those are steps.
- Yes, well, it's just an opportunity, to practice, you know.
That said, I do spend most of my time before class, after class in the practica, in other practicas and a good amount during class, dancing, individually, with beginner guys getting them to relax their arms and hands, stand tall, share their chest, stop poking us with their fingers and driving us with their arms.
This is what I mean about having to "unlearn" through social dancing, everything controlling and mechanical people often learn to do in dance class. It is what my tango guide meant by sub-beginners: people who get worse, not better in dance class.
Some of the salsa people have quite "strong" hands and arms. I thought it went with that dance until yesterday when I danced, at a salsa practica in a different city, with a great dancer who was soft, sinuous and respectful a Colombian who I later found out was a dance professional.
Feeling stressed, controlling, trying to "drive" women is usually what happens when guys want to go straight in to "leading". If they danced in the woman's role first with people who don't do these things, none of this would be necessary because they would have an instinctive point of reference. That has been my experience. That is the short cut.
Veronica Tourmanova has an interesting take on the relation between technique and emotion here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/10224622743783130/ (German facebook-free version at https://jochenenglish.de/?p=10989, other essays for hers at https://verotango.com/essays/), suggesting that they're not so much opposites as necessary but insufficient elements in a larger whole:
ReplyDelete'In tango the word “technical” is often used to describe an obsession with complex steps or movement. In social dancing to focus entirely on steps and movement is considered the highest degree of treason as you forsake the connection to your partner and dance by yourself, using the other person as an instrument. This is allowed while practicing, in order to improve, but not in social context. Once in a milonga, you are supposed to put your heart and soul into it. Yet, this is not about technique: it is about FOCUS. Technique is a tool helping you to dance with the least effort possible in the most graceful and efficient way. It is this effortless quality that allows for true expression and makes your dance feel free, exhilarating and so close to flying. Technique gives you freedom of expression by giving you the freedom of movement. What we call “technical yet unemotional” should be more accurately called “movement-focused” or “disconnected”, because, when focusing entirely on how to do the movement, we inevitably disconnect to some extent from the partner, the music, the dance and our emotional self. Being technical means having a certain quality of technique, not being technique-obsessed. All dancers wish they were truly technical, for then they could forget about it.'
Years ago, many years ago I think, I wrote on this blog a response to a piece by the person you mention, I forget what I called it now. I found her piece chilling and even now, years later the memory of it sends shivers down my spine. I cannot at this moment steel myself to return to that place to read your link.
DeleteBut going by your paraphrase, yes, largely I guess I agree. Except that by thinking about technique, you are thinking about dance and that is the enemy of dance.
A guy came to class & practica last week, never danced before, no reference points. God knows how or why I ended dancing, in the practica, the fast Biagi milongas with him (I guided him), type Flor de Monserrat & friends. It must have somehow seemed like a good idea at the time - and in fact it turned out to be. I do often dance milonga with beginners without issue so it's not something I'm unused to.
But this guy was amazing. His dance would not yet have been conventionally beautiful to look at, obviously, not poised or graceful but he was on the music and connected. First time ever, dancing. By the second track I was asking him had he really not danced before? By the third track I was having a "Colin" moment (see eponymous post) and momentarily suspected this was a trick, test or game. Later, we danced D'Agostino tangos so he could feel the contrast.
The guy said he'd thoroughly enjoyed his first experience. He had come with a date, on her suggestion & while she came back, unfortunately he didn't. That's sadly how these things go. Even potentially great dancers you sometimes only see once.
Just this morning, in my other class, a woman (first time dancing), in probably her sixties, who struggled to find the beat on her own, turned out to be a fabulous, intuitive dancer when we danced, still and elegant, somehow. You provide the conditions, people thrive in them, very naturally. That's my experience, over and over again.
I see far too often, in the milongas, people with supposed technique, who stand tall, have a "frame", walk on the beat, can get around a ronda, but are stiff, lack connection, have no real musicality, women who collect their feet and look elegant, but it's the same. They are all far too conscious of what "should" be rather than being relaxed with what "is". If social dancing isn't relaxed it isn't really going to be dance.
While you can tell people facts about the music (instruments, dates, lyrics, even mood etc) or points of technique to do or to avoid, you can't teach people how to feel about each other or the music.
Give me the connection and musicality, which is about feeling, first, any day. Provided you're not in a rush, the "technique" will come, by dancing with experienced dancers. "El tango te espera."