Workshop Program 2014

Workshop on Musicality - “Venturing into Tango!”

Led by: Leandro Diaz and Mauro Andrés Mauceri.

Music live by Guitar-Bandoneon duet “Cosae Mandinga”

Length: 3 hs.

Prologue

What do we dance to when we are dancing a tango song? Meaning, to which elements that the music propose us are we connecting to motivate our movements and our dancing?

Many times the most common answer to these questions is that we connect to the beat, or in Spanish “El pulso”. This element alone can sometimes be monotonous, regular and only a few times can be altered inside a tango song, and although it’s a very important element we believe that there is a lot more inside a tango song that just the beat. But, to which other elements can we connect to inspire our dancing then?

In this WS we will get inside the tango universe of music elements that exist and are easy to appreciate. Without being too technical we will name and differentiate using famous recordings and live music the moments of a tango song, its basic elements, structures, motivs and seccions that build tango as a language.  Because first of all tango IS a language, and like any language it’s coherent and decodable, but in order to get to dance it in connection with its essence, "a conscious listening" is critical.  Drawn from our experience as teachers and milonga musicians we recognize that the biggest challenge is to dance interpreting all the music elements that happen during a song, to let yourself go through recognizing the musical moments. Our exercises and explanations are oriented in improving this connection.

Workshop Guideline

-This workshop consists of a three-hour activity, with a 15 minutes brake.

-We recommend attending to this workshop with a dancing partner, since many explainations and concepts will be approached along with dancing moments with music live. Though advisable, this is not a requirement for taking part in the seminar.

- This is a workshop on musicality with live music examples, aimed to _produce a conscious listening in the dancer, regardless of their level. Therefore, no steps or dance techniques will be taught.

- Concepts and exercises mentioned below will not necessarily be approached exhaustively. The depth of the workshop and its dynamism will depend on each group, their particular interests and features.

- The outlined programme is to be articulated with doubts that may arise spontanuously in every group and does not express a static syllabus.

Introduction: Dance

The workshop starts with dancing two tangos to live music as a warm-up. Then a brief debate follows on the feelings this experience aroused, and the difference with dancing to recorded and well-known music.

Pulse and beat

“Pulse is everywhere in nature, in tide going up and down, in seasons and their cycles, in plants growing, in heartbeats, etc.

In music, beat is the basic rhythmical unit and our most direct conection with dance. It consists of a steady string of pulses that repeat splitting time in equal parts, so as to get to measure it.

It is usually a regular element in tango, though there are a times where out of expressive needs beat changes and becomes irregular in order to highlight certain ideas, announce endings, express contrasts, etc.

Beat perception is one of the basic listening abilities in music, and is an essential skill to dancers.”

Musical phrase:

“Musical phrase is a form of melodic-rhythmical grouping. Its analysis lets us find out it has a meaning, an intonation, an orientation and an inner structure as easy to understand as spoken language.

Just as the act of speecj, musical phrases in tango begin and finish when they complete their meaning, and relate to each other in an articulated manner, as questions and answers. As a question in spoken language needs an answer to complete the communication circuit, there are musical phrases that need another one in order to achieve the same effect and complete the musical meaning.”

Examples and exercising:

-Examples with live music of brief responsorial extracts of different tangos.

-Then the participants will dance to one of the examples, listening to this phraseological division.

-Then we will share our ideas on the matter.

Legato and staccato:

“Tango usually mantains a constant dialogue between two absolutely different characters that take place in contrast so as to produce sonorous richeness and different moments of expression. On the one hand the melodic moment (legato), and on the other hand the rhythmical moment (staccato). Learning to tell one from another is very important in order to arouse a hearing for tango, and therefore meeting a point of convergence between dancing and music.”

Listening and exercising:

-Brief extracts will be played illustrating both moments. One melody will be played in a legato and staccato fashion.

-Brief debate on how to assimilate these such different moments into dancing. We will finish this point by dancing to a tango live, inviting participants to bear in mind that -whichever way of assimilating these new concepts may be- the musical intention has changed and a very big contrast has taken place.

-Then we will share our ideas on the matter.

Major and Minor Harmonies:

“In modern life there is a preconception or an idea elaborated through our “Collective unconscious” that all minor harmonies represent sad moments and all major harmonies represent happy moments. This concept will be used in this WS to recognize both moments and learn how to differentiate them. “

Listening and exercising:

-First we will recognize the difference existing in both harmonies, closing our eyes and letting the images that each harmony suggests us flow in our minds, trying to reach a more conscious approach to the sounds.

-Then we will try to express with our bodies these two sensations, using the whole room in free movements.

-We will listen to examples of these two moments in famous tango versions.

-Brief debate about how to embody these elements in our dancing.

Differences between vals, milonga and tango:

“In spite of being grouped in the same genre, tango, valcesito and milonga are different rhythms. Milonga first appears in the Río de la Plata, thanks to the arrival of black slaves during the 19th century, and Valcesito first appears developping from European Waltz. It is easy to identify a Valcesito when you listen to one and tell it apart from a tango. It is not as easy, though, to tell apart a milonga from a tango. We have been asked in previous workshops whether milonga es a faster tango: the answer is no, they are completely different rhythms and we will show their differences as follows.”

-Listening to one of the first city milongas ever composed, Milonga del 900.

-We will point out the differences between the countryside milonga (Milonga campera) and the city milonga (Milonga ciudadana), and listen to an example of each.

-We will show live what the Bordoneo and the 3-3-2 are. We will listen carefully to elements of milinga within a Tango, using examples such as “Felicia”, “A la Gran Muñeca”.

Finally we will dance to a milonga and then a tango with some of the lectured elements of the milonga, such as the bordoneo and the 3-3-2.

-Then we will share our ideas on the matter.

Endings and Pauses:

“Endings and pauses are essential elements of a tango. Many times they are part of the original song and many others they are part of the different arrangements, as well as sometimes they are predictable elements while sometimes they are not. Next we will look into the different kinds of possible pauses and endings within a tango, and will give some simple tips for anticipating them.”

Listening and exercising:

-We will show live what an expressive pause at the end of a theme is.

-We will listen to the two most common kinds of phrase endings: open and closed.

-The participants will dance to a tango trying to anticipate to the different phrase endings and pauses that take place.

-Then we will share our ideas on the matter

End of the workshop dancing to a tango song.