The Tangosynthesis Blog
with Graham and Nathalie
Dissociation
09 Dec 2024 - by Graham (from Newsletter)
At some point during any tango class it is very likely you will hear your teacher talking about dissociation, but what is it and how does it help your tango? In tango terms, dissociation is the ability to isolate the behaviour of one part of your body from all the others. It can refer to how you project your standing leg without affecting your balance, how you lead a height change without bending forwards or backwards, but most usually it refers to the technique of letting your shoulders turn into a pivot before your hips and legs follow. Allowing yourself to turn in this way, with your shoulders and chest beginning to turn before any other part of your body starts to move, is also called a corkscrew effect as your body briefly spirals around your axis. This helps create the flow we look for in tango, but most [read more...]
Music For Tango
05 Dec 2024 - by Graham (from Newsletter)
Why do so many people think that tango is only 'real tango' if it is danced to music by the Orquestas Tipica of the 1930s and 1940s? How did the music become so intertwined with the dance in a way that no other style has done? The history of tango is not all that well documented as it was only much later that people realised that it was something that would be important for future generations. Early stories were passed on by word of mouth, and - as the events that led to tango being the way it is now were spread across continents - much was missed. But one fairly well supported version begins like this... A ban on public gatherings in Argentina in the early 1950s had effectively made the traditional method of learning tango illegal, as men gathering together to practice their dance skills fell [read more...]
Your Input Please!
25 Nov 2024 - by Graham (from newsletter)
It is estimated that one in twenty people in the UK do some form of dance on a regular basis, with around twice that number having an interest in watching dance performances either on stage or on the television. A significant percentage of both categories say that Argentine Tango is the dance they most like to watch and want to be able to do themselves, yet a recent survey suggests that only around one in two thousand people in the UK actually regularly dance the tango. What is going on? Whenever tango is performed on stage, it is always the dramatic and acrobatic “Tango Fantasia” version that is featured. With its spectacular lifts, cat-like flexibility, and sizzling hot passion the dance creates a powerful visual impact, and the rapid leg flicks and super-fast footwork give it a unique and instantly recognisable dynamic. The music starts, the dancers connect, and [read more...]
Class Reminder Videos
12 Nov 2024 - by Graham (from newsletter)
Many of you have commented over the years on how useful our library of class-review, reminder, and tango course videos that we publish on our website have been for you, but we have to admit that we have not been very active in keeping them up to date. With the opening of Hawthorn Studio (our own dance and video studio space in Biggin Hill) this year we no longer have any excuse for this, so Nathalie and I have finally started to add to our video library again. And amongst the things we are filming are weekly reminder videos of what we did in the group classes. The aim is to record and upload these every Friday, so you should be able to find the review video for any group class on our website from the weekend after the class. To access our videos through the website please go [read more...]
A Conversation about Tango
15 Oct 2024 - by Graham (from Newsletter)
The very public meltdown of Gustavo Naveira recently at the Gavito Tango Festival in Los Angeles has got the whole dance world in a buzz. Two weeks ago, had you Googled “Naveira tango” you would have seen page after page of discussion about his contributions to tango and his essay on Nuevo Tango published in 2009. Now that same Google search will return videos of him arguing with his partner Giselle Anne on stage and attempting to humiliate her by walking away during a performance piece in front of a paying festival audience. Thousands of words have already been written about the incident, and no doubt there will be thousands more before the dust settles. But what this has also done is to open the doors to a discussion about respect in dance and how we should behave on the dance floor. On the Dance Floor [read more...]
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