Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. For the past several weeks, we've been exploring the subject of "musicality" in Tango. We've learned that, at least in a very basic sense, musicality simply means being able to respond in a rhythmical way to the beat of a piece of music. (There's actually much more to it than that, of course, but we had to start somewhere.) We compared Tango to contemporary progressive ballroom dance (Foxtrot, Waltz, Quickstep, American Tango, Peabody, et. al.) -- in which individual, highly structured figure movement generally consists of an adherence to prescribed rhythmical formulae (quick, quick, slow, etc.). In social Argentine Tango, by contrast, rhythmical movement is completely improvised; i.e., made up by the individual dancer in the moment.

I have suggested that (in my opinion) no one can teach what might be called the art of musicality; i.e., the ability to use the music in a completely improvisational, creative way during a dance -- much like an instrument in the orchestra. This is a skill, developed by the very best dancers over a period of many years of experimentation, focused practice, and inspiration on the dance floor.

What can be taught, however, are what we might call the mechanics of musicality; i.e., the fundamentals of physical, rhythmical interaction with a piece of music. Some people seem to have an innate ability to respond to music rhythmically without any training whatever. Others do well after a period of working with a teacher to get things started. A very small minority claim that they don't seem to be able to hear and respond to music appropriately no matter what they do. Over my years of teaching dance, however, I have often worked closely with such students -- and generally found that with the right training virtually anyone can eventually develop at minimum a functionally usable musical sensibility.

With respect to the mechanics of musicality, we began by attempting to discover whether you have an innate sense of rhythm. We used what I call "Exercise 1," which is a useful tool that enables you to find out more or less instantaneously whether you can accurately hear and respond rhythmically to a piece of Tango music. (You can read all about Exercise 1 by going to the Firehouse Tango newsletter archive, and referring to the Newsletter of November 19, 2015.)

For people who found through Exercise 1 that their basic musical sense was viable, we turned next to Exercise 2 (See last week's Newsletter) -- fundamental full-body in-place movement to a piece of music. If you did reasonably well with this exercise; i.e., if you were able to move in place in an accurate, consistent way to a piece of Tango music, you are now ready to try "Exercise 3" -- incorporating la pausa.

La pausa is, of course, "the pause." Using this crucial element of Tango musicality, the dancer simply comes to a stop for some duration between movements. This stop is improvisational; i.e., one can employ la pausa in any given dance at anytime. However, for the purpose of incorporating la pausa into a practical musicality exercise we're going to take the liberty of offering a formulaic series of start/stop sequences, which will lead eventually to an improvisation in which pauses have become an integral part.

Okay, with all that said, here is Exercise 3.

Exercise 3 -- Incorporating la pausa:

1.     Begin by cueing up a piece of Tango music. Choose one that's not too fast, when you listen and respond to it.

2.     Stand in one place with your legs slightly apart, and your weight evenly distributed between both feet.

3.     Listen to the music, and try to establish the beat within your body.

4.     Relax for a few moments, continuing to feel the beat of the music inside your body.

5.     Next, gently shift your weight to one side so that one foot is carrying most of your weight, and the other foot is free.

6.     Now, move your weight from one side to the other in sync with the music, trying to keep the rhythm of your movement accurate and consistent.

7.     (If this all seems familiar, it's because we did exactly the same thing in Exercise 2 last week.)

8.     All right, here comes the new part. You're going to pause on every fourth beat. For your first three beats, you'll change weight from one side to the other in place as usual. Then, on the fourth beat you're going to come to a stop for the duration of one beat, after which you'll continue.

9.     The exercise works in the following way: Start with your weight on your right foot with your left foot free. Using the beat of the music, change weight to your left foot on what you perceive as the first count. On the second count, change to your right foot. On the third count change back to your left foot. And on the fourth count, do nothing (meaning that you remain still on your left foot for one count. The sequence continues immediately with the next beat of music; but this time your first change of weight is from left to right. And at the end of the sequence your weight is back where it started; i.e., on your right foot. As you move, your internal count will be 1-2-3-4; your actions will be change-change-change-pause. (You'll find that this is all a lot easier to actually do than to explain.)

We'll call this exactly what it is: "One-two-three-pause!"

Practice Exercise 3 five thousand times between now and next week. Take short breaks to eat a little something, and maybe get a brief moment or two of sleep.

Next week, we'll pick up right here with a series of variations for Exercise 3, using la pausa. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Pat and me at franchesleigh.com. Stay strong!

Please join us for our Saturday Practica at Dardo Galletto Studios, 151 West 46^th Street (between 6^th and 7^th Avenues), 11^th floor; 2-4pm, $10 per person. (Bringing a partner isn't necessary.) Pat and I will both be on hand to answer any questions you may have about your dancing, and to help you with material you're working on. Plus you get a new “must-have” tango move each week! If you’d like a private lesson, you can visit our website at www.franchesleigh.com, call Fran directly at 212-662-7692, or email him at franchesleigh@mac.com Join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/franchesleighllc

The following folks helped set up, break down and clean up before and after the milonga. Without them, there would be no Firehouse Tango.

• Jesse
• Nancy
• Tsipoyra Sartan
• Steve Maisch
• Bob Brillo - last week and this one
• Lynn Gross