> From: Mario <sopelote at yahoo.com> > I'm thinking that this is a really good video for eliminating the mystique > of >a not so easy move: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLz9qC1RjVg >
I refer to a comment by the female teacher in that video clip about the rock step and a cadencia.It reminded me of an interesting technical question asked of a visiting Argentine couple teaching workshops in Sydney early this year. That question was "What is cadencia?", in tango of course. I had the impression that it remained unclear what it meant and that the direct English translation to "cadence" is not satisfactory. Since I've long wondered about it myself, I was prompted to research it and share it with you. Here is what I discovered. In a Spanish dictionary (http://www.spanishdict.com), the Spanish word "cadencia" translates to "cadence" in English. This is where the ambiguity arises. I quote: --------- 1. Cadence, fall of the voice. (f) 2. Cadence, number, measure, flow of verses or periods. (f) 3. In dancing, the correspondence of the motion of the body with the music. (f) Hablar en cadencia -> to affect the harmonious flow of rhythm when speaking in prose.---------- So, no. 3 is the most applicable meaning for us. But is it a rock step? I think not. IMHO, it is misleading to associate the notion of cadencia with the rock step. On one previous visit to Buenos Aires, when I asked one of my Argentine partners to dance with cadencia with me, he put in more body motion, I experienced more rhythmical awareness and lilt - the lilt was on a horizontal plane and there was definitely NO bouncing up or down. The feeling was that of smooth waves of motion across steps. We did not rock forward and back over our feet. I felt more body motion through flexion of knees and that was physically challenging because it was harder to follow - but it was a very musical and dynamic experience for me. _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
