The tango was chosen for the music as the tango is a dance where, when well performed, it seems that the pair of dancers are telepathically in communication with each other and appear to dance as a single person (as is referred to in the poem). Rather than the modern twentieth century tango music style with its four square emphasis (Dum Dum Dum Dum) the original tango style from the nineteenth century with its characteristic Habanera rhythm was used. In the Habanera the second beat of the accompaniment is delayed by a half beat to give the familiar Dum da Dum dum rhythm as is found in Bizet\u2019s Carmen<\/em> or the original version of the famous El Choclo <\/em>tango (though El Choclo <\/em>is sadly often transferred into the more modern tango rhythm these days). As its name would suggest the Habanera probably originated in Cuba where a collision of African and European rhythmic styles simplified the superimposition of a bar divided into three beats and a bar divided into two into this hypnotic rhythm. The difference in the two tango music styles is a certain airy lightness in the older and a rather heavier earthiness in the newer \u2013 the new style with its precision is suited to drama whereas the old style is more nostalgic (as is needed in the context of this piece).<\/p>\n The structure of the tango music used is Intro, Verse, Chorus, Intro, Verse, Chorus \u2013 normally in this style of music the timing of the bars is in symmetrical blocks of four, eight, sixteen bars etc. here however the verse is made up of \u00a0– Four, Four, Five, Four – giving a seventeen bar structure \u2013 the additional bar raises the tension of the third line leading to a release in the last line \u2013 this tension transfers to the choreography. Although the music is in a \u2018sad\u2019 minor key it contains some surprising \u2018happy\u2019 major chords which give the piece an air of unrest and also a bitter-sweet quality.<\/p>\n The second sound element of the piece is the voiceover poem (spoken by Clara Garcia Fraile in Spanish or English), which in the verses describes the tango instructions (the first verse is repeated three times) and in the middle section tells the story of the missing partner.<\/p>\n one two how clearly I remember\u00a0your instructions and I know you would have been pleased that finally in your absence we dance perfectly as one<\/p>\n one two As can be seen, the outer sections of the poem mix in the counting for the dance steps with phrases of contradiction – either about tango dancing e.g. move without stepping (tango is famed for its use of the glide step) or loss e.g. miss without grieving. One of the most important structural elements of Tango de Soledad concerns the focus of the rhythmic tracking of the choreography \u2013 in the poetic verses the dancer\u2019s movements follow the rhythms of the spoken words, in the musical verses the dancer follows the music and equally important in the music intro sections the pedestrian type movements (which contain more natural i.e. non-\u2018dance\u2019 movements such as moving the chair or adjusting the hair) are independent and free of music or text.<\/p>\n A crucial question that has dominated choreographers throughout time is the relationship between the music and the movements and in particular the question whether it is a problem if the dance is subservient to the music? In my book Anarchic Dance<\/em>, chapter nine (Routledge 2006<\/em>) I covered this area concluding that there is no problem of subservience if the choreography re-invents the music i.e. brings new understanding to its structures and devices. In Tango de Soledad the choreography reinvents the music by shifting the balance between the two at various points in the piece. An analogy might be to the practice of focus pulling in film-making where sometimes in a scene the camera focus is changed to emphasize a different character \u2013 here in the pedestrian sections the music could be seen to be out of focus (in relation to the movements), in the verses it is in semi-focus and in the chorus sections it is sharply in focus.<\/p>\n It may seem clear that the choreography can ignore the music or also follow it closely \u2013 but how is it possible to be in \u2018semi-focus\u2019 with it. The answer lies in the rhythmic relationship of the text with the music and also the quasi-musical elements of speech. Normal speech while not seeming musical actually has specific pitches and rhythms \u2013 the easiest way to hear this is to take any spoken phrase (e.g. the woman comes down the street) and repeat it over and over \u2013 after a while the notes and the rhythms will jump out at you. It should be noted however that the musical qualities of speech are vaguer than most music \u2013 the pitches of the words almost immediately fall away, the rhythmic structures are more elastic and free compared to the more metrical and regular rhythms of most music. In Tango de Soledad the spoken verse is tied to the overall structure of the music but the individual words do not occur on musical pulses \u2013 instead it is almost as if the text were floating on the music. As the choreography in these sections follows the text, thus it is also floating on the music.<\/p>\n In the verses most of the choreography is dominated by a movement pattern of two very sharp moves followed by a long slow move of the same length as the short moves put together \u2013 cued as we said by the text (not the music) with the text counts as the short moves and the text phrases as the longer moves. This mix of slower languid moves interspersed with dramatic sharp ones is another signature of tango but the regular juxtaposition here also gives the piece a certain dynamic as if the two short moves were sharp intakes of breath and the longer movement a slower out breath i.e. a form of continuous tension and release. A very important aspect of choreography is where the movement accents are placed \u2013 here elements seem contradictory i.e. the \u2018speed of movement\u2019 puts the accent on the first count but the all important \u2018movement difference\u2019 emphasizes the long slow movement. This means that we are left ambiguously floating as to where the accent lies which gives the whole performance a strange timeless quality. Interestingly the piece starts with the dancer in silence doing the counting with her fingers and the slow movements between. The same rhythmic cycle repeats but now with the spoken words guiding the movements.<\/p>\n How the spoken text is delivered is also a crucial aspect of the piece. The voiceover is an ideal way to impart detailed text information in live dance without the problem of dancers having to speak. Here, however, as the piece is filmed it would have been relatively easy to have the dancer speaking the words naturally. Two reasons for not doing this were, firstly, that although it is clearly the dancer\u2019s words we are hearing – by putting them into voiceover it feels more like we are sensing her inward thoughts. Secondly, to give the piece a more Spanish feel the text is presented in Spanish \u2013 or where in English with a Spanish speaker\u2019s accent.<\/p>\n The third strand of sound in the piece \u2013 the overlaid natural sounds of the dancer\u00a0 – is one of the most crucial elements. In many dance films even today these natural sounds are omitted due to lack of time or laziness and the effect on the resulting film is usually catastrophic. When we don\u2019t hear the movements of the dancer it feels as if a glass wall has been put up between us and the performance, thus stopping us from entering the dancer\u2019s space. To demonstrate this try playing the first section of the piece firstly with no picture and then playing the same section with picture but with the sound turned off. As well as heightening the reality of the scene these sounds also clarify the rhythmic aspects of the movement and can even redefine the accents and stresses of the gestures.<\/p>\n Finally we should look at how the sound elements contribute to the structural integrity of the piece and its dramatic form. If we look at the piece we can see overall at least five layers occurring simultaneously. The poetic structure is a clear AAABC (the first verse is repeated three times), the music structure is IABIAB (I standing for Introduction). In terms of the dancer\u2019s rhythmic structure we have AAPABPABA (with P standing for Pedestrian Section), in terms of space we have: from seated right moving through standing sections to seated left but transformed to the ground \u2013 an Asymmetrical Arc Structure. Most importantly though in terms of dramatic structure what we see is a gradual descent into despair ending up with what seems to be the end with the dancer lying prone and motionless on the ground as the music stops \u2013 however the very last section pulls her up slightly, with the power of the relentless tango, into some idea of hope. What is important in terms of all these structures is that each of these fairly simple processes provides continuity and contrast but because they have some independence their overlapping differences give a sense of structural richness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n * All images belong to Tango de Soledad<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tango de Soledad is a five-minute solo choreographed by Billy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflexiones","ediciones-loie-04","autores-billy-cowie"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2948"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3284,"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions\/3284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loie.com.ar\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ncount without thinking
\nthree four
\nmove without stepping
\nfive six
\nhold without touching
\nseven eight
\nlove without\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n
\ncry without tears
\nthree four
\nturn without moving
\nfive six
\nmiss without grieving
\nseven eight
\nlove without\u2026.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/loie.com.ar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/tangolegwall2d-1-600x338.jpg\")
<\/a>\n