Tangos for dancer

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Tangos for dancer

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Jayananda

Posts: 24
Joined: May 25 2007
From: BC Canada

Tangos for dancer

Hi all

I'm just looking for some advice; a friend of mine just returned from dance courses at Carmen De Las Cuevas in Granada and she is anxious to do some Tangos together.

I foolishly spend lots of my time trying to learn Gerardo Nunez, Paco de Lucia, etc.. pieces and therefore, other than just doing improv por tangos, I don't really have a nice traditional tangos "piece" that I can use. We'd like to eventually put together a few numbers and hit the restaurants, but for now a Tangos would be a good start.

Anyhow, the question: does anyone have any good suggestions for a tangos that is traditional in form and will work nicely for a dancer? I probably could work something out on my own, but it would be awfully nice to have something set and on a page, for the dancer's sake.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Muchas Gracias

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 12 2009 20:59:25

XXX

Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005

RE: Tangos for dancer (in reply to Jayananda)

It would be good if not neccessary to actually see the dance. If its the one i know from Carmen Cuevas, then i have complete arrangement i could give you. If not then you just have to look for traditional falsetas, from Moraito for example. There is imo not one thing that works for all. It is kind of part of the job as accompainist(?) to work out something. It is easier if the dancer is knowledged in music, knows what she wants etc...

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Фламенко

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 13 2009 1:36:15

gshaviv

Posts: 272
Joined: Mar. 22 2005
From: Israel

RE: Tangos for dancer (in reply to XXX)

Don't focus on what falseta to play, just play basic compas and compas variations. You can get a long ways just on that, and it's much easier to start playing for dance that way. Look, or rather hear, the foot work of the dancer and try to match your compas work to the foot work. Only after you can do the entire dance like that, think where you can replace some of your playing with a simple falseta, where it fits with the dance.

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Guy

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 13 2009 3:34:16

val

Posts: 800
Joined: Apr. 4 2007

[Deleted]

Post has been moved to the Recycle Bin at Nov. 8 2010 12:38:53

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 13 2009 15:52:19

Jayananda

Posts: 24
Joined: May 25 2007
From: BC Canada

RE: Tangos for dancer (in reply to Jayananda)

Thanks for the advice guys

I guess I was thinking a bit backwards...thinking I should pick a set arrangement and then work the dance into it...but of course I should let what dancing she has learned govern what we do and adapt to that!! sometimes us foolish guitarists forget that WE are the accompanists!!! hehe

Deniz, I would be interested in seeing this arrangement though, if you have it easily accessible...might give me some good ideas..and could very well be crafted for the dance she has learned.

Thanks again

Viva El Arte!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 13 2009 21:00:42

mark indigo

Posts: 3625
Joined: Dec. 5 2007

RE: Tangos for dancer (in reply to Jayananda)

quote:

I don't really have a nice traditional tangos "piece" that I can use.

forget a piece you can use, like guy says,

quote:

play basic compas and compas variations

remember that often when dancers are starting out they can only handle the very basic rhythm played on 2 chords and almost anything else puts them off!

but you should be able to introduce basic variations, play the same chords different places on the neck, substitute G- or G-7 for Bflat, little fills/variations on beat 4 of the Bflat chord etc.

Also remember that a lot of the choreography will be "cuadrao" so will work in sets of 2 and 4 compas', so you can play D-/Bflat, C(7/9), Bflat, A sometimes

you might get little sequences that fit this,

Bflat, A, Bflat, A,
D-, C7, Bflat, A

but you need to work out if/where it fits! you need to play really basic to begin with, learn the patterns of what the dancer is doing, and figure out and introduce any variations as you go along.

often they will learn a choreography where there is a section where they mark to a letra (either there was a singer in the class or the teacher had a letra in their head when they taught the class), and this would be a place you could play a little falseta or something, but learn to recognise the steps first.

you could also play a little falseta as an intro, and then give them a little remate/llamada as a signal to come on/get up/start, but don't keep them waiting too long!

another thing you can slip in almost unnoticed is alzapua on beats 1, 2, 3, 4 of the Bflat chord, but make sure that your right hand rhythm works with what ever they are doing, ie, don't play 4 to a beat when they are doing 3, or 3 to a beat when they are doing 2 or 4!

at a higher level, the dancer will learn marking steps they can use to dance to a letra or falseta, footwork patterns they can take apart and put together as they like, etc. and you can work on it in a different way....

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 14 2009 1:27:44

Jayananda

Posts: 24
Joined: May 25 2007
From: BC Canada

RE: Tangos for dancer (in reply to Jayananda)

Thanks for the tips Mark!

I felt a little stupid for asking the question in the first place, since once I thought about it, the answer was quite obvious...but I'm glad I did because it's great to hear everyone's Tangos advice!

I've been studying flamenco with varying levels of intensity for about a dozen years; but shortly after I became smitten with it, I started raising a family!

Therefore, much of my experience has been homebound; playing along to cds, dvds, using books etc.. The few times I've been able to play with dancers, it has been very casual (at parties) or it has been arrangements I've already learned that a dancer friend has choreographed to. ...so not much actual experience playing flamenco in a traditional sense...which is a weird thing to come to terms with after having been obsessed with it for over a decade!

Anyhow; it's nice to be actually making use of this forum instead of just lurking around...what a fantastic resource!

After YEARS of planning, I finally booked a course for myself at Carmen de las Cuevas in April 2010! So I need to play my ass off for the next 6 months or so, and accompany as much as possible, so I'm not just fumbling through my 4 weeks there!

thanks again for the tips....We'll start practicing our tangos at the end of this week, so I'll let y'all know how it goes ;-)

Jay

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 14 2009 20:19:14

Jayananda

Posts: 24
Joined: May 25 2007
From: BC Canada

RE: Tangos for dancer (in reply to Jayananda)

I was re-reading my last post and thought I'd better qualify a statement:

quote:

I've been studying flamenco with varying levels of intensity for about a dozen years; but shortly after I became smitten with it, I started raising a family!

Therefore, much of my experience has been homebound

I don't want to seem like I'm, saying that having a kid means that you can't have an outside music filled life...I just happened to hook up with an old friend who already had two little ones and then we quickly had two more!! So not exactly the typical family beginnings! I'm sure if we'd had one at a time there would have been many trips to Spain