Maybe I Should Call This MIKE'S BLOG

Mike sends me these little finds in emails when he can't sleep at night.
    From a Gavito quote:                             
"The essence of tango isn't in the steps, but in the pauses."

      Dragan finds information everywhere!

Actually, Gavito was a cultivated man, and he loved music. I think that he may have adapted this from a well-known quotation from a famous pianist…I don’t recall his name, but I think you can find it online. (A quick “Google” search proved Dragan correct. The classical pianist was the Viennese maestro Artur Schnabel, and the quotation,
      “The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses
        between the notes—ah, that is where the art resides,”
according to Wikipedia, quoted from the Chicago Daily News, June 11, 1958). It is really about musicality. Musicality resides both in the mind, and in the body. But where do we find this musicality in the dance? For me, I dance to the woman first, and not the music. People shouldn’t need the music. You step, you make a pause. The pause can be 1/100th of a second, a 10th of a second, or 10 seconds, but there is a pause, and it should be felt by the woman. This pause gives time for the woman to feel what you have done, and lets the leader feel what she would like next. The woman can influence this pause. She can ask for this pause by altering the intensity of the embrace, or by beginning an embellishment, depending on the level of her skill. My preference is when they suggest the change by using the length of the step or intensity of the movement, sometimes by changing the intensity of the rotation around the man, with more spiraling.

Now, back from our 11th trip to Buenos Aires I am dancing to the music only and into the floor.  Putting the technique AWAY. This should give me a summer of happiness in the dance for our 5th "tango tent" season.