Dancing the music repeats
The following is a copy of the notes provided to participants at a “Tango Tips” musicality interlude at the Toca Tango Practilonga in Auckland.
TANGO TIPS – 11 May 2025
All tango dance music is full of repeats; some subtle but plenty obvious.
Tandas – Music Sections – Melodies – Lyrics – Chord patterns
Rhythms – Phrases – Syncopations – Endings – etc
WHY? : Benefits of adding some repetitions of dance steps into our dancing to align with selected repeats in the music, include:
- We’ll be dancing more in line with the music; i.e. with greater musicality
- We’ll be generating more enjoyment for our partners and ourselves
- We’ll have an extra reason to listen to our dance music in greater depth
HOW? : To dance repeats, we need to recognise that a repeatable phrase or syncopation is occurring (or has occurred) then repeat our steps for it.
Steps and sequences we can use for repeats range from simple walking steps, pauses, taps, stamps and side-steps, through to traspies, ochos, ocho cortadas, boleos, volcadas, cardenas and more.
EXAMPLES : A repetition that we all already dance is the “chan chan” that is heard to resolve most tangos; such as Francisco Canaro’s “A Media Luz”.
We also dance repeats (or are tempted to) for the notable phrase in Juan D’Arienzo’s “El Esquinazo” milonga.
Other examples of music with clear danceable repeats include:
- Rodolfo Biaggi’s “Belgica” [Beats to step on : |1 2 3 4 | – – – 4 | – – – 4 | – – 3 4 | 1
- Carlos Di Sarli’s “Lloran las Companas”
- Enrique Rodriguez’s “Yo no sé porque razón”
The next tanda by Enrique Rodriguez & Armando Moreno has many repeated phrases –
- “Yo no sé porque razón” (i.e. I don’t know why)
- “Que Lo Sepa El Mundo Entero” and
- “Como Has Cambiado Pebeta”
Stu 11 May 2025
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