Quotes on Technique, Musicality & Improvisation

“But it all becomes simple if the dancer remembers that the essence of good technique is to keep the two hearts perfectly together at all times throughout the dance, and that the purpose of this is to give the most satisfying dance to both partners, both emotionally and creatively. Good technique is designed to create an emotional connection, and also to create a framework that gives the maximum possible choreographic freedom.”

- Christine Denniston, The Meaning of Tango: The Story of the Argentinian Dance, p. 105

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“Well-executed decorations were much enjoyed by the dancers of the Golden Age. They were another way in which the individual flesh-and-blood person in your arms could be experienced, and as such increased connection and intimacy. They allowed both the leader and the follower to express the details of their own personal musicality. They were also a compliment to the other dancer’s skill. Dancing with an inexperienced dancer takes more concentration, leaving fewer possibilities to decorate well.”

- Christine Denniston, The Meaning of Tango: The Story of the Argentinian Dance, p. 165

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“. . . music can be transcendent. For a few moments it makes us larger than we really are, and the world more orderly than it really is. We respond not just to the beauty of the sustained deep relations that are revealed, but also to the fact of our perceiving them. As our brains are thrown into overdrive we feel our very existence expand and realize that wee can be more than we normally are, and that the world is more than it seems. That is cause enough for ecstasy.”

- Robert Jourdain, Music, the Brain and Ecstasy, p. 331

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[Chen Lizra:] As a well established dancer, instructor and choreographer, what would you recommend to beginner dancers and experienced ones?

[Felix Bambury Webbe:]
• Understand the origin of the dance that you want to learn.
• Each dancer should interpret their dance steps within the music like an instrument in a musical group.
• Dancers should recognize the details of posture, the correct angle between partners, the interrelationship, the delicacy of maintaining the steps while listening to the rhythm of the music.
• To enjoy the dance, there is an inseparable tie between the enjoyment of the rich rhythm of the music that is man, woman and music.

- from Chen Liza’s interview with Cuban dance instructor Felix Bambury Webbe