The 8th Style School of Tango Community

Dancing in Context, Part I

2007-06-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

Like personal engagements with many forms of art, deciding whether to learn about the history of Argentine Tango depends largely on what type of relationship one wants with the dance. One need not be an expert on the difference in time signature or tempo between valses and milongas or on the effects of the anti-Peronist political coup on the popularity and accessibility of tango music and social dancing, for example, to be attracted to and enjoy taking tango classes or dancing socially or to spectating dance or musical performances. And it would be reductive to argue that knowing this information equates to more proficient dancing. This does not mean, however, that there is little value in historical and contextual investigation. In fact, I argue that knowing about the historical and rhetorical context of any part of our lives better equips us to articulate the reasons for our life choices. And this is exactly the point. Having access to knowledge can help us establish, however tentatively, what kind of relationship we want with the dance, what kind of students and teachers and dancers we are and want to be, and what tango adds to our lives. This, of course, can change as our dancing experiences and dancing relationships change, and it is within this adventure that the beauty of the art lies.

Creating a framework for how to think about my involvement with Argentine Tango has become particularly useful to me as I continue to study and dance. For example, thinking about tango as social expression has helped me ground my study as anti-competitive. This may seem a bit counterintuitive. One might think that emphasizing the social interactions--meeting new people, connecting with friends and enemies, developing dancing and community relationships--encourages dancers to compare abilities and styles in a competitive manner. And perhaps, for some, it does. But what is useful for me here is thinking about the way people danced in Argentina during what is referred to as the Golden Age of Tango, roughly mid-1930's to mid-1950's. Although the cultural memory of Argentine Tango is at times uncertain (like many other discussions of "what really happened" in any culture's history), it is generally understood that dancing tango during this time was the most common form of social expression; that is, going out to milongas is just what people did. Various styles of dancing and music developed, accessible and specialized, and they were shared and mystified, but they existed and drew people to dance and socialize nightly. Although we are in a very different cultural moment now in the United States, understanding tango with this frame--as one method to express sociality--takes the pressure off me to compete with other dancers and, most simply and most importantly, makes dancing and learning more fun.

Understanding this social context has also helped me better determine with what type of teacher I want to study. I want to learn with instructors who emphasize physical technique and vocabulary that are useful in a social and improvised environment instead of those who load up students with memorized steps that ignore the pragmatics of dancing with different partners outside of that particular class. Although I may have been able to figure this out on my own, my formal knowledge has certainly complemented the inexpressible feelings I have in my gut about what constitutes a "good" learning experience from a "weird" one, and it gives me a context for decisions based on those experiences.

I first wanted to learn to dance Argentine Tango out of curiosity. I became romantically involved with a dance teacher, and I wanted to know more about what his life was like--as much as I could as a beginning student. This wasn't very long ago, and I continue to study as a beginning learner, having already satiated my inquiry into my steady's line of work. I realize this story isn't very interesting, but what I think is worth discussing are the reasons one continues to study Argentine Tango despite its physical and sociocultural inaccessibility. Understanding a bit about our relationships with tango through learning about its history is perhaps one avenue into feeling encouraged and motivated to continue learning and, eventually, to finding our own voices.

About the Author: Ms. Roach is an avid dancer in the Seattle Tango community. She also teaches tango through the The 8th Style School of Tango. Learn more about tango lessons by visiting www.the8thstyle.com.

Beginning Teacher Policy

2007-06-02T14:36:00.001-07:00

The philosophy behind The 8th Style’s policy of hiring beginning level dancers as beginning level teachers is something we’ve arrived at over long consideration and years of experience. It is not without controversy, however.

In the world of tango it is often a source of debate as to what exactly qualifies someone as a teacher, as there are no clear parameters defining this, nor are there any institutions that are unanimously accepted as having the authority to certify dancers as teachers. As it goes, the most important factor in becoming a tango teacher is simply wanting to do so. Wanting to teach tango is also a critical factor in our next topic of inquiry, which is: what makes a tango teacher a “good” tango teacher?

To answer this we must first figure out what we mean by a “good” tango teacher. Most would agree that “good” would mean effective in teaching people how to dance. But what kind of people? What kind of dance? Some teachers are great at teaching sophisticated combinations for dancers who already have their basics down. Some teachers excel with choreography and communicating the nuances of performance style tango. Some think like engineers, and bring analytical types right along. There are milonguero geniuses; there are salon geniuses. There are those who are able to teach anyone just about anything, few though they may be, and even more rare still are those who are both extraordinary dancers as well as extraordinary teachers. Some teachers are great at teaching beginners.

The key lies in “will”. A heartfelt passion for teaching a particular type of person a particular type of tango will inevitably evolve into an excellence in that arena. But would anyone teach if they didn’t really want to? Seemingly, no, yet it happens so frequently in the world of tango that one has to wonder why. Most likely, all teachers start out enthusiastic, and some remain so, but something that so easily becomes your entire community and often a major or sole source of income is bound to transform from a invigorating hobby to a dire necessity. And time roles on. Beginners continue to pour through classes, the same concepts are taught week after week, year after year, and the teacher’s enthusiasm wanes to scarcity. Perhaps they find themselves giving brilliant performances, and lackluster, formulaic classes. This is not an uncommon thing in the tango world.

So who makes an effective teacher for beginners? Sometimes veteran tango stars of the stage make excellent beginning teachers and otherwise. Rumor has it from multiple sources that Pablo Veron gives an excellent introductory class, rare though the occurrence may be. Eva and Patricio, fresh out of Forever Tango, gave remarkable beginner’s technique during their tenure in Seattle. More than anything we must remember that absolute beginners are not tango dancers. To become tango dancers they need inspiration more than anything, and it’s a fine line between inspiring and scaring students away with the complexity and sophistication of the dance. A teacher who dances well using material simple enough that it may be just within reach of the student’s comprehension will have no trouble creating inspiration given the presence of the most important and infectious qualifier: a passion for the material and the process of teaching it. And so we come back to the aforementioned enthusiasm.

From this we can determine that dancers who have been dancing for a period of time long enough to develop clean, simple vocabulary that they know inside and out, but not so long that become burned out, jaded, or detached from there own early development in tango, and who are excited to pass what they’ve learn on to others who are less experienced, are the ideal candidates to teach absolute beginners. Some people remain engaged and connected to their early roots in tango even after years and even decades, but they are so few that if we only studied with them, no one would learn tango. The 2004 estimate of Seattle’s population was 572, 600. A few hundred dance tango. Anyone who would like to see the local tango scene grow in skill level would have to concede that the talent pool needs to grow. Besides, the more people involved in tango, the more fun, with bigger venues, more people to dance with, and whole a lot of energy in the scene.

The more beginning teachers the better, as long as they meet the above criteria, and have a clear, effective system that gives the students the skills they came to learn. This is what we’re going for at The 8th Style. Good teachers, good dancers, and a thriving tango community for everyone to enjoy.

About the Author: Jaimes Friedgen is a renowned tango dancer and founder of The 8th Style School of Tango. Learn more about tango lessons and Seattle Tango by visiting www.the8thstyle.com.

The meaning of "The 8th Style"

2007-05-28T03:51:00.001-07:00

What is the “8th style”? What are the other seven styles?

We often get asked this question. Which is the point. We wanted something kind of vague and mysterious. Now we’re stuck with it.

It all started with a man named Igor Polk, of the Bay Area, who is a prolific tango blogger and passionate researcher of tango history, particularly of the different styles throughout the decades.

As the story goes, after a particularly energetic performance by Jaimes and former partner Rachel Smith at one of the Portland festivals some years ago, Igor, who was hard pressed to place the couple into one of the more clearly defined styles of tango, asked Jaimes what he called his way of dancing. Jaimes said something to the effect of “Uh, uh… I don’t know… uh, it’s just tango, I guess.” This less-than-satisfactory response lead Igor to post Jaimes Friedgen of Seattle as the eighth on a list of several styles, also including Fabrizio Forte and Mariana Dragone in this group, and giving it a loose branding of “martial-arts style” tango, perhaps from Rachel’s famous high and powerful kicks accenting the most emphatic beats in the music.

Igor has since posted many iterations of his “Styles of Tango” list, on which Jaimes has shifted around in order, from 9th to 11th, etc. But Jaimes, having been very tickled by the fact that someone would not only write about him online, but also attribute an entire style of tango to him, has affectionately continued to refer to his ever-changing way of dancing as “the 8th style”. As an extension of this, “the 8th style” has come to mean not specifically Jaimes’ style, but “your own personal style”, one that is uniquely yours such that no one can fit you into a box of set parameters. Chicho dances the 8th style. Tete dances the 8th style. Veron dances the 8th style. La Turca dances the 8th style. Cecilia dances the 8th style. Geraldine dances the 8th style. All the greats of this age and times past have become unclassifiable; having spent years studying others, they have become themselves.

Conveniently, the number eight is significant in music theory, as a return to the tonic in the diatonic scale. In the key of C major or minor, the first tone is C and the eighth tone is C. The eighth tone is a return to the beginning; to the root. Jaimes has always maintained that his dancing peaked at the beginning of his second class, when he knew only the Salida Basica, before he learned the ocho. Since then it’s been downhill, and he has and will forever strive to return to that point when things were simple, clear, and beautiful in their purity. This elegant concept is the philosophical keystone of The 8th Style: the evolution of the dance is inevitable, and to be embraced, but always with respect to its roots, as it is this grounding in the traditions of the dance that give us the perspective to grow into 8th style dancers; into ourselves.

Tango Terminology and Teaching, Part I

2007-05-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

The terminology that we use in discussing tango works to shape what we believe about tango, how we learn, and ultimately how we dance. For example, “open-embrace” is a term that innately lends itself to the defining of a style. It has a certain abstract quality, perhaps coming from its oxymoronic nature, that makes it difficult to use as a physical description. The term “off-the-body”, on the other hand, has a preposition built into it, and can much more easily be used as a description of a particular spatial relationship. To “go into open-embrace” has a connotation of entering a whole new world, where the parameters may be completely different, maybe even the opposite of its counterpart, “close-embrace”. One “goes into” a cave. One “goes into” a room. One “goes into” a certain mental state. One “goes into” anything with definitive boundaries. We hope, for the sake of clarity, that the thing one “goes into” has a name that accurately describes the kind of boundaries by which one is about to be encompassed. The word “cave” immediately brings to mind darkness, stone, and perhaps a variety of different connotations for different people, but none-the-less a certain clear and definitive entity which everyone immediately understands. “Open-embrace” gives us no such peace. The verb form of our adjective “open” is quite contrary to the verb for of our noun “embrace”. Compare “to open” with “to embrace”. We may understand grammatically that we are using these words as different parts of speech, but one has to wonder exactly how much of a distinction we make cognitively.

To “come off-the-body”, to “come away from the body”, or to simply “come apart”, all have prepositions that more accurately describe the physical process involved. When using this terminology as we learn the dance, we cognitively practice identifying this physical process and enacting it when necessary. Using terms like “open-embrace” or “close-embrace”, we practice making vague categorizations, that, in my opinion, limit our ability to adjust our proximity as necessary.

In the first four years of my teaching I never used “open/close-embrace” terminology, as I hadn’t yet been exposed to those terms. I knew of Salon,
Milonguero, Elegante, Fantasia, Canyengue, and the then emerging style of modern Salon, which the tango world now calls “Nuevo”. After a summer living and teaching in Portland, and the subsequent winter spent in Denver, I adopted the generalized “embrace” language and proceeded to teach classes that were specifically “open style” or “close-embrace” for the next four years. It gradually began to occur to me that a concept which was at the very foundation of my dancing, that tango is a dance that is very close, opening occasionally to express some epic feeling intricately tied to the music and space on the floor, was completely alien to my students. To separate three or so inches from one’s partner to make space for momentum or rotation is not conceptually difficult. It’s not even physically difficult. To have to transition between two different styles of tango is another matter altogether, especially when one considers the two styles diametrically opposed to one another (which is bound to happen with any simplification down to two categories).
I have since been making an effort to rework my language and teaching to reflect general and useful processes in the dance rather than stratification of style, with hopes that students will find their own way of connecting and sharing the music and movement with each other through the use of the tools that I give them. It’s a move toward creating individual style through the use of these tools, rather than enforcing my own values concerning how I think people should be dancing. Tools not rules. It’s a tricky business, however, attempting to instill a standard of quality without a clear yardstick by which to judge against that standard. More often than not, I find myself telling students to hold their head at this specific angle, and to turn there foot out just so. I suppose that’s human nature; and the creative will be creative, the copiers will copy, and it’s our job as teachers to give them the material to do so well, by their own standards, to their own satisfaction, the end being that we all enjoy tango as an art, a hobby, a community, or whatever it may be to us.

About the Author: Jaimes Friedgen is a renowned tango dancer and founder of The 8th Style School of Tango. Learn more about tango lessons and Seattle Tango by visiting www.the8thstyle.com.

Westlake Tango Bomb

2007-05-12T10:38:00.000-07:00

So Friday, a fairly large group of us from the 8th Style did a tango bomb at westlake center. I must say it was the best impromptu tango event I've been too (Thanks Jamila). It is always nice when we can get a group of friends hanging out, having fun, and dancing outside.

We set up shop at the park across from westlake center around 5:30. If you have been there you might have noticed a raised square block that is perfect for a few couples to get up and dance on. Aside from the occational eatting of warm hotdogs and lemonade, we actually danced until around 7pm. It was the perfect day for it too; sunny, breezy, and the pigeons were out in full force. We had, at most, 5 couples dancing at once, but there were around 15 people rotating in and out. There was always someone on display for the masses to see, and oh what masses did we have.

Watching the crowd ebb and flow was also an interesting sight. It would range from 4-5 people watching and then quickly bloom to 20 or more and just as quickly wither back down. There were a lot of pictures from the crowd and just as many questions, which our little flyer team was quick to provide answers for. Things ranging from: "What is that?" to "Where did you learn?" to "Is this a Milonga?" The most interesting part, at least for me, was overhearing the crowds own responses to the questions and how the curiosity spread.

I'm sure will be doing more of these now that summer is upon us, so be on the lookout. You never know when a random group of people will appear in your neighborhood and break out in dance.

Welcome to The 8th Style school of Tango discussion forum

2007-04-18T13:07:00.001-07:00

Looks like things are moving along on the 8th Style front. We are getting pretty excited. The video just went online, we are developing the picture gallery, and we will be welcoming two new teachers next month: Tim and Erica will be beginning a Tango 101 session in the U-district.

We'll have to check back soon and see what they dream up for their bios.