Expression through Timing

Saturdays May 9, 16, 23, 30, 4-5 PM, North Portland Odd Fellows Lodge, 4834 N Lombard St

Subtleties in timing are perhaps the most important factor in expressiveness in music and dance, but modern life can make it difficult to manifest our natural abilities. We’ll work with some conceptually simple exercises to unlock flexible timing.

The exercises are simple but take some practice to master, so the 4 sessions will cover the same material.

Prerequisite: the ability to take (only) one good step.

To practice the timing exercise at home, you will need a metronome app that has quadruple subdivisions. I use Metronome M1 (https://jsplash.com/metronome-m1.html) (actually the pro version). This appears to be available in the google play store, but not having an android device I haven’t tried it.

One step

  • Push or absorb into the floor to start the movement

  • There can be a delay between starting to push and starting to move: this generates a sense of tension or anticipation

  • Push into the floor to arrive, creating the end of the step

  • Each step has a shape or gesture

  • It is useful to divide each step into 4

    1. Centered on one foot

    2. Starting to move but still balanced on one foot

    3. In the middle, with weight equally on both feet

    4. Arriving on the new foot, but not yet centered

Timing

  • Generally, start pushing for the step on the beat, and start moving somewhat later

  • It is convenient to divide the time between beats in 4, and practice with a metronome set to play all these subdivisions

  • Practice stepping on all the subdivisions

  • Practice changing which subdivision you step on

    • 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1. This produces an effect of slowing down and speeding up

    • 1-3-1-3

    • 2-4-2-4

Gestures

  • The basic unit of tango is a group of steps that don’t make sense by themselves, which I’m calling a gesture. This is ambiguous because each step individually also has a gesture. A (longer) gesture is generally shorter than an 8 beat phrase. It could be two steps, three steps, four steps, etc.

  • A gesture starts from active repose with enough energy to carry through all the steps in a gesture

  • Generally any pause in the gesture will be on part 4 of the step

  • The gesture typically ends in repose, part 1 of the step.

Phrases

  • Tango generally comes in 8 beats, and you must dance with awareness and alignment with the phrases. Generally there will be more than one gesture per phrase.

  • Practice walking to tangos, pausing in some way at the end of phrases.

  • For example, the basic 8 is designed to fit into a tango phrase. Generally phrases have two 4 beat halves, and the cross in the basic 8 lines up with this.

  • Practice the timing exercise with the basic 8 For instance, 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1.