Tango-Waltz! (Vals Argentino)

[Subliminal]

Vals Argentino, Tango Waltz, etc, whatever you call it. How do you feel about it? What makes the feeling a waltz instead of a tango?

I went to a workshop this past weekend on the subject. A lot of it was review, but there was one kind of new concept for me... creating a feeling of suspension. Waltz music naturally has that feeling of floating, spinning, turning. One way to create the motion of floating in dancing is to suspend your movement with the 1-2-pause step.

To review... there are three basic ways to step in Vals:
step 1, hold 2, hold 3,  etc.
step 1, step 2, hold 3, etc.
step 1, hold 2, step 3, etc.

I suppose there also exists the fourth step 1, step 2, step 3, but Argentine Waltzes are so bloody fast, it'd be hard to keep up stepping on every beat.

So the second musical pattern was the one we focused on in the workshop. Stepping on 1, stepping on 2, then holding until the next downbeat. The trick it seems is not really to hold in place, but to use the music and the moment to sort of go into slow motion until you land your step on the next downbeat. If you listen closely to the music, and happen to land it perfectly on a measure where the second beat is accented, it works out very well, looking and more importantly feeling excellent.

As far as dance steps go, almost any step can work with this pattern. Rocksteps are clearly an easy way to warm up to it. Then you can work your way into using the rhythm in the turn, or slipping in and out of cross-system with the leader marking the second beat, leaving the follower stepping on 1. The step we practiced in class was actually a variation on this, with the follower stepping in ochos, and the leader stepping 1,2 inside and outside of her feet.

So yeah. Good stuff to review. Vals isn't all just turning in circular movements, you have to play with the music too.

[edit: changed the subject so that others won't get confused with Standard or Smooth Waltz

[Subliminal]

I've been working some more on Argentine waltz. Adding the musicality of the 1,2 and 1,3 beat timings into turns. It seems that continuous turns are very waltzish, so I've been working on those too. One of the patterns I've been working on is starting off on the follower's backstep on the 1, then hitting the sidestep on the 2 or 3. The front step falls on the next 1, and then the next sidestep is another 1, rounding out the turn and sort of slowing down. Then you can break out, or keep going,  re-energizing the turn with a syncopated step on the next follower's backstep. I know there are many many possibilities, but this seems like one of the most common waltz patterns, and flows fairly well.

[QPO]

Hopeing that BTM will respons to your thread as he is an avid AT Dancer 

[NZ_Guy]

Vals for me is about fewer pauses and more legato.  So far that's the only differentiation I make in my mind when a vals comes on.  Maybe there'll be more or less as I get more experienced..

[QPO]

Vals for me is about fewer pauses and more legato.  So far that's the only differentiation I make in my mind when a vals comes on.  Maybe there'll be more or less as I get more experienced..

Hello NZ Guy nice to see you here, not good on AT.....BTM is more along that line

[elisedance]

whats next?  AT-QS?  AT-VW

[QPO]

whats next?  AT-QS?  AT-VW

If they could they would

[NZ_Guy]

whats next?  AT-QS?  AT-VW

The Vals in AT is Viennese tempo.  But of course you can step in any direction, at any time.. (1 count per step, 2 counts, 3, 4, 5, 6..) and you can pause-- whatever the music suggests.

I can't imagine Quickstep music being danced to.. Milonga is the energetic dance under the AT umbrella.

That said, since there is no 'textbook' tango, there's a lot of room for personal style-  So maybe somewhere somebody has at sometime has danced a Argentine Tango Quicksteppy thing (although it might not be recommended socially as floors are usually small and crowded).

Example of a Vals
Example of a Milonga
Types of Tango (flash site, turn the music off on the top left of page)

[Bordertangoman]

okay; a long over-due reply..

for me vals and waltz should have the same feel in terms of flowing lyrical movement..but often tango dancers will treat it more rhymically due to crowded dance floors.

To be honest; i dont even think in terms of 1 and 2 and 3; its become far more instinctive than that.

here's a random vals example..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa9j15RI3AU
you can see at 0.26 ; he is leading her in sweeping turns and boleos while taking fast steps around her himself. Cool huh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa8jk3sFN5o
this example you get some lovely turning movements by using cadenas "chains" which are repeated movements by the man and woman...

here's a third example; at the beginning you can see the lyrical pendulum feel of the vals even in the relatively simple steps; then they start to move
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDUtkzk72Do