My intuitive understanding is that it is dancers interpretation of the phrasing of music, their response to it. Almost sort of translation. If music was a foreign language and the dancers the interpreters they can take the music and translate it into dance. Now - here in New York most people are bilingual and we all know that sometimes the word to word translation makes no sense. Or it makes sense but its ugly. The exact translation does not carry the real meaning. Looses it somehow or makes it flat. We all know that certain words and phrases mean more or mean something else than it seems at the first glance. They also mean something else when said in certain tone of voice or certain facial expression or in certain situation. So when we translate from English to our language (whatever that language might be) - we never really translate literally. However - we do try to find the way to keep rhythm and phrasing similar to original not to loose the intention of the author, the intention of the music. When the musical phrase comes to the close - the movement comes to the close.
Here is the video of the class teaching 'cadencia' explained as a sort of rocking movement.
In http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cadence cadencia is explained as - the close of a musical section
So it can be said that cadence refers to how one closes musical sequences. The movements should always illustrate, or be a variation of, the musical cadence / intonation.
“An analogy may be made with punctuation, with some weaker cadences acting as commas that indicate a pause or momentary rest, while a stronger cadence acts as a period that signals the end of the phrase or sentence.” (The Musical Life by W. A. Mathieu ) And in addition to his general definition quoted above, Mathieu describes a perfect cadence as a “falling into simplicity”.
At Joy in motion website we read: 'Cadencia, for me, relates very strongly to pauses and momentary lilts – part of the punctuation – of the dance, since it is in these moments when obvious movement is at a minimum and, therefore, internal energy can be felt the strongest. It feels very much like the “falling into simplicity” of musical cadence, a slow deep breath that provides both rest and a building of energy to return to action. Isn’t this how we begin the dance, letting the music and the connection fill our body like lungs fill with air, waiting for the impulse to move? And isn’t this also how we finish the dance, settling into a final position that provides release and a parting essence? The start, the finish, the pauses in between… this ebb and flow of the dance, with its peaks and valleys, is also present in my body when I execute a pause and feel that quality of cadencia coursing through my body, that “surfing on the waves of the music and the connection.” (See more at: Joy in motion)
Thank you for including some of my article in yours :)
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to let you know that my website has changed a bit. I am now at www.joymotiondance.com, and my cadencia article is now at www.joymotiondance.com/cadencia.
Cheers!
*Joy in Motion*
Hi, I just wanted to clarify something about the concept of "cadencia" as is understood by the oldest guys in Buenos Aires milongas. All what you have gathered is well and true but somehow incomplete. My grandfather use to say that is like acting the music, he use to say that he wouldn't dance at the same Cadencia two different orchestras, for example he would dance a piece from Biagi in a very different Cadencia than a piece from Pugliese. But not only that, but he also use to say that the Cadencia has its own spirit for every person. This is the way I teach this very strange concept to my students as well. To me the Cadencia is like you are acting and you become someone or something else in the expansion of time while you are dancing. It has to do a lot with technical stuff like rhythm, pause, posture and style but also have to do with something more "metaphysical" like letting yourself go and flow, connecting with your inner self to improvise and create. I correlate this concept a lot with the readings of Carl Gustav Jung.
ReplyDeleteCorrect! We attempt to teach it the same way. Wish I could meet you grandfather. We simplify the explanation to 'a way of walking to interpret music' - but we try to convey all you manage to0 express in words!
ReplyDeleteCadencia for me is very simple. When I dance to strongly defined "back beat" marked 8 count tracks is quite simple for al lof us. Our teachers mark these out when we ar learning. But when we dance to the melodic rhyhthm ie the parts we identify by say humming or singing the track we are more inclined to naturally dance "cadencia" and we instinctively feel the music is leading us this way. simple ocho cortados and rebotes "fit" naturally into the dance. We do not need to mystify cadencia. It is something we all can do. Whe nwe heasr POema we all say " Oh I love this".. and we go off into our minds and quietly ( I hope ) feel the song snd autopilot makes us try to interpret what we are hearing .Of course if we have a partner who constantly talks over our dance then cadencia goes out of the window and we just do perfunctory movements steps pstterns etc. I place melodic dancing higher up the skill set than dancing to the 2/4 or 4/4 or 3/4 back beat in our dancing tango. Its what sets it apart from all other forms of Western dance. See Joaquin Amenabsr " Lets dance to the music" for further info. MAtias Abel Sscosta is saying the same thing. A word of caution. Not everyone can dance naturally to the melodic rhythm but we csn learn how to do what we can.... better! Dont talk and dance with the music and enjoy the greatest dance in the world .the old maestros? Thats all they did. They didnt study music ( well most of them didnt) they just dsnced and felt and with time they began to incorporate their own litte skill things which they made fit the music without it looking regimented. ie PUPI, Mingo, Petaca and others.
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