Pugliese's Desde El Alma
I don’t know if Pugliese recorded more than one version of this vals. The one I listen to is on the EMI CD Ausencia. It is my favorite vals. From the first slow questioning notes through to the passionate finale it is full of feeling. In a platonically perfect world to waltz to this music would be a crime and to dance this music a perfect fulfillment. How to make this distinction between doing a dance to music vs. dancing the music? Language works by referring to what we already know, what we’ve already experienced. I doubt it can convey a new experience. So either you know what I’m referring to because you’ve experienced the difference or you don’t.
I hate dancing. I am passionately a defender of music. Music has such range, subtly, depth. I believe dancers should acknowledge that music is the greater art. Dance should be an act of gratitude for music not a flaunting of large motor skills set to the accompaniment of music, otherwise we end up with something like the floor routines in gymnastics where the young girls do a little dance routine as they catch their breath and then running full tilt hurl their bodies into the air twisting and turning and attempting to stick their landing to receive a point evaluation on their tumbling. It can be breathtakingly beautiful but it is not dance that expresses the music.
With Desde El Alma it is not your dance skills that matter most. Not to me anyway. It is how much you are willing to feel. Pugliese in giving so much asks much of us. I’m told this is not such a problem in BsAs, but in the US many people don’t feel comfortable, publicly at least, feeling as much as Pugliese requires of them. This typical American cultural inhibition makes me cranky.
I’m not interested in dancing tango, or vals, or milonga. There are however tangos, valses, and milongas that when I hear them I want to dance that glorious music because of the feelings that they arouse in me. It is those feelings I want to share, not the dance. The dance is just a vehicle, a mode by which two people can share their feelings for the music. If for some reason I am partnered with a woman who doesn’t have rapport with the music and me then we sadly dance some stupid dance steps and the whole thing is an empty routine no matter how polished. If you can’t open your heart and let your feelings pour out when you hear Pugliese I can’t dance with you because opening your heart and letting your feelings pour out is what dancing is for me.
I hate dancing. I am passionately a defender of music. Music has such range, subtly, depth. I believe dancers should acknowledge that music is the greater art. Dance should be an act of gratitude for music not a flaunting of large motor skills set to the accompaniment of music, otherwise we end up with something like the floor routines in gymnastics where the young girls do a little dance routine as they catch their breath and then running full tilt hurl their bodies into the air twisting and turning and attempting to stick their landing to receive a point evaluation on their tumbling. It can be breathtakingly beautiful but it is not dance that expresses the music.
With Desde El Alma it is not your dance skills that matter most. Not to me anyway. It is how much you are willing to feel. Pugliese in giving so much asks much of us. I’m told this is not such a problem in BsAs, but in the US many people don’t feel comfortable, publicly at least, feeling as much as Pugliese requires of them. This typical American cultural inhibition makes me cranky.
I’m not interested in dancing tango, or vals, or milonga. There are however tangos, valses, and milongas that when I hear them I want to dance that glorious music because of the feelings that they arouse in me. It is those feelings I want to share, not the dance. The dance is just a vehicle, a mode by which two people can share their feelings for the music. If for some reason I am partnered with a woman who doesn’t have rapport with the music and me then we sadly dance some stupid dance steps and the whole thing is an empty routine no matter how polished. If you can’t open your heart and let your feelings pour out when you hear Pugliese I can’t dance with you because opening your heart and letting your feelings pour out is what dancing is for me.
posted by obscure tango at 6:52 PM
2 Comments:
where where where can i find that song....please let me know....i have searched high and low.
thank you,
mar
I must apologize for the typo that may have sent you on a wild goose chase for a non existent CD.
The Pugliese CD was not titled Lusencia. It is "EMI Ausencia".
Typing that into Google will give you lots of hits. I had forgotten about this blog until I received notification of your comment. I'll see if I can recall how to edit that main entry.
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