Dance Tango Music

It is a warm summer night in one of Europe's cities, pedestrians populate parks, sidewalk cafes, restaurants and bars. Out of a narrow side street, the gentle breeze carries notes from a sad and longing melody. Whoever seeks out the source of the music, discovers open windows and doors behind which a group of people seem to practice a strange dance.

The atmosphere inside is just a bit more intense than the airy mood of the streets. The dancing couples seem absorbed in the music and in each other, almost unconsciously whirling around in a bewildering complexity of steps and turns. To the untrained ear of the bypassers, the music seems to be old, and all played tunes seem to have the same bittersweet mood and rhythmic quality, evoking pictures of golden grammophone funnels and crackling records.

But when the person who seems to be selecting the tracks, the DJ of the event, plays an almost imperceptibly different set of tunes, the dance floor, which has been emptying and repopulating in clear, regular patterns for hours, suddenly stays empty. An angry murmur arises on several tables, and a number of patrons storm out into the night, beginning a lively discussion which cumulates in agreement: "You cannot dance tango to that rubbish".

FWF Research Project: Tango-Danceability of Music in European Perspective

Tango argentino today is an internationally practiced music, dance and literary genre, intensely connected to its roots in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay). In the early 21st century, an increasing number of tango dancers and musicians in urban areas spread in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, organize into many local tango communities. Tango dance practitioners here have the possibility to meet and dance regularly in milongas (dance evenings) or improve their skill in prácticas (practice events).

The number of tango events such as festivals and encuentros (elite meetings) has risen remarkably in Europe in recent years. Regular participants, numerous internationally acclaimed tango DJs (TJs), tango dance teachers, and to a lesser extent tango musicians, travel from event to event, city to city, shaping trends in both music and dance. In addition to such travel activities, the scene is connected through social and digital media, linking local communities into an international scene or cosmopolitan formation.

Tango argentino is played and danced in many places and by many people with a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, and yet stays the same dance and same music. Nevertheless, a broad variety of styles, and opinions, continuously re-shapes the genre and is cause for heated debates both at real-life events and in virtual spaces. One of the currently intensely debated issues in the international tango scene is the question of "tango-danceability" of certain music (tango and non-tango).

Taking this discourse as a starting point, the study aims to clarify the term and concept "tango-danceable" while looking at the presumably most dominant factors influencing the perceived tango-danceability of music, which are 1) musical parameters, 2) movement repertoire, and 3) sociocultural conventions. The central research question for this study therefore reads: How do music and dance parameters as well as scene inherent sociocultural aspects shape the way tango-danceability of music is perceived by European tango dancers?

The study is focused on the current European tango scene. The study applies ethnomusicological and ethnochoreological research methods, including intense field research with participant observation and of course evaluation of secondary sources. In working closely together with experts in the field of tango music and dance, the project aims at staying closely connected to the research subjects and topics. Emic (insider) and etic (observer) insights are combined into a more thorough overall perspective. Additionally, the project makes use of computer based analytical tools, in particular motion capture technology for dance movement analysis, and quantitative data acquisition and evaluation, methods borrowed from the field of communication science.

The innovative combination of such diverse methods will possibly lead to valuable results and far reaching insights into the topic of this project as well as be an example for further research in the area of ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology. The project, with a timespan of four years (2015-´19) is financed by the FWF, and is located at the Institute of Ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (Austria).

Survey

Have you ever wondered, why some tangos are easier to dance to than others? Why some people dance tango to music that is clearly not tango music? Or how and why we instinctively know something is 'tango' when we hear it? Many tango dancers and musicians have asked these questions. Topics related to the 'danceability' of tango music are often raised and discussed. To understand better, what musical features are relevant for a music piece to be judged „tango-danceable“, we designed an online survey in which tango dancers and musicians could rate 80 different tango pieces in three categories („Golden Age“, „New Recordings“ and ‚Non-Tangos“). We have collected several thousand ratings of these pieces in 2016. Results and analysis can be found in various project presentations and publications (see „Output“). If you have participated in the survey and left a contact, you will get information about selected results once they have been analyzed and published. If you are interested in further information on the survey, please contact us directly.

Tango-Danceability Tests

We are currently travelling to a variety of European cities where we carry out a „tango-danceability test“ with tango dancers of all levels of experience. Four tangos composed by Robert Schmidt and recorded by Tango Real (Matthias Leupold, Peter Blazeowsky, Robert Schmidt, Michael Dolak) are played and „rated“ by the dancers. Results from the tests will be published and uploaded to „Output“. If you are a tango organizer in a European city and interested in hosting the event, please contact us. We are very grateful that the following tango organizers have been willing to host this test:

El Abrazo Cerrado Práctica (Appunti di Tango, Pordenone, Italy) Link

Práctica at La Fábrica del Tango (Maria and Pasi Lauren, Tampere, Finland) Link

Práctica at Vetrinsky Dvor (Dušica Jenko and Sabina Šram, Maribor, Slovenia) Link

Milonga La Yapa at Café de las Artes (Antoni Barber Torres, Barcelona, Spain) Link

Práctica at Hölgyválasz Stúdió Táncoktatás (György Horváth, Budapest, Hungary) Link

Práctica by Milonguero?Si! (Sašo Živanović and Alja Ferme, Celje, Slovenia) Link

Práctica im Tango Tanzen Macht Schön (Rafael Busch and Susanne Opitz, Berlin, Germany) Link

Práctica im Nou Tango (Hagen Schröter, Berlin, Germany) Link

Bailongo (Theresa Faus, München, Germany) Link

SaTho Práctica (SaTho, Wien, Austria) Link

die.práctica (Tango de Salon, Graz, Austria) Link

Kendra Stepputat, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethnomusicology, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG). She has an M.A. degree in Comparative Musicology, Communication Science (Free University Berlin) and Souhteast-Asian Studies (Humboldt University Berlin), and received her PhD in Ethnomusicology at KUG in 2010 with a dissertation on Balinese kecak.

She is leader of the FWF sponsored Elise-Richter project Tango-Danceability of Music in European Perspective (2015-'19). She has published articles in peer review journals (Yearbook for Traditional Music, Asian Music) and is editor of Performing Arts in Postmodern Bali (2013). Her current general research focus is on the interrelation of sound and movement and social networks in the performing arts.

Christopher S. Dick studied Musicology at the University of Vienna, finishing with a work on new possibilities of movement analysis (Motion Capture), based on the case of capoeira. Main research interests lie within the analyses of human motion, music and movement relationship, Brazilian art forms, and the methodology of technical/computer aided analysis of music and dance.

He is inscribed in computer science at the University of Vienna, and works as senior research assistant in the Tango-Danceability of Music in European Perspective project.

Robert Schmidt, internationally acclaimed tango pianist, composer and arranger, currently based in Berlin (Germany) and Erstfelt (Switzerland). He studied Tango Argentino with reknown tango musicians in Buenos Aires and is member of several influental tango ensembles in Germany since 1990. He is a state acclaimed piano teacher and holds a diploma in music therapy, specializing in adult education.

Mattia Scassellati, finished his MA in ethnomusicology with the thesis topic “The Italian Influence on Tango Argentino - Reconsideration of the pre-Golden Age Period” at the Institute of Ethnomusicology, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG) in June 2018. He was student research assistant in the research project Tango-Danceability of Music in European Perspective from 2015-2018. He has taken up his PhD studies in Ethnomusicology at KUG focusing on current tango argentino practice in Northern Italy.

Wolfgang Kienreich pursues a day-time job in computer science research. He has a somewhat mixed educational background, from communication sciences to entrepreneurship to computer sciences. He has been hopelessly addicted to Tango dance and music for over a decade. Together with Kendra Stepputat he organized the Summerwine Tango Festival in Graz in 2014 and 2015. He is responsible for data science and infrastructure.

Cristina and Homer Ladas are based in Emeryville, California (USA) and teach tango argentino professionally since 2002. They have been invited teachers and performers at many festivals mainly in Northern America and Europe, and run their own "Organic Tango School". They are the featured tango teachers of the internationally influential didactic tango video channel "tangostudent". Cristina and Homer were in the motion capture lab with us in September 2017.

Yanina Quiñones and Neri Píliu started to work professionally together in 2006 and are one of the most accomplished young tango couples from Buenos Aires today. They regularly perform tango at festivals worldwide and have founded their own tango show company “Tango Rouge”. They teach social tango dancing internationally and at their school “Corazon al Sur” in Salerno (Italy), where they are now based. Yanina and Neri worked with us in the motion capture lab in May 2017.

Maja Petrović and Marko Miljević teach tango argentino professionally since 2014 and are already one of the most important and sought-after tango couples from Europe, teaching and performing at tango events worldwide. They are based in Karlsruhe, Germany. Maja and Marko worked with us in the motion capture lab in March 2018.

Tango Real is one of the many tango formations around pianist Robert Schmidt. The ensemble was founded 1992 in Berlin as an orquesta típica (typical tango orchestra), while the current formation is a quartet. Their repertoire encompasses a great variety of tango pieces, ranging from classical tango to new compositions. Tango Real played and worked with us in the following cast: Robert Schmidt – piano, Michael Dolak – bandoneon, Matthias Leupold – violin and Peter Blazeowsky – double base.

Ulrich Katzenberger is recording producer and sound engineer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG). His technical as well as personal skills motivate musicians in the studio to perform at their peak and to express there full musical power. As a consequence, many recordings he supervised have won prizes (e.g. Veronika Griesslehner: Outstanding Studio Recording (Downbeat Magazin 2017); 2 albums of Emiliano Sampaio received the titel "Masterpieces" and are listed as the best albums of 2017 (Downbeat Magazin). Ulrich was the sound engineer for the tango argentino recordings with Tango Real in November 2016.

Why They Don’t Step on Each Other’s Toes: Motion Capture Analysis of Backward Tango Steps
Kendra Stepputat
Extended Abstract. In: Filippo Bonini Baraldi (ed.): Proceedings of the Second Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Sound, Movement, and the Sciences (SoMoS), Instituto de Etnomusicologia - Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança (INET-md), Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal 2023, 45-48. (2023)
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Tango dekonstruiert. Dinge, die Sie vielleicht nicht über tango argentino wissen wollten
Kendra Stepputat
in Tobias Winnen, Julian Caskel, Andreas Jacob (Eds.) Musik in soziokulturellen Kontexten. Hildesheim, Zürich, New York: Georg Olms Verlag 2023, 75-96. (2023)
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Using Motion Capture to Access Culturally Embedded and Embodied Movement Knowledge. A Case Study in Tango Argentino
Kendra Stepputat
in Perspectives in Motion. Engaging the Visual in Music and Dance. Kendra Stepputat and Brian Diettrich (eds.) Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books 2021, 41-66.

Determining Style in Tango Movements with a Triangulation Research Approach: Motion Capture, Embodied Expert Knowledge, and Labanotation
Kendra Stepputat
Extended Abstract. In: Proceedings of the First Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Sound, Movement, and the Sciences, Stockholm 2020, 19-22.

Tango Musicality and Tango Danceability: Reconnecting Strategies in Current cosmopolitan Tango argentino practice
Kendra Stepputat
in Choreomusicology II. Elina Seye and Kendra Stepputat (eds.) WOM [New Series] 9, 2020(2), 51-68.
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The Separation of Music and Dance in Translocal Contexts
Kendra Stepputat and Elina Djebbari
in Choreomusicology II. Elina Seye and Kendra Stepputat (eds.) WOM [New Series] 9, 2020(2), 5-30.
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Digital Methods in Intangible Cultural Heritage Research: A Case Study in Tango Argentino
Kendra Stepputat, Wolfgang Kienreich and Christopher S. Dick
ACM Journal Computational Cultural Heritage 12, 2, Article 12 (May 2019)
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My step is more tango than yours! Choreomusicological Analysis of Tango Argentino Walking
Paper Presentation Christopher S. Dick and Kendra Stepputat
Meeting of the Study Group on Sound, Movement and the Sciences, Graz (Austria), 20 – 22, September 2018
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Restricted participation in a participatory dance – tango argentino and its elite structure politics
Paper Presentation Kendra Stepputat
30th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology, Szeged (Hungary), 28 July – 1 September 2018
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Tango in Paradise: Why dance tango argentino on Bali?
Paper Presentation Kendra Stepputat
5th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast Asia, Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), 16 – 21 July 2018
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Sound, Movement and People: Combining Digital and Choreomusicological Research Methods for the Exploration of Tango Argentino
Panel Presentation Mattia Scassellati, Kendra Stepputat and Christopher S. Dick
44th ICTM World Conference, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick (Ireland), 13-19 July 2017
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L a danzabilidad del tango desde una perspectiva europea
Poster Presentation Kendra Stepputat, Christopher S. Dick, Mattia Scassellati
Primer Congreso de Etnomusicología de la UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, November 2016
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Tango Journeys – Going on a Pilgrimage to Buenos Aires
Paper Presentation Kendra Stepputat
29th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology, Graz (Austria), 9-16 July 2016
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Digital Movement: An Overview of Computer-Aided Analysis of Human Motion
Poster Presentation Christopher Dick
29th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology, Graz (Austria), 9-16 July 2016
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The Tango-Danceability of Music in European Perspective
Panel Presentation Kendra Stepputat, Mattia Scassellati and Christopher Dick
Joint Meeting of the ICTM National Committees Hungary and Austria, Budapest (Hungary), May 2016
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Interrelations in Tango Music and Dance - Exploring Structural and Social Dimensions of a Cosmopolitan Genre
Presentation Kendra Stepputat
Department of English, King’s College London (England), February 2016
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The Cosmopolitan structures of Tango Argentino
Guest Lecture Kendra Stepputat
Faculty of Music, University Sains Malaysia, Penang (Malaysia), October 2015
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Some Lead, Some Follow - Exploring the International Tango Argentino Scene through the Study of Key Individuals
Paper Presentation Kendra Stepputat
43rd ICTM World Conference, Astana, Kasachstan, 16.-22.7.2015
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Tango, the not quite Intangible Cultural Heritage
Article Publication Kendra Stepputat
Dance, Narratives, Heritage. Proceedings of the 28th ICTM Studygroup on Ethnochoreology Korcula 2014, Zagreb: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research 2015
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Survey Results: 80 Tango pieces rated by perceived danceability
Online Information Kendra Stepputat, Christopher Dick and Wolfgang Kienreich.
Online at www.dancetangomusic.com, May 2018.
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