hi all,
last week I watched a few dancecompetitions (latin). I noticed that the music used for Paso Doble, is very often the Spanish Gipsy Dance. While for other dances (jive, chacha,rumba, samba) more different kinds of songs are used. Does anybody know why it is this way? Does man think that Spanish Gipsy Dance is the only good Paso Doble? I know there is not much Paso Doble music, but always the same song is very boring (in my opinion), although I like the song.
Dancelove,
Petra

I've heard that it's because everyone choreographs their paso doble routines to match the phrasing of that particular song, which is rather unique. If they didn't play Spanish Gypsy Dance or another song phrased in the same way, the competitors would get upset that their routines don't fit the music. They're expecting a given song/phrasing so the competition organizers give it to them. I suspect what happened was that early on this was the only good paso so it was used all the time. People choreographed to it and by the time other good paso doble songs came out, no one wanted to change their routines and everyone was in the habit of using Spanish Gypsy Dance for paso, so it stuck. Someone else might have more information about it than I do though.

--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall

I believe Dronak are right. Even until now, it's hard to find some other good paso doble song, only less than a handfull. And gypsy song are still unbeatably popular. In fact, I never see any pasodoble show or competition using another song than that famous gypsy yet.

thank you for your answers!
but still I don't understand: if for paso doble a routine is made, why isn't for the other dances? Competitors don't know in advance which music they will have to dance to, do they?

dancelove,
Petra

No, they don't know what music will be played. They do choreograph routines for all their dances though. The difference with paso doble is that the Spanish Gypsy Dance phrasing is very unique. Dancing a routine designed for that song to some other music would look pretty bad. You'd be expecting highlights/breaks in the music at certain points and they wouldn't be there. You'd be changing your phrasing to match the expected changes in the music and they wouldn't be there. So I think rather than mess up everyone's paso routines, organizers just give them what they expect there. As far as I know, none of the other dances ever had any one particular song that everyone expected to be played so no other dance routines are as specialized as paso ones. They still have routines, but they don't rely on specific phrasing changes and break/highlight locations within the music. If you watch, you'll probably see that the paso routines are essentially perfect matches to the music (because they were designed to be) while the other dances will fit, but not be that perfect. For example, not all the couples will be doing a picture line at the same point in most dances, but in paso, they'll all hit the highlight/break at the same time because they all know it's there and when it's coming. I hope that makes some sense and I didn't ramble on too much.

--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall

Peet-

Check out the 2004 Latin Festival video...I can't remember the couple (hint hint to anyone who contribute the names) but there is a couple on that video that does a Paso routine to a techno mix song. It's really very effective I thought. Paso does fit some other songs but I think Dronak is right about the other reasons that only the one song is played...spanish Gypsy has a very unusual pattern of phrasing...competitors need to know in advance what the rhythmic pattern of a dance will be. Chas, Jives, and the like all phrase much more regularly. Organizers routinely avoid using songs by musicians that don't phrase predictably (such as Prince)

Best wishes, KC

hi KC,
where can I get the 2004 Latin Festival video? Can I get that video also in the Netherlands? (I'm a dutch girl). Because I would like to see the video.
dancelove,
Petra

Look at the five styles of dance that are in a Latin competition.

Samba - from Brazil, a popular dance at one time
Rumba - from Cuba, a popular dance at one time
Cha Cha - from Cuba, a popular dance at one time
Jive - from United States, a popular dance in one form or another
Paso Doble - Spain? France? I have seen old film of people dancing this, but don't think it was a "popular" dance for any length of time.

I heard (maybe speciously) many years ago, that when the "powers that be" were deciding which dances would go into Internation Latin, they decided that a "European" dance should be included along with the other dances.

On a side note, it is the only dance where the man's dance ability is more scrutinized than the ladies.

Since this dance is/was not a popular dance, composers don't automatically write songs for this style.

In the recent past, dance composers tried to put out "Paso Doble" covers of songs like "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" with the breaks in the same places they are in Spanish Gypsy dance. While they might have left the spacing correct for choreographing purposes, all passion in the music was destroyed.

These types of songs quickly disappeared and Spanish Gypsy Dance is back. There are a few other good Paso Doble tunes out there, but they are few and far between.

If Paso Doble was LISTENED to like other music HAS to be, instead of choreographed to, there would be more leeway to compose more Paso music without the prescribed breaks, but only some leeway. Many Paso Doble "moves" require 8 or 16 beats to finish. It would be hard to inprovise to an upcoming break, if you were dancing one of these longer moves as a break came up.

Swing music often has breaks that can be heard coming by the educated ear, and steps can be modified to hit the breaks. Since Swing uses 6 count and 8 count moves, it is easier to adjust moves to hit a break when you hear it coming up.

I would say many reasons conspire to keep Paso Doble locked to that one piece of music.

I would be interested to hear what other dancers have heard about the inclusion of Paso Doble in Latin competitions.