CADENCIA

很多人把按音乐跳舞单纯理解为踩在节拍上，其实其中还有许多含义。例如，跳舞时使用CADENICA也是这方程式的一部分。CADENICA的意思是身体随音乐的节奏和速度而摆动。换句话说，按音乐跳舞不仅涉及步子的计时，也涉及身体摆动的计时。CADENICA是探戈舞的关键技术之一，可是往往被人们忽视了。

学习CADENICA，你首先需要学会摆动你的身体。大多数人甚至不知道如何摆动他们的腿，更不用说摆动身体了。要摆动腿，你得把重心放在一条腿上，同时把你的上身和胯提起，让另一条腿悬挂着，可以象钟摆一样自由摆动。您需要让那条腿的膝关节和踝关节垂直，使腿看起来修长秀美。现在，设想你的腿不是从胯部而是从胸部开始，也就是说，想象从胸部以下都是你的腿。胸部是你与舞伴相连接的地方。它可以作为把其下所有部分当成一个整体来摆动的支点。这样一来，不仅你的腿看起来修长而秀美，你整个的身体也显得瘦高而优雅。

摆动身体就象摆动一根三节棍。第一节是上身，第二节是臀部，第三节是腿。第一节的一点点摆动，将导致第二节较大的摆动，又将导致第三节更大的摆动。跟随者应该将身体放松，让带领者摆动她的上身，上身的摆动会带动她臀部的摆动，而臀部的摆动又会带动腿的摆动。她不应该在身体未动时就先动腿，而应该让腿跟随身体摆动。换句话说，腿的摆动不是由腿部肌肉引起的，而是躯干和臀部摆动的连锁反应。

这摆动是沿着水平方向。许多学生做不好CADENICA，因为他们只专注于沿垂直方向把脚踩在节拍上，缺乏沿水平方向的运动。做CADENICA需要每一步都产生足够的沿水平方向的运动。脚必须踩在节拍上，但惯性作用使身体在脚着地后继续沿水平方向摆过重心，直到另一只脚落地，或直到惯性减弱，身体摆回来。 CADENICA是两步之间的身体摆动。它感觉起来就好象浪拍击在岩石上后，水继续向前涌，然后撤退；又拍击在岩石上，继续向前涌，然后撤退......

一个好的领舞者知道如何利用惯性，按音乐的节奏和速度来摆动跟随者。领舞者必须意识到，跟随者是否按音乐跳舞在很大程度上取决于他的带领。许多时候，跟随者没有上拍是因为她的身体被摆动得太少或太多，太慢或太快，使她不能踩在节拍上。一个好的领舞者能够摆动得恰到好处，所以跟随者可以准确地踩在节拍上。同样，一个好的跟随者也会按音乐摆动她的身体和腿，尽力配合领舞者的带领。

CADENICA既用于社交探戈，也用于表演探戈，但它主要是一种社交探戈的技术，旨在提高舞蹈时的感官愉悦，而非视觉印象。使用CADENICA不仅需要良好的乐感，而且需要高超的平衡控制能力。这不是一件容易的事。然而，一旦学会了，两个亲密拥抱的身体随着音乐有节奏地一起摆动的愉快感觉会给舞蹈增添无穷的乐趣。

Cadencia

Many people think of dancing to the music only as stepping on the beat, but there is much more in it. Dancing with cadencia, for example, is also a part of the equation. Cadencia means the swing of the body in correspondence with the rhythm and speed of the music. In other words, dancing to the music involves not only timing the steps, but timing the swings of the body as well. Cadencia is one of the key techniques in tango that are essential to the dance but often being overlooked.

To learn cadencia, you first need to learn to swing your body. Most people don’t even know how to swing their leg, let alone to swing their body. To swing the leg, you need to stand on one foot and lift up your torso and hip until your free leg hangs loosely and can swing freely like a pendulum. You need to keep the knee and ankle of the leg straight while swinging it, so the leg looks long and graceful. Imagine, now, that your leg does not start from the hip but from the chest, that is, imagine everything below your chest is your leg. The chest is where you and your partner connect. It can be used as a fixed point to swing everything below it as a whole. That way, not only the line of your leg looks long and beautiful, but your whole body also looks tall and elegant.

Swinging the body is like swinging a cudgel of three linked sections. The first section is the torso. The second section is the hip. The third section is the leg. A little motion of the first section will lead to a bigger motion of the second section, which will lead to a still bigger motion of the third section. The follower should relax her body and let the leader swing her torso, which brings along the swing of her hip, which then brings along the swing of her leg. She should not move her leg first without the swing of her body, but should let the leg follow the body to swing. In other words, the swing of the leg is not caused by its muscle but by the swing of the torso and hip in a chain reaction under the law of mechanics.

The swing is in the horizontal direction. Many students fail to do cadencia because there is a lack of horizontal motion in their movement and they only focus on the vertical motion of stepping down on the beat. In order to do cadencia you need to produce enough momentum in the horizontal direction in each step. The foot must land on the beat, but the horizontal motion of the body continues after the foot lands, carrying the body to pass over the center of gravity due to the momentum until the other foot lands on the beat, or until the momentum diminishes and the body swings back. Cadencia is the motion of the body between two steps. It feels like after the wave of water hits the rock, it runs over it, and then retreats, and hits the rock again, runs over it, and then retreats…

A good leader knows how to use the momentum to swing the follower in correspondence with the rhythm and speed of the music. Leaders must be aware that whether the follower dances to the music depends to a large degree on the lead. Often, the follower fails to step on the beat because her body is led to swing too little or too much, too slow or too fast, disabling her to step on the beat. A good leader creates just enough swing, so the follower’s leg may land exactly on the beat. Likewise, a good follower times the swing of her body and leg to the music as well. She complements the lead in her own capacity.

Cadencia is used both in social tango and in performance tango, but it is primarily a social tango technique aiming at increasing the sensual pleasure rather than the visual impression of the dance. Dancing with cadencia requires not only excellent musicality but also superb balance control. It is not an easy task, but once you’ve learned to do it, the sensation of two bodies swinging together in a close embrace in unison with the rhythmic flow of the music will make the dance mush more pleasurable.