The Turkey Tango

Okay. So, we've been known to do silly things once or twice before. But since our subscribers are always asking us for more songs they can use at Thanksgiving, we have to let our creative juices run wild sometimes. (Get it? Turkey...juices? Ouch.)

We went all out with the recording of this song and we sincerely hope you use it. With numerous tongue-in-cheek references to popular tangos, we think even Bizet would give it his stamp of approval. Be sure to let your students listen to the instrumental version to hear the castanets, trumpet solo, violin solo, and rich string melodies, among other things. (Also, see if they can identify the musical quote from "Carmen" in the coda.)

Typically, our tango goes from a dramatic, punctuated minor melody to a smooth-as-glass major one. Once our vocalists stopped giggling over the lyrics, they really had a blast singing this song, as you will hear in their performance. Its melody is very easy and repetitive. Go ahead and let them overdo the punchy style of the verse and the smooth style of the chorus. It will be more humorous this way for them and your audience (if you have one).

There was one young man (a ten year old) in our recording session who found it impossible to hold still during the recording (much to the amusement of his fellow-vocalists). Though he clearly had no genuine tango experience, he caught the flavor of the song quickly and danced improvisationally quite well.

The exaggerated "move, then stop" action can be done in just about any way you choose. Of course, there are real tango steps that you can use, if you know them or can find someone to teach them. But it is more likely that you will have to come up with your own ideas. As with our young man in the session, we're betting you have some budding tango artists in your midst who will be more than happy to provide examples of movement ideas.

Whether you decide to really have a "turkey" who tangos or not is also your call. It might prove to be difficult to do this. One option would be to have a "turkey" (a costumed character or a cartoon picture on a poster or cut-out) standing by while his "students" perform. These students could be anyone or anything you can think of-even people.

You will need to select one student to perform the solo "gobbles" each time they occur. They are indicated on the music, except for the ad libbed section during the movement. At this point, your gobble-ist should feel free to express himself, though sparse gobbling will be more effective.

If you're just stumped for movement ideas, you could use the old traditional tango idea: a couple of dancers face each other, their hands locked and extended out to the side. Their faces are turned in the same direction, cheek to cheek. They turn the lower parts of their bodies to the side as well, bend their knees and step purposefully to the music, either beat for beat, every other beat, or (ideally) a combination of both.

At the end of a set of steps, they abruptly stop and turn and repeat the steps in the opposite direction, still cheek to cheek. For example:

step (stop) step (stop) step step step turn

Repeat exactly for the duration of the movement section, or create variations on the same steps.

If you'd really rather not deal with movement at all, but you want to use the song, you could let your students sing the same verses again during the movement section or come up with their own verses about Fred and his tango adventures.