[Tango-L] HouseDance - not just walking

[Fantasia Sorenson]

On 5/13/07, Ed Doyle <doyleed at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> When I pay to see a show, I want to see
> the best possible stage dancing, but when I come to a milonga, I do not
> come
> to watch stage dancers, no matter how good they are, intimidate myself and
> others with their high kicks and staccato all over the floor navigation.
> Even if they never crash into another couple because of their skill, they
> still ruin it for everyone else in the ronda because the rest of us have
> to
> use so much concentration protecting our partners and ourselves from their
> performance steps that we can not enjoy the dance or provide our partners
> a
> good dance.
>
> Having said that, I have also seen some outstanding stage dancers in
> milongas who blended right in and added to the enjoyment of everyone in
> the
> ronda...



Fantasia dons her Government Issue flak jacket and weighs in on the
controversy...

Personally, I have never seen a performer disrupt a milonga, only would-be
performers. Whenever I've seen actual stage performers (I mean ones who are
currently engaged in professional show/tours) show up at milongas after
their shows, they have without fail danced quite beautifully and serenely.

The performers I've seen at milongas dance differently from the way they do
on stage. They're the ones who CAN dance stage choreography, but at milongas
they DON'T. The only ones I've seen attempting to dance stage choreography
in milongas are dancers who AREN'T professional performers. The ones who are
best qualified to do it there, in fact don't do it there.

It's the non-professionals who don't seem to draw a distinction between
milonga and stage. They long to be performers themselves, and lacking a
stage to dance on, they dance as large as a stage on a social dance floor.
Even real stage dancers don't do that.

Meanwhile, I might be the only girl in the milongas in my town who dances
with her feet on the floor 100% of the time. I've stepped back into someone
because I was led that direction, but I have never whacked anyone above the
ankle... ever.

Ironically, at least to me, the stage dancers who dance so beautifully on
the social floor don't teach social dancing in their classes. They teach
bits from showy dancing that they don't even do themselves in a milonga.
That's the part that I don't get, why Argentines who are such beautiful
social dancers themselves are so inclined to foster non-social dancing in
their teaching.

Fan