[Tango-L] Always close embrace I

[Derik Rawson]

Dear Sergio:

Thank you for the summary. I agree with you
completely. Excellent!

Derik
d.rawson at rawsonweb.com


--- Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990 at hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Derik says:
> 
> "The problem I have with the "close embrace all the
> time" people is ignorance, and then them trying to
> spread that ignorance around, by promoting their own
> inexperienced teachers.  If the "close embrace all
> the
> time people" would just dance the way they want to
> and
> leave other people alone (not try to teach their
> ignorance), then I would have no problem with them
> at
> all."
> 
> I think we should analyze the reasons a particular
> individual chooses to 
> dance in a particular way.
> 
> 1 - The style of the local available instructor.  
> Here we should 
> acknowledge the existence of several periods:
> 
> An initial period  (early nineties):
> 
> Most instructors traveling abroad  taught open
> embrace salon style (called 
> tango fantasia by some people, nowadays).
> 
> This style could be very demanding in the way of
> physical conditioning, 
> dancing skills and availability of space to dance,
> (it trains for stage 
> dancing although it can be done as a social form)
> but it can be simplified 
> to some extent to adjust to different circumstances.
> 
> The students at this period (ignorant of the
> existence of different tango 
> styles assumed that that was the only Argentine
> Tango).
> 
> A few years later ( mid nineties):
> 
> People started to travel to Argentina to improve
> their dancing and 
> discovered that most people at the milongas danced
> in close embrace. A 
> different form of the one they had been taught.
> 
> This form was more compact, kept the close embrace
> all the time except for 
> minor adjustments and the best of all: it was
> excellent for dancing in 
> crowded milongas and at the same time it was not as
> demanding of physical 
> conditioning, skills and rigorous training as the
> other form. It was ideal 
> for social dancing done by people of all ages and
> physical aptitude.
> 
> These people returned home believing that they had
> been cheated and 
> proclaimed that the "real tango was done in close
> embrace".  At the same 
> time instructors of this style started to travel
> abroad saying " if you wish 
> to dance in buenos Aires, you should learn this
> style, because most people 
> there dance this form. They were not lying, this was
> the truth.
> 
> They said "most" people dance only in close embrace.
> They neglected to 
> mention that many others danced 'Salon open embrace'
> , that many danced both 
> ways open and close embrace, and that a few were
> starting to dance "Nuevo 
> tango" and "Canyengue".
> 
> During this period many people started instruction
> in 'milonguero, close 
> embrace'.
> That was all they knew, they were convinced this was
> the only tango that 
> existed. Many other dancers frustrated with their
> impossibility to master 
> the 'Tango Fantasia' joined in. They had plenty of
> room to dance but they 
> chose to make the room smaller to reproduce the
> situation in Buenos Aires.
> 
> When dancing with beginners of "open embrace"
> started to complain about 
> them: "they show off",
> "they dance externally (for the audience) rather
> than internally the way we 
> do it", "they are rude, as they provoke frequent
> collisions", etc.   The 
> dancers of only 'Open embrace rarely complained
> about the others but 
> interiorly many of them thought that close embrace
> seemed to be an 
> "inferior" form of dancing tango.
> 
> During this period Nuevo Tango was introduced by
> traveling instructors of 
> this style.
> 
>   Here again we have a style that is very demanding
> in the way of physical 
> aptitude, skills and training.
> Due to all those factors this style atracted mostly
> young dancers.
> 
> Will continue, Best regards, Sergio.
> 
>
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