[Tango-L] Social dancers

[Tom Stermitz]

> Ahem,
>
> I'm really getting tired of hearing this idolatry of the social dance.
> ...
> Crowd conditions aside, I've seen more floorcraft problems caused by
> close-embrace "social" dancers than by anyone else, including  
> beginners.
> The show-offs may dance twice as quickly, and with ten times the
> vocabulary, but they rarely crash or cause others any actual grief on
> the floor. Rather, it's the social dancers, who move more slowly  
> (which
> is fine per se), that clog up the lanes, move against traffic,  
> tailgate
> unnecessarily, and fail to adapt their embrace (leader's left arm
> especially) to the conditions of the moment. I can't count the  
> number of
> times I've been clotheslined by some "social dancer" schmuck who  
> refused
> to reel that sucker in on a crowded floor-- and I'm talking about ...
> Jake Spatz
> Washington, DC


I'm trying to imagine all those slow-moving social dancers colliding  
with the fast moving nuevo dancers.

Jake, have you seen the same thing at milongas in Buenos Aires, or at  
festivals in other parts of the US? From my travels, i would have to  
say slow-moving social dancers running into fast moving nuevo dancers  
might be something specific to Washington, DC.

Also, you are completely free not to like social dancing.  Nobody is  
forcing you to dance socially. There are no tango police telling you  
what to do. You can dance ballroom tango at a milonga, if you like.  
You can invent new tango moves. You can mix country western moves  
with tango, or salsa with tango. You can dance on stage or on the walls.

As a teacher, you are free to train up your dancers as you see fit.  
Invent your own version of tango.

In short, you are not a victim of those social dancers.


But, a Milonga is a social tango dance, right?

I do understand why Ron Weigel would complain about wannabe stage  
dancers running amok at a milonga. I was once standing next to him at  
his milonga when a guy picked up his partner and began flinging her  
from side to side around his waist, while she wiggled her feet up and  
down. I'm not sure who teaches that move (the "Mermaid?"), but at a  
milonga it felt more than a little bit out of place, and could have  
wacked some of the other dancers if they hadn't cleared the floor.

But, even Ron would be the first to agree that, there is nothing  
wrong with performance tango or nuevo tango. Nobody says there is.


What about context?

The issue is a matter of context: are we on stage, practice or  
milonga or in a fountain at the park? What is the feel of the crowd?  
How do I fit in with the line of dance and the other dancers. Are the  
floors crowded or empty?

i've noticed when the Argentine stage dancers attend a social dance  
(aka Milonga), they adjust their style to fit in with the general  
crowd. Or, if they aren't particularly social dancers, they do their  
performance, and then sit at their own table chatting or watching.


What about age and athletic ability?

In Argentina you see people dancing tango into their 80s, but hardly  
any of those older dancers are doing stage or nuevo. I've watched  
some beautiful shows with very athletic dancers. Most of the women  
have years of ballet, and the men train intensively.

I like to watch lithe young bodies trained to perfection, as long as  
their performance is musical and expressive, not just technical. On  
the other hand, I've seen amateur shows that are pretty embarrassing.  
Why do they think anybody wants to watch them? What's with the hat  
and scarf?


What about outreach and community growth?

Yes, I will do a demo dance for random public audiences, but I prefer  
to show the romance of social tango because I want the audience to  
think "Wow, even I can do that". For me it is a matter of community  
growth, and there are a hell of a lot more "normal" people than  
athletic ones. More importantly, most guys don't want anything to do  
with being on stage.

As Stephen Brown said a couple of years ago: "The sizzle sells the  
sizzle; not the steak".



Tom Stermitz
http://www.tango.org