[Tango-L] Social Tango: A Cultural Perspective

[El Mundo del Tango]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TangoDC.com" <spatz at tangoDC.com>
To: <tango-L at mit.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 3:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Social Tango: A Cultural Perspective


> Looks like it's time for my "spitting cobra" routine again.
>
> Short version:
>
> Ron, your "theory" of tango rather conveniently suits your opinion, like
> the a priori argument that it is. You start with the premise that the
> tango is an Argentine social dance, and reason your way to that
> conclusion, sidelining potent international influences and "non-salon"
> developments categorically. One might ask where El Cachafaz and
> Petroleo, along with scores of other "battling" milongueros, fit into
> your overgeneralized history. Tango nuevo is perfectly in line with any
> history of the dance that includes Them.

Yes, Sir...


>
> And where did this naive idea arise, about social dances not having
> audiences? Aren't dancers continually checking each other out?

And criticizing, praising, dismissing....

>
> Your nod to "other" styles is peremptory, at best. "They belong on the
> stage." Meanwhile, here in reality, I've already made the point that the
> tango has always enjoyed a multiplicity of styles-- social styles.
> Sergio even backed me up on it, and he was the one I was picking a bone
> with. Now, the main difference between Buenos Aires and America, as far
> as stylistic plurality goes, is that in BA, if eyewitness reports are to
> be believed, style varies by barrio and by venue. Here, where
> alternative music is often in the mix someplace, and where honest-to-god
> Stage music is often played at conservative milongas (such as the few
> I've attended in Miami), style usually varies _by tanda_. This is the
> result of two different aesthetics, one local (BA) and the other
> occasional (US). Americans, young or old, have not shown me they're
> squeamish about torso contact. They _have_ shown me they're intensely
> curious about the different faces of the dance.
>
> They have also shown me that, when they become attached to one
> particular style (to the exclusion of everything else), they become
> bigoted about it, make a big stink about "authenticity," and start
> flying the Argentine flag to mask the paucity of their proof.

YESSS, SIR....
>
> As for your points, Tom-- I'm saying that (certain) social dancers cause
> problems on the floor _for each other_ too. If I dance fast and open, I
> can dodge them much more easily. The majority of those who dance open,
> from what I have seen with my own eyes, are not actually hazardous on
> the floor, despite the fact that less experienced dancers are, from time
> to time, afraid of their speed. There _are_ trick-dancers who cause
> trouble, but they are quite easily corralled by conscientious leaders,
> and adapt to the context without much complaint. The problematic
> "closeys," however, are nearly impossible to deal with. If I and two
> other attentive leaders cluster around them, backs facing, to close off
> their space a bit, we just get clocked.
>
> Furthermore, I've got videos of older couples doing trick-heavy dancing,
> much of it (to my eye) improv. The idea that only young people with good
> joints are interested in tango nuevo, or more "visually" satisfying
> stuff, is nonsense. It appeals to people with a sense of adventure and a
> sense of fun, and what country issued their passport is wholly irrelevant.
>
> And if you want to bring up community outreach, then tell me what you
> think would happen if you began recruiting inner-city (i.e., black) high
> schoolers who've grown up dancing to hip-hop. THAT would be something to
> see. I dabbled with it in Baltimore, and I'm sorry to say I haven't been
> able to follow up. But what have you done? Recruited more of your own
> demographic?
>
> As for context... Yes, I agree with your stated principle
> wholeheartedly, and that's why I dance more than one style. Those who
> confine themselves to one style (and no one has to, regardless of body
> type: it's a choice), I hasten to inform you, are _ignoring_ context. If
> you dance the same way to Tanturi as you do to D'Arienzo, and you're
> beyond your first year of milonga attendance, you're not pushing
> yourself hard enough to develop as a dancer, "performer" or not.
>
> Period.
>
> Jake Spatz
> Washington, DC
>
>
> Ron Weigel wrote:
>> In Buenos Aires porten~os don't have difficulty separating stage tango
>> and social tango. This is the culture that created tango, so perhaps
>> we should listen.
>>
>> In the early 20th century, Europeans and North Americans had their
>> first exposure to tango. It was as shocking as it was popular, often
>> considered too provocative for euro-norteamericano tastes. So it was
>> sanitized and standardized to fit the cultural norms of the recipient
>> cultures. Thus, today ballroom dance studios teach an American tango
>> where partners at times separate part of the embrace or the
>> International tango with bizarre head-flicking, both danced in a march
>> like fashion to marching music with a strong drum line. This dance is
>> an evolutionary derivative of the tango from Argentina, perhaps much
>> accurately described as a fusion of a foreign form with an indigenous
>> (ballroom) form and it is still called 'tango'.
>>
>> In the 1980s and 90s Tango Argentino and other stage shows introduced
>> Europeans and North Americans to another version of tango - tango
>> fantasia, as it is sometimes called. This type of tango is not
>> normally danced in the milongas of Buenos Aires. However, exposure to
>> the shows created a demand from viewers to learn this type of tango
>> and they did and danced it socially. This learning and further demand
>> was reinforced by continued travel of tango stage performers to the US
>> and Europe to teach. Thus, a modified tango fantasia became the norm
>> at US & European milongas.
>>
>> There are probably several reasons why modified tango fantasia became
>> the standard social form in the US. Part of it is due to a 'founder
>> effect', i.e., it was the part of the Argentine tango culture that was
>> brought to the US. However, tango fantasia also met with acceptance in
>> the US because it blended well within a recipient culture that places
>> a value on exhibition - whether it is dance or sports or motion
>> pictures. We are a culture that enjoys and reinforces visual display.
>>
>> Social (milonguero and other) styles of tango have had a more
>> difficult route of cultural diffusion in the US. As an instructor of
>> the milonguero style in the Midwest US, I have repeatedly encountered
>> resistence against the idea of dancing with maintained chest-to-chest
>> contact. North Americans are uncomfortable with close physical
>> contact. Dancing at a distance and making large conspicuous movements
>> is less personal, less threatening, more comfortable, more consistent
>> with our culture.
>>
>> This is not to say that tango fantasia is bad or somehow inherently
>> evil. When done well on the stage, it is an art form to be admired. It
>> requires great skill. It is great entertainment. However, on the
>> social dance floor, it can be dangerous. Stop talking about all the
>> fantasia dancers who respect the line of dance. They are few and far
>> between. More likely to be encountered are dancers with limited skills
>> who cannot navigate well and are a collision danger to other dancers.
>> I've had to learn defensive navigation on the dance floor because of
>> them.
>>
>> Fantasia is adapted to the stage. Social tango is adapted to the
>> social dance floor.
>>
>> Despite exposure to the social style of tango in the US, there is
>> limited acceptance. I believe one important thing North Americans fail
>> to understand is that one of the unique features of social tango that
>> makes it such a powerful experience that we become addicted to it is
>> that there is connection primarily through the tactile and auditory
>> sensory modalities, not the visual. Tactile connection with partner,
>> auditory with music, with the visual sensory modality used primarily
>> by leaders to navigate so as to not collide with other people on the
>> floor. In what other dance can we maintain an intimate embrace with a
>> partner for 10-15 minutes, synchonizing our brething and heartbeats,
>> bathing in each other's sweat, flowing to passionate music? The
>> porten~os understand this. North Americans have difficulty letting
>> down their defenses enough to experience this.
>>
>> This concept is very foreign to a culture that glorifies exhibition
>> and finds interpersonal contact threatening.
>>
>> So perhaps a modified tango fantasia or the similar 'nuevo' tango will
>> define tango social dancing in the US for a long time to come, much as
>> American Tango and International Tango did previously. But remember,
>> this is not the tango that is danced socially in Buenos Aires. That
>> may or may not mean anything to most US dancers, which is not a
>> surprising revelation, since North Americans are known worldwide for
>> interpreting any cultural product in their own terms. Our inability to
>> understand other cultures is one of the reasons we are considered
>> arrogant and have so much conflict with other cultures all around the
>> world.
>>
>> Ron
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>>
>>
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