[Tango-L] Social Tango: A Cultural Perspective

[joanneprochaska@aol.com]

 Dear Ron,
Well said !
It will be interesting to see who disagrees with this, and why.
Joanne Pogros
Cleveland, Ohio
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: tango.society at gmail.com
To: tango-L at mit.edu
Sent: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 5:37 PM
Subject: [Tango-L] Social Tango: A Cultural Perspective


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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