[Tango-L] Self appointed tango teachers and tango historians

[Sergio Vandekier]

Dear friends of tango-L,

                            Over the many years that we have been together 
reading, exchanging ideas, discussing tango topics, few subjects have been 
so controversial as: tango roles and tango styles.

I think that few times we have had a discussion like the one we are having 
about "women leading".
Very few times so many people expressed their ideas so clearly with honesty 
and conviction.

The benefit of such discussion is that, hopefully we all are learning 
something, I know I learned a lot.

We always try (as required by the rules of the list) to center our 
discussion on ideas and not on the personality of the posters.

Most of the contributors to this list follow those rules. Over the years 
there have been very few exceptions.

My initial intention was to discuss tango roles and then proceed to discuss 
rituals and codes of the milongas of Buenos Aires but while considering my 
intervention on those subjects finished I am going to drift somewhat away 
from the rules of the list.

My first question today was "who is Jake Spatz ?" - nobody seems to know 
him.

But you know what? it is difficult to know who he is.
The following comes from his web page:

"News
Born with the mysterious ability to resemble everyone but himself, JAKE 
SPATZ has frequently (and repeatedly) been mistaken for an Italian, a 
Scotsman, an Argentine, a southerner, an Arab, a Turk, Vladimir Lenin, and a 
mulatto. In point of fact, he is a semi-ambidextrous American of Eastern 
European descent."

As you can see, it is difficult to figure out what or who he is but in 
actuality he seems to be some sort of a genius with multiple personalities

Most Argentine males, born and raised in the culture of tango attend lessons 
and practicas for two years before they venture into a real milonga; many 
consider that it takes about 10 years of regular dancing to really know 
tango well enough to teach and to make a good interpretation of the 
different orchestras.

Not Jake, no sir!  - he became a professor of tango in less than two years 
of regular dancing.

According to his web page he is not only able to teach close and open 
embrace tango but most other styles as well.

His page says:

"Jake Spatz was an instant tango addict after his first lesson in Brooklyn's 
Art Land Bar, but was also an instant quitter and an insanely busy fellow. 
He finally started dancing regularly in Oct. 2004 after moving back to the 
DC area, and is now an active presence in the DC tango community. Besides 
dancing socially, teaching, and performing, Jake now translates tango lyrics 
as well, and recites one every Wednesday night at Divino Lounge (Bethesda, 
MD). "

He also performs and guess what? - he translates tango lyrics, free version 
of lyrics that is.

He reads his translations every week  .  They are full of misunderstandings 
but that does not affect the general meaning of the translation.   What 
describes very well his personality is something that he writes about, in 
his page.

Obviously he is not Argentine, I doubt very much even that he ever visited 
Argentina, but who knows?

In any case, he translates the title of the tango "El ciruja" as " - the 
surgeon"  (surgeon in  Spanish is cirujano no ciruja)    ciruja in Argentina 
means bum, vagrant.

Now this could be an honest mistake like many others he has in his 
translations but...  Viviana Levison, an excellent tango teacher of DC, 
Argentine and intelligent woman tells him "Jake, Ciruja means bum, not 
surgeon"  He thanks her, enters what she said in his page, expresses his 
intention to investigate later and keeps the erroneous translation in place. 
   Another Argentine lady attemted to explain something erroneous about his 
translation of 'compadrito" incertain context but again he knows more than 
any Argentine native and did not accept her explanation. He again writes 
about his discussion in his page.

Does all this relates to tango? - I think it does.   What do you think about 
tango teaching in some places of the USA.

As Derik says: what do you think of such self appointed tango teachers?.

As to Bruno Romero... the poor guy has read a couple of booklets about tango 
history, probably those of Maria del Carmen Silingo, and proclaimed himself 
Tango historian.

How was that I am criticized by these two subscribers?   It is not about my 
ideas, not indeed, it is because I disagreed with what they said.

Jake falsely represented the neighborhoods of Bs.As. as a sort of a Gangs of 
New York or L.A. situation, with people killing each other not over drugs 
but over tango styles: I told him this was not so.

Bruno writes all sort of misconceptions about tango history and once in a 
while I corrected them.
Now he call a spade a spade. :)))

This is the situation in tango-L and in the world of self appointed tango 
teachers and tango historians.

Good night, Sergio

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