[Tango-L] Definition of Social Dancing

[Igor Polk]

Ok, everyone is dancing...
So, let me to continue.

It is useless trying to define what is social dancing without answering in
what society.

If you gather such dancers like Gavito and Graciela Gonzales, Gustavo
Naveira and Susana Miller, Juan Bruno and Martha Anton, and they would just
start dancing for fun, for themselves, one would probably only imagine what
a great dancing it would be!
And that would be social dancing for this particular circuit!
( :) Sorry, the next is serious..)

Social dancing should be thinking of on a broader scale. Social dancing is a
very significant part of society. Well, at least it used to be.

I know one gentlemen from Ireland. He is about 90. I asked him: "What did
you do in your spare time when you was young"? "We were dancing" - was the
answer, "at least 5 days a week. Mostly foxtrot and tango."

Dancing was part of social life. Inseparable. That is where youngs were
looking for the man and the woman, where people talked, meet each other.
They did it for fun at their private parties. What a party without dancing!
They did not dance complex patterns - it was not a major goal of dancing,
the dance was simple.

They felt the drive to learn it! There were no teachers needed. My mom
learned dancing herself when she was a girl. Facing the fireplace she was
starting making her vals steps.

But they knew what a good dance is. My uncle remembers: "It is so nice to
dance with a good dancer.
It is SO PLEASANT."

What my father did in his forgotten corner of Russian countryside? They
danced! All long Russian winter nights.
No electricy, got to worm up the soul...

People at dances danced what? Vals, foxtrot and tango. Sometimes polka and
such. It depends on the place. When I was a boy we did not know that. We
knew only "slow dance" and "fast dance". Only someone knew vals. Our slow
dance was "monkey dance". But that was social dancing since it happened
often, spontaneously. Close, open - who cared. Only the couple.

It was originated by society itself. It was not a fruit of efforts of some
teachers and organizers. It had social basis.

Come to a night dancing club - that is social dance now. Sorry, no couple
dancing. Very loud music, hypnotizing light effects: the world is not quite
the same as it was 100-50 years ago.

So, the dance was born within people, by people, and for people dancing it.
Argentina was such a place where the average level of dancing ( 100-50 years
ago ) was very high. Somehow it was able to be preserved and improved.
Because that was a part of social life! So, those who say that the way
argentineans dance is social are probably right. But if you plant it on the
other ground will it bloom the same way on the different soil? May be tango
outside of Argentina forever doomed to be not social. I do not think so. It
was. It is doubtful to expect the same level of social dancing from
foreigners, but it existed. It was social phenomena, and it was social
dancing.

We do not have social tango now. Why? There is no wide social basis. It
looks like it goes for Argentina too. Will it change? Will see.

Igor Polk.