[Tango-L] A man and a woman, la marca

[Euroking@aol.com]

Nicely stated Tine, in the US using the words of Sartre: "words are loaded  
pistols" since the seventies we have been assimilated.
 
Bill
 
 
In a message dated 5/9/2006 11:10:47 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
yaletangoclub at yahoo.com writes:

Sergio
This is because in the US where there are people from  all possible cultures 
it is very hard to say anything without people thinking  you mean all sorts of 
things. So the way to get along is to be vague and  inclusive where possible 
and use words with a broadly agreed-upon specific  literal meaning. Being from 
Europe, I find it rather amusing, but I also see  the practical side of it 
here. You can get by just fine without a sense of  humor and without thinking 
too much, and it makes this place much easier to  understand at least 
superficially. Also, you never know someone might decide  to sue you. 
Tine


Sergio Vandekier  <sergiovandekier990 at hotmail.com> wrote:
I often wonder why  people outside Argentina call the dancing partners "lead" 
"leader" and  "follow" "follower". As Astrid says those terms are abstract 
functional  denominations.

Tango, like the other ballroom dances is done by a pair  of human beings, 
most of the time one is a man and the other is a  woman.

Furthermore, it has two very well defined roles, masculine and  feminine. So 
we generally call the person doing the masculine role "the  man" and the one 
doing the feminine role "the woman".

We know that  there are all sort of possibilities when dancing: The leader 
could be a  woman, the follower could be a man. Both leader and follower are 
men or  could be women.

IMO when a man is acting as a follower he is adopting  the feminine role and 
when a woman is leading she is adopting the  masculine role. No big deal 
about it.

As you know we, men in  Argentina practice together all the time. When we do 
so, we say " I am  going to be the woman, and you the man" . Period, there is 
no prejudice  attached to those transient denominations; roles are changed 
during the  practice again and again and everyone has the chance to be "the 
man" and  "the woman".

Many of us use the Argentine terminology in reference to  most tango aspects, 
such as name of figures, embellishments, dances,  etc.

Why do so many people refuse to use the words "man" and "woman",  after all a 
man is just that and a woman is a woman; both beautiful  specimens of our 
human race. Any shame derived from adopting the other sex  role could be 
interpreted as an insult to the other sex. This meaning that  you consider 
that sex inferior. Or not? And then is us (AArgentines) that  are accused 
of being machistas.

Then you see some men dancing  together like the Macana brothers, they are 
elegant, humorous, amusing,  masculine , they are spectacular and change 
roles all the time while  dancing. And you know what? one acts as the 
"woman" and the other one is  the "man" as they dance and change roles.

The other word that we use  and foreigners refuse to use is "Marcar" or 
"Marca".

They  substituted lead, leading for marca, marcar.

La marca in tango does not  have anything to do with the dictionary 
definition of that noun or verb  (marcar). (To put a signal on an animal, 
person or object so that it may  be recognized, etc).

IMO "marcar" in tango means to indicate, to  invite, to suggest. The woman 
waits for the suggestion, the invitation,  the indication to perform a step.

So in tango there is a "man", a  "woman" ; the man "marca" and the woman " 
sigue" (follows).

What do  you think?
Un abrazo to you all, Sergio

PS. but if you prefer to use  follow, lead, leading, following please do so. 
I do not care one way or  the other, I am merely explained some elements of 
Arentine  culture.

_________________________________________________________________
Don’t  just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!  
http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/

_______________________________________________
Tango-L  mailing  list
Tango-L at mit.edu
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l



************************ 
www.yaletangoclub.org  



_______________________________________________
Tango-L  mailing  list
Tango-L at mit.edu
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l