[Tango-L] Excuse me?

[Deby Novitz]

"They'll come along. Don't be intimidated by the narrow-minded sages. They
don't have much fun, to tell the truth. Too concerned about recent codes
and false assumptions."

Speak for yourself Keith, I have lots of fun in the milongas here in Buenos Aires.  Why would I go somewhere to not have fun?  None of the "narrow minded sages" I know feel the same way.  When we don't feel like dancing we don't go.  

So what are you saying, when we in Argentina learn to dance like you guys do in other countries, then we will have fun?  Then tango will be better?  Then what will we call it?  Because it will no longer be Argentine Tango.

Has Argentine tango evolved through the years?  Yes, of course it has.  The abrazo has changed as well as the posture.  The basic premise has stayed.  Argentine Tango in the earliest days was danced by bored men waiting for their turn for a prostitute.  Later on they taught the prostitutes to dance.  It was a dance of the lower classes. Did women ever dance together?  Ahhh yes, the prostitutes did so for the "gentlemen" purchasing their wares...as a couple.  

If you want to dance with women or men or however you want, fine.  If you want to dance open, closed, upside down and backwards, fine. Tango is danced here in a different manner.  You can argue, debate, justify, and jump upside down singing Por Una Cabeza backwards in Swahili, but you need to understand what you want to change or do, is not what is danced here...in Argentina.  Only a very very small percentage of the tango dancers here dance in the manner that describe.

Please do not tell me that is how the "old" people dance.  Check out Corporacion Tango, check out Johanna Copes' dancers.  More than ever kids as young as 10 are taking lessons from those "narrow minded sages."  My friend Roberto now has 5 students in private lessons under the age of 14.  These are kids whose parents do not dance.  They wanted to learn to dance like "the movies."  They are spellbound about that old foggey way to dance.

The problem I have with many of you on this list is that you want your forms of tango to be "the right one." Specifically what you are dancing in your city.  That we here in Buenos Aires are behind the times because we have customs you don't agree with.  (The cabaceo, putting shoes on at your table, not asking married people to dance, and horror of horrors not accepting same sex couples dancing together, to name a few) Why is it the customs here are wrong or backwards, but the customs of your country are more advanced and forward thinking?  

So what are we creating here, the Macdonalds of Tango?  The Starbucks of Tango?  Instead of ARGENTINE tango  we could call it MacBucks Tango, coming to a city near you, the new improved and right way to dance what used to be called Argentine Tango. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR