[Tango-L] Invoking Buenos Aires II

[Sergio Vandekier]

Sean wrote:" "Next time you are home,
ask here about the time Rudolpho went dancing at the
"wrong milonga".""

Dear Sean,
                 There so many cultural differences that I could spend 
months writing about them .

People abroad hear part of the truth and then they fill in the blanks, 
reflecting what they thought to be the truth. I am hesitant to talk about 
these cultural differences because each time I do there are all sort of 
misinterpretations and fairy tales. but ...

In the old times, even my parents times, most people interacted with members 
of his own family and his own neighborhood.

It was "not entirely right" for a young man to venture in other 
neighborhoods looking for women and trying to impress them with his 
particular style of dancing and fancy foot work.

Those that did so could sometimes be told not to show up there any more.  If 
you persisted and got acquainted with a girl that showed genuine interest in 
you, then eventually males of her family and the boys of the neighborhood 
would accept you as one of their own.

Each neighborhood had its own tango style, if you went dancing there, you 
had to dance the way they danced. If you came showing off a different style 
you could have some problems but it was more about women than about dancing. 
  It is common sense that when you go dancing to a place where they are 
doing "tango liso" you are not going to be well received by the boys  if you 
start dancing with all sort of boleos, ganchos, amagues, etc, and on top of 
that the women will refuse to dance with you.

So it was a question of adjusting to the style that was being danced in a 
particular place, this is true even today.

When you want to dance Open Style or Milonguero or Nuevo tango you should go 
to places where those are the styles of choice . If you dance in a different 
way women there will not dance with you.

If a boy met a girl from a different area of the city they would meet 
outside her neighborhood and kept their relationship secret till they new 
they had genuine interest for each other.

Tango reflects Argentine society and keeps those rituals and codes even 
today.

I want to make clear that the milonga reflects society as a whole and the 
problem is not entirely about dancing a different style.

I will try to discuss some of those codes and rituals  at the right time (as 
requested by Bruno) but now we have to keep focus on Women leading. :))

I hope that this helps to understand what happened to Rodolfo when he went 
to the wrong milonga. :))

Best regards, Sergio

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