[Tango-L] Women leading IV

[steve pastor]

I want to add that the United States are not so united when it comes to the definition of the roles of men and women in dance. And Argentina is not he only place that traditional roles are predominant. As Sergio noted in one of his previous posts, men leading men is practically non existent in country western dancing. I have seen it only once in well over a decade of weekly attendance. Women sometimes dance "pattern" couples dances such as schottiche with other women, however. And, as I remember it, women dancing polka together is pretty common. Women leading other women in a dance that requires more of a lead such as two step is, however, rarely seen. Women leading two step look like women leading tango (although I've only seen a woman lead another woman a couple of times in two step).
  Since I now dance Argentine Tango and country western with equal frequency I can tell you that AT attracts a different crowd than country. The country people are definately more conservation and traditional in their views. Guess which genre of music is way more popular in the USA.
   
   
   
  

Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990 at hotmail.com> wrote:
  I am happy to see that many subscribers to this list gave their honest 
opinion with respect to this important subject.

There has been a lot of progress in the last few years. When I tried to 
discuss this subject long ago, it was impossible, yet today we see that many 
people can talk about it with total freedom.

Jak says :" My observation suggests otherwise. The disrespect for the other 
gender, looking
down, rejection, intolerance are all over the place."

"Let us not be afraid of passing judgments, if such judgments are based on
objective observations and facts. "

When I mentioned the way women and men are in Argentina (described as 
platitude by Jake and as something existent all over the world by Ilene, and 
as not true by Jak ) I was giving and ideal reflection of the concept that 
exists in Argentine society of what a man and a woman should be.

Why did I do that? it was done with the purpose of showing that tango as an 
image of the society that created it has two roles implied in it : the man 
(leading) the woman (following).

Why did I have to do that? because this, that is a self evident true in 
Argentina, is not seen as such abroad, where people think that leading and 
following are functions that are not attached to any sex role and therefore 
it does not matter who is leading and who is following.

Is this important? IMO it is important because I personally think that one 
of the reasons A. Tango has such an universal appeal is precisely because of 
those gender roles.

Tango is one of the few places where a woman and a man are just that, they 
meet as such, they have an intense communication, a transient love affair 
that lasts for two minutes and the good part is that there are no strings 
attached : the music stops, dancers awake from their dream and walk to their 
tables.

There are many other things that give A. tango its characteristics and we 
can discuss them when we talk about "rituals and codes" of the milongas.

Foreigners unknowingly disregard those elements causing tango to lose its 
characteristics.

Is this something to worry about? No really unless you want to dance A. 
Tango the traditional way.

The truth is that you can borrow the A. Tango choreography (many ballroom 
dances are doing it more and more) and dance to any music, in any place, 
with any clothing, under the most diverse circumstances. The choreography 
is rich, beautiful and it is very malleable.

All that changes is the feeling.

Best regards, Sergio

PS. Dear Jak nobody is judging anybody. :))

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