[Tango-L] Smoking section at a milonga in Buenos Aires

[Caroline Polack]

Not to put down Lo De Celia but I was there recently. I am sure the 
milongueros were very good 5 or 10 years ago but they are now in their 
seventies, perhaps eighties and as such, showing the effects of their age. 
There were very very few men younger than that at that milonga. It seems a 
friendly space to be sure, and the people congenial but I did find myself 
getting a bit bored doing the same six steps over and over again with men 
too old to bend their arthritic or rheumatic joints. I found myself wanting 
to dance only with men in their sixties or younger because they are young 
enough to dance without being hampered or stiffened by age.

I know Janis likes to say that the only real tango is the milonguero style 
but honestly, tango is not restricted to just six steps or to men who are 
beginning to be quite limited physically because of their age. Milongueros 
of times past are now getting very old and as such, are no longer able to 
put as much into dancing as they could once. Would have liked to be here ten 
years ago and see what they were like then. Whatºs very important to 
remember is that milonguero style evolved from two things: lack of space of 
milongas and age. If Argentine Tango is only about doing six steps in total, 
it would not have been as popular as it is now. Iºve heard that at practicas 
where there is much more space, that there is more variety in tango steps. 
And when I look at movies of tango of even only 20 years ago, Iºm seeing far 
more variety of Argentine social tango that I see now.

I hope that when Iºm in my seventies and eighties, that I will still be 
going out dancing like the men at Lo de Celia or at Salon La Argentina but I 
wouldnºt expect the younger generation to be saying that only people of my 
age can dance the tango well for I would be too old to be able to do what I 
could once. Not even the world's best dancers of any dance style will be 
able to dance as well as they did once, itºs not possible. Instead, what we 
could hope for is that milongueros will pass down to the younger generations 
the beautiful feeling of a good embrace and expressive musicality and hope 
that the tango of times past will continue to be the tango of times to come.

_________________________________________________________________
Ready for the world's first international mobile film festival celebrating 
the creative potential of today's youth? Check out Mobile Jam Fest for your 
a chance to WIN $10,000! www.mobilejamfest.com