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

[Caroline Polack]

Hi Lucia,

donºt put words in my mouth that i never said. i said i was a BIT bored, not 
bored to death.

I do love dancing with many older gentlemen and I love how expressive they 
are. Just read the post I wrote last week.

I was speaking specifically of men now in their 70´s and 80´s who can barely 
move due to being handicapped by aging joints. They are getting even too old 
to be able to express physically what they are feeling musically. That was 
all I said.

Just as I love dancing with men in their fifties, forties, thirties and 
twenties. They all have something to bring to the floor. To say that only 
milongueros know how to dance tango properly is getting a bit stale and 
outdated and probably offensive to all argentine dancers who are not older 
than 70. To say such a thing means completley eliminating all the younger 
generations who had learned from those milongueros. That is the kind of 
blanket statement that I am not appreciative of, itºs like saying all black 
men and only black men can play basketball. Itºs bullshit and itºs 
narrowminded and it's offensive. I've danced with some milongueros who 
couldnºt dance worth a damn and their technique was lacking even if they 
feel moved by the music.

Iºve danced with some indigenous dancers in their twenties who were 
incredible and dancing with them made me feel as though I were flying, not 
at high speed but coasting through the skies, dipping here and there. It was 
so much fun and not to be confused at all with nuevo tango.
Why does one must always associate youth with athletics and acrobatics? 
Thatºs not true at all. yes, some do like being more athletic and some like 
good old fashioned social tango. Some of the younger men made me think of 
how milongueros must have been like back in the day when they were young 
enough to do more than what they are physically capable of doing now.

Next time, please read what I actually said before jumping to conclusions 
about what I never said at all.

Caroline



Secondly,

----Original Message Follows----
From: Lucia <curvasreales at yahoo.com.ar>
To: Caroline Polack <runcarolinerun at hotmail.com>, tango-l at mit.edu
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Smoking section at a milonga in Buenos Aires
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 17:29:40 +0000 (GMT)

Caroline,

   In defence of old age one may say that those elderly dancers, who bored  
you to death,  listen and dance THE music and the spirit of the  lyrics ( 
for they don't have to really listen to words know by heart.)  To do that  
one does not need many steps. And if you'll get lucky,  one of these geezers 
will whisper words of lost love in your ear while  dancing....

   Lucia

   PS Unless of course you prefer the athletics :->

Caroline Polack <runcarolinerun at hotmail.com> escribió:  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.

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