[Tango-L] Cortinas (not the old car from the '70s)

[nina@earthnet.net]

Hello, again, everyone,

Brian wrote

> Pity this poor fallen tanguera, this pathetic trollop who shamelessly
> destroys her virtuous good name throughout the tightly knit USA tango
> community by foolishly remaining out on the pista in full view during a
> cortina with the same partner - but wait, here's the good news!
>
> Since, as you say, everyone notices everything, everyone at this milonga in
> the USA noticed that she and her partner didn't start dancing until the last
> song of the previous tanda, and understands that they stuck out the cortina
> because they want to enjoy a decent amount of dancing with each other.

Some people behave badly.  They just do.  It is disrespectful to ask a  
woman to dance for the last song.  Usually, men who do that are doing  
charity and will use cortina as an excuse to stop dancing with that  
partner.

In Buesno Aires, there are other customs that are followed by the  
women - never accept an invidation after the first tango of a tanda,  
never accept an invitation from ayone who comes up from behind ans  
verbally invites to dance, etc., but one has to live in BsAs to learn  
these subtleties.  There is a really strong reason for each one of  
these.  Of course, each person is free to follow them or not, but they  
are alwso responsible for the consequences.  I am writing fromt he  
experience because I broke every one of the customs at some point  
while living in BsAs.

What I advocate for is that the professionals in the world of tango,  
i.e. teachers, organizers and DJs do not condone such bad behaviors by  
having no backbone to doing well what they are supposed to be doing in  
their professinal roles.  To say that people have a differenct dance  
experience in the US and therefore can throw away the customs that  
promote respect, is a lame excuse that leads to poor quality of tango  
events.  The respectful customs of tango will not stand up for  
themselves.

But, on the other hand, maybe I am in the minority expecting respect  
in tango.  I once was in Boudler, Colorado at a book store.  A man  
opened a door for me and I thanked him.  He said that recently a woman  
was rude to him because he openend a dor for her and told him that she  
could do it herself.

Its like the ancient saying goes "People get the government that they  
deserve", people get the tango experience that they deserve.

Warmest regards to all,

Nina