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

[Brian Dunn]

Lucia, you wrote:
>>>
  This reminds me of my old-standing gripe with the good museums, and
albums and monographs for that matter. As all of them contain great art  to
the exclusion of mediocre or poor,  the lack of comparison  opportunity
contributes to excellence being lost on non-specialist  viewers.
<<<
The publisher of the New York Times said, "People pay us for what we *don't*
print" - i.e., they pay us for acting as a filter.  

It sounds like you're looking for an art/museum analog of books I've seen
like "Web Pages That Suck" - a collection of prevalent yet arguably bad web
design practices, as expressed in publicly accessible web pages so everyone
can see for themselves at minimum expense to the author.  Such books then
present the desired practices by counterexample. 

Nina, you wrote:
>>>
I have come to a conclusion that we need the tango slobs.  All of them  
- DJs, teachers, etc.  We need them in tango communities as a filter.   
Dancers know the difference and are able to choose.  Even the rank  
beginners! We also need them to help certain essence of tango to  
emerge through contrast.  People feel it at their core when the music  
is good. 
<<<

The Tango-DJ analog to the NYTimes publisher's statement would be "people
pay us for what we don't play."   Nina is thus right on the money - events
and DJs with demonstrably bad music will simply wither away, never even
gaining a foothold.  Therefore, any events/DJs/teachers that demonstrate a
track record of sustainable and/or growing popularity must by definition be
exonerated from the designation of slobhood.  The market speaks - as Nina
puts it so eloquently, "even rank beginners can tell...they feel it at their
core when the music is good"! 

But there's another side to Nina's point: what if no one is holding up the
"Good" sufficiently high into view so that the contrast can become evident?
In that case, perhaps even the discerning rank beginners might get confused,
without a clear standard of comparison.

A passionately devoted longtime tango DJ from Bremen was in Buenos Aires to
collect old cassettes from Zival's and elsewhere, and also to participate in
a Gustavo & Giselle seminario.  Not being first & foremost a dancer, he
lamented the situation in his community in Bremen, which he said was
declining in size.  "We need people who dance in an inspiring fashion to the
great old music - people need to see an example, something to aspire to."

So there's something for partisans to sink their teeth into.  Every time you
dance, you are teaching those who watch you - so "put all the meat on the
grill!" when your favorite music is on.

For our part, we love to show the video of Gustavo & Giselle dancing in LA
in 2003 to Di Sarli's "Don Juan" to people who think that dancing to "old
music" is boring. ;)

All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, Colorado USA
www.danceoftheheart.com
"Building a Better World, One Tango at a Time"