[Tango-L] Tango in Buenos Aires

Tue Aug 7 15:16:00 EDT 2007

Deby,
Your comments and views from Buenos Aires are always much appreciated and
frequently thought-provoking.  I’m afraid your latest regarding your
conversation with a friend at El Beso may have provoked a little too much
thought on my part.

Do you agree with your friend, that foreigners appear to be increasingly
taking over social tango in Argentina, and if so why?   Is it because of
the commercialization?  The prices at the milongas?   
To me, it almost appears that the underlying problem is that the real
growth of interest in dancing social tango is mostly occurring outside of
Argentina.  From my little experience there, but supported by what I hear
you and Janis say, is that traditional social tango and the culture that
goes with it seems to be dying among the Argentines.  Outside of the
milongas, I’m not sure I’ve yet to meet one single Argentine that was very
interested in actually dancing tango.  Some listen to the music but don’t
dance.  The most frequent comment I heard was they thought it was too hard
and it took too long.  They’ve often wanted to know if I danced salsa.     

So is it really a question of the foreigners killing social tango in BA or
are they simply coming to a wake?  Will it eventually become like going to
Harlem to try to find lindy hop?  [In case someone might not know, lindy
was born there, but doesn’t exist there now.  Worldwide, yes, Harlem, no.]

If the tradition of Argentine social tango is to be kept alive in Buenos
Aires, it has to come from a desire within the culture, from growing and
encouraging a next generation of Porteno tangueros, not just as performers,
not so they can be teachers, but as pure social dancers, tango for the
experience.  

I can’t say it for a fact, but it sounds to me that the traditional tango
culture in BA might have a tendency to eat its young.  If they are not
excellent, they are ignored at best, criticized and shunned at worse.  If
they are excellent, they become performers and teachers and leave social
behind, to the foreigners.

It also appears to me that there are two seemingly divergent claims – one
is that the local social dancers pay little or no attention to the
commercial tango ventures and the other claim is that the commercial
ventures are killing local social tango.  Personally, I believe they
probably both need each other for long-term survival in Buenos Aires.  If
they don’t figure out a way to help each other, it will be to the detriment
of both.     

I understand the popular milongas are getting more expensive for Portenos,
but if it’s their very culture at stake, perhaps they must find alternate
times and places to dance.  And there are perfectly acceptable ways to
charge less to regulars, through “season passes” or other methods without
it simply appearing as a higher charge for foreigners.  (But interestingly,
when I’ve talked to Portenos outside the tango community, they’ve never
mentioned expense or commercialization as factors for not learning tango. 
And there seems to be plenty of successful salsa venues in BA.)  I
understand folk dances are taught in school in Argentina.  I wonder, is
tango taught in BA schools?  I certainly don’t pretend to have the answers
but I just don’t think railing against commercialization (particularly in a
cash-starved economy) and bemoaning the popularity of tango and BA with
foreigners will provide a solution.  

I certainly don’t blame Portenos for complaining about the growing number
of foreigners and the impact they may have on their culture as we are
frequently very adept at that here in the US.  Neither do I blame them for
not being interested in commercial tango, even though, ironically, it is
often the commercial tango that generates the initial interest in learning
to dance tango in other places of the world, something that appears to be
sorely lacking among native Portenos.  

I guess my question is, what are the social tangueros of Buenos Aires going
to do to reverse the trend, to breathe new life into their tango
traditions, to encourage and pass on those traditions to their own next
generation?  Are the older men still dancing tango with the young men?  Are
they dancing tango at home and at family events with their daughters and
nieces?  Are the women taking their younger sisters and daughters to the
milongas?

At this point I would ask what we as foreigners could do to help, but they
already know we love them to death. 

WBSmith

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Deby Novitz dnovitz at lavidacondeby.com
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:25:14 -0300
To: tango-l at mit.edu
Subject: [Tango-L] Tango Competitions

If you ask the people who dance here about the competitions, most ignore 
them.  They have no interest.  In this years Campeonato the organizers 
were desperate to find couples to compete.  In previous years there were 
as many as 60 couples competing in a milonga.  This year at one milonga 
I was at there were 5. At every milonga I attended during the 
competitions the organizor begged me to dance, she or he would find me a 
partner.  No thanks. 

Those of you who write that competitions have been around in Buenos 
Aires for years are correct.  But not in the commercialistic, 
sensationalistic manner it is done today.  There was no international 
advertising. There were no special glossy magazines devoted to it.  No 
costume changes, no hours and hours of private lessons and choreographed 
routines.  Tango businesses did not elbow and vie and pay for booth 
space.  Special t-shirts were not printed. 

Tango competitions were done in the neighborhood milongas as 
entertainment.  People danced traditional tango.  I can assure you there 
were no flying boleos.  People liked to demonstrate their skills for 
their friends.  It was nothing more than that.  It was done for fun.  It 
was not the serious shark like competition that it has become.

I for one do not like these competitions.  They are in my opinon helping 
to destroy traditional tango.  What passes as salon tango in these 
competitons is not salon tango. If you have to talk about boleos, you 
are not talking about salon.  The competitions are not judged fairly.  
They are judged on aspects completely unrelated to what it is being 
danced. 

Tango is a social dance.  It is supposed to be improvisational.  It is 
supposed to convey the feelings of the music through dance.  These 
commercialistic competitons push this social art form in the same 
direction as ballroom.  What a shame.  What is next?  Learning to dance 
with a rose in your teeth while people film you and post it on the internet?

On Saturday I was at El Beso.  I ran into an old friend.  He was one of 
the first people I met in 2000 when I came here.  I was shocked to hear 
the anti-foreigner sentiment coming from his mouth.  This is a guy that 
loved to have the foreigners in the milongas and to visit.  He used to 
say it made him proud that people would come here to his country to 
dance his dance.  Now he is talking about people ruining "our family."  
Taking over "our places", not respecting "our culture."  He blames the 
foreigners for the rising prices. How sad if this were to turn into a 
backlash.  I have met so many fine people from all over the world.  
Unfortunately it is always a few who do not understand and ruin it for 
the rest of us.

As for Janis.  Probably it is best she answer on her own.  We talked 
about this.  This year she does not have the desire to stand in line 
forever to get a ticket for this event.  She has covered it in the past 
because she thought people who could not come here might be interested 
in her perspectives of the event.  Believe me, she does not support this 
commercial format.

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