[Tango-L] Expanding social dancing to exhibition level?

[ceverett@ceverett.com]

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:05:13 -0500, "Tango Society of Central Illinois"
<tango.society at gmail.com> said:
> I've noticed a trend over the past few years towards development 
> of a new tango market niche -  close embrace with exhibition 
> elements - volcadas, ganchos, barridas, boleos, and the like. 
> Sometimes a cute term like 'nuevo milonguero' is used to link 
> the new to the traditional. 

With the exception of volcadas, these are all old, old things
that date from the '40's or before.  And volcadas follow very
logically from an old figure called "la carpa".

> This suggests that tango milonguero is suffering in sales in the 
> North American (and probably European) market, so perhaps if some 
> compromises are made to attract norteamericanos to something that 
> is comfortable ('cool steps' to impress the audience) within the 
> familar cultural context, fueled by Hoolywood, that places value 
> on exhibition dancing, then dancing tango in close embrace with 
> exhibition elements will compete successfully for market share 
> with nuevo tango.

Except that this material is fun and feels good to do in its 
own right, done properly and appropriately.

> However, doing this abandons the attempt to dance tango the way 
> nearly all porten~os do in milongas in Buenos Aires, without 
> these exhibition elements. 

There are many reasons you don't see these elements in common 
use by the old farts in BA:  

* no room for things that take up a lot of space
* lack of physical talent
* advancing physical decrepitude

> (The exception is exhibition dancers recruiting tourists 
> for lucrative private lessons.) 

$20/hour group lessons with 50 people attending are 5 to 
10 times as efficient as private lessons for extracting 
dough from gringos.

> What this does is create 
> a new version of tango, which can can proudly stand beside
> Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire's versions of tango as 
> North American aberrations of tango.

Tell that to Finito, Pepito, Pupi, Gerardo Portalea, Petroleo
and all the other greats that don't fit into your neat little 
"tango milonguero" box.

Using the "exhibition tango" label to brand the unique, home 
grown styles of Villa Urquiza and San Cristobal as inauthentic
simply reeks of arrogance.

> However, this is not tango milonguero. Go to Buenos Aires milongas to 
> see the real thing. If you come back doing nuevo milonguero, at least 
> you made an informed decision.

Who is a milonguero?

A few weekends ago, my teacher Florencia Taccetti was 
telling me about the days when she was going out every 
night dancing in BA, about her favorite partners, who 
was going to the same places and where they were going.

The current generation of name brands all went out 
dancing *socially* every night for years, on top of 
full days of lessons, performances, practice and/or 
teaching.  There was no incentive to dance in a way
that would attract impressionable foreigners for 
lessons, because there weren't enough of them for 
anyone to make a living from.

El Beso wasn't owned by Susanna Miller, it was called 
Regine's.  Susanna Miller wasn't even on the map as a 
teacher.

So, if they were living and breathing tango, making it a 
part of their who they were, are they or are they not 
milonguero?

And, does what is being danced in the milongas now deserve 
to be called "tango milonguero"?  Several people we both 
know and respect have told me how shocked and saddened they 
were at the number of times they got bumped in BA during 
recent trips, all by old timers that they had never seen 
caught up in choques before.

More and more, I believe this labeling and categorization 
we get caught up in is just existential bullshit.  I'll 
be the first to admit that I've engaged in this bullshit,
but I'm getting sick of it.

Here is the truth of life: Things come and things go.  Words 
change.  Circumstances change.  Your dance is one thing one 
day, and something else the next.  Resistance to change is 
mad and futile.  It's always been that way and always will.

If we can keep the spirit of this thing we all love alive, 
if we go on dancing with grace, passion and connection, then 
at the end of the day we have something to celebrate.

Christopher

> On 8/23/07, ceverett at ceverett.com <ceverett at ceverett.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:31:35 -0300, "Janis Kenyon"
> > <Jantango at feedback.net.ar> said:
> > > CLOSE EMBRACE SALON TANGO FOR EXHIBITION
> > > Wednesday 7-9 PM Sept. 12, 19, 26
> > > A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO EXPAND YOUR SOCIAL DANCE TO EXHIBITION
> > > LEVEL...>
> >
> > Oh, it's the Jon and Judy show.
> >
> > > I give them credit for knowing what sells in the USA tango market.
> > > That's
> > > all that is being taught (sold) these days as tango in BsAs.  Is social
> > > dancing for exhibition?
> >
> > Um,
> >
> > Osvaldo and Coca do exhibitions regularly.  They also enter contests, as
> > you say some of the guys on your approved milonguero list.
> >
> > So the answer to your question is yes.
> >
> > > <They are true milongueros and strive to bring the milonguero culture of
> > > Buenos Aires to their students.>
> > >
> > > True milongueros?  Writing this about themselves only proves they don't
> > > understand the meaning of the word.  Besides, no milonguero would teach
> > > for the purpose of exhibition.
> >
> > People have to pay their bills somehow.  Obviously what they've been
> > doing in the past does not suffice, so they are trying something new.
> >
> > Christopher
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