[Tango-L] Tango World Championship

[Huck Kennedy]

John Lowry <john at lowry.com.au> writes:
> Is there a reason that not one couple from North America
> (US or Canada) was represented in either the social or
> performance categories of the "Mundial" in Buenos Aires
> in 2006? 

     I agree with Nancy and Lois on this.

     You want to know why there was not one couple from
North America, John?  Oh, I dunno, maybe the fact that
so many of us are disgusted with the way over-emphasis
on competition has ruined ballroom dancing in America
by turning it from primarily a social dance into
a trained-seal spectacle filled with thinly-veiled
favoritism, petty jealousies, and greedy profiteering?
And maybe because we thank our lucky stars everyday that
we've found a haven, within Argentine tango, away from
all that crap, a haven where the prize isn't some sports
trophy given to the best cookie-cutter imitation of
a caricaturized "standard" that some inbred judging
cartel has deemed to be "the" way to dress and dance,
but rather having a desired dance partner not avert your
cabeceo gaze at a milonga?

     When it comes to whoring, sir, we Americans in
Argentine tango prefer the honesty of the neighborhood
brothel of tango's roots to this glitzily-veneered,
supposedly sophisticated alternative you would offer us,
like so much fool's gold.

Huck