[Tango-L] "Alternative" Music....

[Igor Polk]

(Answering the first Carol Ruth Shepherd letter.)

Carol, you writing so well !
That is why I decided to spent some time answering you.

Carol> Thank you for making this analogy.  I quit the dance five years ago
because I was tired of "dance doctrine" being thrown in my face by
arrogant leads, in the middle of the dance floor.  It has often struck
me that many tango purists are trying to time-travel and live in another
place and time.

Igor- That states clearly that you do not know how to dance tango. You quit
5 years ago!
But for some reason you feel yourself appropriate to criticize it.


>When we consider the origins and evolution of tango (or frankly, any
other organically developed street dance) the hypocrisy is doubly
laughable.  There are these same arguments going on right now in the
lindy hop community, with certain upper-middle-class white college
students screechin' and preachin' about why one can only dance lindy hop
to music from certain approved black jazz artists in the early 30's.

- Because old music carries a blue print for advanced dancing !
It is proven with time. It looks like you belong to such people who once
meet any difficulties, instead of diligent learning, give up. And do
whatever is easier for you, like making your own dance.
And you are so arrogant that you call others "vintage" and yours -
"progress". To save your face:
you was not able to learn the dance !




> Popular dance (street dance) cannot help but evolve.  It reverberates
with the cultural memes, body movements, clothing, images and beats from
the popular culture surrounding it.  If it ain't movin', it's dead.

- Alternative Tango is not a street dance. Yes, it does reverberates with
what happens in culture nowadays, and that is precisely why many do not like
it, but I am not about it.
Alternative Tango is not a street dance, it is very very complex. More
complex than traditional tango. It is very difficult to learn it. And most
people just stop in the beginning, they luck culture and school of the old
dance. They move clumsy. They do not understand lead. They are unable to
make molinetes. They do not collect feet! Old tango was danced for 100 years
by millions of people with loads of music written in all continents, and
Alternative Tango is only no more than 10 years old danced by a handful of
freaks. You are totally aberrate the truth. It is opposite,
that is Tango what is a "street" dance, not Alternative Tango.




> To fix a dance in a style, a syllabus, a choreography chart, a set of
pre-ordained and pre-approved musical tracks, is to fossilize it like an
insect in amber.  And then we call it vintage dance, to distinguish it
and its practitioners from organic, live, popular dance.  There are
plenty of people out there who do vintage dance and it's a very cool
thing--with costumes and period music on period instruments and
sometimes even elaborate reenactments of certain historical events, such
as an inaugural ball.  Vintage dance is a valid art form, but it is a
historical, traditionally accurate artform.  It is not innovative.

- Popular dance is Argentine Tango. Not alternative Tango. The whole Buenos
Aires is dancing Argentine Tango, not like one club Meredith was talking
about. It is opposite to what you have said !! "fix a dance in style" ! Then
learn it first to have grounds to judge it. "pre-ordained musical tracks"!
Thousands of musical pieces! Masterpieces ! Tons of music ! And you do not
know it. I bet you are not able to distinguish between DiSarli and D'Arinezo
not to speak about others. Tango is not a vintage dance, it is a live dance,
and it is very innovative. And you just do not know about it.
In 1911 (!) they counted at least 800 tango figures ! Tango is forgotten.
Innovate inside it, nobody prohibits you, and in fact many do. But it
requires learning. It requires listening to those "arrogant leaders" who
through "dance doctrine" to you. Have you listened to good teachers? By the
way, when you dropped tango dancing 5 year ago, have you became an avid
dancer of Alternative Tango instead? Do you dance it well?

You said "To fix a dance in a style, a syllabus, a choreography chart, a set
of
pre-ordained and pre-approved musical tracks, is to fossilize it like an
insect in amber.". There is nothing farther from the truth than that. Any
dancing requires culture. It is complex phenomena. When one dances a certain
dance he has to know many thing about the dance to dance right. Like Salsa.
It is very popular dance. More popular than Tango, but it has very strict
rules. And nobody say it is fossilized. Once you obtain the skill of those
rules - you became free to express yourself in millions of ways! Rules are
set to make you more creative ! They show you the ways to be creative ! They
teach you to be creative ! They are to create common ground for all the
dancers around the world to dance together and have fun !

When you said below "As a dancer I can observe someone's dancing on the
floor, and then
decide whether I want to dance with them (having observed that they are
obviously a vintage dancer or obviously a neotango dancer)." That is exactly
you are looking for: "A fossilized" traces of Alternative Tango which has a
lot of them despite the fact that it is a very young dance. You are turning
the facts your own way ! You are unable to accept innovations in classical
dance. It is innovations to you if you do not know it, isn't it? Just
starting your own history, claming that you are alive and innovative, you
already became super-conservative. Just look at yourself in this light.



> As a dancer I can observe someone's dancing on the floor, and then
decide whether I want to dance with them (having observed that they are
obviously a vintage dancer or obviously a neotango dancer).

- Ask better either a "vintage" dancer would dance with you!





> It's too bad there are so many people in the tango community on the
extreme ends of this spectrum, and not too many in the middle, it makes
for a lot of mismatched expectations.]

- "In the middle" means dancing both? Traditional styles and Neo Styles?
There are many of such dancers. All good dancers of Neo Tango know how to
dance classical Argentine Tango well. It is just you are stupid enough not
to understand that this is exactly the reason why they are dancing Neo Tango
well. It is because they have the solid foundation of Classical Argentine
Tango.



> I'm sorry, but the words "tango" and "Argentine tango" are not
trademarked.  The tango purists and the vintage dancers are not allowed
to forbid the use of these terms to all except the certified and
sanctified brethren who worship at the same altar.

- A lawyer says so ? Indeed. "Purists" "are not allowed to forbid" !? Jeee,
what a jargon.
They can not forbid. I guess someone disallowed them from it as you
mentioned. But they say that it is unethical to use the word in a wrong
contest. It is unrespectful. It is misleading.
So, I am sorry that they hit the wall. It looks like people like you do not
know the word Ethic.




> That being said...it is misleading to call a dance which only features
blues, jazz, and electrotango music a "milonga" or a night of "tango".
People are going to read publicity, show up, and their expectations for
their evening's entertainment are not going to be met.  So I think we
should use "neotango" or "alternative milonga" to describe dances
featuring only these types of tandas, and I think we should give some
thought to using "traditional tango" and possibly "vintage tango" to
describe the dance as it is narrowly defined to a period of music and a
stylistic set of moves coming from an era--at least in discussion, if
not also in promotion.

- Thank you very much for your suggestions. What would we do without your
professional advice !


> Carol Ruth Shepherd
Arborlaw Associates PLLC
business, technology, entertainment and media law
"practical legal solutions for creative people"
Ann Arbor, Michigan USA

-
Igor, a street real-live modern dancer of Argentine Tango