[Tango-L] Dance what you like

[Nina Pesochinsky]

Hi, Alexis,

Now I pass this generalization prize to you!

You must not have been reading carefully.  Everything is understood 
only in context.  You took my words OUT of the context in which they 
were presented, especially with my disclaimer that this 
generalization was from MY experience.  YOUR experience must be 
different, so please do not confuse YOUR experience  with mine.

I will explain:

Some Americans get offended when a statement show up like "most 
Americans do not know their own culture", but when you ask them "what 
is your culture? what are some elements of your culture?", they 
cannot say, and some say "I don't know."

In regard to this discussion about alternative music for tango and is 
it still Argentine tango when the steps are danced to other music, 
Americans betray a huge disrespect for their own culture and for 
Argentine culture when they dance what they call tango to the music 
that is American swing, for example, and still try to insist that it 
is Argentine tango.

Swing has a great cultural significance, both as music and as 
dance.  It is no less culturally bound than Argentine tango.

Back to the significance of context - if you read carefully and pay 
attention to the context that surrounds the words that get your 
hackles up, then you will see right away that things are a lot less 
volatile than you thought.

Best,

Nina




At 03:44 AM 2/26/2007, Alexis Cousein wrote:
>Nina Pesochinsky wrote:
>>In my experience, most Americans do not respect their own culture 
>>because they do not know it.  So how can they respect another 
>>culture, such as Argentine?
>You win the prize for broad generalization of the week (and please
>note I'm not one of those EEUUienses).
>
>Unless, of course, some US natives respond with some cultural stereotypes
>about Argentines - God knows there are plenty of those around too, if the
>need arises.
>
>It's particularly inappropriate because the Americans who do
>not know their own culture aren't likely to be on this list anyway -
>chances are they know no culture at all and don't subscribe to tango-l.
>
>
>
>--
>Alexis Cousein                                  al at sgi.com
>Senior Systems Engineer/Solutions Architect     SGI/Silicon Graphics
>--
><If I have seen further, it is by standing on reference manuals>