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

[Darrell Sanchez]

Igor Polk wrote:
>- 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 have observed just the opposite. Most of the people I see in the
US doing neo-type tango are generally doing some odd and tangential
variation on the theme of classic tango and do not seem to have taken into
their bodies good foundations of the tango form.
	I think there is distinction about music and tango today that is
important. I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong and that is all
right, but, from my understanding, traditionally as the tango grew, changed
and developed there were many musicians that loved the tango. They created
and developed music specifically with that love of the music and the dance
in them. The dance and the music meant something to them and their culture.
Musicians and dancers were in a creative mutually enhancing relationship as
the music and the dance were evolving more closely together.
	Today we are caught, to some degree, in a dilemma. With the lack of
a great pool of tango musicians and composers creating new developments of
the music from and through the foundations of tango we, as dancers, can feel
ourselves left waiting for the music to support our expanding explorations
of the dance. As dancers we cannot wait for a new batch of Troilos,
DiSarlis, Puglieses, Canaros, etc., to ride the crest of tango's
developments of the dance. Our choice is to dance to new music, which
ideally would come with respect to tango music origins, or to find something
new in the existing music.
	Then there is the anxiety that, with the extensive volume of music
in the world and our easy accessibility to it, we will lose the relationship
between the music and the movement and we will lose what makes tango what it
essentially is. Bringing in music from other cultures and movement forms and
trying to fit the tango movements to these other independently developed
music forms, means a very different relationship of the music to the
movement than what traditionally occurred in the history of tango. In
addition, we may fear losing the respect and connection with the origins and
history of tango. As tango dancers we would be foolish to allow this to
happen. As a large global tango community involved, like it or not, in a
creative process, we must be able to hold both polarities. 
	As far as music, I think there is promise in groups like Narcotango,
Bajofundo, Gotan, et.al. They are creating new tango music. As far as tango
and foreigners, there is an interesting relationship of tango in Argentina
and tango in the rest of the world. A while ago I was at dinner with some
friends that included a quite well known Argentine tango teacher and long
time dancer. While conversing he confessed to us his sadness that Argentines
don't fully appreciate the value of tango. He lamented that it continually
took the rest of the world bringing tango back to Argentina for them to
repeatedly realize how important tango was to them. I think this is also
part of the history of tango.

Darrell Sanchez
Boulder, CO