[Tango-L] Why dancers should judge musicians in Tango not otherwise

[Igor Polk]

ye-as, Huck, there is some merit in your letter which I can agree,
but keeping like this we are going in a circuit here.

I mean dancers already tell musicians what music is the best:
Every best milonga I was, and I was told it is like that in Buenos Aires
too, they play old tangos 1920-1952.

And everyone says that Piazzollas of all sorts, Alternatives and so on is
for an intermission or for super-advanced ballerinas. Just some fun before
diving into more of real Tango.

Even when I was a beginner I have attended a milonga where the DJ played
mostly tango of 1960-1970s. I guess he was attracted by good audio quality
of those records, stereo, and so on. And those were very good musicians.
Probably better than those who play now. But, when he sometime played older
tangos, scratchy records, I felt as if it was another world !

My legs, my body jumped into dancing. Themselves. I did not have to coerce
myself to make a dance - music took care about it. That is the power of old,
you can say right records - they curry a blueprint for dancing! Music
directly appeals to our bones and muscles and spinal brain - that is the
power of it. We do not have to know music - our body knows it.

Later I have found that I was right. Old music IS better. It is better for
beginners, easier to learn with, and the more one progresses the more depth
is found in the same pieces: it is better for advanced dancing too. It is
magical.

To continue the story about this DJ, he dj-es much more of old music now,
but I do not think he has understood why. He just follows the demands of
dancing crowd. Good. Dancers not just should judge musicians. They do !
Dancers do become better and DJ-music becomes better. It is easy to predict
the direction. And those musicians who see it will ultimately win.

Igor
Dear AJ,
I wish you success. I do not really know how do you create. But I know how
do I create in my dancing. I told you about it trying to stay in the
boundaries of philosophical words we both could understand. And I am telling
you ( and I am sure all other dancers will join ) that my creativity greatly
depends on the quality of your music.

You said that "dancers can not play music, musicians can still move to
music, even badly." Put aside my view that musicians "dance" when they play,
it is too controversial, I can tell you
that while playing music you do not really know how to dance. Your "dance"
is primitive movement. While we can dance to any music. And as the Tango
Dancers, let it not surprise you, we can dance tango without any music at
all ! That is what advanced tango dancers can do. We play music with our own
bodies ! And I can assure you it is of very high quality.

You want us "to cooperate"? I am helping with what I can: I ask you to
research old music because that is what we consider the best. If you do not
accept even this simple advice, what else can we talk about?

You wrote: "As for learning music from old records, that's only a small snap
shot and
not a total tuition of a musical style."

As a dancer, I do not care about other musical styles. Only styles which I
value. Those I am driven to dance with.

I can help you telling you that old tango music for dancing has at least 4
distinctive musical styles. Do you know them? Do you want to know them?