[Tango-L] Should the dance style (not the social) be referred to as "Milonga" or" Argentine Milonga"?

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:35 +0100 (BST), John H. Walton <jwalton at cix.co.uk>
wrote:
>
>
> The site already recognises styles of "Tango (Argentine)" and "Tango
> (Ballroom)". Partly as a result of our BBC TV programme "Strictly Come
> Dancing", the style of "Milonga" is now being taught as well, and I have
> been requested to support this style.
>
> My question is:
>
> Can I refer to this style as simply "Milonga" or is it necessary to refer
> to it as "Argentine Milonga" (or even "Tango (Milonga)"? This is
> important both for organisations who enter dance classes, and dancers who
> search or browse for classes. I note that Wikipedia just uses the word
> Milonga for the music and the related dance form.
>
> (Just to confuse matters, I already use the word Milonga to refer to any
> Argentine Tango Social event, a practice very common in the UK).
>
>
If one is referring to the tango danced in the milongas of Buenos Aires, no
adjective 'Argentine' is required, because tango is inherently an Argentine
dance and absence of a modifier implies it is not ballroom, Finnish, or some
other dance that has adopted the name 'tango'. In fact, my own experience in
visiting websites is that, more likely than not, when the adjective
'Argentine' is used before 'tango', it usually refers to a form of tango
danced for exhibition in Buenos Aires, not the social style. However, it is
also only fair to state that exhibition tango is the predominant form of
tango danced socially at milongas in the US.

The same applies for 'milonga'. Just call it 'Milonga', just as tango should
be referred to as 'Tango'. Save the modifiers for the non-Argentine
derivative dances.

Don't use 'Tango (Milonga)', because this has a specific meaning, applied to
early tangos that have some musical characteristics of milonga. I defer to
my colleagues who are musicians knowledgeable in this area to describe what
characterizes 'Tango Milonga'.

Ron