[Tango-L] Dance Flaming: not an isolated phenomenon

[Nina Pesochinsky]

Thank you, Carol!

This is really beautiful.  I am glad that have 
the time these couple of days to hang out on the 
list here and read everything.  Usually I don't 
have such luxury.  So I am writing a huge post, 
hopefully not too difficult to read.

Some flamenco purists, as well as tango purists, 
love making other tango and flamenco purists hate 
them. The criticism usually comes from the people who cannot do the same work.

This is not flaming.  This criticism and 
different perception is much needed.  It is not 
one way or another.  It is both.  It is a part of 
the bigger whole.  It is a much needed 
scrutiny.  These things must be voiced and this 
article has done it very well.  It is all about 
awareness.  This is NOT flaming.

Maybe the idea of flaming is not well understood anymore.

About the dances, the trick for this fusion is to 
stay pure, and these flamenco dancers manage to 
do it beautifully!  It is very, very difficult to 
tell the new story while keeping the dance in its 
pure form.  But it is not impossible.  If you can 
see some of these videos, they are 
incredible.  Even if you do not know much about 
flamenco, you will understand what this is.

Amaury discovered our web site slightly 
prematurely and I was not prepared to talk about 
TangOlé Compañía de Danza. The web site is not 
completely done, has some errors, and we are 
still working on it.  But I might as well talk a 
little about it now and about the fusion of AT 
and flamenco that we are working with right now.

First, we are Argentine tango dancers (Gregory 
and I).  Natalia and Mark are flamenco dancers, 
musicians and singers.  Neither I nor Gregory 
will even become flamenco dancers like Natalia, 
and Natalia may never become a tango dancer (but 
I have hopes).  We are very conscious and careful 
about protecting the authenticity of our own 
dance forms.  This is very important.  When 
artists create on the edge of reason (according 
to others), they are risking being perceived as 
traitors.  That is traitors to what they had put 
forward as their identity.  The public feels 
deceived.  But the real thing is that artists, 
and particularly dancers, have such a fierce 
loyalty to their dance that it is unchangeable 
because they become who they are through the art 
of their dance.  They are INSEPARABLE.  One dies 
without the other.  The love and the passion 
always remains with the original dance form.  It is at the cellular level.

Second, no fusion ever works as a social dance 
form.  NONE.  The fusion is for art and 
performance only.  It is very important to keep 
this distinction in mind. What Joaquín Cortés 
does most other flamenco dancers cannot do and 
would not want to do.  This needs to be seen and 
absorbed and, most of all, enjoyed.  it is meant to move people.

What I have discovered is that when the two 
different dance forms are fused, the people who 
are doing the work need to have expertise in one 
form and have other people working with them who 
are experts in the other dance form.  This is 
essential.  People who dance only one form and 
then fuse it with something they may know a 
little bit, usually do not succeed and risk 
destroying the authenticity and the expressive value of their work.

There is a big difference in dancing between 
flamenco and tango. Flamenco remained a living 
dance, where its meaning (not its form) has been 
changing with the times.  The complexity of 
compass remained the same.  Flamenco begins with 
the singer, who is followed by the dancer.  The 
musicians follow the dancer and his or her change 
in compass.  It is very, very complicated and 
difficult.  In flamenco, women now incorporate 
movements that were originally danced by the 
men.  It is very exciting because the purists are 
able to recognize the artistry that it requires and the expression.

Flamenco is very complicated.  It is not a social 
dance, and yet it is.  It is danced when a group 
of people gets together.  And it evolves and 
changes then.  But it is not the same way a 
social dance as tango is.  So for any fusion, in 
terms of tango, there needs to be a clear 
understanding that the fusion is not to be danced socially.

In tango, nothing new that in any way would 
resemble the changes in flamenco has happened in 
years, more accurately, since the music 
Piazzolla.  Tango followed a different 
history.  Because tango follows the music and not 
the dancer or singer, it changes with the music, when the music changes.

Joaquín Cortés is such an amazing flamenco dancer 
that anything that he does is justified by his 
phenomenal mastery of the pure, authentic form of 
the dance.  Has anyone ever seen him 
dance?  There are videos on www.youtube.com.

The only comparison that I can make in tango is 
Pablo Pugliese fusing tango and modern 
dance.  Pablo is a master of Argentine 
tango.  What he does with the fusion is 
gorgeous.  And there is no corruption of the 
tango because no one else can do what he is 
doing.  But Pablo does not teach the fusion and does not dance it socially.

In the last several decades, on the outskirts of 
the cities in Spain, flamenco has been 
changing.  The gypsies and others have been 
singing about things that are current, such as 
AIDS and drugs.  It is as if flamenco tells the 
current story of the people and the singers, 
musicians and dancers are the story tellers.

Tango does not tell new stories.  The new tangos 
are rarely composed.  There are no new tango 
lyrics, at least none that I know of.  The 
closest lyrics that come to tango are the lyrics 
of Rock Nacional in Argentina.  They are 
beautiful and they tell the current stories, such 
as the songs of Silvina Carre.

I feel a bit envious of the flamenco dancers for 
having many, many videos of their great dancers, 
going back decades.  We have nothing like that in 
tango.  We have some, but it is so very little by 
comparison to the huge quantity of flamenco video 
recordings.  And not only of the dancers and musicians, but also the singers.

Sometimes I wish that the musicians and song 
writers of the Rock Nacional genre would join 
tango, but that probably is impossible, since one 
maybe a direct opposing response to the other.

Again, thank you Carol for posting a great news story!

Warmest regards to all,

Nina




At 09:59 AM 7/19/2007, Carol Shepherd wrote:
>Enjoy! :)
>
>
>Flamenco Purists Bemoan Blending of Dance Styles
>
>
>Wall Street Journal
>July 18, 2007  6:26pm
>
>Flamenco is gaining in popularity around the world, but as the
>centuries-old dance form gains new fans, some adherents to tradition
>worry that quality is taking a hit. The tug-of-war between flamenco
>purists and innovators is similar to conflicts that have dogged other
>forms of art through the ages. In flamenco’s case, reports Graham Keeley
>of Britain’s Independent, the fight is complicated by questions over the
>dance’s origins, and disputes over who deserves credit for which
>innovations.
>
>Flamenco first appeared as an entertainment among gypsies in Spain
>around 1760, deriving its flamboyant dance moves and narrative songs
>from Indian, Latin American and Arabic roots. Dancers and musician
>drawing on flamenco can sell out large spaces in Japan and the United
>Kingdom.
>
>The flamenco singer José de la Tomasa has criticized flamenco’s
>world-famous stars such as Joaquín Cortés for sacrificing the art’s
>roots by adding in moves from other dance styles. To traditionalists,
>Introducing ballet or jazz steps into flamenco is viewed as merely a
>marketing ploy. “In Andalusia, we don’t give flamenco the importance it
>deserves, not just as a first-rate cultural asset but as a potential
>source of revenue. But I don’t think we should let ourselves be guided
>by purely monetary considerations,” says Rafael Infante, an adviser to
>the Seville Flamenco Biennale.
>
>Flamenco modernizers claim they are enriching the form rather than
>destroying it. Tina Panadero, director of the Flamenco Museum in Seville
>and the niece of a well-known flamenco innovator, says the dispute is
>ironic, given the dance’s multicultural heritage. “What people don’t
>realize is that there is no definition of flamenco. It has only been
>around for about 150 years, and is always changing.” ­ Robin Moroney
>
>Byline: Graham Keely, The Independent
>
>Permalink:
>http://blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/2007/07/18/flamenco-purists-bemoan-blending-of-dance-styles
>
>--
>Carol Ruth Shepherd
>Arborlaw PLC
>Ann Arbor MI USA
>734 668 4646 v  734 786 1241 f
>http://arborlaw.com
>
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