[Tango-L] favorite tango videos on line

[WHITE 95 R]

Hi Victor,

You are welcome, you chose good examples of Argentine tango dancing. You are right, the samples you chose show lots of stuff that one can incorporate into one's dancing. Not only that, but it's all real tango and not some American or European creation with the "tango" label attached ;-)

You on to mention Chicho and his dancing. Of course there is nothing wrong with his dancing although one could say that it stretches the envelope of traditional tango. However, I think that it's not only his style or any steps one might learn at CITA which are done badly or out of context of the music. The simplest and most basic of tango steps, such as the giro, are regularly mauled by dancers who've not yet mastered the basics.

I guess that videos and any formal or informal performance can be misleading if you want to define them that way. For example, just watching a dancer or dancers at a milonga whose style you like, could mislead you into thinking you could do as well.... Take a look at how many people have watched minimalistic dancing by really good dancers and go on to think that plodding along, barely moving will make them as expressive and subtly yet powerfully emotive as Gavito and Marcela Duran ;-)

I prefer to think of the best videos and performances as demonstrations of skill and talent and an inspiration to learn or to try to learn, rather than a "how-to" of tango dancing. It's the same as watching any sort of great performance by any master of any craft, sport or artistic expression. Just because I see the best drivers in the world going at over 200mph around a track, I'm under no illusion that I can or should emulate their feats. It would only result in my death. Likewise, the performances of high wire walkers, trapeze artists, etc. 

Thanks for your good wishes and for looking at our web site,

Manuel



> From: Victor_Bennetts at infosys.com

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> White95r>The videos you posted show some really good, skilled dancers. However, I don't understand why you call this dancing "misleading".
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> Thanks for your kind words. On the "misleading" point, I certainly am not trying to diminish the achievements of these tango athletes. But what makes these videos my favourites is that they contain plenty of stuff that is really helpful (for me anyway) in developing my own dance. There is nothing wrong with the beautiful complicated steps of, say Chicho, but how many times do you see guys at social dances trying really complicated stuff that they must have gotten out of CITA videos or off youtube and doing it badly? On top of that, most of the time these steps are out of context to the music and the leader ends up berating their poor follower for not knowing what to do. That is why I think videos can be misleading. Most of us don't have the time or, realistically, the ability to become as good as a professional dancer, but the videos might make us think we can pull off this stuff socially. That would be as unrealistic as me thinking I can tackle a marathon without further tr!
> aining because I run 10ks most weekends.
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> Victor
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> P.S. I checked out the web site - feliz cumpleanos :-)