[Tango-L] Tango Creeps - A Question for Halloween

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

On 10/25/07, Keith <keith at tangohk.com> wrote:
>
> I've always been taught that the woman determines the nature of the
> embrace.
> The man simply opens his right arm and the woman completes the embrace.
> Whether
> she takes an open or a close embrace - the man respects it. It's not
> uncommon
> for a woman to start in an open embrace and, by the end of the tanda, the
> embrace
> is close. There should never be any question of the man pulling in the
> woman or
> of women ... "fighting like bucking broncos to break the embrace".
>
> If the man doesn't like the woman's choice of embrace, he can simply
> choose not
> to ask her to dance again.
>
> Keith, HK



A female tourist goes to Buenos Aires for the first time and goes to a
milonga. She somehow accidently understands the cabeceo and a porten~o
approaches her for a dance. He engages her in the embrace and she pulls
away. At the end of the first song of the tanda, he escorts her back to her
seat and no one else asks her to dance for the remainder of the evening.

In Buenos Aires it is understood that tango is danced in the (close)
embrace. Somehow something has been lost in translation (transmission) as
tango has been adapted to suit local customs around the world.

We are talking about tango here, the danced that originated in Buenos Aires,
aren't we? Maybe we can give that dance that breaks the embrace another name
so we don't get confused.

Of course, even in Buenos Aires a woman can refuse to dance with a man
because his embrace is unconfortable and there is no paucity of lechers and
drunkards in milongas there either.

Ron



On Fri Oct 26  0:42 , "Tango Society of Central Illinois"  sent:
>
> >On 10/25/07, Neil Liveakos neil.liveakos at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> All,
> >> Has anyone encountered the situation where open dancers regard
> >> close-embrace
> >> dancers as creeps?
> >>
> >> Neil
> >> http://milonga.us
> >> _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> >Yes, but it is mostly the dancers who are not good at dancing in the
> (close)
> >embrace who get this reaction, from what I have seen. What I'm referring
> to
> >are the men who usually dance tango in an open frame and while dancing
> they
> >bring the women close to them, often holding them too tight because they
> >lack the proper technique, or maybe because they are motivated by
> hormonal
> >surges. They are selective with regard to the women upon whom they bestow
> >this (dis)honor, and they have motives other than good tango dancing. It
> is
> >the creeps like these who give tango a bad name. I tell our women
> students
> >it is OK to drop these Neanderthals in the middle of a tango.
> >
> >When we teach tango, we emphasize the embrace is like a hug (same word
> >'abrazo' in Spanish). It is firm but not confining. It is affectionate
> but
> >not lascivious. The embrace is an essential defining quality of tango.
> The
> >Argentines know this. To break the embrace is to transform tango into
> just
> >another ballroom dance.
> >
> >Given that, I have occasionally encountered women fighting like bucking
> >broncos to break the embrace. Once in another community, a woman told me
> she
> >felt confined in the embrace. That was because she was dancing with her
> >weight back on her heels. You can't dance in the embrace with your weight
> >back on your heels. It becomes a belly dance rather than una conexion de
> los
> >corazones.
> >
> >Of course, there are those who won't dance tango close because of the
> strong
> >Puritanical values that pervade our American culture. Tango is not a good
> >dance for people like these.
> >
> >Ron
> >_______________________________________________
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> >Tango-L at mit.edu
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>
>
>
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