[Tango-L] Social Tango

[Melina Sedo & Detlef Engel]

Dear Maria, Michael, Diana and everyone else.


We're quite overwhelmed, as we seldom received so many encouraging  
and nice emails - both public and private - in such a short time.  
Thank you all so much. We are really happy that there are people all  
over the world sharing our ideas of Tango as a social dance and hope  
to meet you (again) in the world of tango.


Please allow me to post a public response to Michaels mail, as it  
illustrates a fact about social Tango and it's perception. If you're  
not interested in reading another analysis of Tango styles, please  
just skip this mail. I don't want to bore or annoy anyone.


Michael wrote concerning our Corazon-Pomar-Performance:
... is that they did absolutely NOTHING. No wild figures, no  
volcaldas, no colgaldas and ...

Unfortunately, that's not true: we actually danced 1 volcada, 1  
colgada and 3 ganchos during our perfomance. I just checked again...  
So, we're not quite so pure as Michael stated. ;-)
Ok , we don't overdo it, but nevertheless we use these elements. For  
us, they have to be something special and have to be triggert by  
something special in the music. We exclusively dance to very  
traditional Tangos, which don't induce us constantly to use these  
elements, so they stay rare.
(This is just OUR approach, don't feel insulted, if you like doing a  
lot of them, just for the fun of it. That's totally up to you.)

Some time ago, after a performance, a friend made us a compliment  
about our dance, again stating the absence of "wild figures". And  
then he said: "Don't be sad about the  ganchos-workshop not being  
booked so well,you don't dance ganchos anyway."  hmmm.... we just  
danced at least 3 or 4 ganchos in our performance....

Things like that happen to us a lot.


There seems to be a general phenomenon:
As we concentrate on walking, the spectators tend to fade away the  
"modern" elements in our dance. There are others who notice that we  
use them. But all agree, that we dance social Tango, no matter if you  
call it Milonguero or Salón, like most of the Milongueros (and we) do.

(Please, don't get into an argument about the definition of  
Milonguero and Salon, these labels are not so important. Let me just  
talk about Social Tango. And please, now don't argue that Nuevo is  
also Social Tango, I just have to use one word...)


Just, what does all this say about the perception and definition of  
Social Tango per se?

Social Tango can very well be a quite complex dance and can integrate  
"modern" elements if you adapt them to the dancefloor and music and  
if don't change the general impression, the focus of the dance.
Social Tango stays social, even if you use the tipical modern  
elements - but how long? How many and which kind of ganchos, volcadas  
or colgadas does it take, until people perceive it as Tango Nuevo or  
an exibition-oriented Tango? I really don't want to discuss this  
quantitatively, but...

In my opinion, the perception of different styles does not derive  
from the usage or non-usage of certain elements, but from the focus  
of the dance:
- If the focus of a dance lies on the embrace, you'll perceive it a  
social Tango.
- If the focus is on the "organic" movement without an "acting"  
approach, you'll perceive it most likely as Tango Nuevo.
- If the focus lies on the "artistic" movement AND you act out a  
story or a feeling, your dance will be perceived as Show-Tango.

For us "Tango is walking in embrace". This is why we don't teach or  
dance elements which depend on breaking up the embrace. We  
nevertheless use several "nuevoesque" elements and our teaching is  
strictly improvisational and analytical.
There are friends like Gustavo and Maria (check out Gustavos Book  
"Embracing Tango" at www.tangosalon.com.ar) and Andreas ("The primary  
of the embrace", see www.tangokombinat.de/uk.htm) and others all over  
the world who share our approach.

But although we do make a statement with the "Primary of the  
embrace", in the same time the whole picture shows, that the  
definition-borders between the styles are shifting constantly and the  
gap between the different Tango worlds are not so deep as we  
sometimes perceive them. Tango - all kinds of Tango - are developing  
constantly and nourishing each other.

So, it's very important to know and say where you stand, but there's  
really no need in fighting or denying the mutual influence.


Please excuse my rather lengthy mail, I just got into a flow... ;-)

Have a nice day,

Melina



Melina Sedo & Detlef Engel
-------------------------------------
www.tangodesalon.de
www.youtube.com/tangodesalon
tango at tangodesalon.de
(0049) (0)681 9381839
(0049) (0)177 4340669