[Tango-L] Fwd: Germans teaching Argentine tango in the USA

[Chris, UK]

Ron wrote:

> If one cannot travel to Buenos Aires and one wishes to study only with
> instructors who are Argentine, be careful in purchasing your product. ...
> The overwhelming majority of Argentine tango instructors in the US
> amd Europe teach a form of tango that was developed for the stage in Argentina.

Even in BA, take equal care. Every one of the pre-milonga classes I´ve
seen have been in that open-embrace stagey style.

The Julio Balmaceda class I saw the other day was a good example. He
was teaching exactly the same kind of stuff he does in European
festival workshops,  bearing no resemblance to the social dancing
here. It was a
sad sight, expecially when the students (Argentines and foreigners alike)
used the first tandas of the milonga to practice and demonstrate their new
sequence.

I asked a local what she though of this. "His father would be, how you
say, spinning in his tomb."

I wonder if these people know or care that they are crapping in their own
back yard. Don´t they notice so many of their milongas are now half-
empty? These people are pissing away their heritage for a fast buck. And
when they´ve used it all up, they´ll have neither the tango nor the money to
show for it.

On the bright side, thank goodness the future of tango does not lie solely
in their unfit hands.

Chris