[Tango-L] Social Tango

[Joe Grohens]

 > I compare dance 'styles' to dialects of the same language.

The analogy of dialects in a language is a very useful idea for  
thinking about tango styles.

This way we can get a sense of how much difference there really is  
between these styles. And how much these differences matter.

Dialects can differ from the standard language and from each other in  
principally three aspects:

- grammar
- vocabulary
- pronunciation

If we think about the varieties of tango, which ones really differ in  
terms of their grammar or their vocabulary?

It seems to me that all social dialects of tango follow the same  
structural customs (walking counter clockwise, following the code of  
the crossing sequence in turns, maintaing connection through both  
arms, etc.)

Stage tango does not. Stage tango uses the space in whatever way is  
theatrically advantageous. Couples dance sometimes in shadow position,  
sometimes separated. There are lifts, inversions, stopping the dance  
to talk, sing, act, etc. These differences might be considered a  
mixture of grammatical and vocabulary differences.

One might argue that milonguero style has a much different vocabulary  
than other styles. But really, it is just a simplified vocabulary of  
the standard language (akin to "simplified English", which restricts  
vocabulary to about 1000 words). Milonguero style has no vocabulary  
that is not used in the other styles.


I would suggest that the only distinction between "milonguero style"  
and the other social styles is pronunciation. In other words, it is  
similar to a regional accent.