[Tango-L] Social Tango + Puppy Castello on "style"

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

--- On Wed, 8/6/08, Nina Pesochinsky <nina at earthnet.net> wrote:
> 
> You can read the archives of the tango-l.  There is a story
> in detail about how Susana Miller invented the term
> "milonguero" when she began teaching in the early 1990s.  The reason that Puppy and others didn't say that they danced "milonguero style" is
> because they didn't know that they did!:)


Quite right.  Folks also didn't know that they danced "close-embrace" (a term coined by Daniel Trenner), did "ocho cortadas" (Gustavo and Fabian) or danced "molinetes" (some Argentine couple who taught in the US).  Some were even dancing "nuevo" (not sure who coined that).  They also didn't know that the men were "leaders" and the women were "followers".  And as I pointed out in an earlier post, some people didn't know that they were doing "colgadas".  


--- On Wed, 8/6/08, Joe Grohens <joe.grohens at gmail.com> wrote:

> > With male students, I can often tell early on whether
> he is more suited to a milonguero style or salon and will teach
> accordingly.
> 
> So, are those the two main choices? (And if so, why?)

I don't teach stage tango, and I don't like teaching beginners a nuevo style right off the bat.  Those are the 4 main classifications of tango styles.  Though one could probably break then down further, I'm not expert enough to do so.

 
> > For me tango is an emotional, artful expression and I
> don't want to intellectualize when I dance.
> 
> But isn't that what you are doing if you categorize the
> guy you are about to dance with?

Only on the same level as intellectualizing whether my partner is male or female.  My approach in developing my dance is to study my natural reactions and refine them to be more reflexive than conscious.  If a man is having to make me think about what I'm doing alot, then the dance isn't very fun at all.  It becomes work.

I find it amusing that you seem to be attributing negative vibes to someone who simply asks what style you dance.  You would then be guilty of the very thing you dislike - categorizing someone them before you even get on the dance floor.  All this discussion about labels sounds as if people are trying to be too politically correct instead of saying it is what it is.


> > As for my personal style, my base is milonguero. 
> Though I dance all of the others pretty well, I recognize my limitations,
> physical and otherwise.
> 
> OK - so you dance milonguero, plus "all of the others." And that would  be called "dancing a style."
> 
> Next time someone asks me what style I dance, that will be
> my answer  
> too: "all of the styles."

You can answer your questions however you want, but you missed my point.  The energy I consider milonguero is what always stays with me the most.  It's what I feel most at home with both as a leader and a follower.  I know from studying women who are much more nuevo or more salon than I am that they have a different energy than I do.  To the average tango dancer who isn't looking for an in-depth analysis, I would also say "all of the styles", but since you seemed interested and capable of understanding a more sophisticated answer (my bad? ;)  I answered as I did.
    

Good tangos and styling to all,
Trini de Pittsburgh