[Tango-L] Tango the Religion

[larrynla@juno.com]

Why does the Argentine tango spawn such passionate controversies?  
Heel versus toe.  Close versus elastic embrace.  Nuevo versus 
traditional.  And dozens of other controversies.

All dance genres spawn passionate differences.  I've seen them in 
swing, ballroom, and Latin dances.  But tango's debates seem even 
hotter than the others.  Why?

Part of it comes from the fact that tango is a folkdance and so 
has no official organization that specifies exactly what is and 
is not correct.  However, this does not guarantee a strict 
definition; tradition can supply that as well as academies.  An 
example of such strictness is the rumba-like Cuban danzon, which 
begins with a (usually) 16-measure stroll-around then continues 
in a specific form.

Another reason is the basic rhythm, a steady medium-tempo walking 
pace, and the matching basic step, a simple walk.  These two 
traits have many consequences, some obvious and some quite 
subtle.

One important one is that beginning to dance tango is very easy 
and quick.  Just embrace your partner and walk around the room to 
the music.  That is it.  No books or videos or teachers needed.  
This makes the tango the perfect 15- to 30-minute ice-breaker at 
dance parties, needing a teacher only long enough to guide party-
goers through the ice-breaker.

Another consequence of this simplicity, ironically, is that it 
leads to tango being the most challenging of all the social 
dances.  Take just rhythm, for instance.  All of us who can walk 
learn early to change rhythms in the middle of a walk.  We may 
take two or several quick steps to catch up to companions who 
have outpaced us.  We may do those steps in double-, triple-, or 
even greater time to our friends' slow steps.  So too in tango.

Which leads to other complexities.  In tango we (almost) never 
abandon the embrace.  If the leader does quick steps, he has to 
decide whether he wants his partner to keep time with him or keep 
to the basic rhythm.  If the first choice, he must firm up his 
embrace so that she will know to match him.  If the second, he 
must loosen his embrace just enough so she will know to stay with 
the default rhythm.  But though his embrace becomes looser it 
must not cross the boundary into sloppy, a distinction difficult 
to judge and harder to realize.

Another aspect of tango is the complexity of the music.  Many 
tango beginners think of "the king of rhythm" Juan D'Arienzo as 
leading his orchestra with an unvarying rhythm and a heavy beat.  
Yet he was one of the first who experimented with changing tempos 
within a piece of music.

Some of the most popular tango orchestras from the Golden Age of 
Tango might switch which instruments supplied the rhythm and the 
melody lines, using the "soprano" instruments to express the 
rhythm and bass instruments for the melody.  Or they might soften 
the rhythm instruments enough where dancers had to infer the 
beats of the rhythm rather than hear them.  Or they might have 
several layers of instruments, not just the usual ones: rhythm, 
melody, and lyrics (which could be "sung" by instruments as well 
as by the voice).

As the Golden Age progressed and music-makers and audiences grew 
more sophisticated tango music increasingly graduated from 
rhythmic to rhapsodic (less formal) music.  This allows dancers 
many ways to interpret the music differently, suitable to the 
mood and the skill of one's partners and the reason for the dance 
such as pleasure, celebration, or remembrance of someone or 
something lost.

Another irony of tango is that sophisticated dancers may return 
again and again to the utter basics of the dance (and the music), 
each time better appreciating the subtleties underlying the 
simple.  Such a dancer was famed milonguero Puppy Castello, who 
is supposed to have said "Figures are easy; walking is hard."

Another important facet of tango is that it has a long history of 
experimentation.  Current dancers think of "tango nuevo" as 
unusual, yet it is only the latest wave of continuous evolution 
pushed by the more creative milongueros and their partners.
______________________________________________________
If tango continuously evolves why so many hotly argued 
controversies?  The very nature of tango invites improvisation in 
each dance, where the same couple might dance to the same piece 
of recorded music in the same evening in very different ways.  
This nature also invites each dancer over the years to create 
their own style (and sometimes styles), tailoring the style(s) to 
their own desires and abilities.

Because they created it, and their style coincides so closely to 
their unique soul, each dancer identifies their style with 
themselves with religious intensity.  Every time someone suggests 
they change some aspect of their style it seems as if they are 
being attacked.  In seeming self-preservation they often counter-
attack.  Sometimes their return attack is very sophisticated.  
Other times they resort to the old, old argument-to-authority – 
"This is the way they do it in Argentina!"

And over time the verbal violence escalates, widening the gaps 
between people who in their hearts may be very much the same.


Larry de Los Angeles
http://shapechangers.wordpress.com



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