[Tango-L] Tango the Religion

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 4:59 PM, David Thorn <thorn-inside at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I too have puzzled over this religious fervor.  If one looks for example at Lindy Hop, another
> street dance with no ruling body, it passed through the "style wars" (Savoy vs. Hollywood vs. West
> Coast Swing vs. ..) in a matter of several years.


A 'milonga' is a place or event where tango social dancing occurs. The
origin of the tango and the milonga are in Buenos Aires. The terms
derive their meaning from the culture of their origin. Within the
milongas of Buenos Aires there is a form of tango typically called
'tango de salon', which has some variations, but also has
characteristics in common which differentiate it from other forms or
derivatives of tango de salon such as tango fantasia and nuevo. Common
characteristics of tango de salon are a close embrace, observing the a
line-of-dance, and keeping feet close to the floor. Within Buenos
Aires milongas, a particular kind of music is played for dancing
tango, which consists of almost entirely recorded tango music from
approximately 1930-1955 from about a dozen different tango orchestras.

Those outside Argentina who accurately follow the tango cultural
traditions of manner of dancing and music played at milongas are not
religious zealots. They are just people who are trying to duplicate as
best as is possible in a foreign country the cultural traditions of an
Argentine dance they love. We would like to have a place to dance
tango where we can have an environment of dancing to classic tango
music and codes of behavior where people do not create navigational
hazards on the floor.

Why are we who try to maintain the cultural traditions of tango so
outraged at times?

There may be different reasons for different people, but there are
some common causes of our frustration.

Probably the greatest source of frustration is the inability to
replicate the atmosphere of a Buenos Aires milonga because people who
come to milongas do not respect the line of dance and create other
navigational hazards. Some would say that it is not nuevo or fantasia
that creates navigational hazards, it is people who create hazards.
While this is true to some degree, it reminds me of the argument that
'guns do not kill people; people kill people', so don't outlaw guns. I
guess one could then argue that if nuevo were not widely available to
the tango dancing public, then only outlaws would have nuevo, but I
regret to say the analogy doesn't work. On the other hand, if you take
the tools of nuevo and fantasia away from a tango dancer, you greatly
decrease the threats of collision and near collision on the milonga
dance floor.

Another objection we have to the nuevo-fantasia tango kidnapping
coalition, is that these exhibition forms of tango have hijacked the
terms 'tango' and 'milonga' to subvert for their own purposes. A place
where people dance nuevo or fantasia socially, sometimes even to
non-tango music, is not a 'milonga', Even calling it an 'alternative
milonga' is implying that it has characteristics of a milonga, which
is misleading. Advertising dance courses that teach nuevo-fantasia as
'Argentine tango' is also misleading, unless one specifically states
that these versions or derivatives of tango are designed for
exhibition and are not danced socially in the milongas of Buenos
Aires. To my knowledge, this information has never been provided.
Instead, either by silence or by direct statement, nuevo-fantasia is
represented as social tango.

Because nuevo-fantasia dancing fits the cultural expectations of North
American, European, and Asian dancers as to what constitutes social
dancing (i.e., memorization of sequences, audience directed
conspicuous movements), this transformation of tango, this 'tango for
export' usually receives a better reception in non-Argentine cultures
than does the Tango de Salon of Buenos Aires. Thus, in most tango
communities outside Argentina, nuevo-fantasia is the predominant, if
not exclusive form of tango. As a result, in most 'milongas' outside
Argentina, Tango de Salon is rare and an hospitable environment for it
is not provided. Thus, there is rarely a tango social dancing venue
outside Argentina for which it is justifiable to call it a 'milonga',
yet pages upon pages of psuedo-milongas are advertised throughout the
northern hemisphere.

So, you can call us zealots or say we are intolerant and even
undemocratic or even 'tango fascists'; however, all we are trying to
do is dance Tango de Salon in a Milonga. How absurdly Argentine.

If the nuevo-fantasia coalition were truly democratic, it would
respect the rights of the minority. If it were interested in truth in
advertising, it would refrain from advertising its instruction as
'Argentine tango' and its social dancing events as 'milongas'.

Ron