[Tango-L] Breaking the 'paso basico.'

[Thorsten Zörner]

Hi Keith, hi all,

before I swallow this bait, that Keith has put out for me...

On 13.02.08, at 19:14, Keith wrote:
> Btw, my friends in England tell me that German tango is the best in  
> Europe. True?


... I'd like to share a theory about the origin of the paso basico,
that I heard once - but never again.
Maybe someone can elaborate on the validity of it, refute it
or - if in the walking/no paso basico camp - telling it to your  
students and have a good laugh together.

Here she goes:
The back step and the first four steps in general are very useful to  
get onto the dance floor:
Consider having asked a lady at the edge of the dance floor.
You are on the dance floor already facing her - she is still off the  
dance floor facing you.
If you look to your right, you see the other couples coming towards  
you in the line of dance.
You find your spot in the ronda and step back - preferably with angle  
of 90° -
step left and forward and you are good to go.

The last dance of the tanda you finish in style by leading the lady  
into a cross.
You lead the lady forward and right, while turning 90° to the right,
simply back to the fringe of the dance floor. Thanks for the dances...

Someone must have taken these two very useful and totally innocent  
maneuvers the wrong way
and short-circuit them. Tough luck for generations of tango students!

Question: Story (_) right or (_) wrong?


Now the bait:
Of course I cannot say "yes" on your question, because it depends so  
much on
the city and even in the same city - consider a huge city like Berlin  
- you'll
find everything of densely interconnected to totally isolated,
up to almost all dance at professional level and down to right out  
false labeled tango scenes.

Then I cannot say totally "no", because there is some great tango in  
Germany
AND IT COULD BE SO MUCH BETTER IF FIRSTLY MORE TEACHERS, THEN MORE  
HOSTS AND FINALLY MORE DANCERS
WOULD START APPRECIATING GOOD TRADITIONAL TANGO MUSIC!!! Habt Ihr mich  
alle gehört??!?

Right, there is great tango in Germany, but also is in France - I  
count the french crowds I DJed for as the most appreciative and  
thankful of all, Belgium - when I started, I pilgrimaged to Brussels a  
lot,
Norway, I had the most amazing dances during my stay in Bs As in  
December 2006 with a woman from Norway,
The Netherlands, where I had my tango upbringing with the paso basico  
and
where at the same time I got many irreverent ideas about learning  
tango - so I learned not to dance it.

I tell you something, Keith - and I kid you not, he did say that:
Good old Javier Rodrigues told it to me on my balcony, that he finds  
people in Asia dance tango the best...
outside Bs As of course. Well, he has certainly seen a lot of dancers  
all over the world
and he has his set of ideals in tango. So has every single one of us.

Details of my ideals in tango are permanently changing, which keeps  
tango interesting for me.
Suddenly there appears some tiny detail in tango, that I have never  
seen before, known before,
never understood or never found important, but now becomes a new  
cornerstone of my private ideal tango...
And suddenly "the best tango" is even more relative than before...

Cheers,
Thorsten.


http://www.TangoDuesseldorf.de/ --> Learning tango with a smile.







On 13.02.08, at 19:14, Keith wrote:

> Hi Thorsten,
>
> Nice to hear from a European, I was feeling lonely here :-).
>
> I agree with what you say. Everything is based on our personal  
> experience,
> which, of course, is limited. And that's why I really want to hear  
> what other
> people experience and why they think the way they do.
>
> Btw, my friends in England tell me that German tango is the best in  
> Europe.
> True?
>
> Keith, HK
>
>
> On Thu Feb 14  2:01 , Thorsten Zörner  sent:
>
>> Hi Keith, how're you doing?
>>
>> Allow me to suggest a subtle rewording of two sentences in your
>> previous e-mail.
>
>
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