[Tango-L] Popularity of Milonga (the dance)

[meaning of life]

my 1 cent contribution to the tango vs. milonga question.

both my wife and i are atheletic. my wife is also a profesional dance instructor (not tango). tango allows us to express ourselves with big, strong moves, and to combine our other dance and movement forms (martial arts) with tango. we can move from open to closed embraces, and express ourselves using the various tango "basics", and some moves "borrowed" from other dances including milonga. for us tango is "more fun" because we can see each other and "play", of course, we can "feel" each other in both tango and milonga, but only tango lets us see each other move. and i gotta say, i love to see a beautiful dancer move.

over the time we have been dancing, we have brought lots of our friends to tango events. maybe it is just the freaks that we hang out with, but they all seem to like the big move open embrace dancing, because it is "more dramatic", "more emotional" and "more fun".

finally, because often the girls with us are athletic and experienced dancers (not tango), there is "some buzz" that surrounds them with the leader crowd. almost 100% of them have been run off, by the close embrace dancers who they have called "merv the perv", "stinky old men", and the most recent "PDD" (poopy diaper dancing). these girls tend to love to dance tango with their own "flairs", which usually includes other latin dances, exotic dance, and ballet. i am always amazed at their ability to move, and their willingness to "dance", so it seems that it is the "confining" movements of milonga that they don't like. now whether the dance they end up doing is "formal tango" i doubt it, but it is fun, beautiful, energetic, and resembles tango ALOT.

the bottom line (as i see it). many people like the big movements that let them "dance". they like to see and share visual cues and emotions with the person that they are dancing with. men (the pigs that they are) love to see beautiful women move beautifully. for some people the dance is more about self expression, movement and intimacy, and tango seems to offer more of these things. milonga offers close physical contact, but not the exchange of emotion that a more open tango does (as i see it).

david


The Tangonista
Sponsered by P.E.T.A. (People Expressing Tango Attitude)
NOTICE - no cats were injured in the making of our music
_________________________________________________________________
Make distant family not so distant with Windows Vista® + Windows Live™.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/digitallife/keepintouch.mspx?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_CPC_VideoChat_distantfamily_012008