[Tango-L] Styles of Tango

[Brick Robbins]

I recently had the great pleasure of listening to a symposium at a
tango festival entitled "Many styles of authentic Argentine Tango."

The panel was composed of some great dancers from all over the world,
and the discussion was interesting and lively.

It was pointed out that each of the great Milongueros has his own
unique style, influenced by where he primarily dances:
-the space available
-the style of his peers
-the house orchestra (or more recently the DJ)

So even within BsAs, and among the old guard, styles vary greatly.

It was also pointed out that some of those great Milongueros dance
VERY differently when they travel than they do at home. When they have
the space, they use it. People famous for compact movement to rhythmic
music suddenly make large movements to dramatic music, and they do it
well.

I came away with this  major point:

It is all "good tango" as long as you:
1)respect yourself
2)respect your partner
3)respect the music
4)respect the people around you

I think a lot of the resentment against "Nuevo" dancers is because,
when they violate the 4th rule they usually do it in "big way."  But
I've seen plenty of bad "traditional" dancers violate all 4.