[Tango-L] Gratuitous insults and "social" tango

[Carol Shepherd]

That last paragraph should say "maybe because tango dancers are much 
MORE likely to come into tango as their first dance rather than from 
other ballroom experience where these are more frequently taught."  Sorry--

Carol Shepherd wrote:
> To me "social dancing" is, simply, any partner dance that is not 
> choreographed and/or for competition.
> 
> There are those who understand "social dancing" to customarily imply 
> dancing around with multiple partners in one evening.  For some of 
> those, the intimacy of tango may be too much for more than the one 
> partner they regularly dance with.  And so they may say they do not like 
> to "social dance" or that social dancing to any style of tango is 
> inappropriate.
> 
> Many on here are inappropriately using the word "social" (as in "nuevo 
> is not a social dance") when they really should be using structural 
> terminology and dance etiquette concepts to make these statements, such 
> as traveling dance vs. slot or stationary dance, line of dance errors, 
> and bad floorcraft.  Examples of line of dance errors and bad floorcraft:
> 
> --crossing a traveling line of dance, blocking a traveling line of 
> dance, going too fast or slow or changing abruptly with no warning
> 
> (specifically in tango: stopping your traveling dance to execute several 
> measures of nuevo in place, thereby causing couples behind you to 
> collide like dominos.  Can we stop this PLEASE?)
> 
> --leading your partner into another couple without looking in your 
> 'blind spot,' failing to contract one's dance space to accommodate 
> others on a crowded floor
> 
> It is very common in a small dance floor for a traveling dance to not 
> coexist well with a stationary dance.  Most forms of nuevo are 
> predominantly stationary and milonguero is a traveling dance with a line 
> of dance.  The same structural conflict exists where some dancers are 
> doing quickstep and others are doing lindy hop.  AFAIK there is no good 
> way to deal with this on a very small floor other than the DJ announcing 
> a set of one or the other and trying to make everyone happy some of the 
> time.
> 
> The social convention in a larger dance floor that accommodates both 
> structures, is for the traveling dance to progress around the outside 
> and the stationary dance to be limited to the inside with a safe margin 
> between them.  (Doh!)
> 
> It never ceases to AMAZE me that the non-traveling dancers will plant 
> themselves directly in the line of dance.  They just haven't been told 
> how to behave.
> 
> Any dance is a 'social' dance if the dancers are aware of and courteous 
> to others and obey basic dance etiquette rules.  And any dancer is 
> 'anti-social' in being unaware by selfishly ignoring other dancers and 
> their needs.
> 
> Sorry folks, but it's my experience that tango dancers on average know 
> the least of all dancers in every style I do about standard dance 
> etiquette and floorcraft.  Maybe because tango dancers are much less 
> likely to come into tango as their first dance rather than from other 
> ballroom experience where these are more frequently taught.  But I also 
> think that floorcraft and etiquette are rarely taught in damce.  I 
> myself cannot recall any tango class where the basic concepts of 
> floorcraft and etiquette were presented and practiced.  (As opposed to 
> practicing the structural characteristics such as the 'chairs in the 
> center' line-of-dance type of exercise.)
> 
> 
> David Thorn wrote:
>>>> Which I suspect is why many people enjoy Nuevo. No need
>>>> to worry about that pesky walk :-)
>>
>>
>> I know that there is a smiley face at the end of this statement, but 
>> this nevertheless seems to me
>> a rather gratuitously insulting remark, creating more heat than light, 
>> and perhaps reflecting significant
>> ignorance on the part of the author.  I love the pesky walk in close 
>> embrace.  I love the joy of the open, more
>> intellectual connection that exists in Nuevo.  What is the point of 
>> insulting the Nuevo dancers?
>>
>> And while I'm bitching, I often fail to understand the use of the word 
>> "social" in the context of Tango.  To me, social
>> dance is simply that which can be danced socially.  Much of what comes 
>> under attack here as "not social" can be
>> easily danced in a social environment IF there is room on the dance 
>> floor, and IF the lead is good, and IF the follow
>> has the requisite skill and fitness.  But lack of any of these doesn't 
>> make the style "not social", it simply means that
>> the floor is too crowded or that the lead or follow isn't up to his / 
>> her job.
>>
>>
>> Cheers, David
>>
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-- 
Carol Ruth Shepherd
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Ann Arbor MI USA
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