[Tango-L] No need to take sides

[Lois Donnay]

Wait a minute - this list is open to lots of opinions, isn't it? But more than than, isn't
it about making tango better?

I don't think that anyone truly minds open dancing done well and not disturbing others.
The issue is new students who are learning only open, which  creates problems. These 
couples
can't accommodate smaller spaces - they don't know how. Also, I believe learning
open first leaves dancers with to so many bad habits - arm leading, bad posture, looking at
the floor, etc. Those are harder to do in close. A dancer who can do close embrace first
can move easily into open. A dancer who spends too much time in open has to relearn close -
it's a different dance to them. These are my experiences as a teacher, anyway. When a
student comes to me who has not done close before, we have to start over (not pleasant news
to the student). When a student who has primarily done close wants to do open, it's any
easy transition.

And about dancing to show off - have you never danced with a partner who was only 
interested in how he/she looked? I dislike that, and hear lots of others do too.Were you 
doing open or closed? More likely open - which adds to our prejudice.

So we are preaching here to the choir. The people who we should be reaching are the new
dancers, who are not necessarily exposed to close embrace, and who are learning a lot of
patterns. I believe that this threatens to turn Argentine tango into just another
ballroom-type dance. But they are likely not reading  this list.

Of course, in the highly competitive world of tango dance instruction, the flashy Nuevo can
often be an easier sell. But how many times does the teacher explain how to use the move in
line of dance?

Loisa Donnay
Minneapolis


>
> David wrote:
>
>                   "The problem I have is with the bigoted and hateful views that I
> occasionally feel are expressed by one stylistic crowd or the other."
>
> I entirely agree with you that the problem comes with the bigoted and hateful views ....
>
> Over the years  I have noticed that the problem comes from "only" one stylistic crowd  :
> Those that only dance close embrace miolonguero style.
>
> I have never seen such notes coming from any of the other dancers.
>