[Tango-L] No need to take sides

[Sergio Vandekier]

I do not think that any style is superior or inferior, I dance milonguero most of the time.  This is my opinion on this subject.

1 - Lois says :  "Of course, in the highly competitive world of tango dance instruction, the flashy Nuevo canoften be an easier sell. But how many times does the teacher explain how to use the move inline of dance?"

Dear Lois, most people know by now that in A. Tango it is essential   to walk around the floor with ease.  The tango walk is probably one of the first things the tango instructor teaches.   Now if you have some teachers that "only" teach figures and do not teach how to navigate the floor, ***blame the teacher, do not blame the tango style***

2 - she adds : " 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."

The "show off" is a problem of the dancer, *** do not blame the tango style...naturally the ofenders use open embrace... then it is very difficult to show off if you only dance Milonguero style.


3 -  and " So we are preaching here to the choir. The people who we should be reaching are the newdancers, who are not necessarily exposed to close embrace, and who are learning a lot ofpatterns."  "The issue is new students who are learning only open, which creates problems. These couplescan't accommodate smaller spaces - they don't know how."

Again a problem with being exposed to the teachings of a bad instructor. Not a problem of the style.

4 -  "Also, I believe learningopen first leaves dancers with to so many bad habits - arm leading, bad posture, looking atthe floor, etc. Those are harder to do in close. A dancer who can do close embrace firstcan 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."

"Bad habits" as you call them are result of faulty instruction, not of learning open embrace dancing.

My experience as a student and as a teacher is exactly the opposite to yours: I learned Traditional Tango (Villa Urquiza) first.  The type of tango that it is danced by most well known tango instructors (Osvaldo and Miguel Zotto, Mingo Pugliese, Todaro, Bravo, Carlos Copello, Diego Di Falco, Nito y Elba, Carlos Copes, etc, etc) . 

Traditional Tango has a close embrace and an open embrace, the greatest number of tango skills, all the tango embellishments and figures,which can be utilized both for social and for stage dancing. It also has the greatest number of leading possibilities, including what you call "bad habits" such as leading with arms and hands.  When you lead complex moves you frequently use hands, or arms, or thighs, or legs, of feet.

So to go from this style to Milonguero is very easy.  On the other hand Milonguero has a very limited number of choreographic moves ( a few walking steps,
back ochos, ocho milonguero, a couple of easy turns, and maybe a sacada) , It  only uses close embrace, leads only with the torso.

It is good for social dancing in crowded milongas.  Not very good for exhibitions. 

So to go from this style to traditional tango is most of the time impossible. Once you learned milonguero first, you are stuck, you will dance milonguero for the rest of your life.

Now the most interesting thing is : Those that dance Traditional tango, Nuevo, canyengue, never criticize anyone else. 

Those that dance all the styles never criticize anyone but...

The ones that dance close embrace all the time, milonguero, have multiple problems expressed in many forms.   

IMO the problem is caused by poor teaching, showing off, and dancing out of place.

If you dance Traditional tango, Nuevo or Canyengue, go and dance in the proper milonga, or the proper area of a milonga, or at the proper time, otherwise dance like everyone else .  If you are not contented with dancing that way, sit down, enjoy the ambience and wait for later to have more room to dance your style.

Do not humiliate the other dancers showing off, learn how to navigate the floor.

Un abrazo, Sergio


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