[Tango-L] Milonga - inspiration for the weekend

[Joe Grohens]

Mario wrote this:
> Here's my point..simple and clear. Dancing slo tango is often not  
> 'dancing' Often, it is posing and doing mechanical movements.  
> Sometimes, these poses and mechanics can be done relatively close to  
> the same speed of the music..it can appear to be dancing. Because  
> these mechanicions don't have a basis in 'dancing' but rather in  
> engineering, they are very difficult to master. The ease and sense  
> of the 'dance' (relationship of music to body movement) just isn't  
> involved. Slo tango becomes difficult and a lucrative business. Now,  
> the Milonga (song) is harder to engineer...it's more difficult to  
> obscure and make difficult.  However, it is easy to dance..if  
> someone can dance, that is. So, what is this phenomena of a Tango  
> teacher who cannot dance the Milonga?? I'm saying that I have met  
> various 'teachers' who either refuse to dance it or dance it in a  
> spastic way. 'Spastic' = non-joyous, stiff. Dancing is releasing and  
> flowing..trusting something more profound than 'thinking' .. One can  
> 'dance' the slo tango without really dancing. The Milonga is much  
> harder to fake.. ..and doesn't lend itself well to being engineered.  
> Igor can dance....that's all...his steps may not be officially  
> approved nor have the good tango teaching seal of approval but it is  
> dancing..it flows and it's joyous. ..not mechanical not stiff.  
> that's all folks

Mario,

Congratulations on evolving (in about two months) from a beginner with  
a million questions into an aficionado with the ability to make  
sweeping generalizations from extremely small samples, sometimes from  
one data point. You are the proof that tango-l and youtube can make  
someone into a tango expert in a very short time.

About milonga. Not everyone likes to dance milonga or dances it well.  
Many tango dancers do not dance milonga much. Many dancers who really  
like milonga do not dance tango as much as they dance milonga. They  
are two different dances.

I tend to agree with you that posing and doing mechanical movements is  
not dancing. In my very limited experience of tango, I have not seen  
any correlation between dancing in such a posing way and slow tango  
music. I just offer this as a counter-example. I'm suppose you could  
be right, but I doubt it and would encourage you to re-examine your  
research findings.

In the U.S. I have (again, in my very limited experience) seen many  
joyous flowing dancers release themselves into milonga and dance it  
very badly, racing around the room, bouncing up and down, being wild  
and having a great time. They are not mechanical or stiff. But they  
are beginners.

Joe Grohens
Also a beginner in tango