[Tango-L] Practica X and generation Y

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 11:00 AM, Mario <sopelote at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> How will Tango Nuevo affect the dance in the coming generations?
>

Some said to me once "Tango is wasted on the young. They don't
understand it. That's why they dance nuevo."

While that may be an over-generalization, it does point out something
I've observed. You find few people over 40 dancing nuevo. Why is this?
Some of it is due to physical limitations. Nuevo is a dance exploring
movements, often rapid, sometimes at angles uncomfortable for aging
bodies. This isn't a statement about Darwinian fitness, i.e., that
nuevo will survive because it is the dance of the fit; no, in contrast
aging is inevitable and the young, if they want to continue to dance,
will switch to tango.

However, there is something more in this statement about
'understanding tango'. Tango involves a close physical connection
between man and woman. In the Midwest US at least, I have found that
young dancers are more squeamish about close physical contact than are
older dancers. It may be the result of some perception of political
correctness, but it is definitely also about your level of comfort
with your own body. Young people, even with fit figures. may not be
comfortable with close physical contact with the opposite sex. Older
people, often showing the need for rather than results of a regular
workout at the gym, are more comfortable with their bodies. It's part
of maturity, accepting who you are and not worrying about what others
think about it.

But it's more than that. Tango elicits an emotional response. The
sadness and sometimes romanticism it evokes speaks of life experience.
The more times you've been around the block, the more you can connect
with the emotions evoked by tango. Tango music speaks to you in ways
no other music does. The tango dance allows you to connect with the
emotions evoked by the music. You share it with someone else whom your
trust. There's an emotional connection that may go with the physical
connection. Not everyone is comfortable with that. They feel
vulnerable with that emotion exposed.

In contrast, nuevo is exciting. It involves using your energy and
expressing it in movement. Young people have more energy, in addition
to greater flexibility of movement. So nuevo appeals to young people.

>  One factor that is immediately apparent is that whatever 'new' in terms of
>  steps/sequences that we see, will most probably be the result of 'Nuevo'.
>  I am thinking that even the close embrace apilado approach will soon be
>  letting in some 'fresh' step combos from this approach..(if not already)

Because of what I've said above, nuevo won't change tango. If tango
changes, it will be because there is evolution within its existing
framework,defined in part or even mostly by the culture associated
with tango. If you remove the classic tango music, the characteristics
of the embrace, and the emphasis on connection with partner and music,
it could be considered fundamentally different enough so as to no
longer be tango, despite what people may call it.

On the other hand nuevo, as it already has in being based on tango,
will draw from tango and may itself evolve. The inclusion of an
apilado embrace in nuevo may reflect the transmission of
characteristics of tango culture into nuevo. In recent years there has
been movement towards marketing of 'nuevo milonguero' as an evolution
of tango but think about it this way. Consider nuevo a noun that
describes a dance form and milonguero as an adjective and you have the
standard Spanish syntax of noun followed by adjective, meaning that
'milonguero' is modifying 'nuevo' not vice versa.

Nuevo is new (!!!) and so is still defining itself. It will continue
to change and may or may not survive. My guess is that in 15-20 years
the tango roots of nuevo will be less apparent than today. And most of
today's practitioners of nuevo will be dancing tango.

Ron