[Tango-L] Nuevo y Viejo

[Laurence Moseley]

Ballroom dancing is highly codified. Frequently dancers learn and 
practice with "their" partner, doing "their" figures. Sometimes the 
lady learns more quickly than the man and effectively leads from in 
front. In my experience, for all but the most skilled, such people (I 
used to be one) find it relatively difficult to dance with a stranger.

Tango Argentino is quite different - it really is a lead-follow dance 
and it is improvisational (once you have done the hard work of 
mastering the basics). Indeed, when ballroom dancers come to their 
first AT class or workshop, it is surprising how often the lady will 
say "We've been dancing together for X years and today is the first 
time that he has led me".

Of course,Tango Argentino started as a social dance. The basic 
principle is that a competent dancer should be able to go to a Milonga, 
invite another competent dancer on to the floor, and dance comfortably 
with them - even if they have never met before. If that is true of 
Nuevo, then it is Tango Argentino.

If it false, Nuevo may be a dance form (like Ballroom, Latin, Scottish 
Country Dancing, Morris, Serbian, or Welsh - some of my earlier loves), 
but it is not Tango Argentino.

If we could accept such a distinction, then there is no problem - we 
could just say that we are doing different things, and stop arguing. 
That would also prevent us from misleading beginners into thinking that 
they can learn the skill and art in a few weeks.


Brazos

Laurie (Laurence)
5th March 2008


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Maybe we should adopt the convention used by Tango-A, that being, the 
first
characters in the subject line denote the area of the world where the 
announced
event is being held, e.g. NE, NW, EU, SA, etc. We could have ALT and TR 
for
alternative vs. traditional music, NV and MLNG for nuevo vs. 
milonguearo
dancing...

I agree the continual sniping is completely unproductive. Every few 
months a new
member joins the list and feels the need to share with the world what 
he
passionately believes is the true argentine tango in regards the 
embrace or the
music. Those of us who've been on the list more than a couple of years 
have
heard it all before, usually several times. OK, so that's what you and 
a bunch
of people believe. So, perhaps I and a bunch of other people believe
differently. Who cares? Hammering back and forth with repeated position
statements does not convince anyone to change their opinions.

So maybe I'm an idealist, but I'd like to see the Tango-L be more 
productive.
Just as the guidelines explicitly prohibit non-value-added posts like, 
"Me too,"
so perhaps there ought to be a guideline that prohibits contrary 
position
statements. If someone posts about a technique for dancing musically to 
hip hop,
then the only posts that should be made in response are those that 
directly and
productively apply to the question, and everyone inspired to post that 
the
subject is uninformed or not really tango, should just bite their 
tongue and
realize that in over 1000 members on the list, there will likely be at 
least a
few for whom the subject is indeed relevant and valid. If you disagree 
with
their beliefs, delete their posts.

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