[Tango-L] What Argentine Tango is, and what it is not

[Huck Kennedy]

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 7:28 PM, Keith <keith at tangohk.com> wrote:
>  On Wed Mar 12  1:48 , Floyd Baker  sent:
>
> >But.., the way I handle the other side of it.., is that I say I Tango.
> >If someone asks what kind, I say what do you mean.
> >When they say American or Ballroom?  I shudder a little and act like
> >they have just insulted me.
> >
> Floyd,
>
> Has it ocurred to you that the person asking might actually dance American
> or Ballroom Tango and might actually love it.

     Many years ago, I loved Almaden jug wine.  Thank God people who
knew of much better wines came along and made fun of my wine, instead
of allowing me to go on wallowing in my ignorance out of "kindness."

> And you've just insulted THEIR
> dance. It's precisely this type of elitist attitude that causes many dancers
> from other genres to dislike Argentine Tango and/or AT dancers. Surely, we
> can extol the many virtues of Tango without denigrating other dances and
> other dancers.

     Why yes, we could, but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun, now
would it.   :-)

     By the way, I've danced quite a bit of both American and
International Standard tango (since I get free classes at the
university where I work), and it is indeed fun in a campy,
put-a-lampshade-on-your-head sort of way (think Arnold Schwarzenegger
and Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies).  They're both woefully inadequate
as social dances, however, unless your idea of a social dance is six
couples spread out on a huge floor.  And neither has the depth and
variety of emotions that AT has--unless that silly one-mood-fits-all
military music they dance to floats your boat.

Huck