[Tango-L] More Nuevo bashing. Why??

[Tom Stermitz]

I think there are two or more definitions of nuevo tango.

(1) I learned from Gustavo, Fabian and Chicho back in the last  
century, and as far as I understand, they taught Argentine Tango. They  
developed a method for analyzing, learning and training in Argentine  
Tango. They tried steps on both sides, or reversed the leader's step  
to the follower, and examined what you had to change for things to  
work. Sometimes that meant compromising the embrace, or sometimes that  
meant dropping the embrace.

Of particular value to me from that training was the concept of axis,  
and maintaining a balance between the axis of the partners. I use this  
concept whether I'm dancing open or close, and it is immensely useful  
for diagnosis of technical flaws when learning new moves or teaching.

But, all those concepts are about learning traditional Argentine  
Tango, as well as the techniques which make it easy and make a wide  
variety of steps possible. If you watch Gustavo dance, his style of  
dancing appears very much in the school of traditional salon or salon/ 
fantasy tango. He has a knack for making an extremely difficult move  
appear super-easy.


(2) Now, if I understand correctly, some people these days  are using  
the term Nuevo Tango to mean a different style of tango, or tango  
danced to non-tango music, or tango danced without respect for the  
dance floor, or tango as a collection of "cool moves" (like the the  
mermaid move, where the leader picks up the follower and swings her  
legs around in a giant circle while she flips her feet like fins;  
Laugh away, I've seen it!)

To me, this second definition of Nuevo Tango isn't really about tango.  
I mean, at a practice or on stage dance to whatever music you want, or  
dance whatever style you want, or do whatever cool moves you want.  
It's a free world. There are no rules about what steps are legal or  
aren't. C


(3) A milonga is something different from stage or a practice floor. A  
milonga is a social setting in which there are certain rules and  
conventions. Mostly, these can be boiled down to: respecting the  
people around you, fitting into the social environment and energy of  
the crowd, listening and dancing to the music, taking care of your  
partner and using good floor-craft.

Or am I wrong? Are there actually people who advocate that you can do  
whatever you want at a milonga: running into people or racing around  
or zig-zagging between lanes?



On May 12, 2008, at 1:44 PM, David Thorn wrote:
> I may be a 60 something close embrace dancer, but I am almost  
> embarrassed
> by the curmudgeonly attitudes expressed by my fellow dancers.  I  
> remain totally
> unable to comprehend the animosity towards what is merely an  
> extension of
> traditional tango, and which is danced by many (including Andres &  
> his wife
> Meredith) to traditional tango music with beauty, grace, and  
> musicality.
>
> Is it jealousy?  Is it fear of change?  Is it bad tribal behavior?
> Evolutionary biology meets grouchy old people?  I'm clueless!
>
> Cheers,
>
> D. David Thorn