[Tango-L] Nuevo Bashing - why?

[Ecsedy Áron]

Keith Elshaw wrote:
> "Maybe my friends Fabian, Gustavo and Chicho and some others would like to
> show some leadership to their blithe disciples"?
>
> Explain about respectfully dancing in the ronda and keeping to your own
> space and not bumping and kicking - and all those good things?
>
>   
Actually, they do that. I had some private lessons with Mariana Montes 
(partner of Sebastian Arce) and she was practically teaching me nothing 
else than how to dance fluently and still interesting keeping LOD and 
continuity in a path less than a chair's width, while keeping the kind 
of connection she requires.


David Thorn wrote:

"Although I would not attempt it my self, I have observed excellent and 
considerate nuevo dancers execute volcadas in no more space than I 
require for a puente. "

I cannot agree more. And also: there is a great mist in people's heads 
about the SPEED (or rather delta-v) these moves are executed. Most good 
nuevo dancers I saw (actually all Argentines in the street traffic, 
check them out) do not execute large acceleration moves (delta-v of 
their axis or mass) at a milonga, which is very typical of gringos 
(sorry, I am also a "gringo" - just trying to use a single word 
definition). Also, they do not move at speeds that are substantially 
larger than the speed of the "traffic".

The speed of many (stationary, or barely moving) moves are also 
different in their version. Among the younger generation of dancers in 
BsAs it is very typical to dance almost slow motion with only some 
rythmical steps here and there, but they definitely don't have the urge 
to march all the time.

Still about navigation: they tend to look where they move. Everyone is 
looking at the direction they move towards, and expects others to do the 
same. Obviously, this works very well, because it is impossible to bump 
into someone if you actually do not start a move before checking if you 
have space for it. Also, portenos are quite adept at moving forward in a 
crowd (check out the subte at Carlos Pellegrini): while there is little 
sense of organization (meaning: apparent chaos), they simply use 
available space on the street and on the dancefloor as well. Although it 
sounds weird that gringos don't do this, but most of them don't even 
understand what it means. On the street it means that they don't expect 
that only the other person makes evasive action just because he/she is 
"busy" travelling in a straight line, or holding a girl/boyfriend's 
hand. They look for the available space, separately and instictively. 
There is no preeminence of any behaviour, everyone is doing their best 
to achieve their own goals, which in this case is to move forward with 
the least resistance (actually Hungarians are truly bad at this, we are 
willing to put up a fight to protect an imagined "personal space" - very 
arrogant and also very irrational, the only thing you can get is bad 
nerves, enemies and wasted time). In BsAs, I never felt afraid that 
someone bumps into me even in a fully packed La Viruta...except during 
CITA, when large percentage of the people were gringos. Not that we 
don't dance well, but we are simply not used to navigating in this 
manner. This has NOTHING to do with being a nuevo or other tango dancer, 
or even being Argentine (Argentines from Mar del Plata also appeared to 
have problems with this).

Cheers,
Aron

-- 
Ecsedy Áron
***********
Aron ECSEDY

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