[Tango-L] Tango Diversity under one big tent: Nuevo & milonguero happy together?

[melvillefox@aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith <keith at tangohk.com>

On Wed May 14 12:07 , melvillefox at aol.com sent:

>Nuevo just hangs around tango to prey off its base. "There's a 
milonga.
>Let's invade it and show off. We can attract some tango students. >

Sorry Mel, but you sound a little paranoid there :-). Are you really so
insecure with your style of tango that you think nuevo dancers will
come and attract students away?

Why don't you see it as an opportunity to attract the nuevo dancers
to your style of tango?

Keith, HK

-------------------------------------------------

Keith,

You missed the point. Nuevo isn't social tango. It doesn't belong at a 
milonga. Newcomers to tango don't understand that. Many of them come to 
tango because of what they've seen on 'Dancing with the Stars', which 
isn't real tango either, but nuevo looks like 'Dancing with the Stars' 
more than social tango does.

One could also argue that we shouldn't care if people play electronic 
music passed off as tango at milongas. This isn't tango music either, 
but it connects with newcomers because it is similar to music they are 
familiar with.

Newcomers don't know what tango is and what it isn't. It takes time to 
understand what tango is as a dance ans a type of music. Giving free 
reign to nuevo dancers and electronic music sends the message that 
"This is tango. it is prefectly OK". Sitting by silently and letting 
this happen makes you a party to this misrepresentation of tango. No 
wonder there is so much of the false product circulating out there in 
the so-called 'tango world'.

Mel