[Tango-L] Styles and change of direction

[Sergio Vandekier]

Jack says :  "Ramiro Gigliotti do a 'change of direction' at 0.23 of the original video and they also do one at 1.07 of the second video you posted. I wasn't really sure if this is part of traditional Salon Tango or not."
 
 
Hi Jack,  I reviewed the two videos and what happens around those times (0.23 and 1.07)is what in traditional tango is called 
"a complete turn to the left", Ramiro is walking "outside" (to the left of the woman) and then does a left turn with a sacada of his right leg on her left.  
 
Those moves are typical of Traditional Tango as are changes of direction.  What happens in Nuevo Tango is, as Tom says, the profuse use of these moves (changes of direction) in every possible way, some of them had fallen into oblivion before, and were resucitated when re-studying all the possibilities of every move, as it is done in Nuevo Tango.
 
A style is not characterized by just a move, we have discussed the embrace, the walk, the placement of the foot on the floor, the position of the arms, the use or not of embellishments, the type of embellishments, the rhythm, the music, etc.
 
So even if a "change of direction" would have been typical of Nuevo, the use of two such moves would be irrelevant as to define the style.  The same way as a lion that a times says "Guau!" could not be called a dog. 
 
Changes of direction are present in Traditional Tango, when you do a front or a back ocho for instance.  
 
When the woman turns left (she is turning to her left which is my right) she crosses front and back with her right leg and opens (does a side step) with her left leg.  
 
 Any cross of her right leg  taken individually, isolated from her total turn could be called "a part of her left turn" . 
 
In any sequence when she is crossing front or back with her right leg, even if she is walking straight back, she is doing a left turn, if at any time during that sequence she crosses with her left leg this would be considered to be part of the opposite turn so she would have executed   "a change of direction". 
 
 As you can imagine this happens all the time in any style.
 
Summary: a turn may be or may not be a change of direction.  A lion is a lion even if at times he says Guau!
 
Best regards, Sergio
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