[Tango-L] Video and Criticism

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

Hola Sergio,

Sean again. I appreciate the efforts you have made for more than a decade to preserve the civility of this list, and I have a great deal of respect for the opinions you express here. But I must respectfully disagree with you regarding the criticism of videos presented to the list. 

Often, videos are presented as "educational" tools. In that case, they certainly should be critiqued in the same way we all judge any other pedagogical discourse.

At best, the videos are cited as examples supporting a particular position. In that case, they should certainly be critically examined to determine if they actually apply to the case at hand. We've seen that done remarkably well by both sides in the "candombera, canyenguera" thread.

A third possibility is that the videos are simply offered as entertainment, in which case someone ought to review their entertainment value before the rest of us waste bandwidth downloading them.

I do agree that that would be rude to merely criticize someone's dancing in response to a video clip. The problem is that valuable criticism of a video will undoubtedly also be perceived as a personal attack on the author's dancing. That is the unavoidable risk of posting a video to the list. But it is no greater risk than posting any other form of expression to the list.

In my opinion, Huck made a fair criticism of the video which in fact resulted in an interesting and informative follow up discussion. If it progresses, that discussion might even change some people's opinions about the matter. But the intelligent responses were somewhat delayed; the initial response was an ad homenin attack on Huck's dancing. I made a humorous response to the ad homenin attack. (I know, some people are offended by my humor, and a lot of people don't get it at all. I post to entertain a small but loyal fan club.) (Hi guys!) Of course, I (and my innocent partner Trini) were also subjected to ad homenin attacks, but hey, we laugh in the face of adversity. We can take it because girls like to dance with me almost as much as boys like to dance with her. And in the end, the only relevant judges of a social dancer are the partners that accept or decline to dance with him or her. 

Sean


PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society  Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh’s most popular social dance!  http://patangos.home.comcast.net/