[Tango-L] Tergiversar = to distort, twist

Alexis Cousein al at sgi.com
Thu Sep 25 08:45:28 EDT 2008


David Thorn wrote:
> Sergio wrote:
>>> Traditional Argentine tango requires that the man leads and the woman follows, 
 >>> period, there are not alternatives with respect to this.

Except that there's a world of subtle realities that influences what these words mean.

I'd like to point out that I'm not saying that a follower *must* influence absolutely
every aspect of the dance -- she *can* just go with the flow. I just want to point out
that if she exerts an influence that is not necessarily incorrect or Not Argentine Tango.

But then, I haven't been known to be a great champion of orthodoxy.

As ever, the orthodoxy seems to be defended *in bitter earnest* especially
by non-porteños; porteños, even though they have a knack at defending their
opinion vigorously, in their heart of hearts tend to be more lenient --
if they have blinders on (to make a point during conversation
over a mate), at least they're conscious they're choosing to put them on.
After all, *they* come from BsAs, so they don't have to *think* like the
Spanish Inquisition just to be more Argentine than a Porteño, they can
just pretend to ;).

By the way, I'm not describing Triny. She's not a self-appointed crusader,
but someone genuinely worried that placing too much emphasis on "conversation"
may make followers into bad followers and leaders into wusses, and her posts
and responses *do* offer the necessary nuance to distill exactly what she means,
and she does try to understand exactly what others mean. Our different perceptions
are coloured by the pet peeves we have and probable differences in our respective
dancing communities (and yes, our style of dancing, evolved through our own
preferences).

  I don't dance like you prescribe, and hence I don't dance Argentine Tango.

...as he defines it.




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