[Tango-L] The Truth About Tango Nuevo

[larrynla@juno.com]

Ron of Central Illinois writes --------> Nuevo, although having 
historical roots in tango and often danced to tango music (often not) 
is a different dance from tango. Typically the feet are not maintained 
on the floor and some movements do not follow the line of dance and 
many challenge the personal space of others on the dance floor.

Uh, no.  Failing to follow the line of dance except in emergencies and 
imposing on other peoples space isn't nuevo anything.  It's being a 
selfish, idiotic ass-hole.

As for nuevo tango being about not keeping your feet on the floor, 
traditional tango has had elevados of many kinds since at least the 
1920s when El Cachafaz according to some sources invented the boleo.  
Toe taps (golpes and golpecitos) have also been around a long time.  
Kicks of various kinds, such as amagues, also have a long history.  
Caricias (usually the woman caressing the man's leg or foot) are at 
least 25 years old.  In show tango the caricia is very exaggerated, but 
tiny ones are easily done in social dance.

Rod McRae writes --------> after the first couple danced a Tango in 
Argentina, everyone who followed and added or changed the way a step 
was done should technically be called "Nuevo"

Exactly right, but there's no technically about it.  Nuevo simply means 
new.  As I said in an earlier post there's always some new "nuevo."

What some label "nuevo" arose from what Gustavo Naveira and Fabian 
Salas called their Tango Study Group in the 1990s. They were concerned 
that some of the techniques of milongueros was dying with them.  So 
they came up with a way of describing these peoples figures in the most 
basic way possible, hoping to write the milonguero's techniques down 
and so preserve them.

Here's a brief summary.  Walking steps use only one foot at a time, and 
there are limited ways to take a step.  With your right foot you can 
step forward or back, to the side, or to the side crossing the free 
left foot either in front or back of your right foot.  That's five 
steps, plus five more for the opposite foot.  This is true for someone 
walking alone.

Salas and Naveira also describe relation between two people dancing 
together.  I've always thought the words they used for this were 
unclear, and I'm not sure that the relations they focus on are 
important.  I won't even bother trying to describe them.

Salas and Naveira (who have never labeled their dancing as nuevo) 
aren't the only tango dancers to try to break tango figures down into 
the most basic parts.  In fact, I'd bet that a lot of the people in 
this forum have done so.  I certainly have.

Once you analyze figures you begin to see that you can make new figures 
out of the parts.  One way is to vary old figures.  Ochos, for 
instance, are made of two steps which includes 180-degree pivots.  Why 
not try pivots of less than that?  These are called under-turned ochos 
or zig-zags.  Or three-quarter-turn (270-degree) pivots or full-turn 
(360-degree) pivots.  These are sometimes called over-turned ochos.

And you can make new figures by combining parts from two different 
figures.  Such as half of a forward ocho with half of a backward ocho.
 
Tango seems always to have been more concerned with improvisation than 
with robotic duplication of "frozen in stone" figures invented by 
someone else long ago.  Thus we will always have nuevo movements.

Unless, that is, we give in to the self-appointed tango police trying 
to make the rest of us conform to THEIR idea of tango.


Larry de Los Angeles ( novelette "Lady Death" add to 
http://ShapechangerTales.com )


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