[Tango-L] The Fallacy of the Rare being Commonplace

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 10:36 AM, larrynla at juno.com <larrynla at juno.com> wrote:
> 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.
>

Porten~os have long known the difference between tango for social
dancing and tango for exhibition. The social customs of the milongas
are such that extending your movements into the space of other dancers
on the social dance floor is rude and, in excess, could lead to a
warning or in extreme cases, expulsion from a milonga.

Nuevo, by its very nature of exploring movement possibilities,
including extension of and even breaking of the embrace, reorientation
of body position such that even the rear of one dancer can face the
front of the partner (relish that image), the exploration of the space
in between the legs and around the body of the partner are not only
invasive of the space of other dancers on the floor, but they are
disruptive to fluid forward movement of the line-of-dance. As to some
remaining elements such as mini-volcadas and mini-colgadas that can be
executed within restricted space, the amusement park "whee!!"
component that disrupts shared balance is counter-conducive to a
stable and relaxed shared connection that is prized by social tango
dancers in Buenos Aires. I have not seen these elements used for
dancers in the milongas of Buenos Aires, but that and historical
accounts of questionable accuracy do not preclude their existence. On
the same grounds, one cannot dismiss reported sightings of the Loch
Ness Monster.

Keeping feet on the floor and within the space of you and your partner
is characteristic of the Tango de Salon danced in the milongas of
Buenos Aires. One can search for and occasionally find amagues and
rarely foot or leg touches, although this is neither characteristic of
most dancers nor of the repertoire of movements of dancers who use
them. To use adornments to excess characterizes one as dancing for the
audience rather than dancing for your partner and is frowned upon.
Excessive movement (the stuff people clap at during YouTube videos of
demos) is disruptive to partner connection.

There is a danger is reporting a sighting of something at a Buenos
Aires milonga (assuming it was even seen there as opposed to reports
of historical events) and then using that as a justification of social
dancing. I remember on one trip to Paris I saw a young couple in a
park with green-dyed hair. I could have reported that to someone back
in the US as 'I saw people (plural) in Paris with green hair", which
could have been reported by the listener to the next person as "People
in Paris have green hair", which could then be adopted by the "Green
Hair Group" as a justification for dyeing their hair green, i.e.,
"This is what people do in Paris".

A major problem with what is advertised as 'tango' outside Argentina
is that it is a Green Hair Phenomenon. Nuevo is danced in a handful of
practicas, with an over-representation of tourists relative to
porten~os compared to the 100+ milongas in Buenos Aires. So the
representation of nuevo as social Argentine tango, either implicitly
or explicitly, is a highly biased representation of the social tango
danced in the milonas of Buenos Aires and this is false, or at the
very least biased advertising. This portrayal of the rare as
commonplace is deceptive, yet it has captured the attention of dancers
outside Argentina to the degree that dancing at milongas outside
Argentina today bears a much greater resemblance to Villa Malcolm and
Practica X, in existence for a decade or less, than the Tango de Salon
danced in over 100 milongas per week that has maintained basic
characteristics of feet on the floor and adherence to the line of
dnace that have existed for over 6 decades.

Ron