[Tango-L] Problems with Tango Nuevo

[larrynla@juno.com]

I have to agree somewhat with those who condemn "tango nuevo" for some 
of the problems we see often on the dance floor.

This may sound surprising to some of you who have read my defenses of 
tango nuevo.  I consider myself a tango nuevo dancer. I've studied its 
basis and its movements - a word I use rather than figures. Most 
teachers of tango nuevo, and many other teachers besides, don't often 
teach complex combinations of movements any more. And I've melded the 
lessons from tango nuevo into my own dancing.

There are two problems with tango nuevo.  One part is its teachers, who 
usually spend so much time getting their students to master the basic 
movements that they never even mention the skills needed to fit those 
movements into the flow of the dance.  The other is its students, who 
are usually young and so often don't understand the social rather than 
showy nature of most tango dancing.  Also, being young and often quite 
athletic physically they quickly manage to master the basic movements, 
leading them to think that once they've mastered the basic movement 
that they're done when in truth they are only half-done.

This combination of teacher and student failure at teaching and 
learning the social side of tango has nothing to do with tango nuevo 
per se.  I and I'd bet you have seen this kind of failure in tango way 
before there was tango nuevo.  In fact, if you've been long involved in 
other kinds of dance, I'd bet you have seen it in other kinds of dance.  
I saw it in swing in the early 60s, and in disco in the late 60s and 
early 70s.  When I got involved in salsa in the early 1980s I saw it, 
where the mambo enthusiasts (stepping on the 2) blamed all sorts of 
ills on salsa enthusiasts (stepping on the 1).

Some people have blamed the problems caused by tango nuevo dancers on 
the movements we do.  That shows a basic ignorance of tango nuevo.  
Tango nuevo introduced NO new movements.  Not one.  Every one was 
invented by someone decades before.  What tango nuevo did was introduce 
new VARIATIONS of older techniques.

The colgada is a variation of a figure sometimes called the stork, 
where the woman is halted with her weight on one foot and the man then 
walks around her.  If he halts her and leads her into an extreme 
forward lean (a volcada)  before walk around her some call this the 
calesita.  If he leads her into a backward lean this is the colgada.  
Same movement, three variations.

The colgada is often associated with tango nuevo, because many of it 
teacher teach an extreme show-tango version of it.  The woman (and 
counter-balancing man) lean far back away from each other.  She also 
extends her free foot far behind her.  Here are examples from Fabian 
Salas and Carolina del Rivera.  But the colgada can be a gentle lean 
with the woman's free foot near her standing foot.  This is shown in 
the second video, where it is taught by Oscar Casas (and called 
Colgadas Milongueras).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0E7rCcBmjc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvHdD7-qsaA

Again we come to my earliest point - much of the problems caused by 
tango nuevo is due to some of its teachers.

Larry de Los Angeles
http://ShapechangerTales.com



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