[Tango-L] Argentines vs. non-Argentines

[Shahrukh Merchant]

<larrynla at juno.com> says:

> It's my opinion that non-Argentine tango dancers ON THE AVERAGE do 
> dance better than Argentine tango dancers ON THE AVERAGE.

It wasn't until I read peterwesser's indignant reaction to this 
assertion that I realized that it was actually saying the opposite of 
what I assumed after a "speed-read" scan (I thought Larry was just 
restating the mantra that Argentine's dance Tango better than 
non-Argentines).

Jack Dylan's theory to explain this um ... non-conventional-wisdom was 
that perhaps "Larry has had more success dancing with his 
fellow-Americans than he has with Argentines."

I might venture a guess, somewhat less condescendingly, that since Larry 
is a self-proclaimed Tango nuevo dancer, he speaks from that 
perspective. And, notwithstanding that Tango nuevo was "invented" by 
Argentines, and the best PERFORMANCE practitioners of it are probably 
Argentines, it is still very much a fringe phenomenon as a SOCIALLY 
relevant dance form amongst Argentines who dance Tango. Hence, it is 
quite possible that non-Argentine tango dancers indeed are more 
proficient in this form of Tango than Argentines (if you exclude the 
Argentine professionals who are mainly dancing for exhibitions or 
performances anyway), since they are probably more numerous.

And any "connection advantage" that a porteño has from his understanding 
of traditional Tango music, the lyrics, the cultural context, etc., is 
negated when one is talking about nuevo tango music, much of which is 
mediocre techno pop with bandoneon added.

But enough of putting words in Larry's mouth :-) he's quite capable of 
explaining himself. So, Larry, care to elaborate? (I hope you don't say 
that it was a typo and you meant to say the opposite -- that would be 
most anticlimatic after all this build-up!)

Shahrukh