[Tango-L] Argentines More Relaxed About Tango

[larrynla@juno.com]

When I penned (keyed???) the Argentines vs. Americans message I was in 
mischief mode, at least the part where I said Americans are better 
tango dancers than Argentines. Actually I neither know nor care who are 
the "better" dancers. I only care about the few people I dance with and 
those around us, and that last only whether they let me and my friends 
have a good time.

Shahrukh wondered whether considering myself a nuevo tango dancer if I 
applied an unconventional standard to tango dancing. No, I don't think 
so, though not being able to read the minds of every tango dancer on 
the planet I can't be sure!
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I can't imagine anyone wants to know what my standards are, but here 
they are for the very few who might.

My first concern when dancing is always, always, always my partner. Is 
she having a good time? And how can I make it better for her? Partly 
this is just kindness, but a big part of it is selfishness. I want her 
to dance with me again, be not only willing but enthusiastic. When I 
come into a milonga I want to see her smile at me. And part of it is 
pride. I've always felt contempt for dancers who are selfish, who only 
care if they look good and consider their partners as good only if they 
make them look good.

My second concern is the music.  I fell in love with tango music the 
very first time I heard it and over the years have bought and listen to 
hundreds of CDs. I've also studied it. When I dance I don't think of 
myself the leader of the dance. Instead I surrender to the music and 
let it lead me.

My third concern is the people about me. I really only care most of the 
time if they make it hard for my partner and me to have a good time, 
but occasionally, rarely, when the evening is going well it feels as if 
I am part of some great carousel that exists not only here and now but 
in some mystical eternal sense and feel somehow lifted up.

The athletic or acrobatic part of the dance is my least concern, but it 
is important. I prefer very subtle but very precise movements, exactly 
in tune with all the more important parts of the dance. I like the 
sensuous feel of my muscles working well, and how my feet kiss the 
floor feel it kiss back at heel and ball, arch and toe.
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I've said I think myself a tango nuevo dancer. But I don't see that as 
opposing the more traditional styles of tango. I think of nuevo as 
enhancing, of spicing up, what I've spent more than two decades 
learning.

Those people who see nuevo as non-tango amuse me. So either-or, so 
devoted to black and white, binary, robotic thinking, so little able to 
master both-and, rainbow thinking. So limited - or, perhaps, so timid.
_____________________________________________________
Much more interesting than me are Argentines who dance tango. And it 
concerns me that many if not most tango dancers seem to think of 
Argentines as cartoon characters - all alike and rendered as little 
more than dolls, faces sanded smooth and painted-on blinkless eyes.

I know quite a few Argentines, since I live a mile from the L.A. 
Argentine Association and go to the two milongas a week they have 
there. And the third milonga I got to is run by Argentines: El 
Encuentro. (For details see http://www.tangoaficionado.com/ entries for 
Thursday, Saturday, and  Sunday.) Every one of them is an individual.

Only a few of the ones I know are obsessive about tango dancing. Most 
have a relaxed attitude toward it. My little time in Argentina mirrored 
that situation, but even more so.

I noticed that perhaps a quarter of those who go to milongas don't even 
dance; they listen to the music, drink, smoke, snack (and often snack 
some more!), and gossip. To many in a milonga it is a family affair, 
and you might see several generations on any night.

Some of the ones who go to milongas go for the three-to-five times 
nightly non-tango tandas, usually swing, Argentine folk dances, and 
tropical (all Latin dances except salsa). If they dance tango it's at a 
VERY basic level. And perhaps only to become acquainted with people who 
they can convince to dance the dances they really like.

In Buenos Aires proper (a ten-mile-diameter roughly circular area) 
there are many milongas and classes and practicas, often just a few 
blocks apart, especially in the eastern part of the city. You can 
easily walk to them, or take a bus ride to them and (after 10:00 pm) a 
taxi home. You don't have to make a major effort to do something tango-
related.

What is the AVERAGE level of quality in such a situation? Not very 
high.

Contrast that to the tango communities in the rest of the world, where 
even the biggest cities have only a few milongas and often not very big 
ones at that, where most dancers have to make a special effort even to 
get to a milonga. Most tango dancers there are thus fairly dedicated to 
tango and spend a lot of time practicing and taking classes. The 
AVERAGE level of quality in such a situation? Fairly high - at least as 
far as mastery of technique goes.

Another major difference between the Argentine and other tango dance 
communities is longevity. Gustavo Naveira in an interview said that he 
started teaching tango in the early 1980s, years before "Tango 
Argentino" and such traveling shows aroused the rest of the world to 
the delights of tango dancing. The demand for tango classes was huge, 
and he often had hundreds of people trying to sign up for classes which 
could hold only fifty people or so. And many of the would-be students 
were preteens.

Many of the people in mature tango communities have gone beyond the 
obsessive, technically oriented concerns of the beginners. They begin 
to feel confidence that they are doing tango right, and re-think about 
what being really good at tango means. They realize that the embrace is 
not just a physical connection, but can be an emotional connection 
also, and to a partner who is a unique individual. That feeling the 
artistic side of music rather than just its beat is an important part 
of dancing. That social dancing means caring for those around us.

As time goes by the non-Argentine tango communities will look more and 
more like those in Argentina. Which does NOT, I feel, mean that world 
tango is suffering a demise. But quite the opposite.


Larry de Los Angeles - novelette "Lady Death" added to
http://Shapechangers.com



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