[Tango-L] Tango Tower of Babel - Different Language, Different Dance

[Alexis Cousein]

RonTango wrote:
> Words like 'connection' and 'social dancing' have different meanings for different people. 
> 
> The problem stems in part from two groups with very different perceptions laying 
 > claim to the same name 'tango'.

As far as connection is concerned, I know all the different aspects this can encompass.
Again, you're insisting that someone sits on *one* side of a fence you've just imagined.

As far as "social dancing" is concerned, as far as I'm concerned, there's also a continuum
of conditions. Social tango means dancing socially without bothering the others,
and adapting to circumstances. And there are indeed different circumstances -
even within one milonga. Which means that trying to pigeon hole everything in
two classes is futile.

If you stubbornly refuse to adapt to circumstances yet still insist to dance,
then you're not very good at dancing socially.

> Many nuevoists say that nuevo is the evolution of tango.

It is *an* evolution (i.e. a class of phenotypes forming a cluster), and a collection
of elements that embed themselves in a tradition (unlike ballroom tango).

It is not "the future" in the sense that anything else is going to
go extinct. Anybody who has half a brain would know better than to claim it.
Anyway, given it's a social dance how it will have evolved will only be clear
in hindsight.

> Many traditionalists would say nuevo is an evolution away from tango. 

That's a fundamentalist's point of view (and I'm not using the term
pejoratively; it's just a pattern that you see very often in different contexts).
> 
> Why can't you accept that nuevo is a new species with its own niche, 
 > separate from tango (de salon)?
> 
Because there is no clear divide until *you* draw a line in the sand. You
have no authority to do so, and as I said there is absolutely *no* rationale
for treating it as "a separate species", as there is shared habitat and
cross-fertility between individuals.

> One could take a cynical view and say that nuevo positions itself as 
> the heir apparent to tango 

Again, you are building a straw man. What I see on this list is exactly
zero "nuevistos" claiming that what others dance is not tango or outdated,
but a lot of people claiming that nuevo is somehow so "different" it's no
longer tango.

> Why do nuevoists feel the need to share the same floor with tango de salon?
> 
Duh! Because they might actually enjoy dancing different styles,
like the music that's played, share celebrating a tradition and even
like to see others that don't dance the same style while they're dancing?

Where am I supposed to dance, in your world? I'm not a nuevo dancer;
I'm not an anti-nuevo dancer either. Is it going to be "if you're not with
us, you're against us"? Should those nuevo parties you advocate
materialise, am I going to be thrown out if I dance a close
and closed embrace?

> This argument doesn't go away. Nuevoists want to be on the same floor with traditionalists.

<sarcasm>
I think we should go towards "one man, one tango". Let's have different floors for
people with a common axis and for people who have two independent axes, let's institute
rules about the minimum (or maximum) separation between the leader and the follower at
milonga X, let's have different milongas for people who like music only from the
twenties,...
</sarcasm>

That's going to do a lot of good. If you want tango to die and become irrelevant, that's the
way to go. In Flanders, we have two cities: one where organisers live with others in a spirit
of tolerance, and one where each teacher knows the One True Way and segregates his pupils
from all the others. Guess which scene is thriving?

> - Nuevoists want to intimidate traditionalists, driving them off the floor 
 >  and perhaps away from 'tango' in their community so that nuevo can lay
 > sole claim to 'tango'.

Sure. They even have a secret book about that - the Protocols of the Elders of Nuevo.
If that isn't a conspiracy theory, then I haven't seen many.

> - Nuevoists want a conspicuous presence everyone so they can recruit new dancers. 

Ah - now nuevo dancers are all teachers, and non-nuevo teachers are *never*
conspicuous in sometimes jarring attempts at recruiting?

 > Outside Argentina, flashy dancing is effective in recruitment;

I lament the bias towards flashy dancing (if it supposes a lack of attention
to musicality and connection) just as much as any other. "Nuevo",
though, isn't necessarily that.

And to make the same point again, if flashy dancing is effective in recruitment
in the US, it says a bit about the audience too, not only about the teachers.

> the subtlety of tango de salon is lost on the naive dancer. 

Pardon me for saying, but the subtlety of tango de salon is lost on more than
just "nuevo" dancers. I'm sure some aspects of it are still lost on me after
twenty years, and many aspects I now clearly feel in my blood were totally
lost on me for ten years and others for eighteen years.

> 
> Just face the reality, Nuevo is a different dance.

You'd make an interesting biologist.

At social dancing, punish asocial dancing, and play the music you want (that
will already select the audience).

Leave style and the evolution of tango to the dancers.

It's almost a century old tradition and is still vibrant, and it doesn't
need staunch (frequently non-Argentine) guardians of orthodoxy to survive.