[Tango-L] Milongas by age difference?

[Brian Dunn]

Jack, you wrote:
>>>>>
>  Practica X is the best example. And the 
> average age at these venues is substantially lower than the age at
traditional 
> milongas. Also, as Brian Dunn just pointed out (12/17 posts), that´s where
the 
> best dancers are. > >

To clarify, I assume Brian meant the best dancers of Nuevo. Brian, please 
correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't been to Practica X for a few
years.
<<<<<

Well, there are certainly wide variations among these practica dancers of
course, so the last thing I'd want to suggest is that everything one sees at
Practica X is worth my time to emulate, or meets my own standards of
quality.  But aside from the purely fun youthful-social-scene aspects, I'm
generally paying the entrada in order to see "good" dancing, to learn some
things by watching better dancers closely, and to try some things myself at
the edge of my abilities without the constraints of milonga codes. I mean,
come on, it IS a practica, and if you're going to improve you have to be
willing to suck for awhile! ;) ;)  My main point is that people tend to go
to classic milongas to RELAX, and people tend to go to practicas to GET
BETTER - often the SAME people having different kinds of tango fun, that's
all.

But, actually, I more or less avoided using "nuevo" as a descriptive term in
those two messages, since these dancers don't use it to refer to their
dance.  I did say that some on this list might call what they do "nuevo",
because they are making, for example, more use of the available space at
times than those dancers who immediately go for
"dense-ronda-on-the-outer-edge" dancing even when there is plenty of room. 

Once you dance with these people, you see that the term "nuevo" maybe isn't
very useful in describing them. Among the best of them, the connection in
their dance is so heartbreakingly intense and emotionally committed, they
demonstrate such superb technique, balance and musicality, REGARDLESS of the
specific vocabulary they are using, or the "distance in their embrace" at
any given moment, that it doesn't seem useful to pigeonhole this
wide-ranging, flexible, adaptable, nuanced, sensitive, expressive, ADVANCED
level of dance into a particular "style".  It's just good high-level dancing
by talented, well-trained dancers who have worked hard on their tango.  

We can talk about "styles", but at some point maybe we also can acknowledge
that some dancers are just more skilled than others in commonly valued
qualities: visible emotional connection between partners, gracefully fluid,
rhythmically satisfying execution of intricately nuanced improvised
solutions to available navigation problems, all while remaining very musical
in their expression, and without disturbing those around them. That's just a
high artistic level of social dance, right? - with no need to refer to style
to explain what we're seeing.  Whether or not somebody does a colgada is not
telling us much about the most interesting and valuable things that may be
going on in their dance.

Eventually it may not be in our own best interests to try to isolate these
high-level dancers into a "style" of their own, different from "ours", as if
we are attempting to "extrude" something we don't identify with. If we don't
want to feel pressured to work so hard, we will always have classic milongas
in BsAs (and elsewhere) where people just want to relax and enjoy themselves
without focusing much on high-level dancing. We'll see these high-level
dancers there, too, when THEY want to just relax!  (Or, as suggested in my
earlier post, at "mixed-mode" events where you can choose either to "relax"
or "improve"!) But I suggest that, in general, people who want to work to
become better dancers (in the commonly valued terms described above) are
investing in themselves, their partners and their communities in ways which
are potentially good for all of us.  Those hard workers (especially the
young entrants into tango) need to have inspiring role models to emulate.
The best of the young high-level dancers in BsAs can, in my experience,
offer them those role models, and can challenge all of us to make the most
of our own gifts, no matter how we choose to dance at any given moment.
Can't we just say they're "talented tango dancers", they've worked hard on
their gifts (typically in the practicas!), their partners love them for it,
and maybe all of us can learn something from the best of them? 

All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
www.danceoftheheart.com
"Building a Better World, One Tango at a Time"