[Tango-L] The Definition of Tango Nuevo (1 of 2)

[Shahrukh Merchant]

Perhaps I'm being somewhat masochistic by taking on the "mother of all 
questions" ("What is nuevo?"). Anyway, I don't claim to be able to 
answer the question, as if anyone could in a universally accepted way, 
but will add my perspective. And to be clear, I am only addressing the 
dance aspect of Tango Nuevo and not Tango Nuevo music.

But first, let me quote two other attempts at addressing this (with 
which my perspective overlaps little, if at all):

"Brian Dunn" <brianpdunn at earthlink.net> wrote (on Dec 11, 2009 for those 
who want to reread the whole post):

> "Nuevo" Vocabulary: 
> Let's make this unequivocal! The video must include volcadas, colgadas,
> boleos, enganches, ganchos, and back sacadas.

This was in the context of RonTango's "video challenge." So Brian does 
not claim that this *defines* nuevo (the figures of volcadas, colgadas, 
boleos, enganches, ganchos and back sacadas), but at least in terms its 
outward dance manifestation, this would presumably be the way to 
identify it if you saw it. Let's take these in reverse order. Brian 
defines these figures in his post, but I'll repeat his definitions only 
when I have a specific comment about the definition:

BACK SACADAS: This is a performance Tango figure and has been done for 
ages in stage performances (so not nuevo in the sense of being 
particularly new). Close embrace dancers do not use it, as it cannot be 
done in a close embrace. (Anecdote: Fabian Salas at a workshop many 
years ago "proved" that some teachers' emphasis on keeping the chests of 
the partners together and parallel "had to be wrong" as it would be 
impossible to do a back sacada if you insisted on this. More on Fabian 
Salas in Part 2 ...)

GANCHOS (AND ENGANCHES): Again, a long-standing performance figure. Very 
rarely done in traditional Tango, mostly because it is considered bad 
form (first explained to me, much to my disappointment at the time, by 
Graciela Gonzalez during my kindergarten days in Tango at the Stanford 
Tango Week, JUST AFTER she had finished teaching a class in it!). 
However, Norberto Esbrez "El Pulpo" took ganchos to a new level by 
incorporating them into almost everything he did, a lot of which could 
be done subtly and even in crowded social settings. It is "nuevo" in the 
sense that it went beyond traditional Tango and added innovations 
(genius, I would even say), but it predated what is currently thought of 
as nuevo by several years, and seems to have made little inroads into 
actually being incorporated into what people do (perhaps because it is 
difficult and also freaks out your partner if she is not familiar with 
and reasonable accomplished at it!).

BOLEOS: Described in Brian's post as "Complete and possibly sudden 
reversal of direction of motion, either translational or rotational, of 
one or both partners, possibly with feet elevated off the floor." Boleos 
are definitely not nuevo, with the exception of linear boleos 
("translational"). It has long being in the canon of standard Tango. 
They can easily be done in crowded social settings as they can be made 
as subtle and as low as necessary--indeed they are extremely useful in 
crowded settings as it allows a change of rotational directional at 
short notice. However, some comments on the above definition: (1) Boleos 
must be lead (except in a performance setting where one can do 
autonomously what looks like a boleo to the spectator), so both partners 
cannot do it, unless they are exchanging lead and follow roles during 
the dance. (2) Feet elevated off the floor is a hallmark of performance 
Tango, where drama and visibility to the audience is of prime 
importance, but there is nothing fundamental to the boleo of having the 
feet (presumably just one at a time :-)) off the ground.

COLGADAS: OK, this one is very much considered a nuevo figure with no 
precedent in traditional Tango (social or performance). (Separate post, 
or perhaps rant, may be coming up one of these days on why it is 
destroying good Tango technique for a generation of dancers, but it is 
not related to this subject of "What is nuevo?")

VOLCADAS: People are so used to saying "colgadas and volcadas" in one 
breath, that they are treated as two sides of the same "nuevo coin." I 
couldn't agree less, but I suspect my contention that volcada is not 
really "nuevo" will be more controversial than similar statements for 
boleos and others above. However, I can't claim this position all to 
myself since Guillermina Quiroga made this point some years ago at a 
workshop I took from her. I happen to agree with this position (even if 
I can't justify it with as much authority as she can). The basic concept 
of pressure and contact at the chest with more space at the feet is as 
old as anything in Tango. In fact a "volcada" version of back ochos, for 
example (first taught to me by Sebastian Arce & Mariana Montes), where 
there is very little rotation of the hips on up, is very milonguero and 
very good "cross-training" for ochos and giros in a close-embrace 
position where the woman's hips and upper body similar turn very little 
relative to the man's frame. What's different in what is taught as 
volcada these days, other than the name, is that the movements are 
amplified and often exaggerated, to the point that the woman's lean 
forward is often referred to as (and, when badly taught, feels like, to 
the sometimes hapless man who didn't think he had led one) a "falling 
forward," and the depth of the movement and lean is amplified. But it's 
a dramatic and fun figure, sexy looking and relatively easy to do in its 
basic form, so the popularity of the nuevo version is understandable.


Take all of this together and the aforementioned "nuevo" vocabulary, 
with the exception of the colgada, is not so nuevo after all, but rather 
much more about (a) performance figures, (b) standard figures done in a 
performance mode, and (c) exaggeration of positions and movement size 
(also a characteristic of performance tango). Performance dancing is 
SUPPOSED to be big--that's the only way the person with the cheap seats 
in the last row of the second balcony can see anything interesting at 
all. Navigation amongst other dancers on the floor, if there are others, 
is a non-issue in performance (it's choreographed).

So if what is being described as "nuevo vocabulary" overlaps so much 
with performance priorities and vocabulary, it should not come as a 
surprise to anyone that nuevo dancers are considered menaces on even a 
slightly crowded dance floor, since dancers trying to do a performance 
(i.e., big, fast, dramatic, without any need to consider the presence of 
others) on a crowded dance floor would absolutely be menaces.

Now that would not be MY definition of what nuevo is, but in Brian's 
defense he has correctly identified what many consider as being nuevo 
(the practitioners as well as their "victims"), just based on what one 
sees being danced and taught).


Amaury de Siqueira <amaurycdsf at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Nuevo MUST be understood for what it REALLY is.? A social movement within an art form to repudiate, deny, change, or to simply cope with 'MUFA'.
...
> Nuevo IMHO is just that -- a cry from the new generation of artist trying to infuse a new set of? emotions in this beautiful art form.? Such cry is bound to find sympathizers from all sides (young, old, etc...).

Here we have the other extreme in the definition range, one that tries 
to distance itself from the sordid details of what people actually do, 
and seeks to find the artistic soul behind the "nuevo movement." It's a 
very romantic vision, certainly, of an unheard group of talented artists 
struggling to have their art be given a chance amid the repressive 
forces of conservatism and the establishment.

No doubt many artistic movements can be described in this way (certainly 
in some musical forms, and to a VERY small extent even in Tango 
music--I'm talking about contemporary Tango music when I say "very 
small" since there was certainly notable oppression, especially in the 
lyrics, earlier in the history of Tango music). But there is little if 
any evidence to suggest that "nuevo" Tango in its dance manifestation 
has had any measurable impact from such a movement. On the contrary, no 
nuevo dancer with any degree of impact has "repudiated or denied" 
classic Tango--on the contrary they embrace it, and yes, want to EXTEND 
it, but do not reject it. And people who dance "nuevo" do so because 
they like the way it looks and/or the way it feels, and for SOME of them 
the fact that it's different and new may add some further spice, but it 
comes down to basic "feel good" motives, rather than a plaintive 
angst-ridden cry for reform.


So since I don't like either of these two versions of defining "nuevo," 
what is my version? Well, explaining my thoughts on the above took 
longer (space and time) than I thought it would, so enough writing for 
one day ... to be continued ....

Shahrukh