[Tango-L] Tango - Smooth dancing...

[Vince Bagusauskas]

Thanks Damian.

To make it easy, some other videos of Damian are at:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PlatypusReign&view=videos

Cheers

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Noughts" <damian.thompson at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 12:12 PM
To: <tango-L at mit.edu>
Subject: [Tango-L] Tango - Smooth dancing...

> G'day all from Australia.  Hope you are all well.
> 
> It was most complimentary to even find that I was the centre of any
> discussion where no one wanted to hurt me, fire me or shoot me :-),
> but a discussion on Tango and dancing tango.
> 
> Many, in fact all of us have our own perspectives on what is and what
> is not tango.  I would never try to tell you what tango should be to
> any of you.  But I would like to make some comments.
> 
> The video's that were picked were all very very social dancing videos
> and the only one really worth watching of those (even though they are
> cute...) was the last one posted by Sergio
> (http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/tango-l/2009-February/009644.html)
> 
> The other videos were all for the person that I was dancing with for
> various reasons... certainly not for my dancing, but for theirs.
> Sometimes so family overseas could see that they were alive and well
> and others to show family that they actually do dance.. .mostly for
> them though.
> Most of those were so the person that I was dancing with could see
> their own dancing and what they were doing...
> Most of them were not even meant to be musical, but were for fault
> correction and self evaluation that most of my students go through.
> I am not in a close embrace most of the time as I am actually teaching
> them how to be on their own axis to improve their dancing....not to
> mention a simple fact like - the height difference makes it very
> difficult to dance close embrace or salon (yes, there is a difference)
> with them as opposed to with Oliwia (above video) or say someone like
> Michelle Erdemsel whom I love dancing with or Mariana Dragone whom I
> also love dancing with.
> Also very interesting that you mention Fabrizio (who by the way, loves
> my dancing), he is the most influential teacher (and very close
> friend) I have had and I have spent a lot of time with Herrerra,
> Chicho, Naviera, Torreli, Farfaro and quite a few others.
> 
> Like another post mentions, comparing me to Zotto - LOL!  That is both
> incredibly fantastic and incredibly silly - here is the quote, "a very
> ordinary, intermediate nobody, like many of us I suspect, to one of
> the world's greatest exponents of Tango. Not really a fair
> comparison:".  Well, as for a nobody, well I have taught in Europe,
> every city in Australia ('cept Perth), and Buenos Aires, so whilst I'm
> a 'nobody', I have certainly accomplished more than most...
> 
> I never want to dance like Zotto - I personally hate toe steppers as
> that is a ballet influence and a stage tango technique - and I am very
> good friends with many many stage dancers and champions.  I want to
> dance like...... me.  I really would encourage you to look at some of
> my other videos if you want to compare me to Zotto, maybe ones say
> where I am actually either doing a performance, or dancing with a
> person that I both know, and am very comfortable dancing with because
> I can assure you that if I was video'd dancing with say, Cecilia
> Gonzalez, Mariana Dragone, Eugenia Parrilla, Alexandra Hubert or one
> of the many many other incredibly famous dancers, then your
> observations would be different again... One in particular is Edith
> Paez, one of the judges for the World Tango Championships, who
> considers me to be one of her favourite dancers ever - she also dance
> for 20 years on stage from the age of 16 with the likes of Miguel
> Zotto and Roberto Herrerra.  Perspective... different perspectives.
> 
> IN perspective, whom you dance with also either limits or enhances
> what you are able to do and let's face it, you don't want to connect
> with everyone, in fact, you can't.  We are human after all.  Some
> people we just won't, don't or can't connect with.
> 
> So, I guess I'm saying, really unless you have danced with me and I'm
> not teaching you, then evaluating my dance or anyone elses especially
> labelled "social" may not be either that accurate, or fair.
> 
> Hope to see all of your dancing on youtube too ;-)
> 
> Keep happy in Tango
> Damian
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