[Tango-L] part2 -improving discussion in our forum -- sugestions

[Amaury de Siqueira]

Folks,

Good morning and thank you for both supporting and not so supporting personal email messages.  

I simply pointed out the challenges of communicating in a text-based lean medium and offered 3 suggestions on how to AVOID (if that is one's intention) situations that could lead to online misunderstandings.

Some will follow others won't.... The consequences however will be fairly predictable.  

Respectfuly,
Amaury

-----Original Message-----
From: tango-l-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:tango-l-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of Myk Dowling
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 12:20 AM
To: Tango-L
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] improving discussion in our forum -- sugestions

Amaury de Siqueira wrote:
> In such situations humans (showing remarkable adaptability) created strategies for coping with the lack of minimal cues.  Such strategies include the use of emoticons  :-) ... :-( .... ;-/ ; acronyms (LOL, IMHO, LOLAR) ; and certain writing strategies to minimize potential for misunderstandings.

If I'm joking, I'll consider using them. But I'm trying to have a 
serious discussion about the _differences_ that separate nuevo tango 
from what came before (which I refer to as "traditional tango" for sake 
of convenience).

> The use of absolute statements is not very helpful and sometimes alienating.  For example Myk writes --> 
> "... must have _some_ difference"; 
> " ...You cannot lead an underarm..."; 
> "... All leading comes from the chest..."; and etc 

But sometimes an absolute statement is helpful. Does anyone want to deny 
that there _is_ a difference between nuevo and traditional tango? If so, 
they're welcome to say so. _That's_ the way to have a discussion.

I welcome anyone to explain how an underarm turn can _possibly_ be lead 
without using one's arm. Some absolute statements are entirely justified.

And I was simply repeating other people's "all leading comes from the 
chest" statements in order to deconstruct the statement, so you can't 
blame that absolute statement on me. I was in fact just saying that it's 
not entirely true.

> (I could go on extracting more text from the message... but this must suffice.
> 
> Another helpful hint for successful communication is to avoid complex constructs of ideas... for example our dear Chicho simply stated "not arms... just connection"... that should be enough.  I mean I don’t know you guys but I have the sense that our audience has shown over the years a certain amount of fluency and intelligence.  So there is no reason to offend the audience by repeating oneself an restating the obvious.

No, it isn't enough, because he might just be (gasp!) wrong. When it 
comes down to it, people don't always realise what they do with their 
own bodies. What does Chicho mean when he says "just connection"? When 
his only physical connection to his partner is through his arms, then 
surely he _is_ using them?

And what on Earth is _wrong_ with using your arms to dance? Where did 
this whole "no arms" schtick come from, and how has it become elevated 
to such a high level of worthiness? People are treating this like it's a 
touchier subject than religion or politics. It's just dancing, people! 
Relax!

> Finally, we should all know that the real experts seldom if ever post to the list... What I mean is that we are all AMATEURS... So we should show some humility and tone down our language and thoughts of intellectual and dance grandeur.  

But doing that makes the list a bland nonentity that isn't worth 
reading. We become more than amateurs by discussing things, and using 
what we learn. Humble posts with little substance and many qualifiers 
are _boring_ posts.

Let me just make one thing clear. I _like_ nuevo. I dance nuevo myself 
at times (though nowhere near as well as Damian, let alone Chicho).


Myk
in Canberra
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