[Tango-L] Nuevo Milonguero

[Ecsedy Áron]

> This movement, sometimes called 'el puente' (bridge) can be seen now
> and then in Buenos Aires milongas, but one may have to wait an hour or
> so scanning the floor to see it. However, in this movement, the woman
> is not displaced from her position, i.e., her feet do not change
> position. It is  not a 'volcada' (fall) as used in nuevo, where the
> off axis tilt is so extreme it causes the woman to fall off her axis
> and step forward.
>   
IMHO It is the same thing technically. The difference is only in the 
amount (which I believe is the question of personal preference = style).

I believe that 'nuevo' became a term that doesn't describe a form of 
dancing. It doesn't really mean any type or style of dancing that could 
be identified without doubt just by looking.

The few things that nuevo DOES mean is:
- a structured way of building up your dancing (which rather a method of 
teaching of philosophy of learning) vs. building it up by imitation of 
sequences or moves only that was devised by the teacher (which probably 
never existed in a pure form in the first place)
- a free, open way of thinking about tango as a dance, which means there 
is a POSSIBILITY of doing all moves possible by a couple in embrace to 
tango music vs. doing only a set of moves, form, or extent of moves and 
not doing others, as it is not in the tradition (of a certain teacher, 
style, area, community etc.)
- goal in the structure of nuevo is to identify the simplest and 
smallest common technical elements that forms the basis of all and every 
tango style, that are intercompatible on a very wide domain of moves
- another goal is to identify the ways to increase internal body 
awareness of these technical elements, to devise methods that make 
connection, communication between couple understandable for those who do 
not understand it yet

In simple terms: using the scientific method to analyse, teach or 
'build' (improvise) tango. It is the result of the same process that 
happened to all folklore dances around the world which required a 
teacher (vs. was learned in its natural environment by imitation only).

There are thousands of pages of research on the subject. If you use the 
results on tango, it yields only this: tango as it was danced does not 
exists anymore, as ALL the original social factors, institutions, 
locations, cultural background has changed, disappeared or was replaced 
by other forms.

The present tango has teachers, instead of self-teaching societies, 
present tango has milongas organized by a subculture of dancers for a 
subculture of dancers, instead of mainstream business to the general 
population, present tango has choreographed shows, which did not exist 
before, present tango is mostly danced by non-porteno people, outside 
BsAs/Montevideo barrios, mostly whom are upper middle class 
intellectuals with university degrees, openness to the world, sometimes 
speaking several languages, vs. the uneducated porteno lower class 
workers, later on mostly middle class non-intellectual professionals 
with still a lot less education, present tango is danced by people 
conditioned for the present day perception of personal freedom, goals, 
rights, way of life, social rules, sexual roles, vs. something that 
existed quite a few large political, social, technical and cultural 
revolutions before.

Face it: what is NOT 'nuevo' is really just an attempt to imitated the 
form of a dance that was danced a very long time ago in a different era. 
A historical dance. It is the same thing as if you would try to recreate 
the 80s style in pop. The 80s pop is still pop, the same way 2009's 
popular music is called pop. Are the two the same? Surely not. Are they 
called the same? Most definitely yes. Are the former still current? No, 
unless you specifically play it at a retro-party. (We still have balls 
where we dance a late 18th century dance - waltz - onto late 19th/early 
20th century music, in usually mid-20th century clothing, but those are 
not your everyday life are they?) Of course some forms of music do 
change so much that they get a new name after a certain time, but that's 
not the issue here.

If the time distance in this example is not 'big' enough, then take 
classical styles. There are huge differences between styles: baroque 
spanned two hundred years. Vivaldi is a literally power metal compared 
to Monteverdi, but it is still the same style. (NB: the actual naming of 
'baroque' style in music was invented almost 50 years AFTER tango 
appeared, and was not generally used until the later era of the golden 
age of tango...so, names do not mean anything)

Cheers,
Aron

-- 
Ecsedy Áron
***********
Aron ECSEDY

Tel: +36 20 66-36-006

http://www.milonga.hu/
http://www.holgyvalasz.hu/



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