[Tango-L] Preserving the character of the dance

[ECSEDY Áron]

> IMO (I am sure others may disagree) that particular form of dancing did not preserve the "character" of the dance, it looks totally foreign to me, something totally disconnected from its Argentine roots.  The moves are those of tango but neither the music or the dance itself gives the feeling orlooks like A. T. of any style that I know.(Trina points that some dancers do dance preserving the tango character and I agree, some of them do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preservation

I believe this is the closest definition that may apply:

'the retention of cultural heritage for the future'

'Retention', 'heritage' and all this for 'the future' (which suggests it 
does exist now, but is already threatened so that it requires concious 
effort to keep some of it as it was)

So, no museum then?  :)

Obviously, museums are needed. You can see things from different eras. 
It is enlightening, it is inspiring.

However, I am not Amish, so living the past may not be for me. I guess 
this is true for many people. Nevertheless, this strong conservative 
rethoric ('nuevo is not tango', 'you need to dance a certain style a 
certain way') usually keeps such people in confusion, especially when 
they are relatively new to this dance. Quite a lot of these new people 
will turn away from tango as they can't find themselves in it and will 
find the petty bickering of dancers/teachers against the ideas 
represented by some other dancers/teachers repelling.

When we are debating about nuevo, I don't say you should not dance the 
way you want. I say exactly the opposite:  LET everyone decide how s/he 
wants to dance (decision is not between styles you predefined, it is a 
free choice of what and how to include). I usually never tell my 
students what 'style' I am teaching them - not unless they ask. Even 
then, I only say what people _usually_ say about it and how styles are 
_usually_ defined.

Cheers,
Aron

-- 
Ecsedy Áron
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Aron ECSEDY

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