[Tango-L] Just do it

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

It amuses me that some people seem to think that diversity in tango will die if milongas aren't separated.  That's like saying that heart surgeons should attend conferences for general practitioners instead of conferences for heart surgeons.  Ya' think the advances in heart surgery came through general medicine?  It took specialization.

Take a look through an old Bridge to the Tango catalogue and look at the variations pre-nuevo days.  I can't count the number of times I've gone to a workshop, thought "wow what a great new step", and then later realized that I already knew the step but that the teacher put a different spin on it, giving it a different feel.  I find it arrogant for nuevo dancers to suggest that nuevo is the only future of tango.  Those are the ones who are limited.

As for the difficulty of developing a separate milonga for nuevo dancers, what the heck do you think it was like creating a milonga in a city in the first place?  Hello!!!  My first weekly milonga had 15 people at its grand opening, and dropped to 5-7 people a week for months at a time when my city was losing population big-time.  Ten years later its at critical mass and I've stopped keeping counts long ago.  So don't say that 40-60 people at a milonga is not enough people.  That's an insult to those in your community that started with only a handful of people and worked their butts off to make a viable community.  If nuevo and traditionalists can get along great in your community, then fine.

If you're passionate about something, work on your own to create it.  Don't rely on the backs of others to do the work for you.  Yes, it can be a financial risk, but so was the first milonga in your community.

Trini de Pittsburgh