[Tango-L] natural separation

[HBBOOGIE1@aol.com]

Simply, the community is not large enough to  support separate 
traditional/nuevo milongas. Also, for an average milonga  attendance of 
40-60 people (Budapest), there are over a dozen people who do  teach. Of 
course, they aren't teaching that 60 people. Simply, the amount of  
activity and overall tango population numbers are different: the mailing  
list for tango has over 300 members, tango courses usually churn out an  
average of a 1000 people per year. The problem is that most Hungarians  
are simply not interested in going to milongas, only learning 'some  
tango' (long story - has to do with danceschool tradition: people are  
led to believe for decades, that they only need 8-lesson courses and  
they have the basics in any dance). So milongas became the meeting point  
for the fanatics, the elite, a large percent of them with enough  
knowledge to teach (this is something we are trying to change  
desperately - especially the nuevo folks...). Also, most of Eastern  
Europe is nuevo land. Traditional teachers were considered lame by the  
general population, because dancing is/was mostly a stage phenomenon  
(after 40 years of state sponsored cheap elitist dance education and  
performances - along with the Soviet-Russian influence - it is a normal  
attitude) for the older people, for the younger ones, the freedom (and  
the youth of teachers) in nuevo was/is more appealing. That's about it,  
I guess. But nuevo folks dance to traditional tango, in close embrace,  
even if sometimes (when they have the space and the chance) to fancy  
stuff as well. For us it is completely organic to show characteristics  
of nuevo, salón, even canyuengue within the same dance... purists may  
cry now.
Cheers,
Aron

Aron after reading about your tango  community I can sympathize with you. I 
can see that you need to find a way for  the different styles of tango to 
coexist. Here in Southern California we have  many milongas to choose from on 
any given night and it looks like a natural  separation is already starting 
to happen. 
David