[Tango-L] TANGO 2000 ............For DUMMIES (Ecsedy ?ron)

[Brian Dunn]

Diane, you wrote:
>>>
In Chapter 6 "The Nuts & Bolts of Tango" Ground Rules 
he clearly describes their dancing as Stage Tango...
So it seems he was using the clip to, in his mind, humerously illustrate a 
point. 
<<<
Sure, it's clear he was trying humorously to make a point (at Gustavo &
Giselle's expense) by his thinly veiled suggestion that Gustavo & Giselle
are useful examples of "stage dancers" (clip 1) who don't understand how to
behave courteously in the milonga (clip 2).  Don't you think that's the
basic message of these two uses of the video?  Don't you think that's the
thinly veiled message he intends his readers (often uninformed - see many of
the comments) to take away?

Yet, one could as easily argue that it is Gustavo and Giselle who are the
examples of very appropriate behavior, because they are apparently working
quite well at their job - because the purpose of ALL the dancers on that
stage is to entertain the audience, right?

Really, would it have cost him much at any point to at least point out the
fact (non-obvious to the uninformed reader) that this was NOT a video of
social dancing at all, but a performance where some performers were using
elements of their social dance onstage for the pleasure of the audience? 

Rick's an interesting guy - he and I have never met, but I respect his
devotion to his tango calling.  His writing style is often enlightening and
enjoyable.  He effectively conveys the sense in his blog that we are
listening in to a real cultural anthropologist at work.  Of course he's
entitled to think whatever he wants about Gustavo and Giselle, and as I
said, I've very much enjoyed a lot of his work. 

But I think he slacked off his usual journalistic standards here, for
whatever reasons, and he chose to do so very pointedly at Gustavo &
Giselle's expense, and quite enjoyed doing so on one occasion.  OK, it's not
a journalistic tragedy, but it doesn't raise his standing as a reporter in
my eyes.

The fact that he is pretty fast and loose with his interpretations of the
interviews with Gustavo & Fabian (hey, how about a link to the originals,
unless you don't want us drawing our own conclusions?) suggests that his
purpose in these sections is not to inform, but to "entertain" - and to
entertain prejudices he hopes to foster through selective misleading
reporting...Fox News, anyone?  
(Full disclosure - I conducted one of the interviews, which can be found at
http://www.danceoftheheart.com/naveirainterview.htm )

As far has his "humorous point": If Rick just wanted to use some available
video to tell his little fictional story, great, have fun, why not - but
then why go to so much effort to clearly identify the dancers (which seems
to take the "fiction" out of it, doesn't it?) except for the sake of the
misleading cheap shot that was my original point?

A former boss of mine told me a story about newspaper reporting once: "I
read a lot of newspaper articles in my local paper about things I don't know
much about.  Then once I read an article about a topic I DO know a lot about
- and it was total nonsense.  This makes me wonder why I should believe
their reporting anymore about things I don't know much about!"

So I have to say, since I know a lot about Gustavo & Giselle's dancing,
including his fifteen years of nightly dancing in the milongas of Buenos
Aires (a few years more than Rick, I imagine), that Rick's handling of this
"story" causes me to wonder whether I should give as much credence to things
he says about tango matters I don't know about.

I'd love to copy Rick on these messages, but I can't find an email address
on his blog, nor can I find a place to leave comments.

All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
www.danceoftheheart.com
"Building a Better World, One Tango at a Time"