[Tango-L] Truth in Tango Advertising & Tango Detente

[RonTango]

----- Original Message ----
> From: Vince Bagusauskas <vytis at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [Tango-L] Subject: Re:  No place left to dance
> 
> 
> The point being that "alternative music" implies nuevo moves, that terrifies 
> some traditionalist people and thus causes much debate.
> 
> However, if the term "alternative milonga" keeps the traditionalists away, 
> it gives more room for nuevo.
> 
> Sort of a win-win situation then.

If nuevoists do not pass on the 'traditional' milonga, then there is  a 'heads I win, tails you lose' situation for them. 

If nuevoists call their milongas 'alternative', do traditionalists need to call their milongas 'traditional', or is just plain 'milonga' OK? Perhaps out of necessity they need to say 'traditional Buenos Aires style milonga with all classic tango music'. This will scare away people who dislike dancing tango in a close embrace and who dislike classic tango music for dancing tango.

And do they need to call their classes 'Argentine tango' to differentiate if from 'tango for export'? (You know, the tango danced at milongas outside Argentina)

Odd thing is, in Buenos Aires there are about 100 (just plain) 'milongas' per week where all classic tango music is played and people dance 'tango' (maybe 'tango de salon' to differentiate it from 'tango fantasia').  Perhaps it is too much to expect the rest of the tango world to follow Argentine standards. 

What do traditionalists need to do to let attendees know that at their milongas, one adheres to a line of dance, keeps feet on the floor, and generally respects the space of other dancers on the floor? I don't mean "I can zip around the floor with rapid and large movements and I will not collide with anyone" because this puts traditionalists into an unpleasant defensive driving mode (one foot on the break pedal, always looking in the mirrors). We don't enjoy playing tango police nearly as much as you think we do. We just want to dance in peace.

I believe we can have separate events and if we agree to label them without ambiguity, we can all respect the codes of the events we attend and tango milonguero and nuevo can both live in peace and respect each other, sort of a 'tango detente'. They will live in separate niches because they are different species of tango. 

How about:

Tango milonguero dancers have 'traditional' milongas with 'all classic tango music'. The classes they teach are 'Argentine Tango'.

Nuevo dancers have 'alternative milongas' with a mix of classic tango, modern tango, nuevo tango, neotango, and non-tango music. The classes they teach are 'Nuevo Tango'. 

If we had this truth in advertising, there should be a lot fewer conflicts.

Ron