[Tango-L] Type-A Tango

[Gordon Erlebacher]

Until last year at least,, Salon was danced (in a mild form, without many of the figures, but with the elegance) at Por Lo Celia, in Bs.As.. The style was more about elegance than frontal connection. One does not need much space to dance salon. Salon was danced more prior to 1980, when posture, elegance was the norm. After 1980, the emphasis on steps and sequences became more prevalent. Stated another way: prior to 1980, students worked on walking, understanding their body, balance, groundness, axis. In turn, this led to figures, and thus much improvisation. Instead, today, figures and sequences are taught, long before the student's bodies are ready for them, and as a consequence, it becomes difficult to combine these figures, cut them up, and recombine them to truly improvise. In the words of my teacher, Mimi Santapa: for her it is about posture, posture, posture, and finally, the figures, as dictated by posture and your body. In other words, the body creates the figures, not "you" (by you, I mean the "id", the conscious self). 

Just my two cents. 

      Gordon

----- Original Message -----
From: Mario <sopelote at yahoo.com>
Date: Saturday, December 25, 2010 9:51 am
Subject: [Tango-L] Type-A Tango
To: TANGO-L <tango-l at mit.edu>

> 
>  Hi David,   yes i have lots of opinions....and probably don't 
> 'know' much 
> about classes...but im trying to distiguish between what goes on in 
> a social 
> dance and what goes on in a class..they seem to be different.. like 
> the 'class' 
> is about a different dance.
> I agree that the leader here pretty much dictates the follow but 
> there is a 
> deadliness to their 
> 
> dance that is very disappointing to me...if i were hoping for such 
> mastery ,  
> I'd 
> 
> quit because I'm simply not interested in this dance.
> whereas watching videos from tango and chaos  simply AMAZES me! .. 
> sure, theyve 
> been dancing umpteen million years..but can't WE go for expression 
> and 
> individuality too?   or just cookie cutter dullness...  one has to 
> start 
> somewhere... maybe im being too harsh but if you read Bora's 
> blog..it seems to 
> me that, she is going 
> 
> down the performance path without even knowing it... i say that 
> 'salon' is 
> performance..it is only danced in  performance dances that i have 
> ever seen...  
> where else is 'salon' danced?  ok its a word for the general dance 
> floor dance 
> but i say it is already co opted ...that the non-Nuevo performers 
> have already 
> slipped in their palative
> covert- performance dance as THE authentic one..calling it 
> SALON...it is NOT the 
> Social dance...
> I want to champion the SOCIAL DANCE as it is danced socially...no 
> one seems to 
> be interested in this.
> I was just talking the other day to the wife of Ricardo Bellozo 
> (of AbreTango) 
> they are preparing to return
> to BsAs instead of continuing to live and teach in Italy because 
> stage tango has 
> usurped the interest in the social dance there.  We are witnessing 
> the demise of 
> the social dance everywhere except in BsAs....so far.
> sincerely  M..
> 
> ...
> http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=734224171
> www.youtube.com/user/nacotete
> www.tangoandchaos.org
> www.theopendoorway.org/audiovisual.html
> "The music makes you dance. It is so simple when one gets it. 
> Connect with my 
> partner and then connect with the music, let the music tell me how 
> to move my 
> body rather than me tell my body how to move to the music. With the 
> right music 
> and right partner, I am contented to have just one tanda a night" -
> Pedro Sanchez
> 
> 
> 
>      
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