[Tango-L] Type-A Tango Salon or Show ?

[Charles Roques]

Tango in Bs.As. takes a wide variety of form. For those who know (I do 
not), how was tango danced in Bs.As. before the arrival of Susanna 
Miller, who popularized the so-called frontal style (frontal contact), 
suitable for crowded milongas?


It was danced close just as it always was.  Susanna MIller is given far too much credit for something she didn't do.  People were dancing that way long before she supposedly "popularized" it.  She is known outside Bs.As. mainly because she starting teaching it as a distinct style, when it is really just a variant of tango de salon.  People in other countries who hadn't danced very long and were so distracted by nuevo styles, which were popular, didn't realize that people had never stopped dancing close in Buenos Aires.  Yes, milonguero style with the arms in close and more frontal contact at the chest is a byproduct of crowded milongas, but she did not originate it or popularize it, especially not there.  I and others I know danced with people from Bs. As. that way before we ever heard of Susanna Miller.  To her credit she does not usually make the claim either.
Charles