[Tango-L] Why are you dancing tango if you don't like tango?

[Tom Stermitz]

It's true that some people are only interested in shallow images and  
metaphors of tango, but you're really talking about tango music &  
dance not just cool moves and pretense.


I've noticed that some of the most fanatical Traditional Tango Music  
fans started out hating the music, but enticed if not loving the  
movements of tango and finding expression in music they already feel  
and understand, i.e. rock, world, jazz... whatever. I think key is to  
realize that great dance requires the person to have a passion for  
musical movement and an emotional attachment to music.

1940s tango is great music, but it is unfamiliar to 99% of people  
outside Argentina. It takes time to begin to understand tango, and to  
figure out how to attach feelings to movement. Precisely the SAME  
people with the greatest passion for music and movement, often  
discover that feeling first with non-tango music. When they finally  
figure out "real" tango music, they are capable of converting over.


When I DJ, it is this conversion process that I'm trying to create. By  
good musical choices, the emotional energy of the crowd can be  
massaged and molded. For tango-experienced people, this is possible  
with tango music, but that is harder for a portion of the audience.  
Often, non-tango music works really well to get everybody into the  
right energy.



On May 2, 2010, at 3:49 PM, Lois Donnay wrote:

> I heard the strangest thing last night, and am still puzzling over  
> it....But then she asked me about the Nuevo scene we have. I said we  
> didn't have too much, and I'm not fond of dancing to non-tango music  
> myself. She said she dislikes tango. She much prefers to dance to  
> tango Nuevo. She doesn't have much interest in dancing to  
> traditional tango, and suggested that this may be the reason that  
> young people in our community tend to create their own events.
>
> So my question is: why would someone get involved in tango dancing,  
> so much so that they choose to teach, when they don't like tango?
>
> Lois Donnay
> Minneapolis, MN


Tom Stermitz
http://www.tango.org
Denver, CO 80207