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

[RonTango]

----- Original Message ----
> From: RonTango <rontango at rocketmail.com>

> I cannot see 
> how non-tango music gets everybody into the right energy. I would say that it is 
> more likely that non-tango music gets people into the wrong energy. 

> Catering to the people who dislike tango 
> music creates communities that accept non-tango music for doing 'tango steps' as 
> a normal part of the milonga environment. 

I’ve received several responses off-list with regard to these
statements. The counter-arguments that I’ve heard here and in other discussions
with tango organizers is that playing non-tango music makes tango accessible to
people who are not familiar with it and might not like it upon first hearing it,
but that they will learn to like it later. It is true that some tango music
takes time and repeated listening to enjoy, but not all of it falls into that
category. I believe that some part of the aversion to classic tango music is a
dislike for the recording quality of the pre-1950s recordings. There is a way
to get around that, as I discuss below.
 
We may believe that playing neo-tango and non-tango music
will teach people to later enjoy the classic tango music that was created for
dancing tango, but it is more likely that we will attract people who will
continue to want to dance to neo-tango and non-tango. Perhaps this accounts for
the proliferation of ‘alternative milongas’ at the expense of traditional milongas outside Argentina.
In some communities classic tango music represents a minority of the music played
or dancing ‘tango’. This is hardly an accurate representation of tango argentino.
 
What we do in our tango environment (classes and milongas)
is play only classic tango music. The first exposure most of our students have
to tango music is in our beginner classes. We start out playing higher quality
recordings - Di Sarli from the mid-50s, adding a little D’arienzo from the same
period. For valses, we play Quinteto Pirincho from the 50s. Then we move into
some Di Sarli, Canaro, and D’arienzo from earlier periods, adding some Rodriguez,
Fresedo, and Donato, even some of the more sedate Biagi, all music with a clear
rhythm. We sell CDs from these orchestras. We sell a good number of CDs. If you
start playing music with a clear rhythm, the students enjoy connecting with the
music and they learn to like classic tango music. Even if you consider the
lower quality recordings, the students learn to enjoy such classics as:
 
- Al compas del Corazon (Calo)
- Corazon (Di Sarli)
- El flete (D’arienzo)
- La tapera (Donato)
- Milonga del 900 (Canaro)
- Milonga de mis amores (Canaro)
- Poema (Canaro)
- Racing Club (Biagi)
- Romance de Barrio (Troilo)
- Tango Argentino (Rodriguez)
- Verdemar (Di Sarli)
- Vida mia (Fresedo)
 
What’s not to like in these recordings?
 
If these and similar recordings are played at milongas, the
beginning students ears are trained to listening to the best tango music for
dancing. It also helps if the students are taught to walk to the music instead
of focusing on patterns to memorize. 
 
The key to getting beginners to like tango is to expose them
to clearly danceable music and teach them to connect to the music. An opposite
strategy, often employed, is to teach step patterns with any kind of music in
the background. (I once took a workshop where sequences of giros were taught with new age
music in the background.)

Ron