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

[AJ Azure]

I know this will sound ultra radical (tongue in cheek) but, you failed to
mention utilizing live music and re-recordings of old music to deal with the
sound quality. Swing dancers don't have the same issues because, they
continuously support and welcome live music. They don't treat the music as
only living in a vacuum of the original artists. They do in fact straddle
between the old and the new. They also take the opportunity live music
allows to challenge them as dancers by requiring spontaneity. Maybe it's
because, I  play live music but, I just don't see why this aspect is largely
and sadly ignored.

-A


> From: RonTango <rontango at rocketmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 04 May 2010 20:39:23 -0700 (PDT)
> To: <tango-l at mit.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Why are you dancing tango if you don't like tango?
> 
> ----- 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. 

I¹ve received several responses off-list
> with regard to these
statements. The counter-arguments that I¹ve 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 Œalternative milongas¹ at the expense of traditional milongas outside
> Argentina.
In some communities classic tango music represents a minority of
> the music played
or dancing Œtango¹. 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
> D¹arienzo from the same
period. For valses, we play Quinteto Pirincho from the
> 50s. Then we move into
some Di Sarli, Canaro, and D¹arienzo 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 (D¹arienzo)
- 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)
 
What¹s 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