[Tango-L] The Basics
Shahrukh Merchant
shahrukh at shahrukhmerchant.com
Mon Sep 20 23:14:19 EDT 2010
Brick Robbins <brick at brickrobbins.com> wrote:
> It has been my observation that many people who dance exclusivity in a
> close embrace have issues with posture and balance, of which they are
> not aware.
That's an interesting twist ... which one could reformulate to the
effect that, "Since dancing (well) in close embrace is harder than
dancing in open embrace [no argument from me there], many people end up
dancing with poor technique when the dance could be simplified for them
to make it easier, and hence easier to dance correctly."
This theory has already been thought of and put into practice several
decades ago, and very successfully I might add, by the Arthur Murray and
similar schools in the 40s(?). American-style Ballroom Tango (not to be
confused with the travesty that is the "Standard" or "International"
Tango) was indeed a (gross) simplification of Argentine Tango for a
casual social dancer, which removed all the difficulty of the close
embrace, not to mention cultural "space" issues. That it became one of
the staples of social dancing in the US in that timeframe (along with
Waltz, Foxtrot, Cha Cha, Rumba, Swing ...) is testimony to the success
of that approach (at least commercially and socially).
Most exponents of Argentine Tango, though, probably have decided,
explicitly or implicitly, to sacrifice that simplicity for the added
richness that the real thing gives.
> The ability to control one's own position and change of
> axis without the crutch of using the partner as support makes for a
> much better dancer
That is far too overstated. The implication of the above that I *would*
agree with is that a truly *bad* dancer (i.e., not just an inexperienced
one) will look (and feel) less bad in open embrace.
> , and the practice of dancing in an open embrace
> makes these skills more evident.
Or rather, that it makes the *lack* of these skills *less* evident.
Shahrukh
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