[Tango-L] Subject: What's Nuevo?

[Carole McCurdy]

Hola Mario,

Regarding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y8CQZs9f8s

Thanks for posting this! This demonstration dance by Rodrigo and Mila is so 
beautifully musical, playful and connected! A lovely melding of traditional 
salon intimacy with the "gyrotonic" extensions of nuevo. Magnificent leading and 
following by these two talented dancers, who are not "bespoke partners." 
(Rodrigo is touring in Europe right now...) 

Look at the passage between 2:03 and 2:30. It starts with a simple walk with 
ochos in close embrace, adorned by Mila's piquant accenting taps outside 
Rodrigo's left foot, and ending the musical phrase at 2:15 with a side step 
where Rodrigo leads a "pisadita" (is that a term of art in tango? dunno, but you 
see what I mean, and how very cute it is!); then, at 2:19, he opens the embrace 
with a colgada/boleo (notice Mila's smile of delight, and how as a sensitive 
follower she has already allowed her left arm to slide the embrace open, 
permitting this possibility) and he leads a polyrhythmic interpretation that 
gives Mila full swing while he cranks into his own riff at 2:26. 

What to call this? Salon Nuevo, maybe. On my most recent trip to Buenos Aires 
(dec-jan), I heard that term for the first time. I'm not sure if it's a label 
that Rodrigo or Mila would choose to describe their dance; they'd likely just 
call it tango. I call it delicious tango, with a flavor of taking disassociation 
to its fullest limits.

To disclose my bias, I'll admit that I took some classes and privates with 
Rodrigo while in BsAs and was impressed by his dancing, his teaching, and his 
menschiness. He's a young talent to watch. I'm an average milonguero-style 
follower of 10+ years and am not fully conversant in the nuevo vocabulary, but 
the stuff that Rodrigo does is all based on partner connection and hearing the 
music. Mila (the Muscovite divina) I saw numerous times dancing at El Beso 
(bastion of the milonguero style, all social dancing), and she was sought after 
by leaders of all styles and stripes. No wonder: her dance is elegant, playful, 
nuanced, musical, as you see in the video you posted--where she and Rodrigo are 
challenging each other creatively.

Not sure if this addresses your question, but I hope this adds to a conversation 
that won't turn rough!

Carole in Chicago