[Tango-L] Social vs Anti-Social Tango. Was Navigation

[Sandhill Crane]

--- On Sat, 1/15/11, Brick Robbins <brick at brickrobbins.com> wrote:

> I have been egregiously run into many times by "Susana-Miller-trained
> square-close-embrace-only, downtown-milonguero-style,
> anything-else-is-not-tango" anti-social leaders who loudly and often
> complain about "nuevo dancers."
> 
> I have had many very comfortable tandas dancing near "open embrace
> nuevo" social leaders, who transition to something more compact as the
> floor gets crowded.

Hmm, where are you dancing, by the way? I see (in western
North America) something rather different ... the self-
proclaimed milonguero types are at least well-behaved
(whatever you might think about their devotion to the one
true tango). The well-behaved tango nuevo enthusiast, on
the other hand, is almost a theoretical construct. Yes,
they could modify what they're doing to accommodate others.
But they just don't bother. Why should they? Their partners
and their friends don't care, the organizers say nothing,
and the only people who complain are idiots like me who
count for nothing.

Aside from people from identifiable camps, I'm leaving out
the ones who are either inexperienced or perennially clueless;
not much to say about that in either case.

> I think it has a lot more to do with attitude and respect
> than the shape of the embrace.

Agreed.

> "Can't we just all get along"

Well, I'm reserving my judgement about that.
I try to be considerate, but we can get along only to
the extent that others are willing to return the favor.