[Tango-L] The spread of tango

[Alexis Cousein]

On 11/06/2011 22:35, romerob at telusplanet.net wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is in reference to johnofbristol at tiscali.co.uk who wrote:
> .....but my understanding is that Ballroom and Argentine tango were the same
> thing a century ago, and have developed in different directions.
>
> And to Alexis Cousein who says that "Ballroom Tango" as introduced in the UK is
> a very different (and very narrow) animal from "Tango danced in ballrooms in
> BBAA".
>
> Here is bit more information:
>
>> From La Coreografia del Tango by Ines Cuello, Antologia del Tango.
>
>> En el área rioplatense, algunos manuales de danza incluyeron la coreografía
> del tango con posterioridad a la aparición en Europa de las metodizaciones
> realizadas por los especialistas en bailes de salón. Así lo advierte uno de sus
> auto¬res en nota a pie de página: "Las teorías de los bailes anteriores son
> extraídas de las revistas que recibimos periódicamente de Europa y N. América y
> los bailes los enseñamos con extricto (sic) rigor a dichas teorías." 6<

That's marketing literature (which tries to convince a high class
audienc that whatever is thaught is "de rigueur"). Which is very
different from reality, as I'm sure we all know, especially in
the context of a social dance.

Look at film archives, and tell me whether what you see there
is ballroom tango.