[Tango-L] The spread of Tango

[Alexis Cousein]

On 14/06/2011 02:17, Tango22 wrote:
>  Is it fair to say this is how exported Tango developed in the
 > past into ballroom etc.,  and may be doing so again?

Only if someone starts to write a syllabus of steps,
manages to become authoritative and manages to divorce
the dancers from BBAA practice indefinitely (I think too
many people go to BBAA these days, and these people
*do* come back).

Ballroom also has a peculiar obsession with uniformity
(I mean, how on earth are you supposed to
dance in another country if they don't have the
exact same syllabus of steps and music)
which goes against the tango grain.

No, I don't think it's doing so again. I think the
danger of that was actually greater when I started
dancing tango in the very late 1980s and early 1990s,
because the links with BBAA were tenuous, invited
teachers were often pure show dancers, and because
the unique obsessions of tango (about leading,
improvisation and musicality) were not familiar at
all.