[Tango-L] Buenos Aires Milonga traditions outside Buenos Aires

[zut@zutalors.fr]

You raised some interesting ideas, Shahrukh.

The world owes a debt of gratitude to Argentina for its gift of
the music,
dance and culture of Tango. Like a child raised in a loving
family, Tango
has become strong, left the home of its parents and gone out into
the
world. Tango is now French, Finnish, Japanese, Chinese, Australian
and just
about every other nationality. Though never denying its roots in
Argentina,
each country adds elements of its own culture to the dance. Tango
is strong
enough to accept such diversity and still retain the passionate
core which
gives it its unmistakable identity.

If we try to deny the diversity that Tango is absorbing, by
slavishly
adhering to the customs of its origins, then we are in danger of
turning it
into the stultified and grotesque parody of human passion that
International Tango (also called Ballroom Tango, Tango de salon)
has
become.

There is a milonga in Paris, where dancers find on the tables
sheets of
paper containing the organiser's preferred codegas, reminiscent of
Standing
Orders or Orders of the Day posted in military barracks. I'm all
for the
codegas of the milonga, they promote a more congenial atmosphere,
free from
the minor socially stressful moments that can arise in a place
where
strangers and friends mix, but when someone awards him or herself
the
authority to enforce them, the opposite effect is felt, an
authoritarian
and unfriendly atmosphere.

One recent night, I was there with my dancing partner, a vivacious
person
for whom music and dance are almost as essential as air and water.
Standing
in a corner during a cortina, we started to move in rhythm with
the music,
much as one would if one hears music when waiting in a queue, and
as my
partner often does anywhere, when taken by a piece of music,
either heard
or imagined.

The organiser crossed the entire length of the floor, with a face
like a
thunderstorm blowing in from the North Sea, to tell us that we
were not
allowed to dance during the cortina, and that the cortina would
continue
until we stopped! Is this the atmosphere that the codegas are
intended to
produce? On leaving that night, it was made clear to us that we
were not
welcome in his milonga. So be it, I can understand why private
milongas by
invitation only, have become a phenomenom in Paris, for people who
want to
escape the Tango Dictators.

Reg Hardman




On May 20, 2012 at 7:35 PM Shahrukh Merchant
<shahrukh at shahrukhmerchant.com> wrote:

...snip...

> > If you generalize this observation, there are many aspects of
> > milongas
> in Buenos Aires that, strictly speaking, are not essential to
> emulate in
> order to dance Tango, but which has nonetheless evolved to be
> part of
> the mainstream concept of "milonga" outside Buenos Aires and
> Argentina
> as well.

...snip...

> There's another list too, of milonga traditions that have
> developed
> outside Buenos Aires, that don't exist in Buenos Aires (or exist
> to a
> negligible degree). Anyone care to take a shot at that? The use
> of
> "alternative" Tango [sic] music would be the most obvious
> example, but
> on the positive side we have complimentary refreshments tables
> and in
> some cases BYO wine (regulations permitting ... and sometimes
> not
> permitting notwithstanding ...).
>
> Shahrukh Merchant