Thanks Alexis, I enjoy your clarity and open mindedness. Thanks also to Ron for provoking me consider another perspective.
I wonder what would happen if we all put as much time into improving and enjoying our dance as we did into defending/classifying/debating? Would it produce a new "species of dance"? Or just a bunch of people enjoying and refining something they love to do, side by side with as much personal differentiation as the setting allows.... I will confess off the record that I actually danced several ocho cortados tonight at practica X, dancing in close embrace to D'Arienzo with an exquisite Argentine follower while the couple next to us was doing soltadas and over-turned ganchos. (There are occasionally bumps in this setting where styles from several continents and generations meet, but on the whole its good humored, and good dancing of any style is generally respected....) While chatting between songs my partner expressed to me that her favorite thing was to dance in a comfy close embrace but with the dynamics of the younger dancers...sounds like we're still a long way from distinctly different species...or perhaps we have a new, new thing, should we call it NuevoClassico? (i jest, in fact I'm happy to just call it tango.) One more curious example: Tango Brujo, generally considered a Nuevo school, is doing an ongoing series with their Thursday practica where they are inviting milongueros to come and share their perspective with the younger dancers. The idea being that there is much commonality, and much to be learned from the experience of others. This week the guest is rumored to be Carlitos Perez, who runs the famous Villa Urquiza practica at Sunderland. How delightful, to have Perez and Gaston and Mariela fusing and exchanging movements and styles...the oldest and the newest in the same space. Please understand, I don't mean to pick a fight or criticize the well formed opinions of others but to share a different perspective and some evidence of a tolerance for (or even mixing of ) different styles here in Buenos Aires (certainly we can find the same in the US and Europe). BsAs is the sort of scene where you can find examples to support almost any view which just suggests to me that there is not much point in making definitions around it. The more interesting question to me is what do we gain by separating generations, styles, and priorities. Are we in fact enriched by homogeny? Certainly on a species level diversity is advantageous, but I'd contend there's a healthy place for diversity even in the milonga or practica. I'm not a big proponent of segregation by style. I'd prefer to be confronted by, and learn to appreciate the priorities of other dancers. In the end I hope this will have a positive influence on the way I enjoy the dance. -Korey On Dec 11, 2007, at 9:16 AM, Alexis Cousein wrote: > Tango Society of Central Illinois wrote: >> Korey, >> What you don't generally see at Buenos Aires milongas are dancers >> dancing >> Tango Nuevo. If elements characteristic of Tango Nuevo (e.g., >> volcadas, >> colgadas, various forms of ganchos and boleos) are seen, it is >> usually out >> of place and frowned on by porten~os. > > Porteños don't have to defend an orthodoxy with the sword, unlike some > members of the list, and can be surprisingly tolerant. > > What they aren't tolerating is someone bothering others. > > Sometimes, if someone is merely embarassing himself a bit too much > but not > really bothering others, they'll gently nudge them, and out > of the kindness of their heart to watch and learn, but that's very > different from the arguments about heresy we keep on hearing here. > >> I have seen some nuevo dancers kick >> bottles off tabletops in Plaza Bohemia. > > Fallacy of insufficient sample: > > This fallacy is committed when a person draws a conclusion about a > population based on a sample that is not large enough. It has the > following form: > > 1. Sample S, which is too small, is taken from population P. > 2. Conclusion C is drawn about Population P based on S. > > [The claim also contains elements of three other fallacies, but I'll > leave > that as an exercise for the reader.] > > Note that I'm not saying it's OK to kick bottles off tabletops. That > doesn't > mean other things (which do not kick bottles off tables nor hinder > other dancers) can't fit. > > Context is everything when you're going to dance something. Exercise > your > judgement, tune your soul to the local TONE, and you'll be fine. > > It's not necessary to compile a list of orthodox and heretical moves > (after > having tried to reconcile the hundreds of conflciting views about what > is heretical and what is not -- thankfully, in Argentine tango > there is no Great Oracle with tablets of stone to decide that) and > memorise them before you put a foot on the dance floor, though. > > To discuss these things as if we were living in Plato's world of > ideals > is a futile exercise. > >> The roots or Tango Nuevo can be seen in movements like ochos and >> giros and >> the cruzada shared with Tango Clasico. However, as an experimental >> dance >> Tango Nuevo has evolved to be quite different than Tango Clasico, > > As I said in another post, I do not believe in the existence of > those two > as rigid and absolute classifications. They're not two species yet, > not until > guardian angels of orthodoxy wielding firey swords manage to > separate the > "chaff" from the "weat" and eliminate all cross-pollinations (what > do we do > with the persons of mixed race? "Purify" them, or cast them into the > abyss?). > > A browsing through some of the historical literature would allow you > to > see that there have always been discussions about orthodoxy, > heterodoxy > and heresy, even within what you would these days undoubtedly classify > as Tango Clasico. > > It's good. It's proof that it's a living dance, just as English is a > living > language. > > -- > Alexis Cousein [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Senior Systems Engineer/Solutions Architect SGI/Silicon Graphics > -- > <If I have seen further, it is by standing on reference manuals> > > _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
