--- Heather Whitehead <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The source of Nuevo's inferiority is that it is a > movement based Movement. It is motivated by the biomechanic possibilities.
Sorry, but salon tango or any other tango has also been motivated by biomechanic possibilities. I don't think that the music inspired any guy to say "Gee, I really feel like kicking my leg between a woman's leg" (ganchos) or "I'm really inspired to walk into her" (sacadas). I'm pretty sure those guys in the men-only practicas were experimenting exactly with biomechanic possibilities, as well as smoking cigarettes, discussing women, and doing whatever it is guys do. The difference between what happened then and what is happening now is one of sheer scale. Information is being dissiminated faster than ever before. People are traveling a lot more and sharing all of this information. And this information is helping make tango more accessible to more people of various backgrounds. So it's taken a while for it to be integrated into tango culture, but like or not, it is happening. I see this phase in tango as a transitional period, the tail end of the renassaince. What I also see is a merging of nuevo ideas into "traditional". Indeed, some nuevo ideas have been in "traditional" tango all along. Single-axis turns is somthing Daniel Lapadula has been doing for years and years but didn't know that it as "nuevo". "Linear molinetes" used to be called the "grapevine". And if you haven't noticed, more nuevo dancers are going back to classic tango. Jaimes Friedgen and Andres Amarilla have been emphasizing the classic figures in their teaching. In Ann Arbor, hardly any alternative music was played in their recent festival. But this doesn't mean that neuvo or alternative music is going away. It just means that people are now figuring out how to work it into social tango much better than before. And there are young male dancers out there who are getting the thumbs up from teachers from all styles. From the nuevo teachers to the salon teachers to milonguero teachers, including Susana Miller. This is where I see tango heading, and it looks good. Here's a little perspective. Years ago at a milonga, an excellent close-embrace teacher and I were sitting down watching one of my students. He said "That guy could be one of the best dancers in the East Coast if he'd only stop doing that open stuff. I'd give him free lessons to help him." And I thought, this young man hasn't had his first real job, gotten married, had a kid, changed jobs or lived life. Would I encourage him to limit his life? Heck no. Why would I encourage him to limit his tango? On the contrary, I'd like him to be the best dancer he could be. And he's become a wonderful dancer and colleague. With guys like him developing here and in other places, I'm not worried too much about the influence Nuevo has had on social tango. Trini de Pittsburgh PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburghs most popular social dance! http://patangos.home.comcast.net/ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
