What is missing from many demonstrations of social tango is elegance of movement. Whether called close-embrace or milonguero-style tango, the social-tango "movement" in the United States eschewed elegance of movement to emphasize rhythm, improvisation and navigation skills. Elegance of movement may have been deemphaiszed as a element of show dancing or to concentrate on other skills.
Of course, inelegant movement need not be a characteristic of social dancing, as many Argentine teachers frequently demonstrate. The deemphasis of elegance may have led to a greater democratization of tango and participation in the United States than otherwise would have occurred. Because the milonguero-style tango movement is now more than a decade old, it is natural to think that dancers will introduce changes--either through more complicated (nuevo) elements or more refined movement. Both are happening. With best regards, Steve _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
