On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 6:34 AM, Martin Waxman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > For those on the list who firmly believe that gender roles in > Argentine Tango are specific. > > If the Brothers Macana are not dancing Argentine Tango, what are they dancing?
The Brothers Macana are performing, not dancing at a milonga. What makes their performance humorous is that they are violating the codes of the milonga. In my single days, before I learned tango, I dated a woman who had been a ballerina in her youth. She explained to me that ballet has defined roles for men and women. At a particularly innovative modern dance performance we attended, she said that much of the choreography was based on ballet, but it went beyond in adding new elements. What was particularly interesting about this performance (sorry, I can't remember the dance company) was that the gender roles were reversed at times. Art can be creative that in breaking rules it exposes the rules. This is what the Brothers Macana are doing. On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 2:06 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I searched on YouTube and found a good example of two men dancing where > the follower, always the same man, is definitely more feminine than the > leader, even if perhaps not as feminine as most women: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmjQfp1glo > This video is another example of a good performance that deviates from tango, not only in gender roles, but also incorporating elements of tango, nuevo, and modern dance. It is creative and very well done in my opinion, but it is not tango, not even performance tango. On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 7:42 AM, Nina Pesochinsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Men dancing together is a diffrent thing than a man > following a woman. Men dancing with each other has been a part of > the development of AT, but women leading men has not. > Men PRACTICING with men has been part of the PAST history of tango in Buenos Aires. It is not common today. This is not to say that both men and women cannot benefit from learning what is involved in leading and following by exchanging gender roles (women lead men, men lead men, women lead women) in a practica or even a class if it is done by consent. In fact, every tango instructor should learn the opposite gender role. But this a teaching environment, not the social environment of the milonga. The gender codes of tango apply to the milonga. Ron _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
