I see in this and other tango forums a near-hysterical obsession with nuevo tango and its perceived threat to "real authentic tango" - which usually means "tango the way I do it" but justified often by claiming their way is how its done in the tango Mecca of Buenos Aires. In the 20 years I've been obsessed with tango I've seen the same hysteria twice before in tango. Both times it blew over only to be replaced by yet another thing to be alarmed about, this time nuevo.
For that matter I've seen similar alarms in other fields, starting with swing when I was 15 in the 50s and learned the rock'n'roll version from a barmaid between school and happy hour in my uncle's honky-tonk. Later I took up west- coast swing. In both styles of swing I saw several different hostile divisions. In the east coast swing it was between the Benny Goodman swingers (the "real true swing") and rock'n'rollers of the 50s. I also learned the Balboa, though only as a curiosity. It is a sort of "milonguero" version of swing developed in the shoulder-to-shoulder Benny-Goodman-years of swing. http://www.balboanation.com/balboa.html The interesting thing about the Balboa is that there were two versions - the tight "milonguero" form, and the new bat-swing form which opened up the embrace and allowed nuevo swing moves. The couple from whom I learned the Balboa waxed nostalgic about the times when hostile camps fought over which was the real swing. Here is a video that shows a couple starting in classic Balboa form and moving into bat-swing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gunvVp-Qymg When I moved to L.A. in 1982 to work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab I first got involved in the swing community here. But I started dating a woman from Columbia, who introduced me to the cumbia, a sort of slow salsa with different instruments. (You should learn the cumbia if you're going to Buenos Aires, since it's easy to learn and a popular dance in the non-tango tandas in many milongas, and a good way to meet people you may want to dance tango with.) >From there I moved to the salsa world. And found yet another set of hostile camps. The older salseros danced on the two, doing the first step of the triple-step basic on the second beat of the 4/4 measure. The newer salseros danced on the one, the first beat of the measure. Oh, the anger and arguments! And with that perspective let's move back to tango nuevo. I consider myself a nuevo dancer, and can do some of the more radical moves. I'll sometimes do them very early or very late when the floor is more open and my partner also has a nuevo background or is simply a very good dancer. But when the floor gets crowded I tighten up my embrace and do small movements. Nor am I an exception. Most of the people I've seen in tango nuevo classes do the same. Of course you always see people who race, stop for a long time and block the flow, play chicken with other dancers, and bump you if you're in their way. But this has nothing to do with the style of tango they do. It's because they are selfish, arrogant, ass-holes. You see that in every form of dance, especially in the salsa and east-coast swing world where dancing sometimes seems a form of warfare. Maybe courtesy is less in newer tango communities, but L.A. is a mature tango community and carelessness on the dance floor is one of those rough edges that have been much smoothed since the early 90s - though it still exists. Ass-hole- ness never goes all the way away. Larry de Los Angeles http://shapechangers.wordpress.com ____________________________________________________________ Click to become a master chef, own a restaurant and make millions. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2131/fc/PnY6rbuqwfCNSFfTKIcVMJh3dov5ovio2SORUzN1mVU1K1g3hVBqa/ _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
