I have no issue with the views of Brian Dunn. But in my opinion, it's not dealing with the fundamental problem facing many of us. I believe a milonga is a venue of social dance, not a forum for experts. In most fields including sports, experts interact with their peers in an environment of equality. When they engage people on a social level, they generally accommodate the lower level of expertise, or risk being labelled an exhibitionist or "show-off". Brian pays tribute to the civility of the young expert dancers of BA with " expressing themselves fully and appropriately within the "boundaries" of the tango environment of the moment." The thing is, that in BA they can also exercise their superior skills by choosing to attend a milonga suitable to their level of expertise. There's probably in excess of 15 milongas on any day of the week from which to choose. In Buenos Aires I select a milonga which plays the style of music I prefer, the style of dancing with which I'm comfortable and an ambience that arouses me. Sadly, for most of us, this isn't the case in our own Cities. Usually there's a clash of cul! tures, music preferences and dance styles. I imagine that practically no one gets what they want. Especially the new-to-tango beginner, whose couple of lessons have illustrated to him/her that after 30 or 40 years of moving themselves around the planet, they haven't mastered the art of walking yet. How do they feel dancing shoulder to shoulder with an expert demonstrating the high end of expertise? I can feel totally competent in a very crowded BA milonga of my choosing, without that peculiar, residual feeling of having to dance for the audience, when I get back to the open spaces of the milongas back home. Whilst I have a layman's interest in things science, I think I would fall asleep during a experts' discourse on quantum theory. Much the same goes for any discussion I have in any other language than English. Intellectually, I'm more akin to a door-stop. Yet I'm sensitive enough to know when I'm made to feel inferior. And I'm fairly certain dancing was never meant to be an intellectual exercise anyway. So I'm not altogether sure an expert's opinion really matters much. In my opinion the essence of dancing is feeling and we're all pretty well experts at that. No one can raise that bar for us.
Just my opinion Anton _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
