Brian wrote - Chicho is drawing a distinction between "antique tango" as a "violently marked" tango, as opposed to "today's" tango, whose dancers are "able to dance without barely touching one another". The history of tango dance over the decades since the 1920's can be seen from one perspective as a progressive reduction of violence and unnecessary force in relationships between men and women (or leaders and followers, if you prefer) in the dance. This trend will likely continue. Perhaps we can hope those leaders will, over time, improve their connection skills to the point where such characterizations will no longer apply to them. My concern is that they are unaware of the relative violence and roughness in their dance, because they believe they are apparently meeting the observable "requirements" of their chosen "style".
Brian, Violent, course, rough Tango in any age is, very simply, bad dancing, caused by lack of skill, ignorance and/or overblown ego. Some men want to take Tango by the throat and beat it into submission. Others get waylaid by figures and/or ego. They will never improve. To dance Tango well, a man must submerge his ego, learn to concentrate on the music and dance in her place, feeling her movement, giving energy and space in equal measure. He must be willing to devote the time to let the Tango come to him. and from Sandhill Crane....... people should dance open-embrace until they know each well enough for close embrace, even if one partner or the other customarily dances in close embrace. In open embrace you can be much more forgiving about technical problems. Rubbish promoted by incompetent teachers. Like - if I learn Three Blind Mice, it will make playing Beethoven easier? Sorry, you have do the hard yards up front if you want to be any good. Best wishes, John _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
