tony parkes <[email protected]> said: > last sunday night at porteno y bailarin there was a large young crowd > so both floors had a large proportion of couples dancing nuevo. there > were no physical conflicts,
And last night at El Beso there was a large crowd of all ages (as is usually the case there). Nothing that I saw that resembled outwardly what people call nuevo, except a half-hearted colgada attempt towards the end when there were only a handful of couples on the floor. There were about 5 men causing navigation problems (I memorized their shirt colour and form to make it a little easier to anticipate problems emanating from them and to avoid them). All but one was "young" (let's call that 20-35 range)--the other was well over 60. Yes, the half-hearted colgada guy was one of them. At least one of them was a teacher, and probably a second as well (both Argentines). There was also one guy trying out all sorts of gancho/sacada tricks on his tortured-looking partner that he apparently recently learned, but he was clearly a novice dancer. 80% of the problems they caused (that I experienced and to a lesser extent saw with others) was caused simply by their taking back steps against line of dance without looking or having confirmed the space was clear beforehand. The remaining 20% was caused by aggressive dancing, especially from the "teachers," which by design or otherwise resulted in their clearing a space around them arguably larger than their "fair share" (there were a number of other dancers as or perhaps more technically skilled than they that didn't feel the need to exhibit their "skill" in this way). (Digression -- So whoever said that it was an oversimplification that back steps are the cause of navigation problems (actually it is back steps by the man against line of dance in a crowded situation without having visually cleared the space, and almost always consecutive back steps) was correct on the oversimplification part, but as a practical matter, that would be an *excellent* start, thank you!) But at any rate, I couldn't and wouldn't blame "nuevo" for any of these navigation problems I encountered. > but i for one was emotionally put off by > their dancing with a different energy, a different rhythm, a different > topographical direction. when moreno sang rodriguez's llorar por la > mujer there was no connection by the nuevosists to the lyrics, it > could have been jingle bells. I sympathize -- the energy of the room undoubtedly influences the energy of an empathetic dancer. But where are you going to find a Milonga where everyone or almost everyone is dancing with the same energy, or even with compatible energies?* The energy or rhythm one feels is a personal thing (except for the "different topographical direction" part, which is the previously discussed bad-navigation problem, but they don't necessarily go hand in hand). Yes, there needs to be compatibility in the use and sharing of the space, but even if just out of a "survival instinct," would it not be better to try to isolate the way everyone else is feeling the music or the dance from your own tango enjoyment? Shahrukh _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
