Hi, I have recently joined this list and I am a male dancer in my late twenties, dancing tango for about a year now. Elitism is exactly the word that really strikes me when I read many of the posts on this list - even when it is the subject being discussed. Quite honestly, it is somewhat depressing and discouraging to follow a lot of posts here because they often suggest the idea - from both men and women - that only those who have perfected the art already and are sitting in the high towers of tango are entitled to truly enjoy the dance and "get the good dances and dancers", etc... and that it is extremely difficult and takes the equivalent of studying for a graduate degree or more to get there. I totally disagree with that.
I certainly do not want to get a PhD in tango, I've already been there in another field. Nevertheless, I love tango because the music and the intensity of the dance touch me on a very deep level. I went to my first milonga right after my first class, which was a wonderful weekend workhshop in Berlin. I could only walk and do a few ochos and I only danced with my class-partner and one of her friends, but it was enough to capture me into the beauty of a milonga. When I introduce tango to friends, I always tell them that the beauty of it is that the basic idea is so simple - you just want to embrace someone and walk with her, that there only a few simple steps and you create your own dance by creatively combining these steps according to the music; and the fact that there are no rules in tango, basically everything is tango as long as it feels good to both partners and is in harmony with the music. I often invite women who have never danced before to try it once with me, take them right to the dance floor and tell them just to try to sense and follow my steps. And it often goes pretty well... I see tango as a way of socializing, as a way of unwinding a long day, to completely turn off all worries and thoughts that I might have and devote myself to the beauty of the moment. It rarely fails to make me feel wonderful, no matter how bad I felt before. And I believe that you do not have to be a dancer with dozens of years of experience to get that feeling and thoroughly enjoy a milonga in this way. If you could promote this thought you could probably get many more male and young female dancers to the floor. In fact, I'm somewhat surprised that especially in university classes you have lots of young dancers but they barely show up in milongas... That said, I do adhere to some unwritten rules of milongas. I observe the dance floor for a while before starting to dance and try to not ask the really good dancers to dance - as I assume they would prefer dancing with more experienced leaders - in a sense, respecting their cliques, even if that means that I am (and perhaps even they are) sitting down for a couple of tandas. This is even more true about young dancers and cliques as I somehow (perhaps wrongly, I don't know) feel that they have even higher expectations (note that this observation confirms that elitism and cliques are quite existent in milongas). As another rule of thumb, I usually do not ask the same woman twice during a milonga - even if the first dance went really well - unless I know her well. And I also usually say upfront that I have been dancing only for so long. Following these ideas, I have in about 80-90 % of the time really wonderful dances and meet wonderful women to dance with all around the world, wherever I go. Sometimes I even end up with a really good dancer after all and it is still a beautiful experience. In fact, most of the women I have met and danced with in milongas turned out to be extremely nice and friendly people, fully enjoying the dance with me, and giving me often positive feedback and encouragement. Very much unlike the ideas that are suggested here that you have to show off with fancy moves to catch the attention of the good followers, etc.... Turned out to be a lengthy one for a first post :) All the best, --Siamak _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
