On 08/06/2011 05:04, Tango22 wrote: > I'm curious to know from those in European and Asian countries, > who or what specially popularized tango in your country.?.....
In Flanders, "who" would have to be (in only my opinion, of course) Pol Van Assche. Not particularly because of authenticity or technical prowess, but because of the sheer organisational talent of the man (and his ability to cast a very wide net by getting noticed by all the media), his ability to drag Argentines over to our little country, and the fact that he was and is unequalled at keeping people enthusiastic about dancing tango. Whatever people think of Pol Van Assche, many of those who persevered started to dance with him. [Note: I only speak for the Flemish part of the country. Don't ask me who spread tango in Wallonia, which seems to have a totally different scene.] It all started in the end of the 80s. I must say that we took far longer to acquire a reasonable skill set than people who're starting to dance now (if they know how to pick the right teachers at the right time). It actually took quite a number of years for someone to really start spreading to the masses the particular musicality that's so essential in social tango -- we must've spent the better part of five years to a decade dancing only to the strong beat :/. In Antwerp, that credit would most likely have to go to Sergio Molini, but of course Antwerp is a very narrow definition of "here". In Brussels, it would be much more difficult to select one hero out of an entire host of people involved in spreading tango (Sergio Molini and Pablo Inza y Gladys Fernandez were probably amongst the earlier ones, but if I ventured to make a list I'd probably forget someone important. As an example, I can't remember who managed to drag Tete to Brussels in the 90s, even though I have vivid memories of him dancing in the 'Charlot' in the small milonga organised by Linne (sp?) and Maryline Lefort.) Interestingly some credit must go to Maurice Bejart and Jorge Donn for dragging Argentine dancers to the Brussels Mudra school for contemporary dance, as some of those returned to both their tango roots *and* to Brussels. Maurice Bejart: how's that for an unlikely suspect ;) ). _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
