On 09/06/2011 10:22, [email protected] wrote: > Yes I see what you mean, but my understanding is that Ballroom and > Argentine tango were the same thing a century ago, and have developed > in different directions.
That's not how I see it at all. Argentine tango was a social dance and without an official syllabus, and even though Ballroom tango was derived from it, it was nevertheless changed dramatically from the start (amongst others, by adopting a very different embrace and posture and by largely abandoning the particular emphasis on playful musicality and improvisation). So I don't think it's fair to say that Ballroom and Argentine tango were "the same thing". Perhaps that's how that was presented to people in Europe who would have had no access to the original Argentine tango as danced in Buenos Aires, but I doubt the social dancers there would ever have agreed it was the same thing (even though very early Argentine tango from the 1910 and early 1920s was probably closer to Ballroom tango --more common use of promenades as a salida, ruedas, scissors-- than what later became Golden era tango). _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
