On 09/06/2011 17:08, Trini y Sean (PATangoS) wrote: > Japan and European countries are much smaller, so the ballroom > studios were sufficient until more independent instructors appeared.
[The following applies to Flanders but not to Brussels, where a couple of true Argentines latched on to the success of tango in Flanders early on.] Actually, ballroom studios over here were spectacularly uninterested in introducing real Argentine tango (with its particular emphasis on improvisation, embrace and way of leading). They only latched on to teaching a travesty of AT made to conform to the other ballroom dance philosophy when they saw there was a market for it, developed by others. It was actually introduced by several people independent from ballroom studios. Some were disillusioned ballroom dancers who were eager to try something in which partner connection and improvisation (and yes, 'passion') was more important than strict adherence to an orthodoxy. Interestingly, all were influenced by Argentines but some were influenced by social dancing in Buenos Aires, while others were influenced more by dancers who were performing in shows (bizarrely, without naming names, one couple taught what has the appearance of strict estilo del centro when you see it but not when you feel it, and disparaged another teacher who taught things much closer to show tango but did emphasize connection). Most didn't 'grok' the particular musicality of AT for very long, but that was just blindness, not a conscious attempt at getting rid of it. They actually did encourage people to dance to long phrases in the music and to connect to that aspect of the music, but of course that's only half the story (unless you happen to dance to the hobo version of Piazolla's Oblivion). That also led to selection in the music played at milongas. If all you see is melody, you're much more likely to play di Sarli than to play (pre-war) d'Arienzo. Once we discovered the other aspects of the dance, we rediscovered the joys of dancing to different music too. Not that the pendulum can't swing the other way: we have people who will nag each time you play 'Bajo un Cielo de Estrellas' --a song close to my heart for obvious reasons if you know my other hobbies, perfect while looking at M13-- once Podesta starts to sing, just because it's post-1940. _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
