On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:20:36 -0400, "Carol Shepherd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Ron: > > I second your observation on this trend. All dance, when it comes to > America, seems to not only gets transmogrified into something different, > it also gets turned into a competitive sport;
Read up on your tango history. Competition between dancers has been the *number one* factor in the evolution of tango. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this discussion, tango would have become historical reenactment at best before the turn of the last century. Formal tango competitions occured as far back as 1926. Informal competitions went on continuously. Men guarded their steps jealously from competitors, and sought to steal steps from other dancers at the same time. The cultural underpinnings in Argentine society during proto-tango times are the same cultural underpinnings that made Afro-American dance from cakewalk to Lindy Hop to breakdance what it is and was and probably always will be. Famous dancers built teaching careers as early as 1910. Dancers like El Cachafaz and Petroleo were so admired as innovators that in the space of a few years, all of Buenos Aires changed how they danced because of them. Something as simple as the cruzada, didn't get the exploration it deserved until the late 30's. That exploration so changed the face of tango that it made close embrace possible: a woman can't comfortably do a molinete in close embrace without it unless she has double jointed hips. Why did the guy even bother to take the risk of exploring the possibilities in the women's front cross, when he could have been getting ahead incrementally by exploring the same space in the dance as the other guys? Could it have been because he was looking for something to put his own stamp on the dance with? Why did all the other guys who observed the phenomenon before him then pass up the opportunity to explore cruzada-space? Could it have been because it was so simple on its face they didn't think there was anything important to learn there? Today's best leaders are constantly playing off each other *on the dance floor*, being inspired by other's best stuff and showing off their own best stuff. This includes people who are considered strict milonguero style dancers. Every time we want to put a circle around the some part of the dance and and point at it and say "everything in there, that's the real tango", something or someone comes along and tells you how little you know. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Be grateful for competition. We would still be dancing polka and schottiche without it. Christopher _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
