Nina Pesochinsky wrote: > From what I hear, Australia is not a very crowded place. Maybe > Piazzolla could be considered social dancing there, but probably no > place else.:)
Well, it depends more on the size of the dance floor than the size of the country, surely. Yes, we often have a fair amount of space to play with, but certainly not always. > So how about designating what is acceptable as social Argentine tango > country-by-country, such as Piazolla for Australia, Milonga Gay in > every city in the U.S., stage tango in Russia, etc. Instead of other > fake styles, such as milonguero, nuevo, etc., there could be new > styles,. such as "Argentine tango US style", or "Argentine tango > Australian style", etc. :) How about recognising that people dance according to the conditions? If there is space on the floor, it is perfectly acceptable to make use of some of it. When things get crowded, you bring your movements in tighter. In any case, it is certainly possible to dance to Piazzolla in crowded conditions. Like David said, it's a case of what you're used to. If you choose never to dance to nuevo music, you'll never be very practised at dancing to it. I take difficult music as a challenge, especially when the music has as much beauty as Piazzolla's. Dammit, I _want_ to dance to that. I want to turn that fantastic music into movement. Personally, I'm against "splitting up" tango, other than by music. Milonga is different to Tango is different to Vals is different to Nuevo. You dance to each type of music in a different way. I don't dance to a milonga the same way I dance to a tango, any more than I dance nuevo style to a tango or vals. Can anyone claim to dance "true Argentine Tango"? Do they dance the same way in BsAs now as they did in the twenties? Is Tango something to be fossilised and enshrined in a strict form, or is it a living art form? If it's a living art form, which is certainly what I want to be part of, then you can never really define it precisely. And you shouldn't even try. That's what happened to ballroom dancing, and now there's no room for creativity any more in it. As has been pointed out, "Strictly Ballroom" is a scarily accurate portrayal. If people aren't interested in dancing "Argentine Tango", then they'll dance something else. Anyone who calls what they do "Argentine Tango" is presumably looking to Argentina as the source for their art form. But Argentina is more than the BsAs milongas, it's the street dancers and stage shows as well. -- Myk Dowling _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l