On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 1:41 AM, <jb34...@att.net> wrote: > As Sergio Vandekier and Clay Nelson, among others, patiently explained, > Argentine tango has been evolving.
Yes, tango has been evolving, but within certain boundaries that still characterize tango as a social dance. Among these is a respect for the other dancers on the floor, which means adhering to the line of dance and not invading the space of other dancers. Some of the more highly evolved forms derived from tango, such as nuevo, have suspended such rules. > We should appreciate the wisdom of the Buenos Aires city fathers who > obviously recognized that evolution. There were probably some mothers involved in that decision making too. > Why did they set the minimum of the traditional argentine tango music at 70% > and not at 95% or 90%? Because there are other dance rhythms played at Buenos Aires milongas, such as cumbia, swing, and chacarera. This si part of the porten~o culture. There are dances called 'bailes' where less than 70% of the music is tango (milonga and vals). A 'milonga' will play no more than 30% of these other rhythms (to which tango is not danced). > Accordingly, these days, an event called milonga should offer traditional > tango music as well as some of the late music ( say Libedinsky, Gotan, etc ) > and even offer some non-tango music to experiment with. Madeleine Peyroux or > Frank Sinatra come to mind, e.g. 'Should offer some non-tango music to experiment with'? This is a very ethnocentric viewpoint. What plays in Peoria does not necessarily play in Buenos Aires. Very few porten~os want to dance tango to tango fusion music and thus there are very few places playing tango fusion for dancing tango. Argentines do not want to go to a 'milonga' and find out that 30% of the music is electrotango and the like. It is mostly foreigners who connect with these non-Argentine rhythms who want to do that. Of course, if you invade Buenos Aires and flood it with dollars, euros, pounds, and yen, demanding neotango at the milongas, you too will change the course of tango history. > No need for segregation into afternoon(!) neo-milongas or alternative > milongas. Yes, there is. There are many, many people, including non-Argentines, who do not like to dance tango to non-tango music (including the mislabeled 'neotango', which lacks a tango rhythm). I suppose some creative marketer could replace the accordion with a bandoneon in a polka band and market that as 'tango fusion' and some mis-informed individuals would think it is milonga. We all benefit by correct labeling of so-called 'tango' events. I have been to events advertised as 'milongas' where almost no or even ZERO traditional tango music has been played. Language is intended to communicate. Loose definitions of tango and milonga are what have people on tango-l up in arms. Ron _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l