You raised some interesting ideas, Shahrukh. The world owes a debt of gratitude to Argentina for its gift of the music, dance and culture of Tango. Like a child raised in a loving family, Tango has become strong, left the home of its parents and gone out into the world. Tango is now French, Finnish, Japanese, Chinese, Australian and just about every other nationality. Though never denying its roots in Argentina, each country adds elements of its own culture to the dance. Tango is strong enough to accept such diversity and still retain the passionate core which gives it its unmistakable identity.
If we try to deny the diversity that Tango is absorbing, by slavishly adhering to the customs of its origins, then we are in danger of turning it into the stultified and grotesque parody of human passion that International Tango (also called Ballroom Tango, Tango de salon) has become. There is a milonga in Paris, where dancers find on the tables sheets of paper containing the organiser's preferred codegas, reminiscent of Standing Orders or Orders of the Day posted in military barracks. I'm all for the codegas of the milonga, they promote a more congenial atmosphere, free from the minor socially stressful moments that can arise in a place where strangers and friends mix, but when someone awards him or herself the authority to enforce them, the opposite effect is felt, an authoritarian and unfriendly atmosphere. One recent night, I was there with my dancing partner, a vivacious person for whom music and dance are almost as essential as air and water. Standing in a corner during a cortina, we started to move in rhythm with the music, much as one would if one hears music when waiting in a queue, and as my partner often does anywhere, when taken by a piece of music, either heard or imagined. The organiser crossed the entire length of the floor, with a face like a thunderstorm blowing in from the North Sea, to tell us that we were not allowed to dance during the cortina, and that the cortina would continue until we stopped! Is this the atmosphere that the codegas are intended to produce? On leaving that night, it was made clear to us that we were not welcome in his milonga. So be it, I can understand why private milongas by invitation only, have become a phenomenom in Paris, for people who want to escape the Tango Dictators. Reg Hardman On May 20, 2012 at 7:35 PM Shahrukh Merchant <shahr...@shahrukhmerchant.com> wrote: ...snip... > > If you generalize this observation, there are many aspects of > > milongas > in Buenos Aires that, strictly speaking, are not essential to > emulate in > order to dance Tango, but which has nonetheless evolved to be > part of > the mainstream concept of "milonga" outside Buenos Aires and > Argentina > as well. ...snip... > There's another list too, of milonga traditions that have > developed > outside Buenos Aires, that don't exist in Buenos Aires (or exist > to a > negligible degree). Anyone care to take a shot at that? The use > of > "alternative" Tango [sic] music would be the most obvious > example, but > on the positive side we have complimentary refreshments tables > and in > some cases BYO wine (regulations permitting ... and sometimes > not > permitting notwithstanding ...). > > Shahrukh Merchant _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l