Add a Good Quote from a Good Great who didn't dance Good Tango

Tango – it’s just a folk dance!
Chris Krüger
OK, Chris, my landlord in BA, isn’t that famous, but he sure is great. Whenever I hear an extensive digression about the deeper philosophical aspects of tango I smile and silently think to myself: “Chris You were right, so very right!”
 
Tango – it’s just a folk dance!

Chris Krüger​


OK, Chris, my landlord in BA, isn’t that famous, but he sure is great. Whenever I hear an extensive digression about the deeper philosophical aspects of tango I smile and silently think to myself: “Chris You were right, so very right!”


I can understand why you'd say that however unless you're doing simple canyengue stuff then I'm afraid tango is 'just' a folk dance that is also extremely sophisticated in it's technique and execution and takes so damned long to learn. Personally I love canyengue and wish you'd get more of it done socially... but most of us end up having to do sophisticated salon dancing - what a bore! ;)
 
I can understand why you'd say that however unless you're doing simple canyengue stuff then I'm afraid tango is 'just' a folk dance that is also extremely sophisticated in it's technique and execution and takes so damned long to learn. Personally I love canyengue and wish you'd get more of it done socially... but most of us end up having to do sophisticated salon dancing - what a bore! ;)

I quaite agree. Would like to learn more canjengue
 
Hello Light Sleeper,

what makes you think that Canyengue is simple. Took me quite sometime to get even the simplest step right, without having a backache the next morning. ;) By the way, if you like to learn canyengue I can recommend to you Marta Anton & Manolo “El Gallego” Salvador or Luis Gordona & Mirta Sol. Marta & Manolo used to travel Europe and Japan and are the founders of Mocca, a group promoting canyengue. I don’t know if they were in the US too. Luis & Mirta are resident teachers at B.A., but they god a video. (Although no video can teach like a human). Since I’m stuck at Berlin right now, I haven’t meet both for a while.

I wouldn’t say that folk dances are simple or easy, sometimes they are even designed do be demanding, for example all those squat element in russian dances.

Nevertheless I like the folk dance idea, because to me this means, you simply get on the dance floor and do that thing. For me Tango was created by having a good time at the milongas or impressing the paying crowd at the theater or street. It’s just something the urban “folk” does.

Tag lines like “Tango is a sad thought you can dance” or “... is a vertical expression for a horizontal desire” are excellent for the myths of tango and the business thereof. Certainly both contain a grain of truth also. But when the tango bug bites and you go dancing almost every day, you can not be sad or aroused always. At least, I neither can nor would like that.

Moreover, here in Berlin, I often run into people, who want to deepen the spiritual aspects of tango by adding Yoga, Feldenkrais, philosophy and all sorts of self awareness stuff. Why? If you like to discover you true inner self, go looking! If you like to dance, just dance! It’s already time consuming to to this decently, why waste precious tango time by pondering?
 
Hello Light Sleeper,​






what makes you think that Canyengue is simple. Took me quite sometime to get even the simplest step right, without having a backache the next morning. ;) By the way, if you like to learn canyengue I can recommend to you Marta Anton & Manolo “El Gallego” Salvador or Luis Gordona & Mirta Sol. Marta & Manolo used to travel Europe and Japan and are the founders of Mocca, a group promoting canyengue. I don’t know if they were in the US too. Luis & Mirta are resident teachers at B.A., but they god a video. (Although no video can teach like a human). Since I’m stuck at Berlin right now, I haven’t meet both for a while.​



I wouldn’t say that folk dances are simple or easy, sometimes they are even designed do be demanding, for example all those squat element in russian dances.​



Nevertheless I like the folk dance idea, because to me this means, you simply get on the dance floor and do that thing. For me Tango was created by having a good time at the milongas or impressing the paying crowd at the theater or street. It’s just something the urban “folk” does.​



Tag lines like “Tango is a sad thought you can dance” or “... is a vertical expression for a horizontal desire” are excellent for the myths of tango and the business thereof. Certainly both contain a grain of truth also. But when the tango bug bites and you go dancing almost every day, you can not be sad or aroused always. At least, I neither can nor would like that.​



Moreover, here in Berlin, I often run into people, who want to deepen the spiritual aspects of tango by adding Yoga, Feldenkrais, philosophy and all sorts of self awareness stuff. Why? If you like to discover you true inner self, go looking! If you like to dance, just dance! It’s already time consuming to to this decently, why waste precious tango time by pondering?​

Oi..what part of this response is a quote? Eh? Naughty, naughty, naughty. There ain't no debates with the greats. Just a quote from a great, and no debate from the oh not so great.
 
Knowledge is not a passion from without the mind, but an active exertion of the inward strength, vigor and power of the mind, displaying itself from within.
Cudworth, Ralph J
 
Hello Light Sleeper,​



Hi Lui - I agreed with everything in your post - and thanks for the info re the canyengue group. :D

Better get back on topic before Heather gets the hump ;)


An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.


A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.

Mae West
 
O man, learn to dance

I praise the dance, for it frees people
from the heaviness of matter and
binds the isolated to community.
I praise the dance, which demands everything:
health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
who are in constant danger of
becoming all brain, will, or feeling.
Dancing demands a whole person,
one who is firmly anchored in the center of his life,
who is not obsessed by lust for people and things
and the demon of isolation in his own ego.
Dancing demands a freed person,
one who vibrates with the equipoise of all his powers.
I praise the dance.
O man, learn to dance,
or else the angels in Heaven
will not know what to do with you.

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Long, old and quite surprising for a church father. I hope it makes up for my former mistake;)
 
"Do the saints dance in heaven?", wrote a nun in the first part of the 16th century, "dancing will be essential there for the strong, well-built bodies of the saints".

"There would have to be dancing (in heaven) for the itching soles of the Hungarian whose whole life on earth is a dancing school", wrote well known Catholic priest Zsigmond Csuzy in the first part of the 18th century."

OK, well, I'm pretty sure St Augustine never danced AT, and neither did the Hungarians who are quoted above.

Yes, AT or whatever, at a certain point it is good to "dance like no one's watching" as goes the current "saying" here in the States.
 

Dance Ads

Advertise on Dance Forums Reach dancers, teachers, studios, event organizers, and dance-friendly brands. View ad options
Back
Top