Don’t you have a backwards, peaked cap, a la Homer Ladas, for Nuevo days?
Reasons to give up Tango
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opendoor
Forum Master
Oh yes, forgot about it. Here's the cap the right way round for dancing in the swing community.
This is an example of one of the excuse I mentioned in my previous post. Why do locals at a milonga have to know them? In my experience it is rare that a visiting dancer is less skilled than average local dancer. Generally visitors don’t randomly drop into a milonga. Definitely not if they are beginners. They have done some research or received recommendation. When I have visited other cities, I will try to find out about the milonga ahead of time. It takes certain amount of confidence (which comes with gaining skills) to drop into milonga as a visitor. Let’s not make tango culture hostile to visitors simply because they haven’t been seen before. In bigger cities there are always going to be visitors. It is a little easier as a leader (or follower) who asks. Of all social dances, in Tango I find a lady who follows, is least likely to ask a stranger. Which makes it a lot difficult for the women visitors more so than the men visitors.
When I see an unknown face, I will always invite if I observe them not getting asked. You can generally tell solo visitors. They are more alert and actively checking the room for cabaceo.
Last week, I had to accompany a visiting Tango dancer. She also happens to be an instructor and festival organizer in her city. At two milongas in the bigger city she got asked same rate as a local but knew a few leaders. At a smaller but very popular milonga in a smaller city near by, no one asked her for first 2 hours except one leader who knew her.
Some cities, milongas, and hosts are better than the others. As a visitor to milongas I have experienced more friendly reception than not. I remember visiting a couple of smaller ones with very cold reception.
It is total opposite with other dances. People want to dance with you because you are a visitor.
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JournalInTime
Forum Master
Agreed 100%. I don't travel much to dance, but I do dance while traveling. It is almost embarrassing how popular "not from here" makes you. In one case, an organizer literally introduced me to a different local follower before each tanda, with the strong implication that I'd dance with that person after the intro. I was saved by a local leader motioning for me to come sit down and have a drink.
True in some other cities too.
A good host will always welcome and do a few introductions to the locals. Or invite you for a dance. This I find is very personality dependent. Some hosts are very welcoming and others won’t care less. I am not a host or among the in-crowd. If there is a visitor, I will try best to introduce them to a few people. Or tell my friends to try and get dance with them.
WhiskeyPapa
Well-Known Member
I agree. They are often very good.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Well, you'll just have to live with it in that case. But, still, it's a nice thing to be called.
tangobro
Active Member
Yes, we have had a couple of guys adopting tango poster drag, Fedora style hats, ascot, etc. One guy used to show up occasionally at one popular práctica. Regardless of music his dance sequence was 2 forward steps, push/pull her to a forward ocho, repeat. He sometimes actually did it all on the beat and the women often smiled, so it's possible the beginners thought he was as good as he seemed to think he was - but "milonguero" -- no.
Actually, we have a large enough Argentine ex-pat population so that self-proclaimed home grown "milongueros" have no space to take root. Although many of the Argentineans admit that they only got into A.T. after arriving in NYC we have had some bona fide milongueros viejos who relocated from Bs.As.
for example:
Rubén Ferrín celebrating his 93rd birthday with a birthday dance in 2019:
when he got up from his table it was usually to dance milonga & he never seemed to have a problem getting a partner to dance with.
Carlos Funes, who arrived in NYC in the late 70's & began hosting milongas before the A.T. wave inspired by the Broadway productions of the 90's.
I think he was in his 80's in this 2012 vid. He was also usually on the dancefloor to dance milonga, after he had passed out his home made alfajores.
Facundo Posadas & Nelson Avila both celebrating their 70th birthday with a birthday dance in 2010.
Facundo (light suit) is the grandson of Tango composer Carlos Posadas and is a milonguero who danced with the live orchestras from the golden age of tango. He is one of the sources for Robert Farris Thompson's book "Tango:The Art History of Love".
Nelson Avila (dark suit) has been named a member of the National Academy of Tango of Argentina and is recognized as an authority on tango. He was in the original cast of the world-renowned Broadway show, 'Tango Argentino'
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Unfortunately, Rubén and Carlos are no longer with us. They were always a nice presence.
It is interesting that this became iconic for nuevo - Homer wouldn't wear his is he hadn't started to lose his hair in his 20s. But then doc martens,jeans, and undershirts are today also far removed from the working class kids who did not want to conform to middle class aesthetics when out having fun. Without the compadre as reference point it is also quite difficult to figure out what the compadrito look is about, too.
opendoor
Forum Master
I didn't had this in mind, when I started this thread, but true, its also an aspect of quitting tango.
AlexTangoFuego
Member
Re: Clay Nelson’s “Why I Quit Tango Survey”, several years ago I created a pdf of all of the results with ALL of the comments expanded. For me it’s the comments that are the most interesting/telling.
Anyway it’s on Scribd. I can’t post a link because I haven’t made 50 posts. Do a search. You might need to create an account. Pretty sure you can do a free account.
Also its attached to this post...51 pages…
Enjoy…thanks!
Anyway it’s on Scribd. I can’t post a link because I haven’t made 50 posts. Do a search. You might need to create an account. Pretty sure you can do a free account.
Also its attached to this post...51 pages…
Enjoy…thanks!
It is both sad and funny