opendoor
Forum Master
Exactly, that‘s the way it originally was.
Tango Diaries
- Thread starter Bailango
- Start date
Which is what I implied: you copy what you see ('performance', in the same way programmes like Strictly/DWTS once enticed viewers to try it out). Other forms certainly existed, and were in memory, but it's only when people in Europe and the US (and Asia, maybe) experienced alternative formd, that they became aware of them (and adopted them).
Same as in previous generations when what was presented got sanitised - and perhaps became more accessible.
Selling 'tango' as complex snd difficult to access, whilst probably appealing to those with an interest in STEM subjects, doesn't sell it to all.
opendoor
Forum Master
Dear Diary, I'm proud of myself. I paid the entrance fee, made small talk with the organizer, hugged the DJ, redeemed my drink voucher, and drank a rosé. Then I scanned the room; apart from my ex, only followers I didn't ever danced with were present. No one rushed over to shower me with besitos. Worse still, my ex, who usually loves to dance with me, danced non-stop with the epigoni. The epigoni is a dancer who filled the void I left when I stopped dancing tango. I didn't change my shoes and went home. Every tango I don't dance is beneficial.
You are conflating the sequence. At least here locally the sequence was:
1. The first instructors to introduce AT, taught social tango. Their experience was based on 80s reviva of social dancing in BsAs. The instructors were Argentines who had moved here in late 80s/early 90s.
2. People danced social tango.
3. Arrival of tango shows in early 90s changed that. As crew of the tango shows also started teaching tango to supplement their income.
4. The stage show crew taught more strange tango moves. Which the crept in to milongas.
5. Simultaneously Susana Miller and her partners defined milonguero style.
I have heard about #3 and #4 from local dancers before. Very few who started in mid-90s are still dancing. This gentleman milongas to first dancers of AT locally. He and his wife started dancing in early 90s before the tango shows arrived.
opendoor
Forum Master
Conversely, you are not precise with your terminology.
Agreed. I couldn’t find the right terminology
brujo
Well-Known Member
TIL: epigone is the "diet" version of a great master. Seems fitting here.
opendoor
Forum Master
Yes, it wasn't easy for me to no longer be at the center of things. But stepping back is also part of the tango learning curve.
Miradamiranda
Well-Known Member
Those of my regular partners who have danced tango since the early 90s all have flashy moves. Yes, they are of a certain age, but still dancing.
brujo
Well-Known Member
Learned chatting with an instructor that a huge transition from stage to social of the NY tango scene exists because a dancer was dating an Argentinian woman and got into a car accident that kept them in Buenos Aires. He learned from milongueros while recovering and brought that to his teaching. Super cool story for a newbie to learn. Daniel’s Story 1980s | Daniel Trenner
It takes only one influential person in a community to influence how a dance evolves locally. Especially during first or early adoption. Local experience can’t be extrapolated to global development of a dance.
Here is the key excerpt:
Fortunately I also got to experience tango through the Milongueros, the older Argentine social dancers, because the Folk dancers, and the Tango dancers in the tourist shows, are two threads of Tango’s “mythology” that create powerful, but essentially misleading imagery about the tango’s style and history. It was the Milongueros, unheralded and unappreciated, convinced that the real tango would die with them that became my real teachers.
According to his blog, he got injured in 1989 and then discovered Tango. That puts him in early 90s rather than 80s. Another excerpt:
My experience of social tango was both broad and personal. While I know that i never reached all of the corners of tango’s re-emergence, i did reach many if not most of the major influences of this period, late 1980s through 2000.
By major influences, I assume he means other dancers of late 80s through 2000.
Here is another (not surprising) narrative about the differences:
I have since always tried to do my best to transmit what i have learned from them with as much fidelity as has been possible. I know that, in many ways, i have been able to accomplish this better than the young Argentines that were my contemporaries, as they were forced to resist and rebel in order to develop their own identities in the dance.
What it tells me is how tango was absorb in early 90s by those who learnt it from social dancers and how Argentinians who went outside taught it. It explains the Argentines teaching stage tango to locals outside BsAs.
brujo
Well-Known Member
His partner around that time has a fairly comprehensive list of folks like Mingo and Esther Pugliese, Gustavo Naveira and Olga Besio, Tete and Maria, Juan Bruno, and Antonio Todaro.
As I understand it there was already tango teaching around that time but it wasn’t very deep and it was mostly pattern memorization.
It also ignores political events (Dirty War in Argentina, Falklands/Malvinas, subsequent fall of repressive government, etc), and shows that went with the diaspora, not forgetting Tango Nuevo.
What developed in some locality depended on who arrived there (e.g. major cities with shows), and influences from elsewhere which subtly changed that. If you ended up with dancers doing some form of 'performance', that's what you got. If there was some 'social' tango influence, you got that. Perhaps improved communications in later years allowed some blending, and information about other forms. And, of course, you got more Argentinians emigrating, and more visitors.
brujo
Well-Known Member
Dear diary,
Went west coast swing dancing for the first time in a long time and got brutally reminded of how terrible and unwelcoming milongas are. Was there for a couple of hours and got asked to dance by 8 women and two men. Got to lead and follow and nobody cared I was a beginner at it.
Tango is so fun at house parties and even at practicas. But went to the milonga on the weekend to see a performance of some stage tango dancers in town and was just reminded of how unfriendly that tango dance floor is compared to other dances. And this is from the perspective of someone that has a lot of regulars in his dance card, friends from classes and does a lot of socialization.
Went west coast swing dancing for the first time in a long time and got brutally reminded of how terrible and unwelcoming milongas are. Was there for a couple of hours and got asked to dance by 8 women and two men. Got to lead and follow and nobody cared I was a beginner at it.
Tango is so fun at house parties and even at practicas. But went to the milonga on the weekend to see a performance of some stage tango dancers in town and was just reminded of how unfriendly that tango dance floor is compared to other dances. And this is from the perspective of someone that has a lot of regulars in his dance card, friends from classes and does a lot of socialization.