The Booty Misconception
- Thread starter TomTango
- Start date
itwillhappen
Forum Master
As far as it is about dancing with relative strangers one tanda pleasant and realiable, I absolutely agree. Why to take that at risk for some fancy moves?
But dancing with someone that proficient in tango nuevo or contact improvisation or so that might be different for me...
I wouldn't be worried about that,
Okay, my definition of a milonguero is broken now.
Puppy Castello never was a milonguero,
he didn't dance anything like one and he certainly
was not born early enough to be called a milonguero
when it was a term of disparagement.
By his own admission he was a predator
on tourist women as recruits for classes
in the post revival period.
http://www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/508/Confessions-by-Puppy-Castello/
sixela
Well-Known Member
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
But of course anyone can choose his church to be as narrow as he like, thus making his definitions of any term internally consistent. It doesn't help mutual intelligibility, though, and it is not far from a culture war. My definition of who is a milonguero is rather wider than John's, and that's a choice.
But of course anyone can choose his church to be as narrow as he like, thus making his definitions of any term internally consistent. It doesn't help mutual intelligibility, though, and it is not far from a culture war. My definition of who is a milonguero is rather wider than John's, and that's a choice.
Isn't the very idea of a definition limiting?
The problem for me is not definition or the lack of it
but that the term is rather loosely bandied about
as some sort of validation without any consistent
idea any more of what a milonguero was or is now.
The term is increasingly less useful but continues
to be used as a means of acquiring or denoting
some sort of (sometimes dubious) credibility.
Agreed. John seems to have the mistaken idea that all milongueros danced the same way. For my education, I listen to the Argentines who knew many of the milongueros, back in the day. They seem to be pretty clear on who the milongueros were.
It's a strange phenomenon here that some posters
object to their own deductive inventions of what
I write rather than the more obvious actuality.
Milonguero was a term of criticism "back in the day",
as you describe it, not a dance style. It applied to some
of those who danced in the city centre where there was
greater moral freedom as well as much immorality.
The concept of a narrow milonguero style, a 90s
commercial invention by Cacho Dante & Susana Miller,
Argentines both, has caused no end of confusion. But
I certainly don't support it and most social dancers
in BsAs don't know about such things and don't care.
However, based on my experience, I do know that
dancing Argentine style, chest to chest in an embrace
responding to and in time with the music, might just
earn the modern milonga accolade of being called
a milonguero. How the meanings of words change!
I just happily accept it as a compliment and that really
is as far as it goes. As for the rest, you have clearly
been moving in tourist driven commercial circles,
your gullibility is entirely your own concern.
AlanJones
New Member
My first post, good people! When a 'true milonguero' with 60 years experience of the tango talks, I listen. This is an extract via Janis from an interview with Ricardo Vidort:
You see we, the old milongueros, like something special, and we are all special while we dance our own style. That means feeling in our own way with rhythm, cadence, embrace and rocking our body. When we have this and can transmit it, then we are milongueros.
You see we, the old milongueros, like something special, and we are all special while we dance our own style. That means feeling in our own way with rhythm, cadence, embrace and rocking our body. When we have this and can transmit it, then we are milongueros.
opendoor
Forum Master
Hi Alan, welcome to DF. And did your parents already take you along to milongas? I've seen that very often.
Welcome to the forum!
Oliver
Member
Right. Living things change. Dead things are cut and dry.
jantango
Well-Known Member
At one time in Buenos Aires, being called a "milonguero" wasn't a compliment unless it was from your fellow milongueros. Their lifestyle included going to the city center confiterias at night, smoking, drinking alcohol, possibly using drugs, and dancing until the early morning, sleeping all day, not working, and relying on financial support from a woman. It was a derogatory term.
Then tango gained attention around the world with the show Tango Argentino in 1985, and the stage performers (none of whom were milongueros) began teaching their tango as if it was a social style danced in Buenos Aires (which it was not).
Foreigners idolized and sought out men in the milongas who dance style they admired, invited them abroad and turned them into dance kings. The term was elevated like a foreign diplomat who traveled to teach his tango. Many of these men created step sequences to sell in Europe, totally useless for the social floor.
Milongueros viejos are self-taught, have a personal style, and can dance well with any woman. Their numbers are few and certainly more than five. I posted photos of five recently on my blog who died this year alone.
Then tango gained attention around the world with the show Tango Argentino in 1985, and the stage performers (none of whom were milongueros) began teaching their tango as if it was a social style danced in Buenos Aires (which it was not).
Foreigners idolized and sought out men in the milongas who dance style they admired, invited them abroad and turned them into dance kings. The term was elevated like a foreign diplomat who traveled to teach his tango. Many of these men created step sequences to sell in Europe, totally useless for the social floor.
Milongueros viejos are self-taught, have a personal style, and can dance well with any woman. Their numbers are few and certainly more than five. I posted photos of five recently on my blog who died this year alone.
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AlanJones
New Member
Thank you!