unilateral or narrow dance repertoire

[opendoor]

Still wonder why the tango communities hardly mix with other dance scenes (f.i. swing, carribbean, or BR).
I just read jantangos interview with Miguel Angel Balbi on milongas in the 50s that..

..deejays planned four tangos, four rumbas, four tangos, four foxtrots or jazz, four tangos, salsa, tangos, valses, tangos, milongas, etc. Milongueros stopped going to the milongas in the 1970s because the musical format changed to what is more common in the milongas today...

So dancers, would you appreciate a wider range of dances at milongas, and you DJs do you regularly alternate with otros ritmos?

 

[Mladenac]

Still wonder why the tango communities hardly mix with other dance scenes (f.i. swing, carribbean, or BR).
I just read jantangos interview with Miguel Angel Balbi on milongas in the 50s that..



So dancers, would you appreciate a wider range of dances at milongas, and you DJs do you regularly alternate with otros ritmos?

I did some latin/standard dance and comparing to AT is completely boring.
Would I dance them hardly.

I have been never into salsa (I am not to much into the music)
I like swing (lindy hop) so some AT and swing might work.

Since I am really into AT and don't have time for lindy, I prefere todays AT evening only.

 

[Subliminal]

My first dance teacher (Argentine) will do a tanda of swing, and maybe one of salsa/cha cha/samba during her milonga. But usually just one of each.

I think you can't really compare the dance climate of the 50s dance halls to now. There are too many other forms of entertainment. If dancing were my only form of amusement, I might think about learning all the social dances and participating in all the communities. I might even want a dance one evening that covers all the dances. But really, I think that's too much to expect of most people.... They tend to find a favorite dance or two and stick to it.

 

[UKDancer]

My first dance teacher (Argentine) will do a tanda of swing, and maybe one of salsa/cha cha/samba during her milonga. But usually just one of each.

This wouldn't be a bad mix - a little variety would be welcome, and many of us do dance in styles other than tango. It's unquestionably authentic too, but it as an idea it could easily backfire by being taken up by the fanatics for whom tango is already more an historical re-enactment pastime than a form of entertainment through dance. I can just see them lined up, ready to denounce the inauthenticity of my not-very-good Lindy. They will tell me, to my face, and to everyone else behind my back, that my two-tone shoes are all wrong, that I have failed to commit to memory adopt the codes of around 90 years ago, and that I'm breaking a whole lot of new rules that only really exist in their own self-absorbed and very, very small world. It wouldn't be much fun, probably.

 

[AndaBien]

I've done many types of dancing and enjoyed most of them, but they just don't give me the same satisfaction that AT does. I wouldn't like to see milongas diluted very much with other types of dances.

I think another aspect is that if lots of other types of dances are played regularly, it tends to draw a different audience. I'm not sure I'd like to dance much with people who really like another dance, say swing, but only have a slight interest in tango. I'd prefer to dance with other people who are devoted to tango.

 

[Steve Pastor]

Funny you should start this thread. Just last night I was thinking that maybe the reason people get so into the details of so many "moves" is that they are only doing one dance.
I've brought up the mix of dance styles in BA milongas before, and the reaction is, as some of you have already written, I want to do AT. In that case it was a single milonguero who talked about tango orchestras alternating with jazz bands.

I think you can't really compare the dance climate of the 50s dance halls to now.

There is one exception to this that I know of, and that would be country western dance venues in the West. (Three that I know of are in Portland, Vegas, and Long Beach/LA.) Although they play both kinds of music, country and western, the dances are quite varied compared to most single dance venues.

I am NOT a one dance all night kind of guy. "AT" at least has the three different flavors.
The Lindy Hop scene was big enough that there were journal articles written on the social aspects of that sub culture. (Maybe the same for salsa, but never looked for anything on that topic.) If anyone knows of anything similar regarding AT, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

 

[JohnEm]

This wouldn't be a bad mix - a little variety would be welcome, and many of us do dance in styles other than tango. It's unquestionably authentic too, but it as an idea it could easily backfire by being taken up by the fanatics for whom tango is already more an historical re-enactment pastime than a form of entertainment through dance. I can just see them lined up, ready to denounce the inauthenticity of my not-very-good Lindy. They will tell me, to my face, and to everyone else behind my back, that my two-tone shoes are all wrong, that I have failed to commit to memory adopt the codes of around 90 years ago, and that I'm breaking a whole lot of new rules that only really exist in their own self-absorbed and very, very small world. It wouldn't be much fun, probably.

Once again your misrepresenting rant is inappropriate and inaccurate.
What I would tell you to your face is nothing like that: you can wear your
two tone shoes if you like, it's your choice to look like a show off.

It is a shame that in Buenos Aires mixed dance milongas now rarely occur.
Partly that may be while the safety/licencing regulations for milongas
are more relaxed than for general dances the regulations for what can be
described as a milonga are more restrictive. This stems from the tragic
night club fire in late 2004 resulting in 194 deaths and 700 injured. Managers
and city inspectors were found culpable for the dangerous conditions.

Lo de Celia still has latin/cumbia, jazz/rock, chacerera/paso doble breaks
and I understand that Celia holds a licence for a baile which imposes more
safety regulation than for milongas.
El Arranque holds a more general dance session on Saturday nights.

 

[JohnEm]

Funny you should start this thread. Just last night I was thinking that maybe the reason people get so into the details of so many "moves" is that they are only doing one dance.

My experience agrees with you but it would be inflammatory if I went
into the reasons why I think that is. Apparently in a recent book about
the music the author has written that he believes tango dancing would
be better if the dancers did learn and dance other dances. He's right.

There is one exception to this that I know of, and that would be country western dance venues in the West. (Three that I know of are in Portland, Vegas, and Long Beach/LA.) Although they play both kinds of music, country and western, the dances are quite varied compared to most single dance venues.

While in BsAs I heard of one in the San Francisco bay area too.
It seemed to be a fun idea, a real mix of dance rhythms.

 

[Mladenac]

My experience agrees with you but it would be inflammatory if I went
into the reasons why I think that is. Apparently in a recent book about
the music the author has written that he believes tango dancing would
be better if the dancers did learn and dance other dances. He's right.

I had some conversation with ballroom dance beginner dancer, and I realized how much
some things I use from BD in tango. I was very good and BD, I got a grip of concepts.
Some dances are so diverse from another in a bad way that you need to unlearn one to
dance properly another.

Knowing many dances in order to dance tango better may be beneficial, but it is not always the case.

 

[UKDancer]

Knowing many dances in order to dance tango better may be beneficial, but it is not always the case.

A much better reason to dance other dances is for their own sake, and not (except incidentally) to dance tango better.

 

[JohnEm]

I had some conversation with ballroom dance beginner dancer, and I realized how much
some things I use from BD in tango. I was very good and BD, I got a grip of concepts.
Some dances are so diverse from another in a bad way that you need to unlearn one to
dance properly another.

Knowing many dances in order to dance tango better may be beneficial, but it is not always the case.

I think this recommendation was more to learn swing/latin than
the ballroom dances which requires such a different attitude. There
are other problems about adapting to the relative positions of the
partnership's feet and that influence on how to turn. So yes, much
of ballroom has at least to be changed although experience of movement
together to a rhythm remains relevant.

 

[dchester]

A much better reason to dance other dances is for their own sake, and not (except incidentally) to dance tango better.

This ^

IMO, there are more effective ways to cross train, rather than learning a new dance.

 

[Mladenac]

IMO, there are more effective ways to cross train, rather than learning a new dance.

I'd rather try to incorporate my previous activities into AT dance, than to learn new dance.

IMHO It seems that nowadays everything becomes more specializied.
I am sure that people dance various dance in the past.
But the time we spend nowadays to dance AT, AT become more technical that it used to be.

Switching from various dances is not as easy as it used to be.
And a lot of people just don't care about other dances.

 

[JohnEm]

IMO, there are more effective ways to cross train, rather than learning a new dance.

Oh I think the real point was that Tango dancing would be better -
and maybe more like actual dancing to the music - if tango dancers
either came from other dances or learned and actually danced others.

A much better reason to dance other dances is for their own sake, and not (except incidentally) to dance tango better.

Yes - very true. Every dance I dance is for its own sake and the enjoyment of it.
Quite hedonistic really. And it was ballroom that was displaced by the tango
of the embrace and the music.

IMHO It seems that nowadays everything becomes more specializied.
I am sure that people dance various dance in the past.
But the time we spend nowadays to dance AT, AT become more technical
that it used to be.

For me it's a dance of feeling and response to the music and my partner.
The technical stuff, such as it was comes first and then forget about it.
This ongoing class/teaching pursuit of moves, adornos and the rest gets
in the way of real dancing. People from other dances know what dancing is
but many are actually repulsed by the image of tango outside BsAs.

Switching from various dances is not as easy as it used to be.
And a lot of people just don't care about other dances.

I don't see how switching is any more difficult now than previously
except for lack of opportunity and you can find the opportunities.

You are right that many people have no interest in anything other
than tango and that's the pity of it.

 

[Zoopsia59]

Switching from various dances is not as easy as it used to be.
And a lot of people just don't care about other dances.

I feel like I am switching dances just going from one leader to another. As a follower, I get quite a lot of variety just doing "tango". Doing a sweeping open embrace alternative with one leader is like a different dance from a "milonguero" traditional with someone who only does that.

I don't mind swing and Latin breaks; I like Swing and Latin. But often I am left hunting around for someone who dances them, and if I wasn't close to them when the music came on, they've already grabbed someone else, so I end up sitting them out. Usually any leader who dances either one has a regular partner/wife/girlfriend who also dances them, and they will always dance those dances with each other at a milonga.

I do enough sitting out already. Sitting out to different music isn't "variety".

Just the perspective of a "single" follower....