2054  The other ballroom dances and AT.

Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 22:28:24 -0500
From: Sergio <cachafaz@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject: The other ballroom dances and AT.

Philip Seyer says: "Argentine tango dancers tend to be fanatics, who will
dance Argentine tango
all night long without tiring of it. Those who dance the other kinds of
tangos, usually would not prefer to dance tango twice in succession. In
other words if one dance is tango, they expect (and prefer) the next dance
to be something like swing or salsa or one of 14 other dances."

The reason (IMO) for this to happen is that : in ball room when you know
about ten figures you are considered to have a good repertoire. Those ten
figures are rapidly used during one or two dances, after that they become
very repetitive.

Argentine Tango on the other hand provides the dancer with an infinite
number of possibilities for one tango to be eternally different from the
previous one and never tiring or repetitive.

Then he asserts very well that in AT it is necessary to continuously change
partners to obtain variety while variety in ballroom comes from the change
in music.

The typical milonga will be formed by tandas. One tanda may be composed by
three tangos, two milongas and one vals.
This is followed by a tanda of non tango music. Salsa, mambo, cumbia, swing,
fox-trot, merengue, etc. This then is alternated with A.Tango tandas. So a
milonga has as much variety as a ballroom dance with respect to music.
The change of partners (IMO) occurs (it is not absolutely necessary) because
while ballroom offers a routine of a limited number of figures that
generally speaking (except for underarm turns) are symmetrical, (one partner
does the mirror image of the other), figures that are well known and
expected by both partners. In this circumstances changing partners is a
repetition of the same experience.
A. Tango on the other hand offers an asymmetrical, improvised dance, a
totally different experience with every partner, a thrill that is avidly
searched for. This is potentiated by the factor "feeling" which is more
intense than in any ballroom dance.

He adds : "I find it strange that Argentine tango is rarely played or danced
in
ballrooms -- even in a Ballroom that has a formal class in Argentine tango
will not play a single Argentine tango tune in a 3 hour dance session."

The reason for this is that those that dance A.Tango sooner or later loose
interest in the other ballroom dances. Those that are not completely into it
do not understand it very well and try to dance it as it was fox-trot with
terrible results. When I go to our USABDA* dances the DJ always plays
Argentine Tango. I try once in a while to teach some A. Tango to the regular
USABDA group.
It is proper to play Night Club two step or any other dance at the right
tandas at the milongas as well.

*USABDA US Amateurs Ballroom Dancers Association

Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 12:17:29 +0000
From: Bruce Stephens <bruce@CENDERIS.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: The other ballroom dances and AT.

Sergio <cachafaz@ADELPHIA.NET> writes:

> Philip Seyer says: "Argentine tango dancers tend to be fanatics, who will
> dance Argentine tango
> all night long without tiring of it. Those who dance the other kinds of
> tangos, usually would not prefer to dance tango twice in succession. In
> other words if one dance is tango, they expect (and prefer) the next dance
> to be something like swing or salsa or one of 14 other dances."
>
> The reason (IMO) for this to happen is that : in ball room when you know
> about ten figures you are considered to have a good repertoire. Those ten
> figures are rapidly used during one or two dances, after that they become
> very repetitive.

I think it's more the music. In ballroom dancing individual pieces of
music are regarded (to a first approximation) as interchangeable---one
can dance exactly the same sequence of figures to a slow waltz,
regardless of which slow waltz it happens to be. If you dance in
8-bar (or measure) phrases with the music, then you're regarded as
dancing musically---i.e., musicality can be quite mechanical.

Regardless of how many figures you might know (and 10 is rather a low
number), you aren't going to want to dance slow waltz all evening,
because they're all going to feel very similar, because they are. In
competitions, I believe the tempos of the various categories of
ballroom dance music are quite stricly constrained; obviously people
playing music for social dancing don't need to be quite so
constrained, but they'll tend to stick pretty much to the same ranges.

So I suspect that's why you need 10 or so different ballroom
dances---because the music (and dance) of each doesn't vary that much.

And that thinking probably often carries over to the way they deal
with Argentine tango (at a local BR school that was certainly the
case)---they teach figures, perhaps even in sequences, and choose the
limited selection of music that will suit those sequences, with a
limited range of tempos and generally little variation.

So that's another barrier to attracting ballroom dancers to Argentine
tango---they think that an evening of Argentine tango dancing would be
boring (and that the music would get boring) because they've heard
such a tiny range of music, and seen (or experienced) such a limited
range of tango dancing, that they're not going to be attracted by the
idea of an entire evening of that.

[...]

Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 4:17 AM
Subject: Re: [TANGO-L] The other ballroom dances and AT.

> Sergio <cachafaz@ADELPHIA.NET> writes:
>
> > Philip Seyer says: "Argentine tango dancers tend to be fanatics, who

will

> > dance Argentine tango
> > all night long without tiring of it. Those who dance the other kinds of
> > tangos, usually would not prefer to dance tango twice in succession. In
> > other words if one dance is tango, they expect (and prefer) the next

dance

> > to be something like swing or salsa or one of 14 other dances."
> >
> > The reason (IMO) for this to happen is that : in ball room when you know
> > about ten figures you are considered to have a good repertoire. Those

ten

> > figures are rapidly used during one or two dances, after that they

become

> > very repetitive.
>
> I think it's more the music. In ballroom dancing individual pieces of
> music are regarded (to a first approximation) as interchangeable---one
> can dance exactly the same sequence of figures to a slow waltz,
> regardless of which slow waltz it happens to be. If you dance in
> 8-bar (or measure) phrases with the music, then you're regarded as
> dancing musically---i.e., musicality can be quite mechanical.
>
> Regardless of how many figures you might know (and 10 is rather a low
> number), you aren't going to want to dance slow waltz all evening,
> because they're all going to feel very similar, because they are. In
> competitions, I believe the tempos of the various categories of
> ballroom dance music are quite stricly constrained; obviously people
> playing music for social dancing don't need to be quite so
> constrained, but they'll tend to stick pretty much to the same ranges.
>
> So I suspect that's why you need 10 or so different ballroom
> dances---because the music (and dance) of each doesn't vary that much.
>
> And that thinking probably often carries over to the way they deal
> with Argentine tango (at a local BR school that was certainly the
> case)---they teach figures, perhaps even in sequences, and choose the
> limited selection of music that will suit those sequences, with a
> limited range of tempos and generally little variation.
>
> So that's another barrier to attracting ballroom dancers to Argentine
> tango---they think that an evening of Argentine tango dancing would be
> boring (and that the music would get boring) because they've heard
> such a tiny range of music, and seen (or experienced) such a limited
> range of tango dancing, that they're not going to be attracted by the
> idea of an entire evening of that.
>
> [...]