4774  Respect and love of cultures

Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:49:43 -0600
From: "Tango Society of Central Illinois" <tango.society@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures
To: "Deby Novitz" <dnovitz@lavidacondeby.com>
Cc: tango-l@mit.edu
<cff24c340702260949p4af55f7dh11660798630dfe7d@mail.gmail.com>

On 2/26/07, Deby Novitz <dnovitz@lavidacondeby.com> wrote:

> When I tell Argentines that I dance tango regardless of their age,
> their test to me as a foreigner dancing their dance is exactly what do I
> dance. Show tango, tango nuevo to Argentines is not Argentine Tango.
> Most call it tango for foreigners or tango for export. You can debate
> this, you can try to prove me wrong with all the statistics and articles
> and hearsay you want, but I live here. Argentine Tango to Argentinians
> is a cultural icon. Plain and simple. Why do Americans more than any
> other group of people want to change, deface, this cultural icon?

>>From someone on the American side teaching tango, I find that getting

Americans to accept tango as danced in Buenos Aires (close embrace,
with the music, partner rather than audience directed) is a difficult
task. I often wonder why most Americans prefer the exhibitionist
fantasy - nuevo forms of tango. In part, this is our dance culture -
ballroom dance competition & swing dancing in particular - as part of
our Hollywood driven desire for audience approval. We talk of dance as
"learning cool steps". It is deeply ingrained in our cultural. Not to
mention the intimacy of close embrace is somewhat frightening to a
culture with a strong Puritan heritage. It is sometimes amusing to see
how Americans learning close embrace tango fight against getting
close. Or if they are in close embrace, they throw their shoulders
back to avoid a complete connection, despite what we as instructors
tell them repeatedly about "connection, connection, connection". The
Latin Americans and some other foreigners in our classes are
different. They are not afraid to get close. Fortunately, after a
while most people who stay with tango in close embrace enjoy it, and I
believe the connection fulfills a need in a standoffish culture.

However, these people are a minority. Fantasy tango and, more recently
nuevo, are a strong magnet for dancers. So is the loud, bass thumping
noise that passes for dance music in our culture. This fits in more
with our cultural values of exhibitionism being dominant over subtlety
and intimacy.

Almost all milongas in the US are a caricature of milongas in Buenos
Aires, with exhibitionistic antics predominating, at least visually,
if not in numbers. Connection with the music is rare. Moving in
harmony with a partner is rare. This is not news.

Why do US tango dancers prefer exhibitionism, even when it is aberrant
in Buenos Aires? We Americans frequently adopt and change imported
culture to fit our own cultural norms. The Argentine tango of the
early 20th century was imported, sanitized, modified, etc., until the
descendant American ballroom tango is hardly recognizable as tango.
Fantasy tango and nuevo are accepted because they meet our culture
norms of dance as exhibition. When I mention that people in Argentina
do not dance that way at milongas, I have heard a few times "We're not
in Argentina. We're in America". So be it. The ugly truth bares
itself. Many of us do not even care that what we dance as tango
socially is not what is danced socially in Buenos Aires. Why should
we? We are Americans and we have the right to do things our way!!
Don't tell us how to dance tango!! We are free to express ourselves as
we want, why shoul dwe be bound by silly irrelevant tradition? And
besides, we live in a democracy, so don't tell me what to do!

Fortunately, there are a significant number of Americans who break
away from this cultural ignorance. Sometimes it takes a few trips to
Buenos Aires. I had danced fantasy tango for 5.5 years when I first
went to BA in 2003, but meeting this cultural clash between what I was
taught as social tango and the reality of social tango in Buenos Aires
made me angry at my instructors who had deceived me and made me
determined to change. But not every American changes they way they
dance even when faced with that reality. Perhaps it was growing up in
multicultural New York City as the son of European immigrants and
being reasonably fluent in several languages that has enabled me to
appreciate what other cultures have to offer. Maybe it is more
difficult for Americans who only encounter people with similar
cultural becakgrounds. Maybe this criticism of them is to harsh.

However, to really appreciate tango, you need to approach tango for
it, as a part of Argentine culture, has to offer. You need to try to
understand tango on tango's terms, not fit it into your own cultural
preconceptions, modifying it until you fill comfortable with it within
the dimensions of your own cultural frame of reference. Of course, not
being Argentine, we can never understand tango as an Argentine.
However, Americans need to watch and listen more and be objective in
seeing what this part of Argentine culture can offer us and what we
can learn from it and how we can grow from this knowledge, rather than
claiming artistic creativity in adapting tango until it is no longer
recognizable as Argentine.

Ron

Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:13:39 -0500
From: Ilene Marder <imhmedia@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures
To: Tango Society of Central Illinois <tango.society@gmail.com>
Cc: tango-l@mit.edu, Deby Novitz <dnovitz@lavidacondeby.com>

I know of many American tango communities- even small ones - where
close embrace a la Bs As is the norm....
It all comes down to the community organizer and choice of teachers.
If you emphasize embrace, connection and musiciality from the
beginning, that's what your students will learn and, from my experience,
love.
Those who want to do flying boleos and lifts on a crowded dance floor
will go elsewhere.
Perhaps some American organizers, who are catering to such dancers
because they do not want to lose people (translate that to $$$), should
re-examine what they are transmitting to their students.
Ilene

Tango Society of Central Illinois wrote:

>On 2/26/07, Deby Novitz <dnovitz@lavidacondeby.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>>When I tell Argentines that I dance tango regardless of their age,
>>their test to me as a foreigner dancing their dance is exactly what do I
>>dance. Show tango, tango nuevo to Argentines is not Argentine Tango.
>>Most call it tango for foreigners or tango for export. You can debate
>>this, you can try to prove me wrong with all the statistics and articles
>>and hearsay you want, but I live here. Argentine Tango to Argentinians
>>is a cultural icon. Plain and simple. Why do Americans more than any
>>other group of people want to change, deface, this cultural icon?
>>
>>
>
>>>From someone on the American side teaching tango, I find that getting
>Americans to accept tango as danced in Buenos Aires (close embrace,
>with the music, partner rather than audience directed) is a difficult
>task. I often wonder why most Americans prefer the exhibitionist
>fantasy - nuevo forms of tango. In part, this is our dance culture -
>ballroom dance competition & swing dancing in particular - as part of
>our Hollywood driven desire for audience approval. We talk of dance as
>"learning cool steps". It is deeply ingrained in our cultural. Not to
>mention the intimacy of close embrace is somewhat frightening to a
>culture with a strong Puritan heritage. It is sometimes amusing to see
>how Americans learning close embrace tango fight against getting
>close. Or if they are in close embrace, they throw their shoulders
>back to avoid a complete connection, despite what we as instructors
>tell them repeatedly about "connection, connection, connection". The
>Latin Americans and some other foreigners in our classes are
>different. They are not afraid to get close. Fortunately, after a
>while most people who stay with tango in close embrace enjoy it, and I
>believe the connection fulfills a need in a standoffish culture.
>
>However, these people are a minority. Fantasy tango and, more recently
>nuevo, are a strong magnet for dancers. So is the loud, bass thumping
>noise that passes for dance music in our culture. This fits in more
>with our cultural values of exhibitionism being dominant over subtlety
>and intimacy.
>
>Almost all milongas in the US are a caricature of milongas in Buenos
>Aires, with exhibitionistic antics predominating, at least visually,
>if not in numbers. Connection with the music is rare. Moving in
>harmony with a partner is rare. This is not news.
>
>Why do US tango dancers prefer exhibitionism, even when it is aberrant
>in Buenos Aires? We Americans frequently adopt and change imported
>culture to fit our own cultural norms. The Argentine tango of the
>early 20th century was imported, sanitized, modified, etc., until the
>descendant American ballroom tango is hardly recognizable as tango.
>Fantasy tango and nuevo are accepted because they meet our culture
>norms of dance as exhibition. When I mention that people in Argentina
>do not dance that way at milongas, I have heard a few times "We're not
>in Argentina. We're in America". So be it. The ugly truth bares
>itself. Many of us do not even care that what we dance as tango
>socially is not what is danced socially in Buenos Aires. Why should
>we? We are Americans and we have the right to do things our way!!
>Don't tell us how to dance tango!! We are free to express ourselves as
>we want, why shoul dwe be bound by silly irrelevant tradition? And
>besides, we live in a democracy, so don't tell me what to do!
>
>Fortunately, there are a significant number of Americans who break
>away from this cultural ignorance. Sometimes it takes a few trips to
>Buenos Aires. I had danced fantasy tango for 5.5 years when I first
>went to BA in 2003, but meeting this cultural clash between what I was
>taught as social tango and the reality of social tango in Buenos Aires
>made me angry at my instructors who had deceived me and made me
>determined to change. But not every American changes they way they
>dance even when faced with that reality. Perhaps it was growing up in
>multicultural New York City as the son of European immigrants and
>being reasonably fluent in several languages that has enabled me to
>appreciate what other cultures have to offer. Maybe it is more
>difficult for Americans who only encounter people with similar
>cultural becakgrounds. Maybe this criticism of them is to harsh.
>
>However, to really appreciate tango, you need to approach tango for
>it, as a part of Argentine culture, has to offer. You need to try to
>understand tango on tango's terms, not fit it into your own cultural
>preconceptions, modifying it until you fill comfortable with it within
>the dimensions of your own cultural frame of reference. Of course, not
>being Argentine, we can never understand tango as an Argentine.
>However, Americans need to watch and listen more and be objective in
>seeing what this part of Argentine culture can offer us and what we
>can learn from it and how we can grow from this knowledge, rather than
>claiming artistic creativity in adapting tango until it is no longer
>recognizable as Argentine.
>
>Ron
>
>
>

Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:00:54 -0500
From: AJ Azure <azure.music@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures
To: <tango-l@mit.edu>


As a musician and someone putting together a stage show involving live music
and dance I ask you this, do you think that trad. tango makes for good stage
performance? I am asking sincerely. it's something i am currently wrestling
with in deciding the content of said show, which will also feature lindy and
swing styles. Aside from being a pro musician my family lineage is from
Argentina and I respect my roots although I believe to survive newness must
also be injected in to nostalgia. The answer is if you really want tango to
live on, support the live music so that it can keep some sort of freshness.
get musicians old music so that we have access to it. Work with musicians to
tell us you want but, also keep an open mind AND for goodness sakes stop the
elitism, snobbery and judgmental attitude (not specific tot his e-mail just
in general) it's seen in many circles and ultimately it poisons the
environment

-A

> From: Tango Society of Central Illinois <tango.society@gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:49:43 -0600
> To: Deby Novitz <dnovitz@lavidacondeby.com>
> Cc: <tango-l@mit.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures
>
> On 2/26/07, Deby Novitz <dnovitz@lavidacondeby.com> wrote:
>
>> When I tell Argentines that I dance tango regardless of their age,
>> their test to me as a foreigner dancing their dance is exactly what do I
>> dance. Show tango, tango nuevo to Argentines is not Argentine Tango.
>> Most call it tango for foreigners or tango for export. You can debate
>> this, you can try to prove me wrong with all the statistics and articles
>> and hearsay you want, but I live here. Argentine Tango to Argentinians
>> is a cultural icon. Plain and simple. Why do Americans more than any
>> other group of people want to change, deface, this cultural icon?
>
>> From someone on the American side teaching tango, I find that getting
> Americans to accept tango as danced in Buenos Aires (close embrace,
> with the music, partner rather than audience directed) is a difficult
> task. I often wonder why most Americans prefer the exhibitionist
> fantasy - nuevo forms of tango. In part, this is our dance culture -
> ballroom dance competition & swing dancing in particular - as part of
> our Hollywood driven desire for audience approval. We talk of dance as
> "learning cool steps". It is deeply ingrained in our cultural. Not to
> mention the intimacy of close embrace is somewhat frightening to a
> culture with a strong Puritan heritage. It is sometimes amusing to see
> how Americans learning close embrace tango fight against getting
> close. Or if they are in close embrace, they throw their shoulders
> back to avoid a complete connection, despite what we as instructors
> tell them repeatedly about "connection, connection, connection". The
> Latin Americans and some other foreigners in our classes are
> different. They are not afraid to get close. Fortunately, after a
> while most people who stay with tango in close embrace enjoy it, and I
> believe the connection fulfills a need in a standoffish culture.
>
> However, these people are a minority. Fantasy tango and, more recently
> nuevo, are a strong magnet for dancers. So is the loud, bass thumping
> noise that passes for dance music in our culture. This fits in more
> with our cultural values of exhibitionism being dominant over subtlety
> and intimacy.
>
> Almost all milongas in the US are a caricature of milongas in Buenos
> Aires, with exhibitionistic antics predominating, at least visually,
> if not in numbers. Connection with the music is rare. Moving in
> harmony with a partner is rare. This is not news.
>
> Why do US tango dancers prefer exhibitionism, even when it is aberrant
> in Buenos Aires? We Americans frequently adopt and change imported
> culture to fit our own cultural norms. The Argentine tango of the
> early 20th century was imported, sanitized, modified, etc., until the
> descendant American ballroom tango is hardly recognizable as tango.
> Fantasy tango and nuevo are accepted because they meet our culture
> norms of dance as exhibition. When I mention that people in Argentina
> do not dance that way at milongas, I have heard a few times "We're not
> in Argentina. We're in America". So be it. The ugly truth bares
> itself. Many of us do not even care that what we dance as tango
> socially is not what is danced socially in Buenos Aires. Why should
> we? We are Americans and we have the right to do things our way!!
> Don't tell us how to dance tango!! We are free to express ourselves as
> we want, why shoul dwe be bound by silly irrelevant tradition? And
> besides, we live in a democracy, so don't tell me what to do!
>
> Fortunately, there are a significant number of Americans who break
> away from this cultural ignorance. Sometimes it takes a few trips to
> Buenos Aires. I had danced fantasy tango for 5.5 years when I first
> went to BA in 2003, but meeting this cultural clash between what I was
> taught as social tango and the reality of social tango in Buenos Aires
> made me angry at my instructors who had deceived me and made me
> determined to change. But not every American changes they way they
> dance even when faced with that reality. Perhaps it was growing up in
> multicultural New York City as the son of European immigrants and
> being reasonably fluent in several languages that has enabled me to
> appreciate what other cultures have to offer. Maybe it is more
> difficult for Americans who only encounter people with similar
> cultural becakgrounds. Maybe this criticism of them is to harsh.
>
> However, to really appreciate tango, you need to approach tango for
> it, as a part of Argentine culture, has to offer. You need to try to
> understand tango on tango's terms, not fit it into your own cultural
> preconceptions, modifying it until you fill comfortable with it within
> the dimensions of your own cultural frame of reference. Of course, not
> being Argentine, we can never understand tango as an Argentine.
> However, Americans need to watch and listen more and be objective in
> seeing what this part of Argentine culture can offer us and what we
> can learn from it and how we can grow from this knowledge, rather than
> claiming artistic creativity in adapting tango until it is no longer
> recognizable as Argentine.
>
> Ron

Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 06:08:49 EST
From: TimmyTango@aol.com
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures

In a message dated 2/27/07 2:02:54 AM Central Standard Time,
azure.music@verizon.net writes:

<< As a musician and someone putting together a stage show involving live
music
and dance I ask you this, do you think that trad. tango makes for good stage
performance? >>

The absolute best tango show I have ever seen consisted of nothing but
Traditional tango music. Leandro and Andrea performed Tango Danza in Cleveland
several years ago and the vision of the performance still is clear in my mind.
Laura Salsbury is a reporter for the Cleveland Plan Dealer new paper. She is
extremely educated in dance, and reports what she sees and feels. She tries to
be positive in all her reports but there is always something she catches in
the show, and she says it like it is. Her report of Tango Danza was the highest
praise I've ever read, of any show, and it deserved it. She reported how she
like the costumes and how the 3 couple used all of the stage area, and that
each dance told a very clear story. How the entire theater was totally
entertained for two hours.
I also want to talk about Tango X2 how they used every style of tango in the
show, even social tango.
To entertain an entire theater with just Traditional social tango dances is I
feel a lot harder to pull off, but for me more enjoyable.

now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL
at https://www.aol.com.

Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:28:52 +0100
From: Alexis Cousein <al@sgi.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures
To: AJ Azure <azure.music@verizon.net>
Cc: tango-l@mit.edu

AJ Azure wrote:

>
> As a musician and someone putting together a stage show involving live music
> and dance I ask you this, do you think that trad. tango makes for good stage
> performance?

Some does. There's a world of music to choose from, even in the traditional...

--
Alexis Cousein al@sgi.com
Senior Systems Engineer/Solutions Architect SGI/Silicon Graphics
--
<If I have seen further, it is by standing on reference manuals>

Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:39:56 -0500
From: "WHITE 95 R" <white95r@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures
To: azure.music@verizon.net, tango-l@mit.edu

>From: AJ Azure <azure.music@verizon.net>

>As a musician and someone putting together a stage show involving live
>music
>and dance I ask you this, do you think that trad. tango makes for good
>stage
>performance? I am asking sincerely. it's something i am currently wrestling
>with in deciding the content of said show,

Well, I'd say that traditional tango music is excellent music for stage
performances of Argentine tango dance. All you need to do is watch some of
the many stage shows that have been already produced. Tango X 2, Fiorever
tango, Tango Argentino are but a few stage shows made 99.9% with traditional
tango music and traditional tango dancing (although the dancing is of course
a very challenging stage performance)

>which will also feature lindy and
>swing styles.

For this particular genre of music and dance, the tango might be totally
innapropriate. Is there gouing to be some sort or amalgam of styles? will
people be dancing swing or lindy hop to tango music? Or is it tango dance to
lindy hop music?

>Aside from being a pro musician my family lineage is from
>Argentina and I respect my roots although I believe to survive newness must
>also be injected in to nostalgia.

Not necessarily so. Although newness is nice, it's not necessary for the
survival of the tango dance at all. Actually, it's not necessay for the
survival of the music either. For example, look at the blues. Although there
are new or newer musicians and compositions, the wealth of existing old
blues music and even old traditional blues musicians is what really keeps
the intetrest in the blues going strong. Likewise in the contra dance and
old time fiddle music tradition. The old time fiddle music is alive and well
while maintaining it's very traditional characteristics. Any 'newness' or
innovation that comes into the genre still maintains the intrinsic
characteristics of old time fiddle music. Otherwise it will flop at the
dance...

>The answer is if you really want tango to
>live on, support the live music so that it can keep some sort of freshness.
>get musicians old music so that we have access to it.

Well, at least from our part we have always supported high quality live
music. We love traditional tango musicians and have often strived to
showcase and feature live tango music in our events. In reality, we always
subsidized the musicians since the dancing publib cannot be counted on to
produce enough revenue from the ticket sales. Also, I have personally worked
with many musicians who were not tango musicians. I've made sheet music of
tango available to them, played traditional recorded tango music for them
and tried to explain our needs as tango dancers to them. We've done this
with various degrees of success.

>Work with musicians to
>tell us you want but, also keep an open mind AND for goodness sakes stop
>the
>elitism, snobbery and judgmental attitude (not specific tot his e-mail just
>in general) it's seen in many circles and ultimately it poisons the
>environment

There is no "elitism, snobbery and judgmental attitude". What you read is an
impassioned plea to people to show some respect for the culture that spawned
the tango and for some open mindedness regarding the traditional tango music
and dance. It's good to remember that the music came first and the dance
later. The traditional tango music is the instpiration for the tango dance.
They are inextricably bound. And changing one will of necessity change the
other. Personally, I love the real, authentic Argentine tango and see
absolutely no need to change it. I don't see how the feelings and opinions
of tango lovers would " ultimately it poison[s] the environment".


Manuel

> >> From someone on the American side teaching tango, I find that getting
> > Americans to accept tango as danced in Buenos Aires (close embrace,
> > with the music, partner rather than audience directed) is a difficult
> > task. I often wonder why most Americans prefer the exhibitionist
> > fantasy - nuevo forms of tango. In part, this is our dance culture -
> > ballroom dance competition & swing dancing in particular - as part of
> > our Hollywood driven desire for audience approval. We talk of dance as
> > "learning cool steps". It is deeply ingrained in our cultural. Not to
> > mention the intimacy of close embrace is somewhat frightening to a
> > culture with a strong Puritan heritage. It is sometimes amusing to see
> > how Americans learning close embrace tango fight against getting
> > close. Or if they are in close embrace, they throw their shoulders
> > back to avoid a complete connection, despite what we as instructors
> > tell them repeatedly about "connection, connection, connection". The
> > Latin Americans and some other foreigners in our classes are
> > different. They are not afraid to get close. Fortunately, after a
> > while most people who stay with tango in close embrace enjoy it, and I
> > believe the connection fulfills a need in a standoffish culture.
> >
> > However, these people are a minority. Fantasy tango and, more recently
> > nuevo, are a strong magnet for dancers. So is the loud, bass thumping
> > noise that passes for dance music in our culture. This fits in more
> > with our cultural values of exhibitionism being dominant over subtlety
> > and intimacy.
> >
> > Almost all milongas in the US are a caricature of milongas in Buenos
> > Aires, with exhibitionistic antics predominating, at least visually,
> > if not in numbers. Connection with the music is rare. Moving in
> > harmony with a partner is rare. This is not news.
> >
> > Why do US tango dancers prefer exhibitionism, even when it is aberrant
> > in Buenos Aires? We Americans frequently adopt and change imported
> > culture to fit our own cultural norms. The Argentine tango of the
> > early 20th century was imported, sanitized, modified, etc., until the
> > descendant American ballroom tango is hardly recognizable as tango.
> > Fantasy tango and nuevo are accepted because they meet our culture
> > norms of dance as exhibition. When I mention that people in Argentina
> > do not dance that way at milongas, I have heard a few times "We're not
> > in Argentina. We're in America". So be it. The ugly truth bares
> > itself. Many of us do not even care that what we dance as tango
> > socially is not what is danced socially in Buenos Aires. Why should
> > we? We are Americans and we have the right to do things our way!!
> > Don't tell us how to dance tango!! We are free to express ourselves as
> > we want, why shoul dwe be bound by silly irrelevant tradition? And
> > besides, we live in a democracy, so don't tell me what to do!
> >
> > Fortunately, there are a significant number of Americans who break
> > away from this cultural ignorance. Sometimes it takes a few trips to
> > Buenos Aires. I had danced fantasy tango for 5.5 years when I first
> > went to BA in 2003, but meeting this cultural clash between what I was
> > taught as social tango and the reality of social tango in Buenos Aires
> > made me angry at my instructors who had deceived me and made me
> > determined to change. But not every American changes they way they
> > dance even when faced with that reality. Perhaps it was growing up in
> > multicultural New York City as the son of European immigrants and
> > being reasonably fluent in several languages that has enabled me to
> > appreciate what other cultures have to offer. Maybe it is more
> > difficult for Americans who only encounter people with similar
> > cultural becakgrounds. Maybe this criticism of them is to harsh.
> >
> > However, to really appreciate tango, you need to approach tango for
> > it, as a part of Argentine culture, has to offer. You need to try to
> > understand tango on tango's terms, not fit it into your own cultural
> > preconceptions, modifying it until you fill comfortable with it within
> > the dimensions of your own cultural frame of reference. Of course, not
> > being Argentine, we can never understand tango as an Argentine.
> > However, Americans need to watch and listen more and be objective in
> > seeing what this part of Argentine culture can offer us and what we
> > can learn from it and how we can grow from this knowledge, rather than
> > claiming artistic creativity in adapting tango until it is no longer
> > recognizable as Argentine.
> >
> > Ron
>
>

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Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:18:46 -0500
From: AJ Azure <azure.music@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures
To: Tango-L <TANGO-L@mit.edu>

Good to hear about the reaction. As for nostalgia, I'm not sure you get the
intended meaning. Old swing and hot jazz come from the same time period and
are still performed but, their creation in the past makes them create
nostalgic feelings. Nostalgia does not mean dead.

-A

> From: Ilene Marder <imhmedia@yahoo.com>
> Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:18:34 -0500
> To: WHITE 95 R <white95r@hotmail.com>
> Cc: <azure.music@verizon.net>, <tango-l@mit.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Respect and love of cultures
>
> AJ-
> I have recently produced stage shows at a 250 seat theater which played
> to full houses, attracting non tango dancers as well as the core tango
> community here..
> My tango shows feature classic tango (live music and dancers) and one
> which involved tango, swing and salsa with part live part recorded
> music. From my point of view there is no question that you should
> absolutely use classic tango...besides from remaining true to the genre,
> it gives good contrast with the other dance music. From my experience,
> the ticket buying public is coming to see tango - the real deal... not
> a hybrid. If you feel it necessary to show the evolution of the dance
> and music, then stage a nuevo number to illustrate...but I find
> show-goers are enchanted by the sound and feel of classic tango and
> often ask me where they can get a good cd....
>
> Classic Tango music is NOT nostalgia... it is a vital, living art form
> that has survived some 80 years and is still thrilling people and doing
> what is was intended to do -- inspire profound communication between two
> people and the music.
> Ilene
>
>
>