3008  Must you be Argentine?

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 16:06:48 -0600
From: donnay@DONNAY.NET
Subject: Must you be Argentine?

The rest of his postings are dripping

> with contempt for what the non-Argentines do with the tango.
> What's with that. We don't understand tango??? Then what are
> we doing, learning steps? A lot of agonizing going on over
> "just steps", and what overflow from the feet to the heart.

Having just returned from Argentina, I can attest to some prejudice from
Argentinos (and others) towards dancing with Argentines. Often after a dance
the gentleman would look at me in amazement and say "Portena?!?" as if it
would be an amazement that someone from another country could "get it"

Now I know that people don't travel thousands of miles to dance with their
neighbors, but I hope that we are starting to dispel this notion. I had many
pleasant dances with non-Argentines, and several not-so-pleasant dances with
Argentines.

Lois Donnay
Minneapolis