1729  Notes from Buenos Aires 25

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 14:12:19 -0500
From: Rick McGarrey <RICKMCG@FLASH.NET>
Subject: Notes from Buenos Aires 25

There are several different styles of social tango.
Everybody knows that. Everyone in tango, from the
most experienced instructor to the newest dancer can
name, describe, and probably demonstrate several of
them. I know I could do it in about five seconds, and
I'm someone who knows what he's talking about. I'm
not just someone who's taken a few workshops. I've
spent a lot of time in the Buenos Aires, and I don't
just sit there like a plant. I keep my eyes open. If
I'm not dancing, then I'm filming someone, or asking
questions, or trying to figure out what's going on.
I'm as observant as can be, and when I'm not in BsAs,
I look at videos of the milongas, and study the way
people dance. And after all of this, if you had asked
me two months ago about the different styles of tango,
I could have given you a detailed description of each
and every one of them.

But it turns out there was one small problem: I never
actually saw any of them.

It's an amazing thing. No one ever actually asked me
to show examples of those different styles being
danced in BsAs- and although I was sure they were
there, I never actually looked for them in the clubs
or on the film. I think I just assumed they were
there, the same way everyone once assumed that the
earth was flat and the sun moved across a stationary
sky. It was so obvious that it wasn't worth a second
thought. Maybe I assumed that there was a club over
in Bernal or Floresta where the salon, or orillero, or
milonguero style dancers went on Tuesday afternoons...
but I just hadn't been there yet. Well, I don't have
that excuse anymore, because we I have danced and
filmed everywhere over the last year. We've been
from Uruguay to Salta, and from Cordoba to
Avellaneda. About the only places we haven't been are
Patagonia and Quilmes, and unless we missed something
there, I have come up with a somewhat surprising
conclusion. That is that despite what almost everyone
seems to think and say, it doesn't look to me like all
of these different styles that people talk about and
take for granted actually exist on the dance floors of
Argentina.

At first I though maybe I was wrong, so I decided to
check further. I did something very obvious. I asked
several of the most experienced dancers a couple of
questions. Between them these people have probably
been to almost all of the clubs and danced with almost
all of the good dancers in Argentina. I asked this
question of the women: When you are going around and
dancing, do you prefer the men who dance salon style,
or milonguero style, or what? I then asked some of
the men: What style of tango do the best dancers
dance? Finally I asked, what is your style, and which
clubs is it danced in?

You may have already guessed the answer. These were
all great dancers. The best in the world- so we
should probably listen to them. They didn't talk
about people needing to stay centered, or step
correctly, or stay in the compas. That was taken for
granted. But the question of different styles really
didn't mean anything to them. They couldn't identify
any, nor could they identify any clubs where people
danced them. They all said more or less the same
thing: Everyone feels the music in their own way, and
dances that way.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to argue a
position here. I don't have a dog in this fight, and
I'm certainly open to being convinced otherwise. If
somebody can take me into a club, or show me some film
and point out different people
dancing 'club', 'orillero', 'nuevo', 'milonguero',
or 'salon' I'm open to it, but I'll be damned if I can
see it. Of course it goes without saying that people
dance differently depending on the music and the floor
conditions. And there are always bad dancers, and
sometimes a few people dancing in strange ways. But
when you think about it, how could there really be
several different styles that are incompatible?
Everyone goes to all the milongas and dances close
with everyone else. If there were all these different
ways of leading and following, the system wouldn't
work very well. Or at the very least, they would be
noticed by the people who dance all the time.

And if we assume that these differences really don't
exist in any significant way on the dance floors of
Buenos Aires, then where did they come from? Where
are they? It raises interesting questions.

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 14:29:05 -0500
From: Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG
Subject: Re: Notes from Buenos Aires 25

About dancers he interviewed in Buenos Aires, Rick McGarrey wrote:

>[T]he question of different styles really didn't
>mean anything to them. They couldn't identify any,
>nor could they identify any clubs where people
>danced them. They all said more or less the same
>thing: Everyone feels the music in their own way,
>and dances that way.

On his first visit to Dallas (1997 I think), someone asked Nito Garcia
what style of tango he danced. He was really puzzled to being dumbfounded
by the question, as though it had never occurred to him to think about
styles of tango. After pondering the question for a while longer he came
up with salon and orillero as a description of the style of tango that he
dances. On a subsequent visit to Texas, he said "Bailas como sos." (You
dance who you are.) Now, Nito just says that he is a social dancer.

With best regards,
Steve

Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas
https://www.tejastango.com/

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 14:45:32 -0700
From: Barbara Garvey <barbara@TANGOBAR-PRODUCTIONS.COM>
Subject: Re: Notes from Buenos Aires 25

I think Rick is reading my mind. For the last few days, since posting about
the Estilo del Centro tapes, I've been thinking : wait a minute, what's with
all these labels for different styles of tango? (I'm talking only about
Argentine tango, not tango from a syllabus like International or American).
We have clearly fallen into a trap (me included). What happened to the old
concept that each tango dancer of any quality and experience has his/her own
individual style. Some dance closer, some less close, some alternate between
close and less close, etc. But even when doing, God forbid, similar steps,
no two dancers are alike. The style of each and every tango has to do with
not only the choice of the leader and to a lesser extent the follower, but
is enormously influenced by the music, the number and skill of other dancers
in the room, and a number of other factors (one's digestion, mood,
whatever).

During the first lesson we took years ago from Eduardo and Gloria in 'club
tango' , I realized that they were teaching something very much like what
we did naturally to D'Arienzo, Biaggi, etc. We didn't need to 'study' club
tango -- it just happens if you are dancing to certain music. Some tangos
inspire bigger dramatic movements (Quejas de Bandoneon for example), others
bring forth subtle moves. And so on through all possible stylistic elements.
The amazing thing about tango is that by learning basic techniques well not
only can one, as a leader or follower, initiate and respond in completely
original ways to each piece of music/situation, but that one can do so with
complete strangers all over the world.

We haven't been to Buenos Aires since 1998, but on our six trips there we
were almost never in a club where one could identify a reigning style.
Obviously if a milonga is very crowded people dance closer and smaller, but
there is an infinite number of ways to do that. A neighborhood dance
attended mostly by couples is likely to look quite different from a downtown
'singles' joint. I have been told that in olden times when everyone carried
a knife for the purpose of discouraging outsiders, each barrio and suburb
had a noticeable style, and that may be true or it may also be myth.

My conclusion is that most of the named styles are marketing tools, more and
more popular as competition becomes intense. Which doesn't mean it is
invalid or futile to take classes from a variety of instructors, but let's
try to see the individuals behind the labels and accept the product as a
tool rather than gospel.
Abrazos,
Barbara