698  Reel man's tango

Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 09:01:53 -0700
From: Carlos Lima <amilsolrac@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Reel man's tango

In spite of the recent intensive opportunities to enlighten myself, I am
still unsure of what a Reel Man is, but I am starting to believe I may know
something of what Reel Man's tango (as a concept, at least) may be.
Humourless? Delusional? Pretentious? Regular tango, meaning the low brow
variety I dabble in, is riotous fun, down to earth (very grounded), and a
wonderful, manifold, challenge to one's faculties.

Interestingly, one cannot deny that matters of sex identity, relationships
between the sexes, roles, are as complicated and problematic today as ever.
Not so in regular tango -- qua tango. Well my regular tango. And I confess
that that appeals to me. In fact, interpersonal relationships, the whole lot,
are not getting any easier, but our tango culture here in NY feels to me like
somewhat of an oasis. (With rough areas, not too hard to resign oneself to.)

On a vaguely related point, while personal friction does develop here and
there within the culture, as far as I know it is practically always about
derivative issues, things other than dancing itself, other than the milonga
experience or the tango growth process.

In particular, surprising as this may seem, sufficient manliness and / or
womanliness among our dancers does not seem to arise as a bone of contention
very often at all. We all seem to be quite real enough for the purpose.
Astrid and Sarah have the right attitude regarding the Great Real Man
Question. I could call on those who miss the joke, but I won't; I am an
expert on missing the joke myself.

I will mention a factual point raised in the Reel Man discussion. In NY,
tango is not an old folks "scene". There are people of all suitable ages, and
there is no obvious segregation by age. There is a lot of cross age dancing
in all possible combinations.

The most that can be said is that some milongas / practicas tend to be
somewhat "younger", others somewhat "older"; and that skill level
requirements and sex imbalance can be obstacles to mixing. I will also say
that I would see nothing wrong with a "scene" with people of all ages, but
much more segregated. It is only natural that young people should prefer to
dance with young people, all else being equal, and some of the more mature
people should prefer to dance with similarly mature partners. It happens in
most social activities, and generally in dancing, no doubt.

It is not so in tango, by and large, because there is no coeteris paribus:
all else isn't equal. This tango thing is really out of sight isn't it?

Cheers,










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