3094  Tango Nuevo & Tango de Salon/Milonguero

Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 11:36:50 +0100
From: Melina Sedo <melinasedo@ONLINEHOME.DE>
Subject: Tango Nuevo & Tango de Salon/Milonguero

Hi all,

I totally agree with Tom Stermitz saying:

> Nuevo tango, that is the "concepts and possibilities that came from the
> practice explorations of Gustavo, Salas & others", might be thought of
> as a style, teaching methodology or an analysis.
> ...

> Also, nuevo helped produce more improvisational teaching methodologies
> and freed many teachers from needing to depend on the 8-Count basic.
> ...

Well, you're totally right. Even Milonguero-style dancers may learn
something from the "nuevo tango" - approach. We did. Our classes and
our dance are based on improvisation using the principles of
leading/following, of combining the possibilities, on parallel/crossed
system, geometries... We even use the idea of "stealing steps" from the
opposite role, as Tom called it.

Now, are we dancing "estilo nuevo"? No, we're not. Everyone watching us
(and our students) would call our style "Tango de Salon" or "Tango
Milonguero" (depending on where he or she comes from ;-)).

(We'll be having a few new videos ou our site in a few days, so you'll
be able to judge jourself. At the moment there are only some old
videos, so don't bother to look...)

Why? Where's the difference?

We discussed this with an argentine friend living in our town and
dancing "estilo nuevo" and came to the conclusion:
Tango de Salon/Tango Milonguero is about the embrace, "Estilo Nuevo"
ist about possibilities of movements. In Tango de Salon the emphasis is
on the embrace and the connection to your partner, that is why your
possibilities are limited and maybe not even that important. "Estilo
nuevo focuses on the possibilities, that's why the embrace may be
changed or opened.

For me it may be perfect to walk straight forward or just stand during
a whole Tango, if the embrace feels good. (Ok, I'm exaggerating a
little. ;-)) An "estilo nuevo-dancer" would die of boredom, because he
"needs a certain saccada in a particular moment" as our friend pointed
out.

But: there's no reason to fight. Everyone may learn from the other.
That's why we founded a new association: 2 Salon-Couples, 1
Nuevo-Couple. The TANGOKOMBINAT. Let's see how it works. ;-))

Have a nice day,

Melina



Melina Sedó & Detlef Engel
www.tangodesalon.de