420  The Future of Tango

Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 17:59:17 -0800
From: clayton beach <akumushi@ONEBOX.COM>
Subject: The Future of Tango

How very interesting that Jonathan Thornton mentioned the minuet,
for (which some of you might already know) has much more significance
to classical music and our history than being an antiquated dance. The
third movement of many classical era symphonies was a minuet. Though
this was later replaced by the Scherzo, the music of the minuet survived
the dance by a long shot, considering that many symphonies that contain
it are still played today. It was taken far beyond its role as a dance
evovled as part of an amazingly complex form of art.
What does this have to do with tango? The tango music, like the
music of the minuet has undergone a dramatic transformation. Piazzolla
in my opinion, did to tango what classical musicians did with the dance
music of their time; he took it beyond a form of dance/entertainment
music to a level of sophistication that calls for the audience to sit
down, listen and think. It has become a highly intellectualized music
and a very complicated art.
This leaves us with current tango musicians busy making further
developments in a classical way, or infusing the tango with jazz style
variation and harmony. Though these are great accomplishments for the
progression of tango music as an art, we as dancers have been left behind.

Though the practitioners of the minuet were not blessed with the
recordings of their favorite dance music, it is questionable that the
dance would have survived long anyway. The scandalous Waltz came through
stealing the hearts of the youth, and history has a way of forgetting
the unpopular. The fact is that the meat of our danceable tango is a
small batch of music recorded over a period of thirty years, most of
which is recorded with regrettably poor fidelity.
Tango musicians do not seem too keen on giving up their new found
freedoms and innovations, and why should they? Art is dynamic, changing
and they have every right to alter their music as they see fit. However,
that leaves us living in a bubble. We cannot simply rely on golden age
music if the tango as a form of dance is ever to survive. As is, we
are a relatively small cult of people, our communities are tight nit
and in many ways exclusive. We do not have widespread popular appeal.
What is the likely hood that a species with a 99 percent infant fatality
rare would survive extinction? We as tangueros are suffering from this,
as well as a loss a viable food source; good tango music.
Will any of us live to see the death of tango? No, it s not going
anywhere that fast. But, do we want future generations to feel the passion
and beauty of our art and obsession? As I said last time, we need to
expand our definitions of tango, educate musicians with what we as DANCERS
want, and give our patronage to the talented few that satisfy us. We
also need to pick up the pace of bringing in new blood. Though I disagree
vehemently with Bugs on many planes, his opinions are valid and represent
a fairly large group of people, whose passion for dance in general could
help strengthen our communities if we did not alienate them.
I prefer to dance to golden age tango, and don t like to dance to
anything else, but I m not kidding myself that all is fine and dandy
in tango land. If someone can invent new movements that carry the spirit
of tango, we should support them. If someone wants to take elements
of tango and throw them into the mixture of another art, that s phenomenal.
If someone can find tango-like inspiration in music other than golden
age tango, then all the better. It is idiocy to think that a community
can thrive, or even survive, with a stagnant, aging pool of music and
dance moves. As a whole, tango dancers have lost one of the fundamental
relationships in dance. The first two are the relationship between the
partners and the relationship within the people of the crowd. The third,
and the one we have lost, is the relationship that is created as musician
and dancer interact as a DIALOGUE. It has been a monologue, and a repetative
one at that, for far too long.


--
clayton beach
akumushi@onebox.com - email
(866) 248-7670 x7206 - voicemail/fax

Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 10:08:24 -0600
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: The Future of Tango

I have ended up writing two subtantially different, but related responses
to Clayton's thought-provoking comments.
My apologies for the length...

+++++First Response+++++

Like Clayton, I am very much in favor of supporting the contemporary
musicians who play and record tango dance music... I have purchased many
CDs of contemporary tango. At the right moments, I am able to play music
from Dan Diaz, Sexteto Sur, El Arranque, Orquesta Color Tango, Quartango,
New York Tango Trio, etc., but the playlists from contemporary orchestras
have many overlapping selections. Furthermore, if I play too much of
contemporary music, the core group of existing dancers simply stay off the
dance floor... If I persist, they will stop attending the milonga I dj.

Dancing tango is an participatory art which has traditionally had a high
barriers to admission. Some instructors have had success in reducing the
admission barriers by teaching milonguero style tango, others by providing
an insight into the structure of tango. The use of more contemporary music
may increase tango's appeal to some degree, but as Clayton notes,
contemporary tango music is more challenging for dancing which further
raises the barriers to admission.

I am not too concerned about tango becoming a museum piece. Many
contemporary tango orchestras have recognized the needs of tango dancers
and have tried to develop music that expresses their own artistic
sensibilities that will also support dancing. Many of the milongas at
tango weeks have live music and a number of tango orchestras have a regular
or semi-regular circuit of milongas for which they play.

I must say live tango music is truling compelling... Last fall, Dan Diaz'
Tango Camerata played for a milonga in Dallas in a facility that was
hosting a swing dance with a very good live band in another room. People
were allowed to go back and forth between dance floors. Dan Diaz' Tango
Camerata really pulled in the swing dancers.

In addition, tango dancing continues to evolve... As I previously wrote,
milonguero-style tango has become much more popular outside Buenos Aires
than it was ten years ago. Nuevo tango, which is one way to approach
contemporary music, has developed in the past decade. Liquid tango--which
combines nuevo and milonguero-style tango--has appeared in recent years.

For, the most part, however, few of these innovations have reduced the
admission barriers to tango. If one wants to go beyond walking to the
music, tango remains a dance for those who are willing to make the effort
to learn it.

Creating a simpler, more appealing version of tango might help the
community grow... And if we were trying to sell Cadillacs that might be a
commercial objective that would help . But if future generations are not
willing to make an effort to learn tango, who cares whether they dance some
version of it? I do not understand the point of making sacrifices now, so
that future generations can dance some light version of tango.

+++++Second Response+++++

One of the difficulties I am beginning to recognize in these discussions
about the direction tango is going or ought to go is that each of our views
may be affected by the experiences in our own communities... Having
visited a number of communities, I think there are universal issues and
issues that are unique to each community.

Some communities may have a dj who has poor equipment and plays only music
from the 1920s and 30s because he approaches the music like a museum
curator rather than a dancer... Some communities may have a dj who plays
only music from the 1950s and 60s and ignores all of the classics from the
1940s... Some communities may have a dj who plays only post-Piazzolian
tangos... Some communities may have a teacher who teaches a stiff-framed
style of tango that consists of multi-step patterns.

Many communities do not have many tango dancers in their 20s... Someone
might have been asked by a coworker or acquaintance in their 20s "Why can't
tango be more fun like swing or salsa?" It might be natural to look at the
shortcomings in the community and think that those are the reasons that
people in their 20s are not dancing tango...

As far as attracting people in their 20s, I do not think the fidelity of
the music or even the style of dance is that important -- though many of
the younger tango dancers favor the nuevo and liquid styles. What
interests most people in their 20s is other people in their 20s... The San
Francisco Bay Area saw a huge surge in people in their 20s dancing tango
when Mariella Frangnillo and Miller Ramil started teaching together there.
When Mariela left, the people in their 20s had each other, Miller and his
new partner,..., and this age group has remained a sizable part of the the
SF tango community. And believe me, Mariela and Miller do not teach any
simplified tango...

In addition, some members of a tango community can inadvertently put off
the younger dancers. Suppose a young couple in their 20s shows up for a
practica to work on things they learned in in their first class... The
woman in her 20s is grabbed and taken out on the dance floor by a man in
his 50s who has just annointed himself a teacher... The man in his 20s is
grabbed and taken out on the dance floor by a woman in her 40s who has just
annointed herself a teacher... How many times do you think the couple in
their 20s will attend the practica??

With best regards,
Steve (de Tejas)