528  Helsinki Tango

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 19:52:27 +1200
From: Bob Ramsey-Turner <bob.ramsey-turner@QUICKSILVER.NET.NZ>
Subject: Helsinki Tango

John wrote:-
(On a recent visit to Helsinki I had some lessons in the Finnish tango. I
asked how it came to lose its figures, as there are a great many in
Argentine tango and the ballroom tango consists of nothing but figures. I
was told the Finnish tango had never had figures. Is it possible that
Finland has preserved the original tango in its pristine purity? Does anyone
have any comments?)

Just a couple of years ago a TV NZ programme did an article on Argentine
Tango in Helsinki. If it was typical of Tango in that country, it had lost
much more than its figures, it could have perhaps been suffering from a
mutation of "Mad Cow Disease"


With kind regards

Bob Ramsey-Turner
bob.ramsey-turner@quicksilver.net.nz

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 09:26:35 -0400
From: Manuel Patino <white95r@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Helsinki Tango

----- Original Message -----

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 11:47:54 -0400
From: Randy Pittman <tango22@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: Re: Helsinki Tango

Several have wrote:

> On a recent visit to Helsinki I had some lessons in the Finnish tango. I
> asked how it came to lose its figures, as there are a great many in
> Argentine tango and the ballroom tango consists of nothing but figures. I
> was told the Finnish tango had never had figures. Is it possible that
> Finland has preserved the original tango in its pristine purity? Does

anyone

> have any comments?

This discussion seems to come up from time to time. I have never understood
ones reason for reaching back to these roots.

I have a question for those of you that wish that Tango could return to it's
original form. Do you live in a cave as the first man and woman did? Do
you go out and kill you food with sticks and stones? Or are you a little
more civilized and appreciate some modern conveniences and drive a 1769
Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot steam powered gun tractor capable of 2 mph. In
addition to pulling an artillery piece, the vehicle could carry up to 4
people. Cugnot's vehicle proved unmaneuverable and was quickly wrecked in
what some consider the first automobile accident.

I personally appreciate today's modern conveniences. I prefer to get into
my air conditioned mini van drive, to the grocery store and purchase my food
using my bank card.

I do know how to shoot a gun, and I have eaten the foul that I've killed.
Unfortunately it leaves little time for dancing and going to the theater ;-)

Tango and Dance Forever

Randy

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 15:28:49 -0400
From: Natarajan Balasundara <rajan@EMC.COM>
Subject: Re: Helsinki Tango

Bob Ramsey-Turner wrote:

> Just a couple of years ago a TV NZ programme did an article on Argentine
> Tango in Helsinki. If it was typical of Tango in that country, it had lost
> much more than its figures, it could have perhaps been suffering from a
> mutation of "Mad Cow Disease"

Often, I have noticed that the angle in a TV program(or, for that matter, news),

is tilted to suite the typical taste of the local people or towards what could
make it
interesting for them or to get better ratings for the station.

Objectivity may not have been the prime objective of the program aired in
NZ-- although I could not really say anything about this particular case
since I did not see the program :-)

rajan.

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 13:54:29 -0700
From: Larry Duke <auto_d20@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Helsinki Tango

--- Randy Pittman <tango22@BELLSOUTH.NET> wrote:

> I have a question for those of you that wish that
> Tango could return to it's
> original form. Do you live in a cave as the first
> man and woman did? Do
> you go out and kill you food with sticks and stones?

I do live in a cave, but it's kind of a bunker with
A/C and cable TV. I hunt for bears for fun, but don't
kill them, as I buy my food at a local farmers market.
I drive an 18-wheeler and would love to own an M1
tank. I am bored to death with "close-embrace" and
30's scratchy D'Arienzo records.

As for Finnish tango, its description sounds a lot
like what some coloradiens are preaching to the world,
doesn't it?

Larry.

Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 23:16:28 -0700
From: Deborah Holm <dmholm@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Helsinki tango.

I believe that there are some people in Finland who
dance "Argentine Tango" and many people in Finland
who dance a tango that is a version of Finland's style
of tango. The 2000 tango clubs in Finland that dance
the version of Finland's style of tango are the kind of
clubs, I think, that have a very nice social activity where
women and men are not forced to talk to each other,
where they dance the dance, and like "square dancing"
in the US there is a moderator. From what I can glean,
the attraction is that women and men are not forced to
talk to each other, and this makes a good social event.
So, the basic premise of AT works here.
I did meet a couple of AT dancers from Finland here in
San Francisco who danced AT. And, wow, they could
knock your socks off. But, they also reminded me that
there was that "other'" tango happening in Finland. The
2000 tango clubs that are not about Argentine Tango.
If you want to hear some of the tango music from those
"other" clubs, I have a CD "Olavi Virta." And when you
listen to it, you can recognize our much loved tangos, but
it sounds more like a march, like a military march...
But, what the heck, if the attraction is that men and women
don't have to talk to each other... and it works....
Whatever...

Deborah

Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 17:27:21 +0900
From: astrid <astrid@RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: Helsinki tango.

The 2000 tango clubs in Finland that dance

> the version of Finland's style of tango are the kind of
> clubs, I think, that have a very nice social activity where
> women and men are not forced to talk to each other,

....

> But, what the heck, if the attraction is that men and women
> don't have to talk to each other... and it works....
> Whatever...
> Deborah
>

I am all for nonverbal communication when it comes to tango and other
sensuous activities, but my guess so far, from my experience in Japan, is,
that it is not exactly so, that tango is attractive because people do not
have to talk. It is more like tango seems to attract an extraordinary lot of
tongue tied men, awkward characters, people who have never mastered the art
of sophisticated conversation, of the verbal flirt...and so you end up
experiencing a number of men very closely in a physical way, but once you
sit down after the dance, you find that your communication is not able to
reach very far beyond asking for a light and getting it. And a topic with
more "depth" would be too much for most of them, and even talking about
tango is not possible, as most lack the necessary background to discuss it.
So for them, learning tango may be one of the very few ways out of this
dilemma of not being able to hold up a conversation, and still wanting to
communicate with women they don't know and would like to meet.
Unfortunately, the encounters end then and there, because of this handicap,
in many cases. (This assumption may all be based on a total cultural
misunderstanding)
But I would not agree that "not having to talk to each other" is the
ultimate solution in making your time around the other sex worthwhile...nor
the perfect way to make a party more enjoyable in general.
Please note, that the mentality of Northern people and Japanese is very
different. Scandinavians, even Northern Germans, can be rather quiet and
introverted, but they are not awkward, nor particularly shy.
My guess is, it may be easier for them to experience the inner tango because
of their mentality.
Not having visited Finnland, I have decided to keep out of this discussion
so far, but I remember that my Argentine journalist friend in Berlin told
me, indignantly, that when some Finnish orchestra performed in Berlin, and
he had to interview their conductor, this Finn told him: "It was the Finns
who invented the Tango."

; )
Astrid