5446  Milonga, a guy thing.

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:57:58 EST
From: Crrtango@aol.com
Subject: [Tango-L] Milonga, a guy thing.
To: TANGO-L@mit.edu

<<<at our milonga quite a few women like to dance milonga & milonga con
traspie. there seems not to be as many men who enjoy, this dance.? i wonder why?>>>


Maybe because it is taught so poorly, not to mention it is difficult to lead
correctly. Most teachers don't even know how to do it properly. Most people
just do speeded-up tango which is completely wrong. It is also aggravated by
performing couples who perform it with big steps and stage movements. Although
I'm sure I will get plenty of opposite responses, like there are different
types, open and closed, milonga liso, yadda, yadda, yadda, that also is missing the
point. There is a basic fundamental way to dance it that is different from
tango. It sounds like the teachers were rationalizing their lack of knowledge.
Milonga steps are smaller, more contained and don't include many steps normally
done in regular tango, like going to the cross, for one. Also as Jayrabe
pointed out, there are no pauses. It is basically a one-two, one-two rhythm
repeated over and over with variations. Also traspie involves shifting weight, not
just pointing your foot, which very few leaders seem to understand. No wonder
people don't feel comfortable doing it. They never learned how. Most followers
I know love doing it... with someone who knows how.
The other night I was leading someone who said she wasn't very good at
milonga, and was reluctant, so I suggested she do only one thing - just step back
and forth on the beat from one foot to the other the entire dance, one-two,
one-two, etc, without pausing and I would do the rest. I did lots of different
things with her and when we finished she had a huge grin on her face and said "So
that's milonga...Cool...I want to do some more." She wasn't the one that
didn't know how to do it, it was her partners.

Charles



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Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:03:11 -0800 (PST)
From: "Trini y Sean (PATangoS)" <patangos@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Milonga, a guy thing.


--- Crrtango@aol.com wrote:

> Milonga steps are smaller, more contained and don't
> include many steps normally done in regular tango, like

going to the cross, for one.


I have heard that before, that going to the cross isn't
supposed to be a milonga step, but I'm not buying it. Here
are a couple of examples with milonga done in two different
styles:

Going to the cross at the beginning and middle of video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6IeJGYqKrc

Going to the cross at the end of video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIX-gTg5Kzs

I understand there not being ganchos or long pauses in
milonga, but it never made any sense that going to the
cross was supposed to be a no-no. You'd cross her at the
half-beat instead of giving her a full beat to cross. If
getting her to a cross from an ocho cortado is kosher, why
wouldn't walking to (or through) the cross also be okay?

Charles is right about many people treating milonga as a
fast tango. The difference in learning milonga, I find, is
how people are taught to hear the music in tango. Those
who are taught to play with the half-beats in tango tend to
pick up traspie much more easily than those who do not.

Trini de Pittsburgh




PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society
Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh?s most popular social dance!
https://patangos.home.comcast.net/




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Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:03:35 -0800 (PST)
From: steve pastor <tang0man2005@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Milonga, a guy thing.
To: TANGO-L@mit.edu

regarding Charles??? post...
"as Jayrabe pointed out, there are no pauses"
Actually, what Jay wrote was, "you don't put many pauses in milonga".
Without specific examples, I am certain that there are pauses in milongas.
They are not long pauses, but they happen fairly frequently between
phrases. I can usually hear them coming, and almost always respond to them.

It seems to me that women like milonga as much as men since I have no
problem finding someone to dance it with.
I have learned that milonga is best taught as a One Step, with the "syncopated"
movements added after people become comfortable with stepping on only the
accented beat (2 beats of every 4).

Since Charles wrote about some people doing it "completely wrong", maybe
someone could explain the "completely correct" way to do milonga?

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:01:51 -0800 (PST)
From: steve pastor <tang0man2005@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Milonga, a guy thing.
To: "Trini y Sean \(PATangoS\)" <patangos@yahoo.com>, Tango-L

"You'd cross her at the half-beat instead of giving her a full beat to cross. If
getting her to a cross from an ocho cortado is kosher, why wouldn't walking
to (or through) the cross also be okay?"
It works for me.
And...
If I can do three quick steps while leading two for my partner, why couldn't
she do three to my two, crossing in front of herself?
The sassier women I dance with can with do this, and I tell my partners now,
that as long as they let me know where they are through our connection,
it's OK with me.
If this is not "correct" milonga, I have a question.
If we follow "rules" about what is "correct", are we really free to develop
our own style?

And, I'm going to argue that the lead and follow of tango is basically the same,
as are the steps, and possible step combinations, whether you are dancing to a
tango, a vals, or a milonga. Since those three kinds of songs have different
"feels", as noted in the time signatures, the steps should come out differently.