1421 Nicanor Lima - My conclusion
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 16:26:23 -0400
From: Sergio <Cachafaz@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject: Nicanor Lima - My conclusion
I like to say that when Stephen Brown called me an amateur tango historian I
felt flattered. I do not consider myself that. I am conscious of the
vastness of the tango, an universe where the discovery of a little new
nebula hides behind itself one hundred more mysteries.
You need some expertise just to know where to look for the information you
need in the middle of myriads of useless publications.
Tango is one of several hobbies, I like to teach it to my friends for fun
, I like to read about it and share my limited knowledge with them as well.
I do it for fun as I have no economical interest in it whatsoever.
I simply give my opinion in this Tango-L forum the same as anyone else does.
I am very active at times and then I disappear for extended periods because
I am doing something else with the same interest and energy.
Nicanor Lima: I should have started and finish our discussion about
ballroom and Argentine tango here but I thought that it could be useful to
take a walk through some areas of tango history. A walk that some of you
kindly and patiently followed with me. This little journey allowed us to
find many interesting questions. Many of them are still unanswered.
***This is only my opinion.
Nicanor Lima wrote his method to learn Argentine tango in 1916.
He was obsessed with the idea of making this despicable, immoral dance
acceptable to the Argentinean society.
His book has two parts:
The first one is dedicated to an introduction of the dance in general terms
and also (this is important) has a long set of rules where he discussed the
healthy effects of the dance, the proper etiquette, and the pitfalls to
avoid in order not to fall pray of lewdness, immorality and disease.
He is forced to clean the real tango of everything that was objectionable to
society. He had to ignore the people, the places, the form in which tango
was being danced. He new further, that tango had been fully accepted in
Paris in a sanitized form as danced by Argentinean boys of high society.
**He took this form of dancing to make it acceptable to Argentineans as
well.
The second part describes posture and choreographic figures.
The book which I had the chance to examine about three or four years ago has
illustrations.
The posture is erect, the bodies are close but do not touch each other. The
names of the figures are similar to the one we use today.
Ochos, sentada, media luna, etc. He introduces Paseos and other figures that
I do not know.
So he wrote his book with the main purpose to make tango acceptable to
society. He had to sell his soul to the devil to do so.
His tango was a foreign dance to the those that gathered in the suburbs to
dance it, it was sanitized, no cortes, no quebradas, danced erect and
somewhat rigidly, it had lost all the original vitality.
It was this book that fell in the hands of Richard Powers who was very happy
to see with his own eyes that the tango he knew correlated very well with
the original, authentic Argentinean version.
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 15:10:35 -0700
From: Tango Guy <tangomundo55@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Nicanor Lima - My conclusion
We are all amateurs. To be called an "amateur" needs to be recognized as a very high complement indeed. It really is a higher complement then being a called a "professional". The word "amateur" has the basic Latin meaning of "love". In other word, an amateur does what s/he does for the love of it. There is no other motivation involved. A professional may have other motivations other then love although love may indeed be one of them.
Tango could not possibly survive without amateurs like yourself. Indeed, Tango would not have survived without the amateurs of the past.
I can pontificate endlessly about my beliefs and opinions but I'm beginning to sound like a sanctimonious know-it-all. So, I think I'll quit for today.
Tango Guy
Sergio <Cachafaz@ADELPHIA.NET> wrote:
I like to say that when Stephen Brown called me an amateur tango historian I
felt flattered. I do not consider myself that. I am conscious of the
vastness of the tango, an universe where the discovery of a little new
nebula hides behind itself one hundred more mysteries.
You need some expertise just to know where to look for the information you
need in the middle of myriads of useless publications.
Tango is one of several hobbies, I like to teach it to my friends for fun
, I like to read about it and share my limited knowledge with them as well.
I do it for fun as I have no economical interest in it whatsoever.
I simply give my opinion in this Tango-L forum the same as anyone else does.
I am very active at times and then I disappear for extended periods because
I am doing something else with the same interest and energy.
Nicanor Lima: I should have started and finish our discussion about
ballroom and Argentine tango here but I thought that it could be useful to
take a walk through some areas of tango history. A walk that some of you
kindly and patiently followed with me. This little journey allowed us to
find many interesting questions. Many of them are still unanswered.
***This is only my opinion.
Nicanor Lima wrote his method to learn Argentine tango in 1916.
He was obsessed with the idea of making this despicable, immoral dance
acceptable to the Argentinean society.
His book has two parts:
The first one is dedicated to an introduction of the dance in general terms
and also (this is important) has a long set of rules where he discussed the
healthy effects of the dance, the proper etiquette, and the pitfalls to
avoid in order not to fall pray of lewdness, immorality and disease.
He is forced to clean the real tango of everything that was objectionable to
society. He had to ignore the people, the places, the form in which tango
was being danced. He new further, that tango had been fully accepted in
Paris in a sanitized form as danced by Argentinean boys of high society.
**He took this form of dancing to make it acceptable to Argentineans as
well.
The second part describes posture and choreographic figures.
The book which I had the chance to examine about three or four years ago has
illustrations.
The posture is erect, the bodies are close but do not touch each other. The
names of the figures are similar to the one we use today.
Ochos, sentada, media luna, etc. He introduces Paseos and other figures that
I do not know.
So he wrote his book with the main purpose to make tango acceptable to
society. He had to sell his soul to the devil to do so.
His tango was a foreign dance to the those that gathered in the suburbs to
dance it, it was sanitized, no cortes, no quebradas, danced erect and
somewhat rigidly, it had lost all the original vitality.
It was this book that fell in the hands of Richard Powers who was very happy
to see with his own eyes that the tango he knew correlated very well with
the original, authentic Argentinean version.
