4491  Open embrace - Milonguero

Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 18:26:53 +0000
From: "Sergio Vandekier" <sergiovandekier990@hotmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Open embrace - Milonguero
To: tango-l@mit.edu

It is important to know what we understand by open embrace otherwise we may
end up talking about different things all together.

Open embrace is not the same as "'dancing separated".

Close embrace as understood by the dancers of "milonguero style" in the USA
means to dance chest against chest, frequently nipple to nipple, never
separating the chest throughout the dance and allowing some shifting from
side to side to accommodate walking to both sides of the woman.

Dancers of traditional salon style, as taught by the well known tango
instructors that teach in Argentina and abroad understand that tango has two
embraces close and open.

You can dance all the time in close embrace which means an embrace in "V"
with the right nipple of the man applied on the chest bone of the woman with
no or very little separation of the chests.

You can dance all the time in open embrace which means and embrace in "V" as
well with a little more separation of the bodies to allow for certain
figures or firuletes.

Or like it is usually done dance with an elastic embrace close when you wish
to walk and do certain moves and somewhat open when you need more space to
do other figures or moves. this does not mean that open embrace dancers do
it separated.

Dancers of Nuevo Tango may have a tendency to dance with an embrace more
open than those of traditional salon. Frequently losing the perfect frame of
the shoulders that traditional salon dancers maintain.

Once more (IMO) most people in Buenos Aires dance traditional salon in close
embrace. Many dancers will use an embrace more or less elastic as described
above.

Nobody says that people dance apart. Some discussions are based in
misunderstanding the meaning of terms.

As to the word 'Milonga' seems to come from a Western African language.
Originally meant "many words" .

Milongueros ;

Blacks in the Argentine rural areas heard the "Payadas" some sort of rap
competition between gauchos and they thought that they were using "too many
words" so they called the Payada, Milonga. In time the gathering where
people sang payadas and added some dance was called milonga. Later on the
dance itself was called milonga and finally the dancers of milonga were
called milongueros.

Nowadays, along with the meaning already described by other posters
(milonguero is a person that goes to the milongas and lives for the milonga,
etc) we still preserve the original meaning of "many words" so somebody that
starts a discussion and talks, and talks, frequently will be told "No me
vengas con esa milonga" (do not come now with all that story, with all those
words).

Milonga is a place to dance tango. Let's go to the milonga.

Milonga is a type of music . I like the milonga "La mulateada".

Milonga is "a lot of words". do not come now with that milonga.

Milonguero is a person that goes to the milongas frequently. You can be a
milonguero even when you do not dance much. You are such on account of being
at the milongas and living the life of the milongueros.

Milonguero is a person that dances tango well. He is a very good milonguero.

Milonguero is a man of not so good reputation that goes frequently to the
milongas. Es un milonguero de mala muerte. Somebody that does not work
much, tha lives in poverty, dancer and womanizer.


Best regrds,

Hope that this helps to clarify, Sergio