523  The rise of narrowly focused tango events

Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 17:12:33 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: The rise of narrowly focused tango events

Over the past week, we have debated the idea of which styles of tango are
best, which styles are welcome at particular events, etc. Some have
suggested that freedom means that all tango events should provide an
opportunity for each individual to dance their chosen style. In fact, if
history is a guide events that provide instruction and cover all or most
styles of tango are likely to see increasing competition from events that
emphasize dancing and focus narrowly on one style--such as milonguero,
salon, nuevo, liquid, or fantasia...

When Argentine tango reemerged from its relative dormancy, the small
numbers of dancers simply meant that everyone had to dance Argentine tango.
As the numbers of tango dancers increase, however, interest in
differentiating styles seems inevitable. The older tango dancers tell us
that when tango was at the height of its popularity in Buenos Aires during
the golden age, styles varied by neighborhood and did not mix much across
neighborhoods. Some of these older dancers still cringe when they see two
different styles mixed by today's dancers.

You see evidence of the emerging differences in styles in some of the
antagonistic messages of the past week, but you will also find it if you
visit milongas in some cities that have large tango communities. The
announcements on Tango-A about contrasting events also provide evidence of
diverging styles. They included activities from a milonguero weekend to an
opportunity to dance in a tango show.

I for one do not see the development of more narrowly focused events as
evidencing a lack of freedom or even of disunity. I simply see it as the
expression of different interests.

Many happy tangos to all,
Steve