1850  Tango @ milongas: no different styles? How about the music?

Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 18:07:55 -0500
From: Riccardo Fanciulli <riccardo@PHYSICS.PURDUE.EDU>
Subject: Tango @ milongas: no different styles? How about the music?

Hello list and Manuel,

I'd like to add a couple of things...

Manuel wrote:

>I like the way you and Brian Dunn have answered this question of "styles".
>As you say:
>
>> It is interesting to watch the master teachers, who teach
>> what you call style B, when they dance at a milonga. They dance what
>> they dance but in the manor of style A. The point is that it may only
>> seem like there is a style B and a style A. At a milonga there is a
>> time later in the night when there is more room on the floor, and then
>> Style B is possible. Earlier when the party is in full swing Style A is
>> what is possible. All the master teachers I have ever seen do it this
>> way. This is the way the younger generation, who are supposedly doing
>> 'nuevo tango' do it in Buenos Aires. So in a sense I would argue that
>> style A and style B aren't all that different. If you are dancing at a
>> milonga you respect the other dancers, and the available space guides
>> your dance. That is social tango and it can be danced using any style
>> of tango.
>
>What some folks fail to understand is that the technique and structure of
>the tango are the same regardless of how one dances as long as one is
>dancing Argentine tango.

Manuel, you are absolutely right, but here we are talking of different
styles, not different dances.

If you start from thinking that the basic of tango are front step, back
step, open step and pivot, we all dance the same thing (someone better than
others, I recon) with any music. Sure. The thing is that, of course, tango
is more than that (thanks God), there is an interpretation on the part of
the dancer that is required/allowed.

There is a tension that builds up in some parts and leads, for example, to
meaningful pauses in the dance (which is something that I don't see much in,
say, ballroom dance). The same tension that is suddenly eased in some
beautiful fast step. What makes, for me, Tango stand out above other dances
is this particular freedom of interpretation of a music that is not
following always a same regular bit.
In ballroom tango (just as an example), as long as you are on the
slow-slow-quick-quick-slow, you are good. In Argentine Tango the enphasis
will shift to a different instrument at any given time or different
instruments will play at different speeds at the same time (libertango is a
wonderful example of this).
This gives the dancers almost infinite possibilities for interpreting the
music and the more structured the music the more possibilities you have to
explore it again and again without ever dancing it the same way.

Now, the music that I've heard at milongas (and which as a consequence, I
link to what I called style "A") has a strong, persistent beat ( persistent
in the sense that it doesn't vary much through the song).
Historically/traditionally it is certainly full of meaning, but from the
point of view of musicality it's all the same. It's not the tango I listen
to in which every song is different.
Now, I'm sure that many people can do marvels with it (I'm sure about that),
but I'm still convinced that they could do more with a different kind of
music AND that with this different kind of music they should change their
style (not the dance... the style).

I'll bring a couple of examples. How many of these songs would you play
(regularly and not in the last 1/2 hr) at a milonga?

Germaine - Di Sarli
Bahia blanca- Di Sarli
Danzarin - Anibal Troilo
Don Juan - Anibal troilo
A Evaristo Carriego - Orquesta Contratiempo
La yumba - Osvaldo Pugliese
Gallo Ciego - Osvaldo Pugliese
Malena - Osvaldo Pugliese
Zum - Piazzolla (probably the best example of what I
mean)
Ausencias Piazzolla
Shusheta - Nuevo Quinteto Real
Ensuenos - Nuevo Quinteto Real

If the structure of the tango is always the same and styles don't matter and
good dancers always and easily adjust to the music, why don't we hear more
music like this at milongas?
There are always times during the evening when Salsa is played (don't tell
me that Salsa doesn't need space), why can't we have tandas for what I
called style "B" (or nuevo tango).... and not at the end of the night or in
the first 15 minutes.
In view of what I was saying about style "B" being taught more and more, I
don't see why we allow Salsa and not "tango nuevo" during the course of the
night.

To sum up, if there are not two different styles, it would be nice to hear
some different tango music too... it shouldn't make any difference to
anybody (right?) and would allow many people to use every once in a while
the steps they have been dancing only at practicas or at the lessons.

Ok, now I'm ready to be executed :)