864  Unified syllabus, again?

Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 14:15:58 -0600
From: "Frank G. Williams" <frankw@MAIL.AHC.UMN.EDU>
Subject: Unified syllabus, again?

Hi friends,

We haven't beat the 'unified syllabus' horse to death for a couple of
years, and I don't mean to try to revive that corpse. But your responses
concerning Sergio's post might be interesting. My U$S 0.02:

Sergio wrote:

> I am talking about people like <list of teachers>... and many others.

> None of these teachers contradict each other
> they are all in total agreement with respect to dance and technique.

This is interesting. It was my understanding that several of the most
respected masters met to discuss and mutually define the essential
elements
of authentic Tango Argentino. According to the story I heard, when they
did so they could agree on neither 'vocabulary' nor 'technique'. Presumably,
the evolutionary nature of the dance (among other things) confounded
their
attempt. Having seen clips of the tango danced by perhaps half of the
Maestros on Sergio's list, I can understand their problem of defining Tango
de Salon. Their differences tend to hide their similarities. For example,
Tete' defines his tango as Salon-style yet Susana Miller defines his
dance
differently (as being unique and similar to what *she* does rather than
what all those other 'salon' dancers do!). ...and really, it would be
very surprised to find 'total agreement' among such strong-willed
Argentine
artists concerning their common discipline! ;-)

So, as consumers of 'Tango for Export', we No. Americans do not get a
unified presentation! Not even close. ...leading me to agree with C. Gavito,
who has advised that understanding Tango is much easier if one studies
and
dances in BA. Many perspectives that one gets by dancing away from home
are
impossible to obtain without travel, IMHO.


Best wishes to all!

Frank in Minneapolis


--
Frank G. Williams, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota
612-625-6441

Department of Neuroscience
6-145 Jackson Hall
321 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

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