The Tango-L mailing list archive
Digest from 24 Dec 1999
to 25 Dec 1999
Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
To: Recipients of TANGO-L digests <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 03:00:01 -0500
Sender: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 24 Dec 1999 to 25 Dec 1999 (#1999-101)
There are 5 messages totalling 266 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Tango to non-tango music
2. tango and skiing
3. Skiing and tango in Colorado (2)
4. Message from a Tango friend!
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 16:35:48 +0100
From: Natarajan Balasundara <rajan @EMC.COM>
Subject: Re: Tango to non-tango music
Original Message-----
From: Sang Hyeon Chang <chang @baram.phys.tohoku.ac.jp>
Date: Friday, December 24, 1999 7:24 AM
[ stuff deleted ]
> Yes, I think they are both right, in the sense
>"One cannot dance tango to non-tango music."
>"One can dance tango steps to any music and can have fun."
Between those two lines:
Sure, one can dance to non-tango music and have fun.
But, while it is true learning tango should be fun, it is not
very clear to me having fun will always advance the
learning of tango.
When I dance tango to non-tango music, everything is
slightly off. Since, if everything were exactly like tango
music, it would be tango music.
Which means that I would (and this is the bad part)
unconsciously make slight adjustments here and there
(to follow the music) and dance happily. It is a bit
disorienting (perhaps not too unlike those happy
cruisers dancing on the deck) but fun.
And, when the true tango music comes back on,
everything is exactly as it should be, except my steps
which are now slightly off here and there. This because
of the same thing as what practice does -- unconsciously
programming your legs.
For sure, one would not argue dancing to non-tango music
will improve ones tango but it is debatable if it will leave
things as is.
This is why I suggest one should have fun but also feel guilty.
So that the same way charles roques suggested people to
work off the few extra pounds after thanksgiving turkey at the
next milonga (or someone else might suggest after the few
extra pieces of cake after christmas), one could confess
this guilt(of dancing to non-tango music) at the next milonga
and work a bit hard and undo any damage that may have
been done -- of which one might not even be consciously
aware of.
Merry christmas!
rajan.
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 12:09:03 -0800
From: Al & Barbara <batango @SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: tango and skiing
I do not ski but have noticed that our students who do have a headstart (so
to speak) on good tango posture, e.g. standing straight, diaphragm up and
forward, shoulders relaxed, and weight on the balls of the feet. So (for
those who do indulge in sports) a Tango/Ski weekend would be beneficial as
well as fun. Perhaps Alberto and Valorie could move their Lake Tahoe
weekend to winter? Another opportunity would be in Denver? Not to speak of
numerous venues in the Old World. Happy holidays to all, from the land of
no snow.
Barbara
Original Message-----
From: Automatic digest processor <LISTSERV @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
To: Recipients of TANGO-L digests <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Friday, December 24, 1999 12:00 AM
Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 23 Dec 1999 to 24 Dec 1999 (#1999-100)
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 14:01:59 -0800
From: Cammie Strange <milonguera @DELLNET.COM>
Subject: Skiing and tango in Colorado
Hi everyone. Of course, we have many very good ski areas here in Colorado.
Vail is about a two hour drive in good weather from Denver, longer in heavy
traffic and weather. There are several other very good areas a little
closer, but none right by the metro area. Our main tango activities are in
Denver and Boulder, also some in Ft. Collins, which is about an hour and a
half north of Denver. Our main night is the Friday milonga at the Mercury
Cafe in Denver, and a large practice in Denver every Tuesday. There is a
smaller practice Boulder some Thursdays (if no visiting teachers are here)
and milongas some Saturdays too. Our community is doing very well for only
starting a little over four years ago, and is very friendly. Cammie
Strange, Secretary, Tango Colorado.
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 12:30:56 EST
From: Dario Mendiguren <C21DARI @AOL.COM>
Subject: Message from a Tango friend!
****
I apologize for the possible violations of Tango-L rules that my
request for posting through a friend may provoke. I can't send e-mails
from the field through my account <tangoman @hooked.net> with which I'm
subscribed to the list. I would like my thoughts to reach many of mine
friends in the Tango community in time to celebrate the ned of a great
Tango year.
Alberto Paz
***********************************************************************
*****
DANCING TO A TANGO
I grew up in Buenos Aires as part of a generation who, according to our
elders at the time, was being "poisoned" by the invasion of foreign
music, mainly from the big record companies headquartered in the United
States. I personally developed a refined taste for traditional jazz,
Dixieland and swing. Recently I was able to realize a childhood dream
of listening to live jazz at the Jazz Preservation Hall and other
French Quarter's clubs in New Orleans. As an adult I not only
appreciated the sounds of Basin Street Blues and Rampart Street Parade,
but I actually shed tears of intense emotion while walking on Basin and
Rampart Streets and standing in front of the Armstrong Park dedicated
to the memory of the great Satchmo. It was a new experience as I
realized also that for the first time I actually understood the words
of lyrics that somehow had touched me so deeply at an age where the
English language was incomprehensible to me, and I could only dream the
impossible.
Today, as it has been happening for the last forty or fifty years at
least, the dance halls where Tango is danced in Buenos Aires, continue
to follow a tradition that is widely enjoyed and celebrated by those
who take pleasure from a night at the "milonga." During the course of
the evening and all the way through the night into the early hours of
the morning, the DJs play sets of Swing, Rock and Roll, American jazz,
Cumbias, Salsa, Tangos, Valses and Milongas. Each set is typically four
alike rhythms, and locally they are called "tandas." It is quite a
treat to see the Argentines flocking to the dance floor to dance swing
to Swing, rock to Rock and Roll, American jazz to American jazz, cumbia
to Cumbias, salsa to Salsa, tangos to Tango, vals to valses and milonga
to Milongas.
Further, the Tango, Vals and Milonga sets during a typical evening will
have a generous dosage of D'Arienzo (Juan), Biagi (Rodolfo), Canaro
(Francisco), Firpo (Roberto), Donato (Edgardo), Lomuto (Francisco),
Troilo (Anibal), Tanturi (Ricardo), Calo (Miguel), D'Agostino (Angel),
Rodriguez (Enrique), De Angelis (Alfredo), Di Sarli (Carlos) and
Pugliese (Osvaldo). These are orchestras with a singular sound and a
distinctive rhythm, what the locals call "sonido" and "compas."
Like most of my compatriots, I never took ballroom classes, and as
matter of fact there isn't a single ballroom dance that I can dance.
Some of my best friends and a lot of our Tango students dance ballroom.
I admire them and respect them for their grace and talent, and I truly
enjoy watching them dance cha-cha to cha cha, rumba to rumba, salsa to
salsa, merengue to merengue, mambo to mambo, swing to swing, fox trot
to fox trot, Viennese to Viennese, American tango to American tango. I
can almost identify each one of the dances, even if as I said before, I
have no clue as to how to do them myself. I can only dance Tango, Vals
criollo and Milongas (occasionally I can get carried away with a Cumbia
from Cartagena). As a matter of fact I paid for and took my very first
dance lesson less than ten years ago. It was a Tango lesson.
So what ten years of Tango dancing means to me? First and foremost
Tango has provided a meaningful purpose to my life. It has given me the
gift of love and friendship in the way of the best partner I could ever
dream of or wish for. It has given me the privilege and fortune to make
everlasting friendships and to share lives and homes across the
country. It has afforded me the unexpected luck and fortune of learning
the structure and conceptual form of the Tango dance as it has been
transmitted from generation to generation from the best. In particular,
I profess a proud admiration and a profound respect for Mingo Pugliese
who taught me how to think and therefore, how to dance to a Tango. How
to learn by teaching and to teach by learning.
A Tango can be sweet, playful, arrogant, elegant, flirty, romantic,
risqui, enrapturing, compelling, simple, complex, sarcastic, sad,
crude, tedious, you name it. It is the reflection of the people who
created it. It first touches me with its music but it is its "compas"
that invites me to dance it. As the sounds reach my brain for
recognition, there is a vast array of emotions ready to move into my
heart in response to the stimulus of a song. My eyes might look for the
unsuspecting eyes of a woman whose emotions have been set in motion by
the music. Sometimes a hand will take my hand. Sometimes my hand will
reach for a woman's hand. Sometimes I just know I'm going to share the
intimacy of an embrace, the nervousness of the first displacements, the
warmth breathing that follows every step, the soft texture of skin as
our faces touch.
I've been so lucky (and grateful) to have danced to a Tango with
hundreds of women in more than thirty cities in the U.S. and in the
City of Tango as well. There is nothing like the shared intimacy of a
sound, a scent, a gesture, a look, a smile, a tear, a trembling body,
nervous hands, a sense of implied trust and respect for the hundreds of
total strangers, some of which will become friends (dear Tango friends)
perhaps at the end of just three minutes. And when the experience
repeats itself dancing to another Tango, I look forward to new and old
emotions to be shared with new and old partners. I hope my heart will
once again provide the feelings so we can draw with our entwined bodies
renewed dreams and promises to the sound of a Tango on the inviting
canvas that our feet caress.
That's what dancing to a Tango means to me.
Alberto (TangoMan)
Dedicated with my best wishes, warmest affection and heartfelt
appreciation to all the women who have danced with me so far. Until we
dance again.
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 18:21:55 EST
From: WHITE 95 R <white95r @HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Skiing and tango in Colorado
Thank Cammie for the tango update in Colorado. It does look like combining a
skiing trip with a tango outing in Colorado might not be too easy, the
distance between ski resorts and tango venues appears to vast:-( However a
trip to Denver for tango purposes might be a lot of fun.
Merry Christmas,
Manuel
----Original Message Follows----
From: Cammie Strange <milonguera @DELLNET.COM>
Reply-To: Cammie Strange <milonguera @DELLNET.COM>
To: TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Skiing and tango in Colorado
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 14:01:59 -0800
Hi everyone. Of course, we have many very good ski areas here in Colorado.
Vail is about a two hour drive in good weather from Denver, longer in heavy
traffic and weather. There are several other very good areas a little
closer, but none right by the metro area. Our main tango activities are in
Denver and Boulder, also some in Ft. Collins, which is about an hour and a
half north of Denver. Our main night is the Friday milonga at the Mercury
Cafe in Denver, and a large practice in Denver every Tuesday. There is a
smaller practice Boulder some Thursdays (if no visiting teachers are here)
and milongas some Saturdays too. Our community is doing very well for only
starting a little over four years ago, and is very friendly. Cammie
Strange, Secretary, Tango Colorado.
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End of TANGO-L Digest - 24 Dec 1999 to 25 Dec 1999 (#1999-101)
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