[TANGO-L] Tango styles

[Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990 @HOTMAIL.COM>]

Chistopher says:

       "Also, Susanna categorically stated during the St. Louis workshop
that milongueros of Buenos Aires don't exclusively use a chest
lead, that they do in fact use a hand lead as the situation (ie,
the woman's comfort) demands.

So, I'm confused.  The idea of "milonguero style" seems increasingly
like a distinction without a difference to me.  One could certainly
say that Susanna Miller teaches a highly distinctive style of salon
tango, and be correct.

All of this begs the question: what defines milonguero style tango? "

He makes reference to two elements: the lead as a distinctive element of a
style and as to its nature.
Further more he wonders if Miloguero is a form of Salon tango.

The way I think about styles is as follows: (this is my opinion, the way I
see it, others may have a different one)

Tango Argentino is like a river that is born in the mountains. It starts as
a torrent with a great amount of water and strength it runs proud and  as it
reaches the plains it divides itself in a myriad of branches of different
size, some very well known to many of us and others only known to very few,
all those branches join together in one before it enters the sea.

So Argentine Tango is only one, it has as many styles as persons dance it.

It was traditionally learned by individuals, by observing and practicing
with a group of friends, this had to originate a tremendous number of
variations, it was improvised so your tango   had to be different in many
ways to that of your friends.

Nowadays when people wish to learn tango they go to the neighborhood club.
If you are from Villa Urquiza, for instance (my case) you are going to go to
Club Sin Rumbo or Sunderland where the milongueros will teach you Salon
Style. If you saw Fabian or Susana dancing and you liked it then you may
want to go to their clubs to learn their style instead.

So your dancing form initially depends on where you learn to dance. This
original style will later be modified by your own personality and by the
places where you go dancing.

There are many styles, the ones that come to your attention are those that
are being taught by somebody.  Somebody dances in some particular way and
wishes to create a school of followers. Those people such as Fabian Salas,
Chicho, Gustavo Naveira, Tete, Susana, Cacho Dante decided to dedicate great
part of their time to teach their style. There are others such as Orlando
Paiva from Rosario (the second or third largest city in Argentina) and his
son who teach "Tango Elegante", or El Pulpo Sbrez who teaches his style, or
Daniel Lapadula who teaches "Estilo del Centro" who also are creating a
school of followers. There are some that are trying to teach historical
forms of tango such as "Canyengue" or "Milonga Candombera". Other are
inventing other forms such as "Milonga Murguera" (Capuzzi).

It is interesting to notice that out of all those dancers/instructors that I
mentioned above none denies that what they teach is a style within
Traditional Salon Tango. Those are social forms of dancing Salon Tango. They
all (except Susana Miller) wished to use the term Salon to describe their
style. Susana is the only one that selected a different word such as
"Milonguero" a very confusing word because it means many things.

Then we have to remember that Argentine Tango is only one. It has as many
styles as there are tango dancers. Those styles are an integral part of the
mother root that is Salon Tango.
Salon Tango contains all of the styles but the styles are just a small part
of Salon.

The most important elements are character and identity. They are all forms
that can be recognized as Argentine Tango. They reflect the culture that
originated them. They are not foreign concoctions.
A style born dissociated from the maternal culture will degenerate into
something that cannot be recognized as Argentine Tango. It will become
something similar, better or worse but different.

As to the lead we can discus this in another note.

have a beautiful day, Sergio.

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