The Tango-L mailing list archive
Digest from 2 May 2000
to 3 May 2000
Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 03:00:30 -0400
Sender: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 2 May 2000 to 3 May 2000 (#2000-120)
There are 4 messages totalling 216 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. rebellion of codes in BA milongas
2. Following the Beat of the Heart
3. Any tango translator available
4. Eva's rejection.
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Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 09:02:30 -0500
From: Naomi Bennett <Naomiben @SWBELL.NET>
Subject: rebellion of codes in BA milongas
I agree with Janis that she posted well the codes in the milongas in BA and
she has extensive experience there.
However, there are other perspectives in BA. I was last there in
February this year on my 4th trip. I was talking with a portena at an
afternoon milonga. We were both complaining about this code. She and many
other women are in the mood to change the rules. It's too limiting to them
and they are frustrated waiting and looking for the next dance.
I don't pretend to be a portena or even a foreigner that is in the in
crowd. I like to ask other foreigners to dance in BA. There are wonderful
dancers there from Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Berlin. They are used to
women asking. I never ask a man that is 45 or lower because of the
code. However, I will ask men in their thirties and twenties even if they
are Argentine. There is little resistance or resentment. My spanish isn't
good enough to act local and I have blond hair and blue eyes anyway.
I respect the code to a degree that will not offend the older milongeros
but I bend it to the occasion.
Naomi Bennett
Austin, TX
Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 12:23:40 -0300
From: Janis Kenyon <jantango @FEEDBACK.NET.AR>
Subject: Following the Beat of the Heart
This is an article from the April issue of El Tanguata, a magazine for tango
dancers in Buenos Aires. It was written by Vittorio Pujia, a guitarist who
has a tango quintet, Quintino Gotanova. Vittorio gives music seminars for
tango dancers and is a dancer as well.
We know tango arose as a way of dancing, that dancers adopted milonga as
their favorite rhythm to dance tango. Musicians adapted milonga to the
needs of the dancers and so tango-milonga was born, from which tango and
milonga portena came.
You need only three things to dance (at least a popular dance): a complete
and functioning body; a floor; and dance music.
The dance music is the one that gives you the urge to dance. It's tempo is
andante moderato. It's tempo is close to our heart beat. It's compas is
close to the speed we achieve walking. It's motives are close to the rhythm
of our breath. Then the body comes in touch with a sympathetic vibe and we
suddenly feel like dancing.
And the music that moves the body affects our emotions and the dancer
translates those emotions into movement. The dancer is a musician whose
instrument doesn't produce sound but movement. He's the one translating
music into movement, through the emotion the music leads him to.
Tango is no mechanical dance; a tango dancer varies his choreography and the
rhythm he imprints in those figures. He performs not only the rhythmical
aspect of music but the melodic as well--shape, tension and dramatic sense
of music.
For the authentic Argentinian milonguero, music is above all. He doesn't
perform steps just because he knows how to. He chooses them to express what
he gets from the music in the best way he can. He's a music lover; he
loves, knows, searches, enjoys and dances it.
Music is the dancer's best ally. When the language of choreography connects
to the music, it becomes larger; when it doesn't connect, it is diminished.
When the dancer interprets the music correctly he becomes an artist. When
he doesn't, he becomes a gymnast. Steps alone lead to the gym. Steps in
concordance with the music lead to art.
Bodies are unified by the embrace, space is unified by the floor, physical
support of the body and movement. Time is unified by music, a temporal
support of movement.
In Argentina, education is going through a crisis, and music is often put
aside. Many people arrive to dance lacking musical education. This makes
the teaching and learning of a dance very difficult. Our education system
(general, as well as artistic) leaves many things to the responsibility of
the learner--what school doesn't provide you have to look for elsewhere on
your own.
You can have tango without technique, but you can't have tango without
heart. And the heart of the dancer beats to the rhythm of the music.
If you are interested in contacting Vittorio about presenting his music
seminars in your city, you may write him at vittoriopujia @hotmail.com in
Spanish, English, French or Italian.
El Tanguata: eltanguata @elsitio.net
An international subscription is $80 a year for 12 issues.
Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 07:41:53 +0200
From: JAM <amarinas @RAN.ES>
Subject: Any tango translator available
Dear List,
I am the web master of El Tango, Madrid (http://www.artplus.es/tango). My pages receibe
many visits as you can see on the counter and usually I am asked to offer an English
version of this pages, what I am not able to do because my level of Englihs is quite poor
(as you probably noticed by now).
Except for a couple of news on the first page, usually of local interest, the rest of the
contents are fix (biographies, History and comments on exhibitions) I really would like
to offer that stuff if English if somebody (maybe several people) is available to take
the translation task on.
The hard part is to say that, since my site is completely free and no commercial, the
only reward for that job would be to credit the text with the name of the translator and
a link to his/her email or web page.
If this task (hard task) is appealing for somebody please let me know.
Thanks
Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 23:03:27 -0700
From: Deborah Holm <deborah.holm @PRODIGY.NET>
Subject: Eva's rejection.
Eva, you wrote an email to this list regarding rejection in
dancing. 5/1/00, reducing the "rejection rate."
Perhaps you were expecting men to answer your posting.
And, possibly, many men will answer your posting.
But I am a female tango dancer.
I don't know where you live and go to milongas.
I live in San Francisco, California, and I wish you
were here last night to help me (female) to dance with
all the gorgeous, excellent dancers (male).
Because we needed you. Sometimes this happens.
We needed more women. Not always a problem here.
Apparently, you missed reading the email sent on
April 29 by Janis Kenyon regarding codes and
customs of the milongas in Buenos Aires. This woman,
Janis Kenyon, put forth an incredible effort to elaborate to all
women and men how to deal with your sad situation.
Before Argentine Tango came on the scene in North
America, men and women went to "clubs" which
had music -- normally rock'n'roll. A man would spot a woman
he wanted to ask to dance. (Lo and behold, he would actually
see ONE woman he wanted to dance with, not the "rank and file"
of all women). As everyone watched, he would go through
an obstacle course, walking through a mass of people,
trying not to knock over chairs, upset tables, etc.,
finally to get to the woman he wanted to ask to dance
-- as she simply looked up at him and said "No."
Everyone saw this. How do you think he felt?
Argentine Tango. Eye contact. Important. Because he
KNOWS you will dance with him when he goes through the
obstacle course to get to you. No embarrassment at the
end of the line. And, as Janis Kenyon pointed out, if you as
the female do not give the OK by not giving the requisite
eye contact, other people in the room do not know that this
man has been declined. And, Eva, this is important.
Correct me if I am wrong, but were you asking for sympathy
after being rejected (by a man you asked to dance) -- when
that man asked another woman to dance wthin a few seconds
of rejecting your offer to dance? And you were asking
"How do you think I felt."
You seem to EXPECT that "everyman" will dance with you (like
men should dance with the "rank and file" mentioned earlier?) when
you go to any milonga. As Janis Kenyon pointed out in her
"Rules of the Road" email, it takes time to be known in a milonga.
You must go there often and visit and talk socially with the people.
Men and women. Then you become a part of the social landscape
of the milonga whether you are a good dancer or not, or whether you
are fun to talk to or not.
And, still, this is not a guarantee of getting what you want (do you want
ANYMAN to dance with you, just the best dancer, or what?). There
will still be the guy who (not having knowledge of customs of
milongas, wanting to dance with you above all else, will walk up to
you just like a peacock strutting his wings, even when you are with
another man that you prefer to be with for the moment, and this guy
will stand in front of you DEMANDING that you take notice of him
to dance.) Even when you won't look at him, he stands there in front
of both you and your man, staring at you -- DEMANDING. And
you and the man you are with just ignore him, and he doesn't even care
how many people are watching. Because he doesn't abide by any rules.
This must be the man for you, Eva. Maybe there are lots of them.
But in all my years of dancing Argentine Tango I have never heard
a man say "I will only dance with the best women." NO MAN
HAS EVER SAID THAT TO ME. And I respect a man's choice
if he spots one woman that he wants to dance with.
It's his choice.
Deborah
B.A. Tango
End of TANGO-L Digest - 2 May 2000 to 3 May 2000 (#2000-120)
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