The Tango-L mailing list archive
Digest from 22 May 2000
to 23 May 2000
Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 03:00:58 -0400
Sender: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 22 May 2000 to 23 May 2000 (#2000-140)
There are 5 messages totalling 282 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Tango Styles - Tango Fantasia Vs. Tango Nuevo
2. TANGO STYLES
3. Origin of Lunfardo - Slang of Buenos Aires
4. checking in
5. tango styles--Milonguero
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 10:31:27 -0500
From: Stephen P Brown <Stephen.P.Brown @DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Tango Styles - Tango Fantasia Vs. Tango Nuevo
Sergio wrote:
>Tango Fantasia on the other hand is choreographed for exhibition. It
>requires practice at learning and following certain patterns that
>correlate with a certain particular piece of music and are done in a
>pre-established sequence, which is memorized.
I have some difficulty with this definition. 1) In their new videos
on tango fantasia, Diego Di Falco and Carolina Zokalski explain the
use of improvisation in exhibition tango, which suggests that fantasia
need not be completely choregraphed. 2) What if the choregraphy
consists entirely of steps that are accepted as completely within an
existing social style?
I think fantasia is better defined as a style of tango based on
orillero in which balletic dance elements, such as lifts and
separations between the partners, are incorporated.
--Steve de Tejas
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 21:10:07 +0000
From: "~DANCE MORE TANGO~" <24tango @BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: TANGO STYLES
Dear Larry,
I always enjoy your posts and usually agree with you, but I definitely
disagree with you as far as dance styles. Yes Larry, there is a
milonguero style, (also known as club style), and that is what it is
called in BA. It is danced in close embrace, the feet do not leave
the floor in moves such as ganchos, boleos, etc, it is very syncopated
and usually danced to the music of Laurenz, de Angelis, Calo,
D'Arienzo and others. It is very different than salon style, which can be
danced either in open or closed position, depending on the difficulty
of the step, the feet leave the floor in moves such as ganchos, boleos,
etc. and the music can be Di Sarli, Pugliese, or others. In BA there
are definite tandas of styles, in groups of 4 or 5 songs, vals, salon,
milonga, and milonguero, with milonguero being the most popular.
The dancers all consider themselves to be milongueros, regardless
of the style they dance. Naturally for export, anything slick
that sells and combinations of styles lumped together is not
unique.
The fact is, no particular tango embrace or style is perfect for
all situations.
True, but the music usually dictates the style.
Of course this is my humble opinion, and as I see it.
regards to all,
norma
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 18:16:09 -0700
From: Ruddy Zelaya <ruddy.zelaya @ENG.SUN.COM>
Subject: Re: Origin of Lunfardo - Slang of Buenos Aires
SERGIO <SERGIO @NCINTER.NET> wrote:
>>The same way as lawyers, doctors, physicists, chemists, etc. have their
>>peculiar language and terminology; thieves needed a language that was
>>cryptic, secretive enough, to speak among themselves and that at the same
>>time was unintelligible for the police or the possible victim of their
>>actions. A language to be used in prison that could not be understood by =
the
>>guards.
Geez, and I thought that all that technical jargon used by the
aforementioned professions was just an efficient way to communicate
ideas and concepts amongst people who have had a similar education.
Little did I know that it was all a cover to hide from jailers, victims
and the police!! Although in the case of lawyers you may be on to
something... ;-) (tongue deep in cheek, please no lawsuits ;-)
But seriously, it bears to mention that lunfardo is not just
"The secret tongue of 'lunfardos'" and its origins are as nebulous
as are those of tango itself. While it is true that some of the words
used in lunfardo came from criminals, vagrants, and miscreants dedicated
to crimes ranging from petty theft to murders, a sizable portion of the sla=
ng
came from other areas of the underworld or its vicinity, the brothels,
bars and the vast lumpen proletariat that survived in the conventillos
after the great waves of immigrants arrived to Bs.As.
A sizable portion of the slang came from the blending of
the languages and dialects spoken by the immigrants. Some of it
came indeed from the jargon of thieves: pungar (steal from somebody's
pocket, pickpocket), escrushar (to burglarize by way of climbing
walls or using skeleton keys, etc.), espiantar (to flee, to escape),
to name just a few, but most of it came from regional words in use by
the immigrants in their native languages or dialects and bastardized
into spanish. Words also came from the daily activities of the population,
e.g., sports (especially soccer), the horse racetrack, gambling, work
(both legal and illegal), and so on. If you are a poor immigrant,
barely literate in your own language let alone the new language
(in the case of non-Spanish-speaking immigrants), you end up
using what you know and hope that others understand what you
are saying and after awhile it may get absorbed into general usage.
Here in the USA you can see this process in action today, e.g.,
to the poor mexican immigrants, trucka =3D truck, grassa =3D grass, lawn,
and you see these bastardizations used in advertisements geared towards the=
m.
The popularity of rap music has quickly advanced many words from their
origins in the black ghettos of urban America to widespread usage
amongst (of all people) white suburbanite kids.
Another good chunk came from using the vesrica (to reverse some of the
syllables of a normal word) form of common spanish words, e.g.,
dorima =3D marido =3D husband, naesqui =3D esquina =3D street corner, and o=
f
course, gotan =3D tango.
When all was said and done, lunfardo ended up a mixture of italian,
french, spanish, quechua (yes, even indian words were adopted), and
a host of other minor languages and dialects long forgotten. The
parents of this new language were not just the thieves, but also the
negros (descendants of black slaves) that worked the fields, pardos
(mestizos) that worked as labourers, criollos (descendants of the
conquistadors) that worked in the cattle industry, chinas (indians)
that cleaned up houses, tanos (italians) that tended the bars, gallegos
(spaniards) that ran the grocery stores, in short, the millions of
immigrants that arrived to the city at the end of the 19th. century.
Its usage in some tango lyrics gives them much of its flavor and puts
the stamp "porte=F1o" on them like a firebrand. It is a pity that
in an effort to popularize tango to the masses beyond Bs.As and
Argentina, i.e., the rest of the Spanish speaking world, the usage
of lunfardo in tango lyrics slowly declined in favor of a more
acceptable "standard" Spanish. But that's another story.
---
ruddy
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 23:15:00 -0500
From: Karen Whitesell <kglass @IPA.NET>
Subject: checking in
Dear Friends,
I just dropped my tool belt long enough to say hello, and to tell you my
renovation/ tango venue is coming along nicely. My hands are sticky
from varnish and coated with caulk, as I am in the trim and paint stage.
When one hundred years is sanded off the dance floor and refinished to
its original shine, that will be the greatest triumph. It won't be
long now, and I have already bought new tango shoes in anticipation...
Sorry, I still don't have pictures for you, maybe before long.
I do read your posts as often as I can, you're currently my only tango
contact, and I dance through your written word. Keep up the good words,
I really enjoy your conversations.
Dance one for me,
Karen
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:16:59 -0600
From: Dave Schmitz <dschmitz @MAGELLAN.TEQ.STORTEK.COM>
Subject: Re: tango styles--Milonguero
Tom,
In your list of close-embrace teachers who have come to
Colorado, you omitted several significant ones.
- Florencia Taccetti
- Daniela y Armando
- Brooke Burdett
- Carlos Gavito
- Julio Balmaceda y Corina de la Rosa
- El Indio y Mariana Dragone
In my own appendium above, I am including
teachers, who, even though they have great stage
reputations, have taught close-embrace material,
whether in public classes or in private sessions.
I must give special note to my first close-embrace
teacher, Florencia Taccetti, and to one you also
listed, Tomas Howlin, plus Tomas's teaching partner,
Silvana Grill.
Florencia and Tomas both make use of excellent drills.
Both pay attention to the tiny but important details,
those necessary little things that take months to work
on. Both are real "taskmasters", making sure
that I learn.
The close-embrace skills I learned from my teachers
have been universal and transferable, so whether one
argues this-or-that axis, belly or no belly, head
right or left, V-embrace, etc, matters not.
The important thing is that the skills taught
are transferable.
I won't argue semantics as to what is close-embrace,
or worse, what is milonguero, but leave that to all
you others. It's too much like nailing jello to
a tree.
(For those outside the USA, jello is a gelatin
product, almost a solid, but with little cohesion,
so it falls apart easily.)
> I have notice that it is far easier to dance well after 6 months with
> close-embrace than with the open or "salon" style.
Tom, I strongly agree with your statement.
In close-embrace, it is more difficult, though not
impossible, to attain bad habits, such as leading
with the fingers, the hands, the arms, etc. One
must be more sensitive to a partner's BODY, as opposed
to a part of the partner's body. Also, say I with
a smile, it's more difficult to look down to see what
the feet are doing, hence preventing head droop.
(Just why oh why are those feet so interesting?)
> - But really, once they see the heart and soul of milonguero, the
> newcomers want that same passion. They can hardly believe it is
> really okay to hold her/him that close!
Oh YES!
In today's USA, with our society the way it is,
many people don't get enough warm human contact.
What better human contact than to dance in a position
that is a modified hug ?!!
(Thanks to Gavito, the first one I heard use this concept.)
> I recently travelled to Los Angeles and found hardly anybody doing
> milonguero.
Interesting.
I've only danced with two L.A. women, though never in L.A.
One while in NYC, one here this past weekend.
With both, we only danced close-embrace. They were delightful!
I wonder where they learned?
Dave Schmitz
Denver
PS: See you all at the Mercury Cafe!
We had such a blast at this last weekend's milongas
with live music by the Tango Camerati!
African drum for candombe milongas, two guitars,
and so much more. I'm still on a high!
End of TANGO-L Digest - 22 May 2000 to 23 May 2000 (#2000-140)
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