The Tango-L mailing list archive
Digest from 26 Sep 2000
to 27 Sep 2000
Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 03:00:44 -0400
Sender: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 26 Sep 2000 to 27 Sep 2000 (#2000-261)
There are 5 messages totalling 214 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Nine West ladies street shoes
2. Show Tango (2)
3. Nine West ladies street shoes, alternative
4. show tango
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Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 09:08:05 CDT
From: Erica Sutton <ericaatwork @HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Nine West ladies street shoes
A funny-strange occurrence here in Chicago ...
Nine West (ladies shoemaker) released a new pair of shoes in the past week.
There were 5 women at the milonga on Tuesday with those shoes!
See www.ninewest.com for the Peekaboo shoe, follow the Retro Glam link.
They are not as sturdy as a well made tango shoe, and the sole is not
leather so it has a little stick in it. BUT the shoe is the first one I
have seen for a reasonable price that is a street shoe with a nice
1940's/tango styling.
I spent ages in department stores when I started dancing looking for
something that had a good style and (important!) was comfortable for hours
of dancing. At that time the only way was to trace my foot on paper when
someone went to Argentina and hope for the best. I was very anti-ballroom
shoes (the heel style choked my aesthetic) and I was concerned about
spending big $$ when I was a new dancer, so I stuck with my old trusty Mary
Jane Capezio character shoes.
For you ladies with a Big Budget ~ Prada is making gorgeous peekaboo shoes,
too. Oooo La La.
Anyone else noticing these particular street shoes making the way onto the
dance floor??
How about all the fishnet stockings in ads?? And on models. Not just for
tango dancers and ladies of the non-dancing night anymore!
Erica
tango @argentinamail.com
PS - Trying the Nine West shoes on at Marshall Field's and ochoing at the
mirror is a blast. ;-) Folks can't resist asking what you are doing?!?!
Our classes have been full of men lately, perhaps this is a recruitment tool
to find new women. Ha.
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Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 00:15:04 +0900
From: astrid <astrid @RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: Show Tango
> Larry points out the very mentality that is at the root of the
> problem. He wrote:
>
> >Every figure I've ever seen done on the stage can be used on the
> >social dance floor, including leaps/lifts.
Stephen wrote:
> I could not disagree more. Once the line between social and
> exhibition dancing is obliterated, anti-social dancing too easily
> becomes the norm.
I may be doing Larry wrong here, but I'd just like to point out that there
is a lot more to these leaps, lifts etc. than meets the eye if you see them
on stage. Before you decide to try them on your (unsuspecting ?) partner,
take two things into consideration:
1) Difficult movements like those are practised by 200 to 250 times in the
studio by the dancers before they show them on stage.
2) One day I arrived in the studio and the female dance teacher was wearing
a bandage across her eyebrow. They had practised for their show in the
afternoon and her partner had thrown her face first against the ceiling...
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 00:43:25 +0900
From: astrid <astrid @RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: Nine West ladies street shoes, alternative
Erica wrote:
> See www.ninewest.com for the Peekaboo shoe, > They are not as sturdy as a
> well made tango shoe, and the sole is not
> leather so it has a little stick in it. BUT the shoe is the first one I
> have seen for a reasonable price that is a street shoe with a nice
> 1940's/tango styling.
>
> I spent ages in department stores when I started dancing looking for
something that had a good style and (important!) was comfortable for hours
> of dancing. At that time the only way was to trace my foot on paper when
someone went to Argentina and hope for the best. I was very anti-ballroom
> shoes (the heel style choked my aesthetic) and I was concerned about
spending big $$ when I was a new dancer, so I stuck with my old trusty
> Mary Jane Capezio character shoes.
>
> For you ladies with a Big Budget ~ Prada is making gorgeous peekaboo
shoes,
> too. Oooo La La.
>
If you want a peekaboo shoe that is made especially for tango,
well made, great for dancing and cheaper than Prada, go for "Malena" by
Robin Tara. Best I ever had. (And I have been through trace on paper number
several times)
www.22tangoshoes.com
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 23:25:28 0100
From: John Sullivan <tangofan @020.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: show tango
>
> Fernanda replied that they were doing show tango, and that
> you should never attempt to do such things on a crowed dance floor,
> as it would be impossible. She then added that some inexperienced
> social dancers get confused between show tango and social tango, and
> cause trouble for others.
>
> Her polite use of the word "confused" (rather than "selfish"
> and/or "idiotic") was amusing!
>
> Huck
>
I disagree with the word "amusing" in this context. Normal and sensible is what
her statement is to me.
It seems to me that certain "experienced social tango dancers" are very quick to
call others as "selfish", "idiotic", and equate them to certain parts of human
anatomy.
Fernanda's answer was exactly what she teaches in her workshops, I believe. On
the other hand, their "show tango" is much more of a show rather than tango, in
my humble opinion. Their dancing is what I'd call a "tango ballet".
Cheers to all the show lovers,
John Sullivan.
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 18:35:18 -0700
From: Carlos Lima <amilsolrac @YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Show Tango
About Larry Carroll's Nasty Nine, as elaborated on by Stephen Brown, Tom
Stermitz comments:
>
Perhaps more importantly: Who were their teachers?
I'm sure they learned from many, as have we all, but do they have one teacher
(...) which they look up to for their inspiration?
All teachers have students who cause them embarrassment, but if there is a
pattern, then it is the teacher who should be embarrassed.
As our communities mature it becomes obvious
- whose students dance well and whose don't
- which master teachers build communities by leaving behind good students
- which organizers have a positive vision
<
Now we are talking turkey.
So, for regular dancers, is it dumbness, idiocy, being out of it? Or is it
"selfishness", the quality of being a jerk? Or is it ignorance? It is
IGNORANCE (yes, helped by bits and pieces of dumbness and barbarianism).
And what is the root of rank and file ignorance? Teacher's own ignorance. Is
teacher's ignorance curable? Yes, easily. All they have to do is expose
themselves, and to an appropriate extent their students, to a broad range of
acknowledged masters, representative of the whole gamut of dancing "at the
origin" (i.e., "authentic"), instead of
- Becoming wide eyed cholulos of a single "guru" who "thinks" for them
- Becoming fanatics of a narrowly defined style or school, e.g., tango
"nouveau", or viejo milonguero's milonguero
- Thinking they know it all and best, hide away from any corrupting
influence by the greats or just by the dancing public, and spend their lives
training unsuspecting students to be as bad as them, and worse
- Inventing cockamamie "theories" about how it is all the same in
continuous degrees of this and that, rather than studying with the masters,
developing and refining their form and technique according to principles of
style
- Inventing cockamamie "theories" about how your average teacher who has
studied hastily in some expatriate tango venue, perhaps with just one
teacher, perhaps already third hand, is just as good for any purpose as
Rioplatense masters with decades long CV's, and roots going back to ancient
times; or about how tango in Europe, not in Buenos Aires, is where it's at
now
- etc, etc, etc.
But Tom has not reached the depths of pathos. What if five of the Nasty Nine,
dancing not only dangerously, that is nothing, but completely out of
character, are regular teachers and/or aspiring professionals who dabble in
teaching? Who, pray tell, should then feel embarrassed? For some strange
reason, I do.
Cheers to all,
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End of TANGO-L Digest - 26 Sep 2000 to 27 Sep 2000 (#2000-261)
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