Re: [TANGO-L] And the new World Champions are ...

[JC Dill <tango @VO.CNCHOST.COM>]

At 10:34 AM 12/27/2002 -0800, Mark Lad wrote:

 >Is it just me?  Am I the only one that thinks taking an art so beautiful as
 >Tango and making it a competition is perverse?

Have you ever attended a good dance competition?  When it's done right, the
spectator is treated to a wonderful exhibition of the most beautiful of the
artists, all dancing together.  It need not be a perversion.

 >I think competition is exactly what killed ballroom dance.  They took dances
 >that real people did socially and distorted them into some kind of weird
 >stage hoofing.  Now if anybody wants to learn to foxtrot they're taught by a
 >system designed to produce competitors, not dancers.
 >
 >Competition is fine for ball sports, foot races and chess.  It is absolutely
 >wrong for art and social dance.

OTOH, it has worked amazingly well for West Coast Swing dancing.

IMHO, the big differences between WCS competitions and Ballroom
competitions are the emphasis (in WCS competitions) on matching one's dance
movements to the music (rather than treating the music like a metronome),
and matching with one's partner.  So, if we are to have AT competitions, my
hope is that judges and judging rules will emphasize and reward musicality
and partnership (key things that make social partner dancing enjoyable),
rather than overly choreographed flashy moves more suitable for stage.

jc

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