Neo tango rant!

Sharna Fabiano seems to be a name to take into account on the other side of the Atlantic. She was recently nominated as one of the ones to watch in an American dance magazine and I heard high opinions about her. So, I went to her website, neotango.
Sharna gives us a extensive list of tracks that we can dance tango to. Fine, I personally like to dance tango to non traditional tango music so I was excited! I started going down the list...
"I Don't Feel So Well" by Vienna Teng, by "A thousand years" by Sting... They are NOT TANGOS! Sharna is feeding what seems to be a rapid build up of antibodies against neotango because she is stating that non-tango tracks are neotango! I can understand how some people in the States are so upset at neotango. But maybe they are upset at non-tango!
Neotango is music made out of tango with a contemporary twist into it. Neotango should have the Argentinian Tango mark in it, it should be a music that makes one reminisce of tango when listening to it, not simply a track that is tango-danceable!
I personally like dancing non-tango musics to tango but that is what they are, non-tango musics! There is a hell of a difference between A Thousand years and Mi Corazon. Sharna should know better than that!

Tagged!

I don't like chain letters and even signed the petition online to get rid of them. But this sounds like an exception. As far as I know, tangobaby tagged us. A little thing, this blog is written by 4 people (although I seem to be the one that logoorrheates most) but this is only my side of things!
The rules are
1 - Link to the blog who tagged you

2 - Post the rules on your blog
- Share seven random and/or weird things about yourself.
- Tag seven people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
- Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1 – My hands and feet are always cold (I try to warm them up before going to tango)! As they say in the place where I am from, cold hands, warm heart.

2 – I love to cook to alleviate stress. It’s double tasty!

3 – My eyes change colour. I never understood what triggers it but they go from greenish grey to emerald green. I must be a freak.

4 – I was once in a train Warsaw-bound thinking I was in a train to Budapest. I got out of the train just in time to board another train that was going to... Bucharest! It doesn’t stop here, I ended up going to Prague!

5 – Just like Amelie Poulain, I love sticking my hands in bags of beans and I can’t get enough of breaking the surface of thin ice on lakes.

6 – I don’t like when I am dancing and people hum. I’m sorry, it just interferes with my concentration!

7 – Once, for Carnaval, I dressed up like a woman and got chatted up... by a friend of mine! (I looked fantastic)

So the blogs I am tagging are:
A time to dance
Great Dance
Tango Atlântico
Abrazo (we all have hope)
Mesa da Ciência
tangobaby (aha!)
Quartos Escuros

Arguments against cortinas

I'm in the mood to go against the current.

Generally, I don't like frequent cortinas. I also strongly dislike ghastly cortinas that are either confusing (because it's similar to tango) or just simply crappy (because it's unpleasant to listen to). It doesn't stop me from going to a milonga necessarily, but I would rather if there weren't any or not very frequent at least. I totally understand that from a DJ's point of view, it is useful to use them. Some people do use them well.

The reasons why I don't like cortinas:

1) When I've been dancing & connecting really well with someone, and I'm in this lovely bubble, you want to carry on without a "back-to-reality" or "must-talk-but-a-bit-awkward" interference. I find that a cortina can be a mood-breaker.

2) When you don't like dancing with someone, and you want to end it before the 3rd dance, you END it, regardless of whether there is an interference (cortina) or not.

3) I personally prefer to have a number of tandas, then have one big break (a whole song or two) so that I can actually have a substantial conversation with someone (or dance salsa or whatever, if you like). Rather than a few seconds of cortina, where you can't really converse properly.

4) I like the continuous influx and efflux of people on the dance floor. It seems more natural.

5) Why should my breaks be dictated by the DJ? Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 dances to get me going. Why should I be stopped?

So, just because they have cortinas in Buenos Aires, it doesn't mean we have to, right?

What we would like a beginner-follower to do, or 'not' to do

Together with mshedgehog we have listed the skills that we believe a beginner-follower should have to be sucessful on the dance floor. If you would like to see mshedgehog's opinion on leaders, check it out here.

Assuming that the follower is female and the leader is male:

EMBRACE
We would like her
· Not to look down to the feet.
· Not to tug on to the leader with her left or/and right hands.
· To keep her right arm firm but elastic, giving the leader adequate amount of resistance.
· Not to be afraid of the closeness required in an embrace (don’t worry too much about the presence of the breasts, apparently one in two people have them).
· To try and maintain the chest and hips parallel to those of the leader as much as the dance allows them to.

WALK
We would like her
· To maintain her own weight at all times except when specific movements require her to rely on her partner’s weight or support.
· To try and stay close to the leader and not move away from him unnecessarily.
· To obey the dynamic of the leader and return the energy transmitted by him.
· To stretch her legs back far enough so that the leader can step forward comfortably.
· To try and close both knees and feet together as though they are bound to each other by elastic bands.
· Not to bop up and down.

DANCE
We would like her
· Not to change her weight from right to left or vice versa unless indicated.
· To keep her embellishment to her minimum at this level.
· Not to ‘lead’ the leader by force (the skills for passive leading should come as she improves generally).
· To be aware of the rhythm but should always follow the leader’s dance (as she goes up the levels she will be able to incorporate her own interpretation of music without breaking the equilibrium.)

MISCELLANEOUS
We would like her
· To take care of her body odour but she should not wear too much perfume.
· To minimise the amount of make-up and accessories she wears so that it doesn’t damage the leader’s clothing or disrupt the dance in any way.
· Not to chat constantly during a dance.

*Some individuals do not like their partners to hum while dancing. Personally, I don’t mind it at all. Because firstly, I do it from time to time. Secondly, it lets me know that my partner is enjoying the music, and perhaps, it helps him to dance with the music. I would much rather if he can dance well to the music and hum/sing than if he cannot dance to the music at all.

Never too early

Back to the days when I had regular classes with Ricardo Oria y Jenny Frances I remember lots of people that went religiously to classes and never set a foot in a milonga. I never understood them (I shall mention that I was one of the annoying kids that started learning how to dance in milongas because I had no money for classes... tuh tuh). What’s the point of going endlessly to classes if you don’t go to milongas? They told me with wise square faces, “So that we learn it properly and then, when we go to the milonga, we are good”.

I did try to tell them but they didn’t listen to me. I remember a guy that had been learning tango for two years, he was at intermediate level and a reasonable dancer, of course, in the class. And he went to the milonga. Reality set in very quickly for him. He had nobody to shout him which steps to do, his plans of doing a Pablo Véron impression were crushed the moment he realised he had 10 times less space in a milonga than in a class and i remember him telling me, “I have been learning for two years, for nothing!”

He actually never came to a milonga again but I think he moved out of town (hopefully not because of tango!). So if you’re reading this, my friend whose name I forgot, persevere, don’t give up. And if you’re reading this and starting don’t do as he did. Go to milongas, listen to the music, respect others while dancing and, above all, have fun. Tango without fun isn't worth dancing!

Gavito teaches tango y nada mas

In the Planet Tango series “Gavito teaches tango y nada mas” and referring to those who try to see a formula to life in tango, Gavito has said: “Listen guys, I’m a milonguero. I dance and I teach tango. I’m not a historian, I’m not a psychologist. And you people, if you think that because we teach tango and we dance tango, we have to give you classes on philosophy and psychology, you’re wrong. We teach only how to dance tango.”

It is taken for granted that our tango instructors are responsible to impart the code of behaviour that we need to respect as tangueras and tangueros; that doesn’t mean that we should look for spiritual leaders. We shouldn’t turn tango into something dogmatic, but that doesn't mean that the tango etiquette is not important. Or this is the way I see it. It's a matter for debate whether the tango etiquette is a flexible set of rules though. It's a burning-hot topic lately amongst the UK tango crowd, after this list hit the tango-UK yahoo! group:
ü The dancing should always move counter clockwise

ü Everyone should keep it's lane, without zigzagging or
becoming a `floor overtaker'

ü One should not move forward to the right of another couple
dancing in front of us.

ü One should avoid bumping into other couples. One should stop
for some sensible time before moving forward.

ü One should apologise if one bumps into or steps over another
person, even it is our own dancing partner.

ü When walking into the floor we should not shove nor push
those who are already dancing

ü Dancing exhibitions take place when there are no couples
around, so when dancing with other people next to us we should take into
consideration the space available.

ü Men should approach the woman they have invited to dance and
the woman should remain seated until they have confirmed such invitation

ü Men should walk their dancing partner back to her seat as far
as the floor limit

ü The invitation to dance should always be done with the
cabeceo, without forcing the lady into an uncomfortable situation, or
taking advantage of other milongueros who respect the codes

ü And while we are dancing we should not chat or
talk….because Chamuyo is not beat, rhythm nor melody.


And the question is, how much of this list's tango codigos are necessary for the dance to happen (so that we don't bump on other dancers for example) and how much is general social etiquette (aca a bit of a philosophy that might not reflect our ethics nowadays)? In the end how much of it can we change?

How addictions begin

Tangocherie found out this video on youtube (or is it hers?). Can you find similarities between this fellow and yourself?

:OD



Almost forgot to say, congratulations Murat and Mariana for attracting the unimaginable creatures to tango!

Dancing with broomsticks (II)

If tango is a dialogue why do so many leaders keep talking to the cassette recorder?

The Tao of Tango

It was my own Xmas present. But I have exams next week and I am severely underprepared. I can blame it on blogger, on youtube or even on my friend that introduced me to tango. I locked the book in the drawer. But like a mermaid is singing my name...

Arghh!

The music that I can’t stop listening to (I)

How would life be without music? Hum, can't envisage it. So, to celebrate that I'll give you a review on my crush of the moment. Maybe you'll discover something new, maybe you'll read what you already know and think (who does this guy think he is?) or maybe it doesn't interest you at all. Anyway, here it is the first. Pedro Laurenz - the underrated maestro.

Creaciones inolvidables by Pedro Laurenz

Relíquias Collection

Laurenz is such an underrated maestro! He was part of De Caro’s seminal orchestra and formed his own orchestra giving work to a young teenager called Oswaldo Pugliese, amongst others. Together with De Caro or on his own, Laurenz created songs that are now played in every milonga such as Milonga de Mis Amores, Mala Junta, De Puro Guapo or Risa Loca.

Despite all his genius, abilities and contacts Laurenz never made it to the golden list of tango maestros - Laurenz has only a handful of published albums. Michael Lavocah (and others) defends that it was the lack of a portentous voice that relegated him to the second league of tango maestros. He did manage to attract Podestá for a short period of 4 years and, to prove Lavocah’s suggestion, those were the years of most intense recording (Laurenz did achieve success later with the legendary Quinteto Real, pairing with Francini and Horácio Salgan).

This album brings the perfect mix of melody and rhythm that De Caro dreamt of but never managed to achieve. The voices of Bermudez but mainly Podestá (I must confess Podestá is my ever favourite tango singer) bring the tango of Laurenz to a level that few maestros ever managed to achieve. His (shortened from the original) interpretation of Alma de bohemio (with Podestá) is one of the most beautiful creations ever made by anyone. My opinion, of course!