Guest post by Jane Prusakova
Jane's blog, "Software and Other Things" can be found HERE.
It is also possible that American
dancers with their deep pockets and strong preference for wide
open space will prevail, and change the tango into something it
hasn’t been before – a dance that is less personal, more
pattern-based, and looks more sophisticated in pictures and
videos, than it used to. The
dance communities will maintain larger dance floors, dancers will
keep inventing and learning more and bigger combinations, and good
technique will continue to evolve towards larger steps and wider
arm movements. It will
become popular to separate and step away from one’s partner as a
figure of the dance, and execute steps independently. There will be more lead and
follow by sight and eye contact, rather than by touch. All in all, it will be a very
different, possibly, beautiful dance, that is not the Argentine
Tango we try so hard to experience today.
Jane's blog, "Software and Other Things" can be found HERE.
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| Always Tango Elegant Milonga in Austin, Texas |
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| Buenos Aires Oct/Nov 2011 diary (Niño Bien) |
There is a subtle difference between pictures
from tango events in US and in B.A.
Ok, maybe not so subtle. The
distance within and in-between couples, the use of space, the
amount of real estate in and between the lines of dance varies
from none to a few feet in many Buenos Aires milongas, and at the
US dance events – and creates a very different environments.
Tango (like most folk partner dances)
originally evolved as a flirty, sexy game between men and women,
with the goal of getting close – as close as it could possibly be
appropriate in the deeply religious Latin America. The space was,
if not exactly the enemy, then the challenger. The proof is in the original
tango pose – with the man holding the woman’s shoulder and hand,
and trying to reach her foot while she arches her body back – is
all about trying to get closer and trying to escape at the same
time.
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| Tango pose via - www.articulosweb.net/viajes/tango |
The situation is very different in modern US
tango scene. Leads try to maintain a few
steps’ distance between couples in the line of dance. Both leads and followers find
it hard to get close to their partners. And instructors teach a lot
of moves and combinations that require several feet of dance floor
to execute. Space is a
requirement and a resource for the dance, where better dancers are
expected to use more space, not less, in their social dancing, as
they execute more complicated patterns and make larger steps.
What happens to Argentine Tango next is up to
the entire tango community. The
dance still can go back to its sexy beginnings, where dancing was
an excuse to hug and play with a beautiful stranger in an elegant
and safe environment. American
milongueros can learn to dance closer, enjoy the energy of a tight
space, and let go of [some of] their inhibitions. Being aware of and able to
control one’s expectation of a personal space can be helpful in
many situations, on and off the pista.
Comments
Already happened long ago. it's called Ballroom Tango/
"And instructors teach a lot of moves and combinations that require several feet of dance floor to execute. Space is a requirement and a resource for the dance"
Sure, and let's remember that's in part because space has become a requirement and a resource for the teaching - because most instructors choose to teach in bulk, in classes.
Contrast that with Argentine tango dance's traditional one-to-one learning - needing only enough space for one couple.
No surprise that the dance forms that result are so different, especially as regards suitability for dancing on a floor full of other couples - essential to the social nature of the traditional dance.
ballroom tango originated in Europe, and in a different era. The communities dancing tango in Europe and in BA in 1920s were almost completely separate, with the ocean between them - and a very long time and big expense to cross it. Tango had the space to evolve separately into a ballroom dance in Europe, and survive the way it was in Latin America.
It is different now. Current tango renaissance in BA is tightly integrated with AT gaining in popularity around the world. If AT becomes something else, it will change everywhere.
We know that downtown BsAs venues are tight and crowded, while the salons of the outlying areas have lots of space; and the styles of tango do differ quite a bit; but tango isn't danced as if it were a race in any of them.