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!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Neo tango rant!
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10 comments:
I am in no way an expert, but I don't like dancing tango to non-traditional music. It seems to dilute the essence of what tango is.
I remember being at a milonga and watching people dance to Hey Jude. The Beatles are sacred to me. So is tango. But that doesn't mean I want them mixed together!!!
Hi tangobaby
The problem is not liking or not liking to dance tango to non-tango music. The problem is putting neotango and non-tango in the same box. You may not like neither of them but that does not mean they are the same!
As for dancing tango to non-tango music I should add that there are only A FEW non-tango music styles that I really wnjoy dancing tango to. For example, fado is a music style, the equivalent of Tango in Portugal, whose music carries a lot of what tango does, only with less instruments and with usually a voice. It's very tango danceable and I have been meaning to write about this connection. Soon to come!
by the way, I wouldn't dance tango to The Teatles, it just doesn't click!
Hi Koolricky,
I couldn't agree more with your distinction between neo-tango and dancing tango to non-tango music!
There is certainly a HUGE difference between dancing to traditional tango as compared to Narcotango or Gotan (examples of what you'd call true neotango); and from here to non-tango music.
I personally prefer traditional tango, and then to Argentine neotango. With this said, there are some non-tango pieces that I love and that seem to blend well with the tango soul and which, (in my humble opinion) do mix well at milongas. As an example I'd give the sweet valses from the soundtrack of Amelie by Yann Tiersen, which I find emotional and powerful. Similarly, there are several fun songs (particularly Eastern European and Turkish) that adapt well to milonga steps. I find all of this fun--once in a while; perhaps a tanda every few nights, for a change, especially if the milonga is long.
And yet, people who learn and love tango should be aware that this is, as you say, not tango... and not even neo-tango, in the strict sense of the word. One thing that truly bothers me is that so many self-acclaimed Tango teachers, DJs or organizers cling precisely on this non-Tango music to attract more people to the dance, for the sake of business; they know that the love for true tango can be an acquired taste, and the not-tango music is much more marketable. To me, any responsible Tango-promoter should be exteremly clear in making the difference clear to those who are learning from them.
Hi la tanguera!
Thanks for chipping in with your opinion. Actually, reading your post was pretty much like reading my thoughts!
I vomited when watching Pablo & Dana (who I greatly admire) doing a demo to... Coldplay!
I read this discussion with great interest and I do agree to a lot of what is mentioned. I agree, for example, that there is a difference in the traditional tango sound, the nuevo sound, then in the neotango sound and definitely - definitely- in the non-tango music. Recognising their differences is very important, not only for aesthetic reasons, but mainly for dancing purposes.
Often I find it very difficult to dance neotango with traditional dancers; neotango is more open, it asks for bigger steps (in principle), it's exaggerated. For me (and maybe just for me?) neotango is an opportunity to experiment with steps that take both partners off the axis, with interruptions in fluidity, etc. The electronic sound has to be translated into movement and it cannot - in my understanding of the dance - be done in a close embrace, small steps and an ear for undertones.
I would like to mention to tango baby that there is an actual Beatles tango remix cd by the Liverpool project and some of the trucks are ok. But a Beatles lover might think of this attempt as hubris... :)
In general, I too enjoy some neo or non-tango tracks in an evening of tanta-based milongas. I don't like it when the first couple of hours begin with traditional and the evening ends with neotango. I prefer a blend, with a tanta of non-traditional every three or four tantas of traditional tango.
Finally, I thought that La Tanguera's comment on organisers of tango nights and djs was really to the point. We should discuss about this more...
I'm a psychedelic and eclectic kind of person so I always like a mix... But a mix of distinct sounds rather than a mix of mish-mash. Or else I get confused and bored. I quite like things to be themed also, so I enjoy it when an evening has a theme so people can get dressed up for it or decorate the room but there is a theme to the songs played as well.....
Well, to be honest when I started tango I only knew Piazzolla, Gotan Project and Bajofondo. Those were the musics that grabbed me into tango. Later I came to realise that I absolutely loved classic tango but it was the contemporary ones that pulled me into tango. I don't think there is much wrong in alluring people into tango with neo-tango, what needs to be told is that tango is to be danced, mainly and principally, to tango.
As a DJ I always try to sense the crowd in the first tandas. My sets consist 80% of older orchestras (pre-Pugliese's death) and 20% of neotango, contemporary orchestras and non tango. This obviously differs according to the crowd. No point putting a neotango tanda is nobody is going to dance it!
Koolricky: "Later I came to realise that I absolutely loved classic tango but it was the contemporary ones that pulled me into tango."
I continued learning tango not because of what I came looking for, but because of what I found.
LImerick tango, that is one of the best sentences I have ever read about tango! Ever!
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