Neotango rant (III)

Nowadays, most people spend far too much energy on the war between traditionalist and nuevo. The problem is not the styles themselves. The problem is that everybody believes that they are right, when probably, nobody is.

Traditionalistic fundamentalism

I have recommended here in this blog the tango site Tango and Chaos. I still recommend it but as with everything, you have to read it with a pinch of salt. Rick McGarrey is one of those people that still lives on the golden era. He understands tango very well, and the website is a good resource for some theoretical notions of tango. You may think this is boring, but if you are serious about tango you can't just dance it. You have to live tango, meaning, you have to know its history, its major composers and the way how they play tango so that you can adapt your dance to the music.

Rick dismisses everything that is not strictly milonguero, in fact, he says that everyone that doesn't dance the way he does doesn't dance tango. I don't mind people saying "Well, I only dance this way because it's the way I like it". It's very different than "True tango is only the way I like it". The former is something like "I acknowledge that tango has various phases and has been evolving but I prefer the traditional" whereas the latter is "Tango must be like it was in the 40's, everything else is bullshit". Dogmas shouldn't exist in tango.

Anyway, just to prove my point, in one of the chapters about dance Rick picks a reknowned nuevo tanguero to make fun of him and try to sell his fundamentalism. I suggest you have a look at the chapter. He tries to take the VERY VALID point that tango salón is to be danced within certain limits, that we should respect other people in the dance floor and we shouldn't dance like we do in a demo. This is all fine. Then, he shows us the clip and says:

"Then Gustavo Naviera and his partner Giselle are shown dancing stage tango. You can see right away that he picks up his feet, kicks, and moves his left arm around more than the milongueros. He and Giselle also separate and do large leg swings and poses. Unlike the milongueros, they move their bodies around, and dance apart from each other. It's a more physically active and demonstrative way of dancing because it's designed to entertain an audience: Stage tango."

Now, I am confused. In my very humble opinion, when I am dancing socially, nobody screams my name to come into stage and generally people don't come into stage with an orderly fashion. Rick seems to have forgotten that this clip is actually a GROUP DEMO and NOT A MILONGA! And for as much as GyG move around they bump into nobody. AND, as far as I can see, i don't think that GyG are unpredictable, I think they are trying to make the most of their space.

Fundamentalism and radicalism have this little drawback, life (and tango) are not black and white. They will never be. If you stick to black or white you'll just be looking to a very little spectrum of things.

I will still be advising people to read Tango and Chaos thoroughly. It's the best online resource if you really want to understand tango dynamics, history and lyrics/styles. But as I hinted previously (with the help of some fabulous comments) sheeps never go anywhere.