Cliques
There seems to be a survey of sorts doing the rounds recently. Apparently one of the reasons for people (no mention of beginners or experienced so probably both categories) quitting tango is the “cliquishness, elitism, and divisive politics” in tango communities.
Let’s face it, at a deeper level tango is not an easy dance and not everyone is suited for tango. Having taught some beginners in the past I can certainly say that almost anyone can derive pleasure from learning/dancing it at a social level. However, if we look at the survey results less critically, are the reasons cited not what one can expect at any social endeavour? Or is there anything unique about tango which supposedly brings out the worst in people?
Traditional tango
Keep coming across the term “traditional tango” on a number of tango teachers’ websites. The use of the term plus the sample video clips got me thinking: just like tango Nuevo was difficult to give a concise definition, what is traditional tango really?
The following is generally accepted as a good demonstration of social dancing by a respected milonguero/a (I am not using the term “milonguero style” here, which admittedly is somewhat ambiguous):
But is this the elusive traditional tango mentioned by the those teachers? Come to think of it, the pace at which tango is changing means what we consider revolutionary or modern will probably become the classic/traditional in, say, 5-6 years’ time? 😉
Curious statistics
I have been meaning to mention this for a while.
I could not help but notice that the most visited pages on this site are actually the pages containing the list of tango CDs in my collection. Can someone who is looking up those pages leave a comment on what you are looking for? Anything I can help directly?
A new year
I know it’s kind of late but happy 2011 to all the followers of this blog!
Since coming back to Singapore just after the New Year, I have been terribly busy with house moving and all the hassles associated with it. Thank god it’s more than 90% completed! 🙂
Well, it seems the local tango community is in for a treat in 2011. Over the past week, I have received advance announcements of visiting teachers over the coming months, including of course something I am personally involved in, namely the visit of the wonderful couple Andres Laza Moreno and his partner Isabel Acuna (in planning since late last year) whom I met in Sydney last year. In fact, the list of teachers is already building up to almost middle of this year, and we are only 2 weeks into 2011! Interestingly, compared to previous years, many of these teachers will be staying beyond one week, or a weekend, as the case may be. A sign of growing community, perhaps?
Not really sure how everything is going to pan out but look on the bright side, overall the local tango community will be the one to benefit from all this flurry of activity!