How tango is danced in Buenos Aires
Many Europeans and Americans dance tango differently than Argentines. For years I tried to find a video to show how tango is danced in Argentina in order to change people's perception. But I couldn't find a satisfying one because tango videos are mostly shot by foreigners interested only in their own version of tango. The few that reflect the truth are poorly made, often with trifling and annoying details. Maybe even in Buenos Aires most milongas are not up to standard because they are packed with visitors, making it difficult to capture a truly porteno milonga. Only recently, I came across this video made by Paul Holman, which I found is representative of a milonga that I can call home.
I like this video not only because of its clarity, lighting, color and cinematography but also because of the producer's unique perspective. Paul Holman understood that tango is a dance of intimacy, connection, and surrender, that steps and footwork are secondary, that milonga codes play a crucial role, and that he should focus on the essentials and avoid misleading trifles to let the viewers enjoy a real good milonga. I watch this video often lately just to enjoy that soulful scene and remind myself of how one should behave and dance in the milonga.
How tango is danced in Europe and North America
In Europe and North America, people have a quite different perception. Here is how they dance tango in their milongas.
They dance tango not to enjoy music, feeling, and intimacy with another person, but to display or practice steps. I believe most of these people knew tango is an intimate dance and they came because they wanted to taste that apple. But for some hypocritical reasons they replaced the embrace with an open dance hold, distanced themselves from each other and focused only on the steps rather than the music, partner and feelings.
To be fair, this is not the worst case. One can tell it's a growing tango community. A number of them danced in the milonguero style, and are fair to good dancers. But most dancers are still newbies who don't know how to embrace and dance. They relied on arms and hands to lead and follow. Many were practicing what they recently learned. Most were emotionally detached. Few actually danced to music. The milonga codes were poorly complied, as exemplified by using verbal invitation, blocking the traffic, remaining on the dance floor during the cortina, wearing ornaments that would rub the partner's chest, loud background noises and a lot of talking. The music, although traditional, was not very engaging. The whole scene was quite chaotic. Towards the end there were a few better dances. But overall, I don't think this milonga is very attractive and satisfying. Unfortunately, this is still a typical tango scene in Europe and North America.
Another common Euro-American tango scene
Common among our young people is another kind of tango scene showing below.
Young people seem need to discharge their youthful energy and prove their ability to do things unconventional. Dancing in open hand hold rather than embrace, they can do fancy steps and showy figures. Some even attained certain degree of skillfulness in what they are doing. Nevertheless, there is no fundamental difference between this kind of tango and other sports dances. Personally I don't see how such way of dancing tango is even enjoyable in comparison to the feeling-oriented milonguero style. I wish there were better reasons why some people insist on doing this when there is clearly a better way, other than they need to release energy, show off, have obstacles, or don't know better. As far as comfort, soulfulness, indulgence and gratification are concerned, there is really no comparison between the two styles.
It may be characteristic for young people to act rebelliously, but being obsessed with the stereotype or wanting to prove that they are different from older people is childish and naive. Older people are once young and rebellious, too. In fact, many milongueros can do Nuevo steps better than young people today. They quit doing that because they become wiser after tried everything that young people with their limited experience cannot even imagine. Most young people learned tango from their peers, who learned from their peers, and they simply don't know another way to tango. Once they have tasted the milongueros' way, most will renounce theirs and follow suit. (See The Styles of Tango.)
This is how milongueros emerge
Three decades of trial and error since 1983 eventually lead some tango dancers in Europe and North America to move away from exhibitionism and pay more attention to the embrace, music and feelings. As a result, scenes like this start to appear in Europe and North America in recent years.
Their embrace and connection become closer and more intimate. Their dance becomes more feeling-oriented. Their steps become simpler, more musical and elegant. Their milonga becomes better organized. Antisocial behaviors are less seen. While showy footwork still occurs, the embrace still brakes sometimes, the hand use still remains habitual for some, the music selections are still more dramatic than sentimental, the hastiness is still common, the dresses are still too casual, the skill levels are uneven, progress nevertheless is evident in comparison to the previous two scenes. Such transformation certainly would not come without pain given the strong Western tradition of liberalism, individualism, feminism and hippie movement. But the dancers in this example proved that they can change. It is a reassurance that there is still a lot of hope in tango, in humanity, and in our ability to adapt.
How social tango should be danced
It is worth your time to watch Holman's video again and compare it to our own tango. The following is an edited version. This time please pay attention to how the milongueros and milongueras follow the milonga codes from seating, making eye contact, doing cabeceo, dancing to sending the woman back to her seat. If you wonder what kind of steps they use to make their dance so coherent and concordant, you can watch those dancing in the background. But nothing fancy really. Their tango is not about steps. (See The Conceptional Beauty of Tango.)
As you can see, they concentrate entirely on the music and feelings as if steps are irrelevant. Dancing tango for them is enjoying the sentiment and intimacy, not doing gymnastics. They dance with complete relaxation, unhurried pace, subtle movements and tasteful suspensions. Their steps are small and simple, totally void of flaunt, and used only to remain synchronized with the partner in dance. The beauty of their tango lies in the oneness of the union rather than the performance of the individual. In their tango nothing is ornate, but everything is exquisite and elegant. Even their music selections are more sentimental and intriguing than ours, fitting perfectly to the mood of their dance.
Please also pay attention to the woman. Her ability to remain cohesive with the man is amazing. She leans comfortably on him with her breasts intimately press against his chest and her arm hooked around his shoulder. Her eyes are dreamily closed to allow herself to focus inwardly on the feelings stirred by the music and the soft whispers of his body. Her inconspicuous footwork magically keeps her body moving in unison with his no matter how he turns.
To tango is to indulge yourself, not to impress others. On a crowded dance floor who cares about your footwork anyway. The only thing that matters is the intimate feelings you experience. That is why performance tango doesn't make good sense in the milongas. I hope Holman's video will inspire more people to learn the milonguero style of tango and accelerate the transformation of our tango from a step-oriented dance to a feeling-oriented dance. (See Social Tango and Performence Tango.)
P.S.
I received several comments on my video selections and understand a little better now why political correctness has become a necessity in our society. Please be aware that the video clips I selected are used only to illustrate a phenomenon. They are neither intended to reflect nor capable of reflecting the whole picture of any community or event.
