Has tango changed for the worse? - Part 2

Post date: Apr 14, 2014 2:29:12 AM

Image of Rodolfo and Gloria Dinzel - 'Los Dinzel' from edinburghtango.org.uk

As discussed in Has Tango changed for the worse - Part 1, I support the evolution and changing fashions of tango, but with a caveat...

In my opinion tango can be danced in an embrace that is close, open or combination of both. It can be danced between a man and woman, two women, two men, or with a role reversal. It does not matter what clothes are worn, nor what music is played, assuming it has a rhythm conducive to the dance.

The essential quality of tango that must never be lost, tango's raison d'etre, or the 'baby in the bath water' is - connection / communion with one's partner. If people are not communing with each other in their tango, no matter how beautiful their moves, nor how on the music they are, their dance for me is not the type of tango that I want to dance or teach.

'Communion' is a term I have appropriated from the teacher of teachers Rodolo Dinzel as I feel it fits so well within the context of tango:

"(tango) It's a meeting between a man and a woman, or between two people, who together produce one of the most wonderful things a human being can experience - communion. Communion to halt the future, life, existence, time and space, without pre-arranging it in any sense (t)."1

What a wonderful reason to tango!

Notes:

1 Quoted in Tango Nuevo by Carolyn Merritt

Has Tango Changed for the Worse? Part 1

Has Tango Changed For the Worse? - Part 3

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