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Post date: Apr 27, 2014 11:40:29 PM
Here are two blog posts that I feel are a bit extreme in their viewpoint, but food for thought...
In RIP Tango -1983-2033 the writer Tango Therapist argues that performance and competition tango will lead to the destruction of social tango.
The post Why Social Dancers are Killing Salsa by The Dancing Irishman puts forward a different viewpoint on a similar theme. The writer argues that
the salsa scene is in decline. He cites the cause as not competition and performance dancing, but rather social dancers that remain in a perpetual state of mediocrity due to their lack of drive and effort to get better.
In my opinion neither mediocracy, competition, exhibitionism, nor elitism will 'kill off' social tango. I take the optimistic view that social tango is sufficiently diverse and resilient to withstand any possibly destructive elements. After all it managed to survive a military junta (1976 - 1983) which made tango dancing an illegal activity.
I agree with the great tango maestro Juan Carlos Copes who likens the tango to a corcha, or a cork in the water, to explain it's resurgence since the mid 1980s. "It may have died down for a while, he argued, but it will always rise to the surface."1
1 Tango Nuevo, by Carolyn Merritt
image sources: upper - Moty's Art Gallery
centre- The Dancing Irishman
lower - abeforum
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