Interesting. When I went (6? Years ago) it was about a third of the price here. I wonder if things have. Hanged, or if I'm just in a remarkably expensive area.
or enjoy any of the other wonderful things in BsAa. I would love to go back (even if I'd have a hard time attending mil gas since my bio rhythm is so counter to argentine culture.sigh)
That won't be necessary. I discovered today that I have a copy of the magazine with the complete interview translated. I will be posting it in this thread.
Most BsA´s teacher really make big differences concerning the price (from tourist, friend of a resident, resident, peer, protégé ) whereas visiting couples abroad receive a fixed price. The studios then have to collect the depts.
Forgot about Osvaldo and Coca. They also sail under the flag of tango de salón and cultivate a really minimalist style without much embellishment. Their class is on friday in Ruth´s studio.
a musician friend of mine who had a regular job as an architect but got paid for his band's gigs..described it as "beer and fags money" That pretty much describes what I get..If I save enough I can underwrite the cost of a visiting teacher..
I'm not sure why people get bent out of shape over artists who prefer to sleep inside and eat everyday. They need to make a living, too.
I agree. None of those teachers are inflicting themselves upon students against their wishes. I doubt that any tango student these days is not aware that there are various styles, and workshop organizers certainly know it. Teachers are only successful if they teach what students want to learn.
This is only true for some complete beginners: others have no idea at all. Around here, they have seen Vincent & Flavia on TV or on the stage, and they (the ladies) want to start with ganchos and boleos, and move on to lifts in week two. Their men usually look as though they don't want to be there at all. As for your second point, very much so. There's only so much you can do to steer someone in what you believe to be a helpful direction. If you can't get them to come back after the first session, you have lost them forever. There will be other teachers, ready to cash in, though. Around here, it's tango with kizomba at the moment. I don't think that they do wait 'til week two to do lifts, but start with them.
Osvaldo & Coca come from the time when everything danced in a salón was tango de salón and they still seem to have that belief. Osvaldo, like many milongueros, probably just says it's all salon and refuses to be categorised. And why not indeed? Now so-called commercial artistry labels everything so we have Milonguero as a style as well as a person, yet it's a subdivision of the many variations milongueros danced, and the Villa Urquiza style named after a barrio. Neither term existed in the Golden Age even though their advocates claim that heritage. I think you'll find they promote themselves as dancing tango de salón http://www.tangodesalon.de/en/ehome.htm They perhaps are another example of the confusion of the different meanings of words, country to country, age to age, which Melina has blogged about. Now she seems to invent her own usages though. It perhaps would be better if we could revert to tango de salón referring to any style compatible with dancing in a salón. I doubt that will happen and the confusing usages will continue. Well, yes. Just not necessarily from tango. The influence of professional and semi-professional dancers and teachers on social tango is insidious whether in Buenos Aires or abroad. I know, I know, that's just my view. However the commercialism of competitions doesn't help either along with the whole panoply of yet more professional teaching. The traditional understanding of an artist was someone who did his art for the love of it, not the pay in it, with the stereotype of the impecunious artist scraping a living not necessarily from his art. I don't believe artistry has much to do with social tango though you might call performance a visual art. But then I believe tango is a dance of the senses whereas too many are concentrating on elegant looks and ornamentation, not the feel of it. Competitions are judged visually by tango professionals and performers resulting in yet more visually appealing choreography, each year's winners going on to perform and teach their form of exhibition tango for that is what it is, not social. Because of visual judging, the dancing homogeneity of the salon competition is misleading as far as social tango is concerned. JanTango knows better than I, but I think Osvalda & Coca were the last "milonguero" winners of the Mondial in 2006, maybe the only ones.
Osvaldo & Coca come from the time when everything danced in a salón was tango de salón and they still seem to have that belief. Osvaldo, like many milongueros, probably just says it's all salon and refuses to be categorised. And why not indeed? Now so-called commercial artistry labels everything so we have Milonguero as a style as well as a person, yet it's a subdivision of the many variations milongueros danced, and the Villa Urquiza style named after a barrio. Neither term existed in the Golden Age even though their advocates claim that heritage. I think you'll find they promote themselves as dancing tango de salón http://www.tangodesalon.de/en/ehome.htm They perhaps are another example of the confusion of the different meanings of words, country to country, age to age, which Melina has blogged about. Now she seems to invent her own usages though. It perhaps would be better if we could revert to tango de salón referring to any style compatible with dancing in a salón. I doubt that will happen and the confusing usages will continue. Well, yes. Just not necessarily from tango. The influence of professional and semi-professional dancers and teachers on social tango is insidious whether in Buenos Aires or abroad. I know, I know, that's just my view. However the commercialism of competitions doesn't help either along with the whole panoply of yet more professional teaching. The traditional understanding of an artist was someone who did his art for the love of it, not the pay in it, with the stereotype of the impecunious artist scraping a living not necessarily from his art. I don't believe artistry has much to do with social tango though you might call performance a visual art. But then I believe tango is a dance of the senses whereas too many are concentrating on elegant looks and ornamentation, not the feel of it. Competitions are judged visually by tango professionals and performers resulting in yet more visually appealing choreography, each year's winners going on to perform and teach their form of exhibition tango for that is what it is, not social. Because of visual judging, the dancing homogeneity of the salon competition is misleading as far as social tango is concerned. JanTango knows better than I, but I think Osvalda & Coca were the last "milonguero" winners of the Mondial in 2006, maybe the only ones.
Sorry for the duplicate post, strange things were going on and it didn't appear to upload and didn't show, now there are two!
I agree with a lot of what you say about show dancers, though I think that they serve there purpose in bringing new people into AT. I have not found many people stressing the looks over the feel, but I usually tell follows new to me that all I care about is the feel and looks is not important. Ofcourse, I often catch them stealing glances in the mirrors.
Osvaldo Cartery and his wife Coca were the 2004 World Tango Salon Champions. There were other milongueros winning the city championships (Lito & Lidia Filippini, Pedro Vujovich & Graciela Cano), but no others in the world championships. The FESTIVAL BUENOS AIRES TANGO and TANGO WORLD CUP program is available as of today http://www.tangobuenosaires.gob.ar/festivalymundial12/web/en/events/index.html There are classes with champions and with milongueros: http://www.tangobuenosaires.gob.ar/festivalymundial12/web/en/activities/index/v/group/5.html Since Osvaldo and Coca are the 2004 world champions, their class is under "campeones" with all the young couples, not with the milongueros.
Not sure what you mean by that. Do you find something missing or incorrect? As with any definition of tango, it can only be generally valid.
I was thinking particularly of the last couple of sentences. It reads like a piece of recent history, not about today - that's all.
