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Thread: MJers learning Tango ... Saints or Sinners?

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    Commercial Operator Gus's Avatar
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    MJers learning Tango ... Saints or Sinners?

    Right. First of all I'm not talking about Jango. Jango is a carefully designed fusion of MJ and Tango created by two of the very best dancers around with massive amounts of real dance experience.

    What I'm referring to is a current trend for MJers to use indivdual Tango dance moves and try to apply them directly into MJ.

    [ODA Mode ON]
    WHY DO THEY DO IT?????? Tango moves are designed for a differnt type of frame, music and dance ethos. Plucking out individual dance moves from Tango and jamming them into a MJ dance is like taking the front grille off a Bently, jamming it onto a Skoda and expecting the end result to be a thing of beauty.

    I truly want to have a taser for the next freetsyle and use it without mercy on anyone who starts doing Tango moves to a hard club track. Have they no shame? Tango is a beautiful thing in the hands of an expert who uses it in the right environment. Why desecrate such beauty by trying to teach MJers the 'basics' and letting them loose on the MJ social dnace floor. Such sins can surely not go unpunished!
    [ODA Mode OFF]


    Rebuttals anyone?

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    Formerly known as DavidJames David Bailey's Avatar
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    Re: MJers learning Tango ... Saints or Sinners?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gus View Post
    Rebuttals anyone?
    Nope, that all sounds perfectly reasonable to me - especially the tasering

    I think a lot of the problem is that people like the sexy moves (the volcadas, the secadas, the ganchos and so on), but don't want to learn the basics (the walking). Unfortunately, this includes a lot of people who've done a few jango classes. Or even a lot of Jango classes

    One problem is that dancing Jango - or any fusion of MJ and Tango - is hard, it's much easier to "throw in a few AT moves". So you get wild leg flicks and ochos all over the place, but not a sidestep to be seen.

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    Registered User Ghost's Avatar
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    Re: MJers learning Tango ... Saints or Sinners?

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidJames View Post
    One problem is that dancing Jango - or any fusion of MJ and Tango - is hard, it's much easier to "throw in a few AT moves". So you get wild leg flicks and ochos all over the place, but not a sidestep to be seen.
    One obvious question - how are people just throwing in AT moves? (I mean from an actual leading perspective).

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    Re: MJers learning Tango ... Saints or Sinners?

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidJames View Post
    One problem is that dancing ..... Tango - is hard


    I've been on the tango journey since March. It's extremely difficult but profoundly, life changingly rewarding. Until I become competent, I won't be making any effort to throw tango moves into my MJ, as that will just confuse me. It was the same for me when I learnt lindy; it was probably about a year in before I started to mix it up. Now, I love throwing in the occasional lindy turn/whip and even doing a bit of charleston.

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    Lovely Moderator ducasi's Avatar
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    Re: MJers learning Tango ... Saints or Sinners?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gus View Post
    Rebuttals anyone?
    Live and let live – what harm are they doing to you?
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

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    Re: MJers learning Tango ... Saints or Sinners?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gus
    I truly want to have a taser for the next freetsyle and use it without mercy on anyone who starts doing Tango moves to a hard club track. Have they no shame? Tango is a beautiful thing in the hands of an expert who uses it in the right environment.
    That's me tasered then - though, to be fair, I can't remember incorporating AT into my interpretation of any "hard club" tracks (you'll probably find me sitting down at that point): I'll represent the devil in my turn.

    [ODA Mode]Why should I limit my use of AT to milongas or to slow, soulful tracks? If the mood takes me, the music suggests it to me and my partner is capable of following why shouldn't I use the AT part of my dance vocabulary to interpret the music? AT music ranges from slow, passionate, intensity through medium tempo, light-hearted flirtation to insane, fast, jokey milonga. It's perfectly possible to use it to express a similarly diverse range of modern music. "Poison" by Alice Cooper is perfect, "Purple Rain" is fab, "Love Potion Number 9" is unusual and funny; dancing milonga to "Zoot Suit Riot" is a riot and confuses passing Lindy dancers (particularly if you chuck in a few Charleston kicks).

    Rosalie has a delightful free leg (actually, all of her is delightful) and enjoys following ochos even though she can't do much else in the way of AT. When I dance with her I'll use fast, slow, funky or smooth ochos for our pleasure. I dance for me and my partner rather than anyone who might be watching; if you don't like it then avert your eyes.[/ODA Mode]

    Why desecrate such beauty by trying to teach MJers the 'basics' and letting them loose on the MJ social dance floor. Such sins can surely not go unpunished!
    The irrational AT Evangelist in me welcomes you to the fold! However, I fear that sanity must prevail. You can see people desecrating AT at most milongas - they believe that youtube holds all the secrets they need and perform ganchos, boleos, volcadas etc. with determined abandon without respect for the music or, a truly cardinal sin, the dancers around them. Why should we object if MJ dancers do the same, assuming they cause no inconvenience? I agree that a badly executed AT move looks completely pants but if you look at the faces of those doing them they're probably having fun. If they're already learning Jango or AT then good luck to them - let them practice and get a feel for how they can mix things up. If they're not then maybe, just maybe, they'll decide they'd like to learn to use AT style movements more competently and sign up for Jango or AT lessons.

    Whatever context they are dancing in, I just wish people would heed La Planchadora's advice - dancing AT socially, in any context, does not, I repeat NOT, involve visible underpants!

    Quote Originally Posted by Spin dryer
    I've been on the tango journey since March. It's extremely difficult but profoundly, life changingly rewarding.
    Last edited by JonD; 27th-June-2007 at 12:36 AM.

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    Re: MJers learning Tango ... Saints or Sinners?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gus View Post
    What I'm referring to is a current trend for MJers to use indivdual Tango dance moves and try to apply them directly into MJ.

    [ODA Mode ON]
    - snip -
    I truly want to have a taser for the next freetsyle and use it without mercy on anyone who starts doing Tango moves to a hard club track. [ODA Mode OFF]


    Rebuttals anyone?
    I've been learning (or trying to learn) Jango for years now, so I struggle to differentiate the Jango and the MJ in my dancing. I can't say I've seen any trend of MJers to use tango moves in jive, and I'm struggling to imagine what moves could be sensibly "thrown in" without the principles taught in Jango, but I'll take your word for it.

    So if this is happening, what's the problem? If it's a case of injuries being caused, or no consideration for other floor users, fair enough, but your objection seems to be purely one of style.

    And since when have we objected to what MJers do that lacks style?

    If I'm trying to demonstrate or perfect a particular move with a partner, I may well do that paying little heed to musicality. I might hope no one was watching, but I'm not going to object if I see others doing the same.

    Greg

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