Oh my god! I was just watching the daily Strictly show, and the presenter said 'Flavia and Vincent completely revolutionised Argentine Tango, and made it something amazing." Where do they get this information? Flavia and Vincent are a ballroom/latin couple, who learnt some 'Argentine' tango as a sideline and won some show competitions with it. If I understand correctly, they're not social dancers, and they're not involved in the real tango scene at all. They're beautiful dancers in their style - really gorgeous - but not tango dancers in the sense that we understand it.
I find it so frustrating that people hear and see this stuff and think it's real; that most people never get to see the real maestros, and think that 'Argentine' tango involves slit skirts and hard faces (don't get me started on the section on tango in the lonely planet guide). Now, this is a frustration that I've mostly learnt to live with, but to hear someone say, on the BBC's prime-time show about dancing, that these guys revolutionised tango, I just find insulting to the real maestros.
For the curious, below is a clip from the last series. The comments are depressing - most people saying that V&F are clearly the best (because after all they're 'world champions') and that the other couples are rubbish - but interesting, because the other dancers actually are on the tango circuit. Well, I don't know about the girl called Anabella, I haven't heard of her, but the other three certainly are. They all teach, they all dance all night at the milonga. But what's really odd is that they are not dancing here the way they normally do - not even a little bit. I can only assume that they've been given either some choreography or some really restrictive style notes. Or perhaps it's the fact that they seem to have turned the music into some bizarre kind of paso doble.
Ach. I don't mean to be disrespectful to anyone - V&F really are gorgeous dancers, in the ballroom and latin style. But I wish they, and the Strictly producers, would acknowledge the real tango maestros, and the real tango not-maestros-but-still-dancers. Even the tiniest bit of research would reveal that there is a world behind these 'moves' that V&F have borrowed, and that being 'World Argentine Tango Show Champions' has very little to do with that world.
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10 comments:
I know, I know. My own father has finally stopped asking me if I dance with a rose in my teeth. But I'm assuming that the majority of people who watch these shows are the ones who go to the gross touristy tango shows in BA, and never want to learn to dance anyway. I've had people tell me that tango is just another "fad".
But perhaps another way to look at it: maybe we want "our" tango kept a little in the dark...just special for us. Like a special lovely secret.
That was painful to watch.
That "helicopter" move at the start of the dance could be useful for clearing a little space on the dance floor...
Ah, David, that made me laugh - thank you!
Tangobaby - yes, my colleagues always mention the rose in the teeth, every time they ask me about tango. I try not to growl at them, because they find it funny, and therefore just wind me up all the more.
Painful to watch indeed. And the horrible music! Ouch.
Though, unlike Vincent and Flavia, the other two couples do look like they dance the Argentine tango (just not quite there and then). I have danced with Pablo at a milonga and he´s a very nice dancer.
Oh well.. The lonely planet tango section drives me crazy, too; especially when it incites innocent travellers without any knowledge or experience of tango to hit the city´s milongas and ´dance until dawn´. Let´s just hope people don´t take that stuff seriously.
Painful to watch indeed. And the horrible music! Ouch.
Though, unlike Vincent and Flavia, the other two couples do look like they dance the Argentine tango (just not quite there and then). I have danced with Pablo at a milonga and he´s a very nice dancer.
Oh well.. The lonely planet tango section drives me crazy, too; especially when it incites innocent travellers without any knowledge or experience of tango to hit the city´s milongas and ´dance until dawn´. Let´s just hope people don´t take that stuff seriously.
Hi there:
This clip is the ultimate proof that lay people can be cheated about anything if you do something fancy.
1) Flavia and whoever who I never heard of are making a good job to what they are asked to do, which is fancy, circusy, fly in the air tango. If they to any milonga (let alone a BsAs one) they would just sit and sweat about creating some steps without clearing the dance floor with their helicopter moves. 2) The other two couples are marvellous dancers and they have even given workshops in Edinburgh and were part in the show "Tiempo de Tango" commissioned for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004. They were just asked to look serious and stuck-up. If they were just allowed to do whatever they wanted they would shadow the so revolutionary dancers whose names I don't even know.
It's a pity because I have had friends coming to tell me that they have seen TRUE Argentine Tango on the strickly shit show...
A note on the music - pathetic, to say the least!
Madre mia, the music made me gag with terror, V&F's extended arms stabbed my heart, and I wonder how much the other two couples were paid in order to suppress their pride and endure the possibility that the true tango communities/admirers (such as us) maybe wincing or cringing with shame...
Wow, snare drums and castanets!!
This style and level of dancing is a dime-a-dozen in the tango tourist shows here in Buenos Aires.
It has absolutely nothing to do with social tango.
Thanks for the video clip, which gave me my chuckle of the day.
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