Fashions and styles in tango
TangoBETTER questions: What kind of tango is the right tango to learn and to dance? ___________
Take a look at this video. It's ballet, perhaps the most rigid dance, interpreting a modern song, reinventing itself with new kinds of moves. The Royal Ballet is very classical, very strict and they are the stronghold of the conservative dancing. And yet, they produce these things.
Tango has fashions. We change dance clothes (make no mistake, beautiful flowing and wide silky skirts are a no-go these days!)
Tango also has fashions in styles. From nuevo we moved to milonguero, to switch to salon not too long ago. Now, dancing in open, experimental way to new or different music is almost a crime. You regularly hear people say they don't like some couple because they don't like their style. You also hear people complain about specific exercises in some classes, because these exercises involved breaking an embrace, for example.
It is absolutely GREAT to have preferences! But is it beneficial to reject everything else?
We suggest, let yourself out of the locks of one particular style, experiment with different moves, walks, embraces, musicalities, even fuse different dances into your tango. Don't be imprisoned by what is fashionable today! Fashions change. It may not become the way you NORMALLY dance, but it may open up doors to new joys and deeper connection with yourself and other people.
So when you see something different, something unusual, or are asked to work on elements you don't like in classes, we suggest: do it, become great masters at it, put it away if it's still not your thing. But the versatility will remain, and that's beautiful. You never know when you might need it. We are sure the king of tango, Sebastian Arce, didn't say no to studying something different, so now he can do anything, in any style ;)
Olga Metzner
