So, I interrupted the series of posts from my trip to Buenos Aires to work for a solid week on a video-illustrated explanation of what Argentine Tango is, for people who've only seen it on Strictly Come Dancing.
I have no problem with Strictly Come Dancing or its children like Dancing With the Stars or Ballando con le stelle and so on. But they have limitations, and we can't really complain if they give people a wrong picture of tango. If people are curious, it's up to us to take that opportunity, and if they're not curious, that's their affair.
I've made it a page, instead of a post, for ease of reference. This is a bit of an experiment. It's linked in the menu at the top ^^, or you can click here, and come back to the blog by clicking Home.
I had to cut out loads of stuff to make it not too overwhelming. I hope I didn't edit out too many of the good bits. Perhaps people will ask questions and I can blog them. It's still quite long, and has some lovely videos. I really hope it will help both people who want to know what tango is, and people who want to explain it to them. Please feel free to send the link around.
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
Argentine Tango for TV Viewers
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2 comments:
I think it's pretty clear in Strictly. They often show the "social" version of the dances on the show, for instance salsa clubs and tea dances. If people don't get the difference, well, they're not watching very hard.
A lot of the more imaginative viewers are indeed going to realise that. I was one example when I used to watch it - and in those days they didn't even contemplate the existence of social dance, let alone show any. But I think this is worth doing just the same, and a missed opportunity if left un-done. In particular I think it's worth countering the impression that social dance is somehow an inferior "just-for-fun" offshoot version of performance dance rather than a quite different thing with a quite different point. (Or, if anything, the other way around).
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