Thursday, July 24, 2008

On the subject of nuevo tango :: a more intellectual connection?

Some guy on Tango-L today said that nuevo tango (note my passive aggressive use of lower case) involves a "more intellectual connection".

He didn't outright say "a more intellectual connection than traditional Tango", but I will take it as imnplied. A veiled insult against my intellect. Well, the intellect of us all.

I think I know what he was trying to say, that somehow nuevo requires/involves more thinking/real time analytical processes during the dance.

And that, my friends, is the difference between the two forms. The perfection of the perfect connection comes when there is no conscious thought. It comes when two people are absolutely there, in the moment, with the music and each other and nothing else.

It's sad that so many people will never experience this.

So don't get me wrong, although I am most definitely an AT purist, I am still in a "live and let live", "no judgement", "it's all good" tolerance mindset with regard to nuevo, but I'm with my new friends Jorge* & Mrs. Red Dress when they say (my paraphrasing) "it ain't Argentine Tango..."

7 comments:

miss tango said...

Is this why Nuevo men are always looking at the floor? "Me thinks my foot goes here?!"

David said...

Yes, a good definition for the different between Nuevo and Trditional.

Nuevo: brain switched on.
Traditional: brain switched off.

Anonymous said...

Sorry I'm going to be pedantic and nitpick the phrase "more intellectual connection". An intellectual connection is what those critics share as they sit on the panel of arts shows waffling on about the inner meaning of Woody Allen films. The only true intellectual connection one can have is with the sound of ones own voice. Had he used the phrase "cerebral connection" I might not have been inspired to be so pedantic.

Evie Abat said...

Hmmm...more real time analysis with the nuevo. It does seem to be more analytical, less emotional for me. It's all fun, though, a completely different way to move my body, which is always welcomed. I NEED to free myself from the embrace every now and then. For me, though, the emotional connection is what makes tango The Tango. I don't feel as emotionally connected when dancing NT.

AlexTangoFuego said...

Nuevo :: intellectual connection requiring higher brain function...synapses firing...thinking...mind/body...

Trad :: spiritual connection requiring higher energetic function...higher vibrational plane...an absence of conscious thought...synapses involuntary..."being"..."knowing" versus knowledge...soul/body...

msHedgehog said...

It would make some some sense to me if what he meant is that nuevo stuff is what you get if you take tango, and think through the possibilities of what you can do with the technique in a systematic way, experimenting and extending. It would also make sense if he just meant it was often a less physically intimate connection. But I wouldn't assume that either of those things was what the writer had in mind.

Anonymous said...

No we're not getting it here - Nuevo doesn't require thinking - far from it.it requires greater disconnection from the physical but also much more training which is why it is danced here in BA by the young. The training at DNI where I take class is similar to being in ballet school - only once your body is trained into auto pilot situation can you move into emotional connection and intellectual disconnection