After eleven years living, dancing, teaching tango, and writing in Buenos Aires, I came home to L.A. in 2014, where I'm reconstructing my life.

Friday, September 03, 2010

El Campeonato Mundial

Okay, it's all over except for the PR, photos, and marketing.
If you were interested, you've already seen all the blog reports, the videos, news of the Finals and who won them. I'm not going to be redundant here.

I have only this question:  do you really think that an 18 year old couple who've been dancing tango for two years can be the very best tango salon dancers in the world? IN THE WORLD?

I would love to know your opinion. Please leave me a comment. If only to orient tangocherie in the real world.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure, it's just as likely as an 18-year-old person who has been writing for two years comes out with the best novel of the year.

Bill said...

Hi Cherie,
Do I think these are the very best tango salon dancers in the world...no (It wouldn't be much of competition if the best salon dancers danced every year and won every year)...do I think that these are a couple of young, and mostly undiscovered dancers that need and deserve the exposure that this will generate for them...yes.
I am morally opposed to competition in tango for the most part because it is directed at the judges rather than danced for ones partner...very similar to Tango Fantasia...It just misses the point.

tangocherie said...

Bill, I agree with you about competitions being basically unfair.

And Don, you are so right!

I just wonder if those 18 year olds are "undiscovered geniuses" who dance, feel, connect and express more than their competitors, and if not, if there are other "undiscovered genuises"in the competition who we will never know about.

Tango is not salsa or rock 'n roll. It's a dance that generally needs time to resonate and assimilate. If this couple danced truly the best out of more than 400 couples, they are indeed prodigious geniuses. And I congratulate them, well I congratulate them anyway.

Elizabeth Brinton said...

Hi Cherie,
I don't think you can see much about tango from the outside. They are beautiful and (from the looks) soulful dancers. Sometimes a young person can have an old soul, but we will never know how their tango "feels" and after all this time, we learn, tango is a feeling.
But anyway, it can't really hurt. I know so many people who got all excited and into tango through the Forever Tango, or from a movie. But later they "get" it. So maybe it is good for tango, to keep the public interest.
Good, bad, best...those terms fall away when one is in the moment of course.

tangocherie said...

Elizabeth, you are absolutely correct!
No matter who wins, the contest brings attention to the tango,
and to Buenos Aires as a Mecca for tango--both very good things.

Mario said...

Well, I've heard that it all depends on who your 'teachers' are and who the 'judges' are but I see it as just another way to destroy the intimacy and special grace and individuality of the social dance.
I'm not that hip to the world of dance but isn't this a ballroom thingy where they have 'competitions' and levels of 'expertise' and where they all dance alike?...ugh

justlili said...

That C5N broadcast, for the first time, the entire Tango Stage and Salon Finals is a very good thing. Tango, like football afterall belongs to the people. Before that I had never been much interested in these competitions for a variety of reasons. HOWEVER, I was truly entertained by the production, preparation, expense and organization it took to put up such a wonderful spectacle - and yes - once I looked at it as such - a Tango performace that draws world attention and provides free entertainment to thousands of people in Buenos Aires, bringing Tango to the forefront of cultural activities, with such elegance and refinement, remembering and honoring past - and present- icons both in dance, music and song, all in an annual festival, then I see the entire effort as one big Tango show and say "chapeau". Who wins and who doesn't seems almost irrelevant in the big picture. What the City of Buenos Aires succeeded in doing was making Tango the protagonist. So with reference to your question about an 18 year old's capacity (whose partner is 28 by the way) to be World Champion, I would ask... of the entire group was there anyone dancing better? Didn't they all dance the same way anyway? Just enjoy the show, Cherie.

tangocherie said...

Oh I do, Justlili, I do!