BA Cast's Fernando y Daniel are back with their fun podcasts, and this time it's the first of a three part bilingual documentary on the tango: The Laws of Tango: Dance.
Soon to follow are Music, and then Lyrics & Philosophy.
Ruben and I, Cyrena and Lizzy, as well as Brit Tango Bob were interviewed in their studio, and they even went to Los Consagrados to talk to various "milonga characters."
I hope you will tune in to this informative and sometimes wacky podcast in Spanglish. And while you're on the site, sample some of their previous shows. You'll learn something and get a chuckle as well.
Ruben and I, Cyrena and Lizzy, as well as Brit Tango Bob were interviewed in their studio, and they even went to Los Consagrados to talk to various "milonga characters."
I hope you will tune in to this informative and sometimes wacky podcast in Spanglish. And while you're on the site, sample some of their previous shows. You'll learn something and get a chuckle as well.
9 comments:
What do they mean by "The Laws of Tango", I wonder...
You're joking about the world-famous and mysterious "codigos," right?
Cheries, only the first third of this documentary is about dancing. The others are "The Laws of Tango Part 2: Music" and "The Laws of Tango Part 3: Lyrics/Philosophy" and those are well outside the scope of the milonga codes.
Having said which, I won't be surprised to hear those two American tango tour operators tell us otherwise. The presenter did say his programmes are intended to make us laugh! :)
Well I guess we'll have to wait and see. But I can think of a few codes regarding the music and the lyrics, but I'm no expert.
Codes, maybe. Laws not.
I have to say I think this documentary's talk of Laws, Contracts etc. tells us more about the projection of North American culture that about tango. I don't hear Argentines talking in such terms.
Cherie, who's the North American lady talking about "Spanish-speaking dance forms" at 55min?
Chris, sorry, I don't know who that is--generally the guys are good about giving first names of the speakers.
And as far as Argentines talking about the codes, Ruben has referred to the "codigos de milongueros" which is more like "honor among men."
Perhaps the locals don't talk about the codigos, but in traditional milongas they all observe them. It's the foreigners (not just Norte Americanos) who find them so new and surprising, and thus, talk about them a lot. I remember once a European man at our table almost fell off his chair when a man asked Ruben's permission to dance with me.
"Chris, sorry, I don't know who that is"
OK, thanks Cherie.
"Perhaps the locals don't talk about the codigos..."
Sorry I was unclear. I didn't mean to suggest the locals dont't talk about codigos. Just that they don't talk of them as Laws, Contracts etc. "Honour amongst men" sounds much more more like it.
I can well see how your European was surprised. Here in Europe, many would see aksing a girl's guy for permission as implying she was his chattel. In BA that might be respectful of the guy - here it would be disrespectful of the girl.
So that takes us back to the codigos: if a girl wants to be independent and in control of her own dancing destiny, then she sits with the women, not at the side of her man. In the milongas, just like in all tango, body language and physical movements speak louder than any words.
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