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Dear Milongueando Friends,
Milongueando in Buenos Aires: 8-14 August 2011
In a recent article, Susana Miller cites one of the essential reasons for a festival such as Milongueando: the importance of learning tango in contact with veteran milongueros, an opportunity that is gradually being lost as members of the older generation are leaving us. This is why Milongueando is so important for those who want to learn this style. Says Susana:
"Argentines learn the subtleties of the tango in the milonga, dancing with older milonguero(a)s, observing them and learning from them. It is an inheritance transmitted from one generation to the other.
Without veteran dancers, there is no community, there are just beginners dancing in a wheel that’s spinning and going nowhere. The most mature dancers are a spearhead; they stimulate us and serve as an example to those who are beginning. In other countries, this possibility of spontaneous transmission doesn’t exist; it has to be generated “in vitro.” If tango communities grow it’s because they have a maestro to teach them the fundamental elements of music and of floor space related to social dance. These dancers then become experienced in their own right, which is what every community needs. Because most dancers want to dance in the milonga and for this they need to study the entrails of this dance and not just be satisfied with its outward appearance.
Traditionally the milonga was a party to which everyone was invited. It was not a place to remain seated and watch a movie you weren’t in. Nor was it a place to fight for a space that is not negotiable or to leave with scratches and bruises. The milonga is a party for everybody; it needs a space that no one has the right to challenge, not even for artistic ends."
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