TangoMan

In the tango-term discussion we have up to now touched upon two different aspects of the dance: 'firuletes' and 'cortes'. You could say that they are opposites.

If we see tango in principle as a way of moving, changing your weight from one foot to the other in a rhythmic way (caminar?), then 'firuletes' [1] are extra movements that do not interfere with this principle movement. They add something extra to the 'principle move'. 'Cortes' on the other hand are those elements where the movement is stopped for a moment. So a 'corte' takes something away from the 'principle move'.

First to the firuletes [2]. Caran and Steve explained already that 'lapiz' is a sort of firulete, where a leg is metaphorically seen as a pencil, drawing on the floor. This is the general meaning, and in this sense 'dibujo' and 'traze' [3] are a kind of 'lapiz'. But 'lapiz' has very often got a more delimited meaning, just as Steve explained the movement: as a men's circular leg-movement in giro [4]. If we discriminate between those two we can start to bring some structure in the ever longer list of Tango Terminology (see below). Another firulete is the patada: the kick, that became famous as a kick from the man between the legs of the woman while she is doing giro or ochos. In choreographies women are seen doing kicks between the legs of the men too (This sometimes happens in improvisation, but I have to say that I know only one woman who did it regularly).

                            __firulete__
                           /     |      \
      lapiz (general meaning)   patada   other...[5]
      /        |       \
  dibujo    traze    lapiz (delimited meaning)

Now to cortes. The word 'corte' comes from the verb 'cortar': to cut. It possibly refers to a cut in the principle movement [6]. It is one of the central pecularities of Argentine Tango: the constant movement can be broken, which makes it possible to make real 'dance phrases'. You could say that cortes are the punctuation of the dance. In one interpretation of the term 'salida' [7], you could say that after each 'corte' there follows a 'salida'. After the movement has stopped, you have to start again. A 'parada' as explained by Ernst is a corte [8]. Mordida (and reverse mordida) are elaborations of a parada. I would rate the 'resolution natural' also as a corte, although some might disagree. The 'resolution natural' is the '678' (for those who count). It is the ending of the eight count basic [9], leading to a stand-still. Another corte is the 'quebrada': a position where the woman stands on one foot, the other one hanging relaxed behind the standing foot, often seen with the woman hanging with all her weight against the man [11].

              ____________ corte ___________
             /         /            \       \
       parada  resolution natural  quebrada  other...[10]
           |
  (reverse) mordida

bye
michael cysouw
nijmegen, holland

Notes:

Larry de Los Angeles

Ernst Buchberger

TangoMan
(original info by Jose Movelo)

pressure against the follower's back keeping him/her from continuing to move,
pressure on his/her balance hand opposite to the push on hi/r back,
downward pressure on both points.

This has to be timed just right (a little over hir reaction time to events, plus a fudge factor dependent on how familiar (or not) s/he is with paradas). But done properly, a good follower with no exposure to paradas will respond as the leader intends.

Larry de California Sur

TangoMan

Alberto proposed that:
The word originates with the way men invite women to dance. "Salimos a bailar?" for example uses a variacion of the verb SALIR and he is saying "shall we dance"?
[...]
So, in Tango terms, SALIDA means the beginning of the dance and I would equate it with the expression "SHALL WE..?"

I don't agree with Alberto here. IMO the word 'Salida' came into tango through a completely normal metaphorical use of the word. Let's first look at the meaning of 'salir' some more. It is always very hard to describe the meaning of a word in abstract terms, but for this case I would like to define the basic idea of the verb 'salir' as "leaving the present location and start doing something". The meaning includes:
- the transition from a state into an action
- the state takes place 'here', the action 'there'
- a connotation of 'pleasure' in some uses (e.g. salir a comer)

So 'salir a bailar' means simply 'to go out to dance':leave the house to go to a milonga (from sitting here go there to do something). This meaning then is metaphorically used for every dance: from standing still you start moving, you 'go out on the dance floor'. (In fact I find the word 'entrance' not the best translation, Ernst, because 'to enter' is an action resulting in a state: 'going in' results in 'being inside'. IMO words like 'beginning' or 'start' are much better.)

I do completely agree with the tango-meaning of 'salida' given by Alberto:
SALIDA means the beginning of the dance

Note: in fact there is only *one* salida in each particular-3-minute-tango. Only the way you start moving at the beginning of the dance is a salida. But I think at the moment there is a new process ongoing where this meaning is again used metaphorically for something different. Instead of naming the start of a *dance* a salida, the start of a *figure* is more and more called a salida: every way to start moving anew after a 'resolucion natural' (another term for the list!).

bye
michael cysouw

For ten years, the proliferation of teachers and schools have been modifying the way to dance tango. Although the change is evident, it has heterogeneous forms. As a result of that, there is a new paradigm: today, anyone can dance.

The static postcard of the milongas today, with its colorful mixture of "hip youngsters" and "old time historical habitués" united in the "ritual" of the dance, is not more than that: a flat image that rarely reveals something more than a repertoire of archetypes. Behind that frozen scene, nevertheless, an unsuspected and burning world exists where the old can be new, the novelty can be obsolete, a simple thing can be difficult, and the excessive is insufficient. And in that, on the other hand, all these values are in permanent change.

Ten years ago, and in a symptomatic coincidence with the world-wide triumph of the musical review Tango Argentino, the social dance of tango began to rise from the ashes in which it had been almost buried for decades.

It is known that throughout these last ten years, the panorama was modified completely. Today, hundreds of instructors shape thousands of dancers who attend tens of milongas. In order to have an idea, it is enough to take a look at anyone of the specialized publications (Tangauta, B.A. Tango), or to consider that at a single school (Estrella-LaViruta) there is an enrollment of 600 students.

But beyond the numbers factor, the phenomenon of the contemporary milongas marks a historical change in another sense: a new change of direction in the continuous transformation of the styles of dance throughout the century.

What is being favored today on the dance floor? If it is what can be observed with more frequency, one would say that three tendencies are disputing for supremacy: the Urquiza style, the Almagro style and the Naveira style, as the fans know them, - implying a neighborhood, a club and a teacher.

They are not difficult to distinguish. Make yourself comfortable on a stool by the bar and you will see them move over the waxed surface: a couple that advances with long steps, touching the floor as if they are wearing gloves on their feet (Urquiza), is followed by other couple closely embraced and whose short steps adjust synchronously to the beat (Almagro), and behind, a third couple that unfolds all the imaginable variety of figures which the previous couples can do without (Naveira). Adding to that, there will be another couple schooled in the style of Antonio Todaro and belonging to an elite with technical formation, that alternates between the social dancing at the milongas and the professional stage performances.

The fans are simultaneously protagonists and judges of the prevailing tendencies. In some halls, one or another one dominates. But on several "pistas" the practitioners of different styles mix with each other, they watch each other out, they appraise each other, they admire themselves or they condemn the others. The commentaries can be listened to between the tables, but they can be tracked all the way down to the Internet (currently a Tangolist site burns with opinions like: " So and so's dancing, looks like a cowboy with hemorrhoids ").
Miguel Angel Zotto and Milena Plebs led the first changes at the beginning of the 90's. When they reconstructed in their spectacle Tango x 2 elements of style of the popular dance, they revealed to inadvertent eyes of the public, the wealth of the world of the milonga. Then, the halls, and the classes of Antonio Todaro, bricklayer and milonguero, with whom Zotto and Plebs had made their meticulous work of stylistic archaeology, began to fill with new customers.

A little later, Susana Miller began her classes at the traditional Club Almagro. Miller (of academic extraction) associated with Cacho Dante (a veteran aficionado) begun from her classes the propagation of which usually is known as the Almagro style - very similar to the typical style of the downtown night clubs of the 40's. Its less demanding requirements gave access even to those who were less fitted naturally, technically or sensitively. And it quickly put on the dance floor an enormous amount of new fans, generating a true leveling off of the dance.

Right now, the influence that registers greater growth is, perhaps, the one of dancer and teacher Gustavo Naveira. The faithful followers of his method of combination of steps and figures consider it "the acme of creative improvisation ". The detractors, who detest the way in which the Naveira dancers move around the floor looking for space for their movements, define them as "the patrol cars of the dance floor."

Naveira himself affirms: "a single person cannot be determining in the evolution of the dance. That's been happening from the beginning of the tango, and without stop, always because of a conjunction of factors. Now, what is arising is a system of improvisation of an even greater variety of combinations. And these changes are also transferred to the marking techniques to lead the woman".

However, for disc jockey Horacio Godoy the future is in Villa Urquiza. Teachers Vilma Heredia and Gabriel Angió also agree that many young people are focusing their attention to the floor of the old Sunderland Club of Villa Urquiza, where they still can watch the habitués of half century ago. "Urquiza is what it's coming," prophesies Godoy. "There is a group of kids that realized that the maximum wealth is there. I am not talking about figures, it's about the musicality and the quality of the movement. It's about a wealth of knowledge so subtle and complex that for the ordinary eye is imperceptible. "

The trends, in any case, hardly draw up general lines: common characteristics, airs of familiarity. As it has always happened with tango, there are so many ways to dance as there are dancers (it is what highly distinguishes it from almost all other forms of popular social dance). And in the same way, there will be so many opinions on the question as the number of people on the dance floor.

By Irene Amuchastegui and Laura Falcoff
Clarin Newspaper
Sunday, August 8, 1999