Tango Nuevo

3. What’s So New about Tango Nuevo?

3 What’s So New about Tango Nuevo? To talk of authenticity has invariably involved referring to tradition as an element of closure and conservation, as though peoples and cultures existed outside the languages of time. It is to capture them with the anthropological gaze, where they are kept in isolation and at “critical distance” as though they do not experience movement, transformation. Iain Chambers, Migrancy, Culture, Identity (1994) Deἀning Nuevo Now when I s ee neotango, I do n’t really agree with it. A lo t of technique, acrobatics . . . but where is the feeling? (τ) Juan Carlos Copes, Argentine, tango professional Nuevo means to me that I’m on my own axis, and nothing more really. Ginger, American expat, chef Tango nuevo is the theoretical understanding. Style is a diĀerent thing. I don’t think tango nuevo is a style. Sarah Bonnar, Australia, tango professional I think that tango nuevo is something commercial—it’s marketing. And it’s a title that originated abroad. (τ) Karina Colmeiro, Argentine, tango professional So-called changes of direction, an open embrace with a shared axis, a diĀerent connection between the couple and more flexibility in combining the steps of traditional tango, together create a dance that both looks and feels diĀerent. (τ) Patricia Lamberti, Argentine, tango professional and former co-director of Academia de Estilos de Tango Argentino If you look at the history of tango, new things appear all the time . . . a new way of dancing, the frame of the embrace, how you hold the woman—so many new things, and they were always trends. (τ) Rodolfo Dinzel, Argentine, tango professional Merritt book.indb 49 8/23/12 11:23 AM 50 · Tango Nuevo Now after Naveira, we have a language, a vocabulary, and that was a revolution for the dance. . . . It was about research in the probability of tango as a dance. (ε) Federico, Argentine, tango professional For me, tango nuevo is a label for selling something. . . . It suggests that what is old isn’t good, because we’re always looking for something new. And, really, in my opinion, the term says nothing. . . . It’s as if tango nuevo doesn’t even exist. (τ) Dana Frígoli, Argentine, tango professional and co-director, DNI Tango School It’s more open, more fluid and more . . . aerobic. You need to have a lot of energy; it’s a younger person’s tango, that’s constantly developing. Nancy, American expat, actress I only know that people associate an open embrace dance with it. I never use the term nuevo tango because I think there’s a kind of misunderstanding. . . . Maybe for me it would mean by flexibilizing the embrace, you open up more possibilities in terms of moves, nothing more. (ε) Matthias Kroug, German expat, scientist There are lots of jumps, lots of gymnastics in tango nuevo—los chicos [the kids] are lucky to be young and they dance a tango with lots of jumps. (τ) Roberto Dentone (Argentine), milonguero / tango professional It’s kind of what’s evolved from the dance. . . . In its application I think it’s lost an essential quality that is tango. Naomi, American, tango professional No one called what he [Naveira] was doing “new tango” at that time and I imagine he wouldn’t call it that, either. To me, he developed new codes and a new structure to an already-existing vocabulary. It was kind of revolutionary in a way, and then gradually, people took oĀ with it. Brooke Burdett, American expat, tango professional I think the act of naming it had more to do with the appearance of electronic tango orchestras. They haven’t been around that long yet. As far as what it refers to in the dance, it’s not very new at all. (τ) Olga Besio, Argentine, tango professional It’s a catch phrase. It’s an easy way to describe an evolutionary process. . . . The minute you label it, it ossifies it in a sense—it freezes it in time. And already we’re out of whatever nuevo tango is, we’re into something else. Michele Kadison, American expat, choreographer and writer Merritt book.indb 50 8/23/12 11:23 AM What’s So New about Tango Nuevo? · 51 I think the big diĀerence between tango nuevo and whatever you want to call the other tango is that it’s really not improvised and there’s no connection to the music. . . . They’ll...