Monday, January 20, 2014

There is no disputing about tastes

Hugs and friends and gentle music... One could very easily believe that writing about tango is idyllic project. Its not! It can be very stressful and very dangerous activity, and tango bloggers and activists should be honored and protected for what they do. How come? Well, as I told you in my post about "Tango and chaos", people react and comment publicly and more often behind the back, and you should have very very big balls to tell people the truth in their face. Sometimes this, having big balls, could be named being stupid, but, some of us have this superpower called stupidity, like it or not.

I am speaking now about how dangerous is to comment about what people prefer in tango, about tastes and about styles. I tough that those Latin people when they said "De gustibus non est disputandum" (In matters of taste, there can be no disputes) were very wrong. For what should we dispute if not for the tastes? Hm, maybe I was wrong. Let me in the following sentences explain why.

See, the taste could be defined as a pattern on which we chose things in life, normaly when we have more options to chose from. Being so, the taste defines the core of what our personality is. Denying or criticizing the taste is perceived as attack on ones personality and it is in most cases very bitterly defended. Being criticizer and attacking someone's taste can get you in a lots of troubles.

Maybe this is the reason why people have the impression that there is a lot of ego involved in the tango world; maybe its because in tango most of the things are connected with subjectivity and the taste; with choices and personality.

But, fortunately there are some objective criteria by which we can judge and we can use them to make difference. The taste is pattern of choosing in the case when we have options - but there are situations where we don't have options to chose from. This means, we must do it, because otherwise it will not work.

Let me not speak abstract - let me use example - lets say this: man in tango must not close his eyes, not because I don't like it, not because it is my taste, but for very practical reason: because if he does that, he will bump in to the wall or with the other dancers on the flor.

It is that simple. But it will get more complicated... and more dangerous also.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Bringing order, or the story of my first tango manual "Tango and chaos"

Writing a website containing the word "chaos" in the title is probably writing about order. Considering something chaos or chaotic is having perspective of someone who demands order. So... what the site "Tango and chaos" is about? It is about bringing order. At least for me.

When I began to learn to dance, I could hardly find someone eloquent enough to call him my teacher. The very few experienced dancers here in Skopje were not willing enough, nor capable to teach me to dance (ofcourse they helped me the way they knew and I am thankfull). From this perspective, I am very happy that they were not: I found myself in a situation to teach myself, I went just to a few workshops and private classes with guests teachers, and after that I set my self on a crusade on internet: found loads of websites and watched tons of videos.

And yeah... I discovered "Tango and chaos". It brought order to my mind tortured with a lots of, sometimes totaly oposite, aproaches. After reading just a few pages, I knew I found what I wanted to find - the site guided me and I finaly understood why it was chaos in my head. Noone teaches the begginiers those things which you can find there, but they are the basic on what one should build - not watching videos of Chicho and Arce, not learning steps from Osvaldo Zotto and Mora Godoy...

This is why you can find "Tango and chaos" in the links on my sidebar. If tango means something for you, for God sake, pls read it. It will make things clearer for you.

The word "chaos" in the title is not about tango, perhaps - but it fits very good in the story I told here in this post.

The site author is an American guy - Rick McGarrey married to Argentinian Alejandra Todaro. Watch them dancing in Lo de Celia in Buenos Aires (Rick is bald tall guy with glasses). Notice: pls read the comments under the video - it is a very interesting topic for some of my next posts: how dangerous is to write openly and honestly about tango and why?

Hello world!

Oh, what a joy! I always feel great and enthusiastic whenever I have fresh start with something. The same was with tango. As the most of the beginners, when I started to learn to dance I had no idea what am I involving myself in to. I have no idea with this blog also.

Let me be honest: I love blogging and I love writing. Back in the 2005, when I opened my first blog, I was one of the few bloggers here in Macedonia. Together we felt we are making some kind of history. As long as writing is concerned, I have on my shoulders years and years of work as a journalist and editor of national daily newspapers. If I go back further, I loved to write poetry and reviews for poetry books for the student newspapers. I wrote for portals, worked as PR... And this makes me relaxed - I think I know how to do this and I can sit back and finally tell to the world all that I wanted to tell about tango for a long time.

Ah, I almost forgot... Only problem could be the fact that I never used to write in English. But I'll get use to it, and you will get use to my fifth-grade-pupil-english-level writing :) I hope I'll improve in time.

Before you begin to read this and follow this blog, I would warmly recommend to read the "Start here" or "About" page, where you can find some useful things that will give you proper introduction to what you are about to read. Enjoy!

I remember in the old days, when we used to open new blogs... the first ready-made post was named "Hello world"... well - Hello!