What is Contact Milonguero?

Unlike Argentine tango, Contact Milonguero tango is neither visual aesthetic entertainment, touristic “cultural” experience, nor political, therapeutic or liberating practice. Instead, it is auditory and kinaesthetic aesthetic experience, ie., it’s enjoyment of tango music in its best form and of movement with a partner to this music. The consequence of this alternative perspective is that instead of workshop moves, mirrors, cameras, tango shoes/dresses/pants, trips to Buenos Aires, or gender/race studies indoctrination courses, you would do much better to invest your time and money in getting a collection of high quality transfers of Golden Era tango music, an audiophile grade DAC (digital-to-analogue converter), good quality player/amp/speakers, acoustic treatment for your listening or dancing room, and a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement course. I explain all of these concepts in detail in the articles and videos on this website.

The standard group dancing lesson has no purpose other than the lesson itself. It certainly is not intended to teach you how to dance. If it does have a further goal it is to make you better at taking more such lessons until you get bored and move on to something else. Because if people actually learned how to dance they would want to dance, and that is not available.

Contact Milonguero

Contents

• New on ContactMilonguero.tv
• Recent articles
• Instructional videos
  1. Focused Connected Tango Movement: ABCD Method
  2. Buenos Aires Tango Milonguero
  3. Contact milonguero vs. Argentine tango
  4. Learning tango milonguero
  5. Dumb and vacuous people in Argentine tango
• ContactMilonguero.tv
• Book contents
  1. Music
  2. Technique
  3. Teaching
  4. Politics

New on ContactMilonguero.tv

• POLITICS: Jeff Deist: secession is coming – you go your way over there and we’ll go our way over here (August 25, 2021)
• MUSIC: Why some recordings become audiophile classics and others don’t (August 19, 2021)
• SOUND DESIGN: Do you find yourself having to shout at a milonga? Here’s why and how to fix it (July 10,2021)
• SOUND DESIGN: Sound absorption for a dancing space: how much to use, where to put it, thickness & a demo (July 10, 2021)
• SOUND DESIGN: Fast bass: what it is, why you need it, and how to get it (July 9, 2021)

New articles

• What are you looking at? Why musicians rather than dancing teachers should be in charge of milongas (September 20, 2021)
• Kinesphere, spatiotemporal efficiency and aesthetic effect (September 8, 2021)
• Artists vs the milongueros: the spatial organisation of the milonga (September 3, 2021)
• The parasitic relationship of performing artists to social tango (August 31. 2021)
• Giving Epoca de Oro music room to breathe (August 28, 2021)
• Yesterday a bunch of lesbian transphobic Feminazis visited my blog. Apparently I have a very punchable face! (July 20, 2021)
• Cable upgrades, gear tweaks and a mobile milonga experiment with a guitar amp
• Towards a music-focused tango: the audiophile milonga
• My new audiophile rig, why you should consider a Chord DAC, and why you should care about room acoustics
• Why I bought a $1700 Chord DAC: Noise shaping and perception of space in music
• Corrective feedback and experiential aesthetics
• Getting dances: the practice milonga, distance invite and musical chairs
• The one tango philosophy: can tango milonguero and Argentine tango co-exist (and what is it anyway)?
• Why inefficiency and obsolescence is not a bug but a feature of “Argentine Tango” teaching
• The Great 78 Project: listen to ÉdO records as they originally sounded

Instructional Videos

FOCUSED CONNECTED TANGO MOVEMENT: ABCD METHOD

BUENOS AIRES TANGO MILONGUERO

CONTACT MILONGUERO VS. ARGENTINE TANGO

Three approaches to tango teaching and practice: visual, cultural and experiential

The one tango philosophy: can tango milonguero co-exist with Argentine tango (and what is it anyway?)

Why I no longer do Argentine tango

LEARNING TANGO MILONGUERO

Why inefficiency and obsolescence is not a bug but a feature of Argentine tango teaching

The importance of not seeing in learning tango milonguero

Giving weight: the basic concept of tango milonguero

Tango milonguero embrace: cultural plasticity and anatomical universals

Getting dances: the practice milonga, distance invite and musical chairs

The relationship between training and performance

What are the goals of tango milonguero education?

Alternative strategies for tango milonguero education

DUMB AND VACUOUS PEOPLE IN ARGENTINE TANGO

Tango idiocracy: forums, mp3s, consumer democracy, bad education, latino teachers and Marxist women

Fakebook tango and aesthetic truth: a historical journey

Motivation in social dancing: goals, novelty and sexual marketplace dynamics

Why leave Fakebook: leftist aesthetics, cognitive dissonance, emotional capital and evolved practices

ContactMilonguero.tv

• MUSIC: Why some recordings become audiophile classics and others don’t (August 19, 2021)
• SOUND DESIGN: Do you find yourself having to shout at a milonga? Here’s why and how to fix it (July 10, 2021)
• SOUND DESIGN: Sound absorption for a dancing space: how much to use, where to put it, thickness & a demo (July 10, 2021)
• SOUND DESIGN: Fast bass: what it is, why you need it, and how to get it (July 9, 2021)
• SOUND DESIGN: Why you should never dance tango in a dancing studio or similar spaces (hint: mirrors also reflect sound, but not in a good way)
• SOUND DESIGN: The best response to the “can’t hear a difference” crowd I’ve ever heard
• SOUND DESIGN: Why use high resolution 24bit/96kHz or higher audio files rather than CD quality 16bit/44.1kHz or MP3s
• SOUND DESIGN: My new audiophile rig, why you should consider a Chord DAC, and why you should care about room acoustics
• MINDSET: Critical race theory: Why tango is a black dance stolen by whites if black people FEEL that it’s a black dance stolen by whites
• SOUND DESIGN: Why I bought a $1700 Chord DAC: Noise shaping and perception of space in music
• MINDSET: Is this why most people in tango don’t really listen to the music?
• MINDSET: Semiogogue on the procession: a possible explanation of the psychology of moving in the line of dance
• MUSIC: Is this why most people at milongas don’t really listen to the music? (Andrew Kavlan)
• MINDSET: Critical race theory: why tango is a black dance stolen by whites if black people FEEL that it’s a black dance stolen by whites
• MINDSET: Why Postmodernists Don’t Have Souls (Edward Dutton)
• Social media and forums: meeting place for vacuous narcissists and fake friends
• Edward Dutton on why feminism destroys everything
• Why leave Fakebook: Leftist aesthetics, cognitive dissonance, emotional capital and evolved practices
• Welcome to Contact Milonguero: Why I no longer do “Argentine Tango”
• Fakebook tango and aesthetic truth: A historical journey
• Tango idiocracy: tango forums, dynamic range, soul food, consumer democracy, bad education, Latino teachers and Marxist women
• Giving weight: The basic concept of Tango Milonguero
• Motivation in social dancing: goals, novelty and sexual marketplace dynamics
• TECHNIQUE: The importance of not seeing in learning Tango Milonguero (or anything)
• TECHNIQUE: Tango Milonguero embrace: Cultural plasticity and anatomical universals
• TEACHING: Alternative strategies for Tango Milonguero education
• TEACHING: The relationship between training and performance
• TEACHING: What are the goals of Tango Milonguero education?

Back to top

Book Contents

I. Music

History and Theory

1. Tango music in historical context
2. Tracing the origins of tango music to contradanza and habaneira
3. Authenticity: why dance only to Epoca de Oro music
4. Beauty and interpretation: canonical tango recordings
5. Feeling: understanding music as movement and expression

Audio Technology

1. Salon Canning vs the tango organiser (aka Fakebook tango): why there are no good tango DJs
2. The Mp3: an impoverished musical experience
3. The Great 78 Project: listen to ÉdO records as they originally sounded
4. Why I bought a $1700 Chord DAC: noise shaping and perception of space in music
5. My new audiophile rig, why you should consider a Chord DAC, and why you should care about room acoustics
6. Cable upgrades, gear tweaks and a mobile milonga experiment with a guitar amp
7. Towards a music-focused tango: the audiophile milonga
8. Giving Epoca de Oro music room to breathe

II. Technique

Introduction to technique

Foundational practice: Focused Connected Tango Movement

1. The importance of slow focused practice
2. Focused Connected Tango Movement
3. The ABCD Method
4. Video: ABCD Method foundational practice
5. Mental imagery and partnering technique: push-pull vs long spine
6. Video analysis of inefficient and efficient movement in Tango Milonguero

Basic position: posture, alignment & embrace

1. Posture and the head-neck relation
2. Alignment: the bow practice
3. Floating elbows practice
4. Embrace: the essence of tango

Basic movement: walking and turning

1. Walking: The basic movement
2. Feet: economy, function and aesthetics
3. Walking and the principle of reversibility
4. Turning without swivelling

Movement technique: culture, aesthetics and efficiency

1. Technique and culture
2. What is essential in tango: connection
3. Improvisation: freedom or constraint
4. Choreography vs. emergent movement
5. Aesthetics and efficiency of movement
6. Naturalness in dancing
7. Adornments and women’s technique: why they are a really bad idea
8. Kinesphere, spatiotemporal efficiency and aesthetic effect

III. Teaching

Teaching system

1. Rationale
2. Needs analysis
3. Error analysis
4. Training vs demonstration of skill

Teaching strategies

1. Systems vs goals
2. Teaching skills
3. Culture and learning: acculturation vs enculturation
4. Mental imagery in movement learning
5. Tango as conversation
6. Motivation
7. Micro-skill stack
8. Base: true and false beginners
9. Videos: how to use them

Milonga

1. The big small: courtesy
2. Minding the red flags: The setup for milonga success
3. A fundamental problem of global tango: too much floor space
4. Rules for organising a traditional milonga
5. Semiogogue on procession: a possible explanation of the psychology behind moving in the line of dance?
6. Getting dances: the practice milonga, distance invite and musical chairs
7. Artists vs the milongueros: the spatial organisation of the milonga
8. What are you looking at? Why musicians rather than dancing teachers should be in charge of milongas

IV. Mindset: Culture and Politics

Introduction to politics

Styles

1. One dance or many: the styles of tango
2. Tradition and evolution: the influence of street latin
3. Conservatism and progressivism in tango: real and faux
4. Proposal for an alternative tango nomenclature: tango dramático, tango romántico and tango expresivo
5. The parasitic relationship of performing artists to social tango

Criticism and postmodernism

1. Postmodernism and consumerism
2. Tango as culture: anthropology vs criticism
3. Beauty or kitsch: making aesthetic judgements about tango dancing
4. Sacred and profane values in the postmodern world
5. Postmodernism: the hollowing out effect of ironic word salad in tango discourse

Tango in the crosshairs of the Culture War

1. Sex roles: Is tango compatible with women’s empowerment
2. The dystopian future: hipster tango
3. Female hypergamy and its effect on the milonga scene
4. The pandemic: Left totalitarianism and acceleration
5. Why leftism is an illiberal winner takes all system
6. Marxist destruction of Argentine tango: why I’m getting out
7. Why tango is not an afro dance stolen by evil whites

Reading

1. Reading recommendations