Update (August 2021)

• I’ve updated the links on the front page and still working through the links in individual posts.
• I would appreciate if people who find this material at all useful in their education sometimes clicked on the like buttons in the articles and videos. You’re more likely to get content from me if you give me feedback. So far the only sort of feedback I’m getting is that my face is very punchable, which I guess is a statement on the sorry state of the Argentine Tango industry. In case you’re wondering, I’m not receiving any revenues from providing this information, and so far it’s costing me time and money.

Recent Articles

• MINDSET: Yesterday a bunch of lesbian transphobic Feminazis visited my blog. Apparently I have a very punchable face! (July 20, 2021)
• SOUND DESIGN: Cable upgrades, gear tweaks and a mobile milonga experiment with a guitar amp
• SOUND DESIGN: Towards a music-focused tango: the audiophile milonga
• SOUND DESIGN: My new audiophile rig, why you should consider a Chord DAC, and why you should care about room acoustics
• SOUND DESIGN: Why I bought a $1700 Chord DAC: Noise shaping and perception of space in music
• MOVEMENT: Corrective feedback and experiential aesthetics
• MINDSET: Getting dances: the practice milonga, distance invite and musical chairs
• MINDSET: The One Tango Philosophy: Can “Tango Milonguero” and “Argentine Tango” co-exist (and what is it anyway)?
• MOVEMENT: Why inefficiency and obsolescence is not a bug but a feature of “Argentine Tango” teaching
• MUSIC: The Great 78 Project: listen to ÉdO records as they originally sounded

Latest on ContactMilongueroTV

• 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
• 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

Contact Milonguero Videos

 

ContactMilongueroTV

• 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)
• Why you should never dance tango in dancing studios or similar spaces (hint: mirrors also reflect sound, but not in a good way)
• The best response to the “can’t hear a difference” crowd I’ve ever heard
• Semiogogue on procession: a possible explanation of the psychology behind moving in the line of dance?
• Edward Dutton: Is this why most people at milongas don’t really listen to the music?
• 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
• Edward Dutton: Why Postmodernists Don’t Have Souls
• 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
• The importance of not seeing in learning Tango Milonguero (or anything)
• Tango Milonguero embrace: Cultural plasticity and anatomical universals
• Alternative strategies for Tango Milonguero education
• The relationship between training and performance
• What are the goals of Tango Milonguero education?

---

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 Golden Era 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

II. Movement 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

III. Teaching Method

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

IV. Politics and Criticism

Introduction to politics and criticism

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

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. Cultural Marxist destruction of Argentine Tango: why I’m getting out
7. Why tango is not an Afro dance stolen by evil whites

Resources

1. Reading recommendations

View Page