Notice

Apologies for dead links. My old URL http://www.argentinetangohacks.com expired and the links no longer redirect to the new URL. I’m in the process of updating all the links to the new URL. In the meantime if you want to follow a link just replace “argentinetangohacks” in the link address with “contactmilonguero”.

Recent Articles

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 co-exist with “Argentine Tango”?

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

Recent on Contact Milonguero TV

The best response to the “can’t hear a difference” crowd I’ve ever heard

Why use high resolution 24bit/96kHz or higher audio files rather than CD quality 16bit/44.1kHz or MP3s

My new audiophile rig, why you should consider a Chord DAC, and why you should care about room acoustics

Why tango is a black dance stolen by whites if black people FEEL that it’s a black dance stolen by whites

Why I bought a $1700 Chord DAC: Noise shaping and perception of space in music

Is This Why Most People In Tango Don’t Really Listen To The Music?

Semiogogue on the procession: a possible explanation of the psychology of moving in the line of dance

Contact Milonguero Videos

 

ContactMilongueroTV

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. Alignment: 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. Possible Explanation Of The Psychology Behind Moving In The Line Of Dance In Tango

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

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