The Alternative Tango
The image of a different festival, open on the world.
ALTER means « other » …
The alternative tango goes over conservatism who was present during the first 70 years of tango in « tango rio de la plata ». This tango is different in music, in dance and in social behaviours.
In our dance, leaving intentionally the strict rules of the classic tango allow us, and this by keeping tango as a matrix, to place our own way of dancing or to add movements from other types of dance including the « contact dance » in some parties (for more, clic here).
It allows us to discover other musics like: modern tango; neo-tango played by current orchestras. It is a way to hear electric or electronic sounds and even pop and soul music or any type of world music.
In fact, the question is not to wonder what is the authentic tango or its soul. The question is: « Does it work and is it fun? »
Moreover, the social alterity is an important theme that we try to develop by presenting a tango without distinctions based on genre or sexual orientations. In what we call Tango Queer, we do not necessarily want to talk about homosexual couples but more precisely to talk about couples in which both parts are not fixed. More to explain Queer Tango? ; Clic here (french text).
General rules of alternative milongas during the festival.
Our alternative milongas take place generally in parallel with other classical milongas to show to the dancers the difference between each type of dance and this even if we change from one to another regularly.
Most of the time we call different djs during party those play several short sets 50 to 60 minutes and it gives us possibility introduce types animation music
In order not to lose dancers who do not really know the alternative as a such, for this year, we try to keep a more traditional setting for the « tandas »:
Tandas made of 3 different tunes to get a fluent rolling between the participants (generally 10 minutes) ended by a cortina. Besides, to respect a certain tradition present in milonga, we need to alternate the tandas to let us dance tango, waltz and milonga.
Musical Themes
- Modern tango (without tango played before 1980 that you can dance in the other room).
- Electronic tango.
- Alternativ (blues, jazz, soul, fado, world music in general like Balkan's music and everything like Fusion … but in fact what ever you want if it is danced in tango).
Special Sets.
During some alternative parties, we plan special moments where we are not able to get a Dj. Ex : the nocturnas. Then we use Playlists.
