About

WHAT IS TANGO CAPITAL?

Tango Capital brings news, views, reviews, and interviews on tango in Australasia, with occasional forays elsewhere, together with the best in traditional and modern tango music. The primary channel is a one-hour weekly radio program supported by internet presence.

And you can join in with comments, views and suggestions…

VALUES

Tango is a unique form of expression incorporating a synthesis of music, poetry, and dance. It is typified by a variable rhythm to the music and poetry that offers opportunities for improvisation for dancers in pairs – improvisation that is only made possible by the leader-follower connection between the dancers.

Tango originated in the Rio De La Plata region but has now been acknowledged as an item of World Heritage, a significant element of the common heritage of the human race. Its early forms were shaped by the unique circumstances of Argentina and Uruguay in the 19th and very early 20th centuries, but the music and the instruments, the poetry, and the dance have subsequently been and are continuing to be moulded by changing influences originating both inside and outside South America.

Tango now encompasses wide variety: the musicians range from folk duos and electronic bands to traditional tango configurations; the music includes milonga, vals, canyengue, and tango rhythms, each individualised by variable rhythmic patterns and structures; the poetry covers the range of human experience – love, loss, slavery, politics, civil events, friendship, and a bit of fun; the dance can be fast or slow, restrained or exuberant, structured and sequenced or built up from individual elements. Tango will continue to change in future, and around the world.

Tango requires respect for all other dancers on the dancefloor. The connection between the dance partners requires consent from the follower, consent that must be earned and maintained by the leader. As well respect is necessary for the improvising and therefore unpredictable couples to dance safely in groups.

Tango is gender-neutral.

WHY DO IT?

  • In Australasia there are significant barriers of distance between dancers, at the country, state, city and suburban levels. Tango Capital‘s internet presence offers neutral discussion sites for the tango population.
  • There is much information and much opinion about tango history available on the internet, but it takes time to find, to sift, and to understand. Both dancers and musicians can benefit from understanding these influences. Tango Capital aims to provide structured information that links and enhances understanding of the music, the poetry, and the dance and of the circumstances that have shaped them.
  • The majority of the population have no knowledge of tango. To encourage wider participation the radio program offers opportunities for these people to learn about tango and the benefits it can offer, to hear the variety of tango music, and to understand the personal experiences of tango musicians and dancers.
  • Tango Capital offers a unique opportunity to document a special niche in society in the 21st It is intended to eventually deposit the recordings and records of the program in a national archive for future research into dance in a social context.

SOME POLICIES

HISTORICAL REFERENCES: tango has been shaped by many circumstances, of which some, such as the political repressions of the 1950s and 1970s, are troublesome and may be deeply disturbing. Yet discussion of tango may logically require reference to these events and in this situation participants in the radio program and internet discussions are requested to give trigger warnings ahead of explicit references.

REVIEWS: Reviews of books, music releases, bands, concerts, lectures, software, special events, and the like are the personal opinion of the reviewer. To ensure neutrality Tango Capital does not review milongas or teachers. All events and items reviewed are purchases: no gifts or donations are accepted for this purpose.

PROMOTION: Advice on upcoming events organised by tango communities may be provided on Tango Capital, particularly where those events offer live tango music or where they aim to bring members of dispersed tango communities together.  To ensure neutrality Tango Capital does not promote teachers.

LISTING OF MUSIC: Automated music identification software can be unreliable and reliance on it can be misleading. Accordingly traditional tango music will not be posted to automated sites such as AMRAP; only modern music will be posted to these sites. All playlists are posted to the program’s own blogsite.

BLOG ETIQUETTE: Consistent with the values noted elsewhere, posts to Tango Capital‘s internet forums that denigrate other people or their opinions or which spread misinformation will not be tolerated. Whilst initial concerns will be raised with the person, individuals will be blocked from the sites if they continue to show a lack of respect.