I stumbled across this really awesome quote by Merce Cunningham in Time Magazine. He died at the age of 90 this year.
"You have to love dancing and stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive. It's not for unsteady souls."
There was this one Milonga I went to where I saw people dancing to the Scorpions. I never thought I'd be the one to say it, but there is something a bit weird about dancing to "Hurricane." This doesn't mean that we ought to stay away from seeing how tango fits or translates to other music. That said, my jaw dropped last Saturday night when dance partners Carlos Cañedo and Anais Haven danced to a waltzy Black Heart Procession song. Wow! Really? Seriously? I couldn't believe that Tango dancers even knew about that band! Carlos and Anais danced the hell out of that song.
In addition, it's really refreshing to me when Tango dancers are nice, down-to-earth, and approachable. I feel like I would make a fool out of myself if I went up and talked to dancers as good as they are (maybe because I enjoy dancing and am not terribly good at it). However, I gathered up my nerve, and went up to them later on to pester them about their song choices. They were quite awesome about it. I'm going to take a private tango lesson with them the next time they come to Austin.
Here is a YouTube video of them dancing to a freaking Fugazi song. That's right: FUGAZI. Carlos and Anais, I have a request: Can you dance to Radiohead's "Morning Bell," the version off of Amnesiac? I'll take whatever I can get though. Carlos Cañedo's tango website address is at the bottom of this post. http://www.thetangocompany.com
Dave Wirth