The Topic is Tango

Posted by joegrohens at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2009

Leaning how to learn

Sometimes the most difficult part of learning tango is learning HOW to learn tango.

How many of us know how to learn something new in our bodies? It's hard. Infants do it constantly. The effort is enormous. We don't put in that kind of effort. We have habit. We think learning should be adding some information to the schema we already know.

Epictetus said:

"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."

Posted by joegrohens at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2009

What do Americans Look for in Tango? (from Nito & Elba interview)

.: El Tangauta :. July 2009 No. 177 has a wonderful interview with Nito and Elba.

I became transfixed when I read the interviewer's question "What do Americans look for in tango?", and then Nito's reply.

CARLOS BEVILACQUA (Interviewer): Later you worked a lot in the United States, what do the Americans look for in tango?

NITO:The embrace, the relationship and the friendship. I think that the American has a very solitary life, product of that extreme respect with which they treat each other. They barely greet their neighbors, they would never say to you "You are really fat!" or "how skinny you are!” At best they ask you what you do for a living. With tango the community appears, friends, relationships, conversations.

ELBA:I am completely in agreement.

N:The curious thing is that in spite of the fact that they first fall in love with stage tango, once they begin to practice social tango they forget completely about ganchos and kicks. Now, when they come to Buenos Aires, they go to a dinner-show but afterwards they go straight to a milonga.

It is interesting to see how Nito perceives the Norte Americano personality and how it relates to tango dancing. I can't argue with him about the initial fascination with stage dancing transforming to social tango. Except, sometimes that transition to social tango takes a long time.... like I sometimes wonder when it will ever happen. Ha ha. :-)

But I think he is definitely on the money when he talks about the real value (for Americans and for anyone) of the tango as "embrace, relationship, friendship."

Nito Garcia is a gifted dancer, a kind and sympathetic person, and I think, a very observant and serious teacher. (Elba too, of course.) I think anything he says should be listened to thoughtfully.

That is why, as I read the current interview, I was thinking about Nito's comments in another interview back in 1998 at Stanford Tango Week, which was published in El Firulete Unabashed Tango talk

Listen to this, American tango dancers:

NORA DINZELBACHER
To wrap it up, why don't each of you give the American men some advice to become better dancers?

NITO
Listen to a lot of Tango. Lots of Tango. I don't even like to practice without music. These are habits, of course. You have to listen and listen. Us, we travel a lot; it happens that I arrive at an airport. They come to pick me up. We get in the car and the man who immediately plays Tangos always dances well. The times when somebody picked me up and played salsa or some other kind of music, by coincidence they never danced well. I don't know why, but in my case I would like them to listen to a lot of Tango.

Posted by joegrohens at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

Adventures of Sorin & Debbie in Bs As

For regular readers of tango blogs this is probably not news. But if you haven't been following Sorin's and his girlfriend Debbi's blogs lately, check them out.

• Sorin's Blog

• Debbi's Blog
  

They are both in Bs As this summer and are doing some excellent reporting of the milonga scene, tango class scene, and the shoe scene (see Debbie).

One strange and very interesting thing is that they have each gravitated towards different tango subcultures. Debbie has decided to go to the traditional milongas where she loves dancing with the old milongueros. Sorin has decided to go to the youth practicas (e.g., Practica X, Villa Malcolm).

"You say open, I say close; you say alternative, I say trad; tomato, tomato, etc." But they aren't calling the whole thing off. They are taking classes together at DNI, which they find useful for whatever style of dancing they are doing.

Debbi writes about why she prefers dancing with the old men:

The old men are great. Not because of what they do or don't do, per se, but more because of who they are. They are tango. Not only do they know every note of every layer of every song, and seamlessly move from layer to layer when dancing, but most of them (perhaps all) saw the maestros when they were young.
[...]
This is why their tango is so amazing. You are not just dancing with a man. You are dancing with history, with culture and with decades of understanding. These men know that tango is more than learning how to wrap your partner's leg around you every which way until Tuesday, they know that it is about connections.

Sorin writes about trying to break into the non-traditional milongas and practicas:

The hardest part in some of the BsAs milongas where the people I’d like to dance with go, (the non-traditional milongas) is the “private party” feeling of the event, when one feels it’s not part of the party. [ ... ] People here in BsAs tend come with a group and sit together, all closed up. What I mean is they face each other, chat when they don’t dance and you can’t make eye contact with them to save your life.
[ ... ]
I’m sure someone will ask, or at least wonder, why don’t go to the traditional ones? Maybe the traditional milongas are great in season, but at the ones I have gone to, there were very few people I was interested in dancing with. So, my advice to anyone coming here in the winter is, learn Spanish and make friends. Get thick skinned. As fast as you can.

These blogs are excellent reading to get a feeling for how two people can look at the same milonga, and the same dance, quite differently. Plus Sorin has talked about the impact of the Swine Flu concerns on milonga attendance.

Great tango writing, both of you!! Keep it up!

:: UPDATE ::

Oh, I forgot to mention this extremely interesting observation from Sorin.

Sorin says "If I would have state the biggest difference I felt between women who are trained to dance in BsAs vs some other places, is the way they move their hips when dancing. Portenas and foreigners living here they all roll their hips as they walk, which makes for a much more flavorful dance and removes a lot of the stiffness people trained other places have."

My friend Beatriz calls this hip movement "the swing." I agree that somehow the hip movement is more mobile in the women dancers of Buenos Aires. I think it comes from teachers stressing axis, and cautioning women not to break their hips as in salsa, and hypercorrection brings about a lack of hip movement. But, who knows where the swing and the non-swing come from. Many body movements are learned unconsciously just from being around people, like a regional accent in a language.

Posted by joegrohens at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)

Gancho Torsion

tango d'epoca
Originally uploaded by micmac71

Once again I am captivated by a photograph of the talented Italian photographer MicMac71. This photo captures a very fast moment in the dance, and the figure of the couple is beautiful.

I am intrigued by the technique of the dancers. In particular, I notice that the woman's shoulders are more-or-less level, while her pelvis appears to have a contrapposto slope (the right hip, from which her leg does the hook, is released down; her right shoulder is angled slightly up). Her torso is upright, and she appears to be in perfect balance on her forward leg. Despite the vigorous action of the movement she is doing, her body is poised and her face is calm, almost indifferent.

I see that her weight-bearing leg is bent, and although she is the dominant figure, her head is lower than her partner's.

Her spiralic posture is completed by her eyes looking towards her own foot.

The man appears to have ample flexion in both knees, particularly the forward one on which he is lunging. His next move will be to shift his weight back, as she unwinds to face him, undoubtedly the reverse of how they got into this gancho in the first place.

This photograph is as absorbing as a sculpture. Amazing.

Wonderful photograph. Wonderful dance technique.

Posted by joegrohens at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2009

Tango: Let's dance to the music

Joaquin Amenabar website

This book is A method of tango music for dancers without musical education.

Posted by joegrohens at 01:55 PM

July 09, 2009

Horacio Godoy

Horacio Godoy and Cecilia Garcia

::OPINION::

(Please feel free to leave comments below.)

I'm just back from Chicago Tango Week July 2009, where I was rather impressed by the DJing of Horacio Godoy during the Saturday night milonga.

I have a few observations about him, although I am not 100% sure how reliable my impressions are, since I was dancing, and not really watching what he was doing, or sitting and taking notes. In retrospect I wish I had studied him more attentively.

• During quite a few songs I felt that he was playing with the volume -- for example, bringing it down very low during the quiet parts and really swelling it near the climax. I remember specifically when he did this during a (later period) Pugliese song where he multiplied the effect of the dynamic changes (diminuendo/crescendo) already in the music.

• He appears not to have too many qualms about mixing orchestras in a tanda. I would swear he did this mixed tanda thing several times, not only in milongas and vals tandas, but also, I am pretty sure, in tango tandas. Here I suppose I might have lost track of time and tandas and could be imagining things.

• He sat at his station steadily from the beginning to the end, tweaking the sound on each and every song (and as I already mentioned, manipulating the sound during the course of a song), and constantly watching the dancers. If a dancer liked something he or she could always catch his eye and he would respond. He was involved, and he paid attention. I contrast this with other DJs who let their laptops play their pre-made playlists and go outside to take long cigarette breaks, or who are on the floor dancing most of the time. As far as I could tell this guy never left his post from 9pm - 5 am.

• His selection was pretty traditional, yet it was constantly spiced with unexpected wrinkles -- a straight-ahead D'Arienzo tanda, e.g., but with one song added that I had never heard before. Or throwing a Firpo song into someone else's tanda. That made things interesting. The music supported traditional dancing, but it also had surprises.

The previous night (Friday), Horacio Godoy was part of a floor-show. He danced two exhibition numbers with his partner. During his first dance he kept trying to get the sound people to increase the volume (gesturing with his arms from the floor). Before his second dance he apparently made them reset the sound system before he would continue. There was a long delay in the performance, lots of talking, and people moving back and forth. Then I saw people moving speakers and stands around to different places on the floor. I don't really know what happened or what was said, but I inferred that he had an expectation for what the music should sound like, and he wouldn't continue until it was right.

I believe that this same fussiness about sound quality was evident in his DJing.

I contrast this with DJs who seem content to play an entire milonga with the music sounding like it is underwater and fuzzy and congratulating themselves on what great music selections they make even if the sound quality isn't that great. Or DJs who take long cigarette breaks outside, where they can't even hear the dance, while their laptop does the DJing for them on autopilot, or DJs who spend most of their time on the dance floor.

It has made me realize that I could do better than I often do.

I also posted this report on a DJ forum, and got some comments from people who also attended the Chicago Tango week.

• Several people wrote to say that Horacio plays the music way too loud, in their view.
• Paul from Minnesota (and others who weren't there) said that Horacio probably SHOULD have left the controls and got on the dance floor to see what it sounded like to the dancers. The two PA speakers were in the same line with the DJ controls on one side of a long room, and so he was only hearing reflected sound. Which might be one reason it was too loud. (I myself didn't mind the loudness level, but it was definitely loud.)
• Horacio sometimes added extra songs to a tanda (apparently if the dancers were getting into it, he would extend the set). This was a problem in that the milonga had significantly more women than men, and longer tandas reduced the change of partners.
• I found out that the attendance at this Chicago Tango Week (July 2009) was more than 500 dancers, by the way. A new record for Chicago Tango Week festival.
• Someone who took a workshop with Horacio Godoy told me that Horacio discussed in class the making of tandas from different orchestras but selecting songs from the same year of recording. My friend said that Horacio felt that the year of recording produced more compatibility sometimes than choosing songs by the same orchestra from different years, because of trends in the musical style. For example, the D'Arienzo influenced speed and rhythmic drive of the late 30s and early 40s was imitated by other orchestras, and after '42 they all slowed down, including D'Arienzo.
• Others wrote to say that they would not call Horacio's sound selection "traditional," because he plays a lot of post-golden era tango.

• Update. My friend Beatriz emailed me this comment:
  
  Joe, I read your piece with great interest. The last time I watched Horacio Godoy DJ was at the outdoor milonga on Avenida de Mayo in late December 2008. Until I read your comments, I had taken for granted how DJs work in Buenos Aires. On the occasion of the end of the year celebration, Godoy stood on a platform two feet higher than the street level, I remember climbing and walking towards him to ask him something. He was as attentive to the dance floor (the "street floor") as you describe him. He had a raised platform for the visual advantage, he could not have seen the dancers had he been standing at street level. His sound system was, if my memory is correct, about six feet long.
  Your piece made me think about other milongas. The DJ is typically somewhere above ground level to sense what happens on the floor and regulate his selections. Typically their sound systems are impressive. I have not yet seen computer music playing in Buenos Aires; even regular outdoor milongas (La Glorieta, Plaza Dorrego) use sound systems of some type.
  
  You describe a man (Godoy) who is a connector. DJs, like dancers, can be connected or disconnected from their partners. A DJ's "partner" is the group.
  
  
  - Beatriz
  

Posted by joegrohens at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

July 01, 2009

D'Arienzo Orchestra Resources

This Juan D'Arienzo Discography by Johan in Belgium is one of my favorite reading pastimes.

I like to see how the personnel changes, to follow the singers, and to find out who wrote the songs I love so much. Thinking of tonight's milonga, I wanted to build a tanda around "Nada Mas" sung by Echagüe. The discography helped me to rationalize the following set. Admittedly, Pensalo Bien is a little bit different than the others, but I think it will work if put in first place.

• Pensalo Bien
• Nada Mas
• La Bruja
• Mandria

D'Arienzo himself wrote some pretty killer tunes, usually with L. Rubenstein. The following, for example, were all written by JD himself.

• Callejas Solo
• Chirusa
• Paciencia
• Nada Más
• Dos Guitas
• El Vino Triste

Another fantastic document for orchestra history (not just D'Arienzo) is this Tango Orchestra Genealogy (Excel file), showing a view of orchestra personnel on a timeline. You can track band personnel in this very easily. Did you know that Ciriaco Ortiz was in D'Arienzo's first group 1928-1929, and that D'Arienzo himself played violin in it?

Check out the history of pianists in Oquesta D'Arienzo:

• Luis Visca 1928-1929
• Lido Faso 1935
• Rodolfo Biagi 1936-1938 (and we sometimes think the D'Arienzo sound owed so much to Biagi's piano - Biagi struck out on his own after 1.5 years; I guess his successors forever imitated Biagi to some degree)
• Juan Polito 1938-1940
• Fulvio Salamanca 1940 -1957
• Juan Polito 1957 - 1975

More discographies are available here: TangoDJ : Files

And Tobias Conradi's tango.info project also provides great illumination on the recording history of D'Arienzo (and other tango artists, of course).

Posted by joegrohens at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2009

Step One

"The first step to wisdom is silence. The second is listening."

(Chinese Proverb)

Posted by joegrohens at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

June 28, 2009

Eugenia Parrilla Interview, Part 3

Chicho & Eugenia dance to "Poema" at CITA 2005

Final installment of interview with Eugenia Parrilla, August 2006, Chicago.

Beatriz: When I see the couples dancing tango salon, I can more or less tell which couples are connected and which ones aren’t. Can you do the same and tell which couples dancing "new tango" are connected and which ones aren’t?

Eugenia: Yes, by all means. And for me it doesn’t have to do with what type of tango you dance. There are things that I would never do, and I like them, but I know I would never do them.

B: Like what, for example?

E: There are couples that I see and I say, “Okay, I would never do that because it’s not what motivates me.” But I might still love it. I know I’m not going to dance canyengue style. Maybe I could as an interpretation of a time, but I’m not going to dedicate my life to doing that. But I love it when I see it. I love it. There are things that reach you even though it’s not exactly what you would want to do.

[…]

Joe: What do you want to do for your personal goals in tango?

E: The idea of integrating more and more things interests me, of being able to integrate theater. It might not have much to do with tango, but I also really like aerial things. I would like to be able to integrate other arts with tango.

B: You’re referring to aerial dance?

E: Yes, aerial dance. I would like to be able to do theater quite a bit.

B: You’d like to integrate that with tango?

E: I would like to, that with tango, and theater, and for everything to have a common thread. To get to the point where I can do something more open, more thus like the dance [[la danza]], more artistic. So that the tango would be seen more like something like a dance [[la danza]] and not like a closed circle that only knows tango. That it would expand more each time, that it could go further to la danza, more to expressivity, more to something credible, of expressivity. And I would like to be able to deal with real topics about actual problems, about what’s happening in the world. And not just from the point of view of the cabaret and the cafishio who manages the crazy women. It seems that that makes you able to… Well, it’s fine. It’s the roots. But if that is managed in an intelligent way to be able to do a show, I think in that way it will be interesting. But if it’s always the same story, I think it’s always frozen. You can take something old and relate it to something more current. Because even today there’s lots of prostitution, there are a lot of things, through another context, through another place. And I think that that’s interesting, being able to approach the emotions, what’s happening with emotions, from a more psychological viewpoint, than through something so closed. I don’t know. Something open, more artistic.

J: You said that you studied music?

E: I studied piano.

J: From the point of view of music, do you like the direction that contemporary tango music is taking today with the tango electronico?

E: It seems to me… Mmmm. It’s difficult to talk about this because I think that each person wants to do the best they can do, and they try to do the best they can. And those people that try to do the best they can in my mind are very respectable. It’s not the same as someone that wants to take advantage and make some money. No, it’s not the same. That’s why it’s difficult for me to talk about this.

B: Do you personally like to dance to electronic music?

E: Not all of it, not all of it. But there are things I like and others I don’t. But I think that electronic music is missing a little bit. Like if there’s a hollow space between Piazzola, who was more modern, and electronic music. I think that maybe they have to go a little further back to get to something better. But all the same, I don’t know. I think there’s something missing. But I still like it.

J: What do you think tango music could be like if we had new tango music?

E: I imagine it with more participation from the instruments, like the bandoneon, like the violin, with more rhythmic changes, like with integration of perhaps a little of classical music, maybe a little of something of Pugliese, but without it being Pugliese, but a little of the essence of each thing with an electronic bass. But for me electronic music isn’t that march music that goes “Boom, boom” the whole time which I can’t stand. I imagine it as like something more symphonic without it getting to the point of being classical music.

J: Are you working on any theatrical projects now, today? Or do you have anything coming up that you can work on?

E: There are projects that I have in mind. But in this moment I’m not doing anything. I want to prepare myself for that. But right now, nothing concrete. But yes, I know what interests me. I try to write the ideas that come to me.

B: If there were a 10 year-old kid that asked you, “What is tango?” and you had to answer him at a 10-year old level, what would you say?

E: (Laughter) How difficult! It’s very hard. That tango is like when you love someone and you can move freely like you’re playing in freedom with the body.

[…]

Carlota: Do you have a favorite tango performance that you’ve seen recently that you really liked a lot? That made you think, like, “Oh, yeah, I’d like to do something like that.” Not exactly like that but, oh, that’s what I’d like to see happening in a tango performance.

E: I wouldn’t do it. (Laughs). I wouldn’t do the same thing they do. But I love Melina Brufman and Claudio Gonzalez. It’s totally different than what I would do. But they impress me, they touch me. They’re incredible. And there are a lot of people I like. A lot. I think everyone has at least one thing I like. In everybody something I like. But always you can take something from somebody. But I like Melina and Claudio…I don’t remember now because it’s a lot.

End of interview conducted August 2006 in Chicago

Posted by joegrohens at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2009

The Look of Tango

My friend X wrote to me about her chance encounter. Perhaps people in tango can develop a certain radar ("godar"?) for recognizing birds of their feather.

I was in B. (a neighboring town) visiting a friend that recently moved there. We were in a shop and I saw a man dressed in the most beautifully cut black pants and shirt. Gray hair, very distinguished looking. I don't know why, but I said, "excuse me for asking you this strange question, but are you a tango dancer. I know there is tango in your town, but I don't know where." He looked at me and said, "no, I am not a tango dancer, I am a priest".

I swear to you, this just happened to me today. About five people that worked there just cracked up. By the time I left everyone in the store knew I was the one that asked the priest if he was a tango dancer. I have completely lost my mind. He told me he really shouldn't remove his collar. Duh! The least he could have done was have a large cross around his neck. This could only happen to me.

Posted by joegrohens at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2009

Eugenia Parrilla Interview, Part 2

Continuation of interview with Eugenia Parrilla, Chicago 2006

B: It seems like what you were saying is that what fascinates you about the milongas is the closeness of the people even though they’re strangers, and the connections and that sort of thing. But when you went to study with Mauricio Castro and Fabian Salas you found something different and you call it the movement.

E: The freedom of the movement.

B: As opposed to what?

E: The opposite of the intimacy, of the intimacy from the contact. And this appeared to me to be a contrast, but now I think that both have to go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other, because the dance… the freedom in the dance… without entering into the depth in the connection with the other, and from something spiritual that carries you to the music, is an empty dance. Movement for movement's sake and nothing more for me seems difficult to provoke a sensation in the other. To me it has to go to the depths to be able really get into what the music is saying.

B: Mm hmm. That’s very interesting because you tried tango in the milongas and you liked the idea of the intimacy, the closeness, that age isn’t important. And then you went to study with Salas and Castro and you were fascinated by the movement. And now it seems like you’re at a stage where you think that the two things need to be integrated.

E: In my eyes the two can’t be separated.

B: For example, let’s take the show you guys did yesterday. Do you see yourself dancing in this way that you’re saying you think it should be? And how do you see the other couples that danced with regards to the freedom of movement and the intimacy?

E: Well, I’m not sure how I see myself. In reality, I attempt. I attempt to unite both things that for me have… they’re connected to the music and to each other. To be able to reach that state. It’s like yoga. You reach a spiritual state to be able to go into the depths of a sensation. Because the music doesn’t consist of just the rhythm. It has… life, sadness, happiness.

B: So you, for example, when you were dancing yesterday, you felt like… Well, a show is a little different, right? But when you talk about that you mean…

E: It’s really not different because we improvise, so you have to go to that. I think in reality in both types of dancing you have to go to that. Whether it’s choreography or improvisation. But since the improvisation is completely spontaneous, I think it’s very important to reach that state. It seems to me that tango is in a process at the moment. It’s in a process of integration. And if that integration doesn’t occur, for me it will be lost. Because already, all the people are crazy about the tango that’s more free, more new. But for me it’s not about doing the craziest moves you can, but instead being able to integrate the two things because otherwise in the end, it’s like, for me, what happens to me is I reach a point where I stop watching because… the movement by itself is empty.

B: It's empty. And it tires.

E: And it tires. Because it becomes, well, I don’t know. You don’t know what they did ... if it was a sacada ... it’s like ... well, it’s all the same. But if it goes along with the music, and if you’re like another instrument in the music and you can connect with the other person intimately, it seems to me that that is when it becomes interesting. I believe that’s the point the couples hope to reach. I think that this is in process with the young people. Also, it seems that it is a question of being open or a matter of taste. [inaudible] Because they’re not interested in doing a tango that’s more free, more new.

To be continued.

Posted by joegrohens at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

desiderio

desiderio
Originally uploaded by micmac71

They are not even in the embrace and already it is tango. (Dancers: Donato & Carolina.)

Check out this photographer's Flickr account. He has many great tango photos.

Posted by joegrohens at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2009

Tango

Tango
Originally uploaded by marinochka!

Nice shot! I love the torsion in her upper body as she crosses forward. To me this is a classic tango look. Look how close they stay towards each other in the shoulders, despite her stepping forward between them. Excellent posture for both. I wonder who they are.

Posted by joegrohens at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2009

Interview with Eugenia Parrilla, Part 1

Interview with Eugenia Parrilla. Chicago, August 2006. Interviewed by Beatriz Dujovne and Joe Grohens and then transcribed and translated from video tape.

Eugenia: I was born in the Province of San Luis. When I was 18 I moved to La Plata which is about one hour from Buenos Aires. I studied Plastic Arts in La Plata. I would go to "colegio" in the morning, and in the afternoon all day long go to the art school, so it was a little tiring. It was like I never had time left to, I don’t know, be with your friends, or do other things.

Beatriz: Did you study dance in La Plata?

Eugenia: No, I studied dance before going to La Plata. I started studying when I was young. I started, first, because they don’t accept you so young in Fine Arts, I started around the age of 6, then I continued and around. And then I started from age 12 to age 16 en Fine Arts.

Beatriz: Did Fine Arts include ballet too?

Eugenia: Yes, but it’s a complete school. Fine Arts offers drawing, piano, French, jazz…

Beatriz: And this is the one that demanded a lot?

Eugenia: Exactly, because it’s the type of school you’re there all day, from, 7 in the morning until 6, 7 in the evening, more or less.

J: So at what point did you start dancing tango?

E: When I lived in La Plata, I used to go to a café. It’s a long story. First, they called me because I studied. First I studied industrial design, and everything about industrial design, visual arts, music, and what else… Well, plastic arts that are all in the same university. It was a very big university. And so, there… oh, and film too. And I was at a stage in my life when I wanted to do things involving theater and film. And since I had some friends that were making a short film, some here and some there, they called me to play a role in a short film. And when they starting filming the short film, one of the cameramen gave tango classes, he danced it. And so one day I ran into him on the street and he asked me what I was up to and just by chance I had that day off and he invited me to a tango class and I went and… it was like a game, really. I didn’t get hooked. I went that day and that was it.

Well, later what happened is some time passed, like a year, and it’s because, you know… And I would go to the café where you generally take textbooks and each person reads what they want. And that day there wasn’t, the café wasn’t there, there was a milonga. And I stayed there watching the milonga and I liked it a lot. So there was an old man there and I got close to him and asked him if he could teach me and he was the one that takes care of the universidad! And he gave classes where I studied in the carpenter’s workshop. And it was neat, because where they would make all the designs out of cut wood, it was a carpenter’s workshop with machines. They would make some space and everyone that wanted to would go in their free time and dance in the university. And so, there I started to learn, and on my birthday a friend invited me to go to a milonga in Buenos Aires, and I loved it! And each time, I was more hooked.

J: Which milonga?

E: La Viruta

B: Do you go to the milongas now?

E: Yes. Not a lot, but yes. Sometimes I go more and sometimes not.

B: La Viruta in Buenos Aires. You were around what age? 20?

E: Let’s see, in ’98.

B: ’98, yes. That was your first exposure? That was your first contact with tango where you really got hooked, and liked it?

E: Yes, yes. But I only used to go once a week because I lived in La Plata.

B: And in La Plata there wasn’t tango like there was in Buenos Aires?

E: No, no. But all the same I went and danced and that was it and then…

B: And when did the tango itch really start getting to you?

E: Well, after a year I said okay, I’m going to the coast, I’m going to work and save money so I can keep studying and taking classes. So I moved to Buenos Aires. So I went and I worked a lot. It was funny because I was working a lot to be able to keep studying and taking classes. When I arrived to Buenos Aires I moved with a friend and it was hard but we arrived. We rented a house, but we were ripped off. I had to start working. And then with work and taking classes it was very difficult.

B: We’re talking about tango classes now, right?

E: Yes, yes. But I also kept going to the University. But since they ripped us off and we had to spend a lot of money, well, it was a mess.... So, I had to work a lot and take very few classes.

B: And whom did you take classes from?

E: At first I took around 10 classes with Horacio Godoy.

J: At La Viruta?

E: No no, in the Estudio de Mora [Godoy]. With Horacio. Yes. And then I met… I went to a class with a friend who was friends with Fabian Salas. And Mauricio Castro was there also, since he gave Fabian’s classes when Fabian wasn’t there. And so… I loved it. I loved it because it felt like it was more like dance (la danza).

At first in the milonga I loved the idea that the people didn’t know each other, but they were acting like they did. It’s very special. And the contact with the other person, they’re so close, I loved it. And the older men with the younger girls, it seemed like they were in love when in reality they weren’t. Well, it was very special. And then I got hooked on the idea of the movements being more free. Almost like the movements were like a dance (una danza).

(to be continued)

Posted by joegrohens at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)

May 06, 2009

History of Tango

The definitive article on the origins of tango:

Tango - Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia

Posted by joegrohens at 11:43 AM

Why are Americans so...

My daughter emailed me this.

Go to google. Type in "why are americans so"

See what it suggests.

Posted by joegrohens at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2009

Hip Resurfacing for Tango Dancers

Tango For Life - Tango Health

Over at Tango for Life, Dave Donatiu blogs in clear and inspiring detail about his hip resurfacing surgery, and the pain that has kept him from tango. It doesn't sounds easy, but it is going to put him back on the dance floor.

Congratulations Dave for making the brave decision, and best wishes during your recovery.

See also my previous blog post about Jeff Gaynor, another tango dancer who had the same procedure (Birmingham Hip Resurfacing), and who is now very active once again.

Posted by joegrohens at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2009

Tango in Comics?

"Bang! Tango" is a new comic book series about dancing and crime.

Yay. Maybe this is where tango finally lives up to its potential as a martial art style. Ha ha!

Must have!!

Click to enlarge.

Reviewer Joe Kelly at Read About Comics describes the storyline: