The Topic is Tango

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November 04, 2008

gavito

gavito
Originally uploaded by leone.

The photographer Leone says:

"portrait of a man ....
photo taken during a conversation about tango and life ....
he was more than a dancer, more than any other teacher, he was more like a philosopher even when he danced."

Yes, I agree with that.

For Gavito, it seemed, tango was the way that a man such as himself - that is to say, among other things, an Argentine man - could explain and express and recognize what that it meant to be alive. I should say that this was my opinion about him. But you got this impression because every comment he had to make about life was related to an analogy of tango. And every lesson he had to teach about tango had to do with what it meant to be alive, with being human.

Gavito had some talking points that would astonish his listeners. At first you thought it was hyperbole. The next minute you reasoned that maybe he really believed his ideas himself. And later that evening you thought that maybe you had just heard the essential truth from somebody who had plumbed the depths of tango. Day by day, year by year, I still wonder about some of the things he said, and what the hell he was trying to say.

For example:

• In Argentina all the people have only one feeling, and that feeling is tango.
• Don't rush when you dance. Don't be in a hurry to get somewhere. Tango is not about looking toward the future. (Beats go by. In my mind's ear I anticipate that he is going to say that tango is about being in the present. I will be wrong.) Tango is about looking for something in the past.

Posted by joegrohens at November 4, 2008 08:25 PM

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Posted by: yucia at November 15, 2008 12:32 PM

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