Un tango dedicato...

Originally uploaded by micmac71

This photo made me think about the question one of the guys asked me at practica recently. He wanted to know what was my "favorite move."

"Move?", I said.

Around us a bunch of the college kids, er, students were practicing colgadas, volcadas, linear boleos, ganchos, hauling the girls around the floor in scissors splits, and other assorted acrobatics. (I really get fed up that that is the only thing people teach as tango these days, but that's off topic right now.)

"I really don't think about moves when I am dancing," I said.

He clarified: "You know, what do you like to use when you really want to express yourself."

I wish I could have shown him this picture and asked him if he thought the dancers were "expressing themselves."

In practica and lessons, dancers are training themselves. And if you have energetic, talented, ambitious dancers, they will naturally build an aspiration around their tango. It is normal.

So what do they aspire to?

At the beginning it is easy to think that the goal of tango learning should be to learn more steps, and to advance to the most challenging (and presumably most rewarding) maneuvers. And if the maneuvers are hard to do, people will tend to spend more time trying to achieve them, just because they can't do them yet. It's normal. But it's a wrong turn, and eventually (we hope sooner than later), tango dancers get over it and look for something more serious and meaningful in the dancing rather than doing tricks.

That made me think about my own tango goals.

I realized that I do have a constant aspiration in tango. It is sort of an unarticulated, even to myself, idea of what is a good (not even great, just good) dance, and it's what keeps me coming back to tango to find it again. And that aspiration is to find a point of calm stillness between my partner and myself, where we are both listening to each other, both waiting for each other's next movement, both being on the same page in what we hear in the music, and, basically, moving totally together with mutual full engagement.

I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen... it takes the right partner, the right music, I have to be in the right "mood" (I guess), and such moments don't come around every month. But that's dancing tango, in my view. Not doing "moves." You need skills to dance the way I'm talking about, but moves are deeply subordinated to the experience of being with the partner.

I think that this photo resembles my aspiration.
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Susana Miller is, in my opinion, one of the best contemporary writers about tango dancing. She knows what she is talking about, and tells it like it is. And she finds a way to put into words things that are not easy to explain about movement learning and dance culture.

Check these out.

Tango abierto and tango milonguero (Tango Open and Tango of the Milonga)

Excerpt:

Tango abierto attracts beginners and inevitably makes their life easier, which is fantastic, since no popular dance continues for decades unless there are beginners. But the paths of learning gradually turn long and twisted, and you never know where and how the story is going to end. But he or she who continues will finally reach something really big, a sort of climax, la fiesta del tango: a more mature tango, less narcissistic and less ostentatious. Tango is in no rush, it knows how to wait even until you reach your forties. Tango withdraws itself in order to get stronger, and emerges triumphant, a tango that is no longer based on the look of the others but on the profound dialogue between partners. Its conception of music is richer and more sophisticated. It isn’t formed by the muscular tension of the tango of stage performances but by relaxation of the body. Therefore, it’s a more organic tango, not suitable for theatres and performances where the tango abierto is danced.

Tango Learning and Energy

EXCERPT:

The way to accelerate this natural process is to experience these sensations from the opposite role. And in addition to use the dance floor, because the Buenos Aires dance floor teaches; the crowded floors oblige us to circulate using certain codes, to support the body’s weight in the right places in order not to lose balance, etc. Teaching outside of Buenos Aires still implies a great challenge. The dance floors don’t teach, the traditional milieu is not replicated, the old magicians are not present.

Overseas, the best dancers are generally the teachers: they organise classes by the maestros they admire in order to have better access to them; they spend many hours in private lessons and learning this source of energy that is the body to body, an experience many of them repeat for years. To train yourself using direct sensations and intuition is, although in a different context, the closest to dancing in the patio with your aunt or your friends.

It has a mix of trad and alternative tandas, plus a salsa break.

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Joe

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My friend Rebecca hipped me to this site of Russian photographer Alexander Zabara. It has some cool shots of tango dancing and break dancing among other things. Nice black and white stuff.

Boston Globe assembled a really nice gallery of tango photos to accompany the UNESCO announcement in October. I just noticed them today. Check them out!

El Tangauta - La revista del tango / The tango magazine no. 182 (December 2009) gives it's feature interview to Chicho Frúmboli. (Once registered, anyone can download the complete issue as a PDF.)

Milena Plebs asks the questions, and Chicho gives some astonishing answers.

CHICHO: Many young people have gotten involved with tango; we are living the beginning of a powerful era. The genre is here to stay, there is no way that it will become hidden or marginalized again. It is constantly evolving.

MILENA: But sometimes those who are starting lose themselves in all the multiple options.

CHICHO: They are completely lost! I learnt with the last great milongueros, I took the information directly from them. Those who are starting to dance don’t have this experience, they learn instead from an intermediate generation that I am a part of; we are a nexus between these old dancers and those who are younger. The problem is that we missed something in the teaching, I take total responsibility, and other colleagues should do so as well. I can’t pass on what I have learned. I was crazy about creating, because I saw a new vein in the evolution of the movement. I threw myself into that, and I lost the way to be able to pass on the tango essence that I have very much inside. Because of this I feel that lately there are a lot of people who don’t understand or know what the real essence of this dance is.

MILENA: You have been dancing for fifteen years. What changes have you noticed in the dance?

CHICHO: Before, people worked with precision and a particular aesthetic, in a functional and mechanical way that gave it a form, and a style. Making a movement or taking a step implied an expression of the entire body. Currently, not only has the essence been lost but the weight of the dance as well, its density and importance. To me, this new tango lost a bit of the respect for what tango is. [ ... ] Yes, it took me five months to get on the dance floor of the milonga of Almagro, I didn’t dare to, and I went every Sunday only to watch. One breathed an air of respect that cannot be found now.

• Argentine Tango Dance Research Centre >> Entrevista / Interview: Mariano 'Chicho' Frumboli
• Chicho This. Chicho That. -- Movement Invites Movement

For anyone interested in the history of tango recording companies, this page on tangoteca is very informative.

It even identifies by name (Ricardo Mejía) the RCA Victor manager who infamously burned the master tapes of tango.

One thing is sure ... tango can mean many different things to the people who dance it.

InsideCatholic.com - Tango and the Theology of the Body

Tango and the Theology of the Body
by Katrina Zeno
10/31/09


I love to tango.

As a single Catholic woman, this isn't always easy. Argentine tango can be danced close -- very close. Its intimacy and passion can sweep me into the romantic ozone layer, obscuring any sense of reality. It lures me into wanting more -- more intimacy, more connectedness, more transcendence.

So why do I tango? Because Argentine tango conceals many profound spiritual lessons. Our relationship with God is meant to be one of intimacy and passion. So it is with tango. In the spiritual life, God leads and we follow. So it is in tango. In the Eucharist, God gives Himself away to us. The same should be true in tango. Argentine tango takes the abstract concepts of our faith and makes them concrete. Let me explain.

Couples dance the tango on the street at Boedo neighborhood in Buenos Aires, on October 3, 2009. The United Nations declared the tango tradition of Argentina and Uruguay a world cultural treasure, adding its sultry dance steps and melancholy song lyrics to UNESCO's heritage list. (Click to enlarge.) Photo from Getty Images.

Tango - Patrimonio de la Humanidad
Letter from Buenos Aires, December 11, 2008.
By Beatriz Dujovne

Feelings of impotence reign in Buenos Aires. I feel it in the air. Cab drivers tell me about it. The newspapers report it: government officials pad their pockets with funds that belong to the people and the country. Official thieving is rampant.

For a change, this government carried good news: The 24 members of UNESCO, an agency of the United Nations, through the initiative of the governments of Argentina and Uruguay, declared tango part of the world intangible cultural heritage last Wednesday. It gained this international recognition over 76 other immaterial world assets submitted for consideration.

On Thursday, posters printed and pasted by the city were everywhere. This is one of many, each of which featured a different tango icon:

Poster of Piazzolla commemorating UNESCO's granting of "protected cultural status" to the tango. (Click to enlarge.)

Many porteños shrugged their shoulders, quite aware that tango had reached all corners of the world by itself, and survived the most difficult times without government involvement. Others were unfazed, as they thought issues of unemployment and safety needed more attention than tango.  For the majority, the news was worthy of celebration. Reflecting the national ambivalence, singer Nelly Omar (98 years old) said: “I am not interested in the honor. I am, if those in power will give new musicians the space they need to work.”

Alberto Podesta singing at Avenida Boedo October . (Click to enlarge.)

Two days after the announcement, in Avenida Boedo, the barrio where the tango literature of the 30s and 40s was brewed (many poets and musicians lived or frequented the barrio’s cafes), an impressive black stage was mounted from sidewalk to sidewalk. On Saturday, a multitude of hundreds (perhaps larger) gathered to hear five iconic singers who the city had enlisted for the occasion, none under 80 years of age. The standing crowd, which extended one block long, listened with utmost reverence to Ruben Cane (b. 1927), Osvaldo Ribó (b. 1927), Julio Martel (b. 1923), Juan Carlos Godoy (b. 1922), and Alberto Podesta (b. 1924), who took turns on the stage. Elegantly dressed in black tie, each gave us three songs. Visuals of each singer’s childhood preceded his appearance. Nostalgic oversized photographs from the 40s and 50s, the familiar pictures that we see in CD covers, were projected at the left of the stage while each sung.

Ruben Cane. (Click to enlarge.)

Ruben Cane again. (Click to enlarge.)

Old and young spectators were in awe. The group’s emotion was profound; it was expressed in religious silence.

Osvaldo Ribó. (Click to enlarge.)

Juan Carlos Godoy. (Click to enlarge.)

As a finale, the five men lined up and sang “Vieja Serenata,” but not in unison. Each delivered a few verses and passed the microphone to the next. Their memories were faultless. I was amazed that, most likely without rehearsal, as each man passed the microphone, the next in line picked up where the other left without any hesitation. I could hear some whispering: “Can you believe he still has this voice?”

When it was over, I ran to the stairs where they would be descending from the stage. I stood there and watched each one march down. A woman spoke for me when she engaged my eyes and said: “Siento una ternura mirandolos” (I feel a tenderness watching them).

Prior to the grand outdoor milonga where Horacio Godoy was the MC and DJ, Hiroshi y Kyoko Yamao, the winners of the 2009 tango salon competition in Buenos Aires, performed two tangos. They were warmly welcomed and applauded.  To the amazement of the dancers, porteños asked them for an encore.

Hiroshi and Kyoko Yamao. (Click to enlarge.)

I felt touched noticing that the integrationist spirit that gave birth to tango still lives on. The invitation of the Japanese to this unique celebration told me so.

(Copyright (c) 2008 Beatriz Dujovne)

Very tender....
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