Ney Melo and Jeniffer Bratt

This past Fri-Sun was a delicious tango weekend in Gainesville with Ney and Jeniffer.



A pair of nice young people, great dancers, enthusiastic teachers, and very, very friendly and approachable, they represent a very nice blend of classic and modern tango. The most noticeable feature is the posture they promote. I recognize it with many dancers today, most notably Julio Balmaceda and Corina de la Rosa.



That posture is where the torso is slightly bent forward with the weight straight on top of the middle of the feet with straight legs, for the most part. It allows for a great degree of freedom of movement between the two dancers while maintaining close connection and an illusion of leaning. One must be careful, though, not to bend lower back forward which may result in an injury.

It was really a very nice weekend tango escape with a great group of friends from Tallahassee, Gainesville, Tampa area and anywhere in between.

Why BA?

As it is usually the case with e-mailing lists, topics occasionally reoccur for the benefit of the new members. And so it was recently with Tango-L, a list "for discussion of any aspect of the Argentine Tango." Discussion about what is and what is not tango, or tango nuevo, or alternative milongas and all that raised its head once more.

Then a related topic was touched briefly about the evolving art of tango and what is so special about the relationship between Buenos Aires and tango. One post caught my attention. It was by Dierdre N. Black I reproduce it here with Dierdre's permission.

Well, let's see....where to begin? First of all, as a professional ballet/contemporary dancer, for a large portion of my life, I appreciate that dance needs to be a "lively art" and therefore, continually evolving, changing and reflecting, to a large extent, cultural/era specificities(such as: "cargo pants" vs "tango suits", etc.).....I'm definitely down with that concept! Yet, today, we are still able to enjoy the great, classical ballets, frozen in time, as well as the most contemporary and avant garde ones and they are all called "ballet". Supposedly, the Finnish tango is "frozen" in the tango of the twenties and they have no interest in evolving their style. Is this a more "real tango" because it hasn't changed, for almost 100 years? Or is "it" more from contemporary pilgrims/portenos, living in BA, evolving the dance, daily; sometimes(depending), dancing tango in cargo pants, flip flops and to Elvis Presley, others, in the little black dress, high heels and to Troilo? Who's to say? Both of these views of tango(plus the entire continuum between)are valid, here and worth considering, in this discussion, I feel.

Perhaps, we are asking the wrong questions. Perhaps, tango afficionados are missing the point and think they only come to BA to dance "the real, classic Argentine tango", to find that, instead, there is a lively art, here, changing with the times/fashions/artists, like any other viable art will do and maybe, looking for the "real tango", in BA, is like trying to know the sound of one hand clapping. Instead, after living here for three, amazing years, I have found that the tango is sooo much more than just a dance(or specific "style", thereof)...the actual dance appears to be merely the "tip of the tango iceberg", if you will. Instead, you will find the "real tango" in the blood of the rioplatense(Uruguayos, tambien/Montevideo)people, being expressed daily, in their attitudes, customs, desires, food, wine, humor, rhythms of life(even tho they don't dance a lick), as well as in the glorious, hothouse world of musicians, dancers, singers, composers, of the tango classico. The dance does not exist in an artistic vacuum but rather, in the context of this culture and that is what, in the end, I believe people come here, for...to "feel the tango" context, rather than determine a "perfect style". In fact the more you are here, the more open that definition becomes. If there IS any one, consistent element that continues to run through all these discussions, though, it's the "connection" of tango that people seek, within themselves and each other and BA provides that constant feeling of connection, with your family, neighbors, dance buds and "the BA life", from whence this seductive dance comes. There's nothing like "swimming in the BA soup for awhile" just to make your tango more juicy, soulful and connected, no matter what style you prefer. Also, not just attending classes and milongas, while here but going to theatre, opera, poetry readings, tango music/singer performances(no dancing), art/photog shows, will make your tango dancing better..... not necessarily more classic, flashier, better technically or even more nuevo(2-3 weeks simply isn't enough to accomplish that, even with intensives)but more importantly, you can go away with "many more miles" and a more organic center/perspective that can't be replicated anywhere else. You can experience directly, the cultural position that the dance of tango inhabits, in this warm, sensual city/country(and Uruguay, btw). Then, your personal style merely becomes the "icing on your tango cake".

Besos y abrazos, Dierdre N. Black

tango and marching

When I was 8 and a half years old (back in 1958) my father taught me to play an althorn and for the next almost ten years I played in the marching-symphonic band in my hometown, Dubrovnik. I loved it. I loved playing marching music while marching along the old city cobblestone streets (really setts)-- especially the old "Stradun" (by the way, we used to play a march which if our marching speed was just right, we'd start at one end of Stradun and finish at the other exactly - it was fun doing it that way).

Well, anyway. A few years later I was "promoted" to play the baritone horn, which gave me the chance to be a soloist during our sit-down concerts. But, it was marching while playing that got deeply embedded into me.

My father told me the stories of Italian "bersaglieri" and their marching bands, which used to come visit to Dubrovnik in the 20s and the 30s, and how he and his friends marveled at the skill of those players to play so well while kind of jogging down the street with the resulting overall adrenalin-pumping, uplifting feeling.

Now, as a consummate tango dancer, I can not help but re-live that same exquisite marching-to-the-music feeling, especially when a Donato or Biagi happy sounding tangos are played. Take "Lonjazos," for example. Can't you just see the bersaglieri band marching/jogging down the street? I can and feel. And it makes me sigh with a happy feeling.

so, what is this thing we call tango?

Take a minute and read this brilliant blog entry with the provocative title "Mi Buenos Aires, querido ..." by La Nuit Blanche. It is all about tango in its full meaning.

What a blessing that all these cultures collided and colluded in that one place resulting in great things among which tango is its beacon light. It offers a direct line to a very fundamental humanity in you if you let yourself really touch all of its secrets. This life is indeed not a rehearsal. Feel, feel, feel, .... feel its pulsating rivers within yourself, let them take you to a journey with no end. Smile and love with no limits and no reservations!

Mimi

It's almost finished, Mimi's two week visit in our neighborhood. Somehow when she teaches me to dance a better tango, I do not want her to ever stop teaching. I don't know she does it, but it must be her enormous love for tango and mountains of knowledge and experience.

Mimi definitely has strong, very strong opinions about how it's done. And it may take you a while to "see" what she is doing and why. But then, things just start clicking and then it's up to you, well me, to take all that wealth and drill the techniques. Once you really feel what is going when using (at least some of) Mimi's techniques, you will want more of the same. Well, I do anyway.

Thank you, Mimi Santapa, "La Maestra de Los Maestros" for so generously spreading your riches. I feel lucky.

And, I must say that it is all Gordon's fault - thank you Gordon. My friend Gordon encountered Mimi's teaching in France some years ago. She was then his guest in Tallytown last year - things did not quite click for me then - and than again now. She is promising to return next year.

... and he smelled good!

The other day a friend and I were returning from a short trip to a milonga somewhere in North Florida and, of course, we talked about our dance experience among other things. So, my friend started talking about this one dancer whom we both thought of as a good dancer and a good looking man. But then, my friend added "and he smelled good" with a smile on her face.

So, all you dancers out there, do not think that your personal hygiene is not a factor, for it is indeed a factor that makes an enjoyable dance possible. I see many men dancing with their shirts thoroughly soaked with perspiration. At least make sure you bring one or more shirt changes.

Atlantis

Last night I went to Atlantis, a Tallahassee bar and grill sort of restaurant with fine food and atmosphere. One half of the dig is the restaurant, the other a dance lounge sort of place with nice cabaret-style booths along one side, a raised DJ stand on the other with a large mirror in front of it, and a fairly good floor. There is dancing on most evenings.

Wednesday is advertised as the "Argentine Tango" night. I do remember several years ago coming to Atlantis on Tuesdays to dance (they switched to Wednesdays some time ago)-- I DJ-ed some of those events. Those were the days when we actually danced tandas of argentine tangos, milongas, and valses. The floor was crowded most of the time. Then things changed.

The music was really nice last night, but it was not tango at all, most of the pieces did not even resemble tango. Again, very nice, but not tango. I watched as one or two couple danced and was amused. While at least one couple danced very creatively, they did not seem to need the music to dance at all. So, clearly the fact that they moved about with some form of tango-like steps and figures to non-tango music did not matter to them.

I enjoyed the music and left after about an hour with no dancing to speak of. I miss Buenos Aires.

Clearly, for the people in Rio de la Plata region, tango is part of the culture, for the rest of the world it is only a dance.

After Milongueando 2009

It's been a month since Milongueando 2009 ended. It was a great gathering of tango lovers from around the world with those who personally witnessed its progress in the last .. oh, 40, 50, or 60 years. And it took me a year (since Milongueando 2008) to finally figure out the essential value of the gathering. I speculated about it, given the schedule of events, but only after having spoken with the two convenors, Maria Plazaola and Susana Miller, it became clear and confirmed. (My friend Shoko and I conducted video interviews with the two and will soon publish ot for all to see.)

This year, among other maestros we had Tete (and Silvia), Abel Peralta, Juan Manuel Suarez, Roberto Segarra, and Pedro Sanchez - all long time tango dancers and milongueros. Most of them with their own specific "style." And, while they were not necessarily teachers, they danced, their style evolved by dancing for decades and were in classes accompanied with teachers who could and did decompose some important aspect of the milonguero dancing in order to share it, make it accessible to us.

This was a genius concept. I hope Susana and Maria continue with it.

An evening view

The other day, late, late in the twilight hours, this great view presented itself to me from the 10th floor balcony.

Looking West:


Looking down Ayacucho towards Corrientes:

The day before I leave

So it has come to the last full day here in Buenos Aires for me (this time around :-). Dancing every day, studying and practicing for the last three weeks, and feeling the beat of the creative chaos of this great city under my feet everywhere (making sure that that beat is not softened too much by you-know-what, which you can occasionally find spread generously in front of you on the sidewalk as you innocently walk about).

So, after all of the fancy stuff, I must say that I still enjoyed the most dancing to the oldies like Donato. For example, last evening at El Beso (Lujos) I lucked out dancing the whole tanda of Donato (started with El Acomodo and finished with El Adios) with a very nice Polish lady, good dancer. Mmmmm... we were both in heaven and I just did not want it to stop.

There is something magical for me in that softly, slowly moving Donato's beat, it is both romantic and joyful even when the content is sad. So, when you both let go, when you surrender to the feeling of it, and move smoothly back and forth and around and up and down with the waves of that mesmerizing music, mmmmm... It's heaven when you truly feel one with your partner, both in body and in spirit.

At the end we both said "mmmm ... perhaps I'll see you again."

You know, this tango world is really quite small, albeit spread around. I often see familiar faces when I go from one milonga to another here. I see faces from other parts of the world which I might have seen years ago here or somewhere else. We all somehow perform this pilgrimage to the mecca of tango to recharge our batteries and return to our own corner of wilderness reinvigorated. Tango has that magic which hooks you and sweetly does not let go. Once you taste that candy you just want to keep it melting in you forever.

So, my dear Polish dancer, I hope to see you again somewhere, but in the meantime do spread your sweetness around generously, will you?

It is raining in Buenos Aires

It is Sunday. I was planning to walk to Recoleta/Palermo neigborhood, browse the Feria Artesanal and go to the Japanese Garden to visit with an old tree friend of mine and generally enjoy the day of leisure. But it has been raining almost steadily since last evening and it does not seem it will stop raining any time soon.

So, no walks today.

Luckily, I am reading a good book (Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope"), I have a nice floor to practice some, can occasionally peek through the balcony door to see what goes on out there, listen to good music from my iPod and await early evening hours to hop into a taxi and go to Maipu 444 for some dancing. C'est la vie!

Practilonga (or not)

Word "practilonga" (some spell it "practi-longa") is widely accepted term (at least in the USA) used to describe a social event where a group of people dance and practice dancing tango (and milonga and tango vals). It is a word resulting from melting two words together -- "milonga" and "practica" -- both commonly used in the tango world coming from Spanish.

The "rules" of behavior at a practilonga are not as strict as at a "milonga" (strictly dancing) where one of the most important no-nos is to do any sort of coaching on the floor, where music is usually played in "tandas" (sets of 3-4 like songs with a short 30-40 second interlude), the flow of dancing is observed closely, and there is generally much lesser level of extraneous noise (chat and such).

But, unlike in a "practica" where the atmosphere is sometimes quite chaotic and almost anything goes as long as it has something to do with tango, of course, in a practilonga, those who practice are expected to be a bit more cognizant of those who want to just dance and to respect their choice to do so by limiting their experimentation and noise levels. In turn, those who just dance are expected to be tolerant of those who practice.

So, practilonga works for both worlds - dance and practice - although with somewhat lessened impact. However, a practilonga is particularly useful for the beginners. So far so good.

Recently, a distinguished member of the Argentine ex patriot community in North Florida objected to the use of the term itself, calling it atrocious, and wished it had not been used. A whole slew of responses was generated, some seriously in support of the objection, some humorously offering alternatives. Here's a sampling of alternative terms: fauxlonga, quasilonga, milotango ....

After the festival

I intended (as I did the last year) to write every day of the festival about the festival experiences, but (just like it happened the last year - I will never learn) the time was preciously divvied up on doing things rather than writing about doing things. Soooo...

In summary, the festival was great. Lots of good workshops and great socializing with dancers. I plan on returning the next year.

One thing stood out though. It took me a year to figure out at least one of the major goals of the festival. We had a score of mostly old-by-age milongueros, who are not necessarily teachers, accompanied by the teachers teach workshops. And what would usually happen was that a milonguero would show a particular sequence and the teacher would teach the technique involved in achieving whatever the milonguero was showing.

At first, I though that was sort of weird, since tango is not about sequences, as we know. But, then it dawned on me that each one of those old-timers developed something very special in their dance in an organic way - by and large they were not taught dancers, but rather they learned via a long process of dancing. And they mostly really could not teach what they were doing systematically since their dance was not in their brain but in their heart and in their body memory.

Then the expert teachers like Susana, Maria and others, would "deconstruct" what milongueros were doing, they would distill the essential elements of it and teach methodically.

So, as a result, we got the benefit of both the practitioners and the teachers. To me that is the genius of the idea behind the Encquentro Milonguero. I hope they continue the same way into the future.

On the first day

It's Wednesday, the third day of Milongueando 2009 in Buenos Aires.

The first day, Monday, was the registration day plus the unforgettable Osvaldo Natucci talking about tango. Osvaldo is this amazingly animated guy, knowledgeable of tango, great DJ and a very special dancer - in my view, known for making loads of tiny steps in sort-of a running fashion.



Osvaldo's talk was superb as always. He loves the music, knows it, and talkes about it in a way that is truly contagious. You just can't help but being involved.

Last year I got his CD set (40 CDs which he uses for DJ-ing). The CDs are masterfully compiled, with the first 20 of a better quality than the second (I believe he did the "clen-up" as well). Highly recommended.

In the evening my friend and I went to Parakultural. Dancing was nice, the floor was crowded at times, but mostly allowed for nice dancing.

The demo dance that evening was totally amazing. The two young dancers, Daniel Tuero and Cecilia Riccinni, were beautiful as people, beautiful to watch, very expressive, technically precise, creative, musical, and were having fun. The choreographies were superb. Great performance. I especially liked their dancing A Everisto Carriego.

On my way

In about 30 minutes, my friend, Gordon, will (likely) pick me up, drive me to the Tallahassee Regional Airport to board the plane for Miami, followed by an overnight flight to Buenos Aires!

I am staying in a friend's apartment on Ayacucho y Lavalle, close to tango things happening. This is my fifth visit and it is almost like going home, at least to my tango home.

Another friend has already left Tallahassee a few hours ago and is traveling to Buenos Aires via New York. She arrives a few hours after I do. We share the apartment.

Will attend Milongueando 2009 followed by almost two weeks of "free lancing." Can't wait.

Tango elements, concepts, and techniques

The thoughts presented here are my first attempt to formalize and put into words a guide which I have developed in teaching tango - the dance. I will continue refining this guide in future blog entries.

When I teach tango to those new to it, and provided that I have about 15-20 hours to do it, I systematize it as follows. I introduce and work on elements, concepts, and techniques. In addition, I introduce exercises which are helpful in developing some aspects of technique.

Elements of tango dancing are those things which are always present in the dance. They are: walking, posture, embrace, connection, and musicality.

Concepts are those things which are applied in a certain situation or scenario of the dance. They include: tracks, cross or hook step, parallel and cross walk system, change of front, change of direction, code, elegance.

Techniques are those things which help us use a concept well. They include: weight transfer, pivoting, leg movement, body core maintenance, axis maintenance, balance, body disassociation, linear and circular/rotational movement.

tango or not tango

(copied from Dubravko's musings)

There was a recent discussion on Tango-L group about this video (see Milonga en Alemania):



Some comments were lamenting about the "tango nuevo" phenomenon and its repercussion.

I wrote (edited for the purpose of this post):

One thing I like about this context for dancing is the backdrop character of the music.

This music is not danced (tango music is danced) -- it provides a channel, a basis, an opportunity to amplify a mood. And then that mood is danced out in a very personal way, just as the amplified mood is a very personal matter.

Another point about this music is that, for me, it has an equalizing effect on dancing partners in a sense that allowsboth partners to fully and simultaneously create. It presents an enormous playground for improvisation.

In other words, when it is danced well (I have a long way to go, but desire to get there), it allows for a continuous change of traditional "roles" and thus the product, the whole spectrum of dance sensations, is co-creative. Very, very different from classic tango dancing.

As a mater of fact, if you dance to this music in a classic way, you will almost certainly get bored quickly. But venture into co-creation and you will be amazed by the whole new set of sensations. Certainly, some of the "classic" sensations are "out the window" too. Hence, you gain some and you lose some.

Of course, the classic tango is in a way co-creative as well, but with the "roles" very defined and maintained throughout the dance, with very few exceptions.

I am sure there are those on this list who see this in a very different light. I hope we realize that we should not be seeking "the truth" about it, but are simply sharing our own attitude about it which can not be right or wrong - it is very personal.

Finally, should this be called tango? I do not really care and do not wish to discuss at all.

My comment was really only about the music used for that clip not about the dancing. What do you think?

Tengo Miedo

(copied from Dubravko's musings)

Earlier today I was leafing through the copies of pages from a tango music book I borrowed from a friend thinking which one I'd like to learn. The first one catching my attention was "Tengo Miedo" (if it does not play from that page, try this one).

What a great old tango (it was apparently written in 1929). So, I strummed my guitar and hummed and later sang it with a vigor of new discovery.

Then, I said let me see what I can find out on the web about it. Needless to say, there is lots. I went to Youtube links and found a clip of Carlitos Gardel and Julio Sosa among others (two very different interpretations, I love the Gardel one with the guitars).

A bit further down on the list of links was this one to Three Women of Tango. I thought, great, women are not quite as talked about in tango as men are. What I found was a great story. Well, really three stories, all in one way or another related to "Tengo Miedo." I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Tango dancing, singing or reading about it provides me with endless pleasures. It must be magic. No end in sight! Salimos?

Intro

I just created this new blog dedicated to tango only. The other blog, my main train, has started to get mixed up with other stuff. So, in a bit, there will more stuff here, as soon as I get it all set up properly.

I will start by copying my "tango" posts from "Dubravko's musings" blog.