Tango Spell

I was in the big hall with my partner waiting for them to come. I was talking to my good friend who was organising the event but the anticipation was too great. Suddently, she walks in. Much prettier than I thought she was in the thousands of videos I had seen her dancing in. Dressed in black with heavy leather boots. She said "Hola!" and ice was broken, I was just about to have a private class with Natacha Poberaj, if you haven't heard of her then you should really review what you've been doing in youtube all these years.
Eduardo "El gaucho" Villegas was very concentrated making his coffee but had to hurry into the class. A shirt stating "De Puta Madre" and a very amicable smile. we can't forget the tango dancer.
Shoes on, black Matrix cape off, hair loose, she asked me to lead her. Chest to chest, no tango embrace. She corrected me here and there, told me to stretch my legs. We started again. I could only smile to her "Esso! Esso!".
Natacha reminded me of something that I hadn't been paying attention for years. Breathing. It's amazing how a deep breath can add SO much to your tango. The intention becomes bigger, the suspense immense and the momentum sky rockets into another galaxy. But what made me happy for the rest of the day was something that she told me in my ear while we were dancing , "Your embrace is beautiful. Don't lose it!". I will never forget this class.

Tango game

Artur is probably one of the only few people from my hometown that has surrendered to Argentinian Tango. He writes in a really nice blog, Tango Atlântico, which is written in Portuguese and as such, inaccessible to most of you. I have the pleasure of having him as a guest tangologuer. I hope you like it!

I believe there are more blacks and whites on the rules in the milonga rather than grays. I do have a lot of sympathy for women who walk alone in milonga and patiently wait to be invited to dance. Lets be clear in this game that the role of the leader is easier, by the simple fact he dances whenever he wants. If followers are available he always dances his favorite music. For women this is not exactly true. Men normally find that a good milonga it is a milonga where the number of women it is higher than men. Leaders like to choose and followers like to be chosen. Women have to play the game of making the men invite her to dance. The women have to be shown for the first time to be invited again. For women, high mood and great self-esteem helps a lot, as weel as being sighted in a visible position in the room. Especially in US and Europe, no one gets upset if women go and ask the men to dance. Cabeceo is something that it is only fully understood after being in Buenos Aires. Just in a few milongas in France/Spain, the cabeceo is done, but nothing like in Buenos Aires. If you go with your partner, you have to step-away from your partner if both of you want to dance with others. Never dance more than one tanda in a row (or 3 tangos) with you partner. Then step aside, go to fetch a drink, go to toilet or invite immediately after other partner. If you stay chatting no one comes to interrupt your conversation if you are in an alien place. I do this with my wife and it works. Both of us dance, and normally she dances more than me.

He is alive!

Podestá is a tango singer who worked with two of my ever favourite maestros, Di Sarli and Laurenz (he worked with many others as well). I worship the magnific voice of Podestá (I have mentioned it before) as much as I admire the innovative spirit of De Caro, the courage of Piazzolla or the technique of Javier. I thought that he had died, given that I have recordings of him singing to Laurenz as early as 1942 but today I heard that he is still alive! Not only is he alive but also he performs 3 or 4 times per week!

His interpretation of "Alma de Bohemio" is one of the finest examples of sung tango. Actually, up until 2 minutes ago (when writing this post) I didn't know of the fuss that this version created at the time as said by the own Podestá
"«Uno de los más grandes personajes que conocí en el mundo del tango fue Pedro Laurenz. Era todo un cajetilla. Se podía decir que era uno de los directores de orquesta más elegantes que había. Cuando me llamó a cantar con él, luego de arreglar, pregunté donde se hacía la ropa la orquesta, cuando me dijeron que era en Spiro y Demetrio casi me caigo, era una de las sastrerías más caras de Buenos Aires. Con Laurenz uno debía llevar toda la ropa al tono: cCamisas, medias, corbatas y pañuelos. Con él viví lindos momentos y con él, el público me identificó por un tema "Alma de bohemio", que todavía hoy es mi caballito de batalla."
Here it is the version with Laurenz, one of my favourite tangos!

I copied this from the website

Admission is 50 pesos (16 dollars), two people get a battle of wine, the typical Buenos Aires' sandwiches "de miga", and pan dulce. At La Cumparsita, the staff is courteous, they want people to have a good time. A couple dancers also perform, and then invite members of the audience to dance with them.

The atmosphere is not glitzy, it is real and personal. It is easy to talk with the artists because the place is small, and they are sitting next to you as they wait for their turn to sing; also, they love to talk about what they do.

La Cumparsita welcomes locals as well as tourists, most of whom were from Latin America; for some reason American visitors do not get there. Usually the audience gets very emotional when Podestá sings, for he gives his heart out in every song he performs.

I know where I have to go when I go to BsAs!

I am SO happy!

The fight of the intellectual alter-egos

In the group Tango-UK there is fruitfull discussion about tango and neo tango. Amongst some precious gems (as in someone stating that someone else said very concisively THE truth, therefore creating a solution for all those philosophers that have long been searching THE truth but never found it) you cannot stop noticing how they try to demonstrate how knowlegeable by adding the exact details of a version of their favourite music in the end of the post... It really looks like a Cockerel fight!
Now that we mention cockerel fights maybe I should add (and show off a little bit my 10p worth of tango knowledge ;o) that this was the inspiring idea for the known tango "Gallo Ciego", literally meaning Blind Cockerel. Roosters cannot co-exist, there can only be one and when two are put together there can only be one standing. The first thing rooster do is to try to beak the opponent's eye. Hence the name of the track. And it really sounds like a rooster fight! So I'll leave you in the company of Mr Rodriguez and Ms Rojas, exemplifying how beautiful a Cockerel fight can be!

Horacio Godoy, Cecilia García and a funny? milonga

Horacio y Cecilia
And my question is what do you think of THIS?

Passive leading

We're coming into a tricky business. The laws of tango say that leader leads and follower follows. Surely, in (proper) tango, at any time, the leader should be the one that ultimately decides what to do with the movement. Not only the embrace is structured in a way that the leader has that power (the right arm below the follower's left axilla, to ensure the most efficient energy transfer) but also the leader has an angle of vision that the follower doesn't. These and other make the role of leading very clear.
But like many civil laws, there is a loophole in the law of leading. Nothing stops the follower to suggest the leader a certain movement, provided that (1) the follower can actually be subtle enough to do so, (2) the leader has the receptivity to it and (3) that the follower has strong navigational cues and knows where the movement is going.
This has been taught to me since I became a post-intermediate by my teachers in Edinburgh, Ricardo Oria and Jenny Frances (they did teach me this since the beginning, but they waited until I matured enough to actively make me do it). But the moment when it clicked was when I had my first workshop with the great Rodolfo y Gloria Dinzel. Rodolfo has an incredible charisma and Gloria has an aura of glow that you will attract you like a magnet. What they say sticks to your mind, whether you like them or not (I learnt that they elicit as much passion as hate). The idea is that if tango wants to be a true communication between partners, then the message should go both ways. The connection between the follower and the leader should be the one that, provided that the three criteria above mentioned are fullfiled, it allows both partners to have an active role.
Let's imagine a simple situation illustrated by mshedgehog that tells us about the simplest form of passive leading. The guy is going to step back, the lady sees somebody stepping into the place he is going to step and exerts a small pressure on his back. This should tell the leader that he should not take that step. But if the follower is quite good at passive leading, she might even lead him to do another step, maybe a giro or a walk forwards, avoiding the disruption of the sudden change of movement. From here onwards, the concept of passive leading can extend to the point that the whole dance is a constant flow and backflow of leading and following. Both partners become leaders and both become followers... Instead of the unilateral dialogue with the pauses so that the other partner can finish the sentence, a dialogue in which the words travel smoothly from mouth to mouth.

Life is not black and white. And neither is tango!

I have seen far too many posts of women complaining that some man only (or mostly) invite single women to dance. The first assumption is that those men simply want a bit more than a dance, they want a fling, a one night stand, something along those lines...
While I am absolutely certain that in lots of occasions that is the case I would like to point out that some men don't feel confident to ask women around when they have a partner. It happened to me many times. A good follower comes around, I want to ask her to dance but she is dancing with her partner and in the few moments they are not dancing they are observing or talking to each other. Hey, I can't explain it, but it's definitely easier to invite a girl that is alone (and had no one to dance anyway) than someone who comes "sheltered" by a pair.
I have also noticed that it has happened to my partner as well. We go to an unknown milonga and she gets much less dances than when she goes on her own. It is certainly not because the lack of abilities as I find that she is usually well above the average wherever she goes. We don't give any particular signs that we do not want people to come and ask for a dance.
I don't really know how to circumvent this problem. What I want the general female public to be aware is that we man have to do quite a hard task, to take initiative and ask for a dance. Shades of grey do exist in the tango world.

floorcraft - the last pre-requisite for advanced dancers

Let's start with an analogy. When you're driving a car you make sure that you're not going to bang it against the car in front of you right? Indeed, you try and drive in a way that your hot date, just sitting on your side, feels safe, right? You watch over when you change lanes, you stop on the red light. You may drive fast or slow but in the end of the day, you want to get wherever you're going without crashing your car against whatever comes across your way. Tango requires the same skill.
A few examples for the leader:
- You should make sure that you don't stick your partner's stilletos down someone's heel because you weren't looking who was in front of you. It doesn't look good on you and definitely it doesn't feel good to the person that was stabbed. Accidents happen, but with care, they happen rarely.
- Do not lead a voleo when there is someone in front of you. That is not only bad tango, is stupidity as well. I remember when I saw Kikka Tomasi being wipped by a stilleto in an Edinburgh milonga. Her leg had a 5 cm wide cut and she was in danger of not being able to perform for the Edinburgh Festival show.
- Ever wondered why the best tango teachers ALWAYS dance in the outside of the line of dance? If you're a bit clever you probably figured out that that is the best way to circumvent the fact that you can't be Superman and look through your partner's skull (hence, look if there is someone at your right).
- Be unpredictable to your partner, not to the other dancers! The art of good dancing requires the art of being sensible and avoid the impulse of "There is an empty space, I'll go there!". Sorry, tango demands that you look at who's around and to see if a couple has already committed to go to that empty space before you did. It should be clear that you shouldn't go there. If that is not clear, stay at home.
- And please, for whoever-you-love's sake, if you're going to step back, make sure that there is nobody there! It isn't rocket science, is just common sense!
For the followers (yes, because contrarily to what popular belief is, followers also have a role in floorcraft):
- Two neurons together (and working) should be enough for you to realise that in a crowded milonga, a short and soft voleo by your leader should be corresponded with a low voleo by you. Your partner will be happy, you'll be happy, if anybody is watching they will be happy and the next couple will be eternally greatful.
- Again, when you're dancing tango in a crowded danceflor remember, you are a tango dancer not a lawn mower. Your movements should be neat and controlled, reflecting the energy that the leader puts into it. Your interpretation of the music is priceless but unless you have an eye on the back of your head, stick to what the leader tells you and build your moves on top of that.
There are more examples to quote but the aim of this post is not to list them. I hope you got the idea - the true advanced tanguero is the one who knows how to behave on a dancefloor.

Tango lullaby / Early education

I came across a sweet lady at a milonga recently. She told me about her kids and I asked her if she ever teaches them tango. She replied, "they don't need to be taught, they already do it without instruction!" She continued by telling me that she listened to tango music throughout her pregnancy with her first child. After birth, she used to take her baby to afternoon milongas, and if the baby was crying, it'd immediately stop crying as soon as it could hear tango music!

Aahhh....

DJing tango - not just chucking your favourite music

This weekend was pretty hectic. I was DJing in Bristol on saturday and in Market Harborough (Leicestershire) on sunday. Both milongas went pretty well, I can say that most of the time two thirds of the people were up dancing and I got good feedback in the end of it.
However, these two milongas had completely different audiences and requirements. I know Bristol tango rather well, not a place for many of the most contemporary of sounds and La Rosa's Whiteladies milonga doesn't go out of that way. However, when I put Sin Rumbo from Otros Aires everybody stood up and went dancing. I decided to follow that with Mi Corazon from Bajofondo and the same. In the end, an Italian tanguera told me that she really likes this kind of music but nobody ever plays it. I got the impression that, allowing for some exceptions, this was the general feeling. Are DJs making a good job?
In Market Harborough there is an older crowd that likes their golden age tangoes. They are very English and it would be the last place that you'd think neotango would be danced to. Well, in fact, I was asked to put some and when Whatever Lola Wants (I was asked to put that, to be honest is not on my favourites to dance to) came on, everybody looked at each other and rose up to go dancing.
My point in this post is that what you like to dance is not necessarily what other people like to dance. My tango mentor, Ricardo Oria, told me once that the DJ's ego has to stay at home. In a milonga, the crowd is who is paying to dance and you have to be flexible enough to cater for the requirements.
The golden age will always be the golden age! I don't think we'll ever get a period like it. But, more importantly, tango is more than the golden age. The good DJ is the DJ that understands that.

Web 2.0 generation of tango

I remember that when I started tango the only way to see the top couples dancing was by having them to come to your place for tutoring and the occasional demo. Nowadays, full classes, demos and interviews are only a click away in Youtube or something like that.
Is this good? In a way, it allows tangoers to see more styles and more moves and it broadens their horizonts. However, it has the other side of the coin:
1 - you get more and more people trying to learn complicated steps online before they know how to walk properly, ignoring basic concepts that underlie those same steps they want to learn.
2 - you start getting Chicho's or Pablo Verón wannabes. Now, I have seen Chicho dancing in milongas and he doesn't do a 100th of the fantasia steps that he does on his demos. Wannabes do not understand this and they are the reason why some milongas get craply rated.
3 - Having seen 100 times you favourite dancer and trying to mimmick all his moves doesn't make you like him. It makes you a cheap imitation.


In conclusion, watch the videos in youtube from your idols but remember - be yourself when you dance rather than a regurgitation of somebody else.

Fernando Sanchez

He may not be a headliner of the most fashionable tango festivals (that is reserved to a restrict number of couples) and most of you may not have heard of him but Fernando Sanchez is a fantastic teacher. He teaches with Nayla Vacca and recently they moved to Leeds for a few months. I had a private lesson with him (Eleni brought him over to Birmingham) and I was very glad that he could give such a precious amount of feedback. If you want to have good tuition he is worth the trip to Leeds. I did not get the opportunity to meet Nayla but judging by the video, he is in good company.

PS - I am embedding a non-choreographed video. It looks more natural!

Tango: my food, my poison

Tango is like food for me. Without it, I can't live. There is no way around it. If I can't dance it, I have to listen to it, watch it, read about it, feel it, think it. I am sure I am not the only one, most of you think like I do, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this. ;o)
We revolve our life around tango. Suddently, our job becomes something you have to do when you're not thinking about tango. Your friends have to accommodate the milonga times, your kitchen becomes an improvised dancing space to practise whatever you can while the kettle boils, blogger comes up before your email in your most used websites, itunes says that the 50 most played tracks are tangos and Mr Visa is pissed off with you because those shoes looked great so you had to buy them. In fact you're finding it difficult to spend long times with non-tango people because you can't talk about it with them.
And that's when tango starts to taste bitter. When you have to choose between a life and tango. When tango becomes a necessity, creates addiction, takes over your life. Like in tango, in life, there should be a balance. A fine balance.

If visualised:

For those of you who are more visually oriented like me, the pictures shown below are clear and simple analogies of the differences in embrace between Ballroom tango and Argentine tango.

Ballroom Tango

vs

Argentine (true) Tango

*Notice the nocturnal backdrop and fabulous illuminations of la Tour Eiffel, as opposed to the empty cocktail glass.

Making tango a protected brand!

The popularity of Champagne has been great ever since the monks in France decided to reveal their experiments with wine. The result of that popularity was an opportunistic and thriving copy-cat of wines made by the same method. As a result, the French reserved the right to call Champagne only to wines produced within the region of Champagne. All the others had to be called something else: sparkling wine, or Cava, Spumantti, Espumante...

Like those Sparkling wines, ballroom tango was allowed to carry the word “tango”. Now this is annoying and makes it extremely misleading, leading lay people to think that tango is danced as if someone had something stuck up the back-passage at the same time that bites a rose. I don’t blame them, - that’s what comes on blockbuster films!

On top of this, there is a proliferation of (so called) Argentine Tango schools teaching this dance in a set of choreographed moves. They even have number for the moves and the other day I heard that someone knows as far as move number 8! Tango Lego MUST be eradicated! The soul of tango is in the pure improvisation.

These are the reasons why the tango community should try to protect the Argentine Tango brand. To protect Tango from those who only want to make money out of it. How would this be done? Creating a Think Tank? Any ideas?

Post Scriptum - Straight after writing this post i found this post by mshedgehog that goes in phase with what has been written here. Pure coincidence but it shows that more people are worried about this matter!

Tango and Fado

Two ports, two cities overlooking the Atlantic, two music styles. One dominated by the bandoneon, the other dominated by one of the most fragile instruments on earth, the Portuguese guitar (it can actually get out of tone just by shifting it 10C!).
Fado (also meaning fate) is the Portuguese equivalent of tango, the Portuguese blues. Initially it was danced to but gradually it moved from the music halls to the restaurants where it started to be only listened to. It is usually a sad, languid music style but it can get quite happy and joyful.
In Portugal it's rare to go to a milonga that doesn't play a fado or two along with tango. It's surprisingly tango-friendly and because the essence of both styles is so close, it fits perfectly and doesn't feel out of place.
Below, Juan Capprioti and Graciana Romeo dance to a piece from Camane. To be honest I have seen them dacing to other songs (that I prefer) but this seems to be the only one on youtube. I hope you enjoy it and I would like to know (especially those of you who do not like to dance to non-tango music) your opinion!

Neo tango rant!

Sharna Fabiano seems to be a name to take into account on the other side of the Atlantic. She was recently nominated as one of the ones to watch in an American dance magazine and I heard high opinions about her. So, I went to her website, neotango.
Sharna gives us a extensive list of tracks that we can dance tango to. Fine, I personally like to dance tango to non traditional tango music so I was excited! I started going down the list...
"I Don't Feel So Well" by Vienna Teng, by "A thousand years" by Sting... They are NOT TANGOS! Sharna is feeding what seems to be a rapid build up of antibodies against neotango because she is stating that non-tango tracks are neotango! I can understand how some people in the States are so upset at neotango. But maybe they are upset at non-tango!
Neotango is music made out of tango with a contemporary twist into it. Neotango should have the Argentinian Tango mark in it, it should be a music that makes one reminisce of tango when listening to it, not simply a track that is tango-danceable!
I personally like dancing non-tango musics to tango but that is what they are, non-tango musics! There is a hell of a difference between A Thousand years and Mi Corazon. Sharna should know better than that!

Tagged!

I don't like chain letters and even signed the petition online to get rid of them. But this sounds like an exception. As far as I know, tangobaby tagged us. A little thing, this blog is written by 4 people (although I seem to be the one that logoorrheates most) but this is only my side of things!
The rules are
1 - Link to the blog who tagged you

2 - Post the rules on your blog
- Share seven random and/or weird things about yourself.
- Tag seven people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
- Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1 – My hands and feet are always cold (I try to warm them up before going to tango)! As they say in the place where I am from, cold hands, warm heart.

2 – I love to cook to alleviate stress. It’s double tasty!

3 – My eyes change colour. I never understood what triggers it but they go from greenish grey to emerald green. I must be a freak.

4 – I was once in a train Warsaw-bound thinking I was in a train to Budapest. I got out of the train just in time to board another train that was going to... Bucharest! It doesn’t stop here, I ended up going to Prague!

5 – Just like Amelie Poulain, I love sticking my hands in bags of beans and I can’t get enough of breaking the surface of thin ice on lakes.

6 – I don’t like when I am dancing and people hum. I’m sorry, it just interferes with my concentration!

7 – Once, for Carnaval, I dressed up like a woman and got chatted up... by a friend of mine! (I looked fantastic)

So the blogs I am tagging are:
A time to dance
Great Dance
Tango Atlântico
Abrazo (we all have hope)
Mesa da Ciência
tangobaby (aha!)
Quartos Escuros

Arguments against cortinas

I'm in the mood to go against the current.

Generally, I don't like frequent cortinas. I also strongly dislike ghastly cortinas that are either confusing (because it's similar to tango) or just simply crappy (because it's unpleasant to listen to). It doesn't stop me from going to a milonga necessarily, but I would rather if there weren't any or not very frequent at least. I totally understand that from a DJ's point of view, it is useful to use them. Some people do use them well.

The reasons why I don't like cortinas:

1) When I've been dancing & connecting really well with someone, and I'm in this lovely bubble, you want to carry on without a "back-to-reality" or "must-talk-but-a-bit-awkward" interference. I find that a cortina can be a mood-breaker.

2) When you don't like dancing with someone, and you want to end it before the 3rd dance, you END it, regardless of whether there is an interference (cortina) or not.

3) I personally prefer to have a number of tandas, then have one big break (a whole song or two) so that I can actually have a substantial conversation with someone (or dance salsa or whatever, if you like). Rather than a few seconds of cortina, where you can't really converse properly.

4) I like the continuous influx and efflux of people on the dance floor. It seems more natural.

5) Why should my breaks be dictated by the DJ? Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 dances to get me going. Why should I be stopped?

So, just because they have cortinas in Buenos Aires, it doesn't mean we have to, right?

What we would like a beginner-follower to do, or 'not' to do

Together with mshedgehog we have listed the skills that we believe a beginner-follower should have to be sucessful on the dance floor. If you would like to see mshedgehog's opinion on leaders, check it out here.

Assuming that the follower is female and the leader is male:

EMBRACE
We would like her
· Not to look down to the feet.
· Not to tug on to the leader with her left or/and right hands.
· To keep her right arm firm but elastic, giving the leader adequate amount of resistance.
· Not to be afraid of the closeness required in an embrace (don’t worry too much about the presence of the breasts, apparently one in two people have them).
· To try and maintain the chest and hips parallel to those of the leader as much as the dance allows them to.

WALK
We would like her
· To maintain her own weight at all times except when specific movements require her to rely on her partner’s weight or support.
· To try and stay close to the leader and not move away from him unnecessarily.
· To obey the dynamic of the leader and return the energy transmitted by him.
· To stretch her legs back far enough so that the leader can step forward comfortably.
· To try and close both knees and feet together as though they are bound to each other by elastic bands.
· Not to bop up and down.

DANCE
We would like her
· Not to change her weight from right to left or vice versa unless indicated.
· To keep her embellishment to her minimum at this level.
· Not to ‘lead’ the leader by force (the skills for passive leading should come as she improves generally).
· To be aware of the rhythm but should always follow the leader’s dance (as she goes up the levels she will be able to incorporate her own interpretation of music without breaking the equilibrium.)

MISCELLANEOUS
We would like her
· To take care of her body odour but she should not wear too much perfume.
· To minimise the amount of make-up and accessories she wears so that it doesn’t damage the leader’s clothing or disrupt the dance in any way.
· Not to chat constantly during a dance.

*Some individuals do not like their partners to hum while dancing. Personally, I don’t mind it at all. Because firstly, I do it from time to time. Secondly, it lets me know that my partner is enjoying the music, and perhaps, it helps him to dance with the music. I would much rather if he can dance well to the music and hum/sing than if he cannot dance to the music at all.