Performing Gender - Tango in the milongas of BsAs

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2006. I arrive on a Monday morning. Monday night finds me in Parakultural. Scene one - I enter the hall full of tables with white linen and familiar music, astonished by the near theatricality in people's gestures. Scene two - I am sat at a table with an American girl, I order a beer that turns out to be huge. After that, a tap in my shoulder, my first invitation for a dance. And then another and then another. From the corner of my eye I think I see Rosita Quiroga, transparent, elegantly marking the beat with her heal.
***
Three years later, I remember the dizzy excitement of dancing and the cultural shock by the machismo of the culture I experienced in the milongas. I came from a tango culture where dancing with a man didn't necessarily have a sexual connotation. Back to the Mecca of tango I found a gender performativity that reduced the tango dance into three minutes of courting, a mere chance for the macho personality to be reinforced. The etiquette had nothing to do with all that. I liked being asked by cabeceo gestures and being returned to me seat. It was the ridiculous behaviour and remarks of those who danced with me that made it obvious that in BsAs there is a strong echo of a sexism in the tango culture. It was obvious that the fact that I was not Argentinian and not accompanied by a man, made the "symptoms" of machismo much stronger.

Apparently I am not the only one who felt that way. Adriana Pegorer published a virtual presentation entitled 'Performing Gender: Tango in the Milongas of Buenos Aires' where there is a first attempt to point out the sexist character of tango behaviour.
You can view it here and here

I don't know what would be my experience if I stayed in Buenos Aires for longer. If people got to know me maybe they would start treating me like a person, instead of like the object to verify their manliness.

I must say that my experience in classes, such as classes in Tango Brujo and la mariposita, were very different, as there were young people from all over the world who showed an honest interest to learn along with other students. There I found a genuinely enthusiastic and youthful attitude where gender seemed to play no role.

Is the influence of tango tourism changing the machismo of Argentinian culture, as my first experience suggests? I need to go back and see.

Privileged

Sometimes I come here and moan about how tango is difficult, how I can't get my walk to look as good as I want it to be, how you should put the weight on the left foot instead of the right or how bad it is when I can't dance for a week because there is nothing on...
I have recently started a junior rotation in a physical rehabilitation ward. Most people there are well over their 70s, they're very fragile and most are bed bound. The other day, when talking to a patient, she was confessing how depressed she was because she knew that her knee problem wouldn't allow her to dance again... When she said this I felt bad. I felt that my complaints were so futile, so out of nothing, after all, what's a week without dancing because I went on vacations compared to this lady's problem?
I feel privileged I have two legs and I have access to tango once every often, though not as much as I would like... I feel privileged that despite financial constraints I can afford to have classes with fantastic teachers who broaden my tango dictionary to limits I never knew existed. I feel privileged that I had the opportunity to know you all via this blog and that I learnt so much from you!
So, if you're reading this carefully you know what's coming...
I'm stopping here my part on tangologue. It's not that I don't have anything to say or that I don't want to say it but I feel that it's time to stop and concentrate on my dance.
Thank you for all your comments and advices, they really made me think about what I wrote and what you wrote. Your comments are and were always the soul of this blog!

Happy dancing!

leader and follower - flimsy terms!

To lead I shall follow my follower! Sounds good to me!

Credit crunch

Damn the credit crunch! The bar where I used to organise monthly milonga has just succumbed to the lack of money (not) going around. It's a huge blow, everyone really liked the bar and if we except the floor, it was perfect!
Also, for those of you who live in the UK, tango is going to get more expensive! The pound has lost a lot of value in relation to the euro and to the dollar. As the Argentine Peso currency is indexed to the dollar that means that a pound will buy much less than it did 6 months ago. Expect rises in imported cds, shoes and even tuition from Argentina!
On the other hand, the credit crunch has made some milongas cheaper - an example of deflation in tango!

Voices of wisdom

"My advice is - walk, walk with your toe first and always in the music, walk and practise to be yourself and not a copy of anybody else!"

Ricardo Vidort, 2004

Food and tango! Yummy!

Last sunday I went to Aveiro, a town in Portugal dubbed the Portuguese Venice. It's not nearly as grand as Venice but it has it's share of canals and the funny little boats, moliceiros, which were used to harvest a kind of seaweed that was used for medical purposes.
I went to meet fellow tangologuers RuiySandra, they had organised a dinner at a tapas place, spoke to the owner and asked if they could have an informal milonga. "Fine", he said, "fine", we said.
First, the food. We had tapas, a mix of Portuguese and Spanish ones and drank sangria. It was all very good until someone had to start dancing - we were all quite heavy. But on the other hand it was easy. The atmosphere was very informal between everyone who came around, and the first ones started dancing (it had to be me!) everyone danced the whole night away to a variety of different styles that went through all the tango eras. The service was also very nice and prompt.
I love informal milongas. Especially when they come with good food. Food, drink, tango and friends, sounds good to me!

Berón OR colouring outside the lines

If you are into tango you have to know Raul Berón. No, he is not the fella that gave that workshop in your town a year ago, he is someone that you encounter pretty much any milonga you go. And you know what? I'm pretty sure you have danced with him.
So, by this time, whether you are very confused or you know that Raúl Berón was one of the golden age finest voices. His sweet tenor voice always trembled with emotion and laced with the music perfectly.
Some people have told me that they don't like him because he didn't sing on time with the instruments. But I think he does it on purpose, like those people that colour outside the lines on purpose. His voice prolongs and antecipates the instruments and their emotions, and involves them in a silky flow that just makes Raúl Berón one of the most beautiful voices tango has ever heard.

Here it is a demonstration of Berón's beautiful voice!
Update - check also the same track played by orquesta El Arranque, with Ariel Ardit

Milonga de la Luz - lessons we should learn (I)

Milonga de la Luz was a milonga that tried to address what tango dancers really wanted. The best way that the organisers found to do this (I know some of them read this blog) was to organise a questionnaire. The Edinburgh tango community responded and the results were very interesting. In this post I'm going to address what people value in their partners.
According to this survey most people valued the sensitivity and responsiveness of the partner. Tangueros also valued posture, embrace and musicality. On the other hand repertoire of steps and physical attractiveness were poorly regarded. Interestingly, physical attractiveness was not what tangueros sought but physical appearance (grooming) was rated quite highly! That means that you don't have to be beautiful to thrive in your tango community but you have to be clean!
So, if you're reading this, don't be frustrated if you don't know many "routines" (the word gives me shivers). Work on your embrace and posture, try to understand the music and the connection with your partner and don't forget to use a deodorant and make an effort to shave. You'll be the one to dance with!

Stalking Julio and Corina

La Planchadora was a blogger who sadly became inactive. We both shared many interests as she seemed to write what went in my head. One of those interests was Julio Balmaceda and Corina de la Rosa. She had a series of posts "stalking" their videos and I intend to continue the stalking.
Here Julio and Corina just send me to maniac depressive mood. It's not a choreography, they're just taking as it goes. I see it, is SO simple, I get euphoric, I try it, I can't do it, I get depressed. It may happen the same to you if you try it but, hey, better die knowing what's going around than live in ignorance!

Tango cliques

You've seen it, you've been there. The little groups of people that dance only with each other and with nobody else, worse than a facebook group that only accepts members after the owner's approval. To this one, you have to be invited!

There are two types of cliques in tango.

The beginner clique, which is made exclusively of people from the same class that dance together because they're too scared of dancing with someone who they have not seen in class or because they can only dance with people that can return a similar mistake as the one they have just done.

The advanced clique, which is made of people that have reach such a high status that they can't see anything when they look down. That is also called tango snobbism.

But, I kind of was part of a clique! I didn't really think about it but a few years ago I would dance in milongas with the same people milonga after milonga. I really enjoyed dancing with these people and by the time I danced with them, there was little time to dance with anybody else! And some of them would take offense if I didn't invite them to dance! Is there a difference between dancing with people you like and being part of a clique? Yes, on the former you look forward to dance with other people on the later you avoid anyone that does not have the golden membership card.

The true is that, cliques are kind of uncool. It gives the image to other people that you can't be bothered to get out of your comfort zone, whether it is because you don't want to look bad when dancing with a beginner (if you are an advanced dancer) or because you don't want to look bad when next to an advanced (if you are a beginner). The whole thing about levels in tango is that more advanced people should help less advanced, that's how tango during the golden generation exploded and that's how we should keep it. A tanda in a milonga can make a hell of a difference!

PS - if you liked this post you may want to check our Johanna's post on the same subject, it's worth reading!

Changing partners

When I teach, I make sure that everyone swaps partners and make also sure that people that came with their partner get to pair up every two or three exercises. I am very often asked why do we have to swap partners.
Unlike most ballroom dances, which are aimed for competitions and choregraphies, tango is improvisational. As such, it is important that one man can dance with any woman. It's important that he can make her understand his energy but, even more important, that HE understands how HER energy will receive his marks. If I dance with 100 women I will find that to do a single step I have to do it 100 times differently. All of this because in tango we're all different (sorry for those of you who copycat your idols! The true must hurt!) and we all have different energies that we have to understand.
Furthermore, dancing always with the same person will allow for accommodation and loss of that capacity to adapt to your partner.

A nice surprise

When at home, I am always in a bit of a tango holiday. There is no tango in my hometown and because I have so many non-tango friends at home, it makes it difficult to drive 40 miles to the nearest tango place. But yesterday was different. Someone was organising a milonga in the beautiful little town of Viana do Castelo . I thought my partner and I were going to be the only people there and I did warn her about the possibility that she could get stuck with me the whole evening. She said it wouldn't be such a terrible thing. I was glad about it! ;oD
It seems that many people thought they would be the only people in the milonga but they still made their way there. The result was over 50 people willing to dance! Because Viana is not far from the Spanish border there were lots of Gallician (inhabitants of Gallicia, a region of Spain) tangueros.
The floor, probably, was the best floor I have ever put my old shoes on! The bar was spacy, square and had a back door to the long strip of beach that bathes the shores of Viana do Castelo. I am anticipating the summer afternoon milongas - a morning on the beach, a nice meal and tango!
The music was very nice with a careful selection by DJ gatomilonguero . The last tanda was an interesting selection of 3 La Cumparsitas that sounded so different that they might as well be 3 different ones.
If you're around the area you definitely want to check out this milonga! For more info go to gato milongueiro's agenda

Neotango rant (IV) OR tango fundamentalism

Just because you can't see the other side of the coin, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It only means you can't see it.

Back to La Negracha

One year on, I got convinced to go again to La Negracha! I had not many expectations other than maybe try and not get stabbed by a flying stilleto and maybe a few nice dances... So I got there and there were a few tables free at the stage-end bit. We knew those are usually used for the regulars but there isn't any sign so we got one right next to the DJ. You could see the milonga very well and could spot who you want and who you don't want to dance with.
There were a few familiar faces around, a few from Edinburgh and others that you meet in random milongas in the UK. I had really nice dances and, best of best, my feet came out of the milonga untouched! There was a close blow at some point but no fatal injuries! I also think that the floorcraft was much better than before. Not that many die-hard Pablo Véron wannabes and many more people actually going there to dance rather than show. The music was good at times although I'm still not convinced about the two floors with different types of music. I am confessedly a both traditional and neotango admirer but when I go to La Negracha I just can't stand go to the neotango floor. It may create a big argument here (because it always does) but I like when old is mixed with new. Obviously it has to be well mixed; eggs and sugar can make wonderful things when mixed together but they can also make quite disgusting experiments, it all depends HOW you mix it.
I am definitely going to come back to London more often to dance. Maybe I'll dance with some tangologuers. Or maybe I've already danced with some and don't know! That's even more interesting!

The importance of lyrics

La Tanguera has already posted a most insightful post about tango and lyrics. I do agree with her, eventhough my mind seems to pay 90% of the attention to the music itself, lyrics do matter and they do influence how you dance a tango, that is, if you understand them.
This weekend, I was just preparing to go to La negracha when I friend of mine told me that she preferred Neotango to tango because she couldn't understand the lyrics of tango and as a person that gives a lot of importance to lyrics, she gets cheesed off. I don't agree with her because I think you can pretty much guess what the lyrics say by the sound of music (ie, if it is a melancholic track then the lyrics are likely to be hitting the same tone). But her remarks made me think of something very curious.
I have talked about Daniel Melingo's concert at the Warwick Arts Centre but I haven't told you a little story. One of my students came out saying "it was disgraceful that he was so drunk on stage, I mean, he started to take his shoes off and threw them around!". H didn't pay very much attention to the shoes part, and tried to tell him that it was probably him just being theatrical rather than drunk. But when I thought a little bit over the situation he threw his shoes off when he was singing "Muleta de Burracho", a music in which the lyrics go on about how he has a stone in his shoes and are hurting him making him unable to walk and look like a crippled. Obviously I can understand this while dancing and that will give me many more cues on how to interpret it in my dance but I wonder, how does it feel to people that can't understand it? Are any non-Spanish speaking tangologuers that feel they are not getting the most of it because they can't understand lyrics?

Looking back

After 10 days of internet reclusion here I am again! This post is really not about tango (maybe the first since Tangologue's creation). It's about tangologue. It's been a year since I started properly writing here and I am so happy that I did so. I learnt a whole lot of things that i wouldn't have just by dancing. I got reminded of many things that I could be doing wrong and I managed to know quite a few bloggers that write blogs that I just love reading. Their input has been the fuel for this blog.
I would also like to drop a word to iislucas, supantheress, artur and eleni for chipping in with their input. They just made this blog even better!
So, one year on I would like to tell you which were the most visited posts
Arguments against cortinas
Tango LEGO
Raising the bar
Web 2.0 generation of tango
What we would like follower beginner to do

It's been a pleasure to write my thoughts and read your views. This is what I thing tango is all about sharing views. I don't think I am right all times, but this is how I think. And whatever you think, as long as it is not a dogma, it's valid!

The tango face

The tango face comes late in the tango development, I'll try to characterise it.

The talk with the mouth phase
Tango is little more than a dialogue between two partners. Absolute beginners take this very literally and it's a common feature to hear them exchanging views on what they do for a living, where they live or where they are from. It's a mixed face of relaxation and not really understanding what they got themselves into, typical of someone giving their date a lift one day after getting the driving license (ie danger on the road/dancefloor)

The feet attraction phase
When a tanguero starts, it's almost 100% sure that he will be trying to walk looking to the partner's feet. It makes absolute sense for the beginner, he doesn't want to step on the partner because he wants the partner to dance with him again. It's just tango survival at a beginner level! However, the crude harsh reality is that looking to the partner's feet is a big mistake and worse than closing your eyes. You get all confused by the fact that your partner is doing the complete opposite of you're doing. But when you're a beginner, it is not that obvious.

The sorry phase
Sorry phase starts right at the beginning. But if in the beginning this is obscured by obvious reasons to ask for forgiveness, now it is just annoying. Looking to the brighter side, the tanguero is actually admitting that he is wrong, which demonstrates at least some sort of "looking-into-the-mirror-and-seeing-what-is-there" attitude. Or not.

The scrunchy face phase
After some practice, lots of being told off by teachers about this feet obsession, the tanguero starts to let his eyes actually look into the dance floor. But this tanguero is still in a learning phase. Concilliating movement, coordination with navigational skills is very very difficult and as a results he/she starts making funny faces everytime a more daring move is made. Biting the tongue is a very common feature but scrunching the forehead, opening mouth or adding sound effects to the move are other features that are quite common.

The limbo phase
(also called the growing pains)
The tanguero has done the beginner, improver and intermediate modules and has (in his mind) depleted all movements. Until this point that tanguero could see his progress week by week but now that the standard "moves" have gone, he feels he is learning nothing. This is the fase where the tango face starts to blossom. But like everything in nature, it needs the appropriate conditions to do so. Good teaching, good attitude and realisation that instead of learning moves every week the tanguero has to work on his technique are indispensable requirements.

The Nirvana phase
This accomplished tanguero has learnt how to control his body and his partner's in favour of the music. He dominates the moves very well and is keen on going back to the basics. When dancing he evokes a face that seems to be many millions of light years away from the dance floor. The tanguero has learnt to focus on the dance. He may look very serious but in fact, he is enjoying every little bit of the dance. Occasionally, this tanguero may disguise a smile when something goes unexpectedly right or wrong but that will be coated by a glow of serenity and control. This is the tanguero that everyone wants to dance with. Not the end product but close to it.

The local heroes

I would like to praise the real tango heroes that are most of the times forgotten in blogs and conversations. I would like a word of praise to those local people who put an incredible effort to organise and teach tango, sometimes puting their own money forward, squeezing their time and neglecting their jobs in order to make the local community grow.
It's only due to there people that tango stars can be invited to teach outside their original country. It's only because of them that we are here discussing tango in blogs.

DISCLAIMER: I'm a tango part-time organiser. This post is not written because I want to be pampered or praised. It's for all of those who probably are the people that made it possible for you to be reading this.

Tango is serious

One of my beginner students was telling me. "Tango is serious, salsa is all about messing around, but in tango you have to stay within limits". Those might not have been the exact words (I wasn't recording what she said) but definitely she was touching a subject that I think is very stereotypical and not truth to reality, that tango is all about seriousness.
Tango looks quite daunting. For a lay person, it's a very intricate dance, with apparently little space to put your feet on, and with lots complicated moves that seem just impossible for the common mortal to do. The music doesn't help that perception either. Dozens of instruments playing sometimes very melodramatic melodies with romantic voices and lyrics...
But tango is FUN! Even in those Pugliese or Di Sarli tracks, where the waves of music are as big as it can get, you can always dance with fun. It may be within limits, but it's all about fun. The day that I am not having fun while dancing, I'll stop.

Tango is only serious when you make it serious.

Neotango rant (III)

Nowadays, most people spend far too much energy on the war between traditionalist and nuevo. The problem is not the styles themselves. The problem is that everybody believes that they are right, when probably, nobody is.