Since links don't always work well out of 'Comments', here are Eva Garlez and Alberto Dassieu giving a demo in El Beso during the MILONGUERO08 festival.
There's also a clip of them dancing a vals in the same daylit room as before. For completeness, here are two more clips, Alberto and his wife dancing a Donato vals and an amazing slow Pugliese tango
I like the dance he leads because there's nothing superfluous in it, because his partner has space to express her sense of the music, and because they do simple things very fluently. He might not be that well-known, even in Buenos Aires tango, but like a few other survivors, his experience of tango goes back to the 1950s. My point is that there are dancers out there with over 50 years' experience, who get invited most summers to teach in Europe and the USA, and we never see them in the UK. Soon it will be too late.
3 comments:
It already is too late. I realized this a few years ago, after trying to promote the handful of milongueros interested in teaching and sharing what they know. Festival organizers aren't interested. They want their teachers to be young, beautiful, work long hours, and speak perfect English. That leaves out the milongueros. It's not easy for them to travel and teach like the younger dancers can. Only a few milongueros have left Argentina: Ernesto Hector Garcia (aka El Flaco Dany); Eduardo Masci (aka El Nene), Miguel Angel Balbi (aka Pepino), Roberto Carreras (aka Pocho), Fernando Iturrieta, and Jorge Uzunian. Everyone of them is over 70 years except Masci. Their prime years for traveling to teach are gone.
Pedro Sanchez turns 74 in August, and has never left Argentina, but at least there are people studying with him in BsAs.
You have the same situation in the UK as the USA--teachers must have work visas before they travel or they can be prevented from entering the country and sent home. I heard this is happening to Argentines arriving in the UK without the proper visa. It's an added expense for organizers. At least you were fortunate to have Ricardo Vidort in the UK several times.
I feel that in order to improve tango dancing in any country, men need to learn from other men, not from women who are able to dance the man's role. Women who lead lose the ability to be women in tango. A woman can't lead like a man.
Thanks for the comments, Jantango. I was lucky to meet Ricardo Vidort on his last trip to London. But it's even harder since last November to get visiting teachers into the UK. The rest of Europe doesn't seem such a problem. & many thanks for the list of names: many are familiar, but I'd never heard of Pedro Sanchez, and will look him up next time I'm in BsAs. & you're certainly right about men needing to learn from men, although an observant woman teacher can be very helpful. & there are other benefits: classes taught by women will attract women who may already be good.
I'm somewhat surprised that you have never heard of Pedro Sanchez, but then you probably aren't a subscriber of Tango-L. I have written about Pedro on my blog. You can see a recent video of Pedro on YouTube when he danced with Susana Miller during her Milongueando festival. It's not his best dancing because Miller insisted he let her lead. Find it on youtube/tangaso
I suggest that you and others interested in hosting visiting teachers investigate the procedures for obtaining work permits. That's the only way they will get to London.
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