Wednesday night class at El Beso, more walking, more good advice on walking, and another simple and useful figure. It must be from classes like these that present-day portenos learn their basic tango.
I stay on into the milonga: Wednesday night at El Beso is La Bruja. I suddenly realise that I've been getting it all wrong. I've been turning up later in the evening at a milonga in full swing, expecting the organisers to find me a seat (which they always do), and trying to get dances on a floor packed with dancers who have already been busy for hours; which is careless, a bit thoughtless and could even be seen as arrogant. The practical thing to do is to get there right at the beginning. At that time of the evening you can probably choose where you sit instead of being shown to a seat. The floor is fairly empty, and there are partners there looking for a warm-up: it makes sense to arrive then, and then perhaps to sit out and watch the busiest time later on. A bit late to think of this now, but something to remember for the future.
Jorge Lladó, the nephew of the late Tete, turns up early. I watched him last visit, a big guy but very soft and smooth on his feet. Here he is in El Beso.
I usually prefer to watch dancers in a milonga, fitting their dance round everyone else with smaller steps, but I do enjoy this demo from Jorge and his partner. I notice there are videos of him from Milan last autumn, so he's already visited Europe to teach: too much to hope that someone will bring him to London, I guess. & if I didn't manage to convey the sense of the 'ups and downs' of tango (someone thought it meant a bouncy dance) in this post, I think a good look at this clip shows how smoothly and energetically the music is followed by using a slight dipping and straightening from the knees. I think the turns around the 1.00 and the 1.30 marks show this. & I like the way the 'hanging' phrases in the music are marked with pauses. It seems effortlessly musical and fluent.
Video thanks to Gurisatanguera.
"...get there right at the beginning. At that time of the evening you can probably choose where you sit instead of being shown to a seat.""
ReplyDeleteI recall when I turned up early then (Wednesday El Beso, "La Bruja") I was shown to a seat as normal. Which was fine by me. (The shower was the DJs mum - a great dancer.)