Jantango
just sent me this link and I've sat for 30 minutes, open-mouthed.
Thanks Janis!
It's a playlist, 34 videos in all. (I noticed I was only the second view: Jantango was presumably the first.) First up, Tete on a fairly open floor in Canning in 2006: nice, I thought, always great to watch Tete dancing in a milonga rather than giving a demo. But then my jaw really hit the deck: two videos of Martha Anton dancing with El Petaca. Is this really Martha Anton many years ago, perhaps even as far back as the early 1970s? Extraordinary. & I'd never come across El Petaca. Two really wonderful compelling tracks of dance, just wonderful.
Then an unnamed couple. & then... Mingo Pugliese leading Antonio Todaro. Unbelievable, and great fun. What a treasure trove!
Then there's a tango from another un-named couple, another very intense dance, but undated too. After that, two tracks that must come from Marisa Galindo's show, La Milonga, in 1991: the first is Mingo and Esther Pugliese, and the second, Gerardo Portalea and partner (his wife I think), how to dance to Di Sarli by the best. After that, Gavito from 2001, followed by another un-named couple, then two dances by Pupy Castello and Graziela Gonzales.
After that we're into HD video, Sonia Marambie and Christian Henriquez filmed in 2013 in a studio decorated with rather dodgy paintings.
Some but not all of the dances in this sequence are quite elaborate, but despite the elaboration (the kind which probably wouldn't be too welcome on a crowded floor) there's still a real sense of feeling, the capacity to be moved by the music, an intense dance with some flashy moments, almost defiant flashy moments; I couldn't help thinking of this against a grim political background. But when we get to 2013... well, I don't think it's just the paintings, but at this point we seem to have reached a kind of dance I'm sadly too familiar with, great technique, but not a lot more by comparison with the earlier videos. The emotional intensity of the earlier dances draws me in, moves me, whereas the wonderful technique of the recent dances leaves me cold.
It's a playlist, 34 videos in all. (I noticed I was only the second view: Jantango was presumably the first.) First up, Tete on a fairly open floor in Canning in 2006: nice, I thought, always great to watch Tete dancing in a milonga rather than giving a demo. But then my jaw really hit the deck: two videos of Martha Anton dancing with El Petaca. Is this really Martha Anton many years ago, perhaps even as far back as the early 1970s? Extraordinary. & I'd never come across El Petaca. Two really wonderful compelling tracks of dance, just wonderful.
Then an unnamed couple. & then... Mingo Pugliese leading Antonio Todaro. Unbelievable, and great fun. What a treasure trove!
Then there's a tango from another un-named couple, another very intense dance, but undated too. After that, two tracks that must come from Marisa Galindo's show, La Milonga, in 1991: the first is Mingo and Esther Pugliese, and the second, Gerardo Portalea and partner (his wife I think), how to dance to Di Sarli by the best. After that, Gavito from 2001, followed by another un-named couple, then two dances by Pupy Castello and Graziela Gonzales.
After that we're into HD video, Sonia Marambie and Christian Henriquez filmed in 2013 in a studio decorated with rather dodgy paintings.
Some but not all of the dances in this sequence are quite elaborate, but despite the elaboration (the kind which probably wouldn't be too welcome on a crowded floor) there's still a real sense of feeling, the capacity to be moved by the music, an intense dance with some flashy moments, almost defiant flashy moments; I couldn't help thinking of this against a grim political background. But when we get to 2013... well, I don't think it's just the paintings, but at this point we seem to have reached a kind of dance I'm sadly too familiar with, great technique, but not a lot more by comparison with the earlier videos. The emotional intensity of the earlier dances draws me in, moves me, whereas the wonderful technique of the recent dances leaves me cold.
Many
thanks to tangobravo6 for this sequence.
Hopefully it'll be possible to identify some of the other dancers. Some wonderful tango from an earlier time. Just a pity there's nothing here from Ricardo Vidort! Then it really would be an epic find.
2 comments:
Many thanks, Jantango. & I'm sure you're right about the date of the videos. I get the feeling it was an intense time, not long after the restoration of basic freedoms, and moreover a time when tango was beginning again after a pause of about 30 years.
I first saw these videos as a playlist in which the dancers aren't always identified, as they are if you approach them from the Tangobravo6 channel on YouTube.
Moreover, Tangobravo6 has uploaded a further nine clips, including two more with Martha. It's an wonderful record of BsAs tango about 20 years ago.
Martha has commented on these clips on her facebook page.
Martha and Manolo mainly teach at the Escuela Argentina de Tango in Galerías Pacífico, Centro Cultural Borges, but they teach mainly canyengue and some milonga.
I'm having trouble with getting my my own comments onto my blog now: they kept disappearing, and I was then told my blog had been deleted! But it finally reappeared with comment #2. This is comment #1, sent by Jantango as an email:
Jantango said: Isn't she lovely in those videos with Petaca? That's when she did her finest dancing.
After him, Martha taught for many years with Luis Grondona when his wife Mirta Sol wasn't dancing. Years later when Luis was not well, Martha began teaching with Manolo. They have classes in El Beso and stay close to home those days.
Petaca and Luis are both gone. I'd date the videos at Akarense in the late 80s, not 70s.
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