 Tango
Lab in Ojai: October 2015
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Celebrated Milonguera + Teacher
Muma Valino
— from Buenos Aires —
The "8 Lessons"
— of Ricardo
Vidort —
Monday - October 12, 2015
— at a private home in Ojai —
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 Tango
Lab with Muma Valino: Ricardo's "8 Lessons"
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Muma & Ricardo Vidort, dancing in 2001
— at the opening of "Bien Jaileife,"
her milonga in Buenos Aires
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A classic milonguera and celebrated teacher, Muma Valino
visits Southern California + Ojai for the first time ... on what
may be her last ever tour to North America.
Muma is master of dancing tango in the intimate "close embrace"
of the milongas and dance floors of Buenos Aires, where
she grew up and still lives today. The daughter of a well-established
tango family, the likes of Alberto Castillo and Ricardo Tanturi
were frequent visitors to her childhood home, and her mother was
a singer with the orchestra of Francisco Lomuto.
In her own time, Muma has been a cherished dance partner of several
of the most renowned + influential social dancers of her generation
— among them, Osvaldo Natucci, Fernando Hector Iturrieta,
and Dani "El Flaco" García — and with these
and others, Muma has helped create a vital "living bridge"
between the Golden Age of tango's storied past, and the dance
we continue to explore, create and enjoy together today.
In this regard, , Muma is perhaps most widely known for her
many years of dancing and teaching with the legendary milonguero
Ricardo Vidort, who began as a teenager in Buenos Aires
in the 1940s, and passed away in 2006, after more than 60 years
in tango.
Like Muma, Ricardo was a consummate social dancer whose philosophy
and approach centered on the nuanced interactions and subtle
pleasures of the milonga, where we gather not to "perform"
tango for the benefit of any onlooker, but to share and celebrate
the pleasure of being with each other, moving together in the
company of friends and the music that we love.
As a key figure in the "Tango Renaissance" that began
in the 1980s, Ricardo was also famous for his views on teaching
and tango pedagogy — especially for his push back against
those who sought to make tbe dance seem much more complex, rarefied
and esoteric than he felt it needed to be in order for us to
enjoy it on the social dance floor.
Rather than taking an endless series classes in the vain pursuit
of an elusive and hypothetical "perfection," Ricardo
suggested that dancers could find more value and pleasure in
focusing on just a few key concepts, ideas, principles and techniques
— a solid foundation that would enable them to enjoy and
expand on a lifetime of tango — dancing, learning and improvising
on the social dance floor.
One well-known expression of Ricardo's philosophy was his claim
that he could convey all that one needed to know — all the
essentials of tango — in just "8 Lessons,"
after which he would send the newly minted dancer out into the
world of the milongas, to apply and refine these insights
over time as they discovered and created their own unique and
personal "style" — one of the milongueros'
highest values.
... Alas, Ricardo never took time out to document and record
the many details of his famous "8 Lessons" approach
to learning tango.
But to our great good fortune, Muma was there —
dancing and teaching right alongside Ricardo during the height
of his influence and activity in the 1990s and early 2000s ...
And she has generously offered to share and pass on some of
her unique insight into the ideas, concepts and material that
she and Ricardo developed and explored together.
Most of Muma's recent visits to North America have focused on
Tango communities in the Pacific Northwest — Vancouver, Seattle,
Portland, Eugene — where she is a cherished presence.
Muma has a reputation as a warm and easy-going teacher, able
to convey tango's nuances with clarity and grace, and who embodies
the pleasure and confidence that she brings to the dance floor.
Muma's teaching has been described as "hands on" rather
than analytical — less about the mechanics of any given movement
or situation, and more about how we can each find and express
the deeper, richer and more resonant "emotional core"
of our own personal tango.
Please join us in Ojai for this rare opportunity
to spend a little time with Muma Valino
and her "8
Lessons" of Ricado Vidort — an invaluable
window onto Tango's
rich history, and a welcome inspiration for our ongoing evolution
+ the unfolding future that lies ahead ...
Muma's visit to Ojai is being made possible by the generosity
of our fellow dancers and organizers, DJ Ronaldo + Melinda Bread,
who are hosting Muma on her first ever visit to Southern California,
and who will present another invitational workshop with Muma
over the weekend, focusing on Milonga Tráspie
and her dancing + teaching with Dani "El Flaco" García.
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Overview: Ricardo's
"8 Lessons" with Muma Valino
When:
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Monday, October 12, 2015
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Where:
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in a private home in Ojai
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Tango Lab:
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7:00 - 10:00 p.m. - a Two-Hour Seminar on
Ricardo's "8 Lessons"
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plus supervised práctica time with Muma
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Cost:
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$30 / Dancer *
... (= $60 / couple)
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* For
this edition of "Tango Lab" ...
• Active Social Dancers
This edition of Tango Lab is aimed at active social
dancers in our local and neighboring communities.
To join us with confidence on Monday evening, you should be
familiar and comfortable with dancing in a closer embrace
— improvising tango in varying floor conditions, to a range
of music, with a variety of partners ...
• Role Balanced
In order to maximize everyone's experience and insure that
we have an equal number of leaders and followers, you are encouraged
to register and attend Tango Lab with a partner.
For single dancers interested in Tango Lab, please let
us know your role, and we will do our best to match you with
an appropriate single partner, if available ...
And while "traditional" gender roles are not a limitation
— women who lead and men who follow are both welcome —
we will plan on keeping to an even number of dancers
so that everyone will have a partner throughout this seminar
...
• Limited Enrollment
Thank you for your understanding that, because of the size
of the room, we will only be able to accommodate a limited number
of dancers for this intimate seminar in a private home with
Muma Valino.
Questions + Registration — please contact:
Stephen Bauer ...
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More
About Muma Valino
A lifelong milonguera, Muma Valino lives and
breathes the most prominent social form of Argentine Tango
— as danced in a "close embrace" in the crowded
clubs and salons of her native Buenos Aires.
The daughter of a well-connected tango family, Muma grew
up steeped in the music, movements and traditions of the dance.
As tango reemerged in the "Renaissance" of the
late 1980s and 1990s, Muma became one of the most prefered
partners for a generation of older milongueros who
began dancing back in tango's "Golden Age." Not
only was Muma a welcome presence on the everyday social dance
floors of the milongas, she was also a highly valued
colleague in countless demonstrations and lessons.
Over the years of teaching with her fellow milongueros,
Muma has emerged as a gifted and celebrated teacher in her
own right — widely acknowledged as a master of milonga
tráspie, the lively "tango picado,"
and the philosophy + approach of her long-time collaborator,
the renowned Ricardo Vidort. |
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More Links for Muma Valino + Ricardo Vidort
Muma on Ricardo Vidort
Muma
reminiscing about dancing + teaching with her friend,
the late Ricardo Vidort.
Muma's Dancing in Buenos Aires
• With Ricardo
Vidort, at the opening of her milonga, "Bien Jaileife"
(2001) ...
• Demo with Dani
"El Flaco" García, milonga tráspie
at "Sunderland" (2001) ...
• On the social dance floor, dancing vals with Osvaldo
Natucci at "El Beso" (2000) ...
• On the social dance floor, with Fernando
Hector Iturrieta at "Lo de Celia" ...
Muma's Teaching
A video collage of Muma
teaching in Vancouver, BC, (2009) ... and an overview of
her upcoming workshops, later this month in Eugene,
Oregon.
Interviews with Ricardo Vidort
Speaking
on video with dancer + writer Janis Kenyon in 2001, Ricardo
profiles his philosophy + approach to tango as a social art
form.
Transcripts of later interviews — on his
life in tango ... on learning
+ feeling ... and his last
interview, looking back when he was in hospice.
Ricardo's Dancing
There are hundreds of examples of Ricardo's dancing on the
internet, but this series is from Rome,
probably filmed in the early 2000s, before he fell ill ...
More Reflections on Ricardo's Impact on Tango
From a longer article, "The
Last Compadrito," by friend, tanguero
+ blogger Rick McGarry, from his website Tango and Chaos.
Earlier in the article, Rick also shares his views on Ricardo's
dancing as profiled several imbedded video clips ...
More writings on the idea of "Simplicity"
in tango and Ricardo's famous "8
Lessons" approach to the dance ...
And, beginning at 00:34, a video
collage of Ricardo — dancing, teaching, chatting, and
having fun in the homes, cafes, studios and milongas of Buenos
Aires ...
Muma's translator during her visit to Ojai
will be her friend Ronaldo. A dancer + DJ in Los Angeles, Ronaldo
also hosts the radio program, Tango
Angeles on UBN.
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