New Videos of Ricardo Vidort!

Well... sadly enough they are hardly new. Newly released, and not that newly either. Newly noticed by me, more like. The wonderful Myriam Pincen, who danced and taught with Ricardo in the last years of his life has posted some clips of a workshop in the old Porteño y Bailarín venue in 2004, taught by Ricardo, Myriam and Osvaldo Cartery, on her YouTube channel. The clips are all dated November 24.

The sequence begins with a demo by Myriam and Ricardo. The video quality of these clips is analogue, and the light level is low. I find this quite appealing, a kind of raw, fiery colour, but unfortunately in this clip the movement isn't that smooth so although you get an impression, it's not particularly enjoyable to watch. The other clips are much smoother.

Also before the workshop began Ricardo dances with Osvaldo, who took the role of follow. Old childhood friends from the days when Argentina was still a predominantly male society: I believe sexual parity wasn't reached until the late 1940s, which meant large groups of men standing around at milongas trying to get dances... This must have put a lot of pressure on men to up their dance, their appearance and courtesy, particularily since social dance was the main venue where men and women could meet. At least in the UK, and probably elsewhere too, dance halls remained the places where most couples met each other right up until the beginning of the 1960s. Hence the fanatic interest young guys of Ricardo and Osvaldo's generation had in excelling at tango.

There's a general dance, pretty much like a milonga, carefully watched by Myriam, Ricardo and Osvaldo, at the end of which Osvaldo, crackling with energy as ever, dances a brief demo with Myriam. There's a cut to another general dance with Ricardo and a partner, perhaps the best dance of the series. The video quality here is reasonably smooth, and the analogue colours glow.

Sadly that's it from Porteño y Bailarín, but there is one further video of Ricardo and Myriam, a demo at the end of a private class. The lighting is good so it's clearer how Ricardo leads those corridas, runs of quick steps, round his partner, so much of the energy, the impulse, coming from the chest. It's also a complete piece of music, and performed in true tango style on a space no larger than a fair-sized floor tile, but full of energy and playfulness nonetheless.

Myriam's channel also has a number of clips of her with other, more recent partners. She continues to teach in Buenos Aires, in English if necessary, an invaluable bridge to the dance of the golden age.