Ultimately it's women who have the most direct interest in men dancing well...
All of which is a preamble to saying that Monica Paz, in addition to building up an oral history of tango through the excellent Practimilongueros videos, leads a weekly 'practimilonga' at El Beso, run by herself and a couple of women friends, which concentrates on the details of lead, follow and embrace, with some simple but useful material, and which works through social dancing; even the choice of practice partners operates through the cabeceo. It seems to be a well thought-out and useful system. She's one of a number of women teaching (among them Enriqueta Kleinman, Ana Maria Schapira and to a large extent Myriam Pincen too) who learned by following and watching. Sadly, not many people go, so it's like a private dance session with some very experienced friends.
Monica says that one of her interviewees said that in the old days, if you wanted to know how good a dancer was you watched the shoulders, whereas these days people watch the feet. To me this is the clearest indication of the difference between the London and the Buenos Aires close dance. In Buenos Aires it's not only the rotation of the shoulders about the axis, essential for a comfortable close dance of course, but it's also the lateral movement of the shoulders and torso through space and up and down, as if following the lines of the melody, in much the way an opera singer might sway while singing an aria. That's what I've understood from Pedro, and what I've seen in milongas. It's a very complete physical response to the music.
The Cachirulo milonga follows immediately after practica, but if you need to go to the practimilonga as a lead you might not have too much success at the subsequent milonga, as you'll be measured against some of the most practiced tangueros there are. If you're a follow, you might just have to hang in there and wait your turn.
The most recent Practimilongueros video features interviews during Monica's recent visit to Europe, with four teachers and organisers in Europe who accept the practimilonga model. Elisabetta Cavallari of RovigoTango, Dobri Gjurkov in Hamburg and N. Germany of Tangonido, Jessica Bijvoet in Leiden of Libertango and Tina Riccardi of Tangoquerido in Brussels. All maintain close contact with the social tango of Buenos Aires, and their comments are very interesting.
5 comments:
John/TC wrote: "if you need to go to the practimilonga as a lead you might not have too much success at the subsequent milonga"
Agreed, especially if you expected much success from that "concentration on the details of lead" at this practimilonga devoid of milongueros.
Thanks for the interesting video. I have a hard time taking even the most credible of Monica's interviews seriously given the strong impression that the interviewees, questions and even the answers have been rigorously selected to serve as grist to the propgandist mill of her personal tango dogma. I found it even harder in this case after that confident statement (at 1m48s) that nine years ago in Europe everyone was teaching stage tango and no-one danced (what she brands) tango milonguero. That's utterly false, as is clear to anyone then looking in Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam, Zurich or even London.
PS I did though like the comment from Ms Bijvoet, realising that her classero teacher was not a milonguero, and then going to BA to learn by dancing in the milongas with the genuine article. If only every newcomer girl would put their class entradas instead into a piggy bank labelled "BA"...
Chris, you criticise 'a practimilonga devoid of milongueros' – but you ignore the fact that it was run by local women who have danced for years in the most traditional milongas in Buenos Aires, and who have the encouragement, friendship and backing of the older traditional dancers in what they do. Are you really suggesting you don't think it's possible to learn anything from women?
You think the interviewees are carefully chosen to support her views? Care to name a dozen or so who wouldn't support her views? Or... maybe one?
I can't help myself wishing you a month or two in Buenos Aires, on your own perhaps, so you have to interact with the tango community, to refresh your thoughts; going out nights, sitting waiting for dances, watching the traditional dancers, wondering how you personally can do better. I'd hope you might absorb some of the warmth and affection so evident there and so much part of tango, and that your comments might sound a lot less abstract and theoretical, hopefully a lot less pompous and arrogant, and less centred on your own personal, much-repeated tango dogma.
Hope you'll enjoy a stay there soon!
Chris, I can assure you (at least for the last few years) that especially in Zurich and Berlin almost _nobody_ is dancing in a close embrace. And most teachers there don't teach close embrace. I don't know her, but find this approach very interesting.
In fact I would love to have more specific feedback from a very experienced tanguera. But as we all know, most of the time the specific feedback is coming from beginners...:-)
John wrote: "Are you really suggesting you don't think it's possible to learn anything from women?
I'm suggesting that to dance well as a guy in the milongas, one best learns from guys who do it rather than girls who talk about it.
Patrick wrote: "Chris, I can assure you (at least for the last few years) that especially in Zurich and Berlin almost _nobody_ is dancing in a close embrace."
See all the close embrace in this video - and that's the least close embracey Berlin milonga I know.
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