Silvia, who was partner of the late 'Tete' Rusconi, is in London for the week. She'll DJ at Juntos milonga this afternoon, and at Carablanca, Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, on Friday 16 October, 8pm to midnight. A good opportunity to experience an evening of music from a regular DJ at Salon Canning and at La Catedral in Buenos Aires!
Sunday, 11 October 2015
Silvia Ceriani in London
Silvia, who was partner of the late 'Tete' Rusconi, is in London for the week. She'll DJ at Juntos milonga this afternoon, and at Carablanca, Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, on Friday 16 October, 8pm to midnight. A good opportunity to experience an evening of music from a regular DJ at Salon Canning and at La Catedral in Buenos Aires!
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Muma in Ojai, and online links to Ricardo Vidort
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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. 
* For this edition of "Tango Lab" ...• Active Social Dancers
Questions + Registration — please contact:
Stephen Bauer ...
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Tango
Lab in Ojai: October 2015
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| 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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Above: Muma teaching, dancing
and demoing in the Pacific Northwest, 2009 - 2012 ...
this will be her first visit to Southern California |
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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) ...Muma's Teaching
• 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" ...
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.Ricardo's Dancing
Transcripts of later interviews — on his life in tango ... on learning + feeling ... and his last interview, looking back when he was in hospice.
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.
Tuesday, 1 September 2015
Bouncy music, and the art of the DJ
'If
this DJ has played any music that isn't bouncy, it must have been
before I arrived' said a partner whose insights I value. She'd been
there most of the evening, so it was a serious criticism -- and
a disappointment.Sadly, the art of putting together an
evening of tango music for dancing is a mystery to me. Of course I know what I like and don't like, and I write to explore that. Writing is a way
of looking for answers.
Just ten years ago tango wasn't easy to find. If record shops had tango sections, they were for Piazzola, with maybe some Pugliese. Tango wasn't that easily available online, either. But it seems that about ten years ago record companies discovered a new product they could market. It's not a kind of dance music most of us grew up with, and it's amazing how fast it has become familiar to dancers here.
By about five or six years ago the quality of an evening's music had become a regular topic for conversation during milongas. The DJ is a frequent reason people go to a particular milonga here these days: I came because so-and-so is playing, and I like her/his music. It's also a reason I've heard for not going to other milongas. Since a few years ago, a vast range of excellent tango has become easily available, and hard drives have become huge, so music doesn't have to be compressed. I think there's an audible difference: 78s may sound a bit scratchy, but the sound quality of the music is often quite good. Heavy compression makes music dull. You might not notice it at first, but compressed music sounds dreary after a few hours. DJs put in a lot of work collecting different versions, new high-quality transfers, and the days when they played evenings with a limited range of low-quality recordings from five or ten CDs are gone.
How visiting Buenos Aires DJs organise an evening that draws you into a marvelously satisfying musical space is a mystery. It's an art that some European DJs have mastered too, but I guess that long practice and life-long familiarity with the music are a big part of it. I asked Silvia Ceriani last summer when she was in London if she had a system of tagging the music on her laptop. She laughed. 'No! I know my music!' Thousands of tracks, and she can pick out tracks to make coherent tandas, and fit them with each other.
(I include the UK in Europe. Make of that what you will.)
So why the evening of bouncy music? It's a paradox that just when a huge range of music is available, it seems that there are DJs who play long sequences of similar music. Yes, there is bouncy tango, but to play it all evening is exhausting for many dancers, and it's a style of DJ practice that looks more to the 100 Club than to the milonga. I'm sure it's well-meant – keep it lively, keep people on their feet. I've heard it's the expected DJ style at some events. I get the impression that there's a move in Europe in general to play a much simpler range of music, whole evenings when the tempo and emotional range of the music are simplified, avoiding in particular the slower, more emotional music. It's easier to keep moving to a regular rhythm and to straightforward music, so no Di Sarli! No D'Agostino! No Fresedo! Probably no Troilo! Much too difficult! But if this is a temptation, I think it should be avoided. Perhaps you can live on beans on toast, but it would be a pity to miss out on a very much wider range of food and flavours that nourish you in many different ways.
There's an amazing range in the music, from the bouncy to the sublime, the sophisticated to the simple, the energetic to the laid back. There's emotional music, there's lively music, there's beat music, there's melodic music. & some music – Troilo in particular – often combines many ranges. An evening of one kind of music or one tempo gets tedious. Each kind of music provides a setting for another kind, a contrast. The real genius of the DJ is in knowing how to assemble a sequence of music that keeps the ear (and the rest of the body) happy for hours, and it takes DJs with a wide and intimate knowledge of the music to make each tanda exciting, so your eyes eagerly search out a partner. DJs like that are very much welcomed by dancers!
Just ten years ago tango wasn't easy to find. If record shops had tango sections, they were for Piazzola, with maybe some Pugliese. Tango wasn't that easily available online, either. But it seems that about ten years ago record companies discovered a new product they could market. It's not a kind of dance music most of us grew up with, and it's amazing how fast it has become familiar to dancers here.
By about five or six years ago the quality of an evening's music had become a regular topic for conversation during milongas. The DJ is a frequent reason people go to a particular milonga here these days: I came because so-and-so is playing, and I like her/his music. It's also a reason I've heard for not going to other milongas. Since a few years ago, a vast range of excellent tango has become easily available, and hard drives have become huge, so music doesn't have to be compressed. I think there's an audible difference: 78s may sound a bit scratchy, but the sound quality of the music is often quite good. Heavy compression makes music dull. You might not notice it at first, but compressed music sounds dreary after a few hours. DJs put in a lot of work collecting different versions, new high-quality transfers, and the days when they played evenings with a limited range of low-quality recordings from five or ten CDs are gone.
How visiting Buenos Aires DJs organise an evening that draws you into a marvelously satisfying musical space is a mystery. It's an art that some European DJs have mastered too, but I guess that long practice and life-long familiarity with the music are a big part of it. I asked Silvia Ceriani last summer when she was in London if she had a system of tagging the music on her laptop. She laughed. 'No! I know my music!' Thousands of tracks, and she can pick out tracks to make coherent tandas, and fit them with each other.
(I include the UK in Europe. Make of that what you will.)
So why the evening of bouncy music? It's a paradox that just when a huge range of music is available, it seems that there are DJs who play long sequences of similar music. Yes, there is bouncy tango, but to play it all evening is exhausting for many dancers, and it's a style of DJ practice that looks more to the 100 Club than to the milonga. I'm sure it's well-meant – keep it lively, keep people on their feet. I've heard it's the expected DJ style at some events. I get the impression that there's a move in Europe in general to play a much simpler range of music, whole evenings when the tempo and emotional range of the music are simplified, avoiding in particular the slower, more emotional music. It's easier to keep moving to a regular rhythm and to straightforward music, so no Di Sarli! No D'Agostino! No Fresedo! Probably no Troilo! Much too difficult! But if this is a temptation, I think it should be avoided. Perhaps you can live on beans on toast, but it would be a pity to miss out on a very much wider range of food and flavours that nourish you in many different ways.
There's an amazing range in the music, from the bouncy to the sublime, the sophisticated to the simple, the energetic to the laid back. There's emotional music, there's lively music, there's beat music, there's melodic music. & some music – Troilo in particular – often combines many ranges. An evening of one kind of music or one tempo gets tedious. Each kind of music provides a setting for another kind, a contrast. The real genius of the DJ is in knowing how to assemble a sequence of music that keeps the ear (and the rest of the body) happy for hours, and it takes DJs with a wide and intimate knowledge of the music to make each tanda exciting, so your eyes eagerly search out a partner. DJs like that are very much welcomed by dancers!
Tuesday, 18 August 2015
'Just Dancing Around'
This is a link to a 50-minute documentary made by Mike Figgis in 1995 after five weeks filming with William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt during the rehearsals and performance of a new programme. I had the DVD on loan a few years back and it's great to find that it's now on Vimeo. Even greater that Figgis himself uploaded it, so it's unlikely a copyright owner is going to come and remove it just when you want to watch it.
'It's not about steps, anyway. Choreography is about organisation. Either you're organising the body or you're organising bodies with other bodies, or a body with other bodies in an environment that is organised. There's these framings of organisation, for me. & this seems to be the challenge of choreography at the end of the 20th century.' Not tango choreography, of course, nor tango either, but this statement about contemporary dance has some resonance with tango. It seems to be a surprisingly clear statement of the experience of dancing in a milonga, the experience of how we organise the body with other bodies and in an environment which is a cultural and historical framing. Steps? It's not about steps...
& if you think 'Ballet... no thanks!' watch just the first three minutes.
'It's not about steps, anyway. Choreography is about organisation. Either you're organising the body or you're organising bodies with other bodies, or a body with other bodies in an environment that is organised. There's these framings of organisation, for me. & this seems to be the challenge of choreography at the end of the 20th century.' Not tango choreography, of course, nor tango either, but this statement about contemporary dance has some resonance with tango. It seems to be a surprisingly clear statement of the experience of dancing in a milonga, the experience of how we organise the body with other bodies and in an environment which is a cultural and historical framing. Steps? It's not about steps...
& if you think 'Ballet... no thanks!' watch just the first three minutes.
Sunday, 9 August 2015
'...and the Tango was born. Come and learn the basic steps!'
It's so dismaying to keep reading this view of tango! Not that there aren't basic steps: of course there are! It's knowing that when teachers talk about teaching 'basic steps' they mean teaching patterns they call salidas, giros, sacadas...
What are the basic steps we learn when we go to pre-milonga classes in Buenos Aires? The first two are putting one foot in front of the other, or behind it -- walking. A simple act we take for granted. But walking is not that simple in dancing tango. Why else would beginners and more advanced dancers alike at group classes in Buenos Aires spend 30 or 40 minutes at the start of each class they go to, practicing walking? Stepping forwards, stepping back, with teachers and their assistants coming round to help you get it right, to get your walking so it works well when you dance in close embrace, and so it looks good. & it's not so much about walking to the music as it's taken for granted that timing is precise. It's the way of walking that matters, the way of using energy. Simple patterns of steps are also taught, but the priority is how you walk, the basic steps of tango.
If we try to walk in close embrace in the same way we walk on the streets, or the same way we step backwards in daily life without reconsidering the way we walk, our tango will be awkward, insipid, and probably uncomfortable to our partners. It's a different kind of walking, and moreover we need to learn how to make each step count. This is tango from the inside, not just the superficial appearance of tango footwork. It's never insipid, it doesn't look awkward, and it's unlikely ever to feel uncomfortable.
What are the basic steps we learn when we go to pre-milonga classes in Buenos Aires? The first two are putting one foot in front of the other, or behind it -- walking. A simple act we take for granted. But walking is not that simple in dancing tango. Why else would beginners and more advanced dancers alike at group classes in Buenos Aires spend 30 or 40 minutes at the start of each class they go to, practicing walking? Stepping forwards, stepping back, with teachers and their assistants coming round to help you get it right, to get your walking so it works well when you dance in close embrace, and so it looks good. & it's not so much about walking to the music as it's taken for granted that timing is precise. It's the way of walking that matters, the way of using energy. Simple patterns of steps are also taught, but the priority is how you walk, the basic steps of tango.
If we try to walk in close embrace in the same way we walk on the streets, or the same way we step backwards in daily life without reconsidering the way we walk, our tango will be awkward, insipid, and probably uncomfortable to our partners. It's a different kind of walking, and moreover we need to learn how to make each step count. This is tango from the inside, not just the superficial appearance of tango footwork. It's never insipid, it doesn't look awkward, and it's unlikely ever to feel uncomfortable.
Monday, 22 June 2015
More from the milongas
I've just updated this post. The videos I thought had been removed are still there: I posted the wrong link. As I said, they aren't the best videos, but altogether they give a good view of a very enjoyable milonga.
& a friend has just sent me this link to a series of videos of the Lo de Celia milonga posted by EQZ tango DJ, with posts of some excellent music too. This started at the beginning of the year, and is ongoing.
So now we know how people dance in Buenos Aires!
Sunday, 21 June 2015
Blog list problems on Blogger
No sooner have I found a way out of one problem on Blogger when another pops up. I can't update the blog list. Many people have reported it on the forums. Google's 'expert reply' in 2013 is that they are working on it night and day, but I have yet to find their answer. It's suggested that the problem is because individual computers manage cookies/filters/scripts and security measures differently. (So I guess it gets dismissed as 'user error'.) If anyone has found a simple answer please let me know.
I wanted to add one blog This is European DJ Konrad Krynski's blog about tango music and its stories.
I also need to update the address of the Realitypivots blog, the story I've always enjoyed of living on a smallholding in the woods of North America while maintaining a connection with tango. The scene has shifted to Thailand, and the new address is here. In reply to David's comment, I've done what I can to push the Ricardo Vidort website onto the net, but it's not up to me. However, I'm told that much of the material is already available on the web, though not collected into one place.
I wanted to add one blog This is European DJ Konrad Krynski's blog about tango music and its stories.
I also need to update the address of the Realitypivots blog, the story I've always enjoyed of living on a smallholding in the woods of North America while maintaining a connection with tango. The scene has shifted to Thailand, and the new address is here. In reply to David's comment, I've done what I can to push the Ricardo Vidort website onto the net, but it's not up to me. However, I'm told that much of the material is already available on the web, though not collected into one place.
Saturday, 13 June 2015
Walking
I was delighted to find this clip recently.
It's a short quote from a TV documentary made in 1999, in which Royal Ballet soloist Deborah Bull explored four kinds of dance; hip-hop, swing, belly dance and tango. (I wrote about this clip here, before I found it.) The tango programme includes a sequence with the author and broadcaster Clive James who was then a regular tanguero. A pity the whole programme isn't available. In this clip one of the earliest tango dancers in the UK, Christine Denniston, teaches Deborah to walk, and outlines some of the background of social tango.
Sadly, perhaps, the programme ends with a highly choreographed tango performance: I could wish it ended with Deborah happily lost in a Buenos Aires milonga. I watched it before I started classes in London, and the insights of this clip in particular stayed with me. & I've read that Susanna and Cacho amazed Londoners with just how close together they danced...
Interesting thought: Christine says that because there were relatively few women in Argentina in the years when tango evolved, men had to work out how to please the women they danced with, as women had plenty of choice of partners. The pressure to evolve came from that need. Currently in London the opposite is true; there are often many more women than men. It follows that there is less pressure on men to improve their dance, as they can usually find partners, although this must be offset to some extent because men who do dance get more practice.
(I've worked out how to embed video! It used to be straightforward until a software upgrade a few years back. Since then, an HTML embed code pasted into the text editor has been simply published as embed code. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that I should try inserting the embed code into the HTML editor rather than into the text editor. Either that, or write in the HTML editor from the start.
& someone asked if I knew how to enable comments. It's under options in the post settings on the right of the 'compose' page.)
It's a short quote from a TV documentary made in 1999, in which Royal Ballet soloist Deborah Bull explored four kinds of dance; hip-hop, swing, belly dance and tango. (I wrote about this clip here, before I found it.) The tango programme includes a sequence with the author and broadcaster Clive James who was then a regular tanguero. A pity the whole programme isn't available. In this clip one of the earliest tango dancers in the UK, Christine Denniston, teaches Deborah to walk, and outlines some of the background of social tango.
Sadly, perhaps, the programme ends with a highly choreographed tango performance: I could wish it ended with Deborah happily lost in a Buenos Aires milonga. I watched it before I started classes in London, and the insights of this clip in particular stayed with me. & I've read that Susanna and Cacho amazed Londoners with just how close together they danced...
Interesting thought: Christine says that because there were relatively few women in Argentina in the years when tango evolved, men had to work out how to please the women they danced with, as women had plenty of choice of partners. The pressure to evolve came from that need. Currently in London the opposite is true; there are often many more women than men. It follows that there is less pressure on men to improve their dance, as they can usually find partners, although this must be offset to some extent because men who do dance get more practice.
(I've worked out how to embed video! It used to be straightforward until a software upgrade a few years back. Since then, an HTML embed code pasted into the text editor has been simply published as embed code. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that I should try inserting the embed code into the HTML editor rather than into the text editor. Either that, or write in the HTML editor from the start.
& someone asked if I knew how to enable comments. It's under options in the post settings on the right of the 'compose' page.)
Monday, 8 June 2015
Some videos of Ismael Heljalil
I
was totally astonished to see a couple of videos of Ismael
Heljalil dancing
with María Nieves at
La Nacional
a
few months ago.
Surely
that's
not
the
María
Nieves, the tango queen of Broadway, and
long-time
partner
of Juan
Copes? The
María
does
still dance,
but recent videos of her don't greatly
resemble this María,
who is almost
certainly
younger. (The
María
was
born in 1938.)
I've never seen Ismael
Heljalil outside
Lo de Celia,
looking frail in a heavy sweater which I assumed protected him from
the airconditioning, but
there's
no doubt it's him
in
La Nacional,
looking well and
minus the sweater.
I
first saw
him on
TangoandChaos.
At
a time when there
were few videos of salon tango on YouTube,
TangoandChaos
suddenly electrified many
of us with a series
of
videos of traditional tangueros
from
the then distant world of the Buenos Aires milongas. So
this is
what
tango looks like in
Buenos Aires! We'd
heard about it but never seen it. The
very first of these videos
was
of Ismael
Heljalil in Lo de Celia, and the music was No
Me Extraña
of
Pedro Laurenz.
McGarry
wrote
a
thoughtful introduction to the video and
the music.
As
he
says,
there's
no 'real
giro', but
what
strikes me is that it is
a dance full of turning. The opening phrase is about thirty seconds,
and the couple calmly turn back and forth in one
corner of the floor, and the
dance continues
like this. It's
a
dance suited
to confined space, and
of course the
constant turning gives
the
lead a mental picture of the space around.
(Apologies: this isn't from the T&C site, as the video there loads slowly -- it was set up before YouTube got so good.) I still love to watch this clip, and I still find No Me Extraña (along with Paisaje, also from Laurenz) just marvelous music.
(Apologies: this isn't from the T&C site, as the video there loads slowly -- it was set up before YouTube got so good.) I still love to watch this clip, and I still find No Me Extraña (along with Paisaje, also from Laurenz) just marvelous music.
I
enjoy watching clips of the complex and energetic dance of Ricardo
Vidort. Ismael's dance may be deceptively simple by comparison, but
as an example it's less intimidating. The content of the dance is the way he dances, rather than the steps he uses. It's not a
particularly slow dance, but wonderfully effortless, smooth and
unhurried, energetic, and calmly precise on the beat. The more recent clips of
Ismael with María are more
of the same, but in La Nacional, which is well-lit and more open than
Lo de Celia, so the dance is clearer. I enjoy watching this María:
I like her simple elegance, nothing superfluous, and her total attention
to the music.
Not
to dismiss the
María who, it's said,
claimed her success came without ever taking a lesson. 'The
first time I danced the tango, it entered my skin through my feet,
passed from my skin to my blood and through my blood to my heart. It
requires no acrobatics,
you simply have to devote yourself to your heartbeat.'
& her comment on a recent Mundial del Tango was brief: 'Menos
aire y mas piso', '[There
should be] less air and more
floor'. 'Tango acrobatics' is an oxymoron.
There
are also two excellent videos of Ismael in Maipu 444 from Jantango
and three tangos in Lo de
Celia from Isa Negra tango.
Friday, 29 May 2015
17 tangos at Lujos milonga
I've
just noticed that Tangotradicional videoed
17
tangos
at
Lujos
milonga
in
October
2012,
over two nights I think.
A
while
back
I
wrote that
it would be wonderful if there
was an
online camera at
Lujos so
it would be possible to drop
in
at any time and
watch the dancing:
it's
not
quite
happened
yet.
I
wrote '17 tangos' but the 17 clips
include
rock and chacarera, and sadly
many
of the tangos are shortened, but
it's
still
a
treat to watch much
of the dancing here.
Lujos is one of the top milongas for dancers, and the tango is usually as good as it gets. The venue is more spacious than El Beso, and it's much less of a hothouse. There's a lot less chatter than in Normarin1's videos, which are of some of the more sociable milongas, so the dancing is much more focused. For video the great advantage is that the lighting is good, and (unlike El Beso and Lo de Celia) there's usually space on the floor and around it. Apart from La Nacional, there's nowhere else I know that you can get such a good view of what some of the best social tango looks like at home. There was always a solid core of the older generation, and in these clips I recognise familiar faces, among them Ricardo Suarez, Javier Gramigna, and of course, Oscar Kotik, who organises it with Lucia.
Marina2x4 also has videos of tandas at Lujos.
P.S. Apologies, I made a mistake and linked this to the Abretango channel, so I was puzzled when the videos weren't there. In fact all those videos are still there -- on the Tangotradicional channel. More or less the same people, I think, so it wasn't an unreasonable error. I'm delighted to have found the videos again. A great pleasure to watch.
Lujos is one of the top milongas for dancers, and the tango is usually as good as it gets. The venue is more spacious than El Beso, and it's much less of a hothouse. There's a lot less chatter than in Normarin1's videos, which are of some of the more sociable milongas, so the dancing is much more focused. For video the great advantage is that the lighting is good, and (unlike El Beso and Lo de Celia) there's usually space on the floor and around it. Apart from La Nacional, there's nowhere else I know that you can get such a good view of what some of the best social tango looks like at home. There was always a solid core of the older generation, and in these clips I recognise familiar faces, among them Ricardo Suarez, Javier Gramigna, and of course, Oscar Kotik, who organises it with Lucia.
Marina2x4 also has videos of tandas at Lujos.
P.S. Apologies, I made a mistake and linked this to the Abretango channel, so I was puzzled when the videos weren't there. In fact all those videos are still there -- on the Tangotradicional channel. More or less the same people, I think, so it wasn't an unreasonable error. I'm delighted to have found the videos again. A great pleasure to watch.
Friday, 15 May 2015
More chest!
At
the end of a tanda I asked the Very Experienced Partner about
the
need for
a lead to
be decisive without being in the least rough. 'More chest!' was her
immediate, clear and memorable reply, without hesitation. 'More chest
is never rough!' she
added.
She
made it sound so
straightforward, and yet... It's easy enough for leads to remember,
at
the start of a tango,
to straighten
the back and shoulders, breath
in and
hold
the chest forwards, but imperceptibly it all
slumps,
the
initial
good contact
with the partner deteriorates, and leading can become more awkward.
Tango developed among people whose posture was naturally
good,
who weren't slumped at terminals all day, who walked a lot more than
we usually do.
Most of us don't have good posture, we tend to be round-shouldered,
our heads habitually inclined forwards, our lower backs curved out,
as they are when we sit at desks and tables. It can be a submissive, despairing posture.
Good
yoga, Pilates or Alexander teachers can help
correct this, and get the back straight and the head stacked on top of the vertebrae. It's
essentially the body's natural posture, the position in which it
works best and is least prone to injury (lower back injury in
particular), and it's really the only good starting posture for
tango. Or any other kind of dance: if you go to the stage door cafe
at London's dance theatre, Sadler's Wells, you'll start
to
notice two species of human, those who have straight backs with their
heads in line, and... well, sadly, the rest of us
Thursday, 7 May 2015
Juan Carlos Pontoriero
I was devastated to get this from a friend yesterday:
Lovely film of Isabella dancing with Juan Carlos.
Unfortunately, I think he died around 15th April. I heard he was attacked on a bus on the way home from El Maipu & had a heart attack.
My teacher had just been sitting at the same table, talking to him earlier that night.
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
This!
I love this!
Sometimes
I come across a tango video that really lifts me up, and this is one
of them, uploaded very recently, although the milonga was in 2012.
Many thanks for it, it's a real joy.
(I still can't embed videos: the embed code gets printed in the post, with no video in sight. It's a pain!)
&
I notice how much 'dip and lift' energises this dance! It's one of
the clearest examples of what a good friend and teacher kept saying
to me: Con el cuerpo! Con el cuerpo! [Dance] with the body! Meaning,
not just with the feet. It's decisive and tender, physical and very
gentle.
It's
uploaded by Isabella Szymonowicz,
who has a wonderful tango blog which I'd never noticed before. At a
casual glance I read her posting on
Juan
Carlos Pontoriero (with
whom she's dancing in the video), some clear and simple instructions
on how to write a
tango, and a really
valuable link to a US site from which
a pair of high quality suede stick-on soles, backed with an
industrial-strength adhesive,
can be purchased for about £16. & they ship
internationally. Almost
too good to be true. Other interesting possibilities for your shoes there.
& other interesting posts on Isabella's blog. Oh yes, and an excellent interview with Alicia Pons.
& other interesting posts on Isabella's blog. Oh yes, and an excellent interview with Alicia Pons.
Monday, 27 April 2015
Dos porteños tocando el piano
This link is here so I don't have to go looking for it again. Two extraordinary musicians from the same time and place, Buenos Aires.
Friday, 24 April 2015
Abrazos
I'm
enjoying the soft, gentle, almost hesitant embrace of another London
partner... and suddenly feel something is missing. I experience a
wave of nostalgia for the portena embrace. I don't remember ever
dancing with a portena whose embrace I could describe as soft and
gentle, certainly never hesitant. Not a single one. I could describe
the portena embrace as direct, strong, emphatic, even
confrontational, but not soft or compliant. A portena embrace seemed
more like a challenge: 'You want to dance with me, so make me dance!'
Warm and direct, nothing uncomfortable, nothing apologetic. You might
not notice this when you're watching, but I think it's something
you're likely to feel if you dance there.
I
get the impression there's a whole industry built up around
'decoraciones', even though they aren't much use in improvised social
dancing. I never noticed this industry in Buenos Aires, where
teaching seemed to emphasise the woman standing up to the man, so to
speak, an emphasis on a firm, positive embrace. No compliant partners
who seem all too eager to follow there, and I often felt I had to
work to get a good dance, I had to put energy into a clear and
positive lead. There's an element of resistance, and I can feel
nostalgic for that toughness, the sense that an equal energy meets my
energy. We meet on equal terms, and I'm challenged to prove myself.
So even if the resulting dance doesn't go far (there's probably not a
lot of space to move in) it feels full of energy. A very positive
lead and follow is essential if you want to move together in a small
space, and when you get it, the dance doesn't feel like a 'lead and
follow' situation, just two people moving as one. That's the magic of
it!
Of
course, women can be shy about close embrace with partners they don't
know – and so can men! In a Buenos Aires milonga the only
opportunity a man and woman have of being together is on the actual
dance floor, which encourages them to be more direct, more open, when
they dance since the social situation is limited off the floor.
Adapting to the different height of partners isn't always easy. But I
think the real problem is a kind of teaching that just teaches
patterns of footwork, ignoring a good walk and a good embrace, the
art of putting emphasis and energy into each step, which are a
priority in social tango classes in Buenos Aires.
Sunday, 29 March 2015
Stepping back.
Women
step back too, or at least they ought to...
London
tango seems to me to be between eras. Generally, people learned and
still learn to dance in 'open embrace' (which isn't an embrace at
all!) That's inevitable at present. In open embrace you're in contact
with your partner with your hands and arms so it simply doesn't
matter how you walk. But when you embrace your partner, torso to
torso, the whole dance changes. How you walk suddenly becomes
important. Perhaps teaching here hasn't caught up with this change in the
kind of dancing.
This
becomes particularly obvious when I dance with a partner I've not met
before; I step forwards and my knees bump her knees. Oh no... She
assures me that in her beginners' classes there's a lot of walking,
but I suspect it's an emphasis on walking to the beat, rather than on
posture and the mechanics of walking suited to close embrace. My
partner is walking backwards as you would in normal life: her knees
come up a bit, and then as each foot goes down her torso jerks
slightly backwards. Which is fine in normal life, but it's a
dangerous combination to anyone dancing close with her. Maybe she's
been told and it simply hasn't registered that it's important, or
maybe walking just hasn't been taught in the classes she's been to.
(I
remember the story Christine Denniston tells in a short film about
tango: she was taught to walk at her first class, and went home and
practiced it every evening for a month. It was years ago now, and she
didn't mention who taught her, but she practiced it to perfection:
when she went to Buenos Aires she says she fitted in easily as a
dancer.)
It's
simple enough to step back in tango. The woman reaches back with her
foot, to some extent straightening her leg. Her other leg, the leg her weight is on,
might flex a bit, which can give energy to the step. It's not
stepping back in the everyday sense, it's reaching back. Well done,
it looks great, energetic and purposeful. Reaching back has a second
effect: as you reach back, your torso pushes forwards, which means
the embrace is firmer: perhaps this is how the really close embrace
of the Buenos Aires dance arises. The pivotal point is the lower
back, and perhaps that's why this aspect of tango gets ignored here. If your
lower back is weak, 'reaching back' might feel uncomfortable at
first. & if you are hesitant about committing to close embrace
you might not want to push your torso forwards.
In
Buenos Aires it's taken for granted that tango is danced close, and
even complete beginners are expected to dance close. I've been to all
the group classes and pre-milonga classes I could, and in all of
them walking can take up the first 30 or 40 minutes of a 90-minute
class. It's walking to the beat, and also correction of posture and
the practice of walking. Cacho Dante gets his assistants to take a
separate class for newcomers, where they only walk. He's strict about
it; until their walking is good, they don't join the main class. Some
very beautiful dancers come out of his classes, dancers who look at
ease, effortless and comfortable even in crowded milongas, as they've
been well drilled, from the basics of walk upwards. Sadly, I've never
spent long enough there to become that well drilled. & I think
Cacho allowed me into his main class out of politeness: I suspect he
really thought I needed a month or so with his assistants, practicing
just walking.
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Ricardo Vidort website
There
were several comments about the proposed Ricardo Vidort website,
which was laid out by Jantango, and remains currently unpublished. I
got some news about it a couple of days ago. The email I received
isn't altogether clear, but I understand that translation has taken
time: there are a number of interviews which had to be
subtitled in English, and texts which have had to be translated, as the
site needs to be bi-lingual. The good news is that much of this has
now been completed, and it's possible that it will be available
later this year.
I'm
afraid the problem isn't uncommon: if you work at something out of
love, it's easier for other things to get in the way, family commitments, illness, other
work. It's a bit sad, but money does focus the mind! Anyway, I
understand that the project is well on its way, and I hope we can
look forward to seeing it fairly soon. I've suggested it could be published chapter by chapter, as work is completed, rather than waiting for everything to be finished. Let's see what happens!
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
The backstep
We
started to talk about the back step. My partner claimed that good
leads make deep backsteps, which she maintained gives energy to the
dance. I wasn't so sure about the depth. In any case, deep backsteps
can be a health hazard.
When
I got home I started to look through some videos of the old guys.
Ricardo Vidort steps back occasionally, but it's rarely a formal
backstep, more like a quick rebound: most of the time he seems to be
running forwards and around his partners. Tete took big backsteps in
demos, but he took big steps anyway. Other dancers are like Ricardo
Vidort: you don't really notice the back step although it is there. I don't think you can dance without stepping back sometimes.
I
remembered that Ricardo Suarez has a very quick, energetic and
precise backstep. How is it possible to get so much energy into a
counter-intuitive and possibly awkward step? I watched some videos,
and all the answers seem there in this short clip, first in real timethen in slow motion. He dances with his weight well forwards, as is
usual for his generation. Then as he steps back, his right knee bends
and his body sinks onto it, a smooth, swooping movement with a
rebound back up onto a straight left leg. I think the big point is
that he doesn't just step back; his whole body moves back and down,
and he carries his partner with him. She's drawn downwards and
forwards into a positive step. & since Ricardo's whole body moves
back the foot stepping back stays almost flat to the ground.
My
impression is that the energy comes from the whole body movement, and
the precision of Ricardo's timing itself creates energy. This flexing
of the leg you are stepping away from, and landing on a straight leg,
is fairly consistent across the older dancers. It's the same pattern
when taking a simple step to the left.
(Ah!
The parquet floor of Maipu 444, and the red and black table cloths of
Cachirulo! Ricardo's partner in March 2009 was Florencia Bellozo.)
So
my partner was right in one way, there's energy in the backstep, but
the energy isn't the consequence of a long step. Ricardo Suarez makes
clear and relatively deep backsteps, but they don't need to be big to
make sure they are full of energy.
Saturday, 21 February 2015
More on Troilo and the arrangers
Many
thanks to Mike Lavocah for taking the trouble to email and correct me on the story of Troilo
and his arrangers. He writes:
'Troilo's
main arrangers in those years (1941-1944) were Argentino Galván and
the neglected Héctor María Artola. Piazzolla made only ten
arrangements back then. He was the main arranger for the band for a
time, but much later, in the early 1950s. This information and more
besides is in my book on Troilo - I worked hard to research the
contribution of the arrangers, as they were such an important part of
the Troilo story.'
I
relied (as usual) on the information on Todotango which is curiously and sadly incomplete: it says Galván
arranged for Troilo in 1940 and in 1945, and makes no mention of his
prominent part in that astonishing run of recordings between those
years.
I
wish I'd seen Mike's book, Troilo, earlier. I
got hold of it a couple of days ago. It's a great combination of
stories about the people, and insight into the music, how it was made
and played. It's researched with access to the Troilo archives in
Buenos Aires and includes a discography that mentions the arrangers
whenever possible. It's wonderful to have such an excellent and
readable account of the people and the music in English, and I can only
hope that there will be similar works on other great tango musicians.
It's a great read. 'Troilo... is loved by everybody because he loved
everybody. He extended the hand of friendship to everyone, placing
himself as the model of humanity. He is everyman, and his music
speaks to, and for, everyman.'
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
Two interviews with Ricardo Vidort
Many thanks to Jantango for posting links to two interviews with Ricardo Vidort. Both are full of insights both into tango and into human life and nature. The second is particularly significant: I assume it is from the film made by the hospice where Ricardo passed away, as part of a record of the insights of people who are dying. It feels like an exceptional privilege to be able to listen to it. There's no indication if this is the entire section featuring Ricardo, or whether the film includes more.
I also received the following comment from Tom Tubbs concerning the unpublished Ricardo Vidort website: 'Any detail on the unpublished site? Is there any contact that people could drop a line of encouragement to? His notes on his class might be very interesting to read.'
Is there any contact that people could drop a line of encouragement to?
I also received the following comment from Tom Tubbs concerning the unpublished Ricardo Vidort website: 'Any detail on the unpublished site? Is there any contact that people could drop a line of encouragement to? His notes on his class might be very interesting to read.'
Is there any contact that people could drop a line of encouragement to?
Sunday, 8 February 2015
Martha Anton
Very
sad to read Irene and Man Yung's post about the death of Martha Anton
earlier today. Canyengue classes with her and Manolo were always one
of the highlights of my visits to Buenos Aires, and it was a
privilege during a class when Martha would say, right, dance with me!
One of the friendliest people I've met. Amazingly she'd always
recognise me from visit to visit. All those wonderful people leaving
us, one by one. & I've always been looking forward to turning up at
their classes again, and her looking at me: you again! How much do
you remember?
Friday, 30 January 2015
Troilo and the arrangers
(Please check out this later post.)
I received a comment on my earlier post telling me that an 82-minute film about Troilo, called simply Pichuco, was released last year.
I received a comment on my earlier post telling me that an 82-minute film about Troilo, called simply Pichuco, was released last year.
I
checked it out. It
tells
how a
teacher of the School of Popular Music in Avellaneda, together with
his students, is digitizing around 500 original handwritten
arrangements from
the
Troilo orchesta that
have come to light,
an astonishing trove of scores. It immediately occurs to me that
handwriting can be recognised:
it should be easy to work out who was responsible for each tango
arrangement. I'd
also
expect
the scores will
throw light on the creative process. I
hope that one day arrangers will get some credit for their work in
the development of tango.
I
found the website for the film, which has the trailer. (You have to switch on subtitles.) People who knew and worked with Troilo talk about him, and these
include Leopoldo Federico, Horacio Ferer and
Raúl Garello. (Very
sadly, Federico and Ferer both died last December.) Their
recollections are going to be fascinating. There's also a calendar of
showings: it will be seen at events in Europe this year, although
there are no planned viewings yet in the UK. I await with great
interest!
I
wrote that arrangers don't get much credit, but I
guess that's
because the development of a
tango was usually a
group effort. A classical composer could expect his music to be
performed much as he wrote it, but a tango arranger was
less sure of such respect. In fact there's a great story told by Garello: he says Troilo didn't
write much music, but he erased a great deal. Arrangers would present
their work and he'd go through it, cutting out whole chunks, to the
arrangers' despair, although when they heard the recordings they knew
he was right. (I
can imagine Piazzolla
turning up with a new score and Troilo pulling
it apart, and augmenting it
with feedback from the band,
after which they'd all
go out to lunch, leaving their 22-year
old arranger to pick up the
pieces and put the new version together, so
they could finish their rehearsal.)
The same comment also informs me that 'His arrangers were Argentino Galvan, Julian Plaza, Ismael Spitalnik, Raul Garello, Alberto Caracioli and Astor Piazzolla.'
The same comment also informs me that 'His arrangers were Argentino Galvan, Julian Plaza, Ismael Spitalnik, Raul Garello, Alberto Caracioli and Astor Piazzolla.'
I've
checked them out on Todotango. However,
Garello was born in 1936, and Julián
Plaza
in 1928, so they would have
been 8 and 16 respectively in 1944, the year when Troilo and
Piazzolla
parted company, and any
contribution by them to
the 108 Troilo
recordings between 1941
and 1944 can be ruled out.
Galván
was much older, and according to Todotango, he was the arranger who
created the sound of the Caló orquesta, writing virtuoso solos for
the strings. (His favourite composer was Debussy.) He was associated
with Troilo in 1940, in particular with Troilo's version of Pimienta,
but if Troilo recorded it it doesn't seem to have survived. Troilo
regarded his 1946 recording of Recuerdos de Bohemia in a Galván
arrangement as his most important. (At 5:22 it must be one of the
longest for the time. It's a marvelous piece of music, but it's
hardly danceable: it looks forward rather to the late 50s and 1960s.
It's on YouTube.) So
Galván was certainly around in the period.
Ismael
Spitalnik was born in 1919, so he was a close contemporary of
Piazzolla. Between the late 1930s and 1943 he was with the D'Agostino
orquesta, while beginning to study composition seriously, and
completing his studies in industrial chemistry! He seems to have
worked with Troilo somewhat later. Alberto Caraccioli was born in
1918, and also seems to have started studying composition in the
mid-1940s.
Between
1941 and 1944, the period in which the 108 tangos were recorded,
Piazzolla was Troilo's in-house and in-orquesta arranger, and it
seems likely that most of the recordings were arrangements he had a
big part in. But perhaps the manuscripts of the arrangements will
make possible a more complete history of Troilo and his arrangers.
(I've
not mentioned who sent the comment, as the same person emailed me a
few days later complaining rather bitterly that I hadn't posted the
information as a post! Well! For a start, I decide where a comment is
published, indeed, if it is published! & as it happens I do other
things, apart from blogging and going out dancing, and I can't always
find time to check things out carefully and follow up on what
interests me. I don't think we need to know the names of people who
can't be courteous on the internet.)
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