The vanishing art of the milongueros

 

The blog Tango Voice has longer, thorough articles about tango. There is a lot of interesting and important information available! 

The link below will present you with some of the most prominent milongueros and in the end, you find a list of video links to their dance.

Click here and you will travel to the posting!           

To start with here is a Ricardo Vidort, Tango: Tigre viejo; video still smooth and appreciated!

https://tangovoice.wordpress.com/2018/02/18/the-vanishing-art-of-the-milongueros-studying-recordings-of-their-dancing-that-preserve-their-legacy/ 

How did Naveira start his tango and met his friends?

 Here you have a link to an interview with Gustavo Naveira! It gives you the story of his life with tango from the age of 20 and the years with Fabian Salas as well as the first time with Chicho, a person with the talent for painting, music, acting as well as for dancing.

Find more by hanging on to the article by clicking the link below.

Gustavo Naveira with amigos interview!

About learning Gustavo says this:

But the real point is:  if you take written notes instead of just making a video of yourself, it's true that you may never look at the notes again either.   But the ACT of making the notes will start to change the way you think about your tango. You will find a way to analyze and explain what you are doing to yourself in symbolic terms.  These symbols will become valuable tools for you to analyze the tango you do and the tango you see others do, and will remain at your disposal when you are improvising the social dance.  So the act of writing notes about your lessons WILL make you a better dancer, much more than the act of operating your camera.  

 Gustavo Gisel-Ann Chicho Juana

 

Argentine - Russia - Hong Kong connection

On this first video Maria and Alexandr Frolov are dancing Invierno played by
“Solo Tango Orquesta Tipica”. So we have the Argentine - Russia connection!

When we get more south we meet the same couple in Hong Kong!

I like the small musical jerk they use every now and then. You find an example on this picture, Check the time there and check it on the video! then you can enjoy even the musical accent to this!  

(Time 0.58 )

                                         

I liked her dress very mucht too!              

Gender role test

Is there a leader behind your traditional follower look?  Or would you do a wonderfull follower but you are dancin as a leader today?

Or are the leader/follower qualities following the male/female pattern?

Anyhow you can test yourself here!

  To the TEST!      

       

Argentine Tango Documentary 1993-94

They still post some old videos you don't have seen yet!

The mystery of changed mood

Last weekend I started my Saturday round with very low expectations similar to the grey November weather outside. The first stop was Comme il faut - a monthly milonga with strict traditional setup - where I usually have good tandas. But not this time - I just couldn't get in to right mood, just couldn't get into the music or connect to the followers. Only the most experienced followers could reach to me at the bottom of this evening!

I left the place around 9PM to get to my second stop. It was a walk in the darkness.

At arrival I decided to fulfill my promise to dance some tandas and then go home. I started the tanda with my longtime partner and after a half tanda we nearly fell down when she suddenly went to an unleaded sideways volgada in a direction where I had just a fraction of possibility to support her.

But this was the start signal for an amazing night!

After that our bodies started to cooperate seamlessly in a amazing way. Her movements have never been so relaxed and exact! My body must have moved in a similar way because we got deep into an exalted flow and you can not reach there alone but both need to be in the same mood!

We did all the tandas we could manage before we noticed the first signs of fatigue. I danced just one more tanda and left for home. Such a highly memorable night!

           

 


Milonga RuntRunt








RuntRunt is also the only milonga keeping the ear-friendly volume!
I made some metering in milongas I visited during last 7 days and it is a huge advantage to be able to dance without earplugs!

Dispari tango dynasty

Yes I should have become aware of the situation long time ago but I had a break through this summer!
Suddenly I just realized that many of the important tango influences are coming to me from Dispari family. It is definitely because of the way they dance, the availability of the workshops and the nice way they meet us!

Jorge and Maria Dispari
During the years the organizers here in Nordic have cooperated with Jorge and Maria! Thanks to them I have had possibility to participate once a year to their workshops. Here one of the most beautiful dances on Youtube.

Javier and Ceraldine
Geraldine is Marias daughter and it is said that even Javier has strong influences from Marias dance style. The early videos of this couple are the all time high among the tango performances. Here you get one of my favorites from Bologna 2001!

I met Javier first time 2004 and after that I have participated in his classes every now and then. He is one of the few teacher who is clearly pointing out the problems with our, students' dancing. He also starts the lessons by walking exercises to point out the importance of a good base for tango.

If you want to know more about her so check my youtube portal for her! (I am sorry but it is working only for computer - yt regulations) When a thumbnail and the title appears you can click on it and get more videos connected to that title.

Adrian and Amanda Costa
Costas are strongly dedicated students of Jorge and Maria! I have had possibility to study for them twice and will continue!

Jorge and Marita have also a daughter Samantha Dispari living on the pistas but I have not had opportunity to participate in her workshops.

https://youtu.be/-VK_Nyykfg8

https://youtu.be/p6rVh5i6xX8

https://youtu.be/fzBNiqwCwdg

https://youtu.be/PPJCjtWxz98
https://youtu.be/9wtokkp6qTg

My timetable for the weekend!

This is my timetable for the weekend I have been seeing forward to since March when it was booked! This Encuentro is one of the strongest cabeceo holds in Europe so it will be interesting to find out how we two go together deep in to the nights! 

The only thing making some worries is this:

It will be HOT hot HOT!

The #5 - a generation divider

When we were working with some of my friends I said - Take the #5! and he just looked at me and said: WHAT's that?

He is my junior in tango and has been learning in a different way. Me and my peers started with SALIDA, 8-Step Basic where the leader's steps are

1. Right back
2. Left side
3. Right forward
4. Left forward

5. Collect the right and change weight while the follower does the cross

6. Left forward
7. Right side step
8. Collect the left


So the issue on our training session was the cross for her and collecting & shifting weight for the leader. Most often I use the #5 term when I want the follower go to cross!

I belong to the SALIDA-generation and he & Co do not. Some of them I think can not do the salida at all. 

Check here! and take a look on the backbone of the earlier tango!

The kicks in the Golden Age

In her book Christine Denniston writes that most of the advanced moves we use today were actively used even during the Golden Ages.

"Modern Tango dancers are sometimes surprised to find that the social dancers in Buenos Aires in the Golden Age danced these same kicks and flicks on the social dance floor."

I am reading the words - on the social dance floor - again and again.
Who did start the talk about to exclude these moves from social dance floors?

 Christine Denniston: the meaning of TANGO, The Story of the Argentinian Dance
 (p. 152)

Dancing during the war

A copy of a friends FB status at Tel Aviv, Israel

Life during the war. DJing at almost empty practica.

You know, dear people, it's Ok to feel fear.
Believe me, I know, I've been there.
I was afraid almost of everything.
Mice, darkness, water, high places, performance...

No, I mean, really afraid.
Up to the point of fainting.
But I never - and I mean never - allowed this fear to rule my actions, to decide what I will or will not do.

And this is the difference between a person who is afraid - and a coward.

What happened to us?
People used to dance under a real - and I mean, real - bombing.
What happened to us?
Are we too safe in our usual life?

There is further comments on this status I appreciated. Check here:
https://www.facebook.com/xenia.mikhailov/posts/10152596188572952

The local or worldwide barrio?

In the old days the dance styles evolved in the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires & Co. The main  feature keeping the group together was the geographical aspect; the people, dancers near you will develope the same way of dancing. People met weekly and watched how the skilled peers were dancing, get inspired and let their own dance change to that direction

In the worldwide barrio the teachers have become the central feature for a community. The peers in the community around a teacher will travel to the workshops, watch the videos and communicate in the net with others and develop their movements in that teachers style.

I suppose a person belongs to different barrios. 

What are your local barrios and the characteristics there?
Are you a member of a worldwide barrio, following a teacher and a style?

Teachers or Youtube?

Today we are living in the expert world so we don't believe on our own ability to see, understand and apply our own ideas on our dance. We want quite exact guidance from a teacher and we want to get forward at racer speed. This gives us a very strong from outside to inside learning and we create a more homogeneous pista, less variation on a figure.

In the old world the dancers were watching the skilled local dancers and then tried to do something similar. The learning was from outside to inside but I think that the results were more or less individual.

There are also stories how a dancer wanted to go around and found a way to do so. All the results were different creating a jungle of movements and an utterly diversified pista.The learning was from inside to outside.

To learn from youtube is a kind of modern variation of this old type of learning!

Shoulders or Feet?

I think one of the biggest differences between the dancers of earlier days and the ones today is the place, where people primarily focus the dance. The old milongueros told that they looked at the shoulders, the upper part of the body to find the DANCE. 

Today the the attention is mainly focused on feet. This phenomenon you can easily discover on youtube! If the person behind the camera cannot get the whole image in same window they will move downward and show you the feet. The same on workshops where people will eagerly learn the consecutive steps and only after that pay attention to the movement of torso.

I think this shift of primary focus has an impact on our dance and dance experience!