TANGO HISTORY AND MODERN BUENOUS AIRES
**************************************
After driving in an open truck for 63 blocks “de punta a punta” (all the way) through the old, loved and most “tanguera Avenue” of Buenos Aires, the famous calle Corrientes, EL MONUMENTO AL TANGO named “Virulazo” (Virulazo was a one of the first and greatest dancers and teachers of el tango) by their creators, was settled at its last destination: one of the squares in Puerto Madero located at “Avenida de los Italianos” and Azucena Villaflor Streets, right in front of the emblematic Rio de La Plata at the Buenos Aires’s harbor. This is, no doubt about it, the right place to honor and to remember all those immigrants that got to that harbor many years ago and became a very important part of the Tango’s history and beginning. The sentimental and emblematic caravan was escorted block by block for musicians, poets, composers, dancers and all kind of admirers and personalities representatives of the 2 X 4. Three of the most authentic legends of El Tango: Leopoldo Federico, Horacio Ferrer and Ben Molar were leading the crowd. It could not be in any other way… finally and after more than a hundred years of existence making the history of this city, the Music of El Tango would have its very well deserved physical respect and recognition….. Its own monument!
El Tango in the City of Buenos Aires, its place of birth and grow has been represented trough the years in many different forms and in very emblematic places. Barrios and famous streets, City squares and corners shows today all kind of works of arts and testimonials dedicated to remember and to honor its more greatest Maestros and Composers:
One of the most representative “paseos” that pay respect to the great Masters of Tango is, and everyone in he tango’s world knows it, “Caminito” in La Boca neighborhood. Visited by thousands of tourist and tango funs from all over the planet, this place was the inspiration for Juan de Dios Filiberto to create the music of one of his most famous tangos: “Caminito“. The statue of Coria Penaloza, the creator of the tango’ words, close to the statues of Filiberto and Gabino complete this Buenos Aires attraction. Later on don Benito Quinquela Martin, another of “La Boca” most beloved sons painted “Caminito” in its masters pieces… and immortalized this colorful, authentic and representative “Paseo del Tango“ !
Another piece of the tango history is “El Abasto” where Carlos Gardel starts singing when he was a boy, and today “Pasaje Carlos Gardel” a short street, shows a full size bronze statue of “El Zorzal Criollo” smiling like a king and wearing his famous tuxedo. Enrique Santos Discepolo another one of those unforgettable Masters has also been immortalized in a “pasaje” and a “plazoleta” (little square) that connects calle Corrientes with Rio Bamba Street. “Discepolin” like his friends used to call him, has been remembered in “Parque Chacabuco” one of the most representatives barrios of Buenos Aires. The singer Roberto Goyeneche has his own square and statue at “Saavedra” neighborhood, its place of birth…. And the late Master of Mastes don Osvaldo Pugliese, one of the most important chapters in the tango history has also been remembered with a statue at “Villa Crespo” neighborhood, his place of bird also, in calle Corrientes and Drago but…. believe it or not… up to this very important moment of its life Buenos Aires and el Tango did not have a monument dedicated to its MUSIC ! That music that not only is a proved and a sound success all over the world, but also represent the vivid personality and the closest and most authentic definition of “El Porteno” (the men of the harbor) with all of its daily hopes, problems and dreams!
The monument to its music is a very suggestive and abstract work of art, and was built in stainless steel, weighs 2 tons, is 3 and half meters tall and is supposed to resemble the life, soul and spirit of the 2 X 4. Taking the shape of a giant Bandoneon, the main and most representative musical instrument of El Tango, this piece involves in itself and get elevated in a visible projection of rhythm and movement. According to its creator Ms Estela Trevino the piece is an abstract work of art (To abstract for me) that represent the tango’s spirit with its music, its dancers, its singers and all its poetry. Mss Trevino won a contest organized and started by “El Comite Pro-monumento al Tango”. During 6 long years this Committee worked in the project without any City or Government financing and was able to get the money and the necessary founding to erect the “Tango’s Monument of Buenos Aires“. After that more than 300 local artists, poets, musicians, funs and all kind of volunteers worked “for free” in over 15 exhibitions and festivals organized by the committee during that period of time (6 years). With this revenues plus money collected from different private Argentinean companies and organizations, they were able to get together the amount $ 350.000 (Argentinean pesos) to pay for the work of art and them… was donated to the city !
This incredible project started and was initiated by Ruben Reale, a reporter specialist in Tango when in the year 2002 He knowledge that EL TANGO came out to be the first one after a worldwide survey “To establish how and for what Argentina were identified in other parts of the world”. Then, according to this reporter: -“I asked myself: How could be possible than this beautiful Music, that represent us and identified us all over the world, does not have its own Monument in Buenos Aires, its place of bird? After this an “urban Art Contest” with the intervention of 71 different proposals, was organized in order to start this sensational project. The winners came out to be Mi ss Estela Trevino and hers son Alejandro Coria. Alejandro said at that time -“We had to represent in only one piece, the music, the poetry, the dance and the singing of El Tango… but without going to the usual “farolito” or the usual “couple of dancers“, and the final result was an abstract figure that take us to “El Bandoneon” because of the shape and the movement of the steel”-
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Please follow DanceWay.com on Twitter
I’m really liking this Twitter thing:
http://twitter.com/dancewaydotcom
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tango Gold Routine
Tango Gold Routine/composition
Long side 1
Link to DC short wall; Chase with link ending; Progressive link
Reverse turn with closed ending; Contra check
Back corte ending DC long wall
Short side 1
progressive link ending DC; closed prominade
drop oversway to prominade DW
fall away 5 step ending DC long wall
progressive link; reverse turn open ending link
progressive link ending DW short side
chase repeat
For more Routines visit
http://www.danceway.com/ballroom.html
http://www.danceway.com/r.html
Long side 1
Link to DC short wall; Chase with link ending; Progressive link
Reverse turn with closed ending; Contra check
Back corte ending DC long wall
Short side 1
progressive link ending DC; closed prominade
drop oversway to prominade DW
fall away 5 step ending DC long wall
progressive link; reverse turn open ending link
progressive link ending DW short side
chase repeat
For more Routines visit
http://www.danceway.com/ballroom.html
http://www.danceway.com/r.html
Sunday, August 2, 2009
PRACTICA IN DOWN TOWN VANCOUVER
SUNDAY EVENING EVENT
**************************
:Sunday Practica at El Centro – Join us for a POTLUCK at 6:30 p.m., the practica starts at 7:30 p.m. (422 Richards Street, 2nd floor). Included in the weekend package or $8/$5 students. $50/10 visit passes also available.
**************************
:Sunday Practica at El Centro – Join us for a POTLUCK at 6:30 p.m., the practica starts at 7:30 p.m. (422 Richards Street, 2nd floor). Included in the weekend package or $8/$5 students. $50/10 visit passes also available.
Monday, July 20, 2009
MONDAY PRACTICA IN VANCOUVER
TANGO PRACTICA
****************
Come practice, experiment, and develop your dance. This practica promotes a diversity of styles and an exchange of ideas in an informal, accessible and creative environment. A place to move, think and be inspired.
Monday Nights 8 - 10pm
$5
2474 Prince Edward St, Vancouver map
****************
Come practice, experiment, and develop your dance. This practica promotes a diversity of styles and an exchange of ideas in an informal, accessible and creative environment. A place to move, think and be inspired.
Monday Nights 8 - 10pm
$5
2474 Prince Edward St, Vancouver map
Saturday, July 18, 2009
PRACTICA IN DOWN TOWN VANCOUVER
El Centro Practica
******************
WhenSun Jun 28 7:30pm – Sun Jun 28 11pm (Weekly at 7:30pm on Sunday)
20090628T193000/20090628T230000Weekly at 7:30pm on Sunday
RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU;WKST=SU20090405T193000
Wheremap422 Richards, Vancouver
Created ByEL CENTRO Argentine Tango Dancing
DescriptionEveryone is welcome at Francis and Emiko's open practica. All levels and styles. No partner required. Traditional music. Refreshments served.
$8 drop-in
$50 for 10 visits (no expiry, non-transferable)
$5 drop-in for students (with student I.D.).
For information: 604-685-0034
******************
WhenSun Jun 28 7:30pm – Sun Jun 28 11pm (Weekly at 7:30pm on Sunday)
20090628T193000/20090628T230000Weekly at 7:30pm on Sunday
RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU;WKST=SU20090405T193000
Wheremap422 Richards, Vancouver
Created ByEL CENTRO Argentine Tango Dancing
DescriptionEveryone is welcome at Francis and Emiko's open practica. All levels and styles. No partner required. Traditional music. Refreshments served.
$8 drop-in
$50 for 10 visits (no expiry, non-transferable)
$5 drop-in for students (with student I.D.).
For information: 604-685-0034
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tango moments
An often asked question is: Why do you do tango? There are several answers to the question, depending on the person, but in North America and other non Latin American cultures, the answer is probably that something is missing in the culture - the emotional warmness from physical contact with others. We innately seek this contact in our lives, and so tango fulfills us. Ultimately, we are all looking for a feeling from dancing. That feeling nourishes our spirit, and really is essential to all of us. Tango is very special and unique. Other dances may allow you to have a partner in your arms, but the feeling is not quite the same. Of course, the feeling we get from tango may not always be a blissful one, however, on a given night, with a given partner, a special connection may be formed where one (or both) of the couple is transported and the divine manifests itself through the dance. It's called the Tango Moment, and dancers live for it. Some, so much that they will keep coming to dance, even though the connection with many of their partners is not giving them this tango moment. The tango moment is fleeting, and elusive.
So how do we achieve a tango moment? How do we give someone else the experience that they desire? In this dance, ones personality comes forth whether they know it or not. We all transmit information to one another at a subconscious level, and in tango, people become even more sensitive to these transmissions. So perhaps the best suggestion to improving your connection to someone, is to improve your self outlook, but also to embody compassion and feeling for your partner. Years ago, I talked with Argentine master teacher Alicia Pons through a friend who translated. We talked about the feeling of the tango. I was new to dancing, and here was a woman who had been dancing for literally decades, with the best milongueros of Buenos Aires, imparting some details. I told her that I played an instrument, and that to me, tango was much like music, it could be done mechanically, but great music was always played with feeling. She replied 'Yes!! It is this way with all great arts, and tango is the same.' Earlier, we had danced. I was a neophyte and hardly able to do her justice, but it was an opportunity to dance with someone special, so I asked, and even though the form was probably not good, the spirit of much feeling was transmitted. Near the end of our conversation, my friend and translator parted with us to return to the dance floor. Alicia's english was very limited, as was my spanish. But, she said 'remember,' and then switched to Spanish: 'Tango es en el corazon.' Tango is in the heart. 'Aqi' she said, and tapped her chest. Si Senhora, I replied. Tango es en el corazon. Then, she offered the kindest praise that a Milonguera could. I will never forget Alicia, for her grace and compassion both on and off the dance floor, and, because, she was one of my first 'Tango moments.'
Saturday, July 11, 2009
TANGO WAYS
M I L O N G A
******************
Dancing in a milonga is a little bit like driving on a highway. There are lanes: usually two, an inner lane and an outer lane. You can't move from one to the other without looking first to make sure that you can do so safely. Generally it is preferable to be in the outermost lane, because then you have one less side to have collisions on.
The middle of the room is a definite no-go area. Dancing there is tantamount to taking a stroll on the middle of a highway median. It causes potential danger to yourself and your partner and everyone around you. There is really no excuse for moving back and forth across lanes or cutting across the room.
There is a simple truism that eludes too many of our tango friends: Tango is not a race: there is no finish line. Therefore, there is no reason to overtake. You can dance as fast or slow as you want and take as big steps as you want, but we all need to move around the dance floor at relatively the same speed. Patience! We have available to us a number of techniques to slow ourselves down when the pair in front of us is not advancing quickly: Make a big step and then pause. Or turn and turn and turn, always moving forward a little bit with each turn. Or take backsteps, but of course never taking a big backstep against the line of dance. There's nothing wrong with covering miles and miles doing little circles behind the person in front of us, waiting for them to move on. And of course there's the simple rockstep, easy-peasy and fun to play with musically. Being patient gives you a chance to be creative in response to your environment (a beautiful thing), rather than show off your imagination by dancing as though you were in a vacuum (not lovely at all).
By the same token, you may have learned some very expensive figures, but you should at all costs avoid doing stationary figures on a crowded floor. Learn to make them move incrementally. Keep them advancing! After all, we don't just dance with our partner, we dance with the entire room.
When you start dancing in the middle of a song, you'll discover that your colleagues have already established a ronda, the revolving circle of dancers that you have to join. You don't do this by plonking yourself smack-dab in one of the lanes, having a wee chat with your partner, and then launching off. This will make people pile up behind you or, worse, overtake you, probably hitting someone else in another lane. Your own bad habits might not get your partner hurt, but they're likely to cause someone else to have a collision.
Zigzagging is a big no-no, as is cutting across the room. In Buenos Aires, no matter how elegant or musical you are, if you cut the floor like a jigsaw you are considered a jerk.
1. There is no reason in a salon to overtake. Overtaking is bad form.
2. You can't stop the flow of traffic for more than a few seconds. Otherwise, the leader behind you will be forced to overtake you, switch lanes, and risk hurting someone else.
3. Stay in your lane! If you move diagonally to the line of dance, you're asking to get hit. Or, by moving suddenly in front of someone else, you may cause them to get hurt. Just because your partner doesn't get hurt doesn't mean that the two couples behind you won't bump because of your sloppy floorcraft.
4. New York has a bad reputation for floorcraft. We all have a responsibility to change this. Our partners' achilles tendons will appreciate this.
5. Exercise extreme caution when leading and executing boleos. People can really get hurt. If you are led to do a high boleo, you have the option to keep it low. If you lead a high boleo, you must be certain that you will not hit anyone.
******************
Dancing in a milonga is a little bit like driving on a highway. There are lanes: usually two, an inner lane and an outer lane. You can't move from one to the other without looking first to make sure that you can do so safely. Generally it is preferable to be in the outermost lane, because then you have one less side to have collisions on.
The middle of the room is a definite no-go area. Dancing there is tantamount to taking a stroll on the middle of a highway median. It causes potential danger to yourself and your partner and everyone around you. There is really no excuse for moving back and forth across lanes or cutting across the room.
There is a simple truism that eludes too many of our tango friends: Tango is not a race: there is no finish line. Therefore, there is no reason to overtake. You can dance as fast or slow as you want and take as big steps as you want, but we all need to move around the dance floor at relatively the same speed. Patience! We have available to us a number of techniques to slow ourselves down when the pair in front of us is not advancing quickly: Make a big step and then pause. Or turn and turn and turn, always moving forward a little bit with each turn. Or take backsteps, but of course never taking a big backstep against the line of dance. There's nothing wrong with covering miles and miles doing little circles behind the person in front of us, waiting for them to move on. And of course there's the simple rockstep, easy-peasy and fun to play with musically. Being patient gives you a chance to be creative in response to your environment (a beautiful thing), rather than show off your imagination by dancing as though you were in a vacuum (not lovely at all).
By the same token, you may have learned some very expensive figures, but you should at all costs avoid doing stationary figures on a crowded floor. Learn to make them move incrementally. Keep them advancing! After all, we don't just dance with our partner, we dance with the entire room.
When you start dancing in the middle of a song, you'll discover that your colleagues have already established a ronda, the revolving circle of dancers that you have to join. You don't do this by plonking yourself smack-dab in one of the lanes, having a wee chat with your partner, and then launching off. This will make people pile up behind you or, worse, overtake you, probably hitting someone else in another lane. Your own bad habits might not get your partner hurt, but they're likely to cause someone else to have a collision.
Zigzagging is a big no-no, as is cutting across the room. In Buenos Aires, no matter how elegant or musical you are, if you cut the floor like a jigsaw you are considered a jerk.
1. There is no reason in a salon to overtake. Overtaking is bad form.
2. You can't stop the flow of traffic for more than a few seconds. Otherwise, the leader behind you will be forced to overtake you, switch lanes, and risk hurting someone else.
3. Stay in your lane! If you move diagonally to the line of dance, you're asking to get hit. Or, by moving suddenly in front of someone else, you may cause them to get hurt. Just because your partner doesn't get hurt doesn't mean that the two couples behind you won't bump because of your sloppy floorcraft.
4. New York has a bad reputation for floorcraft. We all have a responsibility to change this. Our partners' achilles tendons will appreciate this.
5. Exercise extreme caution when leading and executing boleos. People can really get hurt. If you are led to do a high boleo, you have the option to keep it low. If you lead a high boleo, you must be certain that you will not hit anyone.
Friday, July 10, 2009
PRACTICA IN DOWN TOWN VANCOUVER
Sunday Practica at EL CENTRO
Every SUNDAY, 7:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at Academie Duello, 422 Richards Street, 2nd Floor (at W. Hastings St., Downtown). Yerba mate and snacks always served. $8 drop-in, $50 for 10 visits (no expiry, non-transferable), $5 students.
Every SUNDAY, 7:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at Academie Duello, 422 Richards Street, 2nd Floor (at W. Hastings St., Downtown). Yerba mate and snacks always served. $8 drop-in, $50 for 10 visits (no expiry, non-transferable), $5 students.
ELCENTRO MILONGA IN DOWN TOWN
EL CENTRO Milonga
Saturday, July 11, 2009 (second Saturday of the month)
9:30 to 1:30 a.m.
at Academie Duello, 422 Richards Street, 2nd Floor
(at W. Hastings St., Downtown), $10/$7 students.
very close to Waterfront Station Skytrain/Sea Bus/Transit
Saturday, July 11, 2009 (second Saturday of the month)
9:30 to 1:30 a.m.
at Academie Duello, 422 Richards Street, 2nd Floor
(at W. Hastings St., Downtown), $10/$7 students.
very close to Waterfront Station Skytrain/Sea Bus/Transit
Thursday, July 9, 2009
TANGO LYRICS
C I E G O
***************
Version en castellano English translation
Sumando mentira tras mentira,
infamia tras infamia,
mataste mi querer..,
Me diste el horrible desencanto
de haber querido tanto
lo que no pudo ser...
Ni siquiera te guardo encono;
no te desprecio ni te perdono.
Dejaste tan sólo en mi existencia
la misma indiferencia
que vos tuviste ayer.
Ciego, estaba ciego en mi delirio...
Ciego, porque ese amor era un martirio
Y ahora que cayó
la venda de mis ojos
me asqueo al recordar
tus lindos labios rojos...
Ciego, bendita sea mi ceguera
si al fin
saltó la venda y vi que eras
una vulgar muñeca de cartón!...
Comprendo, tal vez un poco tarde,
mis celos de cobarde,
mi angustia y mi temor...
Pensaba que cuando te perdiera
la vida misma diera
en aras de mi amor...
Porque veo que no me muero,
que estoy contento...que no te quiero!...
Y en medio de tanta indiferencia
la luz de la experiencia
me alumbra el corazón.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Adding lie after lie,
infamy after infamy,
you killed my love...
You caused me the horrible disillusion
of having loved so much
what it couldn't be...
I don't even have rancor;
I don't despise you nor I forgive you.
You only left in my existence
the same indifference
that you had yesterday.
Blind, I was blind in my delirium...
Blind, because that love was a martyrdom.
And now that the blindfold
fell off my eyes
it disgusts me to remember
your pretty red lips...
Blind, blessed be my blindness
if at the end
the blindfold fell and I saw you were
a vulgar cardboard doll...
I understand, perhaps a little late
my coward's jealousy,
my anguish and my fear...
I thought that when I'd loose you
my own life I'd give
for the sake of my love...
Because I see that I'm not dying,
that I am happy... that I don't love you...!
And in the midst of so much indifference
the light of the experience
illuminates my heart.
CONTACT:
CANADA2010@IN.COM
***************
Version en castellano English translation
Sumando mentira tras mentira,
infamia tras infamia,
mataste mi querer..,
Me diste el horrible desencanto
de haber querido tanto
lo que no pudo ser...
Ni siquiera te guardo encono;
no te desprecio ni te perdono.
Dejaste tan sólo en mi existencia
la misma indiferencia
que vos tuviste ayer.
Ciego, estaba ciego en mi delirio...
Ciego, porque ese amor era un martirio
Y ahora que cayó
la venda de mis ojos
me asqueo al recordar
tus lindos labios rojos...
Ciego, bendita sea mi ceguera
si al fin
saltó la venda y vi que eras
una vulgar muñeca de cartón!...
Comprendo, tal vez un poco tarde,
mis celos de cobarde,
mi angustia y mi temor...
Pensaba que cuando te perdiera
la vida misma diera
en aras de mi amor...
Porque veo que no me muero,
que estoy contento...que no te quiero!...
Y en medio de tanta indiferencia
la luz de la experiencia
me alumbra el corazón.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Adding lie after lie,
infamy after infamy,
you killed my love...
You caused me the horrible disillusion
of having loved so much
what it couldn't be...
I don't even have rancor;
I don't despise you nor I forgive you.
You only left in my existence
the same indifference
that you had yesterday.
Blind, I was blind in my delirium...
Blind, because that love was a martyrdom.
And now that the blindfold
fell off my eyes
it disgusts me to remember
your pretty red lips...
Blind, blessed be my blindness
if at the end
the blindfold fell and I saw you were
a vulgar cardboard doll...
I understand, perhaps a little late
my coward's jealousy,
my anguish and my fear...
I thought that when I'd loose you
my own life I'd give
for the sake of my love...
Because I see that I'm not dying,
that I am happy... that I don't love you...!
And in the midst of so much indifference
the light of the experience
illuminates my heart.
CONTACT:
CANADA2010@IN.COM
TANGO LYRICS
D E S D E - EL - A L M A
*******************************
CASTELLANO ENGLISH
Alma, si tanto te han herido
¿Por qué te niegas al olvido?
¿Por qué prefieres
llorar lo que has perdido
buscar lo que has querido
llamar lo que murió?
Vives inútilmente triste
y sé que nunca mereciste
pagar con penas
la culpa de ser buena,
tan buena como fuiste, por amor.
Fue lo que empezó una vez
lo que después dejó de ser.
Lo que al final, por culpa de un error
fue noche amarga del corazón.
¡Deja esas cartas!
Vuelve a tu antigua ilusión.
Junto al dolor
que abre una herida
llega la vida, trayendo amor.
Vives inútilmente triste
y sé que nunca mereciste
pagar con penas
la culpa de ser buena
tan buena como fuiste, por amor.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Soul, if they have hurt you so much
Why do you refuse to forget?
Why do you prefer
to cry for what you've lost
to look for what you've wanted
to call for what has died?
You live needlessly sad
and I know that you never deserved
to redeem with sorrow
the blame of being good,
as good as you were, for love.
It was what once began
what later ceased to be.
What at the end, for the fault of a mistake
was a bitter night for the heart.
Forget those letters!
Come back to your old dream.
Together with the pain
that opens a wound
life arrives, bringing love.
You live needlessly sad
and I know that you never deserved
to redeem with sorrow
the blame of being good,
as good as you were, for love
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
*******************************
CASTELLANO ENGLISH
Alma, si tanto te han herido
¿Por qué te niegas al olvido?
¿Por qué prefieres
llorar lo que has perdido
buscar lo que has querido
llamar lo que murió?
Vives inútilmente triste
y sé que nunca mereciste
pagar con penas
la culpa de ser buena,
tan buena como fuiste, por amor.
Fue lo que empezó una vez
lo que después dejó de ser.
Lo que al final, por culpa de un error
fue noche amarga del corazón.
¡Deja esas cartas!
Vuelve a tu antigua ilusión.
Junto al dolor
que abre una herida
llega la vida, trayendo amor.
Vives inútilmente triste
y sé que nunca mereciste
pagar con penas
la culpa de ser buena
tan buena como fuiste, por amor.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Soul, if they have hurt you so much
Why do you refuse to forget?
Why do you prefer
to cry for what you've lost
to look for what you've wanted
to call for what has died?
You live needlessly sad
and I know that you never deserved
to redeem with sorrow
the blame of being good,
as good as you were, for love.
It was what once began
what later ceased to be.
What at the end, for the fault of a mistake
was a bitter night for the heart.
Forget those letters!
Come back to your old dream.
Together with the pain
that opens a wound
life arrives, bringing love.
You live needlessly sad
and I know that you never deserved
to redeem with sorrow
the blame of being good,
as good as you were, for love
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
TANGO LYRICS
C R I S T A L
*******************
CASTELLANO ENGLIS
Tengo el corazón hecho pedazos,
rota mi emoción en este dÃa...
Noches y más noches sin descanso,
y esta desazón del alma mÃa...
Cuántos... cuántos años han pasado,
grises mis cabellos y mi vida;
loco... casi muerto... destrozado,
con mi espÃritu amarrado
a nuestra juventud.
Más frágil que el cristal fue mi amor junto a ti...
Cristal tu corazón... tu mirar... tu reÃr.
Tus sueños y mi voz
y nuestra timidez
temblando suavemente en tu balcón...
Y ahora sólo se
que todo se perdió
la tarde de mi ausencia.
Ya nunca volveré, lo se bien, ¡nunca más!
Tal vez me esperarás junto a Dios, ¡más allá!
Todo para mi se ha terminado.
Todo para mi se torna olvido.
Trágica enseñanza me dejaron
esas horas negras que he vivido.
Cuántos... cuántos años han pasado,
grises mis cabellos y mi vida,
solo, siempre solo y olvidado,
¡con mi espÃritu amarrado a nuestra juventud!
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
My heart is in pieces,
broken are my emotions this day…
Nights and more nights without repose
and this restlessness in my soul…
How many, how many years have passed,
grey are my hair and my life!
Crazy …almost dead…destroyed,
with my spirit clinging
to our youth.
More fragile than the crystal was our love…
Crystal was your heart, your gaze, your laugh…
Your dreams and my voice
and our timidity
trembling gently in your balcony…
And now I only know
that everything was lost
the evening of my absence.
Now I will never return, I know it well. Never again!
Perhaps you will wait for me, in God’s company. In eternity!
Everything has finished for me,
everything for me transforms into oblivion.
Tragic experiences have left for me
those black hours that I have lived!
How many, how many years have passed,
grey are my hair and my life!
Lonely, always lonely and forgotten.
With my spirit clinging to our youth….
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
*******************
CASTELLANO ENGLIS
Tengo el corazón hecho pedazos,
rota mi emoción en este dÃa...
Noches y más noches sin descanso,
y esta desazón del alma mÃa...
Cuántos... cuántos años han pasado,
grises mis cabellos y mi vida;
loco... casi muerto... destrozado,
con mi espÃritu amarrado
a nuestra juventud.
Más frágil que el cristal fue mi amor junto a ti...
Cristal tu corazón... tu mirar... tu reÃr.
Tus sueños y mi voz
y nuestra timidez
temblando suavemente en tu balcón...
Y ahora sólo se
que todo se perdió
la tarde de mi ausencia.
Ya nunca volveré, lo se bien, ¡nunca más!
Tal vez me esperarás junto a Dios, ¡más allá!
Todo para mi se ha terminado.
Todo para mi se torna olvido.
Trágica enseñanza me dejaron
esas horas negras que he vivido.
Cuántos... cuántos años han pasado,
grises mis cabellos y mi vida,
solo, siempre solo y olvidado,
¡con mi espÃritu amarrado a nuestra juventud!
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
My heart is in pieces,
broken are my emotions this day…
Nights and more nights without repose
and this restlessness in my soul…
How many, how many years have passed,
grey are my hair and my life!
Crazy …almost dead…destroyed,
with my spirit clinging
to our youth.
More fragile than the crystal was our love…
Crystal was your heart, your gaze, your laugh…
Your dreams and my voice
and our timidity
trembling gently in your balcony…
And now I only know
that everything was lost
the evening of my absence.
Now I will never return, I know it well. Never again!
Perhaps you will wait for me, in God’s company. In eternity!
Everything has finished for me,
everything for me transforms into oblivion.
Tragic experiences have left for me
those black hours that I have lived!
How many, how many years have passed,
grey are my hair and my life!
Lonely, always lonely and forgotten.
With my spirit clinging to our youth….
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
TANGO LYRICS
C H O R R A
***************************
CASTELLANO ENGLISH
Por ser bueno, me pusiste en la miseria,
me dejaste en la palmera, me afanaste hasta el color.
En seis meses me fundiste el mercadito,
la casiya de la feria, la ganchera, el mostrador...
Chorra!
Me robaste hasta el amor...
Aura
tanto me asusta una mina
que si en la calle me afila
me pongo al lao del boton.
Lo que mas bronca me da
es haber sido tan gil.
Si hace un mes me desayuno
con lo qu' he sabido ayer.
No era a mi que me cachaban
tus rebusques de mujer...
Hoy m'entero que tu mama,
"noble viuda de un guerrero",
es la chorra de mas fama
que piso la treinta y tres.
Y he sabido qu' el "guerrero"
que murio lleno de honor,
ni murio ni fue guerrero
- como m' engrupiste vos -
Esta en cana pronturiado
como agente 'e la camorra,
profesor de cachiporra,
malandrin y estafador.
Entre todos me pelaron con la cero
tu silueta fue el anzuelo donde yo me fui a ensartar.
Se tragaron, vos, "la viuda" y "el guerrero",
lo que me costo diez años de paciencia y de yugar...
Chorros!
Vos, tu vieja y tu papa.
Guarda!
Cuidense porque anda suelta,
si los cacha, los da vuelta,
no les da tiempo a rajar.
Lo que mas bronca me da
es haber sido tan gil.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
For being nice, you drove me into misery,
you left me hanging from a palm tree, you even stole my color.
In six months you bankrupted my little market,
the stand at the fair, the hooks, the counter...
Thief!
You even stole my love...
Now
a woman scares me so much
that if one approaches me on the street
I hide behind a cop.
What really pisses me off the most
is to have been so stupid.
For a month I have suspected
what I've learned yesterday.
It wasn't me who were after,
your woman's fleeting love...
Today I learned that your mother,
"noble widower of a warrior",
is the most famous thief
that set foot on the 33rd precint.
And I found out that the "warrior"
who died with full honors,
didn't die, nor was a warrior
-as you lied to me-
He's in jail booked
as a hit man of the mafia,
professor of truncheon,
scroundel and swindler.
The three of you took me to the cleaners
your silhouete was the hook where I happened to get caught,
You, the "widow" and the "warrior" went through
what I worked hard and patiently for ten years...
Thieves!
You, your old lady and your dad.
Watch out!
Take care because she is on the loose,
if she catches you, she flips you upside down
she won't give you time to run.
What really pisses me off the most
is to have been so stupid.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
***************************
CASTELLANO ENGLISH
Por ser bueno, me pusiste en la miseria,
me dejaste en la palmera, me afanaste hasta el color.
En seis meses me fundiste el mercadito,
la casiya de la feria, la ganchera, el mostrador...
Chorra!
Me robaste hasta el amor...
Aura
tanto me asusta una mina
que si en la calle me afila
me pongo al lao del boton.
Lo que mas bronca me da
es haber sido tan gil.
Si hace un mes me desayuno
con lo qu' he sabido ayer.
No era a mi que me cachaban
tus rebusques de mujer...
Hoy m'entero que tu mama,
"noble viuda de un guerrero",
es la chorra de mas fama
que piso la treinta y tres.
Y he sabido qu' el "guerrero"
que murio lleno de honor,
ni murio ni fue guerrero
- como m' engrupiste vos -
Esta en cana pronturiado
como agente 'e la camorra,
profesor de cachiporra,
malandrin y estafador.
Entre todos me pelaron con la cero
tu silueta fue el anzuelo donde yo me fui a ensartar.
Se tragaron, vos, "la viuda" y "el guerrero",
lo que me costo diez años de paciencia y de yugar...
Chorros!
Vos, tu vieja y tu papa.
Guarda!
Cuidense porque anda suelta,
si los cacha, los da vuelta,
no les da tiempo a rajar.
Lo que mas bronca me da
es haber sido tan gil.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
For being nice, you drove me into misery,
you left me hanging from a palm tree, you even stole my color.
In six months you bankrupted my little market,
the stand at the fair, the hooks, the counter...
Thief!
You even stole my love...
Now
a woman scares me so much
that if one approaches me on the street
I hide behind a cop.
What really pisses me off the most
is to have been so stupid.
For a month I have suspected
what I've learned yesterday.
It wasn't me who were after,
your woman's fleeting love...
Today I learned that your mother,
"noble widower of a warrior",
is the most famous thief
that set foot on the 33rd precint.
And I found out that the "warrior"
who died with full honors,
didn't die, nor was a warrior
-as you lied to me-
He's in jail booked
as a hit man of the mafia,
professor of truncheon,
scroundel and swindler.
The three of you took me to the cleaners
your silhouete was the hook where I happened to get caught,
You, the "widow" and the "warrior" went through
what I worked hard and patiently for ten years...
Thieves!
You, your old lady and your dad.
Watch out!
Take care because she is on the loose,
if she catches you, she flips you upside down
she won't give you time to run.
What really pisses me off the most
is to have been so stupid.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
TANGO LYRICS
C A R N A V A L
**********************
CASTELLANO ENGLISH
¿Sos vos, pebeta? ¿Sos vos? ¿Cómo te va?
¿Estás de baile? ¿Con quién? ¡Con un bacán!
¡Tan bien vestida, das el golpe!...
Te lo digo de verdad...
¿Habré cambiado que vos, ni me mirás,
y sin decirme adiós, ya vas a entrar?
No te apresures.
Mientras paga el auto tu bacán,
yo te diré:
¿Dónde vas con mantón de Manila,
dónde vas con tan lindo disfraz?
Nada menos que a un baile lujoso
donde cuesta la entrada un platal...
¡Qué progresos has hecho, pebeta!
Te cambiaste por seda el percal...
Disfrazada de rica estás papa,
lo mejor que yo vi en Carnaval.
La vida rueda... También rodaste vos.
Yo soy el mismo que ayer era tu amor.
Muy poca cosa: un buen muchacho,
menos plata que ilusión...
Y aquà en la puerta, cansado de vagar,
las mascaritas al baile miro entrar.
Vos entrás también
y la bienvenida, a media voz,
yo te daré.
Divertite, gentil Colombina,
con tu serio y platudo ArlequÃn.
Comprador del cariño y la risa,
con su bolsa que no tiene fin.
Coqueteá con tu traje de rica
que no pudo ofrecerte Pierrot,
que el disfraz sólo dura una noche,
pues lo queman los rayos del sol.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Is that you girlfriend? Is that you? How are you?
You going dancing? With whom? With a rich man!
Your dressed so well, you are a hit!
Have I changed that you don't look at me,
and without saying hi, you're going in?
Don't hurry up.
While your rich man takes care of parking the car,
I'll tell you:
Where are you going with a Manila shawl,
where are you going with a pretty disguise?
Nothing short of a luxurious ballroom
where it cost a fortune to get in...
How much you have progressed, girlfriend!
You traded percale with silk
Disguised as a rich woman you look marvelous,
the best thing I saw in Carnival.
Life rolls... Also you rolled.
I'm the same who yesterday was your love.
Nothing much: but a good man
less money than illusion...
And here at the door, tired of roaming,
I watch the masked ones enter the dance hall
You go in too
and a welcome,
in a low voice,
I will give you.
Have fun, gentile Colombina,
with your serious and rich Arlequin.
Buyer of affection and laughter
with his deep pocket.
Flirt with your rich woman's dress
that Pierrot couldn't afford
that the disguise only lasts one night,
because it burns under the rays of the sun.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
**********************
CASTELLANO ENGLISH
¿Sos vos, pebeta? ¿Sos vos? ¿Cómo te va?
¿Estás de baile? ¿Con quién? ¡Con un bacán!
¡Tan bien vestida, das el golpe!...
Te lo digo de verdad...
¿Habré cambiado que vos, ni me mirás,
y sin decirme adiós, ya vas a entrar?
No te apresures.
Mientras paga el auto tu bacán,
yo te diré:
¿Dónde vas con mantón de Manila,
dónde vas con tan lindo disfraz?
Nada menos que a un baile lujoso
donde cuesta la entrada un platal...
¡Qué progresos has hecho, pebeta!
Te cambiaste por seda el percal...
Disfrazada de rica estás papa,
lo mejor que yo vi en Carnaval.
La vida rueda... También rodaste vos.
Yo soy el mismo que ayer era tu amor.
Muy poca cosa: un buen muchacho,
menos plata que ilusión...
Y aquà en la puerta, cansado de vagar,
las mascaritas al baile miro entrar.
Vos entrás también
y la bienvenida, a media voz,
yo te daré.
Divertite, gentil Colombina,
con tu serio y platudo ArlequÃn.
Comprador del cariño y la risa,
con su bolsa que no tiene fin.
Coqueteá con tu traje de rica
que no pudo ofrecerte Pierrot,
que el disfraz sólo dura una noche,
pues lo queman los rayos del sol.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Is that you girlfriend? Is that you? How are you?
You going dancing? With whom? With a rich man!
Your dressed so well, you are a hit!
Have I changed that you don't look at me,
and without saying hi, you're going in?
Don't hurry up.
While your rich man takes care of parking the car,
I'll tell you:
Where are you going with a Manila shawl,
where are you going with a pretty disguise?
Nothing short of a luxurious ballroom
where it cost a fortune to get in...
How much you have progressed, girlfriend!
You traded percale with silk
Disguised as a rich woman you look marvelous,
the best thing I saw in Carnival.
Life rolls... Also you rolled.
I'm the same who yesterday was your love.
Nothing much: but a good man
less money than illusion...
And here at the door, tired of roaming,
I watch the masked ones enter the dance hall
You go in too
and a welcome,
in a low voice,
I will give you.
Have fun, gentile Colombina,
with your serious and rich Arlequin.
Buyer of affection and laughter
with his deep pocket.
Flirt with your rich woman's dress
that Pierrot couldn't afford
that the disguise only lasts one night,
because it burns under the rays of the sun.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
Monday, July 6, 2009
NEW ERA OF TANGO
HISTORIC REBIRTH OF TANGO
***************************
The fall of the military junta in Argentina in 1983 began a spectacular Tango Renaissance in Buenos Aires. Friends of mine who were in Buenos Aires at that time tell me the atmosphere was extraordinary. Suddenly everyone wanted to move. It was as though a physical weight had been lifted from them. Yoga classes were full. Martial arts classes were full. Dance classes of all kinds were full. And suddenly people wanted to learn to dance Tango, the ultimate symbol of Argentina to the rest of the world, because suddenly it felt all right to be proud to be Argentine again.
The problem with the Tango was that there had never been beginners' Tango classes in the Golden Age, and there was no tradition of teaching Tango. The prácticas had gone. There were no Tango teachers in Buenos Aires. There was a vacuum that needed to be filled.
A dear friend of mine, and a wonderful dancer, told me a story about how he started to teach Tango. He was a student at university, and there was this girl... He wanted to find a way to get closer to her, and he saw a notice for a Tango class aimed at people training to be professional stage dancers, to prepare them to dance in shows. The turnout had been low, so they had opened the class up to other students. He suggested to the girl that they go to the class together, and she agreed. After the second class her schedule changed and she couldn't make it to the Tango class any more, so he suggested that he carry on going and then show her what they had learned afterwards.
After about three months of classes things were going well, and she suggested that as he was doing so well teaching her, perhaps they should start a class. She had some contacts in a local Arts Centre and got their class put into the programme. It happened that this was exactly at the moment that the junta fell and everyone suddenly wanted to move. They came to teach their first ever Tango class and there were 200 people there.
The Meaning of Tango
Everywhere in the world that Tango has begun since 1983 the story has been more or less the same. I taught my first Tango class in London when I had been dancing seriously for four months, not because I thought I knew everything, but because people asked me to teach, because I had taken as many classes with visiting teachers or by travelling myself to Europe as I could, and knew a little. Very few Tango scenes anywhere in the world were begun by experienced dancers.
Even in Buenos Aires, when the Tango Renaissance began, it was mostly young dancers who knew a little who were the first teachers. In 1983 many of the people who had been dancing in the Golden Age were not dancing, and those that were would still have been suspicious of strangers. After all, there had been a brief flirtation with democracy in the 1970s, but in the background the Dirty War was already beginning.
So the first people to start dancing again in Buenos Aires would probably never have danced with someone who had danced in the Golden Age. A friend of mine tells me that she went to milongas and sat and waited and went home and didn't dance for years before people began to believe that she might be able to dance and started to ask her. Another friend of mine went to Tango classes for almost two years, eventually becoming the teacher's assistant, before she decided to go to a milonga for the first time. She took one look at the people dancing and suddenly realised that what she had been doing for such a long time had nothing to do with Tango, and was something that her "teacher" had made up.
Gradually the people who had been dancing in the Golden Age, and who might not have danced for thirty years began to dance again. Some of them developed a passionate desire to pass on to the younger generation the dance that they loved.
One of the most important couples in the early years of the Tango Renaissance were Miguel and Nelly. Miguel tragically died at a relatively early age, before I had the chance to meet him, though I did meet and dance with Nelly. They organised their beginners' classes to be as close as possible to the traditional way of learning. Students were only allowed to dance with the teachers until they were considered to be ready, only doing the most basic steps.
A friend of mine tells me that she went to Miguel and Nelly's classes with her boyfriend of the time. After a few months he said to Miguel, "When are you going to teach us some steps?" Miguel said, "When you're ready. You're not ready." The boyfriend protested and picked up my friend to show some of the steps another teacher had already taught him. Miguel threw him out of the class.
Many of the most important professional dancers of the Tango Renaissance trained with Miguel and Nelly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The early period of the Tango Renaissance was dominated by complex steps. There can be a tremendous excitement to doing complicated steps, especially if they are done with the technique used by those who learned Tango in the traditional way - native speakers of Tango, if you like. When done in this way, steps are part of the emotional connection that defines the essence of Tango. I began dancing when this fashion was still dominant in the new Tango scene. I always loved dancing with complicated movements, and still do. But even as a relative beginner I started to feel that some people in the new generation of dancers were dancing differently, and using steps to keep an emotional distance from their partners.
One of the most influential teachers of this period was Antonio Todaro, a brilliantly inventive dancer of the older generation. The intellectual challenge of the steps he created, and danced with the technique of the Golden Age, was a great inspiration to new dancers. He taught many of the professional stage dancers, and toured frequently in Europe. Todaro fell ill late in 1993, and passed away soon afterwards. It may be coincidence, but the fashion amongst young dancers in Buenos Aires, and then in the rest of the world, began to swing away from steps in 1994.
The next style to come into fashion was one based on the style of the geographical centre of Buenos Aires and the centre of the south of the city in the early 1950s. This is a style that is choreographically relatively simple, relying on the connection between the dancers, and their connection with the music. While it is possible to dance the other styles of the Golden Age with space between the dancers' bodies (although this was not done during the Golden Age), this style makes no sense if it is not done in a close hold.
The great attraction of this style is in the connection within the couple which is necessary to make it work, and which, when done well, is tremendously seductive.
One of the most prominent champions of this style, Susanna Miller, coined for it the term "Estilo Milonguero", milonguero style. The word milonguero, though it literally means someone who spends a lot of time in milongas, had come to be used to mean someone who had been a regular Tango dancer during the Golden Age, before the 1955 coup. While the choice of the term was obviously inspired by the desire to distinguish this style from the steps dominated style danced on stage, the unfortunate and unforeseeable consequence was that it set up the idea in people's minds that this was the only authentic social Tango style.
One of the saddest things I ever saw in Buenos Aires was a dear friend of mine who started dancing in 1945, in the style of the north of Buenos Aires, which is the most elegant and also the most difficult style of the Golden Age, on the point of tears - and elderly Argentine men do not cry in public - because a young dancer had said that he was not a milonguero because he danced with steps. He was being accused of lying about an important part of his whole identity, because this young dancer had misunderstood the term "Estilo Milonguero" and thought that this was the only true style.
The dancing of the people who were dancing in the Golden Age remained unchanged, and one could still go to milongas away from the centre of Buenos Aires and see people doing the most fabulously complicated steps in a truly authentic and completely social way. But by 1995 the style variously known as “close hold”, “short steps”, “Tango club” or “milonguero” had come to dominate the dancing of the people in Buenos Aires who were part of the Tango Renaissance.
The problem with this style, lovely as it is, is that it lacks the fascinating choreographic challenge of all the authentic styles of the Golden Age, apart from the style of the geographic centre and centre south in the early 1950s on which is was loosely based. The thing that makes this style exciting is the connection within the couple and the musicality of the dancers. Quite quickly I started to notice people finding ways of manipulating the close embrace in order to maintain an emotional distance from their partners. Most particularly I noticed people not dancing directly in front of each other, but with the follower away to the leader's right. This was certainly not my experience of dancing with people who had danced this style in the 1950s. They always were directly in front of me, as were almost all the dancers I danced with who had been dancing in the Golden Age, whatever the style.
***************************
The fall of the military junta in Argentina in 1983 began a spectacular Tango Renaissance in Buenos Aires. Friends of mine who were in Buenos Aires at that time tell me the atmosphere was extraordinary. Suddenly everyone wanted to move. It was as though a physical weight had been lifted from them. Yoga classes were full. Martial arts classes were full. Dance classes of all kinds were full. And suddenly people wanted to learn to dance Tango, the ultimate symbol of Argentina to the rest of the world, because suddenly it felt all right to be proud to be Argentine again.
The problem with the Tango was that there had never been beginners' Tango classes in the Golden Age, and there was no tradition of teaching Tango. The prácticas had gone. There were no Tango teachers in Buenos Aires. There was a vacuum that needed to be filled.
A dear friend of mine, and a wonderful dancer, told me a story about how he started to teach Tango. He was a student at university, and there was this girl... He wanted to find a way to get closer to her, and he saw a notice for a Tango class aimed at people training to be professional stage dancers, to prepare them to dance in shows. The turnout had been low, so they had opened the class up to other students. He suggested to the girl that they go to the class together, and she agreed. After the second class her schedule changed and she couldn't make it to the Tango class any more, so he suggested that he carry on going and then show her what they had learned afterwards.
After about three months of classes things were going well, and she suggested that as he was doing so well teaching her, perhaps they should start a class. She had some contacts in a local Arts Centre and got their class put into the programme. It happened that this was exactly at the moment that the junta fell and everyone suddenly wanted to move. They came to teach their first ever Tango class and there were 200 people there.
The Meaning of Tango
Everywhere in the world that Tango has begun since 1983 the story has been more or less the same. I taught my first Tango class in London when I had been dancing seriously for four months, not because I thought I knew everything, but because people asked me to teach, because I had taken as many classes with visiting teachers or by travelling myself to Europe as I could, and knew a little. Very few Tango scenes anywhere in the world were begun by experienced dancers.
Even in Buenos Aires, when the Tango Renaissance began, it was mostly young dancers who knew a little who were the first teachers. In 1983 many of the people who had been dancing in the Golden Age were not dancing, and those that were would still have been suspicious of strangers. After all, there had been a brief flirtation with democracy in the 1970s, but in the background the Dirty War was already beginning.
So the first people to start dancing again in Buenos Aires would probably never have danced with someone who had danced in the Golden Age. A friend of mine tells me that she went to milongas and sat and waited and went home and didn't dance for years before people began to believe that she might be able to dance and started to ask her. Another friend of mine went to Tango classes for almost two years, eventually becoming the teacher's assistant, before she decided to go to a milonga for the first time. She took one look at the people dancing and suddenly realised that what she had been doing for such a long time had nothing to do with Tango, and was something that her "teacher" had made up.
Gradually the people who had been dancing in the Golden Age, and who might not have danced for thirty years began to dance again. Some of them developed a passionate desire to pass on to the younger generation the dance that they loved.
One of the most important couples in the early years of the Tango Renaissance were Miguel and Nelly. Miguel tragically died at a relatively early age, before I had the chance to meet him, though I did meet and dance with Nelly. They organised their beginners' classes to be as close as possible to the traditional way of learning. Students were only allowed to dance with the teachers until they were considered to be ready, only doing the most basic steps.
A friend of mine tells me that she went to Miguel and Nelly's classes with her boyfriend of the time. After a few months he said to Miguel, "When are you going to teach us some steps?" Miguel said, "When you're ready. You're not ready." The boyfriend protested and picked up my friend to show some of the steps another teacher had already taught him. Miguel threw him out of the class.
Many of the most important professional dancers of the Tango Renaissance trained with Miguel and Nelly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The early period of the Tango Renaissance was dominated by complex steps. There can be a tremendous excitement to doing complicated steps, especially if they are done with the technique used by those who learned Tango in the traditional way - native speakers of Tango, if you like. When done in this way, steps are part of the emotional connection that defines the essence of Tango. I began dancing when this fashion was still dominant in the new Tango scene. I always loved dancing with complicated movements, and still do. But even as a relative beginner I started to feel that some people in the new generation of dancers were dancing differently, and using steps to keep an emotional distance from their partners.
One of the most influential teachers of this period was Antonio Todaro, a brilliantly inventive dancer of the older generation. The intellectual challenge of the steps he created, and danced with the technique of the Golden Age, was a great inspiration to new dancers. He taught many of the professional stage dancers, and toured frequently in Europe. Todaro fell ill late in 1993, and passed away soon afterwards. It may be coincidence, but the fashion amongst young dancers in Buenos Aires, and then in the rest of the world, began to swing away from steps in 1994.
The next style to come into fashion was one based on the style of the geographical centre of Buenos Aires and the centre of the south of the city in the early 1950s. This is a style that is choreographically relatively simple, relying on the connection between the dancers, and their connection with the music. While it is possible to dance the other styles of the Golden Age with space between the dancers' bodies (although this was not done during the Golden Age), this style makes no sense if it is not done in a close hold.
The great attraction of this style is in the connection within the couple which is necessary to make it work, and which, when done well, is tremendously seductive.
One of the most prominent champions of this style, Susanna Miller, coined for it the term "Estilo Milonguero", milonguero style. The word milonguero, though it literally means someone who spends a lot of time in milongas, had come to be used to mean someone who had been a regular Tango dancer during the Golden Age, before the 1955 coup. While the choice of the term was obviously inspired by the desire to distinguish this style from the steps dominated style danced on stage, the unfortunate and unforeseeable consequence was that it set up the idea in people's minds that this was the only authentic social Tango style.
One of the saddest things I ever saw in Buenos Aires was a dear friend of mine who started dancing in 1945, in the style of the north of Buenos Aires, which is the most elegant and also the most difficult style of the Golden Age, on the point of tears - and elderly Argentine men do not cry in public - because a young dancer had said that he was not a milonguero because he danced with steps. He was being accused of lying about an important part of his whole identity, because this young dancer had misunderstood the term "Estilo Milonguero" and thought that this was the only true style.
The dancing of the people who were dancing in the Golden Age remained unchanged, and one could still go to milongas away from the centre of Buenos Aires and see people doing the most fabulously complicated steps in a truly authentic and completely social way. But by 1995 the style variously known as “close hold”, “short steps”, “Tango club” or “milonguero” had come to dominate the dancing of the people in Buenos Aires who were part of the Tango Renaissance.
The problem with this style, lovely as it is, is that it lacks the fascinating choreographic challenge of all the authentic styles of the Golden Age, apart from the style of the geographic centre and centre south in the early 1950s on which is was loosely based. The thing that makes this style exciting is the connection within the couple and the musicality of the dancers. Quite quickly I started to notice people finding ways of manipulating the close embrace in order to maintain an emotional distance from their partners. Most particularly I noticed people not dancing directly in front of each other, but with the follower away to the leader's right. This was certainly not my experience of dancing with people who had danced this style in the 1950s. They always were directly in front of me, as were almost all the dancers I danced with who had been dancing in the Golden Age, whatever the style.
REVOLUTIONARY TANGO LYRIC
C A M B A L A C H E
******************************
Version en castellano /English translation
Que el mundo fue y sera una porqueria,
ya lo se...
En el quinientos seis
y en el dos mil también!
Que siempre ha habido chorros,
maquiavelos y estafaos,
contentos y amargaos,
valores y dublés...
Pero que el siglo veinte
es un despliegue
de maldad insolente
ya no hay quien lo niegue.
Vivimos revolcaos en un merengue
y en un mismo lodo
todos manoseaos...
Hoy resulta que es lo mismo
ser derecho que traidor..!
Ignorante, sabio, chorro,
generoso o estafador!
Todo es igual! Nada es mejor!
Lo mismo un burro
que un gran profesor!
No hay aplazaos ni escalafon,
los inmorales nos han igualao.
Si uno vive en la impostura
y otro roba en su ambicion,
da lo mismo que sea cura,
colchonero, rey de bastos,
caradura o polizon...
Que falta de respeto,
que atropello a la razon!
Cualquiera es un señor!
Cualquiera es un ladron!
Mezclao con Stavisky va Don Bosco
y "La Mignon,"
Don Chicho y Napoleon,
Carnera y San Martin...
Igual que en la vidriera irrespetuosa
de los cambalaches
se ha mezclao la vida
y herida por un sable sin remache
ves llorar la Biblia
contra un calefon.
Siglo veinte, cambalache
problematico y febril!
El que no llora, no mama,
y el que no afana es un gil.
Dale nomas! Dale que va!
Que alla en el horno
nos vamo a encontrar!
No pienses mas,
sentate a un lao.
Que a nadie importa
si naciste honrao.
Que es lo mismo el que labura
noche y dia, como un buey
que el que vive de los otros,
que el que mata o el que cura
o esta fuera de la ley.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
That the world was and it will be filth,
I already know...
In the year five hundred and six
and in the year two thousand too!
There always have been thieves,
traitors and victims of fraud,
happy and bitter people,
valuables and imitations
But, that the twentieth century
is a display
of insolent malice,
nobody can deny it anymore.
We lived sunk in a fuzz
and in the same mud
all well-worn...
Today it happens it is the same
to be decent or a traitor!
To be an ignorant, a genius, a pickpocket,
a generous person or a swindler!
All is the same! Nothing is better!
They are the same, an idiot ass
and a great professor!
There are no failing grades or merit valuations,
the immoral have caught up with us.
If one lives in a pose
and another, in his ambition, steals,
it's the same if it's a priest,
a mattress maker, a king of clubs,
a cad or a tramp.
What a lack of respect,
what a way to run over reason!
Anybody is a gentleman!
Anybody is a thief!
Mixed with Stavinsky, you have Don Bosco
and La Mignon
don Chicho and Napoleon,
Carnera and San Martin.
Like in the disrespectful window
of the bazaars,
life is mixed up,
and wounded by a sword without rivets
you can see a Bible crying
next to a water heater.
Twentieth century, bazaar
problematic and feverish!
If you don't cry you don't get fed
and if you don't steal you're a stupid.
Go ahead! Keep it up!
That there, in hell
we're gonna reunite.
Don't think anymore,
move out of the way.
Nobody seems to care
if you were born honest.
It's the same the one who works,
day and night like an ox,
than the one who lives from the others,
than the one that kills or heals
or than the one who lives outside the law.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
******************************
Version en castellano /English translation
Que el mundo fue y sera una porqueria,
ya lo se...
En el quinientos seis
y en el dos mil también!
Que siempre ha habido chorros,
maquiavelos y estafaos,
contentos y amargaos,
valores y dublés...
Pero que el siglo veinte
es un despliegue
de maldad insolente
ya no hay quien lo niegue.
Vivimos revolcaos en un merengue
y en un mismo lodo
todos manoseaos...
Hoy resulta que es lo mismo
ser derecho que traidor..!
Ignorante, sabio, chorro,
generoso o estafador!
Todo es igual! Nada es mejor!
Lo mismo un burro
que un gran profesor!
No hay aplazaos ni escalafon,
los inmorales nos han igualao.
Si uno vive en la impostura
y otro roba en su ambicion,
da lo mismo que sea cura,
colchonero, rey de bastos,
caradura o polizon...
Que falta de respeto,
que atropello a la razon!
Cualquiera es un señor!
Cualquiera es un ladron!
Mezclao con Stavisky va Don Bosco
y "La Mignon,"
Don Chicho y Napoleon,
Carnera y San Martin...
Igual que en la vidriera irrespetuosa
de los cambalaches
se ha mezclao la vida
y herida por un sable sin remache
ves llorar la Biblia
contra un calefon.
Siglo veinte, cambalache
problematico y febril!
El que no llora, no mama,
y el que no afana es un gil.
Dale nomas! Dale que va!
Que alla en el horno
nos vamo a encontrar!
No pienses mas,
sentate a un lao.
Que a nadie importa
si naciste honrao.
Que es lo mismo el que labura
noche y dia, como un buey
que el que vive de los otros,
que el que mata o el que cura
o esta fuera de la ley.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
That the world was and it will be filth,
I already know...
In the year five hundred and six
and in the year two thousand too!
There always have been thieves,
traitors and victims of fraud,
happy and bitter people,
valuables and imitations
But, that the twentieth century
is a display
of insolent malice,
nobody can deny it anymore.
We lived sunk in a fuzz
and in the same mud
all well-worn...
Today it happens it is the same
to be decent or a traitor!
To be an ignorant, a genius, a pickpocket,
a generous person or a swindler!
All is the same! Nothing is better!
They are the same, an idiot ass
and a great professor!
There are no failing grades or merit valuations,
the immoral have caught up with us.
If one lives in a pose
and another, in his ambition, steals,
it's the same if it's a priest,
a mattress maker, a king of clubs,
a cad or a tramp.
What a lack of respect,
what a way to run over reason!
Anybody is a gentleman!
Anybody is a thief!
Mixed with Stavinsky, you have Don Bosco
and La Mignon
don Chicho and Napoleon,
Carnera and San Martin.
Like in the disrespectful window
of the bazaars,
life is mixed up,
and wounded by a sword without rivets
you can see a Bible crying
next to a water heater.
Twentieth century, bazaar
problematic and feverish!
If you don't cry you don't get fed
and if you don't steal you're a stupid.
Go ahead! Keep it up!
That there, in hell
we're gonna reunite.
Don't think anymore,
move out of the way.
Nobody seems to care
if you were born honest.
It's the same the one who works,
day and night like an ox,
than the one who lives from the others,
than the one that kills or heals
or than the one who lives outside the law.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
FAMOUS TANGO LYRICS
C O M O - D O S - E X T R A "N O S
**************************************
Version en castellano English translation
Me acobardó la soledad
y el miedo enorme de morir lejos de ti...
¡Qué ganas tuve de llorar
sintiendo junto a mÃ
la burla de la realidad!
Y el corazón me suplicó
que te buscara y que le diera tu querer...
Me lo pedÃa el corazón
y entonces te busqué
creyéndote mi salvación...
Y ahora que estoy frente a ti
parecemos, ya ves, dos extraños...
Lección que por fin aprendÃ:
¡cómo cambian las cosas los años!
Angustia de saber muertas ya
la ilusión y la fe...
Perdón si me ves lagrimear...
¡Los recuerdos me han hecho mal!
Palideció la luz del sol
al escucharte frÃamente conversar...
Fue tan distinto nuestro amor
y duele comprobar
que todo, todo terminó.
¡Qué gran error volverte a ver
para llevarme destrozado el corazón!
Son mil fantasmas, al volver
burlándose de mÃ,
las horas de ese muerto ayer...
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Loneliness intimidated me
and the enormous fear of dying far from you...
Great was my desire of crying
feeling close to me
the jeer of reality!
And the heart begged me
to look for you and give it your love...
My heart was asking for it
and then I looked for you
believing you were my salvation...
And now that I am in front of you
we seem,as you can see,two strangers...
The lesson that I have finally learned:
Is how years make things change!
Anguish of knowing illusion and faith
were already dead...
I´m sorry if you see me weeping...
Memories have done me wrong!
The light of the sun turned pale
when it listened to your cold conversation...
Our love was so different
and it hurts to realize
that everything, everything ended.
What a great mistake to see you again
to take away my shattered heart!
They are thousand ghosts,
returning to mock me
the hours of that dead past...
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
**************************************
Version en castellano English translation
Me acobardó la soledad
y el miedo enorme de morir lejos de ti...
¡Qué ganas tuve de llorar
sintiendo junto a mÃ
la burla de la realidad!
Y el corazón me suplicó
que te buscara y que le diera tu querer...
Me lo pedÃa el corazón
y entonces te busqué
creyéndote mi salvación...
Y ahora que estoy frente a ti
parecemos, ya ves, dos extraños...
Lección que por fin aprendÃ:
¡cómo cambian las cosas los años!
Angustia de saber muertas ya
la ilusión y la fe...
Perdón si me ves lagrimear...
¡Los recuerdos me han hecho mal!
Palideció la luz del sol
al escucharte frÃamente conversar...
Fue tan distinto nuestro amor
y duele comprobar
que todo, todo terminó.
¡Qué gran error volverte a ver
para llevarme destrozado el corazón!
Son mil fantasmas, al volver
burlándose de mÃ,
las horas de ese muerto ayer...
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Loneliness intimidated me
and the enormous fear of dying far from you...
Great was my desire of crying
feeling close to me
the jeer of reality!
And the heart begged me
to look for you and give it your love...
My heart was asking for it
and then I looked for you
believing you were my salvation...
And now that I am in front of you
we seem,as you can see,two strangers...
The lesson that I have finally learned:
Is how years make things change!
Anguish of knowing illusion and faith
were already dead...
I´m sorry if you see me weeping...
Memories have done me wrong!
The light of the sun turned pale
when it listened to your cold conversation...
Our love was so different
and it hurts to realize
that everything, everything ended.
What a great mistake to see you again
to take away my shattered heart!
They are thousand ghosts,
returning to mock me
the hours of that dead past...
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
TANGO LYRICS
A M I G O S - QUE- Y O -Q U E R O
**************************************
CASTELLANO ENGLISH
En la vida tenemos mil cosas
que son grandes, sublimes y hermosas,
que ennoblecen y alegran el alma
alentándonos el corazón.
Pero hay una sutil y suprema
que nos llega tranquila y serena,
es hombrÃa y lealtad,
sentimiento y bondad,
es sublime... se llama amistad.
Amigos que yo quiero
escuchen este tango,
que lleva entre sus notas
un apretón de manos.
Fue escrito con el alma
pensando en la amistad
con lágrimas lo canto
por los que ya no están.
Alcemos nuestras copas
aquà en el viejo bar
que mientras haya amigos
dan ganas de cantar.
La existencia si es negra condena
con amigos parece verbena,
sin amigos no vale la pena
esta vida llena de dolor.
Los amigos igual que poetas
tienen hondas ternuras secretas,
acerquémonos más a la noble amistad
que nos llena de fe y de bondad.
Amigos que yo quiero
escuchen este tango,
que lleva entre sus notas
un apretón de manos.
Fue escrito con el alma
pensando en la amistad
con lágrimas lo canto
por los que ya no están.
Alcemos nuestras copas
aquà en el viejo bar
que mientras haya amigos
dan ganas de cantar.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
In our life there are a thousand things
that the're great, the're sublime and beautiful,
things that brighten and cheer our soul
encouraging our heart.
But there is something subtle and supreme
that it reaches us with serenity and calm
it is manliness and loyalty,
it's feelings and kindness,
it is sublime... it's called friendship.
Friends who I love
listen to this tango,
that has between its notes
a hearty handshake.
It was written from the soul
thinking about friendship
I sing it with tears
for those who no longer are here.
Let us raise our glasses
here in the old bar
that while there are friends
I have the desire to sing.
The existence that is a dark sentence
among friends it seems like a fair.
Without friends, it's not worth the trouble
this life with so much pain .
Friends just like poets
have deep secret tendernesses,
let's get closer to the noble friendship
that fills us with faith and kindness.
Friends who I love
listen to this tango,
that has between its notes
a hearty handshake.
It was written from the soul
thinking about friendship
I sing it with tears
for those who no longer are here.
Let us raise our glasses
here in the old bar
that while friends exist
I have the desire to sing.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
**************************************
CASTELLANO ENGLISH
En la vida tenemos mil cosas
que son grandes, sublimes y hermosas,
que ennoblecen y alegran el alma
alentándonos el corazón.
Pero hay una sutil y suprema
que nos llega tranquila y serena,
es hombrÃa y lealtad,
sentimiento y bondad,
es sublime... se llama amistad.
Amigos que yo quiero
escuchen este tango,
que lleva entre sus notas
un apretón de manos.
Fue escrito con el alma
pensando en la amistad
con lágrimas lo canto
por los que ya no están.
Alcemos nuestras copas
aquà en el viejo bar
que mientras haya amigos
dan ganas de cantar.
La existencia si es negra condena
con amigos parece verbena,
sin amigos no vale la pena
esta vida llena de dolor.
Los amigos igual que poetas
tienen hondas ternuras secretas,
acerquémonos más a la noble amistad
que nos llena de fe y de bondad.
Amigos que yo quiero
escuchen este tango,
que lleva entre sus notas
un apretón de manos.
Fue escrito con el alma
pensando en la amistad
con lágrimas lo canto
por los que ya no están.
Alcemos nuestras copas
aquà en el viejo bar
que mientras haya amigos
dan ganas de cantar.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
In our life there are a thousand things
that the're great, the're sublime and beautiful,
things that brighten and cheer our soul
encouraging our heart.
But there is something subtle and supreme
that it reaches us with serenity and calm
it is manliness and loyalty,
it's feelings and kindness,
it is sublime... it's called friendship.
Friends who I love
listen to this tango,
that has between its notes
a hearty handshake.
It was written from the soul
thinking about friendship
I sing it with tears
for those who no longer are here.
Let us raise our glasses
here in the old bar
that while there are friends
I have the desire to sing.
The existence that is a dark sentence
among friends it seems like a fair.
Without friends, it's not worth the trouble
this life with so much pain .
Friends just like poets
have deep secret tendernesses,
let's get closer to the noble friendship
that fills us with faith and kindness.
Friends who I love
listen to this tango,
that has between its notes
a hearty handshake.
It was written from the soul
thinking about friendship
I sing it with tears
for those who no longer are here.
Let us raise our glasses
here in the old bar
that while friends exist
I have the desire to sing.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US
CANADA2010@IN.COM
LYRICS WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION
A S I- S E - B A I L A - E L T A N G O
**************************************
Version en castellano English translation
Que saben los pitucos,
lamidos y sushetas,
que saben lo que es tango,
que saben de compas?
Aqui esta la elegancia,
que pinta, que silueta,
que porte, que arrogancia,
que clase pa'bailar.
Asi se baila el tango,
mientras dibujo el ocho,
para estos filigranas,
yo soy como un pintor.
Ahora una corrida,
una vuelta, una sentada.
Asi se baila el tango,
un tango de mi flor.
Asi se baila el tango,
sintiendo en la cara,
la sangre que sube a cada compas,
mientras el brazo,
como una serpiente,
se enrosca en el talle,
que se va a quebrar.
Asi se baila el tango,
mezclando el aliento,
cerrando los ojos
para oir mejor,
como los violines le dicen al fuelle,
porque desde esa noche,
Malena no canto.
Asi se baila el tango,
mientras dibujo el ocho,
para estos filigranas,
yo soy como un pintor.
Ahora una corrida,
una vuelta, una sentada.
Asi se baila el tango,
un tango de mi flor.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
What do the stuck-ups,
the emaciated and the fops know,
what do they know what is tango,
what do they know about rhythm?
Here it is the elegance,
what a look, what a silhouette,
what an appearance, what an arrogance,
what a class to dance.
This is how one dances the tango,
while I "draw" a figure eight,
for this fancy footwork,
I am like a painter.
Now here is a run,
a turn, a sitting.
This is how one dances the tango,
a tango of my flower.
This is how one dances the tango,
feeling in the face,
the blood raising in every beat,
while the arm,
like a serpent,
coils around the waist,
that it is going to break.
This is how tone dances the tango,
mixing the breath,
closing the eyes
to hear better,
as the violins say to the bellows,
why from that night,
Malena sung no more.
This is how one dances the tango,
while I "draw" a figure eight,
for these fancy footwork,
I am like a painter.
Now here is a run,
a turn, a sitting.
This is how one dances the tango,
a tango of my flower.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US CANADA2010@IN.COM
**************************************
Version en castellano English translation
Que saben los pitucos,
lamidos y sushetas,
que saben lo que es tango,
que saben de compas?
Aqui esta la elegancia,
que pinta, que silueta,
que porte, que arrogancia,
que clase pa'bailar.
Asi se baila el tango,
mientras dibujo el ocho,
para estos filigranas,
yo soy como un pintor.
Ahora una corrida,
una vuelta, una sentada.
Asi se baila el tango,
un tango de mi flor.
Asi se baila el tango,
sintiendo en la cara,
la sangre que sube a cada compas,
mientras el brazo,
como una serpiente,
se enrosca en el talle,
que se va a quebrar.
Asi se baila el tango,
mezclando el aliento,
cerrando los ojos
para oir mejor,
como los violines le dicen al fuelle,
porque desde esa noche,
Malena no canto.
Asi se baila el tango,
mientras dibujo el ocho,
para estos filigranas,
yo soy como un pintor.
Ahora una corrida,
una vuelta, una sentada.
Asi se baila el tango,
un tango de mi flor.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
What do the stuck-ups,
the emaciated and the fops know,
what do they know what is tango,
what do they know about rhythm?
Here it is the elegance,
what a look, what a silhouette,
what an appearance, what an arrogance,
what a class to dance.
This is how one dances the tango,
while I "draw" a figure eight,
for this fancy footwork,
I am like a painter.
Now here is a run,
a turn, a sitting.
This is how one dances the tango,
a tango of my flower.
This is how one dances the tango,
feeling in the face,
the blood raising in every beat,
while the arm,
like a serpent,
coils around the waist,
that it is going to break.
This is how tone dances the tango,
mixing the breath,
closing the eyes
to hear better,
as the violins say to the bellows,
why from that night,
Malena sung no more.
This is how one dances the tango,
while I "draw" a figure eight,
for these fancy footwork,
I am like a painter.
Now here is a run,
a turn, a sitting.
This is how one dances the tango,
a tango of my flower.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CONTACT US CANADA2010@IN.COM
TANGO LYRICS
A B A N D O N A D O
*******************
Version en castellano English translation
Llega el viento del recuerdo aquel
al rincón de mi abandono
y entre el polvo muerto del ayer,
también volvió tu querer.
Yo no sé si vivirás feliz
o si el mundo te ha vencido...
si viviendo sin querer vivir
buscás la paz de morir.
Duda de tu ausencia y de mi culpa,
pena de tener que recordar.
Sueño del pasado que me acusa,
manos que no quieren perdonar.
Dolor amigo de estar con tu sombra,
remordimiento de saberte buena.
Dolor lejano de oÃr que te nombran
las voces muertas que se obstinan en volver.
Ya no sueño que retornarás
al fracaso de mi vida
ni tampoco que en tu palpitar
tendrÃa un afán para andar.
Sólo quiero que si estás también
en la cruz del abandono,
sepas olvidarme en tu perdón...
Total, mirá lo que soy.
Pena de tu ausencia sin retorno,
pena de saber que no vendrás.
Pena de escuchar en mi abandono,
voces que me acusan al llegar.
Dolor amigo de estar con tu sombra,
remordimiento de saberte buena.
Dolor lejano de oÃr que te nombran,
las voces muertas del ayer feliz.
Yo no sé si vivirás feliz
o si el mundo te ha vencido...
si viviendo sin querer vivir
buscás la paz de morir.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
The wind of that memory arrives
at the corner of my abandonment
and amid the dead dust of yesterday,
your love also returned.
I don't know if you will live happily
or if the world has defeated you...
If living without wanting to live,
you seek the peace of dying.
Doubt of your absence and of my blame,
sorrow of having to remember.
Dream of the past that accuses me,
hands that don't want to forgive.
Friendly pain of existing with your shadow,
regret of knowing you are good.
Distant pain of hearing the dead voices
that name you again and again.
Now I don't dream that you will return
to the failure of my life,
nor that in your heart beat,
I would have the urge to go.
I only wish that if you are also
on the cross of abandonment,
You'll know how to forget me in your mercy...
So, look at what I am.
Sorrow of your absence without return,
sorrow of knowing that you won't come back,
Sorrow of hearing in my abandonment,
voices that accuse me when they arrive.
Friendly pain of existing with your shadow,
regret of knowing you are good.
Distant pain of hearing the dead voices,
of yesterday's happiness that name you.
I don't know if you will live happily
or if you the world has defeated you...
If living without wanting to live,
you seek the peace of dying.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CANADA2010@IN.COM
*******************
Version en castellano English translation
Llega el viento del recuerdo aquel
al rincón de mi abandono
y entre el polvo muerto del ayer,
también volvió tu querer.
Yo no sé si vivirás feliz
o si el mundo te ha vencido...
si viviendo sin querer vivir
buscás la paz de morir.
Duda de tu ausencia y de mi culpa,
pena de tener que recordar.
Sueño del pasado que me acusa,
manos que no quieren perdonar.
Dolor amigo de estar con tu sombra,
remordimiento de saberte buena.
Dolor lejano de oÃr que te nombran
las voces muertas que se obstinan en volver.
Ya no sueño que retornarás
al fracaso de mi vida
ni tampoco que en tu palpitar
tendrÃa un afán para andar.
Sólo quiero que si estás también
en la cruz del abandono,
sepas olvidarme en tu perdón...
Total, mirá lo que soy.
Pena de tu ausencia sin retorno,
pena de saber que no vendrás.
Pena de escuchar en mi abandono,
voces que me acusan al llegar.
Dolor amigo de estar con tu sombra,
remordimiento de saberte buena.
Dolor lejano de oÃr que te nombran,
las voces muertas del ayer feliz.
Yo no sé si vivirás feliz
o si el mundo te ha vencido...
si viviendo sin querer vivir
buscás la paz de morir.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
The wind of that memory arrives
at the corner of my abandonment
and amid the dead dust of yesterday,
your love also returned.
I don't know if you will live happily
or if the world has defeated you...
If living without wanting to live,
you seek the peace of dying.
Doubt of your absence and of my blame,
sorrow of having to remember.
Dream of the past that accuses me,
hands that don't want to forgive.
Friendly pain of existing with your shadow,
regret of knowing you are good.
Distant pain of hearing the dead voices
that name you again and again.
Now I don't dream that you will return
to the failure of my life,
nor that in your heart beat,
I would have the urge to go.
I only wish that if you are also
on the cross of abandonment,
You'll know how to forget me in your mercy...
So, look at what I am.
Sorrow of your absence without return,
sorrow of knowing that you won't come back,
Sorrow of hearing in my abandonment,
voices that accuse me when they arrive.
Friendly pain of existing with your shadow,
regret of knowing you are good.
Distant pain of hearing the dead voices,
of yesterday's happiness that name you.
I don't know if you will live happily
or if you the world has defeated you...
If living without wanting to live,
you seek the peace of dying.
Do You Have Any Questions, Requests or Comments?
CANADA2010@IN.COM
Sunday, July 5, 2009
PRACTICA AT EL CENTRO DOWN TOWN
El Centro Practica
WhenSun Jul 5 7:30pm – Sun Jul 5 11pm (Weekly at 7:30pm on Sunday)
20090705T193000/20090705T230000Weekly at 7:30pm on Sunday
RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU;WKST=SU20090405T193000
Wheremap422 Richards, Vancouver
Created ByEL CENTRO Argentine Tango Dancing
DescriptionEveryone is welcome at Francis and Emiko's open practica. All levels and styles. No partner required. Traditional music. Refreshments served.
$8 drop-in
$50 for 10 visits (no expiry, non-transferable)
$5 drop-in for students (with student I.D.).
WhenSun Jul 5 7:30pm – Sun Jul 5 11pm (Weekly at 7:30pm on Sunday)
20090705T193000/20090705T230000Weekly at 7:30pm on Sunday
RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU;WKST=SU20090405T193000
Wheremap422 Richards, Vancouver
Created ByEL CENTRO Argentine Tango Dancing
DescriptionEveryone is welcome at Francis and Emiko's open practica. All levels and styles. No partner required. Traditional music. Refreshments served.
$8 drop-in
$50 for 10 visits (no expiry, non-transferable)
$5 drop-in for students (with student I.D.).
Friday, July 3, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
TANGO ASPECTS
M I L O N G A TALK
******************
Tango brings people together, but it could separate them.
It has some mystery and magic in it.
Every night women and men are gathering at Milongas to talk, to
meet someone, to smile and maybe feel happier. Their eyes are sad
or shine, their hearts are hurt or inspired, and their minds need some
challenge or relaxation.
They all come with the different purposes and reasons.
Most of them keep dancing because on the dance floor they can
release their tension and anxiety, enjoy the music, meet some
challenge or create a new dance.
For some it is an exercise which keeps them fit. Also, they can
forget every day problems and just relax by dancing.
Others come with the hope to escape the loneliness, and to feel
somebody next to their heart, somebody who makes them feel good,
at least for a moment.
A few found in Tango community their friends and only family.
Victor & Elena
MC - Ilmar Waldner
(behind)
Rio Rico, Bonsall-03
Many people love Tango because they can grow in it. Tango has many attractive parts
(creativity, beautiful steps, music, and exercise of the mind), which hook people for life.
When some got taste of Tango, they unlikely would ever stop ???
With this in mind, we could better understand what else is there, in the tango embrace,
what kind of psychology was running tango into the life.
******************
Tango brings people together, but it could separate them.
It has some mystery and magic in it.
Every night women and men are gathering at Milongas to talk, to
meet someone, to smile and maybe feel happier. Their eyes are sad
or shine, their hearts are hurt or inspired, and their minds need some
challenge or relaxation.
They all come with the different purposes and reasons.
Most of them keep dancing because on the dance floor they can
release their tension and anxiety, enjoy the music, meet some
challenge or create a new dance.
For some it is an exercise which keeps them fit. Also, they can
forget every day problems and just relax by dancing.
Others come with the hope to escape the loneliness, and to feel
somebody next to their heart, somebody who makes them feel good,
at least for a moment.
A few found in Tango community their friends and only family.
Victor & Elena
MC - Ilmar Waldner
(behind)
Rio Rico, Bonsall-03
Many people love Tango because they can grow in it. Tango has many attractive parts
(creativity, beautiful steps, music, and exercise of the mind), which hook people for life.
When some got taste of Tango, they unlikely would ever stop ???
With this in mind, we could better understand what else is there, in the tango embrace,
what kind of psychology was running tango into the life.
VIDEOS ABOUT TANGO TERMS
T A N G O T E R M S
*********************
Please log on WWW.TANGOTERMS.COM to watch these informative videos about Tango.
LA CAMINATA DEL HOMBRE (The Man's Walk)
00:31 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
LA CAMINATA DE LA MUJER (The Woman's Walk)
00:26 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL PASO BASICO (The Basic Step)
00:48 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL CRUCE or CRUZADA (The Cross)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
OCHO ATRAS (Back Eight)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
OCHO ADELANTE (Forward Eight)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
OCHO CORTADO (Cut Eight)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL GIRO (The Turn)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL GIRO (The Turn) [Woman's Role]
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL BOLEO or VOLEO (Volleying)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
LA MORDIDA (The Bite)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
MORE TANGO TERMS COMING SOON!
Please send us your comments and suggestions canada2010@in.com
*********************
Please log on WWW.TANGOTERMS.COM to watch these informative videos about Tango.
LA CAMINATA DEL HOMBRE (The Man's Walk)
00:31 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
LA CAMINATA DE LA MUJER (The Woman's Walk)
00:26 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL PASO BASICO (The Basic Step)
00:48 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL CRUCE or CRUZADA (The Cross)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
OCHO ATRAS (Back Eight)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
OCHO ADELANTE (Forward Eight)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
OCHO CORTADO (Cut Eight)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL GIRO (The Turn)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL GIRO (The Turn) [Woman's Role]
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
EL BOLEO or VOLEO (Volleying)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
LA MORDIDA (The Bite)
00:00 - Video clip supplied by Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi
MORE TANGO TERMS COMING SOON!
Please send us your comments and suggestions canada2010@in.com
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
TANGO TERMINOLOGY
T A N G O D E F I N A T I O N S
***********************************
*abrazo: embrace (as in dance hold).
*amague: from amagar. To make a threatening motions. An amague is used as an embellishment either led or done on one's own and may be used before taking a step. An example of an amague may be a beat (frappe) before taking a step.
*barrida: sweep. A sweeping motion. One partner's foot sweeps the other's foot. Also called llevada.
*barrio: a district, neighborhood.
*boleo: from bolear. To throw. A boleo may be executed either high or low. Keeping knees together, with one leg in back, swivel on the supporting leg.
*caminar: to walk. The walk is similar to a natural walking step but the ball of the foot touches before the heel. The body and leg must move as a unit so that the body is in balance. Walks should be practiced for balance and fluidity.
*corte: cut. In tango corte means cutting the music either by syncopating or holding several beats.
*cruzada: cross. A cruzada occurs anytime a foot is crossed in front or in back of the other.
*desplazamiento: displacement. Displacing the partner's foot or leg using one's leg or foot.
*dibujo: drawing, sketch. A dibujo is done by drawing circles or other small movements on the floor with one's toe.
*enganche: hooking, coupling. Occurs when partner wraps leg around the other's leg.
*enrosque: from enroscar. To coil, twist. While woman executes a molinete, man spins on one foot, hooking other foot behind the spinning foot.
*giro: turn. While woman does molinete, man turns on one foot placing the toe of the foot in front and executing a sharp turn.
*llevada: from llevar. To transport (see barrida).
*media vuelta: half turn. Usually done when man's right foot and woman's left foot are free. Man steps forward with his right leading woman to take a back step with her left and then leads he to take two steps while turning a half turn.
*milonga: may refer to music or the dance which preceded the tango, written in 2/4 time; or may refer to the dance salon or event where people go to dance tango (see below).
*milongueros: refers to those frequenting the milongas and considered tango fanatics.
*molinete: fan. Molinetes are forward and back ochos (figure 8's) done in a circle.
*ocho: eight. Figure eights usually executed with feet together (ankles touching) instead of one foot extended.
*ocho atras: ochos backward
*pista: dance floor.
*salida: Exit, or start. It's interesting that the word for the basic step (a place to start) should be a way to get out of a figure as well.
*salida cruzada:the beginning of a pattern with a cross; i.e. side left crossing right foot behind left, or side right crossing left foot behind right.
*sandwichito: One partner's foot is sandwiched between the other partner's feet.
*sentada: a sitting action.
*sacada: see desplazamiento (don't you love glossaries that do that?).
*trabada: fastened. It is a lock step - the step that the woman takes when man steps outside with his right foot and then straight forward left, together right. At this point the woman crosses and this cross is referred to as trabada
.
***********************************
*abrazo: embrace (as in dance hold).
*amague: from amagar. To make a threatening motions. An amague is used as an embellishment either led or done on one's own and may be used before taking a step. An example of an amague may be a beat (frappe) before taking a step.
*barrida: sweep. A sweeping motion. One partner's foot sweeps the other's foot. Also called llevada.
*barrio: a district, neighborhood.
*boleo: from bolear. To throw. A boleo may be executed either high or low. Keeping knees together, with one leg in back, swivel on the supporting leg.
*caminar: to walk. The walk is similar to a natural walking step but the ball of the foot touches before the heel. The body and leg must move as a unit so that the body is in balance. Walks should be practiced for balance and fluidity.
*corte: cut. In tango corte means cutting the music either by syncopating or holding several beats.
*cruzada: cross. A cruzada occurs anytime a foot is crossed in front or in back of the other.
*desplazamiento: displacement. Displacing the partner's foot or leg using one's leg or foot.
*dibujo: drawing, sketch. A dibujo is done by drawing circles or other small movements on the floor with one's toe.
*enganche: hooking, coupling. Occurs when partner wraps leg around the other's leg.
*enrosque: from enroscar. To coil, twist. While woman executes a molinete, man spins on one foot, hooking other foot behind the spinning foot.
*giro: turn. While woman does molinete, man turns on one foot placing the toe of the foot in front and executing a sharp turn.
*llevada: from llevar. To transport (see barrida).
*media vuelta: half turn. Usually done when man's right foot and woman's left foot are free. Man steps forward with his right leading woman to take a back step with her left and then leads he to take two steps while turning a half turn.
*milonga: may refer to music or the dance which preceded the tango, written in 2/4 time; or may refer to the dance salon or event where people go to dance tango (see below).
*milongueros: refers to those frequenting the milongas and considered tango fanatics.
*molinete: fan. Molinetes are forward and back ochos (figure 8's) done in a circle.
*ocho: eight. Figure eights usually executed with feet together (ankles touching) instead of one foot extended.
*ocho atras: ochos backward
*pista: dance floor.
*salida: Exit, or start. It's interesting that the word for the basic step (a place to start) should be a way to get out of a figure as well.
*salida cruzada:the beginning of a pattern with a cross; i.e. side left crossing right foot behind left, or side right crossing left foot behind right.
*sandwichito: One partner's foot is sandwiched between the other partner's feet.
*sentada: a sitting action.
*sacada: see desplazamiento (don't you love glossaries that do that?).
*trabada: fastened. It is a lock step - the step that the woman takes when man steps outside with his right foot and then straight forward left, together right. At this point the woman crosses and this cross is referred to as trabada
.
CAPITAL OF TANGO
B U E N O S - A I R E S
*********************************
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This complex, energetic, and seductive port city, which stretches south-to-north along the Rio de la Plata, has been the gateway to Argentina for centuries. Portenos, as the multinational people of Buenos Aires are known, possess an elaborate and rich cultural identity. They value their European heritage highly--Italian and German names outnumber Spanish, and the lifestyle and architecture are markedly more European than any other in South America. One of the world's finest opera houses, the Teatro Colon, flourishes here on the plains alongside the river. Portenos are intensely involved in the life and culture of their city, and they will gladly share the secrets of Buenos Aires if you lend an ear and relate your own stories in return.
Buenos Aires' physical structure is a mosaic as varied and diverse as its culture. The city has no dominating monument, no natural monolith that serves as its focal point. Instead, Buenos Aires is composed of many small places, intimate details, and tiny events and interactions, each with a slightly different shade, shape, and character. Glass-sheathed skyscrapers cast their slender shadows on 19th century Victorian houses; tango bars hazed with the piquant tang of cigar smoke face dusty, treasure-filled antique shops across the way.
The city's neighbourhoods are small and highly individualized, each with its own characteristic colors and forms. In the San Telmo district, the city's multinational heritage is embodied in a varied and cosmopolitan architecture - Spanish Colonial design couples with Italian detailing and graceful French Classicism. La Boca's pressed tin houses are painted a rainbow of colors, and muralists have turned the district's side-streets into avenues of color.
For all its diversity, the elusive spirit of Argentina as a country is present everywhere in Buenos Aires. The national dance, the tango, is perhaps the best expression of that spirit--practiced in dance halls, parks, open plazas, and ballrooms.
*********************************
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This complex, energetic, and seductive port city, which stretches south-to-north along the Rio de la Plata, has been the gateway to Argentina for centuries. Portenos, as the multinational people of Buenos Aires are known, possess an elaborate and rich cultural identity. They value their European heritage highly--Italian and German names outnumber Spanish, and the lifestyle and architecture are markedly more European than any other in South America. One of the world's finest opera houses, the Teatro Colon, flourishes here on the plains alongside the river. Portenos are intensely involved in the life and culture of their city, and they will gladly share the secrets of Buenos Aires if you lend an ear and relate your own stories in return.
Buenos Aires' physical structure is a mosaic as varied and diverse as its culture. The city has no dominating monument, no natural monolith that serves as its focal point. Instead, Buenos Aires is composed of many small places, intimate details, and tiny events and interactions, each with a slightly different shade, shape, and character. Glass-sheathed skyscrapers cast their slender shadows on 19th century Victorian houses; tango bars hazed with the piquant tang of cigar smoke face dusty, treasure-filled antique shops across the way.
The city's neighbourhoods are small and highly individualized, each with its own characteristic colors and forms. In the San Telmo district, the city's multinational heritage is embodied in a varied and cosmopolitan architecture - Spanish Colonial design couples with Italian detailing and graceful French Classicism. La Boca's pressed tin houses are painted a rainbow of colors, and muralists have turned the district's side-streets into avenues of color.
For all its diversity, the elusive spirit of Argentina as a country is present everywhere in Buenos Aires. The national dance, the tango, is perhaps the best expression of that spirit--practiced in dance halls, parks, open plazas, and ballrooms.
HOMELAND OF TANGO
A R G E N T I N A
*********************
Argentina is located in the southern extreme of South America. With a continental extension of 2.791.810 Km2.(including Malvinas Islands, other South Atlantic Islands and part of Antarctica). Argentina is the second largest country in South America and the eighth in the world.
Including the Antarctic Sector, Argentina claims a total area of 3.761.274 Km2
It is some 1425 Km across at its widest from east to west and stretches 3.800 Km from the north to the south.
it is bounded by Bolivia and Paraguay on the north, Brasil, Uruguay and the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and by the Atlantic Ocean and Chile on the west and south.
Relief
The western part of Argentina is occupied by the Andes mountain range, the great mountain system of the South American continent. Here we find the Aconcagua (6.959 m), the highest peak in the world outside those existing in the Himalaya.
There also exists several parallel ranges to the east of the Andes, such as the Eastern Mountain range and the Sub-Andean sierras to the north ,The Pampean Sierras to the north and centre from the Aconquija up to the Sierras of Córdoba and San Luis, and Buenos Aires sierras systems such as Tandilia and Ventania
The central part and the east of Argentina (except for the parallel groups to the Andes already mentioned) consist almost entirely of a flat or gently undulating plain.
Climate and Regions
Argentina has exceptional natural beauties, for it comprises a diverse territory of mountains, plateaux and plains with all the climatic variations
There are several climatic and landscape regions
1) NORTHWEST
It stands out for its tropical climate, its colourful mountains, the Puna high plateaux, the gorges, the valleys and the characteristic settlement patterns that make up the history of this land.
2) GRAN CHACO
Primarily forestal area with forests of subtropical climate, swampy lands and ponds.
3) MESOPOTAMIA
In the northern part the subtropical climate prevails whereas, in the south the climatic conditions are more temperate . It is rich in flora and fauna. Its territory consists of slopes, ponds and swampy lands cut through by important rivers .
4) CUYO
With its montaneous characteristics (The Aconcagua lies here), it has an arid temperate climate. However, man, through artificial irrigation, has turned it into an ideal land for the viticulture and viniculture.
5) CENTRAL SIERRAS
The central sierras of Córdoba and San Luis offer a quite bening dry temperate climate. They posses numerous rivers and artificial water mirrors.
6)HUMID PAMPA
The Pampa with its temperate climate posseses the most productive lands of the country (and one of the best ones of the world) for the agriculture and cattle breeding. Its plain landscape is just broken by Tandil and Ventania Sierras.
The East is characterised by the vast populated beaches of the Atlantic coast.
7) PATAGONIA
The largest region with the coldest climate (especially in the southern part). The west consists mainly of a montaneous landscape peppered with spectacular woods, lakes and glaciers. The centre offers sterile plateaux and the east vast beaches with spectacular and unique colonies of marine animals for sightseeing. The southern extreme of this region makes up the southermost point of the world.
Population
Argentina has a low demographic density. It consists of around 36 millon people, mainly established in the urban centres. The 85% of the population is descendant of inmigrants from Europe. As opposed to most Latin American countries, in Argentina there are relatively few Indian half castes (people of mixed races: european and indian).
Almost half of the population of the country live in the Federal Capital and the province of Buenos Aires. The urban population makes up the 88% of the whole whereas the rural population represents the 22%.
The figures give us a population density of 13 inhabitants per km2 with an annual growing of 1,5 %.
Main Cities:
BUENOS AIRES
11 millons (Federal Capital and the Conurbation)
CORDOBA
1,2 millons.
ROSARIO
1.15 millons
MENDOZA
851.000
SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMAN
626.143
LA PLATA
520.647
MAR DEL PLATA
519.707
SALTA
367.099
Language
Spanish is the official language and is spoken by the great majority of Argentinians.
English, French and Italian are, in lesser or greater degree, widespread languages within the country
Culture
Argentina's cultural roots are mainly europeans and that is clearly reflected in its arquitecture, music, literature and lifestyle.
It has an intense cultural activity. It is seen in the festivities, expositions, cinemas, theatres, and concerts that take place in the principal cities.
Buenos Aires has aproximately 100 cinemas and 90 theatres with a great diversity of spectacles that turn it into one of the cities with the major theatrical activity in Latin America
In the Borges, Recoleta y General San MartÃn cultural centres the cultural dynamics of the country and the world are exposed.
The Colon Theatre, which is among the best three lyrical theatres, stands out for its arquitecture and its perfect acoustics. It is visited by the most outstanding personalities of the classical music, ballet and drama of the world.
Other important theatres are the National Cervantes and the Municipal Gral. San MartÃn Theatres.
Painting and Sculpture are given great importance. This is reflected in the prestigious art galleries existing in the principal cities of the country.
The characteristic music of the city of Buenos Aires is the world-famous tango. Folklore includes several and varid rythms and styles according to the different regions of the country.
The typical Argentine food is asado (barbecue: meat cooked over live coals), appart from empanadas ( a sort of turnover meat pie or pastry that comes with a variety of other stuffings), tamales ( a dish made of corn meal, chicken or meat wrapped in corn husks), humita (dish made of grated corn, sweet peppers and tomatoes wrapped in the green leaves of corn) and locro ( dish made of meat, potato, pumpkin, corn and sweet pepper).
However, and due to the important migrating current that populated the country , there exists a quite varied international cuisine: Spanish, Italian, French, German, Scandinavian, Greek, English, Sweddish, Hungarian, Dutch, Chilean, Mexican, Basque, Jewish, Russian, Ukranian, Chinese, Japanese, Thailander and Arabian.
Our country characteristic drink is mate (infusion).
The quality of its wines and meats is worldly known and the new Argentine cuisine has reached an international level standing out due to its qualified chefs.
*********************
Argentina is located in the southern extreme of South America. With a continental extension of 2.791.810 Km2.(including Malvinas Islands, other South Atlantic Islands and part of Antarctica). Argentina is the second largest country in South America and the eighth in the world.
Including the Antarctic Sector, Argentina claims a total area of 3.761.274 Km2
It is some 1425 Km across at its widest from east to west and stretches 3.800 Km from the north to the south.
it is bounded by Bolivia and Paraguay on the north, Brasil, Uruguay and the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and by the Atlantic Ocean and Chile on the west and south.
Relief
The western part of Argentina is occupied by the Andes mountain range, the great mountain system of the South American continent. Here we find the Aconcagua (6.959 m), the highest peak in the world outside those existing in the Himalaya.
There also exists several parallel ranges to the east of the Andes, such as the Eastern Mountain range and the Sub-Andean sierras to the north ,The Pampean Sierras to the north and centre from the Aconquija up to the Sierras of Córdoba and San Luis, and Buenos Aires sierras systems such as Tandilia and Ventania
The central part and the east of Argentina (except for the parallel groups to the Andes already mentioned) consist almost entirely of a flat or gently undulating plain.
Climate and Regions
Argentina has exceptional natural beauties, for it comprises a diverse territory of mountains, plateaux and plains with all the climatic variations
There are several climatic and landscape regions
1) NORTHWEST
It stands out for its tropical climate, its colourful mountains, the Puna high plateaux, the gorges, the valleys and the characteristic settlement patterns that make up the history of this land.
2) GRAN CHACO
Primarily forestal area with forests of subtropical climate, swampy lands and ponds.
3) MESOPOTAMIA
In the northern part the subtropical climate prevails whereas, in the south the climatic conditions are more temperate . It is rich in flora and fauna. Its territory consists of slopes, ponds and swampy lands cut through by important rivers .
4) CUYO
With its montaneous characteristics (The Aconcagua lies here), it has an arid temperate climate. However, man, through artificial irrigation, has turned it into an ideal land for the viticulture and viniculture.
5) CENTRAL SIERRAS
The central sierras of Córdoba and San Luis offer a quite bening dry temperate climate. They posses numerous rivers and artificial water mirrors.
6)HUMID PAMPA
The Pampa with its temperate climate posseses the most productive lands of the country (and one of the best ones of the world) for the agriculture and cattle breeding. Its plain landscape is just broken by Tandil and Ventania Sierras.
The East is characterised by the vast populated beaches of the Atlantic coast.
7) PATAGONIA
The largest region with the coldest climate (especially in the southern part). The west consists mainly of a montaneous landscape peppered with spectacular woods, lakes and glaciers. The centre offers sterile plateaux and the east vast beaches with spectacular and unique colonies of marine animals for sightseeing. The southern extreme of this region makes up the southermost point of the world.
Population
Argentina has a low demographic density. It consists of around 36 millon people, mainly established in the urban centres. The 85% of the population is descendant of inmigrants from Europe. As opposed to most Latin American countries, in Argentina there are relatively few Indian half castes (people of mixed races: european and indian).
Almost half of the population of the country live in the Federal Capital and the province of Buenos Aires. The urban population makes up the 88% of the whole whereas the rural population represents the 22%.
The figures give us a population density of 13 inhabitants per km2 with an annual growing of 1,5 %.
Main Cities:
BUENOS AIRES
11 millons (Federal Capital and the Conurbation)
CORDOBA
1,2 millons.
ROSARIO
1.15 millons
MENDOZA
851.000
SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMAN
626.143
LA PLATA
520.647
MAR DEL PLATA
519.707
SALTA
367.099
Language
Spanish is the official language and is spoken by the great majority of Argentinians.
English, French and Italian are, in lesser or greater degree, widespread languages within the country
Culture
Argentina's cultural roots are mainly europeans and that is clearly reflected in its arquitecture, music, literature and lifestyle.
It has an intense cultural activity. It is seen in the festivities, expositions, cinemas, theatres, and concerts that take place in the principal cities.
Buenos Aires has aproximately 100 cinemas and 90 theatres with a great diversity of spectacles that turn it into one of the cities with the major theatrical activity in Latin America
In the Borges, Recoleta y General San MartÃn cultural centres the cultural dynamics of the country and the world are exposed.
The Colon Theatre, which is among the best three lyrical theatres, stands out for its arquitecture and its perfect acoustics. It is visited by the most outstanding personalities of the classical music, ballet and drama of the world.
Other important theatres are the National Cervantes and the Municipal Gral. San MartÃn Theatres.
Painting and Sculpture are given great importance. This is reflected in the prestigious art galleries existing in the principal cities of the country.
The characteristic music of the city of Buenos Aires is the world-famous tango. Folklore includes several and varid rythms and styles according to the different regions of the country.
The typical Argentine food is asado (barbecue: meat cooked over live coals), appart from empanadas ( a sort of turnover meat pie or pastry that comes with a variety of other stuffings), tamales ( a dish made of corn meal, chicken or meat wrapped in corn husks), humita (dish made of grated corn, sweet peppers and tomatoes wrapped in the green leaves of corn) and locro ( dish made of meat, potato, pumpkin, corn and sweet pepper).
However, and due to the important migrating current that populated the country , there exists a quite varied international cuisine: Spanish, Italian, French, German, Scandinavian, Greek, English, Sweddish, Hungarian, Dutch, Chilean, Mexican, Basque, Jewish, Russian, Ukranian, Chinese, Japanese, Thailander and Arabian.
Our country characteristic drink is mate (infusion).
The quality of its wines and meats is worldly known and the new Argentine cuisine has reached an international level standing out due to its qualified chefs.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
UNDERSTANDING OF TANGO
IMPACT OF TANGO DANCE
***************************
What happens when a dancer wants to look good? He looks in a mirror. A mirror is something which tells you about yourself how good is it what you do. You watch yourself from an outsider's point of visual view.
Are there other means to tell you about yourself? You can direct your internal eye of attention into your own body. What to look at? Move your hand in the air. You hardly can feel what does it do. Now tense your muscles, stretch you joints. Suddenly your arm, leg, foot, the whole body become "visible" to you. Maintain moving with "visibility" feeling tension and stretching. If you lose "vision" for a moment, find that mini-muscle, adjacent or remote joint, move the whole thing a micron, change the angle so that "vision" comes back. Welcome to a world of your own body!
Manipulating with tensions in your muscles and keeping joints and muscles stretched you can create an appropriate "mirror" to "visualize" each of your movements. It may require paying attention to other muscles and joints, not participating as much in a movement as one might think.
Is there something else? Each of your body parts has more than 1 muscle and it has mass. So you can scientifically speaking make that part "oscillate". My favorite example is Brazilian Samba moves. Cuban movement with pelvis is another example. Belly dancing. Corte in Argentine Tango. Oscillating movements can be very complex or very simple, but all of them are incredibly "visible" to your internal eye and deliver great pleasure when you do it right. To do it right you only have to master a synchronization technique of participating elements of the body. Of course, that involves training to obtain the skill or to develop additional muscles. All oscillating movements are done in this way: one component accumulates energy while another releases it, then they change roles, and so on.
As soon as it has been found how to do it right, the oscillating movement becomes very easy. It requires very little energy. This is called "resonance". Each resonance has one most important feature - one or several "resonance frequencies" - how fast you are to do the movement to feel right. A little bit faster, a little bit slower, and ... Boomms, here you are! It happened. Now maintain it. This is a sign of doing it right - it becomes easy. Very easy, as if it happens itself.
If you move the center of oscillation of the oscillating part to another point in space, or change tension in the surrounding muscles, or change the geometry of participating elements, the "resonance frequency" will change too. That is another way to achieve and manipulate it. Not changing the rhythm, but changing mechanical parameters of the involved and surrounding parts of the body. Because variation of the parameters changes the theoretical "resonance frequency", you are able gradually transform one oscillating movement into another one. You can incorporate additional "things" into the movement. Once they are in sync, they variate the movement - it becomes a dance.
Resonance as phenomena has one amazing property. Once you do a rhythmic movement with one part of your body, another part which has the same "resonance frequency" will resonate, vibrate, and start oscillating with large amplitude. So, it is only matter of finding the right rhythm, tension, and geometrical structure ...
Here I have to say about damping. In order for one part to resonate when another oscillates, the propagation path should not damp. The best transmitters are solid, so your arms, legs, abdomen, everything should not be totally relaxed, but as I would say, alert. Make your body a spring! By the way, one of the ways to make it alert is rotation. In a well alert body, a tap with a toe is transmitted well right through the chest to your partner!
What happens if you sharply stop the movement? Any movement including an "oscillating" one? It generates "a rebound" of all muscles, bones, and organs in the involved area. It happens because they have mass and are connected to each other resiliently. Each one of them and all of them together start to vibrate and oscillate and you feel it!
The art of dancing includes an ability to make every part of your body visible to you, vibrating, and responding. You body become an orchestra with bright sounding instruments for one important listener - yourself.
There are 2 ways of dancing Tango. In first, you do not have a strong physical connection with your partner. A female dances herself. She becomes a "Super Oscillator". Man introduces controlling influences to change kinematic and dynamic parameters of the "Super Oscillator", providing extra supply of energy when needed.
Second way is when you create a strong connection with the partner either in open or in close embrace. You establish a "transmission path", and then you are able to listen to the orchestra inside your partner. When I dance, I can "see" absolutely any part of my partner's body which she is willing to show me through her art of "making a body an orchestra". However, establishing the connection, you combine your own orchestra to the orchestra of your partner. In order to have pleasure they should "sound" in unison.
Even more. Establishing strong connection, you establish new pairs for oscillations. You are creating more instruments! And there are many more of them possible than just in a single body.
This is why I love Argentine Tango. This is the only dance known to me in which the main topic is the art of combining two bodies together to listen to intense dance inside a partner and to establish a "combined orchestra".
If you have not mastered dance - you have to have a glass mirror to control what you do. When you mastered dance you are able to "look" inside your own body. When you dance in couple, all what you do is reflected in your partner's body and responds. Your partner becomes your mirror. You are looking at the partner and you are looking at your own reflection. And if it feels right, it is beautiful.
***************************
What happens when a dancer wants to look good? He looks in a mirror. A mirror is something which tells you about yourself how good is it what you do. You watch yourself from an outsider's point of visual view.
Are there other means to tell you about yourself? You can direct your internal eye of attention into your own body. What to look at? Move your hand in the air. You hardly can feel what does it do. Now tense your muscles, stretch you joints. Suddenly your arm, leg, foot, the whole body become "visible" to you. Maintain moving with "visibility" feeling tension and stretching. If you lose "vision" for a moment, find that mini-muscle, adjacent or remote joint, move the whole thing a micron, change the angle so that "vision" comes back. Welcome to a world of your own body!
Manipulating with tensions in your muscles and keeping joints and muscles stretched you can create an appropriate "mirror" to "visualize" each of your movements. It may require paying attention to other muscles and joints, not participating as much in a movement as one might think.
Is there something else? Each of your body parts has more than 1 muscle and it has mass. So you can scientifically speaking make that part "oscillate". My favorite example is Brazilian Samba moves. Cuban movement with pelvis is another example. Belly dancing. Corte in Argentine Tango. Oscillating movements can be very complex or very simple, but all of them are incredibly "visible" to your internal eye and deliver great pleasure when you do it right. To do it right you only have to master a synchronization technique of participating elements of the body. Of course, that involves training to obtain the skill or to develop additional muscles. All oscillating movements are done in this way: one component accumulates energy while another releases it, then they change roles, and so on.
As soon as it has been found how to do it right, the oscillating movement becomes very easy. It requires very little energy. This is called "resonance". Each resonance has one most important feature - one or several "resonance frequencies" - how fast you are to do the movement to feel right. A little bit faster, a little bit slower, and ... Boomms, here you are! It happened. Now maintain it. This is a sign of doing it right - it becomes easy. Very easy, as if it happens itself.
If you move the center of oscillation of the oscillating part to another point in space, or change tension in the surrounding muscles, or change the geometry of participating elements, the "resonance frequency" will change too. That is another way to achieve and manipulate it. Not changing the rhythm, but changing mechanical parameters of the involved and surrounding parts of the body. Because variation of the parameters changes the theoretical "resonance frequency", you are able gradually transform one oscillating movement into another one. You can incorporate additional "things" into the movement. Once they are in sync, they variate the movement - it becomes a dance.
Resonance as phenomena has one amazing property. Once you do a rhythmic movement with one part of your body, another part which has the same "resonance frequency" will resonate, vibrate, and start oscillating with large amplitude. So, it is only matter of finding the right rhythm, tension, and geometrical structure ...
Here I have to say about damping. In order for one part to resonate when another oscillates, the propagation path should not damp. The best transmitters are solid, so your arms, legs, abdomen, everything should not be totally relaxed, but as I would say, alert. Make your body a spring! By the way, one of the ways to make it alert is rotation. In a well alert body, a tap with a toe is transmitted well right through the chest to your partner!
What happens if you sharply stop the movement? Any movement including an "oscillating" one? It generates "a rebound" of all muscles, bones, and organs in the involved area. It happens because they have mass and are connected to each other resiliently. Each one of them and all of them together start to vibrate and oscillate and you feel it!
The art of dancing includes an ability to make every part of your body visible to you, vibrating, and responding. You body become an orchestra with bright sounding instruments for one important listener - yourself.
There are 2 ways of dancing Tango. In first, you do not have a strong physical connection with your partner. A female dances herself. She becomes a "Super Oscillator". Man introduces controlling influences to change kinematic and dynamic parameters of the "Super Oscillator", providing extra supply of energy when needed.
Second way is when you create a strong connection with the partner either in open or in close embrace. You establish a "transmission path", and then you are able to listen to the orchestra inside your partner. When I dance, I can "see" absolutely any part of my partner's body which she is willing to show me through her art of "making a body an orchestra". However, establishing the connection, you combine your own orchestra to the orchestra of your partner. In order to have pleasure they should "sound" in unison.
Even more. Establishing strong connection, you establish new pairs for oscillations. You are creating more instruments! And there are many more of them possible than just in a single body.
This is why I love Argentine Tango. This is the only dance known to me in which the main topic is the art of combining two bodies together to listen to intense dance inside a partner and to establish a "combined orchestra".
If you have not mastered dance - you have to have a glass mirror to control what you do. When you mastered dance you are able to "look" inside your own body. When you dance in couple, all what you do is reflected in your partner's body and responds. Your partner becomes your mirror. You are looking at the partner and you are looking at your own reflection. And if it feels right, it is beautiful.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
BEGINING OF TANGO DANCE
TANGO EVOLUTION
********************
The origins of tango can be traced back to the middle of the last century - back to the arrival of the men who would make up the "generation of 1880" (amongst them the founding fathers of independent Argentina), to one of their paradigms of government: to govern is to populate, and to the influx of Europeans and Asians into the Rio de la Plata region. Thus, all the necessary conditions were in place for the genesis of "something" accessible and universal enough to bridge ethnic, linguistic, religious, historical and social barriers.To this ethnic melting pot (comprising descendants of former African slaves, oppressed American Indians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Syrians, Turks, Poles, Portuguese, Germans and so on) were added Spanish tanguillo and Cuban habanera music - and what it produced was tango. Never in human history has there been an example of popular culture of such richness and scope and which combines such a range of contributions. And if that were not enough, tango s popular origins, which it preserved for some 50 years, gave it a firm anchorage in a country which was not yet 200 years old.Tango was first written down at the end of the last century, producing 'la milonga" - the 2/4 time (fast for what we know today as tango).And so tango was born and matured on the geographical and cultural periphery of a cosmopolitan city where the social "elite" had its eyes on Paris. El Queco, Sacudime la Persiana, La Cara de la Luna, La Morocha, are some examples of tangos from this early written period (most of which had daring, salacious and/or picaresque lyrics).With the immigration of Polish Jews, tango was introduced, along with the mazurca, into brothels (where its entry was aided by the prospect of an embrace), by two Jewish mafia organisations. It then reached the street corner (an early meeting place), later the tenements, and with the the formation of the first orchestras (duos, trios and quartets), the bars of the poorer outlying districts. By that time there existed a tango culture. There were bandoneonists, guitarists and violinists to play it, and the first tango singers, who would intone the choruses. The bar-cum-store where tango developed early on gave way to more open, spacious places where customers could listen to tango and also dance to it. They had platforms and even stages for orchestras and singers. It was the age of the first orchestras, the first singers and the first dancers.For reasons of snobbery or other motives, tango attracted good boys and girls from bad homes and bad boys and girls from good homes. This was the eve of a golden age: one of great orchestras, singers and composers who produced a series of recordings and films which were responsible for spreading River Plate culture throughout the world. Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Laurel and Hardy, as well as Cachafaz, Tito Luciardo, and Carlos Gardel, and more recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Pacino, Robert Duval and Madonna have all danced tango for the cinema.Dance is one of the most basic forms of human communication. It is a ritual often used by primitive tribes to seal or celebrate agreements. This is how tango began as a dance, and how today it allows a Dutchman and a Japanese woman a three-minute non-verbal exchange.There are tangos for every occasion. Christ on the cross, the excommunicated Galileo, Romeo on the balcony, the arrogant dancer, the mother who gave her sons to the battlefields of France, pretty girls in aprons - tango sings of all of these things. It is a reflection of man and his environment. It is a mirror which does not lie. Which is why it always has been, and always will be marginalised. As in Snow White, the mirror shows us just one reality - and it is a reality that the wicked Queen (or the powers that be) could never accept.A few further considerations Tango was born not as society's prodigal son, but rather, some might say, as its stepchild, and its entire history has been a catalogue of proscriptions. Because of its humble exurban origins, it was not accepted by city people, and much less by the ruling class.The Catholic Church branded it the work of the Devil, because of its connection with pagan carnival rites which celebrated the King/God Momo. Clearly, the male-female embrace and the tenor of some of its Iyrics also played their part. In 1934, Casmiro Ain "El Vasco" danced tango in the Vatican before Pope Pius X and there received his Holiness's approval. From that point on our clergy merely tolerated it. In local festivals throughout the length and breadth of the country there could be music, choirs or folkdances, wherever they might be from, but no tango. For the city of Buenos Aires there were police edicts, and both municipal and government orders prohibiting tango in some of its forms.Even today, although the present government announced at the beginning of its term that it would promote tango culture in primary education, it took eight years to formulate a law to do so.Twenty years after its formation, the Orquesta de Tango de la Cuidad de Buenos Aires has neither its own premises for rehearsals nor a permanent venue for its performances. For over four years it has not had the necessary funds to repair the only harp in its possession. Over two years ago it lost the budget for transporting its piano to educational concerts which it gives weekly in public elementary schools. The orchestra does not have, nor has it ever had dancers to accompany its performances.The de facto government that defeated President Yrigoyen in 1930 banned tangos by Gardel which were accompanied by the guitar, and those which used lunfardo (Buenos Aires slang) in their lyrics. The government of the last military dictatorship prohibited songs by Enrique Santos Discepolo, such as Cambalache for example.Without doubt, it has been the representatives of a prudish morality who have most fervently opposed the expansion of tango culture - but they have not been the only ones. As was said earlier, musical recordings and movies helped considerably in spreading Argentinean culture and cultural models to Spanish-speaking countries. With the result that a Peruvian, a Colombian, a Cuban or a Venezuelan wanted to use Argentinean expressions, drink mate, wear lengue, and listen to Gardel, when it was required that everyone chew gum, drink coke and wear jeans. It was a question of switching one archetype for another, of bringing a corporate action against one type of culture - that of tango.As stated above, tango could be defined as a mirror of man and his environment. In this mirror the individual discovers his own shabbiness, his defects, or simply sees his feelings reflected in his expression. Add to this the rebellious nature of some of its lyrics, and it is easy to see why the guardians of main-stream culture want to BREAK THE MIRROR - that is to say, do away with tango. This is why tango does not feature in the mass media, much less in opinion-forming programmes. From an economic and philosophical point of view, we are living in a new era; with post-modernism and late neo-liberalism since the end of WWII, and now with the death of ideologies. All of which is undoubtedly more a product of intellectual theorizing than of observation. It was many years ago that the tango lyricist Celedonio Flores wrote that at Corrientes and Esmeralda, or any other street corner in any other city in the world "there is a cockatoo who thinks he is Carlos Gardel", but he could well have been talking about the likes of Fukuyama and the supposedly globalizing philosophers (who know only too well that the 'mind creates the phenomenon'). Their empty theories merely reflect the necessity of those in power to steer us towards individualism, and tango is gregarious and communal. Tango is modern.Winds of Change Blow from the NorthThanks to the travels of numerous representatives of tango at various periods, but principally thanks to the prolonged continuity of Tango Argentino, tango came to interest certain cultured, at first, and later perceived cultural elites and to finally establish itself amongst those of refined sensibilities throughout countries of the Northern Hemisphere. To such an extent that our culture is sought after and in demand abroad. Hotels, boarding houses and B&Bs all over Buenos Aires are primarily occupied by Japanese, Canadians, Americans, French; Germans Italians and so on. They are marking the beginning of a new era. They come in search of the roots of tango and are not fooled by "for export" versions. They want the real thing. Most can detect ãwatered-down'' offerings. This is the great challenge for them and for us.
********************
The origins of tango can be traced back to the middle of the last century - back to the arrival of the men who would make up the "generation of 1880" (amongst them the founding fathers of independent Argentina), to one of their paradigms of government: to govern is to populate, and to the influx of Europeans and Asians into the Rio de la Plata region. Thus, all the necessary conditions were in place for the genesis of "something" accessible and universal enough to bridge ethnic, linguistic, religious, historical and social barriers.To this ethnic melting pot (comprising descendants of former African slaves, oppressed American Indians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Syrians, Turks, Poles, Portuguese, Germans and so on) were added Spanish tanguillo and Cuban habanera music - and what it produced was tango. Never in human history has there been an example of popular culture of such richness and scope and which combines such a range of contributions. And if that were not enough, tango s popular origins, which it preserved for some 50 years, gave it a firm anchorage in a country which was not yet 200 years old.Tango was first written down at the end of the last century, producing 'la milonga" - the 2/4 time (fast for what we know today as tango).And so tango was born and matured on the geographical and cultural periphery of a cosmopolitan city where the social "elite" had its eyes on Paris. El Queco, Sacudime la Persiana, La Cara de la Luna, La Morocha, are some examples of tangos from this early written period (most of which had daring, salacious and/or picaresque lyrics).With the immigration of Polish Jews, tango was introduced, along with the mazurca, into brothels (where its entry was aided by the prospect of an embrace), by two Jewish mafia organisations. It then reached the street corner (an early meeting place), later the tenements, and with the the formation of the first orchestras (duos, trios and quartets), the bars of the poorer outlying districts. By that time there existed a tango culture. There were bandoneonists, guitarists and violinists to play it, and the first tango singers, who would intone the choruses. The bar-cum-store where tango developed early on gave way to more open, spacious places where customers could listen to tango and also dance to it. They had platforms and even stages for orchestras and singers. It was the age of the first orchestras, the first singers and the first dancers.For reasons of snobbery or other motives, tango attracted good boys and girls from bad homes and bad boys and girls from good homes. This was the eve of a golden age: one of great orchestras, singers and composers who produced a series of recordings and films which were responsible for spreading River Plate culture throughout the world. Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Laurel and Hardy, as well as Cachafaz, Tito Luciardo, and Carlos Gardel, and more recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Pacino, Robert Duval and Madonna have all danced tango for the cinema.Dance is one of the most basic forms of human communication. It is a ritual often used by primitive tribes to seal or celebrate agreements. This is how tango began as a dance, and how today it allows a Dutchman and a Japanese woman a three-minute non-verbal exchange.There are tangos for every occasion. Christ on the cross, the excommunicated Galileo, Romeo on the balcony, the arrogant dancer, the mother who gave her sons to the battlefields of France, pretty girls in aprons - tango sings of all of these things. It is a reflection of man and his environment. It is a mirror which does not lie. Which is why it always has been, and always will be marginalised. As in Snow White, the mirror shows us just one reality - and it is a reality that the wicked Queen (or the powers that be) could never accept.A few further considerations Tango was born not as society's prodigal son, but rather, some might say, as its stepchild, and its entire history has been a catalogue of proscriptions. Because of its humble exurban origins, it was not accepted by city people, and much less by the ruling class.The Catholic Church branded it the work of the Devil, because of its connection with pagan carnival rites which celebrated the King/God Momo. Clearly, the male-female embrace and the tenor of some of its Iyrics also played their part. In 1934, Casmiro Ain "El Vasco" danced tango in the Vatican before Pope Pius X and there received his Holiness's approval. From that point on our clergy merely tolerated it. In local festivals throughout the length and breadth of the country there could be music, choirs or folkdances, wherever they might be from, but no tango. For the city of Buenos Aires there were police edicts, and both municipal and government orders prohibiting tango in some of its forms.Even today, although the present government announced at the beginning of its term that it would promote tango culture in primary education, it took eight years to formulate a law to do so.Twenty years after its formation, the Orquesta de Tango de la Cuidad de Buenos Aires has neither its own premises for rehearsals nor a permanent venue for its performances. For over four years it has not had the necessary funds to repair the only harp in its possession. Over two years ago it lost the budget for transporting its piano to educational concerts which it gives weekly in public elementary schools. The orchestra does not have, nor has it ever had dancers to accompany its performances.The de facto government that defeated President Yrigoyen in 1930 banned tangos by Gardel which were accompanied by the guitar, and those which used lunfardo (Buenos Aires slang) in their lyrics. The government of the last military dictatorship prohibited songs by Enrique Santos Discepolo, such as Cambalache for example.Without doubt, it has been the representatives of a prudish morality who have most fervently opposed the expansion of tango culture - but they have not been the only ones. As was said earlier, musical recordings and movies helped considerably in spreading Argentinean culture and cultural models to Spanish-speaking countries. With the result that a Peruvian, a Colombian, a Cuban or a Venezuelan wanted to use Argentinean expressions, drink mate, wear lengue, and listen to Gardel, when it was required that everyone chew gum, drink coke and wear jeans. It was a question of switching one archetype for another, of bringing a corporate action against one type of culture - that of tango.As stated above, tango could be defined as a mirror of man and his environment. In this mirror the individual discovers his own shabbiness, his defects, or simply sees his feelings reflected in his expression. Add to this the rebellious nature of some of its lyrics, and it is easy to see why the guardians of main-stream culture want to BREAK THE MIRROR - that is to say, do away with tango. This is why tango does not feature in the mass media, much less in opinion-forming programmes. From an economic and philosophical point of view, we are living in a new era; with post-modernism and late neo-liberalism since the end of WWII, and now with the death of ideologies. All of which is undoubtedly more a product of intellectual theorizing than of observation. It was many years ago that the tango lyricist Celedonio Flores wrote that at Corrientes and Esmeralda, or any other street corner in any other city in the world "there is a cockatoo who thinks he is Carlos Gardel", but he could well have been talking about the likes of Fukuyama and the supposedly globalizing philosophers (who know only too well that the 'mind creates the phenomenon'). Their empty theories merely reflect the necessity of those in power to steer us towards individualism, and tango is gregarious and communal. Tango is modern.Winds of Change Blow from the NorthThanks to the travels of numerous representatives of tango at various periods, but principally thanks to the prolonged continuity of Tango Argentino, tango came to interest certain cultured, at first, and later perceived cultural elites and to finally establish itself amongst those of refined sensibilities throughout countries of the Northern Hemisphere. To such an extent that our culture is sought after and in demand abroad. Hotels, boarding houses and B&Bs all over Buenos Aires are primarily occupied by Japanese, Canadians, Americans, French; Germans Italians and so on. They are marking the beginning of a new era. They come in search of the roots of tango and are not fooled by "for export" versions. They want the real thing. Most can detect ãwatered-down'' offerings. This is the great challenge for them and for us.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
TANGO IS A WAY OF LIFE
TANGO IS AN ADDICTION
**************************
The rules of addiction:One: you keep doing itTwo: every time you do it you feel happyThree: it turns your life upside down but you don't care.
Today I wrote of bloody feetAnd undone laundryAnd family being neglectedTo a woman who begged to knowHow do you take out your garbagehow do you dustAnd how do you washWhen you're a dancer andA member of tango list?
I don't, I answeredYou are rightWe just dance.
She asked:“Is chasing that tango momentout of desperationto fill the emptiness inour heart?
“Yes”, I said.
“Or is it a way to order our livesSo that we can do something thatInspires usMakes us each smileAnd the laundry be damned?”
“Yes”, I said.
Read what Cherie wrote in Buenos Aires:“During my stay I didn't shopor sleep or eat exceptoccasionallynaps andfood on the run, and I lived on wine.
At midnight I would wrap my feetAnd pad my toes and stuff themInto spike heeled pointy tango shoesAnd hobble to the elevator.I suffered tillBlessed numbness set inAn hour later.
Then the music began andI would float on air acrossThe hard cementUntil the morning.After two milongas I'd have breakfastAnd then go home and peel the shoesOff my bloody feetAnd soak themAnd then fall into bedSmelling of men's cologneFeelingDeliriously happy.”
So, go all you addictsYou dancers and poetsAnd milonguerasSpend your lifeForever running afterThe moment thatMakes you happyBecause most peopleDon't even do that.
**************************
The rules of addiction:One: you keep doing itTwo: every time you do it you feel happyThree: it turns your life upside down but you don't care.
Today I wrote of bloody feetAnd undone laundryAnd family being neglectedTo a woman who begged to knowHow do you take out your garbagehow do you dustAnd how do you washWhen you're a dancer andA member of tango list?
I don't, I answeredYou are rightWe just dance.
She asked:“Is chasing that tango momentout of desperationto fill the emptiness inour heart?
“Yes”, I said.
“Or is it a way to order our livesSo that we can do something thatInspires usMakes us each smileAnd the laundry be damned?”
“Yes”, I said.
Read what Cherie wrote in Buenos Aires:“During my stay I didn't shopor sleep or eat exceptoccasionallynaps andfood on the run, and I lived on wine.
At midnight I would wrap my feetAnd pad my toes and stuff themInto spike heeled pointy tango shoesAnd hobble to the elevator.I suffered tillBlessed numbness set inAn hour later.
Then the music began andI would float on air acrossThe hard cementUntil the morning.After two milongas I'd have breakfastAnd then go home and peel the shoesOff my bloody feetAnd soak themAnd then fall into bedSmelling of men's cologneFeelingDeliriously happy.”
So, go all you addictsYou dancers and poetsAnd milonguerasSpend your lifeForever running afterThe moment thatMakes you happyBecause most peopleDon't even do that.
TANGO TUNES
LA CUMPRASITA
--------------------
The cafe 'La Giralda' in Montevideo, Uruguay, occupies a special place in Tango history. It was there in the year 1917 that a young Gerardo Matos Rodriguez gave (anonymously) the music score of a tango he had written to the orchestra of Roberto Firpo to play for the first time. Gerardo was then an adolescent (17 years old) who was barely making it as a student in the faculty of Architecture in Montevideo. Was it modesty? shyness? fear of ridicule? who knows why he wanted to remain anonymous? Firpo only knew that the name of the young composer was Gerardo. It was only later that the full identity of the author was known. He was young, educated, well mannered and sensible. He was also a bit naive. He sold for 20 pesos his rights of authorship to the Breyer publishing house. After some moderate success the composition was forgotten.Seven years later, in 1924, Gerardo was living in Paris and he met Francisco Canaro who had just arrived with his orchestra. That's when he found out that La Cumparsita was a major hit. The tango lyricists Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi had added words to the tango and renamed it 'Si Supieras'--If you knew. All of Buenos Aires was hearing, dancing, and demanding to buy the score for the tango that was seemingly everywhere in shows, recordings, and broadcasts. Shortly after, La Cumparsita arrived to Paris where, in the full grip of the roaring 20's, people danced charlestons, shimmys, one-steps, bostons, and when the crowd asked for a tango, they danced La Cumparsita. From Paris La Cumparsita spread to the four corners of the world and has since and forever after become a synonym for Tango.Gerardo Matos Rodriguez spent the next 20 years in and out of court trying to regain his rights as author of the most famous tango in the world. The first trial was between the composer and the Breyer and Ricordi publishing houses --Breyer had sold the piece to Ricordi. After a long battle, Ricordi agreed to pay royalties to the author. The second lawsuit was against Maroni and Contursi. They had added lyrics to the tune without permission. Gerardo won on the basis that he had surrendered his right to the music while being a minor. A legal loophole, but the law is the law. In 1942, a third lawsuit was established to discontinue from sale the recording made by Carlos Gardel. This of course engendered a fourth lawsuit, this time by Maroni and Contursi's widow, for damages and seeking their rights as authors of the lyrics.There are quite a few tangos that have different lyrics set to the same music. In some instances it was due to the ribald nature of the original lyrics that necessitated a change once the tango left the bordello. In the case of La Cumparsita, it was its popularity. "La cumparsa/de miserias sin fin/ desfila/en torno de aquel ser/enfermo/que pronto ha de morir/de pena/por eso es que en su lecho/solloza acongojado/recordando el pasado/que lo hace padecer" --the original lyrics written by Gerardo, have nothing to do with the "Si supieras/que aun dentro de mi alma/conservo aquel cari~no/que tuve para ti.../ Quien sabe si supieras/que nunca te he olvidado/volviendo a tu pasado/te acordaras de mi..." of Maroni and Contursi (you can hear the original lyrics in the El Bandoneon CD of Angel D'Agostino and Angel Vargas. Maroni's and Contursi's are everywhere else.) And there are French versions, American versions, and several other languages. Needless to say, to hear "Tantalizing/your mask is only/half disquising/I have no trouble recognizing/your features which I'm idolizing" --The Masked One, lyrics by Olga Paul-- is rather amusing if not down right hilarious. Given that the author of La Cumparsita (at the time) was just an amateur pianist, the technical merits of the melody have always being questioned. Gerardo had only composed the first two parts. Moreover, the first part lacks a clear beat. Firpo himself had to add a third part and the harmony to the first. Yet, the composition acquired such a monumental following that those who critize it do so at their own peril. Julio De Caro played it smart. He said of it, "[It's] a flag that transcended frontiers in the whole world, going forth thru its golden door to erect itself as one of the symbols of our music-dance." Astor Piazzolla was much more candid, "Its the most frighteningly poor thing in this world --speaking of the D-C-A-F rhythm-- Nevertheless, if you add a bass note to enrich it and pour on top of it the melody, you can create a counterpoint that raises the conventional melody. It is like an ugly person that dresses nicely, it improves his looks. That's how La Cumparsita is improved. With good clothes."One last thing to note is that the most celebrated tango in history was first recorded as a "B" side song. One of the most popular orchestras from 1917 was the Alonso-Minotto orchestra which was signed up by the Victor recording house to produce a series of records. Now, the deal called for pairs of tangos. One for each side of the record. As it turns out, they were missing one, so someone suggested La Cumparsita as a "filler." And so, Alberto Alonso at the piano, Minotto Di Cicco, bandoneon, Juan Trocoli and Juan Jose Castellano, violins, recorded themselves into history. Of course, like everything else about tango, there is disagreement on this. There are other sources that contend that Roberto Firpo was the one who first recorded it. Indeed, in the CD "La Cumparsita, veinte veces inmortal" credit is given to Firpo as being the first. In any case Minotto and Firpo seem to have collaborated in the arrangement that eventually was recorded.
--------------------
The cafe 'La Giralda' in Montevideo, Uruguay, occupies a special place in Tango history. It was there in the year 1917 that a young Gerardo Matos Rodriguez gave (anonymously) the music score of a tango he had written to the orchestra of Roberto Firpo to play for the first time. Gerardo was then an adolescent (17 years old) who was barely making it as a student in the faculty of Architecture in Montevideo. Was it modesty? shyness? fear of ridicule? who knows why he wanted to remain anonymous? Firpo only knew that the name of the young composer was Gerardo. It was only later that the full identity of the author was known. He was young, educated, well mannered and sensible. He was also a bit naive. He sold for 20 pesos his rights of authorship to the Breyer publishing house. After some moderate success the composition was forgotten.Seven years later, in 1924, Gerardo was living in Paris and he met Francisco Canaro who had just arrived with his orchestra. That's when he found out that La Cumparsita was a major hit. The tango lyricists Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi had added words to the tango and renamed it 'Si Supieras'--If you knew. All of Buenos Aires was hearing, dancing, and demanding to buy the score for the tango that was seemingly everywhere in shows, recordings, and broadcasts. Shortly after, La Cumparsita arrived to Paris where, in the full grip of the roaring 20's, people danced charlestons, shimmys, one-steps, bostons, and when the crowd asked for a tango, they danced La Cumparsita. From Paris La Cumparsita spread to the four corners of the world and has since and forever after become a synonym for Tango.Gerardo Matos Rodriguez spent the next 20 years in and out of court trying to regain his rights as author of the most famous tango in the world. The first trial was between the composer and the Breyer and Ricordi publishing houses --Breyer had sold the piece to Ricordi. After a long battle, Ricordi agreed to pay royalties to the author. The second lawsuit was against Maroni and Contursi. They had added lyrics to the tune without permission. Gerardo won on the basis that he had surrendered his right to the music while being a minor. A legal loophole, but the law is the law. In 1942, a third lawsuit was established to discontinue from sale the recording made by Carlos Gardel. This of course engendered a fourth lawsuit, this time by Maroni and Contursi's widow, for damages and seeking their rights as authors of the lyrics.There are quite a few tangos that have different lyrics set to the same music. In some instances it was due to the ribald nature of the original lyrics that necessitated a change once the tango left the bordello. In the case of La Cumparsita, it was its popularity. "La cumparsa/de miserias sin fin/ desfila/en torno de aquel ser/enfermo/que pronto ha de morir/de pena/por eso es que en su lecho/solloza acongojado/recordando el pasado/que lo hace padecer" --the original lyrics written by Gerardo, have nothing to do with the "Si supieras/que aun dentro de mi alma/conservo aquel cari~no/que tuve para ti.../ Quien sabe si supieras/que nunca te he olvidado/volviendo a tu pasado/te acordaras de mi..." of Maroni and Contursi (you can hear the original lyrics in the El Bandoneon CD of Angel D'Agostino and Angel Vargas. Maroni's and Contursi's are everywhere else.) And there are French versions, American versions, and several other languages. Needless to say, to hear "Tantalizing/your mask is only/half disquising/I have no trouble recognizing/your features which I'm idolizing" --The Masked One, lyrics by Olga Paul-- is rather amusing if not down right hilarious. Given that the author of La Cumparsita (at the time) was just an amateur pianist, the technical merits of the melody have always being questioned. Gerardo had only composed the first two parts. Moreover, the first part lacks a clear beat. Firpo himself had to add a third part and the harmony to the first. Yet, the composition acquired such a monumental following that those who critize it do so at their own peril. Julio De Caro played it smart. He said of it, "[It's] a flag that transcended frontiers in the whole world, going forth thru its golden door to erect itself as one of the symbols of our music-dance." Astor Piazzolla was much more candid, "Its the most frighteningly poor thing in this world --speaking of the D-C-A-F rhythm-- Nevertheless, if you add a bass note to enrich it and pour on top of it the melody, you can create a counterpoint that raises the conventional melody. It is like an ugly person that dresses nicely, it improves his looks. That's how La Cumparsita is improved. With good clothes."One last thing to note is that the most celebrated tango in history was first recorded as a "B" side song. One of the most popular orchestras from 1917 was the Alonso-Minotto orchestra which was signed up by the Victor recording house to produce a series of records. Now, the deal called for pairs of tangos. One for each side of the record. As it turns out, they were missing one, so someone suggested La Cumparsita as a "filler." And so, Alberto Alonso at the piano, Minotto Di Cicco, bandoneon, Juan Trocoli and Juan Jose Castellano, violins, recorded themselves into history. Of course, like everything else about tango, there is disagreement on this. There are other sources that contend that Roberto Firpo was the one who first recorded it. Indeed, in the CD "La Cumparsita, veinte veces inmortal" credit is given to Firpo as being the first. In any case Minotto and Firpo seem to have collaborated in the arrangement that eventually was recorded.
WORLD TANGO CHAMPIONSHIP IN JAPAN
TOKYO TANGO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2009
[ Upcoming Tango Events in Asia ]
[ The 6th Tango Dance World Championship in Asia ]Date: July 4th - 5thPlace: Tokyo, Japan.Schedule:July 4th (Sat) Elimination Rounds Hamamatsucho Seavance HallJuly 5th (Sun) Semi Finals Finals Awarding Ceremony Milong Otakumin Hall ApricoWebsite: http://www.latina.co.jp/html/campeonato/enindex.html
[ Upcoming Tango Events in Asia ]
[ The 6th Tango Dance World Championship in Asia ]Date: July 4th - 5thPlace: Tokyo, Japan.Schedule:July 4th (Sat) Elimination Rounds Hamamatsucho Seavance HallJuly 5th (Sun) Semi Finals Finals Awarding Ceremony Milong Otakumin Hall ApricoWebsite: http://www.latina.co.jp/html/campeonato/enindex.html
Thursday, June 25, 2009
NEW TANGO STYLES
DIRECT FROM ARGENTINA
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ALTERNATIVE TANGO STYLES
In Buenos Aires they say that if you watch ten couples dancing Tango you will see ten different styles. While it’s true that many people develop their own particular style of dancing, in reality it comes down to a choice of two specific and very different styles; these are often called Tango Milonguero Style [or Buenos Aires Style] and Tango Salon Style.
Each style has its own types of music, embrace and steps as well as different techniques of dancing. Also important is that the psychology or mind-set of the dancers appears to be different according to which style is being danced.
TANGO MILONGUERO
Although Tango Milonguero evolved from the Salon style to suit the crowded ballrooms of Buenos Aires in the 1940s and 50s, much of the music suitable for this style is older than that for Salon style. This because it is typically danced to a syncopated rhythm [2 x 4] that was popular in the pre-salon days. This is often slow and sombre in nature which perfectly suits the Milonguero style, particularly as danced by today's older generation in Buenos Aires. Among the many younger people who enjoy this style, the more up-beat music of Juan D'Arienzo and Rodolfo Biagi are popular.
The most striking quality of Milonguero style is the very close embrace that is a requirement of the dance. The couples lean forward to make contact from the waist to chest and the hold does not change throughout the dance. The lady drapes herself around the man with her left arm around his neck, her eyes are often closed; she surrenders.
The dance has an intimate quality which, at first glance, one would assume could only be danced by lovers. However, this is not true and friends and strangers alike dance Tango Milonguero. Because of the close embrace the steps are generally small and relatively simple; exciting, characteristic Tango moves such as Ganchos, Sacadas and Voleos are rarely danced.
One frequent complaint of many ladies is that, because of the close embrace, they have little freedom of movement and little or no means of self-expression. This is generally true and the great Juan Carlos Copes teaches that the man must learn to dominate the woman through his arms and feet. However, he then goes on to say that the man must always remember that he is dancing with a lady.
One advantage of this style of dance is that it requires very little space and can be danced on crowded dance floors and in small spaces. In Buenos Aires it is mostly danced by the older generation of Tango dancers, although it is also surprisingly popular among many younger people. However, it must be said that those of the younger generation who can be seen dancing the Milonguero Style are usually equally comfortable in the Tango Salon Style; that is, they are able to dance either style to suit the particular occasion or situation.
TANGO SALON STYLE
Although this may be a personal preference, the most beautiful Tango dance music is invariably in the Tango Salon Style and often has a more accented ‘tango-beat’ [in 4 x 4 rhythm]. Pugliese, Calo and Di Sarli are typical of the smoother and more elegant Salon style.
The embrace for Tango Salon is close but often with little or no contact at the chest. It has a more elegant and upright style than Milonguero and, with both partners having their weights forward, i.e. forming an inverted ‘V’ shape, the first contact is often made at the head. In Buenos Aires it is not uncommon to see couples dancing with their foreheads touching.
Unlike in Tango Milonguero, the embrace in Tango Salon can change from a close embrace to a more open one. It is this characteristic that gives the dancers the greater freedom necessary to dance a much wider variety of steps and figures than is possible in the Milonguero Style. The woman in particular has much more opportunity to express and impose her style and personality on the dance, rather than merely being a passive follower.
My earlier comment about the psychology, or mind-set, of the dancers can be illustrated by a quotation from a modern Tango dancer and teacher – the great Ozvaldo Zotto who is the epitome of elegance and teaches in the Tango Salon Style. He describes his leading as an invitation to the lady, which may be compared with the comment of Juan Carlos Copes who seeks to dominate the lady. However, Ozvaldo Zotto then goes on to say that 'the lady can either accept the invitation, or decline - in which case the game of Tango comes to an end.' The result, in either Tango Milonguero or Tango Salon, is the same – the lady must follow, however, in Tango Salon there is more a feeling of the dance being a collaborative adventure rather than the man dictating the entire sequence of events.
THE CHOICE OF STYLES
In Buenos Aires there are many teachers who will teach either Tango Milonguero or Tango Salon and a few will teach both. As stated earlier, many of the new generation of Tango dancers are able to dance comfortably in both styles.
Milongas [or social dance occasions] in Buenos Aires will generally play music that is suitable for either the Milonguero Style or the Salon Style and they are rarely mixed. Most people know what to expect before they arrive and the convention is that you dance the style to suit the music, which is normally determined by the teacher, school or other Tango-organization that has arranged the milonga.
It has to be said that the Tango Milonguero Style, because of the close embrace, while being easier to learn is more difficult to dance than the Tango Salon Style. It is common that Salon Style is learned first and, as the dancers become more experienced, the embrace naturally becomes closer thereby making it easier to learn the Milonguero Style.
some idea of the Milonguero Style can be gained from the way we teach figures such as 'La Calesita' and 'La Hamaca' in which the man embraces the lady and brings her to his chest.
SHOW-TANGO OR ‘FANTASIA’
Apart from Tango Milonguero and Tango Salon, the third Tango style which must be mentioned is Show-Tango or, as it is known in Buenos Aires – ‘Fantasia’.
As the name makes clear, Show-Tango is the choreographed Tango seen in professional Tango stage-shows and movies such as The Tango Lesson. It is frequently the first style of Tango seen by people outside Argentina and can give a completely wrong first impression of Tango.
When you learn Show-Tango figures, the first thing the instructor will tell you is that these figures are for the stage only; they are not to be danced in the milonga.
Because it is choreographed, many social dancers look down on Show-Tango, describing it as ‘artificial’, ‘gymnastics’ or 'not real tango'. The truth is that the best Tango dancers – those who are good enough to go on to professional careers, become Show-Tango dancers and all the great names in Tango, such as Miguel and Ozvaldo Zotto, are Show-Tango dancers. The technique, balance, speed and agility required for Show-Tango far exceeds that required for social dancing and by learning, and practicing, some Show-Tango style, the average dancer can greatly improve the quality of his/her social dancing.
- END -
Home
******************************
ALTERNATIVE TANGO STYLES
In Buenos Aires they say that if you watch ten couples dancing Tango you will see ten different styles. While it’s true that many people develop their own particular style of dancing, in reality it comes down to a choice of two specific and very different styles; these are often called Tango Milonguero Style [or Buenos Aires Style] and Tango Salon Style.
Each style has its own types of music, embrace and steps as well as different techniques of dancing. Also important is that the psychology or mind-set of the dancers appears to be different according to which style is being danced.
TANGO MILONGUERO
Although Tango Milonguero evolved from the Salon style to suit the crowded ballrooms of Buenos Aires in the 1940s and 50s, much of the music suitable for this style is older than that for Salon style. This because it is typically danced to a syncopated rhythm [2 x 4] that was popular in the pre-salon days. This is often slow and sombre in nature which perfectly suits the Milonguero style, particularly as danced by today's older generation in Buenos Aires. Among the many younger people who enjoy this style, the more up-beat music of Juan D'Arienzo and Rodolfo Biagi are popular.
The most striking quality of Milonguero style is the very close embrace that is a requirement of the dance. The couples lean forward to make contact from the waist to chest and the hold does not change throughout the dance. The lady drapes herself around the man with her left arm around his neck, her eyes are often closed; she surrenders.
The dance has an intimate quality which, at first glance, one would assume could only be danced by lovers. However, this is not true and friends and strangers alike dance Tango Milonguero. Because of the close embrace the steps are generally small and relatively simple; exciting, characteristic Tango moves such as Ganchos, Sacadas and Voleos are rarely danced.
One frequent complaint of many ladies is that, because of the close embrace, they have little freedom of movement and little or no means of self-expression. This is generally true and the great Juan Carlos Copes teaches that the man must learn to dominate the woman through his arms and feet. However, he then goes on to say that the man must always remember that he is dancing with a lady.
One advantage of this style of dance is that it requires very little space and can be danced on crowded dance floors and in small spaces. In Buenos Aires it is mostly danced by the older generation of Tango dancers, although it is also surprisingly popular among many younger people. However, it must be said that those of the younger generation who can be seen dancing the Milonguero Style are usually equally comfortable in the Tango Salon Style; that is, they are able to dance either style to suit the particular occasion or situation.
TANGO SALON STYLE
Although this may be a personal preference, the most beautiful Tango dance music is invariably in the Tango Salon Style and often has a more accented ‘tango-beat’ [in 4 x 4 rhythm]. Pugliese, Calo and Di Sarli are typical of the smoother and more elegant Salon style.
The embrace for Tango Salon is close but often with little or no contact at the chest. It has a more elegant and upright style than Milonguero and, with both partners having their weights forward, i.e. forming an inverted ‘V’ shape, the first contact is often made at the head. In Buenos Aires it is not uncommon to see couples dancing with their foreheads touching.
Unlike in Tango Milonguero, the embrace in Tango Salon can change from a close embrace to a more open one. It is this characteristic that gives the dancers the greater freedom necessary to dance a much wider variety of steps and figures than is possible in the Milonguero Style. The woman in particular has much more opportunity to express and impose her style and personality on the dance, rather than merely being a passive follower.
My earlier comment about the psychology, or mind-set, of the dancers can be illustrated by a quotation from a modern Tango dancer and teacher – the great Ozvaldo Zotto who is the epitome of elegance and teaches in the Tango Salon Style. He describes his leading as an invitation to the lady, which may be compared with the comment of Juan Carlos Copes who seeks to dominate the lady. However, Ozvaldo Zotto then goes on to say that 'the lady can either accept the invitation, or decline - in which case the game of Tango comes to an end.' The result, in either Tango Milonguero or Tango Salon, is the same – the lady must follow, however, in Tango Salon there is more a feeling of the dance being a collaborative adventure rather than the man dictating the entire sequence of events.
THE CHOICE OF STYLES
In Buenos Aires there are many teachers who will teach either Tango Milonguero or Tango Salon and a few will teach both. As stated earlier, many of the new generation of Tango dancers are able to dance comfortably in both styles.
Milongas [or social dance occasions] in Buenos Aires will generally play music that is suitable for either the Milonguero Style or the Salon Style and they are rarely mixed. Most people know what to expect before they arrive and the convention is that you dance the style to suit the music, which is normally determined by the teacher, school or other Tango-organization that has arranged the milonga.
It has to be said that the Tango Milonguero Style, because of the close embrace, while being easier to learn is more difficult to dance than the Tango Salon Style. It is common that Salon Style is learned first and, as the dancers become more experienced, the embrace naturally becomes closer thereby making it easier to learn the Milonguero Style.
some idea of the Milonguero Style can be gained from the way we teach figures such as 'La Calesita' and 'La Hamaca' in which the man embraces the lady and brings her to his chest.
SHOW-TANGO OR ‘FANTASIA’
Apart from Tango Milonguero and Tango Salon, the third Tango style which must be mentioned is Show-Tango or, as it is known in Buenos Aires – ‘Fantasia’.
As the name makes clear, Show-Tango is the choreographed Tango seen in professional Tango stage-shows and movies such as The Tango Lesson. It is frequently the first style of Tango seen by people outside Argentina and can give a completely wrong first impression of Tango.
When you learn Show-Tango figures, the first thing the instructor will tell you is that these figures are for the stage only; they are not to be danced in the milonga.
Because it is choreographed, many social dancers look down on Show-Tango, describing it as ‘artificial’, ‘gymnastics’ or 'not real tango'. The truth is that the best Tango dancers – those who are good enough to go on to professional careers, become Show-Tango dancers and all the great names in Tango, such as Miguel and Ozvaldo Zotto, are Show-Tango dancers. The technique, balance, speed and agility required for Show-Tango far exceeds that required for social dancing and by learning, and practicing, some Show-Tango style, the average dancer can greatly improve the quality of his/her social dancing.
- END -
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Milonga was attended by the Tango fans from across the Metro Vancouver on Sunday. Music was very emotional and inspiring. Francis was the or...
