I have just had a fantastic 16 sleeps in Buenos Aires. Tho hardly slept of course.
Danced Tango and saw my darling daughter.
I had fantasised for a long time about going to Buenos Aires and dancing Tango, but never thought I would. Then i just happened to start learning Tango last year -inspired by Diego Echenique’s dancing to do so, and then my daughter told me she was going to be there iin June 09, so it all came together and i went!
Me, Mary-Anne and Morgana
What a blast. Still buzzing from it.
Here is what happened – my tango experience in BA going to classes, milongas, shows.
Thanks so much Diego. (He was our teacher last year from Argentina at Pasion por Tango studio in Ak, )
You gave me such good advice.
Where to go to classes and the best Milongas ……..Milonga’s aaagh!
Diego took me to my first Milonga at Nino Bien. Awesome. Was nervous. Every time I dance tango I never believe that I’ve remembered anything. Then I get into it. Spent all that night trying to remember to keep my knees and heels together and flexing the heel of the free foot, Really like that look. The women dancers there do it so effortlessy. The place was full of quite mature men and women mainly. Everyone getting up dancing. The dance floor was quite crowded. It was at this first Milonga that I noticed the protocol. Everyone just chats when the music starts up again – waits for at least 30 secs to a minute before they start dancing. Are they listening with one ear to the music, to check the tempo etc? I realised that happens in Ak as well.
Diego danced with just me all night,so sweet of him! It was so fantastic. 
Diego, Mary-Anne and Morgana at Café Tortini, the famous ( esp in the early 20th century) tango cafe.
Another night I went to my second Milonga – Parakultural, I plucked up the courage/curiosity to go. Went with Morgana this time. Fewer and younger dancers, (think the swine flu scare had hit) but those that were there were the best. All of them were amazing in their own way. I was asked to dance by proxy, used my daughter as bait. The guys are not keen, understandably, on getting a complete novice, but they’re ready to risk it if they get to hold a gorgeous young woman in their arms. And actually the young women like to dance with the older guys as they’re often great dancers.
So they ask Morgana, she excuses herself as not tango experienced, and suggests they dance with her Mother!!.So they did!!
There was a couple who did a demo that nite. This was the best pure tango and Nuevo tango I saw while I was there. The dancers danced to 3 songs – they were in performance mode and pushed it to the max .I’m pretty sure she was Virginia Gomez, and her partner was advertised in the flyer as Christian Marquez. But if it was him, he’d really grown his hair long, which is quite possible. We were thrilled to have hit upon that particular nite’s demo couple.
PHOTO of them from flyer
San Telmo is one of the original areas of BA and I had a number of cool tango experiences there.
Saw ‘En Quirendo’, a tango ‘show’. Had to go to one – it was recommended as the best. Weeeell, it was very….commercial, very slick, …but predictable, shallow, i thought.
PHOTO MJ and MA at En Quirendo show
The Sunday Market at San Telmo was cool – a couple of the tango dancers there, passing round the hat. Lovely couple, very ‘mature’, confident, he was charming, cheeky, would have danced with him a week later but had just arrived, was shy and felt a bit under the weather.
SAN TELMO – old couple dancing for money in the hat.
(A little mention on the side – Have just read that book – ‘Kiss and Tango’ by Marina Palmer. Hmmm – twas quite a yarn…very vivid, the story of her learning tango as an American woman, becoming a tango dancer on the streets of BA. Twas great to read while I was there anyway – it brought to life what might be happening behind the scenes. I’m a little cynical cos the ballet descriptions didn’t ring true.)
PHOTOs of tango on the street on Florida, excellent dancers, note the mat they put down to dance on.
Actually I was told about that Milonga – Parakultural – by a student at L’Escuela Tango. They have classes constantly from 9:30am til 10:30pm, and that was just one of the tango schools in BA – there are heaps!
L’Escuela timetable
I was talking to an English girl, she was there for a month practising Spanish and doing tango at this school where I attended classes nearly every day. I went there as Diego had recommended it and as we had an apartment downtown on San Martin (off Florida)so it was an easy walk to top the of the Pacifica Galerie (shopping centre) and to L’Escuela Tango.
Classes were also great for gleaning some inside knowledge about the ’scene’ esp the Milongas – how the novices manage. There were students from everywhere in class. Greece, England, Mexico.
FLORIDA Ave, just up from our apartment – near the Pacifica shopping centre and tango school.
In the end I decided to hire a taxi dancer to take me to a Milonga – to be my partner for the night www.tangotaxidances.com Minimum 3 hr calls. $90AR an hr (aboutNZ$40). I had read about this service in a TIME mag I think it was and was resolved to use it if it seemed necessary – decided it was!
Saw the ad for the website in a magazine Diego gave to his uncle Gustavo to give to me when we met re his apartment.
TAXI DANCER AD
(Uncle Gustavo, by the way, has a ranch raising Polo ponies up near Paraguay. He was such a classic image of a gentleman rancher in Argentina – I’ve read about them – and here was one in real life – charming and elegant!!)
Back to my taxi dancer- Eduardo. Thanks Eduardo, you were great.
EDUARDO with me and Morgana
As I was saying I saw the ad so sent an email through ‘contact us’ to enquire about a ‘taxi dancer’. They replied asking how tall I was and what was my level of experience. I replied I was 5ft 5 and intermediate level( well probably only advanced beginners but….). So they replied saying – Eduardo is the man for you.
And he was. I was given his phone number so called him ( took me a couple of days to work up to it) and he sounded very nice on the phone. I had thought maybe I’d ask him to accompany me to a tango fusion workshop but in the end decided a Milonga was a better use of the $. He was a lovely gentleman, fantastic dancer. Picked us up at the apartment – took us in a taxi (I had Morgana with me) and took us to a Milonga at Sueno Porteno. Fab. Danced for four hours!
He was mine all night. He asked what I wanted to experience, the music?, atmosphere?, I replied ‘dance thanks”. I mean was I there for anything else? No. He told me he’d pay for everything and I could reimburse him later- which worked very well.
So I had chalked up 3 Milongas, and my fourth and last was a cool experience also. Bumped into Eduardo again at another San Telmo event. Music at a café – felt like Café 121 on Ponsonby Rd. Singers and dancers. A tango couple –she wore a very cool tango outfit. In fact she was dressed very like a glamourous Ponsonby black witch. Do you know what I mean?
At the cafe – this couple danced – she was a bit tight in the shoulders, but her feet were fab in these beautiful 7cm (or more) heels. Always the heels. And she was so very stylish in what she wore – a full length see thru black chiffon skirt over calf length tights, and again the heels.
It was like a semi formal performance. That’s a great thing about it actually, tango can be done anywhere with a smooth floor.
Later we went to this other ( my 4th) Milonga with Eduardo. Lovely old tango salon called Confiteria La Ideal. Not many there– swine flu scare had definitely hit. At one point Eduardo and I were the only ones dancing – the people sitting at the tables clapped us at the end…..whaaat – that’s what dancing with a good dancer does for you – you look great!
Performances – saw a great performance in an actual theatre of a very ‘contemporary’ tango work, as in – layers of meaning – and not just the general mini battle of the sexes, rather – a work with a bit of a narrative, some layers.
The company was LadoCiega, the work was ‘Peso Media’. The men wore tight jeans and topless, the women in jazz boots, tight ¾ trou, tight contemporary t shirts with hoods. Choreographed. i.e. – more designed in their stillnesses, shapes….and all the rest. Great music by Orqestra Astilleros. It was played live the night we saw it. Would love to bring them to NZ. Hopefully for 2010 or 2011. If I can get all the festivals around NZ at Oct time to have them as well?
(Tho I do like the demos at the Milongas – when they’re improvising and its really fast its very cool ( the book Kiss and Tango said it was varied/sometimes choreographed)…. I think/hope they are improvising – on the basic theme of course –there’s a distinct vocab for tango , but heaps of choices to be made within that.)
The performance ‘Peso Media’ had cool dancing with very amazing duet work using the tango vocab. With those Portenos ( residents of Buenos Aires) it seems like it’s in their blood.
Julio Zurita was the choreographer and lead dancer – very good. I went backstage and congratulated him re the show and to ask him if he’d like to bring the work to NZ.
Peso Media programme
My fave class was the last one I had – with Jorge Firpo (you were right Diego he was great) doing ‘Milonga which is the polka type rhythm, the get down and dirty style. Well the way Jorge did it, it was …… - very bent knees, jabbing the ground, short fast steps, neat floor patterns, men leading the women with their knees and thighs, more open embrace – I can see where the synthesis of this style and the tango style developed the classic corny hollywood cheek to cheek tango dance, the scooting along low with clasped slightly outstretched leading arms.
We learnt this one short phrase of tight small pas de bouree type movements, a 3 step ina 2/4 bar, … in 2 lines, the men opp the women. Then we moved together as couples. The guys (students) mainly stayed with the pattern with just slight simple developments, which was the best thing to do as they weren’t experienced enough in leading to really improvise. Fun to do the phrase anyway, improvising on it a teeny bit, eg with repetition. Have a great video of him demonstrating with a student – have to work out how to attach it here.
We went to a quite a few beginners classes –one in particular I was used as the demonstrator, the class was crazy because a huge group of young, complete novice American students suddenly appeared.
At the end – the teachers usually demonstrate – do a bit of a dance, showing what we’ve learnt. As I was the most experienced there that day the teacher got me dance with him, ordered me onto the floor, was very firm, very clear, aaagh…..Iwas freaking out as we were moving real fast….can you see the xpression on my face? I think I managed ok.
Me with the teacher Alejandro (El Turco) SUAYA doing tango in class!!.
Luckily Mary-Anne was there and took these photos!!!
When I first arrived I was with my lovely friend Mary-Anne. She’s a DJ at KFM and so was a great advocate for NZ music while we were there. At this one bar which became our local when we were staying in the Abasto area ‘ No Doy Abasto’ she insisted on getting them to play the whole of the new Fat Freddys album – YES, that was a fun night, aaagh! And on the way back to our apartment the taxi driver was playing beautiful a Tango song.
PHOTO Mary-Anne at our ‘local’ bar in Abasto
The dudes at No Doy Abasto
I attended quite a few tango fusion classes. Loved the more open style and aesthetic, the music (Gotan Project, Otres Aires) the extended lines are very much like modern dance body shapes (see photo)
Here’s an ironic moment for me. At my first tango fusion class I was the only one left standing without a partner at the beginning of the class. I noticed this guy had eyed me but looked thru me – didn’t want to ask me. But the teacher made him. So I get to be his partner. He gradually thaws as he realises I really can dance and am actually pretty good – esp this fusion style as its so dancy in the shapes etc, by the end he is all smiles and very friendly and respectful! I showed him!!
TANGO FUSION class with the teachers (Demian Garcia and Fatima Vitale)demonstrating at L’escuela
Also did a ‘ballet for tango dancers’ class. T he posture was emphasized to be actually very balletic….long necked, shoulder blades down back, stomach lifted, tail bone down (it often looks like they’re slightly arched to me). We did lots of weight shift ex’s, and a travelling forward grand batement (cloche) phrase that included ‘Voleya’, that was fun. It was actually a private lesson (aaagh!!) as I was the only one there at 9:30am None of the dancers want to get up in the cold, esp since they’ve probably been dancing til 4am at the Milongas. Apparently in the summer he (Alejandro Biggio) gets many more students.
Tango dancers like to get a bit of ballet experience and I suppose its good for them to get the ‘finished’ look but the whole muscular control thing of the trained ballet dancer ….. I’m desperately trying to let that go. I think if I can be just like a coat-hangar with my shoulder girdle frame, then below that like a piece of string. Though of course string that knows the tango form so can be flowed / led into any of the options.
Also did a ‘technique for women’ class. It began like a contemporary dance class, in a circle, each student offering a simple warmup phrase which we all repeated.
We did lots of leg work – tango sure is a ‘leg art’ – singly in lines, then in pairs travelling – doing ochos / pivots, then in a circle doing ochos – calling out just at the last moment – so we can develop super fast reactions (as when following). She tried to give us a fancy change technique but we were too worried about changing direction real fast to do anything fancier. The class ended with a nice yoga stretch.
The body held up – whew.
Had an early moment in BA whenI thought I’d wrenched my ankle. The pavements are seriously uneven, with the dog shit as well- they’re minefields outside the San Martin /Florida area. Thankfully – I just stood very still and waited for the wrench pain to subside –and it was ok. My arms were ok too. Tango isn’t too hard on arms unless someone holds you funny. If the male dancer understands the form and the human body, its fine.
I prepared in Ak by going for slightly longer walks( my usual walk with the dog is very short (20 mins total, there and back). Worked out what were my best shoes for walking. Went to the physio to try to get my knee better and got some useful pilates excercises for strengthening my leg, and in the end a better understanding of the knee and its/my limitations. So just took a stretchy knee support and ignored the pain as it was just constant. Never got too bad, and I didn’t feel it when I was dancing.
Photo – my shoes after a Milonga, feet very sore, though getting stronger now for standing in high heels – essentially you’re on demi pointe most of the time.
We (Mary-Anne and I) walked and walked at first in BA ( though got the buses and undeground sorted after a while)– and my hips were fine. Took my yoga mat and my feather pillow and survived well.
La Boca – great time. Went twice. The first time we arrived throiugh the back streets with MA, and we were ok even tho everyone said they were very dangerous, but we blithely wandered thru – it was daytime so fine. I went a 2nd time with Morgana. I actually bought this fab tango painting from Alfredo Lucadamo at the market.
Had a great time at a lovely restaurant there, the Nonno Bacchicha where we had a beautiful pasta meal and these dancers were obviously employed to dance continuously for the tourists – which was only us as it was a freezing day – but they were very good!
Another couple did the Gaucho dancing – now I understand the context for the break that often happens at a Milonga when everyone gets into 2 lines and does this loose folk dance. It comes from the Gaucho cowboys. They wear big wide legged pants tucked into knee length boots. The girls swirl their skirts.
Got to get the videos downloading sorted….
Want to go back. BA is my sort of town. It has a culture of dance, dance I can DO as its a mainly walking form (tho pretty fancy walking) whereas in the world I’m used to the dance forms of ballet and contemporary are so extreme, but with tango its great. I get to dance to music, with lovely men, without having to throw your body around or get too puffed and its such an elegant mini culture.
I want to go back and actually have a class with Eduardo. He offered to take me for a class but I ran out of time. I’m intrigued as he said don’t wear heels, wear loose clothing and be prepared to roll around the floor – sounds like a contemporary class!!
I’m beginning ot understand what is required –how to dance tango. Am also learning to lead which I take to much more naturally of course - being a choreographer!!!
Yes- being a choreographer, I’m itching to do the manipulating, the leading, the decision making. The way the women have to tune in to the guy is a huge challenge – esp for us Kiwi girls I reckon – they say its best to dance with your eyes closed and its true.
Sometimes you think if he’s this great a dancer he must be amazing in bed.
At the ParaKultural Milonga, I bought a dressy little frilly top from the toilet. Yes there was a woman in the loo selling toilet paper and she also had a display of tango clothes. There’s usually someone selling t paper, but clothes? So had ato buy this pretty top, as a cultural experience.
Tango top from loo at Milonga
The tango shop El Bucho, was cool. It actually had a tango studio upstairs. Diego recommended this shop for the shoes especially. So I bought the cream and gold shoes you see in the photos. They have a sueded sole and a 5 cm heel, not 7.5 or more which is the classic tango female look. Those heels are gorgeous, they’re so elegant and ever so slightly dangerous, but I’ll maybe work up to them as my feet get stronger.
Another show I went to was called ‘Caravan, the jazz musical’. Apparently Argentinians are renowned for their excellent jazz dancing . and they were great at the Fosse thing. Fosse, fosse, fosse. You know……
Thanks to Phil, Morgana, Mary-Anne, Tempo, Diego, Eduardo – all who contributed to my lovely time in BA
Actually had a really good class with some great Argentinian teachers in Ak just last week. So pleased I can keep doing it here….. the teachers are fine here, the Milongas too.
Its coming together. Have chosen the Fresh and Prime Cuts choreographers, now final decisions about the rest of the Tapac content. Some I wanted can’t do it, others are coming out of the woodwork. Its shaping up very nicely. An exciting time. This photo of Christopher Gable is by Keith Money and he is going to do a talk and reminisce about his time in the 1960’s photographing Nureyev, Fonteyn, Gable and others – gorgeous photos….if you’re into ballet or dance photography you’ll love it!
Have performed my solo again. Its a little pathway I’m enjoying. I never thought I would be in this position but its kinda neat to have these 2 pathways. One being Artistic Director of a Dance festival so the ‘overview’ large vision is required. The other is to perform my own work as a solo dancer – a kinda personal, mini / under the radar pathway.
cool eh?
