While Pugliese has been my favourite for many years, from time to time I have felt inadequate in doing justice to the beautiful music and hesitate to ask people to dance when a tanda comes up. These days, I like to recall the words (paraphrased) of two teachers I took classes in the past whenever I dance to Pugliese and, of course, feel “free”!

Ney Melo: “Stay put until you can feel the music ‘bursting’ through and the sensation to take a step becomes overwhelming…”

Hsueh-tze Lee: “Play with the melody and slide into the next position instead of doing it in a hurry.”

Here’s an excellent example of dancing to Pugliese from the recently concluded Seoul Tango Festival. Not a dramatic piece like La Yumba, or Gallo Ciego, and with very simple (well, relatively speaking… :-) ) footwork but for me the most beautiful part is the mutual inter-play with the music. Need I say more!

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