Old but stylish
Tango vals is something that I have always enjoyed, since the beginning of my tango journey.
Here is a clip of “some old-timers” (well, they are Osvaldo and Coca who incidentally are the winners of Tango Salon category in the Tango championship in 2004) dancing to a Canaro vals, showing many of the typical qualities of milongueros in Buenos Aires. As a matter of fact, I can confirm that they dance with just with as much zest and playfulness as in this demonstration in a regular milonga, as seen in the wee hours of the morning at Gricel. Age may have slowed some of the milongueros down, but it certainly has not dulled their playful spirits or creativity. In fact, I can definitely pick out hints of the sacadas and deft footwork that are part of the repertoire from the likes of Julio Balmaceda or Javier Rodriguez… 
Popularity: 12%
What is Nuevo in Tango Nuevo?
During a conversation I had a few weeks ago, it suddenly occurred to me that it is actually very difficult to explain what is/is not “Tango Nuevo”? Just to be clear, here I am talking specifically about the styles typified by people like Fabian Salas, Chico, Pablo Inza, not so much the styles danced by the younger generations like Pablo Rodriguez. It surprised me that I could not – and still cannot – put a clear definition to it.
I mean, when I begin to seriously think about it in terms of usual categories such as embrace, sequence of steps (from what I had actually learnt but no longer use) and music:
- Embrace: well, salon and Tango fantasia has been doing open/fluid embrace long before anything became Nuevo-ish…
- Fancy steps: colgadas are already used in Tango Fantasia, and even by some milongueros; colgadas have been seen in Tango Fantasia, or even some Tango Salon. Other steps?
- Music: I have been to quite a few so-called Nuevo venues where Golden Age music (albeit with a higher percentage of strongly rhythmic and driving music) was the flavour of the night. As a side note, one common element, irrespective of the style, is that good dancers invariably were able to interpret and express traditional Golden Age music well. In fact, to my eyes, even Nuevo dancers looked much better when expressing such music compared to dancing to some monotonic electronic music – but just my artistic preference…
Popularity: 5%
Knowing your music
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!
Popularity: 3%
Music and dance style
Locally, there seems to be a common misconception among many beginners and some who has been dancing for a number of years that certain types music can only be danced in a particular way. For example, one misconception is that Golden Age classics can only be danced using a close embrace. On the other hand, one can only dance tango Nuevo, as championed by Chicho, Naveria, etc., to electronic music from, e.g., Gotan Project, Otro Aires, or other contemporary music collectively known as Neo-tango (or simply as Alternative).
However, a quick search through Youtube reveals many fine examples from Chicho, and (two of my favourites) Pablo Rodriguez and Ezequiel Farfaro dancing fantastically and musically to music of “oldies” such as Canaro, Biagi, Di Sarli and D’Arienzo. Here are some examples to illustrate my point. In fact I personally find their performances to classics much more impressive than when dancing to some new-age music… It all boils down to how we are able to interpret the music using the vocabulary at our disposal, and in a way that will not disturb the line of dance (for social dancing).
Chicho dancing a D’Agostino (once the camera stops moving…).
Chicho dancing a Di Sarli.
Popularity: 2%