Post-championship performance
Over at Simba Tango, there are videos of (within the last week as a matter of fact) performances by the reigning Salon Champions hailing from Japan from the recently concluded Tango Championships. I actually prefer these few dances compared to what they were doing on the big stage. I suppose here they are simply more relaxed and also get to choose music they are most comfortable with? By the way, if one’s personality and character is revealed by the way he/she dances, I’d describe this couple as being “down to earth”.
Interview with Gavito
Thanks to Ray Rudowski from Hong Kong and with his permission, here is part of the transcript (will update once he has translated all) of an interview (in Spanish) of Gavito by Miguel Zotto. Here Gavito shares some of his views on tango, role of women and his “struggles” during his early days of teaching. Sadly he died not long after the interview. For me the central message is:
“I say that any man who dances tango and doesn’t look at the woman as a queen, will never be a king. For me it’s all about respect for the woman.”
Transformations
Had an unusual experience a couple of months ago.
Despite the extremely slow start to the night – it seems people are choosing to arrive later and later for the week-night milongas – I still ended up having a good night of dancing. Halfway through the night, since I am always trying to adopt the notion of “free-ness” and completely “going with the follower” these days, small matters like feet placement, or passing/closing of feet were thrown out the window for the night. However, after quite a few dances, I was suddenly worried that my dancing might be getting a little “messy”!? When I commented to a friend, I was pleasantly surprised by her reply. Apparently my dancing from time to time reminded her of another friend who danced a “milonguero” style, which was a little puzzling initially because during the recent trip to Buenos Aires I had taken only a single private class with a recognised milonguero.
Well, I guess it’s just one of those subtle transformations that people can experience after a trip to Buenos Aires? Nevertheless, I did enjoy myself that night. 🙂
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… 😉