Cat magic
The background music of this clip is by Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro, one of the many modern Tango orchestras in Buenos Aires to consist of only young musicians. Nice sounds, although it seems that their later pieces are tending towards heavy “tangoish” rock music.
Homage to milongueros
Thanks to Simba Tango for posting the link to Marisa Galindo’s youtube channel where she has posted clips of the show she directed in honor of the milongueros, “Homenaje a los Milongueros de Buenos Aires” in 1991.
Very few, if any, choreographed dances from what I can see. Apart from notable names in their younger days – and some no longer with us – there is a very young Geraldine Rojas dancing with the great Gerardo Portalea as well as none other than Gustavo Naveira! I like especially the more recent clip (2005) with Ruben Harymbat, in his dynamic milonguero style clip danced to the driving rhythms of Biagi; it does not feel dated and rivals, in my opinion, many of the so-called nuevo performances…
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!
Technological Tango
Finally, a real of example of nerdy gadgets for Tango! Actually I am rather doubtful of the benefits of these devices but hey, it’s cool to bring some VR into the real world, no?
ps. For those less familiar with geeky acronyms, HMD = head mounted displays and VR = virtual reality, of course…