Spring Tango in Atlanta
March 29th - April 1st 2007
Southern hospitality, dogwoods, azaleas and...Tango!
An event organized by dancers for dancers,
featuring nationally recognized treachers and DJ's
All Events will be held at the Holiday Inn Select
in downtown Decatur
130 Clairemont Ave. Decatur, GA 30030 404-371-0204
All the info at Atlanta Tango Festival
MIAMI 2007
TANGO FANTASY FESTIVAL
The largest and longest tango festival in the world outside of Argentina!
Once again this year, Tango Fantasy presents TWO Masters of Tango Shows!
(Sunday, May 27 and Saturday, June 2).
Tango Fantasy Festival 2007 will have 10 "Taxi Dancers" imported directly from Argentina to dance with all the ladies at our 9 nightly Milongas and also assist with daily workshops.
This fabulous benefit is for all female registrants.
An authentic "Milonguero" from Buenos Aires will conduct special workshops.
More news and registration form on our flyer. Call us to be added to our mailing list.
The teaching schedule from last year will show you how it works. The schedule for 2007 will be posted when finalized - but the format will remain the same.
Milonga this Saturday
night in the Kings Hall, Market Harborough beginning at 8pm and going on
until at least 11pm.
There will be the usual mix of good buffet food, a welcoming glass of
excellent wine or beer on arrival and great tandas of tango, vals and milonga
throughout the evening.
In addition, the bandoneonista Joaquin Amenábar will be performing live for
us to dance to at some stage in the evening since he is staying with us to
teach a full weekend workshop of Tango Musicality, his specialty.
So, how about nipping over from the chill Eastern steppes of Cambridgeshire
to sample some of the warmth of Leicestershire with us? You will be most
welcome.
Attached is a map to show where the Kings Hall is but basically you leave
the magnificent A14 at Junction 2, speed into the very centre of Market
Harborough on the A508, make towards Leicester and turn right just before the wide
Georgian High Street narrows to single file traffic. The car park on your
right is the 'back yard' of the Kings Hall.
£7 a head. How could you resist?
David and Judith
Tango Mercado
Thursday, January 18th
Intermediate Class by:
(from 8 to 9:30pm)
He can take any stage any space and make it his own.
A serious-minded professional dancer, ensemble member, or visionary choreographer. Angel has worked and studied with Carlos Gavito, Nito and Elba and Hector Zaraspe.
He has danced live at Manhattan's most illustrious venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Town Hall also shared his artistry with an appreciative worldwide audience, appearing on Good Morning America, Best Talk.
Angel's unique style in Argentine Tango, Milonga and Vals, and his encyclopedic knowledge of the Latin American Folkloric repertoire, plus a lively take on contemporary social dances including Salsa and Merengue, ensure that he's always in demand -- from the ballroom to the barrio, from Boston to Buenos Aires anywhere excellence is found.
We are proud of having Angel teaching again.
This Friday
Milonga
MOULIN ROUGE
Last one for 2006!
In 2007 the Moulin Rouge will be on the 3th Friday of the month
Put it in your agenda!
Prosecco, Prosecco, Prosecco!
Beginners Class
from 7 to 8pm by:
Juan Pablo
DJ
Yesim Sezer
"La Turca"
Argentinean slang word of the day:
JUNAR:
Ver, mirar disimuladamente, percibir.
Vigilar, reconocer, explorar, acechar, espiar.
Entender.
"To see, to watch, to look at in concealment, to perceive"
"To guard, to recognize, to explore, to ambush, lie in wait for, to spy"
"To understand"
Tango Oblivion
"The way I teach Tango focuses on finding your own centre, creating a point of energy within yourself, and connecting from there with another person without losing your own balance. For me, Tango is improvisatory, a place to dance your inner self. I always say: if you can walk, you can learn the Tango. If you feel you have two left feet but you always wanted to try out dancing, here's your chance."
Tango offers a unique place to find out about our presence, about how to communicate clearly without dominating, and about how to follow actively, without losing our own power. These are qualities that we need in our everyday life, especially if our work brings us into close contact with many people. Besides being fun, Tango can provide a 'playground' to sharpen our awareness and to practise our skills of interaction.
My worthy administrator, watching me from the side lines, comments on my teaching style as follows:
Feel the floor
Feel yourself
Feel the music
Feel the contact
Feel your partner
And . . . . . dance, dance, dance
United Free Church Hall (Sunday Practicas, 3rd level classes, various workshops and some special events)
Go up the little old shopping street in the centre of Town. 50 metres below the arch you will find the United Free Church on your left. Go through the white door on the side and reach the Church Hall at the end of a beautiful alleyway. I tell you, it's worth coming to the Practica just to experience the alleyway!
The Mansion (Monday evening classes)
The Mansion is situated in the Centre of Totnes. Just walk up the shopping street and you will find it opposite Lloyds Bank.
The Ariel Centre
The Ariel Centre is the Theatre space connected to KEVIC's, the comprehensive school in Totnes. You will find it on your left as you leave Totnes towards Dartington, just past the orange foot bridge.
The Barrel House (Rough guide to Tango and Dancing)
This is one of Totnes's pubs/restaurants, at the top of town, just above the market place on the right hand side. We will dance upstairs. The Barrel house serves good food, so bring enough money with you!
The Masonic Hall
Find the Market place in the upper part of the town. Facing the back of the Market place, you will see the Masonic Hall. It is an odd looking tall and lonely red brick building by the side of the path that leads to the big car parks.
St Mary's Church Hall
Take a little time to find this one if you haven't been there before! St. Mary's Church is the big red brick Church 100m below the market square on the high street. Just above the church, past the jewellers, is a little alleyway which leads you by the side of the Church. Walking along this alleyway, you will find at some point on your left an even smaller alleyway, which starts off with an iron gate underneath an archway. This will lead you to the Church hall.
The Totnes School of English
This one's easy to find: it's in the Arch with the clock tower, in the middle of the Town!
Birdwood House
Find the market place in Totnes. When you stand facing the market place, with the street in your back, Birdwood house is the first house on your right. the classes are taking place upstairs.
Elsewhere:
South Zeal Village Hall (Henry's Party & 3 days of workshops)
From Totnes, go up the A38 towards Exeter. Take the Bovey Tracey turn-off. Go to Bovey Tracey. Straight across two roundabouts will take you along the outskirts of Bovey Tracey and onto the A382 towards Moretonhampstead. Stay on that road for a good 20 minutes (beautiful!!!), through Moretonhampstead (sharp left turn but stay on the road) an on to Whiddon down. When you come to a little roundabout, follow the signs to South Zeal and Sticklepath. After a few miles, South Zeal is signed on the right hand side of the road. The Village hall is in the very centre of the village. It would be good to park on the car park a few hundred metres away from the Village hall. look out for signs to the car park, it is up a little road to the left.
From Exeter, go westwards on the A30 for about 20 minutes. On the first roundabout, go off and follow the signs to South Zeal.
Train and bus times to South Zeal:
Train London Paddington - Exeter (you and also take trains in the direction of Plymouth or Penzance) on Friday afternoons: (12.05-14.08), (12.18-14.56), (13.05-15.18), (15.05-17.30), (16.05-18.16), (16.35-19.15), (17.03-19.23), (17.33-20.11) - please double check nearer the time!
Tickets are cheaper if you buy in advance and ask for return tickets if you plan to return by train too. they are even cheaper if you travel already on the Thursday :-)
Click here for the train web site.
Bus from Exeter to South Zeal - (direction of Okehampton): 14.25, 15.25, 16.25, 16.55, 17.25, 17.55, 18.25, 19.40, 20.40, 21.40
My introduction to dancing Tango was a gift given to me over 7 years ago by a dear friend to whom I am forever grateful. It has changed my life forever since.
8:15pm - 9:30pm Volcadas (Int/Adv)
9:30 pm - 12:00am Practica
8:15pm - 9:30pm Vals (Inter/Adv)
9:30 pm - 1:00am Evening Milonga - DJ Manuel
1:00pm - 2:15pm Ganchos (Int)
2:30pm - 3:45pm Sacadas (Int/Adv)
4:15 - 5:30pm Colgadas (Adv)
9:30pm - 2:00am Evening Milonga - DJ Manuel
INCLUDES PERFORMANCE BY FABIAN & CAROLINA!
1:00pm - 2:15pm Boleos (Int)
2:30pm - 3:45pm Fabian & Carolina's Favorites (Int/Adv)
4:15 - 5:30pm Soltadas, Tomadas & Pasadas (Adv)
Guppy's Club
17 Nunnery Lane
York YO23 1AB
(see directions, etc.)
Dance Tango Argentino 8.30pm until 11.00pm every Friday
FUTURE DATES:
10th November 2006
17th November 2006
24th November 2006
1st December 2006
8th December 2006
15th December 2006
22nd December 2006
29th December 2006
5th January 2007
12th January 2007
19th January 2007
26th January 2007
2nd February 2007
9th February 2007
There will be no formal tuition on these evenings, practica is generally regarded as an assisted session, when more experienced dancers may help out beginners or improvers if asked to do so. In practice everyone has something to contribute and to learn
Every Tuesday 
Every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the monthEXCEPT Friday 10th November when the Practice is cancelled due to the Tango Festival
This class is not suitable for absolute beginners. If you have never danced tango before, please come to the Tuesday or Saturday drop-in classes to get your first taste of the dance. Practice: 8:00-10:00 pm
| Vladi and Peri's Practica - 3rd Street Dance Studio | ||
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| Vladi and Peri's Halloween Milonga | ||
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| All Night Milonga at Cal-Tech | ||
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DON'T MISS THE ONLY REGULAR ALL-NIGHTER IN LOS ANGELES AREA!
Instructor: When: Dabney Hall http://www.its.caltech.edu/~ballroom/campus_map.html California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California Instruction: Dancing: Admission: Music By: Waffles Served at 3:00 A.M. More Information: Driving Directions: |
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The Crypt, St. James Church, Clerkenwell Close,
off Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0EA
The Crypt is a great space for Tango. An arched brick ceiling, parquet floor and cast-iron columns add to the atmosphere of our Monday night group classes. There is enough space for everyone to feel comfortable to move around in as they learn the intricacies of this fascinating dance.
SATURDAYS
We now hold our Saturday night salon here on every
Saturday of the month, hosting it on an alternating basis with Nikki & Valerie of DanceTango. See “Club Schedule” on left for details. There is a usually a class beforehand, but sometimes, if there is a “special” night, the class can be omitted.
We play Tango music dating from the early 1900’s to the present day, from Juan Maglio to The Gotan Project, so whatever your taste or style of Tango, there will be something to suit you. Also we include other Latin rhythms and swing to relax you from the intensity of Tango.
7.30-8.15pm Beginners
8.15-9pm Intermediates
9pm - 12.30am Salon
MONDAYS
At the moment we run the Improvers and Intermediate/Advanced classes on an open basis, so anyone can attend on any Monday evening, couples or singles. We teach Tango, Tango-vals, Milonga, Milonga traspie and Canyengue, explaining the art of leading and following, musicality (adding light and shade into your dancing), floorcraft, figures and improvisation and being as one with your partner. For more details, click on the “Monday Night Schedule” navigation bar on the left.
Complete Beginners Course: 7.15pm - 8.30pm + 15mins. practice
This is an 11-week course intended to take you from being a complete beginner to an improver level so that you can advance to our Improver class. Click on “Beginners” navigation bar on left for course start times and more details. Cost £80 to be paid on 1st night of attendance: or you can take a 2-week try-out for £20
Improvers Class: 7.15pm - 8.40pm
Students graduate from our beginners course to this class, which covers walking/dancing with your partner, moving in any direction, floorcraft, simple ochos, ocho-cortado, the giro (turns), simple improvisation, leading and following, dancing in small spaces, musicality in tango, vals and milonga. Cost £9
8.40pm - 8.45pm
Practice
Intermediate/advanced class: 8.45pm - 10pm
Giros, simple/complicated sacadas, sweeps, turns, breaking down figures for improvisation, leading and following, musicality in tango, vals, milonga and milonga traspie and canyengue. We are currently running this class in a continuous series of 4-week mini-courses with varying themes - click on “Monday NIght Schedule” navigation bar on left for more details.
Cost: £9 An intermediate dancer can also attend the improvers’s class at no extra cost.
Where it is: Near to the cross-roads between Farringdon Rd. & Clerkenwell Rd. The nearest tube is Farringdon, which is 5 minutes walk. Bus no. 55 stops at Clerkenwell Green, by the church. MAP
Thursday, October 19th
Intermediate Class by:
(from 8 to 9:30pm)
MARIELA FRANGANILLO
It is a pleasure to have Mariela Franganillo teaching at La Nacional
She is a world renown dancer, choreographer and producer
And on top of everything, she is beautiful!
What else do you want?
(For her Bio click on her name)
This Friday
Tango meets classical music.
Julia Dusman and Pablo Pereyra perform a unique program of classic Argentine Tango arranged in the style of the great classical composers.
A unique musical blend, Dusman and Pereyra have artfully combined the classic Tango repertoire with the language of the classical masters.
They take the audience on a musical voyage from Bach to Brahms to Shostakovich,
all the while staying true to the classic argentine Tango tradition.
Julia Dusman virtuosity, Pablo Pereyra's passion and expressivity, and the seamless fusion of two fine traditions make this a concert not to be missed
Friday October 20th - 8pm
Mannes College the New School for Music
150 West 85th Street - Concert Hall - free admission
This Saturday
La Milonga de Gardel
Hosted by Carlos De Chey and Carlos Gardel
at
Sandra Cameron Dance Center
Click above for more info
Prosecco?
Yep, we have that!
Beginners Class
from 7 to 8pm by:
Juan Pablo
DJ
Steve Haris
(to email Steve, click on his name)
I'm jealous when I see my wife dancing with another man, am I normal ?
It's only dancing, she says, it's my limited mind ...
So I work on it ...
Yet,
beyond jealousy I sense some dark confrontation ...
with the pain of passion lost ?
I get up,
I'm not done with my performance.
Tango, jealousy and knifefighting ...
The traditional themes of tangoshows are the nuns in the bordello and the knife fight ...
As in tango, many knife-fighters are nothing more than poseurs. However, the true thing is a serious piece of work. Because the focus in tango is't always the female, a show must show some respect for the skill with the blade.
In the world of knife fighting there is an unspoken rule: Go in, cut and get out unscathed. Knifefighting is a fast, fluid and dangerous affair, to master this most lethal of martial arts demands self-discipline, physical sacrifice and years of intensive training. The experienced knife fighter will easily see an opening and go in for the kill without being countered. The thing is, until you have actually faced a blade in the hands of someone who means you harm, you have no idea how terrifying it is. In that moment of singular clarity, you know: They are assassinations and "knife fighting" is a romantic fantasy that can be deadly. If you think that is bad, what you experience when facing a blade bare handed is even worse.
So the obvious tangostory is... flesh against flesh, the scenario of two jealous men dancing in combat over another woman , the passionate or troubled relationship, the figure of the compradito, the male dancer whose role is nearly always dominant on the stage in danza, a lovers quarrel and uncivilized intimate behaviour, traditions of domination, control and violence.
Seen from a narrative point of view, the role of women in tango is finely a twist-apple.
And beyond the show, one can see mirroring movements of shadows exactly like life ... but this strangely obscures what is happening on the stage, which is only obedience to tango's stage conventions and the tyrannical expectations of the vampire-audience.
Their version of tangoshow, as milongueros dismissively call it, is to play on old stereotypes, featuring male dancers dressed in faux 1940s tough-guy garb and women in their whorehouse-lite outfits, including fishnet stockings, very highheels and short skirts with long side slit.
Their dancing is full of kicks, brusque, melodramatic turns and oversized gestures, athleticism and an in-your-face sexuality. Pure Argentine Tango however is subtle. It is a very difficult dance to master, specifically because of the subtlety of the steps as well as the complexity of the lead-follow relationship.
It is revealing to look at the character interactions as a series of shifts in the both the dance partnership and gender dynamic.
As a unit, the pair is in a constant state of communication, give and take, control and release. When that release is fully attained, it is a delicious moment for both leader and follower, and the confidence and attitude of the leader is developed.
Under certain circumstances, with a tuned partnership, the follower can make various types of embellishments according to the tempo of the music, and can even take the lead away briefly.
True, tango is a metaphor for relationship of power, sex, love and control ...
But in the socialized tangoclub, the rotary is civilized ...
rules restrict the social intercourse.
At such tango de salón, one can imagine Gustave Flaubert,
sitting at a table, writing Madame Bovary *...
Who's dancing with whom?
The milonga dancing, or club dancing, is an intimate art. The milonga is full of those subtle considerations. It's a world of intimacy and freedom , but also very strict codes. The codes are needed because in la milonga, the conventions of normal life are not respected. In what other place do you just accept embracing someone you don't know, close your eyes and surrender?
There are milongas every day of the week, at lunchtime, in the afternoon and evening, and true milongueros, as milonga regulars are called, keep a schedule of favorites. They all share, however, some strict but unwritten codes, covering everything from the way to dress to the correct, and incorrect, ways of inviting someone to dance.
Appellation Tango Argentin Contrôlée :
"There are a thousand rules, " says Sonia Abadi, a much respected psychoanalyst by profession, and also a milonguera and author of "El Bazar De Los Abrazos" (The Bazaar Of Embraces) a very entertaining, often fascinating guide to the milonga world.
"La milonga puts you in a place that borders with transgression of the standard rules, ... because it's the night, because it puts body against body. And the more transgressive a situation is, the more rules are needed."
The tango at the milonga, danced in a counterclockwise motion on the edges of the floor, has the sensuality of understatement. Tension and trust hold the dancers together.
The man dances with his eyes open, she dances with her eyes closed so he's guiding her all the time and protecting her with his body so as to not bump into other dancers. She has to trust. What's more, almost instinctively the good dancer, as he sees a potential clash, turns so he gets the brunt of the collision and not the woman. In fact the good dancer is almost by definition, in the tangoworld, a gentleman.
"The milongueros are male geishas,*" says Abadi.
The milonguero is a guy whose aim is to please the woman, make her feel good. The good milonguero must make the woman he's with happy. He doesn't take her to show her off but to make her feel happy. It's like making love. You have those who do it like an athletic event and those who actually take their time to make love. In tango it's the same...
The milonguero is supposed to go to a milonga showered, perfumed and, within his means, well dressed. Many men dance with a jacket on . But if it is too hot they might wear just a shirt but with a vest, a way to keep the woman at a certain distance within the intimacy.
There are rules about inviting the woman to dance. Men and women usually sit at separate tables at the milonga, although that is changing The tangoman looks and nods. This gives the tangowoman the chance to accept or play to be distracted. A man does not come to the table to take a woman out. That's bad form. And a good female dancer does not accept if a man does such a thing, it would be like selling herself cheap. Unlike in Europe, a woman also doesn't start yelling when she sees a good Valentino or get angry if he doesn't come.
The dance proceeds in tandas, or sets, of five tangos, usually recordings by the same orchestra. The standard set-up features three major styles that alternate in a specific order: tangovals, tango and milonga (also the word for a music style).
Depending on the place, the DJ might play a set of jazz tunes, Argentine folk music or even rock. At the end of the tanda the floor clears, everybody goes back to their tables and the DJ plays some sort of theme song to clear the palate.
Good dancers know each other and if there are new faces they wait and see. You see them sipping soda water (serious milongueros don't drink alcohol) and watching.
If by chance they take a dancer who is shit, the unspoken rule is that you dance the first two pieces of the tanda and then beg off. Those first two songs are considered 'courtesy dances.'
"You don't bail out," says Abadi. After that you can make up an excuse, and you are off the hook. But as a courtesy you don't dance the rest of that tanda with anyone else. That would precisely show up the other person.
So, precisely the knife-fight is still sniping ...
Making a geisha from a knifefighter,
can give some identity problems,
or is it the difference between a milonguero and a tanguero ?
Anyway,
promiscuity seems to be the nature of tango,
jealousy is inevitable,
rules make it possible to endure and cover up ...
that it is ...
Madame Bovary was published in two volumes in 1857,
but it appeared originally in the Revue de Paris, 1856-57.
Emma Bovary is married to Charles Bovary, a physician. As a girl Emma has read Walter Scott, she has romantic dreams and longs for adventure.
"What exasperated her was that Charles did not seem to notice her anguish. His conviction that he was making her happy seemed to her an imbecile insult, and his sureness on this point ingratitude.
For whose sake, then was she virtuous?
Was it not for him, the obstacle to all felicity, the cause of all misery, and, as it were, the sharp clasp of that complex strap that bucked her in on all sides."
What is Geisha ?
“Gei” means accomplishment or performance and “sha” means person.
At first, Geisha were men and after a while, female Geishas came.
They were called "On-na-geisha", "On-na" means woman.
In the old period, only men went to parties, they needed someone to make them feel relaxed.
A geisha chat with guests, perform classical Japanese dance, sing songs or play games.
In "Memoris of a Geisha", Nitta Sayuri tells us of her life as a geisha.
We witness her transformation as we enter a world where appearances are everything.
Behind its facade of haunting beauty the salón turns out to be a viciously competitive place where women compete desperately for men's favor and largess,
where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder,
where women are trained to beguile and please the most powerful men,
where personal trust is almost nonexistent ...
and where love is scorned as illusion.
Synopsis translations: E/Fr/Port/Gn/Sp/It/Norge, + Link Milongas Buenos Aires
True tango is subtle, so is jealousy. Popular shows make it more clear...
High heels, sexy underwear and knife fighters. The traditional themes of tango shows are the nuns in the bordello and the knife fight. Many knife-fighters are nothing more than poseurs. However, the true thing is a serious piece of art. A show must show some respect for the skill with the blade, the focus in tango is not always the female. Knife fighting is a fast, fluid and dangerous affair, to master this most lethal of martial arts demands self-discipline, physical sacrifice and years of intensive training. The experienced knife fighter will easily see an opening and go in for the kill without being countered. True knife fighting is no romantic fantasy.
In any Martial Art, the crucial factor is the game of legs, to walk with a perfect balance and grace. In Argentine tango, the body energy-center lies lower than in ballroom tango. A little downwards pressure in the hips, makes the knees bend more and gives a more centered body axes, a sneaking, gliding way of walking. This less royal way of moving is related to knife fighting. The classic story in tango spectacles is the scenario of a woman and two jealous men in combat. Domination, control and violence. Many shows are melodramatic, tangosteps athleticism and an in-your-face sexuality. Seen from a narrative point of view, a women in tango is finely a twist-apple. Beyond the show, one can see mirroring movements exactly like life, but civilized.
At such tango de salon, one can imagine Gustave Flaubert, at a table, writing Madame Bovary. In a socialized tango club, there are rules about inviting, where to sit and a thousand codes how to look. Who's dancing with whom? Rules restrict the social contact and a male is preferred to turn himself into a geisha, which can give a knife fighter some identity problems. And a tanguero? Promiscuity seems to be the nature of tango, envy is inevitable, to keep a true thing alive?
Article from Tango-E-Vita
As tango is a true passion play, a tangodance ends quite often with a falling woman. In fact, the falling has become the archetypal icon of tango. It seems that the melodramatic portraying of falling women is embodied in it. Stories of tango can be about the lives of women who are 'fallen' according to the conventional morality of their societies. Sometimes, reaching back to the Old Testament, the lyrics put forward the archetypical pattern of a false woman falls. A great part of the tango letters speaks of women who leave a man, often poor, by another man, in general of high class, and el guapo takes revenge by killing the woman, se venga con la muerte de la traidora. According to the universal codes of love and betrayal, she must be thrown away. Sometimes, the tango lyrics talk about longing, loss and death. After falling in love, she dies. The portraituring of death in dance can, especially in tangoshow performances with high dramatic intensiveness, be nearly religious. Resembling an icon, incarnating Michelangelo's La Pietà.
A duel is the most frequent cause of death in tango stories. A man of honor has to stand strong always, he needs defending his honour by obliging to duel. Duels are often associated with the guapo personage. El guapo with his white, silk neckchief , "fungi"-hat and, above all... the knife, the symbol of masculinity. He incarnates anger and prestige, kept up by his knife fighting skills. In his relations with women, he never mixed feelings because he did not want that a love or the family, made him hesitate in the middle of a confrontation. He knew that his life could finish in any moment.
The word duel has Latin origin, and it comes from the same root of the word bellum: war, battle. In spanish however, the word duel has 2 meanings: fight between two, and mourning. A man in mourning feels grief and sorrow inside. The confrontation is not done outside, but deep down his soul. A person needs to express inner grief, to let it come out of the soul, into the soul of tango. Enrique Santos Discépolo's phrase - El tango es un pensamiento triste que se baila -, refers to this impact.
Unlike most "popular music", in tango it is not about setting your mind on other thoughts and forget the sad things. Even more strange is that death is such a popular theme. Today, death reminders are rather repressed than allowed. The activity of death instinct produces fear, pain and feeling of guilt in the self that wants to live and remain intact. Many Hispanic authors have noted that mortality concerns are expressed openly in Latin American cultures. Death themes have been staples of Hispanic written and oral traditions for centuries. Latin Americans are remarkable for the degree to which they appear to have normalized death.
However, among Latin Americans of different nationalities, Argentines are the ones who have generated the most number of cultural myths. The country is also known for cosmetic surgery and psychotherapy. Argentina has more psychologists and psychoanalysts per head of population than anywhere else in the world. In Buenos Aires alone there are more than 70,000 psychologists, with the great majority of them Freudian, Kleinian or Lacanian psychoanalysts. Psychoanalysis in Argentina has become the dominant theory, one neighbourhood in Buenos Aires has so many Freudians it's called "Villa Freud". Nearly everyone, especially those from the middle and upper classes, is doing therapy, it is a normal part of every day’s life. Cosmetic surgery became a thriving industry in Argentina in the 1990's. The country imported more silicon implants per capita than any other. The obsession with looks made relationships problematic, not only in Buenos Aires. In fact, the more one rises in a social hierarchy, the more a seductive appearance becomes a nessesity.
When trying to crack the cycle of life and stay eternally young and beautiful, the reaction towards the shadow side of our the experience of living, which is a part of the bodily contact in couple dance, will not be the same. In order to maintain a more idealized image of ourselves, people and their relations change. The reaction towards personal dark signs such as ageing, can be anxiety and stress. The ageing is not the issue, it is the perception of one's body and bodily behaviour, in comparison with an ideality, and all its mismatches. Test results consistently reveal a sex difference in this area, with women exhibiting greater disgust sensitivity, a stronger drive to label "threating things" as disgusting. Men however, are catching on fast. It has an effect on relations. Contact, especially intimacy, becomes more threating. As contamination is everywhere, distance is needed everywhere. Experiences of closeness become in some way, acted.
A strong word like repulsion, reflects a zero tolerance mentality which is very alive today, leaving no space for differences or dualities between people. Disgust is much used for motivating people into a direction. It works because "finding something disgusting or degenerating" is an important means of combating paralytic anxiety. It derives from an intense need to avoid recognition signs of one's own mortality, and that humans have biologically, an animal side too. That duality is inside tango, as it is in Mozart and Modern Art.
Recognition of La Mortalidad makes the passion real. Without it, there is no depth. It is nice to see stylish dancers, using that inner experience which is evoked by the music and its lyrics. Their personal feeling asking for a stylishness based on elegance and sobriety, using their silhouettes to express that poetry is fluent silence. Other poets are more rough.
From Mario Soto's Pasional Lyrics:
Te quiero siempre así...
estás clavada en mí
como una daga en la carne
ardiente y pasional
y temblando de ansiedad
quiero en tus brazos morir.
I love you always this way
you are embedded in me
like a dagger in flesh
ardent and passional
and trembling of anxiety
I want to die in your arms.
Passion is in some way, a duel between Eros and Thanatos, sex drive and refusal, a conflict between the instincts of life and death. It is a recognition of sexual passion as a power in itself, something both animal and spiritual. It is an inner duel.
Balanced movement is based on such an inner duel. It is a search for a graceful, chemical equilibrium. Balanced movement in dancing is like sculpturing. The richness of Auguste Rodin's sculptures is found in this inner space of bodies. Their interior feelings make their exterior appearance meaningful and significant. The space with which Rodin wants the viewer to be concerned is inside the figures, as the poet's own imagined monument. They reflect their interior feelings with a severity of introspection and from this, the composition derives its sense of motion as a whole. The sense that figures are going somewhere, together. Without it, their outward appearance would be empty. In his sexual drawings, Rodin gradually moved from depicting highly erotic, almost pornographic sketches toward dynamic compositions of volumes and spaces, trying to see the figure as a mass, as volume. It is this voluminousness that he tries to understand.
Dancing is like drawing. The origin of the word dance is: Danser, Dansn , to draw; akin to dinsan to draw, the act of drawing spatially closer. Drawing can exist on two levels: action drawing and gesture drawing. Gesture drawing is related to action drawing, both involve the principle of movement, but it goes further than action drawing. Action drawing only deals with physical movement: the action line, the axis. When you do a drawing of what a figure looks like, your drawing can be correct and competent but it will only be what the figure looks like, its appearance without a deeper emotional content. Physical movement however, has a nonphysical counterpart: its essence, its movement identity. Gesture drawing involves not only physical movement, but a deeper concept of essential identity, a search for the internal, a deeper spiritual meaning of things. When you do a gesture drawing of a figure, when you strive to capture the essence, its energy of being, the figure becomes alive. Carlos Gavito's dancing is such a way of gesture drawing. The music is touching him emotionally and he puts that nonphysical content into his movements. Through use of his own sensory and perceptual experience of the music, he is telling an emotional, narrative story. Such inner liveliness is needed to give dance a soul. It is the active, introspective process that gives content to act of dancing together. One can only make contact if an appearance has a deeper emotional substance. Being drawn to each other, relates to a metaphysical real.
What is Gesture? Gestures are contrasts of character within a composition. The musical performer allows the articulation, the accentuation, even the tempo to be different on every few notes if that is the natural shape of the lines. The performers' gesture has to make it into the sound. Good musical gesture comes through in the sound, and in the way it holds one's attention. It is like the syllables of speech as they are emphasized in sentences. A well-delivered phrase (gesturally) is as variegated as a spoken sentence. It's all like speech. A dance is a speech in movement. If a dancer's visual showmanship relates directly to a musical interpretation, then he lets you see the music. What he shows is not a set of visual stimuli, it's the content of the sound. The gestural delivery draws attention to the music's colorful variety, not attention to the performers. The gestures arise naturally from the music. Gestural performance is related to spontaneity, but not limited to it. Much of this can be planned. The performance gives the appearance that it is making itself up as it goes along, or that it is organic, like a living animal.
Gestural performance style is the art of differentiation: recognizing that not all notes have equal weight in the structure of the composition, and bringing out all sorts of hierarchies among them. Through introspection, a performer should figure out as much as possible what's going on at every moment in the music, and bring out all those details clearly. The point is to make things exquisite and different from one another, so one can pick up the contrasts immediately. Communication is clearer when there's not too much regularity. Too much sameness loses the attention, variety engages. Passion dies when it is too predictable. It needs a willingness to go against expectations. A willingness to be not a completely smooth appearance. It is in service of letting the music be more immediately perceptible through the irregularity. The guessing must stay alive. People still want to be surprised. ty:
being drawn out of ourselves toward the other, goes beyond the physical act of coming closer.
Severity of introspection... some are drawn to it, others seek another ideal. Life is hard enough. Compassion however, is passion too. Borges said, the infinite tango takes to me towards everything. Y desde él construye la eternidad apoyado en sus tigres y sus espejos, que el tigre es el guapo elegante y ágil que mantiene la muerte a mano. Y los espejos, esto que somos aunque lo disfracemos. ...and the mirrors, reflect what we are although we disguise it. It means, we can never reach the ideal. Argentine tango is always about wanting that which you can't have. And the disguising act, is very much porteño. To achieve a seductive appearance, specific beauty rituals and agonizing strategies are needed.
Article from Tango-E-Vita
