Click on CC for English subtitles. Argentine tango dancer tells what it feels like to dance the tango. Juan Lencina is a very charismatic tango dancer and storyteller who promotes milongas in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Monday and Thursday nights Juan Lencina and Daniel Rezk are the organizers of the milongas Derecho Viejo and La Cachila at Club Gricel. The reason that Juan's story is important is because the older dancers that experienced firsthand the tango craze of the 40s and early 50s are disappearing and their presence in the milongas cannot be replaced or underestimated.
Juancito began to dance for the natural reason, to meet girls. The milongas of the 40s and 50s didn't have older dancers like the milongas today, they only had young dancers. His neighbor Finito became a very famous dancer and has been called the best dancer of his generation. Juan enjoys seeing dancers from other countries come to Buenos Aires to dance each year and to watch them improve as a result of their contact with the Argentine dancers.
Juan became a tango maestro as a logical consequence from his experience learning and teaching in the practicas with his friends. He had a long career as a tango professor and taught in all of the best places in Buenos Aires. When he began to organize milongas in the 1990s he began to meet young dancer that were also interested in becoming tango maestros and it occurred to him that like everything in life you have to help the next generation become successful, so Juan gave these young professors the opportunity to teach in his milongas. He was invited to go to France and teach in 2008 and really enjoyed the experience.
Juan never had a desire to compete in contests. He feels that competitive dancing lacks the heart and soul of tango. He feels that every dancer should incorporate their own personality and uniqueness into their personal dance style. He appears to be singing the lyrics to the songs he dances to, but he doesn't actually use his voice. He feels that you shouldn't talk or whistle or sing while you dance. Juan definitely has his own personal style and you will never see anyone dance like he does.
96 year old Argentine Tango dancer tells his story. Click CC for English Subtitles. Roberto Segarra was playing cards with a group of friends prior to the interview which took place in May of 2011 at Club Liber Piemont. Most of the video footage was shot in Marta Fama's Wednesday night milonga El Rodriguez https://www.hoy-milonga.com/buenos-aires/en
Roberto's 96 th birthday dance footage was shot on September 16, 2016 at Obelisco Tango in the Friday night Milonga de Buenos Aires. The final performance and the pictures of Roberto with his family and friends were shot at Club Fulgor in May 2011. Roberto was being honored for his lifelong contribution to tango.
Bonus material
The first dance that I went to was held in a dance hall that no longer exists and I am not sure there is anyone who knows it but it was called the “Lido de Palermo” (Lido of Palermo) and was located over there in the “Palermo Chico” area, as it's called over here, you know, “Palermo Chico”. I think it was on Juez Estrada Street, with the Osvaldo Fresedo Orchestra and the “Santa Paula Serenaders”.
There was a tango academy where there is now the Bachin Restaurant … er, no, Pippo … where Pippo is now. You know Pippo? … There, on Montevideo, between Corrientes and Sarmiento, a restaurant, Pippo. Well, there used to be a big hall … named “Academia Pedro” but they did not really teach there. They had female employees who would all dance very well, they were all tango teachers, and guys would go there to dance since they knew they would be dancing well. Because at that time, when you were starting to learn to dance, those who already knew would tell you “you need to go to the dance and ask out women who know how to dance well because that way you are going to learn faster. Don't ask ... as the tango says “no saqués paquetes que dan pisotones” (Don't ask out a “paquete” that will step on you. – Paquete is argentinian lunfardo for “a clumsy, heavy or overweight person.” ) … [unintelligible] … (Laughing) That's the way it is. They would teach you to ask out women who were good dancers … even it was only for a single song … even if she did not want to dance with you again … but at least you danced with a partner that danced well. That's what your elders taught you, and that's what we did … those of us that could. Of course, when you already knew how to dance well, you did not mind the feet as much, you started caring more about the woman who you asked out than her feet or footwork.
(Talking about during the 1970s and 1980s ) Even though the tango had not reached the stage where it is now, but there were places (to dance). There were definitely some places. There were just a few places but then it began to grow thanks to Piazzolla. Because Piazzolla was the one that started taking the tango abroad, in its classic form but he … Here's what I think: there are two people to whom we owe what tango is now. One of them was D'Arienzo in 1935 and Piazzolla in the Seventies or Eighties. Those were the two that raised the tango and tango is what it is now thanks to them. We have to be thankful to them. To learn more about Tango in Buenos Aires go to: http://lamilongadel126.blogspot.com.ar/
Excerpt: (the complete post is a fairly long one...be sure to click the link above to read it in its entirety...)
"In looking out across the dance floor at many events advertised as ‘milongas’ in North America, it is apparent that the character of the dancing while tango music is playing is very different from the tango dancing in a typical milonga in Buenos Aires [Tango de Salon: The Tango of the Milonga (Part II of ‘Tango Styles, Genres and Individual Expression’)]. What one often sees among dancers in the North American event is a collection of step patterns, with names most dancers using them could recite, such as ‘sandwich’, ‘lustrada’, ‘boleo’, ‘gancho’, ‘sacada’, ‘arrastre’, ‘volcada’. (A categorization of tango into named steps is given in ‘Figures of Argentine Tango’.) Among the men who have acquired a collection of movements, there is often a display consisting of a nearly continuous and sometimes predictable sequence of step patterns, often without regard to the progression of the line of dance; complexity in the physics of movement appears to be favored over the highly improvised linking of small movements (often those lacking a codified name) that utilize only the space needed to progress in the circulating ronda. Many women appear to be focused on performing embellishments, finding as many opportunities as possible to use them, often without regard to whether or not the man has provided time and space for their execution, and without regard to the space between them and other dancers on the floor (Women’s Adornments for Tango Social Dancing). Tango dancing at North American milongas often appears to be a performing art (with questionable artistic properties), directed by the brain, not a social and emotional interchange between partners, directed by the music. Often absent in dancing to tango music in North American milongas is an embrace between man and woman, i.e., chest-to-chest contact maintained through the dance or, if there is any embrace at all, it is broken apart for the performance of conspicuous step patterns. Also absent is a close connection of movement with the music, even when the dance-facilitating classic tango music from the Golden Age is played for dancing. For the dancers who more or less are connected to the music (i.e., moving in conjunction with the primary beat), they are not exploring the intricacies of music by taking into account syncopations, as well as pauses associated with musical phrasing. It often appears as though the music is only a background for executing patterns, not a framework for structuring the dance. In the most extreme cases, the music played for dancing at these events advertised as ‘milongas’ (sometimes ‘alternative milongas’) is not tango music designed for dancing tango (i.e., classic tango music)."
