R&R :: Day One

Saturday Morning Dreaming :: I really like this table...

You know how sometimes when you are waking up - for me it's usually when I am sleeping in - and you drift in and out of these semi-dreaming, semi-sleeping, semi-waking states? It's nice when it happens. Rare.

I stayed at last night's milonga until the bitter end, although I didn't dance the last few tandas, choosing instead to watch. Oh, in case you didn't catch it, I'm in Atlanta at the Gustavo y Giselle workshop - here ostensibly for "just the milongas" - although I noticed there is an advanced class this afternoon that is still open to leaders. Anyway, I got to bed around 3:00 or 3:30 I suppose, and was having some nice dreamy feelings this morning as I was waking up. Feelings of contentment, of gratitude, for what tango has brought into my life. I was trying to remember all my dances last night. They were all nice dances, even my one community service dance. Even community service tango feels good.

Gustavo y Giselle's performance was great - outstanding - fantastic. The real treat for me was watching them dance socially - they were warming up and having fun. They are so good, that after you have seen them many times, that level of dancing becomes the norm them. The expected. The beauty and technique and musicality and connection are all somehow anti-climactic. Don't get me wrong - they are moving and a joy to watch - but somehow...something...I can't explain it.

And don't forget the passion. I was talking with a friend about Ezequiel y Sabrina and Javier y Geraldine and their passion when they were together. The passion seems to be missing with them now, with their new partners. But not with G & G, the passion is still there, although it's more like a bed of hot coals. Not a big fanning flame of passion, but a deep, strong, white-hot heat of love. I think I see that with them. They are such a great couple. I admire them. Last night was a room full of G&G disciples. We wouldn't have been there if we didn't admire and respect them.

The video of the first song/dance is still uploading an hour later. I'll try to get it posted later.

The milonga last night was a treat. I would guess there were about 150 folks. Great DJ'ing by Avik...but a leader/buddy and I were talking about how there was a large proportion of "fast". Fast tangos, fast vals', and some painfully sloooow milongas. Overall, an A+ on the DJ'ing, you just can't really find fault there.

I had a wonderful surprise running into friends from Phoenix. I hadn't seen them since Austin back in November. It was great to catch up with them. That's one thing I love about tango - all the great people. We're going to have dinner tonight before the milonga.

There were lots of other familiar faces to say hi to and catch up with. Catch up and then dance a tanda (with the followers anyway).

My tango was okay. Not bad for not really having danced in four months. Stuff started coming back to me by the end of the evening. I completely forgot about volcadas. I was talking to my buddy from Phoenix, joking about Gustavo & Giselle's reverse double counter clockwise rotation back volcada with a twist, a gainer and a pike. I was joking in envy, it's a clean, simple, difficult to lead volcada that is a signature for them. Anyway we were laughing at my verbose descriptives, and it dawned on me that I had forgotten about them altogether. I'm not a big volcada dude. I'm a big dude, okay, but, I'm not big on volcadas, and not big volcadas either. I have a sweet little milonguero volcada "normal" that I do. At most, I may follow it up with another one, linked to the first, on the close side with a walk out in crossed feet over there. Anyway I forgot about them until the last tanda. I'm sure more "stuff" will come back to me today and tonight.

One thing about volcadas for the ladies. I noticed this one follower doing a "heel drag" version with a lead who appeared to be stuck in volcada mode. I thought to myself, "Self, isn't the follower supposed to trace her toe on the floor, and not her heel?" Maybe it's something new, but I didn't care for it. It was as if she were scraping dogshit off the end of her stiletto. I dunno, maybe she was.

Also, I saw a new left hand form. I will call it the "hook 'em horns" form. Hook em' horns is a saying and a gesture with regard to the Texas Longhorns. Index finger and pinky finger extended. There was a leader dancing this way and I winced a little bit, but then thought it cute. It's all good you know. He will learn and/or come into his own. There was also a fair amount of the "bang bang you're dead" form. Left index finger extended like you are making a gun with your hand - shooting it at the ceiling like in the old west days in a saloon.

Floorcraft and nav were good. There were a few issues in getting around the edges of the dance floor - to the entrance/exit, to the food/wine table, and to the restrooms. Some people were talking that the overall/general level of dancing was lower than expected/desired. All my dances were good. I was a little rusty, but I just got into the connection/embrace first and foremost, focused on music/ality, and it all turned out just fine. Nice dances. Nice women. Lots of really good looking women. There's something I'm going through these days where women just seem to be getting better and better looking, softer skin and hair, they smell better, their teeth are whiter and more perfect. What's up with that? I think it must be some cruel trick God or the Universe is playing on me.

Oh, and my left shoulder was killing me last night and this morning. I stopped on the way here yesterday and bought some Motrin. That seemed to help. A lot. The pain would be worse without it. I only noticed my hand dropping a bit during one dance at the end of the evening.

The only down element of the evening was that I dripped vino tinto all over my favorite shirt. Well, one of my favorites. It's a light blue linen number with nice embroidery down the button placket thingy - whatever you call it. I think it will be okay, I hand washed it in the bathtub. I need to get some stain remover. There was a crack in the bottom of the plastic vaso and I didn't notice until it was too late.

My plans for my R&R day today? (for my international readers, R&R is "rest & relaxation...) A big breakfast. Lay out by the pool and read and sleep. Go see the new Batman Movie. Perhaps try to shoehorn my way into the advanced class late this afternoon - mostly as an icebreaker to meet more followers.

I better get my ass in gear. I'm burning daylight.

Also, kudos to Ronda and Manuel...they throw a nice party...

Tango :: Article on Tango Estilo Villa Urquiza

Ala Azzurra Bologna :: Javier Rodriguez & Andrea Misse...noted Villa Urquiza style dancers...
Originally uploaded by gabymann

Article credited to Victor Hernandez...posted by Oleh Kovalchuke (www.tangospring.com) to Tango-L...


The "estilo Villa Urquiza" (the "Villa Urquiza"
style).

To understand what it follows, it will help to
visualize Buenos Aires for what it is: a gigantic
metropolis of mind-bogling proportions and daunting
distances. A puzzle of immigrants, cultures, languages
and communities. When Alberto Castillo sings his
trademark vals hit "Cien barrios" (one hundred
neighborhoods) he is describing exactly "that Buenos
Aires": one hundred "cities", one hundred faces, one
hundred accents, one hundred personalities.

Even in today's world of cars, subways and technology,
it is not infrequent for thousands of portenos to be
born, live, work and die within the borders of his or
her "barrio" and greet each other - immediately after
their names - with their "barrio" co-ordinates. That
information is good enough for the speakers to "set"
and "clarify" with whom they are interacting.

If this is true today, imagine, one hundred years ago,
or even fifty, the "adventure" - and often the risks -
associated with moving from one barrio to another
(from Matadero to Avellaneda, from San Telmo to
Devoto) to live, work, very often to support your
local soccer team, or, to hear a particular tango
orchestra recital or to see first-hand how "good" were
the footwork of legendary and rival "milongueros"
names.

Tango is a culture. In its deep ethnological sense is
the ultimate culture: from the people, by the people,
to the people. It is the real story, in music, lyrics,
movements and emotions, of those arriving by boat (and
by the scores) to La Boca and then moving, with fists
and knives, fast and painfully, to the "barrios" and
"villas" of the metropolis'periphery. Only "el
centro", the rich downtown, was (for a long while,
anyways) off-limits. This is the background to
understand why and how the many different "styles"
were born.

Without risking much, for the debate rages since the
beginning of time, it is safe to group the basic Tango
styles into six families (no, the so-called Tango
"Nuevo", does not qualify for the seventh one under
the parameters of this commentary. Sorry), each easily
sub-divided, to the trained eye, in more categories
depending again on when, where and by whom, they were
danced.

Thus, "Canyengue", "Liso", "Orillero", "Salon (or the
family clubs)", "Apilado" and "Escenario (or show)"
came to see the light at different times - and often
co-existing with each other. Of course all were Tango,
all embracing, all silent conversation, all emotional
confession, and yet, all different. Each had a reason,
a story, a logic of its own and - very importantly - a
few names of legendary proportions, names pronounced
in whispers and quasi-religious awe.

At the end of the day, as with everything touching
mankind, it was the convergence of necessity and
serendipity plus the magic touch of individual genius
which gave birth to those styles.

The "Canyengue" in times of tight dresses, tight skirts
and other complicated fashion "diktats" forced a style
of small steps, bent knees and side close body contact.

Eventually, fashion relented, allowing with the
"Liso" style a more "easy", more "open" and "walking"
style. One must always keep contact with the floor
("Liso" means "ironed", "straight", often "closing"
and with little fantasy). It was an acceptable and
"serious" style.

The "orilleros" (inhabitants of the "orillas", the
edges) had other ideas. Not only space was not a
problem in the big warehouses ("almacenes") where they
danced, but neither were the fixed "rules" of
downtown. The feet started to move away from the floor
in all kind of new tricks and steps, at times in a
rain of pyrotechnics. Some of those improvised
movements, eventually refined, will compose the basis
for many of the circus-like stuff of today's
"Escenario" or "Show" style.

However, none of the above, was allowed or tolerated
in the "family clubs" (small all-purpose venues kept
by the barrios' associations, each with a respectable
dance floor) and where a combination of tango-loving
and rigid social and moral codes imposed a "distance"
between dancers - usually closely watched by family
members - in retrospective, a blessing in disguise,
for that "distance", that "space" is going to allow,
when practiced by the individual genius of the moment,
a whole new array of possibilities. One can safely say
that the Tango moves and rules that we admire in
today's Masters were all taken from the "Salon" style
of those "barrios": Devoto, Avellaneda, Matadero,
Saavedra...

There was, though, one very particular "barrio" among
so many, which concerns our story today for the "salon
style" it developed was something incredibly unique.
This barrio is situated north of Buenos Aires
(actually northwest), very far from El Puerto, San
Telmo or La Boca. It extends itself on both sides of
General Urquiza. During the last fifty years, the
finest tango dancers and milongueros that Buenos Aires
has ever produced, were trained in this area.

Historic family clubs like "Sunderland" or "Sin Rumbo"
had their addresses there and benefited from the
genius of "Milonguita", the legendary dancer who never
went up on a stage ("It is not worthy of a real
milonguero") but left his legacy to names like Gerardo
Portalea, EL Turco Jose, "Finito" Ramon Rivera,
"Lampazo" Jose Vazquez, Miguel Balmaceda and of course
"Virulazo", the one and only, who came to New York
with Tango Argentino. Many of them are now gone but
the "Milonguita'style", today known as "Villa Urquiza"
remains with its firm, straight, elegant way of
delivering the foot in long steps, caressing "el piso"
simply and continuously but explosing suddenly, if
need be, in a display of complex figures that the
"open" space between dancers allows. Never losing
embrace, never losing contact.

>From now on, when you hear the expression "los viejos
milongueros" you know now what they are talking about!


Not long ago, the very respectable Buenos Aires
newspaper "El Clarin" published an interview with
somebody named Ricardo Ponce. Not many "milongueros"
know Mr. Ponce by his real name nor by his day job (as
a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance). But just say
his "night" nickname ("El Chino Perico") and I can
guarantee you that you will get some reaction, respect
and admiration.

For El Chino Perico - a legend in his own - is one of
the last masters milongueros. This living bridge
connects today through the Villa Urquiza style
("Milonguita" was his idol and teacher) a whole new
generation of contemporary names perhaps more
"familiar" nowdays. Names like Miguel Angel and
Osvaldo Zotto, Ricardo Herera or Sebastian Misse.

Oh!. We forgot. "Apilado"?. That is the "close, close"
embrace, small steps, conveniently developed in the
crowded "Cafes del Centro" (the downtown cafes and
restaurants with usually an upper floor to dance)
which, thanks to an unfortunate misconception
attributed to Susana Miller has come to be known as
"Milonguero" style. But as Maria Cieri says "you
should not call that style "milonguero" because the
real milongueros avoided until very recently those
places - like Almagro - filled with rich Daddy's sons
looking for easy pick ups. Call it "apilado", call it
"confiteria", call it whatever, but, please, do not
call it "milonguero"!

Viva Villa Urquiza!

End of article...