😡 HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE “LITTLE MAESTROS OF THE DANCE FLOOR” | milonga cu...

In this video Gustavo Benzecry Sabá shares with you how to recognize the "maestritos de pista", those supposed tango masters of the dance floor that are found in the milongas of the city of Buenos Aires... and perhaps outside of it... enjoy it!

https://youtu.be/oe9nsPuGb00

If you love tango, you love Argentina

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_2023

http://en.expo2023argentina.com.ar/

Breaking down tango steps & sequences :: The Mini-Milonguero Dip :: A practical YouTube/Video Tip

Let's face it. Human males are visual troglodytes. "We like to watch, Eve."

And with tango, due to the complexities and nuances of the quality and character of motion through time and space and to the music - weight shifts, where your weight is on your foot aka where your center of gravity is in relation to your foot, where you want her weight to be, where you want your foot/feet to be, where you want her foot/feet to be, etc. Sometimes if you lead her to shift her weight just a little too far, the opportunity to do what you were planning to do is lost. In a few-to-several-hundred femtoseconds of little brain farts bubbling up in the primordial soup.

I know many of us leaders, perhaps most of us, use YouTube to glean/harvest/study new vocabulary and "stuff" for our tango roll-o-dex of moves. Or maybe movements is a better word. Ah. I see it's actually "Rolodex".

Using the video settings to slow down the speed to .50 or .25 is helpful, but scrubbing the video back and forth is hellatiously frustrating, especially on a mobile device.

After years of being hellatiously frustrated by the inability to have really slow simple control to break things down step by step, I had a eureka moment a couple of weeks ago.

Now, after being hellatiously frustrated reading all my drivel, here is the actual tip.

Slow the video down to .25 speed on your computer or iPad, then video that with your phone. Then using your phone, it's much easier to scrub back and forth step by step to figure shit out.

With the Austin Spring Tango Festival coming up, and being slightly week in my small space Rolodex of movements, we've been taking classes with Vania on the subject, and practicing a few times a week. We've been working on incorporating a cross-footed ocho cortado to the cross (aren't they all?) with a front cross step back to the close side on her part simultaneously with a mini-milonguero dip on my part. Mini-dip. Not mini-milonguero, although I'm sure they exist.

Sadly, the milonguero dip has been missing from my tango Rolodex for all these years.

My thick skull couldn't absorb it until I broke it down step by step and body position by body position. I'm slow that way. And I guess I've been slow on the uptake of figuring out that I could video the slowed-down video. Oh well.

Anyway.

That is all.

Oh. Here's the video. From timestamp 0:40, then he repeats it at 0:48. Michelle and Joachim. I like their "stuff".

Milongueros - thanks Nina P...!

I have never seen the film "Tango Bar" with Raul Julia...I see that it's available in its full length on YouTube...




However, I would offer this version of La Cumparsita as an alternative sound track...



Or this one, for a little more energy...love the staccato piano and violin picking in this version...when I used to DJ, I would usually play two or three versions of La Cumparsita as the last song...chosen from the 40 or so versions I've collected over the years...

Julio Silpitruca - "La Cumparsita"

Beautiful Tango

Hindi Zahra ...thanks go to Emily Valentine and "Tanguera PorSiempre" on Facebook for the find...

milonga magnífica

Thanks to Clint over at Tango Evolution for the find...Lida Mantovani y Christian Sosa

Strange Tango or Now We Are Strange

Nothing strange, just a sensationalist headline...and my old compadre Jaimes, who I have not seen in ages...I hear he makes it down Houston way now and again...

Music video for the New York Howl, featuring the band performing live at Bowery Poetry Club, and tango dancers Jaimes Friedgen, Shorey Myers, Rebecca Shulman, Adam Hoopengardener, Cidgem Tanik, and Carmela Hill-Burke

Alex's Top Ten Tango Videos

Most of you already know this about me (my favorite videos that I post over and over again every few months), but I thought I would collect them all into one post...for posterity...not in any particular order...

These videos are why I dance tango...or represent why I dance tango...this imagery, these couples, the songs, the movement, the grace and simplicity, the connection...all represent what "El Tango" is to me, how I choose to hold it in my heart/soul and in my life, until the end of my days...

You will note there are actually 11 videos...and one song, La Cumparsita, at the end...oh well, I couldn't keep it to 10...

And, the title of this post should read "Top Ten Tango/Vals/Milonga Videos"...top eleven...




Javier Rodriguez y Geraldine Rojas | Rodolfo Biagi's "Flor de Monserrat"






Osvaldo Zotto y Lorena Ermocida | en la Confiteria Ideal | Carlos DiSarli's "Indio Manso"






Murat y Michelle Erdemsel | Aníbal Troilo's "En Esta Tarde Gris"






Detlef Engel y Melina Sedo | Superslow milonga to Canaro's "Milonga Sentimental"






Thierry Le Cocq et Delphine Blanco | Superfast milonga to Canaro's "No hay tierra coma la mia"






Ezequiel Farfaro y Milena Plebs | CITA 2003 (I thin) | Milonga Campera to Alfredo Zitarrosa's "Pa'l Que Se Va"






El Maestro Carlos Gavito y Geraldine Rojas | en La Viruta | Osvaldo Pugliese's "Emancipación"






Julio Balmaceda y Corina de la Rosa | Denver's Cheesman Pavilion | Fleury's "Milonga del Ayer" (live solo by Gregory "Grish" Nisnevich)






Enrique y Guillermo de Fazio (Los Hermanos Macana) | Milonga to Canaro's "Reliquias Porteñas"






Sebastian Arce y Mariana Montes | A vals to Biagi's "Viejo Porton"






Carlos "Carlitos" Espinoza y Karina Antonucci | Enrique Rodriquez' "Danza Maligna"





And lastly, no dancing, just an appropriate last tango | Italian Tenor Tito Schipa singing the original lyrics version of "La Cumparsita", which happens to be my favorite version of all 45 (or so) versions of La Cumparsita I have collected...

Flor de Montserrat y no comment

Well, one little comment - here are eight different milonga performances to Biagi's "Flor de Montserrat"...

















Make that 9...



10...

Tango y su lavaplatos

I just heard this on the boob tube and had to jump up and check it out...



The song is "Época" by Gotan Project on their La Revancha del Tango album.

And here they are performing the song live...

Tango y Fútbol

Thanks to Rigoberto for the find...

Argentine Tango. American Style.

Tango out of the feet of babes...

Silvio La Via & his daughter Estrella...start 'em young...play Golden Age tango to them in the womb...and then watch what happens...

Credit goes to Rigoberto for the find...



They will likely grow up and end up like this...



And here is Geraldine Rojas as a young girl/woman in 1993...dancing with Andres Amarilla of "Tango Cheeseballs" fame...

The Art of The Cabeceo

Thanks to Oleh for the find...

carlitos y karina :: danza maligna

Carlos Espinoza y Karina Antonucci. How did these two miss my radar? Google is devoid of anything about them.

Thanks go to Eduardo for this find - he must have one of those new-fangled Phased Array Pulse Doppler tango radars.

Not that my tango radar is that good, or is even functioning properly any more. (Although I can pick up a flock of sandhill cranes wheeling overhead at 2,000 feet, so it must not be that bad. [grin]) I was thinking just yesterday, as I was driving or working (I can't remember which), that I should do a "life trumps tango, life trumps blog" post. To basically put the word out that I've been busy these days and not writing much. Hell, not writing my ass. I continue to draw blanks about anything to write about tango related. I'm feeling very out of the tango loop - and missing my tango friends in the far corners of my world.

I was able to conjure up a topic yesterday after all, albeit a very old one - "Energy in the Molinete" - old in the time continuum of this blog. I remember our little tango group in Aspen debating this one ad nauseum - having drinks and a late-night snack at Jimmy's after tango class. Perhaps it was me debating and the others experiencing the ad nauseum. The gist of my drift is that in the ideal molinete, the follower takes over the leads "energy" as she takes her "back-side-front" steps. She doesn't take over the lead itself, she doesn't back lead, but just assumes the dominant/active/athletic energy, and then relinquishes it when the lead ends the molinete.

When this happens, it's amazing. It is subtle but intense. Two followers who/m I know can do this. Or rather, do it all the time by default. One in Atlanta. One in Denver.

Anyway, perhaps I'll expand on the subject when I have more time. It's a little more esoteric/abstract and difficult to explain and conceive of in here...I dunno...we'll see.

Happy tangos y'all...check out Carlitos y Karina...can anyone tell us more about them?



Oh, and the song is "Danza Maligna" by Enrique Rodriguez...one of my favorites...

Mother and Son, Mother and Father

Olga Besio (Federico's Mom) y Federico Naveira in 2008 at Salon Canning dancing to Carlos DiSarli's "Bahia Blanca":




Olga Besio y Gustavo Naveira (Federico's Dad) in 1999 at Sunderland dancing to Carlos DiSarli's "El Once":

Corto de animación For a Tango de Gabrielle Zuchelli

The only critique I would offer is that there seems to be a historical disconnect between the scenes in the animation and the news headlines and the soundtrack - maybe not - I don't have the time nor inclination to do the research.

I'll bite my tongue about the historical veracity of the knife fight, the fedoras and the dandy clothing. Those are my personal opinions anyway so I'll keep them to myself. This time.

Otherwise, I like it. The animation sequences are good. They are obviously done by someone, or with extensive input from someone who understands/dances tango.

13 year old kids dancing to Flor de Monserrat

13 year olds dancing to DiSarli's "Flor de Monserrat" at Sunderland in Buenos Aires...

Check it out...

Looks pretty milonguero to me :: Another vals

I unsubscribed to the Tango-L daily digests a while back, but this morning, I figger'd I'd check the archives and see what was going on.

The original poster of the message "Nuevo Milonguero" feared his posting of the video was tantamount to treason, and went on to express his fear that what is shown on the video would spread like wildfire to the far corners of the world. I'm paraphrasing and embellishing a bit here - for dramatic effect.

First, the video is from a 2006 Seattle workshop with Susanna Miller and Maria Plazaola. So it's nothing new. They are doing what appears to be a didactic demo at the end of a class. A vals class I suppose. Again, nothing new.

I can only guess that what he might be talking about is the switch-up of lead roles during the dance between the two women. Or perhaps same sex dancing? Can two women dance milonguero style? Sure. Can two women interchange the lead during one dance - assuming they both enjoy leading and are good leaders? Sure.

So, from the self-appointed/anointed arbiter of all things milonguero, it looks pretty milonguero to me. I'm not concerned about some new "nuevo milonguero" movement or influence bubbling up somewhere on the planet. El Tango es El Tango. Milonguero es Milonguero. Nuevo es Nuevo. They are different animals. There is no mistaking them.

Admittedly, this is a weak post, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

A couple of final notes on the video: I don't care for the rotational, up-and-down movement of the leaders' hands at times - not-so-milonguero if you ask me.

Also, the demo doesn't feel very "vals-y" to me. It's not the vals I aspire to.

It's still nice to watch - and it would make me happy to see this danced on the pista in my community.

Very happy.