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Catstride's DenPls visit my preferred blog on catstride.blogspot.com 4月16日 It all begins with an embraceBy my 4th visit to BsAs, I don't start shooting my eyes around the salon for a cabeceo invitation as soon as I sit down in a milonga. Must say it's a bit of a dilemma - you're new to the scene, people want to see how you dance before inviting you, you want the same but you have nobody to dance with in order to be seen! On the other hand, it's also unwise to jump straight into a dance without scanning the floor and the dancers first for you never know what you'd get.
Going with male friends who dance well can often "jump start" my chances on the dance floor. But if they are not available, I have no choice but to start the evening with people watching while sipping cafe con leche at my table. Occasionally I'd dash a gleam at a few men who happen to be in my line of sight. To survive in the strictly coded tango world in BsAs, a woman (esp. one who's a visitor) needs guts. You can write a bible on this subject. Conquer the fear of looking people in the eye if you want to dance. It's almost like staring at men until they notice you! Sometimes even that's not enough, one has to get up and walk around to catch the eyeballs from tangueros at the bar or the tables across the floor so they know you exist! However, you'd be surprised to know that they actually appreciate your doing that.
I always look for someone with a nice embrace when I spot for potential partners. The embrace is the most ancient and basic form of human connection. A beautiful embrace almost feels like the womb (guys, don't take it literally) where I am intimately connected to the other. It is as though my partner and I are part of each other's body.
I can tell 80% of the time whether I'd have a wonderful time with this man as soon as he wraps his arms around me. The energy coming from a firm but tender embrace has magical powers. A good embrace is more than just arms and is made up of a few basic elements - height (specific to yours), posture, axis and, most importantly, heart - I need all of them! An embrace with proper posture/axis without heart is cold. To have heart is to listen carefully to the partner (and his/her body). It's an art to be learned. How often do people truly listen to the opposite sex in real life anyway?
Of couse the tango is a whole lot more than an embrace - you need the music, the floor, the walk, etc, but the embrace is the beginning of all. A great tango is when the couple eloguently communicate inner feelings with the simplest outward forms (steps). So before you make a salida with your partner on the floor next time, pls check your embrace, pause and listen for a moment. If you can't already establish that connection at the beginning, chances are you won't for the rest of the dance. 4月10日 "Don't look at my feet...... look at my whole body!" says Javier Rodriguez in a class I attended in Buenos Aires 3 years ago. I couldn't help but giggled at a corner, trying to cover my own and everyone else's embarrassment as our eyes peeled from the master's legs. "Dancing is not in the feet, it's the whole body - it's all of you!". Such were the words of wisdom from a teacher who wanted you to understand the soul of the Tango.
Javier is one classy dancer who makes his partner look (and feel) like the most beautiful woman in the world, albeit it's only for 3 mintues! When you watch him dance, he doesn't seem to do much. His movements are subtle but his partner shines like the brightest star in the night. I think the late maestro Carlos Gavito once commented that a great dancer (leader) was one who made his partner, not himself, look good on the dance floor! Javier is definitely a master in this art!
I don't remember any of the steps Javeir taught in class, but I remember how he made me feel about tango. He helped me discover the connection in a partner - how to receive and give back in return. He described the tango embrace as a big warm hug with a close friend. It's firm yet soothing, it transmits feelings with an open heart, there's no holding back nor control.
Sometimes it's just as wonderful to watch his face when he dances. It's so full of joy and appreciation. It's connection bewteen partners that can be "seen". Great to finally have him in HK in May! 4月9日 DJ for the massesThere are loads of useful information on the web about how to DJ (check out my links), there's no need for me to write about it. Who am I to tell people how to DJ anyway. I'm still a learner myself.
Yes, a DJ should be knowledgeable about tango music and its history. I've still got a long way to go. Real time counts, you just can't get away with not enough listening time. Of course there are factors such as personal style and technicalities - how to put together a tanda, vocals or instrumentals, should you use a cortina, when to slip in an electronic/salsa/whatever tanda, what's danceable and what's not... and the list goes on.
But the most important thing for me is that a DJ should play for the crowd and play with heart. I've gone thru periods when I thought a particular piece of muisc was interesting and wanted people to hear it. In other words, the song was played for myself. The result was probably not disastrous, most people might not even have noticed, but I felt something was wrong and did not like the way it turned out.
As time passes and expereince accummulates, I realize that if I pay attention to the floor and listen to my intuition, the music will come natutally. I'll know what to put on next. All this time the ego must be told go fishing or I'll get into this self indulgence... Running out of time!It was an unforgetable experience for Ignacio to be in the presence of all the big maestros when they first met to discuss Project Escuela De Tango. I can imagine how overwhelming that could be.
Of the dozen maestros featured in Caroline Neal's documentary 'Si Sus Brujo", 2 have already passed away in the last few years (Julian Plaza and Jose "Pepe" Libertella"). There might have been more that I'm not aware of. Emilio Balcarce, the orchestra leader, is losing his hearing. The rest are aging quickly. For Orquesta Escuela De Tango and Ignacio Varchausky, it's a worrying thought. For us casual dancers and tango music lovers, it's a sad one.
How do you catch up on the preservation project before the maestros are gone forever? One of Ignacio's missions is to codify the styles in written form so the information can live on. Yet it's a formidable task. When the maestros came in to share the tricks of the orchestra styles, it was difficult for them to explain things in a technical way. It's just natural for them to play they way they did, there was never the need to break things down. Then what do you do? Nothing but to watch attentively how the maestros play until you get the idea.
Did you know that Pugliese's "La Yumba", so unique in its own way, was played with only a little upward rub on the strings of the contrabajo (not to mention the interesting ways the other instruments were played). That's all it takes, a little rub upwards. I almost bursted into a cry! How long would it have taken one to figure that out by just listening to the records?
I have utmost respect for the work Ignacio and Orquesta Escuela De Tango do... 4月7日 On Ignacio Varchausky & Escuela de TangoMy preferred blog on Bloggers is blocked in China, so I have to start one on MSN, much to my reluctance, otherwise I can't see what I've written! March was a special month in 2007. Meeting Ignacio Varchausky, band leader and contrabajo player of El Arranque during the HK Arts Festival, has taken my appreciation of tango music to a deeper level. Aside from his busy schedule with El Arranque, Ignacio started another project, namely "Escuela de Tango", in 2000 trying to preserve and revive the different styles of music from the golden era. It's not a school where you go to learn to plug the bandoneon, violin, or piano. Instead it is an orchestra in which accomplished young musicians learned to play the styles of the 40's from living and aging maestros who played in the orchestras of D'Arienzo, Di Sarli, Pugliese, Gobbi, Triolo, etc. It wasn't easy to find funding for the project. With persistence, Ignacio finally found support from the government and persuaded maestro Emilio Balcarce, an acclaimed arranger, composer and band leader who had played with Edgardo Donato & Pugliese in the 30's and 40's and had his own successful orchestra later, to lead the Orquesta Escuela De Tango. The 2 of them brought in other maestros to share the ways & tricks of their styles - the accents, nuances, "clicks" and "saws" that made the sounds of those orchestras so unique...Orquesta Escuela de Tango now has 2 successful albums which you can find on www.tangostore.com. The journey of Orqesta Escuela de Tango was also beautifully captured on video by Ignacio's film maker wife Caroline Neal. The video title "Si Sus Brujo" is the name of one of Balcarce's many great compositions. More about the documentary later. |
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