5845  Interview: Chicho on tango nuevo, style, new music,

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:37:05 -0600
From: Joe Grohens <joe.grohens@gmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Interview: Chicho on tango nuevo, style, new music,
and the current direction of tango
To: tango-L@mit.edu
Cc: Joe Grohens <joe.grohens@gmail.com>
delsp=yes

For full interview, see: https://atdrc.com/default.asp?TextDisplay=1&Display

Excerpts:

Chicho: To think that ?Tango Nuevo? is something that occurred only 10
years ago is a commercial exploitation that we owe to the festival
organizers, I don?t think I am doing ?Tango Nuevo?, I feel that I am
dancing tango. Because today there is a new generation that learned
to dance 2,3 or 5 years ago, who only know how to do the new styles,
the ganchos, the colgadas, but who are not in contact with everything
that came before, and I go to the milongas and I see people that know
how to move but that don?t know how to dance, people don?t breathe
tango like they did before.
........................

Chicho: For me the style is something you search for with your
partner, and not something that you find separately.

.................

Chicho: I haven?t heard anything new yet which reflects what a real
tango can make you feel. The dance of today has adapted itself to that
kind of music referred to as electronic tango, and it doesn?t fall
into the same category as a Pugliese or a Troilo. The tango was
hidden for almost 30 years and that is the emptiness which is present
today in the tango. There are people who have 60 or 70 years of age,
and now there are those who are 30 years old, which is saying that
there is a 20 year gap within the tango, because there aren?t really
that many people in their 40?s and 50?s in the milongas. I believe
that that same thing occurred in the music, there was Piazzola and
then there was a jump to Gotan Project, directly to Narcotango, and
there hasn?t been a musical process that has accompanied the dance
through its evolution. The music hasn?t evolved, it jumped and
skipped a very important of the creativity that is happening in the
dance, which continues to grow and evolve creatively.

....

Interviewer: What do you think about the direction the tango is
beginning to take, socially and artistically?

Chicho: I think it is a very critical moment, there are many new
young people who are beginning to dance today and if we as teachers
can?t transmit what was taught to us as the essence of tango when we
began, the tango will be lost, because the essence will be lost, and
therefore losing its foundations. The most important element is to
remain keep the tanguero essence alive, the style doesn?t matter, but
that the people are really dancing the tango. Today the road is
confusing, it?s in this space where or it either takes a turn towards
modern dance or it continues being tango. Today people are dancing
tango, but they are not living the tanguero essence, they don?t love
the tango.

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:46:20 -0800 (PST)
From: "Trini y Sean \(PATangoS\)" <patangos@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Interview: Chicho on tango nuevo, style, new
music, and the current direction of tango

Thank you, Joe, for posting this. This is precisely what I've been looking for. An acknowledgement by a "nuevo" teacher that tango shouldn't be "anything goes" as it evolves. That there's an essence to tango, or else the dance becomes something else.

Trini de Pittsburgh


--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Joe Grohens <joe.grohens@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Joe Grohens <joe.grohens@gmail.com>
> Subject: [Tango-L] Interview: Chicho on tango nuevo, style, new music, and the current direction of tango
> To: tango-L@mit.edu
> Cc: "Joe Grohens" <joe.grohens@gmail.com>
> Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 8:37 PM
> For full interview, see: https://atdrc.com/default.asp?TextDisplay=1&Display
>
> Excerpts:
>

> Interviewer: What do you think about the direction the
> tango is?
> beginning to take, socially and artistically?
>
> Chicho:? I think it is a very critical moment, there
> are many new?
> young people who are beginning to dance today and if we as
> teachers?
> can?t transmit what was taught to us as the essence of
> tango when we?
> began, the tango will be lost, because the essence will be
> lost, and?
> therefore losing its foundations. The most important
> element is to?
> remain keep the tanguero essence alive, the style doesn?t
> matter, but?
> that the people are really dancing the tango.? Today
> the road is?
> confusing, it?s in this space where or it either takes a
> turn towards?
> modern dance or it continues being tango.? Today
> people are dancing?
> tango, but they are not living the tanguero essence, they
> don?t love?
> the tango.
>

Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:47:03 +1100
From: "Vince Bagusauskas" <vytis@hotmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Subject: Re: Interview: Chicho on tango nuevo,
style, new music, and the current direction of tango
To: <tango-l@mit.edu>

With respect, Chico does not speak for what true social Argentine tango is.
He speaks for a form of tango that he is doing very nicely with by way of
performances and teaching.

Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:03:56 -0800 (PST)
From: "Trini y Sean \(PATangoS\)" <patangos@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Interview: Chicho

--- On Thu, 11/19/09, Vince Bagusauskas <vytis@hotmail.com> wrote:

> With respect, Chico does not speak
> for what true social Argentine tango is.
> He speaks for a form of tango that he is doing very nicely
> with by way of
> performances and teaching.

I do believe, Vince, that Chicho speaks with an authority that neither you, I, or many on this list can claim - that of growing up in Argentina, being surrounded by tango all of your life, and knowing intimately what tango means to the residents of BsAs. I also know someone who knew Chicho before he became Chicho, and he was just a regular guy like everyone else. Went through much of the same process of trying to learn the way other people did. Although his current dance is different from the traditionalists, I think he has the understanding of classic tango to speak with authority on it.

Trini de Pittsburgh

Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:59:10 -0500
From: Don Klein <don@aymta.org>
Subject: [Tango-L] Interview: Chicho on tango nuevo
To: tango-l@mit.edu

Although I prefer Guardia Viejo y Guardia Nuevo, I think that
Electro-Tango may bring back the rhythm of Candombe that became lost .
?Si, non?

Don

> The dance of today has adapted itself to that kind of music referred to as electronic tango,

Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:56:17 -0800 (PST)
From: Sandhill Crane <grus.canadensis@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Interview: Chicho on tango nuevo, style, new
music, and the current direction of tango
To: Tango-L <Tango-L@MIT.EDU>, "Trini y Sean \(PATangoS\)"
<patangos@yahoo.com>

--- On Thu, 11/19/09, Trini y Sean (PATangoS) <patangos@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Thank you, Joe, for posting this.? This is precisely what
> I've been looking for.? An acknowledgement by a "nuevo" teacher
> that tango shouldn't be "anything goes" as it evolves.? That
> there's an essence to tango, or else the dance becomes
> something else.

I wonder why there seems to be a disconnect between this
teacher's personal concept of tango and what the people
who comprise his school of dance, broadly speaking, seem
to express. Tango nuevo is entirely about acrobatics from
what I can tell, not that there's anything inherently wrong
with that. But Chicho hints that there is something more
about tango. What is that, and why do the people who
claim to be influenced by him seem to miss it?

To give him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps his feelings
about tango are so fundamental that he forgets to talk about
it when he teaches others; maybe he's assuming (incorrectly)
that everyone shares his deeply-held basic assumptions.
What are those assumptions, and how could he (or any other
teacher) pass them on to his students?

This interview is about Chicho, but I have the same
questions about Gustavo or Homer or any other widely-known
tango nuevo teacher.