1461  Note from Buenos Aires

Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 23:02:50 -0500
From: Rick McGarrey <RICKMCG@FLASH.NET>
Subject: Note from Buenos Aires

It's my first time down here in BA in winter, and it's
very different. The city has a brooding quality- grey
clouds, grey trees, grey buildings, and people wearing
somber expressions and muted winter clothes. It's
especially striking since this was an unanticipated
(and for the most part unwanted) last minute trip.
One day we were baking in Southern Arizona, and the
next we are in dripping, cold BA. From shorts and
flip flops, 295 degrees watching the mountains burning
up and frying eggs on the forehead, to a rainy,
cloudy, midwinter Ingmar Bergman movie.

But not just the weather is different. The quick
change confirmed some things I suspected in the past,
but wasn't sure of until now: the food really is
better and healthier here, the service is better, and
the people, despite their worried distracted
expressions, are more open and friendly. It's
surprising how nice it is to be greeted again with
hugs and kisses by the old milongueros and
milongueras. It reminds me of the kisses I received
as a child from uncles and grandparents. And of
course, I'm instantly reminded that we are back in the
Major Leagues of tango.

I had some time today to browse through the archives,
and it occurs to me how far this world is from that of
most of the people on tango-L. The things that
concern many people on the list are not necessarily
wrong. Well, okay, some are just stupid... but most
are just very different than the things people down
here in BA would think about or discuss in the tango
world. Of course tango is huge, and how you see it
depends on your perspective. Like a blind man
describing an elephant, you can run into trouble
trying to generalize from limited information. With
that caveat, I'll try to post a few impressions with
as much objectivity as possible.

1. Suburbs v. El Centro. My friend Barbara Garvey is
one of the most knowledgeable people writing on this
list. She and Al were dancing in BA ten years before
I ever even heard of tango, and I agree with her views
on most (but not all) things. For the last three
years I've been checking out the milongas down here,
and filming in many of them. I agree with her that
tango in the neighborhoods is a great experience. My
partner Alejandra Todaro and I were dancing Saturday
night in some of the old clubs in Mataderos and Bajo
Flores. Two of these clubs - America del Sud and
Pedro Echague - were the same ones Alejandra's parents
took her as a child. They still exist in the same
locations, but the interiors have been fixed up, and
in fact they are now nicer and newer than the most of
the shabbier clubs downtown. The deserted streets
outside seem a little spooky and dangerous, but
probably no more so than some of the poorer parts of
downtown. The dancing and the atmosphere is different
than downtown clubs. Saturday night in these clubs is
for couples. These milongas are like house parties
between very old friends, but they are also very warm
and welcoming to strangers, and there is plenty of
room to dance. Couples who never dance downtown have
been going to them for many many years. It's called
La Salida de Sabado. They get haircuts, dress up,
have dinner, socialize, and dance. Many of the strict
downtown codes don't apply, and the people know it.
For instance, in the neighborhoods they always say
goodbye to one another when they leave, but this can
be a big code violation downtown (Can you guess why?)
Also, they sometimes smile and talk while dancing...
but it's done with complete respect for the music, the
other couples, and the milonga. I've seen this and
written about it before at Sunderland. But like the
blind man and the elephant, generalizations can get
you into trouble. Don't try it at home. Or worse,
downtown. While Saturday is also couples night in
many downtown clubs, it doesn't have the intimate
casual atmosphere of the barrios.

2. Close v. Open embrace. To me, this is one of the
big non-issues of tango. True musical passionate
tango is good tango, open or closed. Alejandra and I
dance close because 1. We like it, and 2. It's a
necessity for very crowded conditions- and many good
milongas are crowded at one time or another. I don't
know or care if close embrace is new or not, but I am
sure of this: In the popular milongas of downtown BA
almost everyone dances close. I mean everyone. In
the neighborhoods at least half the couples dance
close, maybe more. I haven't been everywhere, and I
don't know if it's apilado, with weight on the chest
or not, but in the places I've been, it's very close.
I have it on film.

3. Quality of dancing: This is a judgement call, but
I'm also sure of this: The people downtown dance
better. Here's why. The neighborhood people are good
dancers, but they dance mostly on the weekends, and
they combine it with socializing. Like weekend
athletes, casual golfers, and bowlers in a beer
league, they can be good, but normally not great. The
people downtown, on the other hand, (and this includes
many milongueros from the neighborhoods who travel a
long way downtown regularly to dance), are the wild
eyed fanatics of tango. They come to dance, and only
to dance. They are the ski bums, the gym rats, the
guys you see in the pool halls and on the handball
courts 10 hours a day. Don't mess with them, because
you will lose. There are some very good dancers in
the neighborhoods of course, but for every very good
dancer at America Sur, there are 10 very very very
good dancers at Celia Blanco's Baile.

I should note that you need to compare apples to
apples, so in this case I'm comparing the quality of
the barrio dancers who are uniformly older in coats
and ties, with the traditional milongas downtown of
dressed up older milongueros. These are not the
milongas of the younger people. Some of them are good
dancers with a different style that I would like to
discuss later. Neither am I talking about the well-
known milongas of wolves and caribou. These are the
ones where washed up tango celebrities stalk the
tourists (I would have used the local expression -
FISH for tourists, but I didn't want to mix metaphors).

4. Style of dancing: In 1987 Barbara says most of the
close embrace couples downtown walked and did ochos.
I think it's different today. In the first place,
it's too crowded to walk. Last night at Celia
Blanco's we felt very lucky to take more than one step
at a time. Literally. We danced with left arm (Alejs
right) against our bodies much of the time. The
milongueros call this dancing on a baldosa. Baldosas
are the old 1 ft. Square tiles on many of the floors
down here. They pride themselves on dancing complex
cadences within this tiny space, and they say only the
best dancers can do it well (there are apocryphal
stories of couples in the old days dancing on the tops
of small tables). This dancing consists mostly of
syncopations and giros in infinite combination, with
an occasional elegantly executed step front, side, or
back to fill a small, shifting free space. It's not
always fun, at least at first, and it takes adjustment
after six months of sloppy U.S. tango, but like it or
not, THIS is tango at the highest level. (Note for
the good/bad instructor thread: Next time you are in
class, ask the instructor if he can give you the tools
that will allow you to put your heart and soul into a
vals in this situation. If so, you have a good
instructor). I found myself cheating by dancing from
the start of the music to take advantage of what
little space there was for 30 seconds of relaxed
dancing before the shifting and jostling began. As
for ochos, don't get me wrong. This is only part of
the elephant, but, no kidding, here is what the
milongueros say: Men who lead a lot of ochos can't
dance.

If there is time later, I may write more about some of
the people, the clubs, the codes, and maybe some other
things here- like some very macho transvestite
prostitutes in Villa Crespo.

Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 09:05:48 -0700
From: Barbara Garvey <barbara@TANGOBAR-PRODUCTIONS.COM>
Subject: Re: Note from Buenos Aires

HI Rick et al,

>.My
> partner Alejandra Todaro and I were dancing Saturday
> night in some of the old clubs in Mataderos and Bajo
> Flores. Two of these clubs - America del Sud and
> Pedro Echague - were the same ones Alejandra's parents
> took her as a child.. ..The dancing and the atmosphere is different
> than downtown clubs. Saturday night in these clubs is
> for couples. These milongas are like house parties
> between very old friends, but they are also very warm
> and welcoming to strangers, and there is plenty of
> room to dance. Couples who never dance downtown have
> been going to them for many many years. It's called
> La Salida de Sabado. They get haircuts, dress up,
> have dinner, socialize, and dance. Many of the strict
> downtown codes don't apply, and the people know it.
> For instance, in the neighborhoods they always say
> goodbye to one another when they leave, but this can
> be a big code violation downtown (Can you guess why?)

..... While Saturday is also couples night in

> many downtown clubs, it doesn't have the intimate
> casual atmosphere of the barrios.

Al and I went to Pedro Echague in 1990 with friends whose parents danced
there, but haven't been back since. You describe the different culture
perfectly. I do think it is quite different from Sunderland, Sin rumbo and
the late lamented Akarense because although the folks at the Villa Urquiza
dances are older and there is more of a family feeling (especially at
Sunderland), younger people and those from other barrios also go to Villa
Urquiza, so these dances for me are characterized as much by the style and
excellence of the dancing as by the neighborhood quality.

> 4. Style of dancing: In 1987 Barbara says most of the
> close embrace couples downtown walked and did ochos.
> I think it's different today. In the first place,
> it's too crowded to walk.

Exactly. In 1987 the only place we went to that was really crowded was Salon
Argentina. The revival of tango was in very early stages; there were almost
no dancers under 45 anywhere, most over 50. At Salon Argentina they did what
we used to call 'close dancing' when I was in high school . Dancing wasn't
really the object.

>Last night at Celia
> Blanco's we felt very lucky to take more than one step
> at a time. Literally. We danced with left arm (Alejs
> right) against our bodies much of the time. The
> milongueros call this dancing on a baldosa. Baldosas
> are the old 1 ft. Square tiles on many of the floors
> down here. They pride themselves on dancing complex
> cadences within this tiny space, and they say only the
> best dancers can do it well (there are apocryphal
> stories of couples in the old days dancing on the tops
> of small tables). This dancing consists mostly of
> syncopations and giros in infinite combination, with
> an occasional elegantly executed step front, side, or
> back to fill a small, shifting free space. It's not
> always fun, at least at first, and it takes adjustment
> after six months of sloppy U.S. tango, but like it or
> not, THIS is tango at the highest level.

Celia used to have a dance in 1991, I think it was, called Recuerdo -- at
that time there was lots of room and the dancing was not generally close
embrace (I also have a video taken at a birthday party for Pepito Avellaneda
by Daniel Trenner) but the best of the younger dancers went there, the
Zottos, Guillermina, Fabian etc.
And the last time we were in BsAs was November of 1998, so obviously there
have been lots of changes since then. The most dramatic changes we saw were
between 1992 and 1998 with 1994 being the pivotal year when close embrace
and Tete were noticed and Susana Miller started her school.

I'm really enjoying your reports, so nice and detailed -- only wish that we
could get down there to check it all out.
Abrazos,
Barbara

Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 19:14:43 -0500
From: Rick McGarrey <RICKMCG@FLASH.NET>
Subject: Note from Buenos Aires 2

First, the important stuff. Boca is Campeon de
America! They are racing through the streets again,
drinking and yelling from the backs of pickups and
waving those pastel colored flags with a picture of
the sun in the middle. As for all of you people who
wrote asking about the transvestite prostitutes, I
want to say that I am ashamed of you. This is a list
about Argentine tango, not trash like that. For R in
New York... yes two of them can dance tango, but only
at a low intermediate level, and yes, I do know how
you can contact them, but it will cost you.

Enough of that. I was surprised at the number of
people who wrote thanking me for the report. Maybe
they are tired of the bickering on the list. It's
taking a little time, but I'll respond to each one
personally. Also, thanks to Barbara Garvey for her
very nice and interesting response.

When I first came to BA in 2001 I wrote a series of
reports for my local egroup. When I returned home I
had some free webspace from my internet provider, so
on a whim I put them there, and forgot them. As far
as I know they are still there, and for those of you
who haven't already read them and are interested you
can find them with a Google search under: 'Tango and
Chaos'. (Note: I used pseudonyms in the these 2001
posts. I can say now that 'Alicia' is actually
Alejandra Todaro, who I now have the tremendous good
fortune to have as a partner, and 'Carol' is actually
Renee, a friend from San Diego.)

At the end of the 2001 reports I made two predictions,
one true, and one false. I said I somehow felt I
would never return to BA. This turned out to be very
false. The other thing I said was I didn't plan to
write again for a long time. I'm not sure why I felt
it, but it turned out to be true. In some ways,
writing is like tango - you either feel the urge or
you don't, and in reality after I left BA in 2001 I
wasn't really sure if I wanted to dance tango anymore
either.

------------------


'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity'
(Ecclesiastes 1:2)

'Sometimes I am ashamed of our country. While our
children were dying in the Malvinas, we danced tango'
(An old milonguero)

My doubts about tango came to a head the next year in
BA in 2002. I was sitting in Nino Bien with Renee and
Alejandra one night. I should have been on top of the
world. I was with the two most beautiful women in the
city, my partner was the finest tango dancer in the
world, and the best milongueros in BA were coming to
the table to ask permission to dance with them. But
it was here that I realized that I didn't like tango
anymore. The precipitating event was small: tango's
heaviest hitter celebrity, and one of the local tough
guys (a well known ex-cop and 'guarda espalda') were
strutting and posing around the floor in their usual
way. They accidentally bumped one another, and then
began to engaged in a smirking, slow motion gun fight
as they continued to dance. Something inside me
snapped. I realized I couldn't take another minute of
it. The whole scene suddenly seemed dirty and very
cheap. Too much arrogance, too much stupidity. I saw
ridiculous old men trolling for tourists, posing and
primping. Too much smoke, too much alcohol, and
everything smelled of vanity - frantic tourists, women
showing off in too tight clothes. In addition, there
had been vague threats from the milongueros about me
being with Alejandra. So the codes that once seemed a
just way to avoid conflicts in the charged atmosphere
of the milonga now seemed like just another tool for a
bunch of old men to use to hold on to power. I've
never been huge on social conscience, but this scene
suddenly stood in sharp contrast with my experiences
in the events of December the year before. The young
cartoneros in the streets, and the desperate and
earnest Willy Loman like salesman on the buses with
their well combed hair and their slept-in suits trying
to make a few cents selling pens was too much. I'd
had enough of BA tango. Alejandra and I left and
never went back to a BA milonga after that night. We
rented a private studio and danced alone for a week
($1.50/ hr), and then went to Salta. After that we
came back to the U.S.

Well, we are back, now, for better or for worse as
they say. I'd rather not be here, but it's not so
bad. I may actually be falling in love with BA
again. The night before last wasn't so good, but last
night was miraculous. I'll write about it next time,
after I answer some of the personal emails. The title
will be: 'En la Buena y en la Mala'.