3096  learning from the milongueros

Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 16:17:31 -0300
From: Janis Kenyon <jantango@FEEDBACK.NET.AR>
Subject: learning from the milongueros

Brian Dunn quoted the interview published in El Once Tango News (London)
which is available to read on www.ToTango.net

<At one point, they were discussing the dying-off of the milongueros, the
teachers, "sometimes three or four in one year", and Fabian said "Gustavo,
we are on our own. There is hardly anybody anymore and if there is, we
can't do much about it because it's hard to talk to these people." Here,
Fabian refers to the tendency of many old milongueros to hide one's steps
from other leaders, "protecting the family jewels", and in that way slowing
down the group effort Gustavo and Fabian were proposing to analyze the
possibilities of the dance.>

It's true that the milongueros are dying off -- six in the past five
years--"Poroto" (Evaristo Jose Oviedo), "Chiche" (Humberto Albiri), "Lolo"
(Manolo Garaban), "El Turco" (Victor Alberto Ramire), "El Gallego" (Eduardo
Santos), and "Pirucho" (Luis Domingo Ferrari). That's a lot since there are
so few of them remaining. It has been my experience that the milongueros
are very willing to share what they know. They talk about everything--the
codes, the orchestras, and the way things were in the downtown milongas when
they were teenagers and young men dancing every night of the week until
dawn. They can't hide their steps from anyone. They are dancing in the
milongas for all to see. No milonguero has ever copied a step from another;
rather he appreciates what another does. There are infinite possibilities
in tango. Each milonguero has his own style which he has developed alone.
Anyone can go to a handful of milongas where the milongueros dance and
observe them. Two of them will be teaching at festivals this year in the US
and Canada.


<Fabian reports that one day Gustavo came up with "this idea of calling the
Ocho Cortado. Or the cut ocho. It was a mistake - the concept was a
mistake. He invented it, the Milongueros are using it, and they don't even
know where it came from. And Gustavo is saying, I created a name that
people are now calling Ocho Milonguero. Ocho Cortado is a mistake - really,
the cut ocho is a cut turn...a reverse of direction, because you go front,
open, and then you go to the other side. It's not that you are cutting the
ocho anywhere, it's just you are making a turn to one side and then you
start to the other side....But after years, somebody grabbed that...for
example Susana Miller, because she was taking classes with Gustavo, and she
came up with his terminology, ocho cortado, and she taught this all over the
world. And now the greater community of dancers has a concept that we
brought out, that is wrong.>

The terms ocho cortado or ocho milonguero don't exist in a milonguero's
vocabulary. Gustavo didn't invent it--he only named it. The milongueros
have been doing it for 50-60 years in their dancing. Teachers use the term,
but they don't tell you why it's used. Its purpose is to see the space on
the right side. This movement is not repeated as some teach it.


Further comments about milongueros:
Interview by Fabian Kasten with Chicho Frumboli, Summer 2003 issue of El
Once Tango News (London):
Page 37 -- Did you approach milongueros to ask for lessons and advice?
Chicho: No, never. I have always watched and then tried for myself. Often
it's complicated to talk to older dancers. They are of a different time.
They have a different relationship to tango. With most of them you cannot
talk about change in tango. They older ones have lived through hard times
and dance their tango as they feel it. That's the truth and that's ok.
It's easier to watch them and be inspired. Talking doesn't get you any
further.>

I had to first learn the language well enough to understand what the
milongueros were telling me. They continue to share their knowledge with
me. I enjoy listening to them talk about the milongas when they were young
men. I'm learning their secrets by teaching with one of them.



Interview by Fabian Kasten with Juan Deitrich Lange in the Winter 2004/5
issue of El Once Tango News (London). Lange, born in Uruguay, is a teacher
in Germany who went to Buenos Aires in 1985:
Page 41 of the interview:
"In 1985 in Buenos Aires they didn't dance milonguero style. Nowadays many
claim that to be the "original tango." In 1985 most Argentinians danced
totally different styles.">

This is one of the most outrageous statements I've ever read. Juan Lange
didn't go where the milongueros danced. The milongueros who are 65-80 years
old today were 45-60 years old in 1985. They were dancing the same way they
are dancing today and have been for decades. Unfortunately, twenty years
ago there were no publications listing all of the dance salons in Buenos
Aires as we have today.


Janis Kenyon
Buenos Aires