3564  How I learned tango

Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 02:01:14 +0000
From: Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: How I learned tango

This deals with aspects of my personal experience, you may not be
interested, kindly delete.

Tine asks how we learnt tango:

I learned like everybody else, around age 15, in the neighborhood from
relatives or friends that knew how to do Social Tango . It was only tango
liso: walking with a few pauses and an occasional ocho, the embrace had to
have some "light" between the bodies but when the floor was crowded we could
lose ourselves in the center or the floor (so that we were not seen) and
danced in close embrace.:))

We did not danced tango regularly, as we were attracted to other rhythms (
latin, swing, jazz, etc).

It was in 1990 that I went to see a tango show at the Jockey Club in Mar del
Plata and asked the main dancers (Victor and Monica Ayos) if they could
teach me. They agreed to give me daily two hours lessons for one week as
they were leaving for a tour abroad.

I learned a choreography and the last day I was part of the Saturday Show. I
had a special number with Monica dancing to Cordon de oro (a beautiful
tango).
It was a great success and we got a standing ovation as they had announced
that I only had had one week worth of lessons.

It was funny because afterwards there was a milonga and I could hardly
dance. The ladies invariably apologized and asked autographs. :))

So I can say that I started with Stage Tango. Victor and Monica left for
Japan and I made arrangements to take daily, two hours private lessons with
Nito and Elba. they were great teachers. I continued learning
difficult, dramatic figures. one after the other. At certain point I and
two girls of our group decided to go to dance in Bs. As. It was a terrible
experience! The floor was extremely crowded. We were not prepared to dance
under those circumstances.

The two girls became very good stage dancers later on.

I remained in Buenos Aires for a while and went to see "Lampazo" at Club Sin
Rumbo. Lampazo was considered to be one of the best dancers of his time. He
asked me to dance. I did a lot of exotic tango figures with a lot of
pride... when I was done he said : "Excuse me for what I am going to say but
you were taught everything except how to dance tango".

I felt like leaving right there but I controlled myself and asked "what do
you mean?" - he said - it is obvious that who taught you is a stage dancer,
you do lots of figures but you never walk. Having said that he put me to
walk everyday for one hour for a whole week. Then he started teaching
figures . At the end I received a Certificate from :

Sin rumbo "La Catedral del Tango" (Club Sin rumbo " The Tango Cathedral")
signed by Lampazo.
It hangs on the wall of my dancing hall as one of my most appreciated
possessions together with Nito's certificate.

Then I returned to Mar del Plata and continued training with Nito, for
several seasons. He accepted Lampazo's criticism and started teaching social
dancing as well.

Finally I took lessons from many of the great teachers of tango, Osvaldo
Zotto, Carlos Copello, Jorge Firpo, Tete, Susana Miller, Cacho Dante, Pupy
Costello, Mingo Pugliese, Fabian Salas, Chicho Frumboli, Gustavo Naveira and
many others.

I have been dancing regularly, at least two times per week for the last 12
years, I teach tango as a hobby twice a week. We practice Salon open and
close embrace, Milonguero, and some Canyengue and Nuevo Tango.

We live in Erie, PA. at the shore of Lake Erie during the summer , here we
dance with the groups of Cleveland and Pittsburgh and occasionally with the
milongueros from Detroit.

I go to Argentina from November till May. There I receive the visit of many
of the members of our group. We dance both in Mar del Plata and in Buenos
Aires.

Summary: It is important to learn social dancing (IMO) both close and open
embrace, milonga and vals all at the same time and progressing to stage
dancing training, and different styles for those that wish to do so.

Have a good day, Sergio.