1595  Notes from Buenos Aires 15

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 15:28:10 -0500
From: Rick McGarrey <RICKMCG@FLASH.NET>
Subject: Notes from Buenos Aires 15

Notes from the dark side: Teaching tango.
(Part 2 of 2. Continued from Report #14)

Alejandra says Celia uses the eight count basic
because it contains all the elements you need to walk
tango. But the major part of her beginner classes,
which I haven't seen yet, involves hand clapping and
working with the pulse of the music. There are rumors
that some of the older men around town who claim
milonguero status (learning tango in the streets in
the 1950's and all that) were actually taught to
dance by Celia. If they really did learn from Celia,
it couldn't have been in the 1950s, unless she was
giving lessons on the street corner outside of her
kindergarten class.

Another friend of Alejandra's would have been a
perfect student for my first tango instructor. She
was a very nice, sincere woman, who had the most
important thing you need for learning tango. She
desperately wanted to learn it. But... she had
absolutely no aptitude for tango. And worse, she knew
it. My first tango instructor would have loved her.
He would have taken her under his wing, showered her
with praise and attention, and kept her happily in his
tango dreamworld forever. She got it into her head
that Celia was the only one who could teach her tango,
and asked Alejandra to talk to help her get in to the
class. After a week the verdict was in: 'I am a
tango teacher, not a miracle worker'. She was very
nice to the woman, and the woman kept trying in the
classes, but Celia didn't blow smoke up her tango
dress. Celia respected her enough to gently say that
she could keep coming, but the prospects for stardom
were slim.

The first class we sat in on at the club was for
social dancers. Then last week we went to one of her
classes for serious students who want to perform on
stage, and I expected her to be really rough on them-
but she wasn't. We were in a large rehearsal room at
Teatro San Martin, and I was hiding in the corner. I
just wanted to watch, because I was actually pretty
sick from coughing and not sleeping, and she knew it,
but... 'Amor! Amor! Vamos! Vamos a trabajar!' She
was laughing, but she wouldn't start the class until I
got up with the other 35 or 40 students. She didn't
smoke during the class, which must have been hard for
her, and it shows how nice she really is, but she
worked me over! I will never complain again about a
lack of basic technique drills in tango classes. Back
and forth we went, doing the hardest balance and step
drills, frontward and backward across the big room,
always in the pulse of loud music, Celia clapping if
the class began to falter. I was feeling terrible,
and soaked in sweat, but I actually loved it! It's
easy to get a sort of I'm a milonguero attitude that
can be punctured pretty quickly in a place like this.
The drills were similar to the ones Milena Plebs does
in her classes, really a little more stage oriented,
but any drill for balance and control is a good one.
(I am going to write some posts about my own balance
drills soon and about walking also, so watch out!)

She was relaxed and kidding around with the students
in this class. Every year Teatro San Martin puts on a
big show and competition between all the departments-
drama, modern dance, music, etc., and it is Celia's
mission to win it for tango every year. And she
does. One of the students got a big laugh by asking
if she was going to make everyone cry again this year
in the intense preparation for the show, and she
said, 'Of course!' After the drills, she taught us a
step, and I liked it. It actually was the bread and
butter step Cacho Dante does, that ends with a boleo.
I wonder if he learned it from her. I'm not good at
boleos, but I learned a lot, and I really figured out
how to do them, if the time ever comes. Maybe I'll
start using them a little after I try it out. She
came over and lead me (led me?), and the milongueros
are right. She is a great leader, and she laughed and
applauded when I did a couple of boleos. She said
that her goal as a teacher is to make her woman
students better than she is, and that this has only
clearly happened twice. One is a woman who is now a
known performer in BsAs, Alejandra Arrue. I saw her
and her husband Sergio bring down the house at a
performance in Nino Bien last year. She says the
other one is a woman I spend a lot of time dancing
with.

I said that I have a healthy skepticism about tango
instructors. Buyer beware. And I have the same
skepticism about ski instructors. They can mess you
up. I know, because I used to be one. When I was
learning to ski I went from one bad class to another,
until one good instructor finally pointed me in the
direction of well known racing coach (note to Barbara:
I'm talking about Olle Larsson). I got to know him,
we became friends, and I learned to ski mostly by
going to races with him and his team, and skiing
around socially with him between the races. Here is
how he taught me. Every several days he would tell me
to try one, small, simple thing. To do something very
simple like thinking only about keeping shin pressure
on the front of the boot at a certain part of the
turn, or keeping a certain part of the body still. I
would always say, 'Yeah, but what about...' He'd say,
don't worry about it. Maybe a week later, he'd tell
me another small, simple thing. Over time, I became a
good skier without even knowing it. The important
point is that although he would tell me only one
thing, he knew so much, and his eye was so good, that
it was always the right thing. And then he would
wait. When he saw I had it down, he would add
something else.

This kind of sneaky teaching isn't common in tango.
The first person I saw use it was Osvaldo Natucci, and
his partner Eladia at El Beso. His classes seem very
casual. Music plays, and you dance. Occasionally he
will wander over and tell you to switch partners.
Sometimes, but not often, he will demonstrate
something. But you find that every class or two he
corrects one small thing, hand position, a small thing
about posture or stepping. And you start to improve.
Normally he is very quiet, but sometimes something
interesting happens. When he is inspired, he will
suddenly go off on a wild monologue about tango, like
a preacher who has seen the light. Sometimes it
starts quietly, and people will begin to notice that
he is sort of talking quietly, almost to himself.
Then it gets louder, and people start to notice, and
gather around. I have seen large rooms of people held
breathless in rapt attention as he testifies in the
church of tango for 10 or 15 minutes. He's very smart
and knowledgeable, and my Spanish is so bad that when
he's on a roll like that, I don't get most of it. The
few English speakers in the classes used to see me
straining for the words, and offered to help by
writing them down. I can still remember him
yelling, 'Tango es bajo y sucio! No es academia! No
es academia!'. Later Alejandra went to the classes
with me and helped me understand what he was saying
better, and Natu seemed very excited that she was
coming to his classes. We have become friends, and
have spent hours discussing tango. We are on the same
wave length, and he's another one I seem to be able to
have flowing, broad ranging discussions with in
Castellano. He's well educated, intense, and he seems
to know everything there is to know about tango, its
history, and the people in it. Especially the music.

His way of teaching, and I realized Celia's as well,
was similar to that of my friend Olle, the ski coach.
Teach the important basics, and then let people
dance. They don't try to create clones of themselves,
but every so often they come around and say one small
important thing that will work for you, and maybe only
for you. A smart experienced instructor with a good
eye can work wonders this way. And the classes are so
cheap right now in BA, that even if they don't say
anything to you, it's still be worth it just for the
dance floor and the music.

So we sit and watch Celia work her students. I notice
one young guy, and I realize I'm starting to see tango
like the Argentines. He's a bit awkward, like a
puppy, with a funny way of rocking, and reaching out
with his toes, but Celia doesn't say anything to him.
As I look closer, I realize that he is really into the
music. His cadences are very advanced, sharp quick
stabs added during the giros and the walking. They
seem unconscious, and I almost visualize them being
pulled from the center of his chest. He's actually
being jerked around like a puppet by the music! A
natural talent. Sooner or later Celia will walk by
and adjust one thing, and then later another, and then
one day she will say, 'Enough! Go out and dance.'
And if he stays with it, he will be able to do
whatever he wants in tango. He doesn't know it, but
he's very lucky. But, I think, what if the kid had
started in those first tango classes I wandered into?
He wouldn't have had a chance.

End.

Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 17:23:44 -0400
From: sharon gates <sharon7301@NETSCAPE.NET>
Subject: Re: Notes from Buenos Aires 15

Rick McGarrey <RICKMCG@FLASH.NET> wrote about Celia who smokes non-stop, shouts at her students, uses the eight count basic, and calls the renowned traveling argentine teachers - "clowns".

Way to go, Rick. With such resume, Celia is guaranteed never to be invited to the States.

>One (student of Celia) is a woman who is now a known performer in BsAs, >Alejandra Arrue. I saw her and her husband Sergio bring down the house >at a performance in Nino Bien last year.

I saw Alejandra and Sergio perform at the CITA last March, but I did not take any classes with them. Although they were very liked by the crowds, their style is comedic, and their technique, steps, music - all seemed to be from the 1970's or early 1980's. They may be excellent teachers, but I don't know too many people who want to dance like them, unless in a staged performance, and just to be different.

Now that you've blown the lid on teachers in Buenos Aires, will you tell us Rick how to lead and follow boleos - Celia's way, especially on the crowded floors?

Cheers,
Sharon.

P.S. What are "volcadas"?

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Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 23:03:35 +0900
From: astrid <astrid@RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: Notes from Buenos Aires 15

> Rick McGarrey <RICKMCG@FLASH.NET> wrote about Celia who smokes non-stop,

shouts at her students, uses the eight count basic, and calls the renowned
traveling argentine teachers - "clowns".

>
> Way to go, Rick. With such resume, Celia is guaranteed never to be invited

to the States.

Sharon, you forgot to say, that she also threw out a woman who came to her
class with the sole intention of meeting men.
That alone would be enough for me to get interested in her classes.

; )
Astrid