2593  supposedly "Ocho cortado"

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 01:42:05 -0400
From: Gülden Özen
<gulden@TANGOPHILIA.COM>
Subject: Re: supposedly "Ocho cortado"

Huck,
Thank you for bringing up the interview with Fabian again (and of course,
thanks to Keith who did the interview in the first place!). Thanks also for
the correct spelling of a "wrong concept" ;-)
It is funny to see that Gustavo and Fabian don't know how to take
advantage of tango students who are eager to learn more and more steps that
are "cooked" and "ready to serve" since they keep teaching the technique to
allow their students to be able to put any "step" together themselves with
a quality, including something as simple as a "cut turn"!
Well, it is probably good that every offer on the market already has the
demand or it initiates the demand by simply being there!
More creativity to all,

Gulden

At 05:46 PM 7/29/2004, Huck Kennedy wrote:

>Timmy Tango writes:Huck,
>
> > This past weekend I was privileged to spend much time
> > with Maria Cieri in Pittsburgh. [...]
> >
> > Maria told us that 50 years ago she and Rudolfo would
> > dance at all the popular Milongas downtown. And that
> > there was one very small barrio where very affluent
> > people would dance extremely close. A style she called
> > Kakero (spelling my not be correct). And this was the
> > birthplace of the Ocho cortado. [...]
> >
> > Maria gave credit to Susana Miller for bringing this step
> > back to life 4 or 5 years ago even though at one point in
> > time the ocho cortado wasn't appreciated by all.
> >
> > Thank you Susanna for teaching us this step again. I love it.
>
> Hmmm. Ten Argentines, ten opinions, be it on how to dance,
>what a style is called, where it came from, etc. I take 'em
>all with a grain of salt; this chaos is one of tango's major
>appeals for many of us. Sometimes I've noticed similar
>confusion about origins of other dances as well, many not
>nearly as old as tango.
>
> Anyway, here's yet another salt-grain candidate offered
>(without any judgment as to value) for your pleasure, from an
>interview with Fabian (https://totango.net/salas2.html):
>
> One night 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 now people are 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. So you have a front step and an
> open step. That's what an ocho cortado is.
>
> 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. (Chuckles).
>
>Huck
>