3609 where was milonguero born
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 04:14:40 +0000
From: Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: where was milonguero born
Jonathan says:
"Again, Sergio would you clarify. Is the tango taught
by Susana Miller,
Cacho Dante, Alicia Pons, and Tete a style of tango developed in the
US and then taken back to BsAs and marketed there with direct lies,
which is what Derik seems to be claiming? I had understood the
apilado style to have been developed in one area of the city of BsAs."
Not at all. Tango as taught by the above mentioned instructors (all of
which are well known and respected) was born in Buenos Aires.
The way it was born is well painted in the interview to the winners of the
recent B.A. Metropolitan Championship competition: Pedro and Graciela
Vujovich (that I and Alberto Gesualdi translated).
The periodist of the newspaper Clarin asks Pedro:
"-How was that you found your style? -
Pedro answers - I knew millions of figures but my style started to change
when we started
going to "the Savoy".
It was so crowded that it was practically impossible to dance there. I
eliminated the ocho completely, because if I did it I would certainly kick
the guy in front of me. Started inventing steps to be able to follow the
rhythm. Since you could not turn, then I used the "American turn" - to give
you an example.
- When was that all this occurred? -
It was in the 60s.
No, - Graciela intervenes - it was in 1980 because we had already moved to
Avellaneda (N.T. an industrial city outside Bs.As. but still in the
metropolitan area), we used to come by bus to Constitucion and then took
the bus 60
to the Savoy.
- What orchestra do you prefer to dance to ? -
Both answered at the same time - Di Sarli. " End interview.
As you can observe he describes that he had to adapt his dancing to the very
crowded circumstances of Club Savoy. He eliminated the ocho. Modified the
turns and created steps to play with the rhythm.
All those elements are present in the styles taught by the instructors
mentioned by Jonathan.
Others modified the ocho into what is now known as "Ocho Cortado or Ocho
Milonguero".
I believe that it was Tete who had the geniality of identifying the style
and started teaching it ( perhaps early 90s.).
It is my belief that Susana Miller started teaching with Tete and eventually
went her own way.
Tete and Susana as well as the other instructors that came later on, have
their own style and differences.
This style was called in Buenos Aires with different names: Confiteria, Club
Style, Caquero, Del Centro, Milonguero) .
Out of all those names there are two that are still in use : Milonguero
which was preferred by Susana Miller. (Tete never accepted to call the style
he isolated and started to teach, anything different than Salon, its moves
and choreography is a selection of everything that exists or belongs to
salon).
The other name is "Estilo del Centro" which is a variation taught by Daniel
Lapadula on TV with daily frequency on station "solo tango" and also in
several clubs of Buenos Aires, different cities of Argentina and also
abroad.
What I had said was that Close embrace salon is the most common style in
Buenos Aires and all over the world. But "milonguero style" is also popular
in many clubs in Buenos Aires and rapidly growing in the USA. This in part
because it seems to be easier to learn, allows the student to start dancing
from the very beginning and it is preferred by non-Argentine instructors,
plus it can be danced both in crowded and non crowded places. As the student
progresses more moves taken from Salon are learned and incorporated into the
dance.
The way Salon style is taught in Argentina is different than the pedagogical
approach originally brought to the USA by very famous stage dancers. There
is a special attention on walking in different ways and dancing as soon as
possible with good navigation and concentration in the music.
This style is taught from the beginning in all its forms close embrace, open
embrace and elastic embrace. When taught this way the result is not
different from that obtained with milonguero style.
Salon contains everything that is present in Milonguero and many things more
are available for those that are interested. Milonguero is more limited by
the necessity to maintain the close embrace and the lack of space in a
crowded floor .
Finally i said that "Milonguero" is a bad word to use because in Argentina
it means many different things. It can be applied to any tango, any style,
to any good dancer, etc.
I hope that this answers Jonathan's question.
Good night, Sergio.
