Tango dancers seem to love controversy. I used to enjoy it more, but now I pretty much just find it very tiring and boring. The main controversial topics in tango seem to be traditional vs alternative music, open vs close embrace, teaching on the social dance floor.

I think these topics pop up in most all tango communities from time to time. They seem to lie dormant for some time and then they pop up again all of a sudden. Some of these have poped up recently in Atlanta and so I created the fake set of classes listed below:

How to successfully teach on the social dance floor
How to suppress your personal style and dance like everyone else
The disadvantages of traditional tango music
Why the connection is so much stronger in an open embrace

Here are my true feelings on these topics:

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I really love this one. It is such BS. It is possible to have a wonderful connection with your partner in either open or close embrace. They are just simply different. Not better. Not Worse. Different. In close embrace you have a strong physical connection in the upper body. This feels very good. In open embrace you have a physical connection at the close side of the embrace (leader’s right and followers left). You also have a visual connection. You can see your partner and feel them. You can even take moments and look into one another’s eyes and there is some really possibilities for visual communication between partners. You can see her smile if you lead something in a way that she likes or vice versa. Alternatively in close embrace you can hear the follower verbally react to a move that she likes and sometimes you can even feel a smile if her face is on your shoulder or cheek. Again, I don’t believe either is superior as far as connection goes. I love both.

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This one really irks me. I hate the fact that people see me as an alternative DJ. I love traditional tango music and listen to it all day long. I probably listen to and DJ about 80% traditional and 20% Tango fusion. BUT, if you play even one alternative set then during a milonga then you are branded as an alternative DJ. That really pisses me off. Right now my favorite orchestra is Lucio Demare and I also love Troilo, Calo, D’Arienzo, D’Agostino, etc. I have spent years collecting Tango music according to iTunes I have over 5 days of tango music on my computer and that does not cover the nearly 100 Tango Vinyl LPS that I have not gotten around to encoding yet.

This might surprise people also… I don’t like alternative milongas. I find it really boring to dance to alternative music for more than 10 or 15 minutes. Then I want some good traditional tango. I love dancing to a great alternative tango or electronic tango, but it also depends on who I am dancing with. Most dancers do not have the vocabulary to dance to alternative music and it can be torture.

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It seems that some people are very obsessed with how it is done in Buenos Aires and having everyone dance a very similar style. There are many many styles of tango. People often ask me if I dance Nuevo Style. I quickly correct them. I dance Clint Style. I don’t acknowledge Nuevo, Milonguero, etc… There is only Tango. I might employ new concepts but these new concepts are no different than sacadas or calisitas or ochos. At one point these were all new concepts. Did the guy that first lead an ocho dance Nuevo tango? I don’t think so. These terms and labels are destructive and lead to prejudices and misunderstandings.

Now, often I think that people think of technique as style. For instance, I like to dance close embrace but I do not like women to be really heavy. This has nothing to do with the physical weight of the women, but rather how much of their weight they apply to me. There are some teachers that want the women to apply a lot of weight and some that don’t want any at all. I am in between. There is a saying that the milongueros in Buenos Aires use that refers to pushing refrigerators around the floor. This refers to women that apply too much weight on the leader. This is one of my biggest complaints with followers that start learning close embrace first. It can be very difficult to dance well if a woman is leaning on you and applying too much pressure. It is hard to stay with the music if you first have to push a woman off of you and then take a step. Followers should move with you and against you. You should not have to push them around the dance floor. I am not into pushing women around. I had rather dance with them.

At the same Time I don’t want them to be constantly pulling away from me or not feel that they are there with me in the moment. I want a slight amount of pressure or compression between us and that compression is variable depending on what is being lead. If we are standing still and I suddenly disappeared she might stumble forward just a touch but she should not fall forward and hit the floor. Also, another test for this is if you are standing still with a close embrace and the leader slowly stands perfectly straight then the woman should be able to match that movement and stand up perfectly straight without stress or stumbling forward. You should be able to keep your feet solidly on the floor and move in and out of a close embrace comfortably without moving your feet.

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Personally, I do not like seeing people teach on the social dance floor. I do not do it myself even when asked. Sometimes I will be dancing and will do something that the follower might not understand and they might ask me to show it to them. If I feel that they have the vocabulary to do it and just did not catch it the first time then my response is to usually try it again and to try and lead it much more clearly the second time. If I feel that they just don’t have the vocabulary to perform that move then I just say, "Don’t worry about it. I did not lead it clearly." Which is not untrue. Someone else very well might be able to lead that move clearly enough for them to get it. If it needs a brief explanation I might try to work that in during the pause between songs or during the cortina.

BUT again I would only do that if asked by the follower. I would not ever try to instruct anyone on anything if it was not solicited by them, period. I never volunteer feedback or comments unless specifically asked by that person. I just dance with them and dance at their level and enjoy myself. The dance does not have to be perfect to have a very nice time. True instruction is for classes, practicas and private lessons, NOT MILONGAS. Also, I find this very rude behaviour. These people have teachers and have CHOSEN of their own free will to accept instruction from their teachers. Who am I to try and force my teaching onto them? If they wish to learn from me then they can attend my classes or ask about private lessons and many do.

Some things I would recommend not doing on the social floor:

1. Don’t hold up the line of dance trying something new and then try to explain to the follower this new pattern you just learned. If you can’t lead it then drop it. Patterns are BS and useless in tango. I hate patterns. I think it is lazy teaching, promotes back leading and promotes steps over musicality. People who only learn patterns are generally bad leaders. If you are in a class that is focused on a particular pattern then realize that you are not there to learn that pattern but rather to learn the parts of the pattern. You should be learning the pieces and techniques involved in the pattern not the pattern itself.

2. Don’t hunt out the pretty young new girls and dance with them for 30 minutes trying to teach them how to dance tango. Again, they are new and they are probably going to classes and learning at their speed. If you are not capable of dancing with a new dancer and giving them a solid dance then don’t ask them to dance and go back to class yourself and learn how to dance at any level with any follow. This is the fastest way to run new dancers off is for them to feel trapped by some creepy old guy at their first or second milonga. AND YES they will pretend like they appreciate your comments and help and then go put on their shoes leave and never come back.

3. Don’t block the line of dance standing still or moving at a snails pace whispering instructions in your partner’s ear trying to teach her on the social floor.

So when is teaching acceptable in a social situation (my opinion obviously):

First and foremost, you and your partner are friends and it is solicited by them. Then it should be only a minor concept or technique, nothing that would not take a moment or two to explain and demonstrate. This could be done between songs or during a cortina. Prefereably behind the tables or if their is another room or lobby area, etc. Not on the social floor. Now I must say that I really don’t even do any of this. I really limit any instruction in a social setting to philosophical discussions rather than experimentation.

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It looks like this is part of a BBC documentary. This clip features Chicho Frumboli and shows him dancings at "La Confiteria Ideal" in Buenos Aires. Many people think of Chicho as a performance artist, but he is a wonderful social dancer as these clips show. You don't have to be boring in order to be a good social dancer.

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One of the best milonga performances that I have ever seen. They look like they are just having so much fun. Notice how Milonga does not always have to be danced fast, at the 45 sec mark he slows it down and then speeds it back up again. It builds tension and it is fun. This also illustrates the idea of  using stacatto (short or abrupt) and legato (smooth) steps.

At the 50 second mark he is mixing these two ideas. He is stepping stacatto and collecting legato.

At the 1:11 mark, one thing that he is doing is what we call the "invisible lead" he is very slightly leading her to take side steps and change weight while he is doing something completely different. In tango, you can lead the woman to do something that you are not doing yourself AND those things can be super tiny. It might not look like you are leading them but you are... in other words it is not a pattern. He can lead those weight changes without doing them himself.

I also love the mordidas (bites) or sandwichitos at the end.

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Here is our performance from Tango by the Lake in Columbia, SC on February 16, 2008. We've had the idea of interacting with one another during a performance for sometime and were very happy with the results.

The song is "Villurca" by Yira.

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Here is a video that I just finally got around to encoding of myself and Lena from last year's Atlanta Tango eXchange. We performed to Nina Simone's "Do I Move You." I was not particularly happy with this performance. We executed the moves fine but I felt that I just did not dance very well with the music.

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I took several classes with them at CITA and loved them. They were truly the most challenging classes that I took. Why? because they focused on rhythmical elements... that is the hardest things for me. I love these types of things but they are hard sometimes. In one class, Julio came over to me and very animated said "You are getting this, Si Si Si?" I said that I did not think that I was yet... he said to show him and he stood there and then shook his head and said "NO NO NO... you are not getting it. This is how you do it."  He then came back a few minutes later and asked me to show him again. This time he just smiled and threw up his hands and said "SI SI SI, NOW you get it."

In another class with them, he was having us work with a particular rhythm and Chicho was doing a class in the next room and they were also working in the same rhythm. So near the end of the class, Julio says "It sounds good what they are doing in the other room. We should just have one class." It was one of those rooms where it just has a sliding partition between the rooms so he opens the partition and Chicho did not look pleased at having his class interrupted, but I think he is used to Julio’s craziness so he went with it.

I also want to mention that they are very equal teaching partners. She gave lots of instruction.

Here is an amazing Vals performance by Julio and Corina.. just beautiful. They are performing at Salon Canning in Buenos Aires to "Lagrimitas de mi corazon" by
Orquesta de Anibal Troilo con canta Edmundo Rivero y Floreal Ruiz.

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Our first classes were on Sunday, March 16. I was a little worried since many of the classes at CITA had the words combination or sequence in their title, but I was very pleasantly surprised during the whole trip. Almost every class, and I took 24 classes, were focused on conexion and musicalidad. Even the classes with the word combination in them really focused on a specific technique being taught and the combination was really more to have a common movement to work from for all the students. In other words, the combination was not at all the focus of the class. This is my favorite way to learn and I hate going to class and only coming out of it with some hard as hell sequence to try and remember but not having learned anything new about the dance. I have to say that the teaching level at CITA was unbelievably high, these are really the best tango dancers in the world at one place at one time. While I loved all the classes I will definitely take every Chicho and Sebastian class that I can the next time.

Dinamica, conexion y musicalidad with Chich y Juana
The first class was at 11am with Mariano "Chicho" Frumboli and Juana Sepulveda. As most people know Chicho one of my favorite dancers. I love the way he moves and interprets music. He can employ any embrace and dance to any music with ease while making it his own. I have been looking forward to taking classes with him for a very long time. The title of the class was "Dinamica, conexion y musicalidad" and its real focus was expanding the connection by sending a pulse of energy from the leader to the follower to initiate the disconnection and then either keeping the energy or releasing that energy. For instance, if you release the connection you then can either keep the energy between you and she will follow you even if you walk around her or you can release the energy and she will not follow you around but stay where she is even if you walk away.

One thing that I noticed about Chicho from the first class and I would say it was a common attribute that I saw in most of the great leaders was the intensity that they bring to the dance. When Chicho took the embrace you could tell that everything else in the world had just disappeared. It was only about him, his partner and the dance. 100% of his being went into the dance and it was all focused on what he was leading.

One time when he was demonstrating this transfer of energy he was leading her to step without any contact what-so-ever and I don t mean that they had no embrace and he moved so she moved, that I can do... what I mean is that he had no embrace and just by his "intention" he lead her to move. He did not move but she did because he intended her to move. That is on another level of conexion.

Ritmica en sacadas y barridas and Musicalidad with Sebastian and Mariana
The second class was with my other favorite dancers, Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes. Both classes that I took with them focused on similar themes "Ritmica en sacadas y barridas" and "Musicalidad." I don t know if this is his usual for him but he seemed very focused on having people dance slower. He said that, in general, people dance much to fast. He wanted people to slow down and not worry about stepping on every single beat. He said that people usually step on every beat and then don t know what to do when the music speeds up so they start stepping even faster.

The other concept from these classes was dancing to the mood of the movements within the music rather than just the tempo or rhythm. These are all things to pay attention to but you can also dance to the mood. For instance, you can still step on the beat but give more or less energy to that step based on the mood of the music. You can take very slow smooth steps or quick sharp steps or you can mix those and take a slow step and then make it sharp as you place your foot.

The last idea they expressed in their classes was not to dance the same way to the whole song. I see this all the time. People will start dancing at one speed/tempo and will dance that way for the entire song. Hell, lots of people dance the same exact way to every single song. They dance the same to D Arienzo as they would to Pugliese. Boring Boring Boring.. now I am not talking so much about beginner s here. Beginner s are just trying to get through the dance on the beat. I am talking about Int/Adv dancers. They wanted people to dance slow and then faster and then slow it down and then speed it up, etc. And speeding up does not just mean double timing once in a while...

He had us do a great exercise which was to step on the 1st beat of every measure of 8. So we would count out 8 beats and then step on the 1 of the next measure. We would not just stand there going 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, step .... we would keep moving but only put our foot down on the 1. So basically you were just dancing very very slowly. Then on the 4 measure you would start stepping on every beat. Then after 4 measures you would go back to just stepping on the 1.

One thing that became obvious to me is that I need to understand the structure of music more deeply in order to move forward with more advanced musicality ideas. The good thing is that Tango is pretty predictable and usually starts with a theme and keeps repeating that theme so if you listen in the beginning you can usually hear when the changes in movements will happen. I think most tango dancers have a physical understanding of the music and its structure it is something you have to do to be a halfway decent dancer, but to really be a great dancer you have to understand it intellectually as well and understand how to play with mood, rhythm, tempo, accents, movements, measures, etc... We are currently working on a very exciting set of workshops which will delve deeply into all of these ideas.

These classes were perfect examples of what I was talking about in regard to combinations. I don t remember any combination from these classes but I remember the concepts and I can use the concepts anywhere.

Saltos desde y hacia un gancho (Saltos from and to ganchos) with Mariana y Gustavo
The last class of the day was "Saltos desde y hacia un gancho (Saltos from and to ganchos)" with Mariana Gonzalo and Gustavo Funes. This was a fun class. They covered some basic technique for performing simple jumps and then showed a few ways to get into and out of them from ganchos.

Night Time
That night we went out to eat at Nina Bonita which is one of Horacio s favorite restaurant and I loved it the last time I was in BA. We ended up getting to the milonga late since we sat talking for so long. I got Mozzarella Milanesa (breaded mozzarella) for everyone to try, it is one of their specialties there.

When we got to the milonga there was a performance about to start but there was no seats at any of the tables and then I saw Gabe waving to us from across the room. He had been saving us seats so we rushed across the floor right in time before the performance which was very good. It was super late by then so people were beginning to leave but the floor was still very very crowded. I had some wonderful dances and it felt great to be there.

Below are two videos featuring Chicho y Juana and Sebastian y Mariana which I think are great representations of their dance:

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Warning: Contains profanity.. Politics makes me curse.

Several people have asked me if I was going to deal with politics on this blog.. I have avoided it so far. I keep thinking of starting a second blog for politics and my other interests.. but I don’t really want to maintain two sites. Plus I am just sick of it all. I have been becoming more and more vocal about my politics. I think it is time for people to stop being so nice about it and say that these people have to go and go now and to stay gone. I want my country back and I want everyone to feel like they are a part of this country. I want us to be great again. We have been going downhill for so long and I think people are starting to wake up and realize that evil evil people have been running our government (Republicans) and that pathetically weak people (Democrats) have been permitting it.

Young Americans are dying in Iraq, Afghanistan is falling apart,  people are loosing their homes because of unchecked corruption in our Banking system, jobs are disappearing and going overseas, our economy is failing and the deficit is reaching insane levels. Gas prices are at almost $4 per gallon. I am quoting someone else here but "I wonder if Col. Sanders were president and chicken more than tripled in price in 8 years if people would think something was odd."

So, as most of my friends know, I support Obama but until recently would not have been unhappy if Hilary got the nomination. I have been getting less and less happy with her as this election goes on. I like positive campaigning and more talk about issues. I don’t like it when people cry on cue, or pretend outraged when they are not, or pander by saying they will cut gas prices when they will not, or when they vote for wars and then try to talk their way out of it, or have other political hacks do their dirty work for them, or pretend to be anti-nafta when they pushed for it as first lady and voted to expand it every time it came up for vote when they were in Congress.

I think Obama has a real chance to bring this country together and to help heal some of our longtime issues not only domestically but internationally. I like the way he has conducted himself during this campaign and has not been rattled by any of the controversies that have sprung up. He just stays on message and treats everyone with respect. When the Clinton campaign throws up some BS attack he just explains why that is not relevant and also explains why they are doing it. He does not seem to take it personally. He is a politician in the best sense of the word.

I was worried about the primaries today, but I was pleasantly surprised by the results. It really looks like people are getting it. They are refusing to buy into the old style of politics where making empty promises and calling your opponent names works. Obama won big in N Carolina and almost won Indiana. Over the last week, Clinton was promoting the idea of cutting the gas tax to help ordinary Americans even though economists have said it would not help at all. In fact, it those taxes go to improving our infrastructure (roadways and bridges) which are falling apart and would do nothing to help lower the price of gas. Then when Obama would not agree to her stupid idea, she says he does not care about ordinary Americans. This is exactly what I hate, creating BS issues and then lying about your opponent. She knows that Obama cares about ordinary American’s, but she will say that he does not in order to win. That makes her a liar and I don’t want her as my President.

We do have some things to be happy about. Since the primaries have been so close and each state matters there have been lots of new voters getting registered. In today’s primaries 29% of the voters were first time registered voters. This means that there will be more than 20% more democrats registered to vote in the general election. You also saw about 10% of registered Republicans voting and n I don’t think that has anything to do with Rush Limbaugh (who I think is completely irrelevant to politics at this point). I think many Republicans are just getting smart and realizing that they are being lied to and taken advantage of and see a ray of hope in Obama.

Some have told me that I should be less angry about politics and I say no.... that everyone else should be angrier. And I don’t mean go kick a Republican in the nuts angry.. but speak up. Don’t just sit there when they start spouting what Fox News and the talk radio fools tell them to think and say. 

We have kids dying overseas in order for rich people to get richer. That is something to be angry about.

We will be paying over $4 in gas soon because of our increasing debt and the war in Iraq. That is something to be angry about.

You are about to get a hundred or so dollars back from the IRS. This is money we are borrowing from the Chinese so that we can go and by more goods made by the Chinese. And this is supposed to help whose economy?

Trivia: Who said? "Anger is a gift"

PS: For those who will write me saying that I should have toned this down... I did ;-)

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Saturday: March 15, 2008

It was a long flight and I got into BA around 5am in the morning. By the time I got my bags and made it to the apartment it was around 7am or so. The taxi drive in from the airport was great because the sun was just coming up.

Our apartment was at the corner of Corrientes y Callao which is in the northern downtown district which is very close to the southern edge of the Abasto neighborhood. Corrientes is the main entertainment street in BA and is happening almost 24 hours a day.

The apartment we rented was a loft style apartment and was rather nice. On the bottom floor was a living room with a couch/bed (this is where I slept), a tiny outdoor patio, a small bathroom and a kitchen and dining room with a TV and cable modem. The upstairs had 1 bedroom with 3 single beds (this is where Mason and Mark slept), a room with a double bed (Lena and Edie), a large walk in closet and a full bathroom.

The kitchen/dining room area is where we hung out most of the time. Someone was almost always on the computer sending email or talking to friends back him via skype while everyone else was chatting or showing the latest move they learned in class that day... or attempting to cook... or making sweet tea which I can t live without.

The first thing I did was rest a little and then met up with the cellphone rental guy to get out cellphones. It really helps to have some cellphones there so that you can contact each other easily. You only pay for the minutes you use and it is very cheap as long as you don t call the states.. which we had skype (2 cents per minute).

Then people started to arrive. Mark, who had already been in BA for a week or two, arrived at the apartment and then Lena and then Mason and Edie. The first thing we did was go out and get something to eat and then to go to the CITA registration. The registration was supposed to be from 11am to 5pm... We showed up at the hotel lobby where the registration was to take place around 1pm and of course no one was there and the guy at the door knew nothing about it other than to give us a flyer. We came back about and hour later and the same story. We were not terribly worried since we had been to BA before and know that nothing ever happens when or how it is supposed to. We just kept coming back until finally there was a note on the door saying to go to a different hotel. We went there and got signed in and all was good.

That night we met up with Brian, Olga, Eric, Judy and Duane and had dinner at Chiquilin to celebrate Lena s birthday. It is a great steak restaurant and the meal was amazing. I asked for my steak to be well done and the cook came back twice to make sure. They do not like to cook the meat there, they like it to be very bloody. He did not seem happy with my decision to have my meat cooked... but he did and I think two people at our table ended up sending theirs back to be cooked a little more. It is one of the more expensive restaurants but it was wonderful though and well worth it.

We then headed to La Confiteria Ideal. Saturday is not the most popular night there but we wanted someplace that we could easily get a table at and dance for a little while and then head home to get ready for the first day of CITA classes. There were mostly some older locals there. The building is very beautiful sound is pretty good. The floor is tile and has a column in the way but I like it. The floor is long and thin so it does not encourage people to dance in the middle. The DJ played all traditional tango music and played salsas and mambos as cortinas. I found it surprising that he would play 1 or 2 full songs before going back to tango, but the floor was crowded with the older dancers doing salsa. It was not very crowded and most people were dancing close but many of the older dancers were dancing open or at least opening to do figures and then returning to close. Of course, the embrace was the traditional salon style embrace.

Gabe, Emmanuella and Georgette all showed up, they had gone to a more popular milonga, but could not find a place to sit and decided to come there. Gabe told us that there was a time change that night so we would gain an hour. THis would have been something very helpful for the CITA people to have told us at sign-in earlier in the day... but what am I thinking.. that would constitute being helpful which is not very Argentine... just kidding.. well kind-of.

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This debate bugs the crap out of me. I never understand why people feel that they must make a decision between two perfectly wonderful ways of dancing tango. I think this line of thinking threatens the very essence of what makes Argentine Tango so wonderful. The idea that everyone should dance the same way is BS. It is just a discussion built to divide rather than bring people together doing the thing they love.

I think that all tango is always danced in a close embrace. It is just a matter of how close. Even within close embrace there are many styles and many different embraces.

Often, when primarily open embrace dancers ask me how they can become better dancers, I tell them to learn close embrace. When close embrace dancers ask me how they can become better dancers I tell them to learn open embrace.

Often people see what they want to see. I always heard that people only danced close embrace in BA, but when I was last there it was not so. Yes.. people dance primarily in close embrace but you will see older and newer dancers open up to perform certain moves. This is what we promote as a dynamic or elastic embrace. Most of them do not make distinctions between close vs open embrace to them it is just how you dance tango. I think the open vs close debate is much more of a manufactured US debate by certain traveling teachers who try to create a niche market for themselves by making false claims about how people dance in BA.  Certainly there are dancers that ONLY dance in a close embrace, but there are plenty that move smoothly between embraces.

The wonderful thing about tango is that there are as many styles as there are tango dancers and so many embraces to use to express yourself. I do believe that if you only dance open then you are limiting yourself and what tango has to offer and vice-versa.. but if you are happy within those limitations then what is the problem? People just need to do what makes them happy and not worry so much about labeling everything. Not everything has to fit into a nice neat box. If you want that then learn another dance where everyone has the exact same frame and use the exact same patterns.. but that is not Argentine Tango to try and get everyone to do the same things with the same embrace would destroy what makes tango great.

If you watch some of the great older dancers you will see plenty of dynamic embrace being used:

Puppy Castello and Geraldine Rojas

OR Nito Y Elba en Club Gricel, BA

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