Undead Tango at the Peacock, and scenes I'd like to see

So, one of the reviews said "you have to admire Cornejo’s effort to rejuvenate tango for 21st Century", and I think it would be a very good thing if somebody actually did try to reinvent the tango show for the 21st Century. So I thought I'd better go and see if it had been tried. I expected the reviewer to be mistaken, but I was open minded.

Content warning: some adult language.

It really was trying to be different. It contained things I didn't expect. They included a farthingale, a longish session of ballet pointe-work, a Disney princess and a lot of schmaltz. At least it realised it should try.

Its attempt to avoid cliché opens with "Tango de Roxane" in gold Kylie dresses. The first half continued with various slightly steampunk-themed scenes, musical solos, a wedding with a kind of Widow Twankey thing going on, then the Disney princess, an extended scene of one ballerina en pointe with six men as props, and a lot more that I don't remember. The tango was pouting, one-paced, unvarying, frenetic, kickety kickety kick.

The second half consisted mostly of what you would expect - a succession of the kind of single-couple choreographies that usually do well in the Escenario section of the Mundial. Mundane is what they certainly are. One of the couples paused twice and looked briefly at each other, rather than exclusively at the audience and into space. Then they did an endless turn through a long silence. That, and the obvious fall, were the only moves I remember.

The Widow Twankey bit came back with a clown scene all about the huge impractical costumes, which were pretty much the theme of the production as a whole. There was also the obligatory single scene of men dancing with each other, and of course they had to make it a play-fight, because two men who can actually dance, actually dancing with each other would be - well, what?

On New Year's Eve I was at a festival in France and one of the things I was privileged to see, when I wasn't too busy dancing, was two of the most truly charming and attractive men on the European tango scene dancing together socially and having fun. There's no video, because it was social dancing and it was about actually being there (although if you took video, you should TOTALLY send it right now. I won't tell). I got to dance with each of them as well, and they were both lovely.

This wasn't that. This was so utterly terrified of appearing remotely interesting, let alone sexy, that it threw a punch and ran for the hills. They had to bring a woman on to calm things down with the magic tits of pornobanality.

Tango is a traditional partner dance and a gender-role-play game. It's also a social dance scene in which women dancing together because they want to dance with each other is common, and normal, and often looks compelling and wonderful; and in which men dancing together because they want to dance with each other is much less common, and is also normal, and also often looks compelling and wonderful.

And I'm somehow supposed to be impressed by this on the stage at Sadler's Wells?

This production seems completely unaware that anyone, anywhere in the world, dances tango with another person because they want to. The 'tango' presented is an achingly narrow bonsai product. Irrelevant to its global practice, contemptuous of its audience.

I have no problem with anybody arranging Skyfall as a tango and dancing to it. None. I think that's a great idea. It has a pretty good tune. If you've got a good arranger and a good band, and the song says something you want to say, totally go for it. Dive right in if you think you're good enough. The more good songs get well arranged and well played as new tangos, the better; eventually some of them will be good enough to dance to, and to get there you have to experiment and practice.

I also quite liked the steampunk look. Why not? Long skirts are challenging for the cast, but if it means something to you, do it. Some of the costumes near the end reminded me of passing through Birmingham on a bus at 5am in 1997 on my way to the British Grand Prix, happy days. What they meant to the director is anyone's guess, but I have no problem with it. I just don't think it counts as innovation. Nor does ballet, and nor does rock-and-roll, especially if not very good.

There were moments of genuine emotion; the emotions were misogyny, transphobia, and the kind of sexism directed mainly by men at men which is often referred to as 'toxic masculinity'. The production seemed unconscious of these, so I can only suppose they were sincere.

I would have left the theatre indifferent, but not especially cross, if I hadn't seen the encore and read the programme notes. In the encore, they put on 80s 'fame' costumes and danced tango to 50's rock and roll. If you want to dance rock and roll in a tango show, I would like you to dance rock and roll, preferably well. As for the programme notes, I'll spare you.

It's possible that the costumes were intended to be the plot.

In fact, I'm not going to discuss the production any more. It met my expectations, which shouldn't be an excuse. Instead I'm going to discuss what a tango show should be. Let's make up some possible ground rules and just put them out there.

Ballet is not innovation. Rock and roll is not innovation. Gymnastics are not innovation, nor are they in themselves good dancing. Long skirts are not innovation. 80's timewarps are not innovation. Dancing to a Bond theme has been done rather better on Strictly Come Dancing nearly a decade ago. Same-sex dancing is not innovation. It may be striking, significant, beautiful, or even unusual on stage, but it is not new.

I would like to see innovation, ambition, and imagination in tango shows. I would like to see choreography that means something and says something. I would like to see things more like the performance that came second in the Mundial this year, which made me feel something. I've seen tango performances in the last twelve months that moved me to tears. It is totally possible.

Here are some things I would like to see in a tango show. Not all in the same show. These are just some ideas, some possible directions, in no particular order. They are not revolutionary. Most of them are extremely conservative, and would be tiny steps in relation to the format and traditions of tango shows. They're things that might give you a reason to dance tango on stage, rather than something else.

Innovation, in tango shows, would be literally anything that wasn't crap. But, how about:

• A variety of styles and ways of dancing, chosen for the ideas they communicate. Tango is expressively rich, technically diverse, and global. Like Shakespeare.
• A scene that tells the story of its music, in the sense of addressing its content. There are songs about gender violence, dead babies, loyal dogs, has-beens, falling in love, selfishness, poverty, crushes, breakups, second thoughts, pretentiousness, humanity adrift in a mechanical world, bad dancing, warfare, emigration, immigration, homesickness, money, church bells, and lots more. The content is sometimes difficult. Why not take it on?
• If you're going to dance to 'Ojos Negros' as a vals, and you have a good band, a costume budget, and a talented arranger, why not tell some of the story of that tune? You could still have the Disney princess dress in there, if you wanted.
• A scene that subverts, defies, or reimagines the content of a well-known tango, or uses it as a clever joke.
• A scene that tells a story about travel and Europe and Japan in the history of tango. 
• An ethnically diverse cast.
• If (as it's clear this production does) you have total contempt for the very existence of European social tango, why not satirise it? I saw enough plastic Chichos at a small festival in France a couple of weekends ago to make anybody laugh out loud. I bet the cast could make fun of that. You could dance in vomit-green swooshpants, bare feet, a bath-ring beard and a man-bun. Hell, you could make fun of Noelichicks, Carlitoheads, Salonsters, bloggers, wielders of the Minirig, or dancing in airports. At least you wouldn't be insulting our intelligence, and it could hardly fail to be funnier than the Widow Twankey. Or show me the hilarious and touching things I don't know about that (probably) happen in Seoul and Shanghai.
• Any scene at all that alludes to tango as it exists in the world.
• Scenes of same-sex dancing that are more than displacement activity. Why not make it about love, or friendship, or teamwork, or learning, or solidarity, or society, or even, for fuck's sake, sex?
• Any scene at all about about complex human feelings or the way people take care of and teach and support each other in bad situations.
• A scene that shows someone wanting to dance with someone else. For any reason.
• A scene about how dancing enhances people's lives. 
• A scene that communicates how magical it feels to find that you are apparently leading because someone has decided to follow you, and how amazing that process is.
• A scene alluding to the contemporary experience of tango tourism, from any point of view. Daring, huh?
• A funny story about a badly-organised tango competition. Even more daring.
• A scene alluding to the funny, complicated or stressful side of organising a social dance. 
• A musical story that says something about the relationships between tango, jazz, blues, and rock, and shows off the versatility and knowledge of cast and musicians, without abandoning what music means to people.
• A cast spending less time obviously out-of-breath.
• If you're going to have a backdrop of random stars, why not have a backdrop of obviously non-random stars, with the Moon and Orion the Southern way up?

I don't think the explanation for all this is commercial. It looks commerically stupid to ignore the European tango scene. It has an absorbing hobby, it has time, and it has money. You don't have to limit yourself to standing ovations from randoms who have no idea what they've just seen. You could carry on pleasing them and still refrain from insulting the people who should be your fans and evangelists.

The show wasn't "Immortal Tango". It was undead. If you are a stage producer or choreographer and think you can revive it, please contact Sadler's Wells. Please.

[Review: Immortal Tango, Peacock Theatre, Sadler's Wells, till 19th March]

Day-making ice skating

Apropos my ice skating reference in the previous post, thank you Detlef for sharing this absolutely beautiful performance from the European Figure Skating Championships, by Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, of France:

Gabriella PAPADAKIS & Guillaume CIZERON - 2016 European Champi...

Gabriella PAPADAKIS & Guillaume CIZERON - 2016 European Championships - FD

Posted by Ice Skating World on Thursday, 4 February 2016

Absolutely beautiful. Not a moment or a movement without meaning. Not a transition in sight. And you'll notice the commentator stops talking, after a while.

Update: I would draw your attention to this interesting interview with their coach from last year.

What's good Argentine Tango?

What's good dancing?

Performance and Choreography - the easy part

If it's a show - a performance - that we're talking about, then this is a relatively easy question. I expect to see a whole lot of technical things that make it look good, plus something more.

For example, I want to see the really good technique, and the ease and precision of leading and following, that makes a simple walk look smooth, strong, and easy; and that makes things like voleos, wraps and ganchos (if used) look graceful, expressive, and exciting instead of forced, stiff, clumsy and pretentious. 

I also want to see the couple perfectly on the beat. I want to see comfort in their head positions, stillness in their pauses, a relaxed, comfortable, appropriate embrace, a smooth walk, and a really good connection and relationship, so that they move as one rather than appearing to take turns. The leader should not appear too dominant - this looks very ugly. Neither side should ever look anxious, stressed, or rushed. 

I want to see the couple move as one whole of two equal parts. I want to see both partners moving musically, embodying the sound, not just stepping on the beat. I want harmony, interest, and taste.

I want to see those things both in choreography and in improvisation.

If it's a choreography, I also think we should expect communicative meaning, since that's what choreography is for. And the choice of music should serve or inspire that communicative meaning. A meaning is more than a theme. Most tango choreography, though heavily themed, is meaningless, and very boring. Two exceptions are the ones I mentioned here and here.

For a choreography to get a 9 or a 10 from me, I want to see meaning, and I want to see all of the difficult stuff serving the meaning, and I also want to see an absence of difficult stuff if that serves the meaning better. I want to see the difficult stuff left out if the dancers' technique isn't up to it. It's not the difficulty that I want to see, it's the meaning.

The distinction between theme and meaning may be rather fine, but I know it when I see it. If you are old enough to remember not only Torville and Dean, but also Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin, then you know what I am talking about (even though what Torville and Dean did was obviously very technically difficult, the difference was that they managed to fill it with meaning beyond theme). It has something to do with emotional content, or point.

For an improvisation, musical expression and other kinds of appropriateness more or less replace the concept of communicative meaning. I want to see something that is honest and appropriate for the audience and purpose of the show. I want to see a certain self-confidence and individuality that is doing its own thing and not trying too hard to be like something else, or even trying too hard to be something it thinks is should be instead of having an actual reason to be there.

I want to see differences and nuances of scale, pace, and dynamics. I don't want to see a dance that's frantic, frenetic, or excessively one-paced. And I particularly want to see a couple stay away from anything they can't do sincerely, or do well.

Social dancing - a harder question

What makes good social dancing is bit more complicated.

When we get into social dancing, a lot of things really matter that are not directly physical dance skills. Roberto Finelli (in Melina's thread on facebook about this question) put it so:

A good dancer is someone who makes happy the partner AND the people dancing around.
A good dancer is someone that you WANT to dance next to you because it makes you feel better.
A good dancer is able to handle the tango-jungle with elegance.
A good dancer is able to keep relaxed and enjoy (and have fun together with the partner) even under the worst circumstances, without any need to complain.

By "dance", Roberto means full participation in a social dance event, not just the physical activity of dancing with a partner. I think he's taking it quite far in the last point, which requires some working-out, but, okay.

There are social dance events, and there are clubs where they play tango. In the latter, no one is expected to care about anyone else beyond an apeish battle for status. But if enough good social dancers turn up, by this definition, then it will turn into a genuine social dance event regardless.

Of course, your partners deserve an adequate technical level. A good dancer is easy, comfortable and enjoyable to dance with. But what exactly that means can be any combination of a huge range of things.

Let's unpack Roberto's first point. To make one's partner happy, a good social dancer (for me):

• Is comfortable to embrace and easy to lead or follow
• Is on the beat
• Moves musically, embodying the sound, not just stepping on the beat
• Has a dance that is not completely one-paced or single-scale
• Stays away from doing things they can't do well or do honestly
• Stays away from doing things that make it difficult for their partner (as opposed to merely challenging or exciting, which can be fine on occasion)
• Is sensitive to their partner's movement
• Is sensitive to their partner's state of mind (this is how you get the "exciting" thing right)
• Is 'into it' - whatever it is, and it can be a variety of things - with that individual partner
• Has good manners in the milonga and does not embarrass their partners or make dancing  difficult for other people.

Pretty much all of that applies to both partners. Those who lead have some opportunities to be obviously bad-mannered and incompetent that those who only follow don't have. The fancy-shoe who charged out of the middle and drove my friend's heel into me with force last Friday, looks like a good dancer, unless you watch very closely and are very demanding; or unless you share a floor with him as a leader, when he becomes very hard work very fast.
 
You can look the epitome of geek and be a world-class genius when it comes to social dancing - although chances are, the informed or perceptive eye will also notice a very well-managed posture and embrace, a great connection, economy of motion, and nuance to the dance.

Good social dancers quite often do, in fact, have a level of technique equal to or better than the stage professionals, especially the mediocre ones. But in practice, once they get beyond the basics, they tend to learn and focus on whatever most interests them and seems worth the work, so they dance in diverse ways and express their personalities differently, depending on personal taste, talent, physical abilities and style, and they're all good.

If your interest in social dancing is not genuine, you're likely to be a weak social dancer even if you're a good professional on the stage. Nobody gets or stays excellent at something they're not interested in. There's no substitute for actually caring.

Not-boring stage tango!

Here's a thing. The performance beginning at 13 minutes in this video is the very first time I've ever seen [professional] tango escenario (stage tango or tango-ballet) done as though it were being done sincerely as expressive dance, rather than just an athletic display or pose-fest. Her dress is designed to place the action in time; they make bold use of a simple prop to tell a touching story; it corresponds with the lyrics; they even act. The dancing mostly serves it. Acting is so much better when you've got something to say. The embed should start from 13:00.


They are couple number 546, Juan Pablo Bulich and Rocio Garcia Liedo.

They didn't win; they placed second. The winning performance comes at 11:19 in section 3, by Camila Alegre and Ezequiel Jesus Lopez. I think this one is also better than the others. I watched it without feeling bored, because it's another coherent performance with the dancing appearing to serve a sincerely-held idea that corresponds with the music, as opposed to a mess of conventional tropes serving as excuses for poses. It didn't grab me as much as the one above, but it might be better technique-wise. The second embed shows the winning performance from 1:15, with the presentations before that.


All the others are much of a muchness, to me, give or take some business with clothing, and I don't have any reason to suggest you watch them, except in order to find out if you agree or not. You can find all the relevant videos at the bottom of this playlist or at Aires de Milonga.

Guess the winner

Here's a bit of fun. The Campeonato de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (City Championship) is different from the Mundial (World Championship) and in my opinion a bit more watchable.

Here are the tango, vals, and milonga finals. The same couple won all three, which apparently isn't what usually happens. Why not watch them and see if you can guess which one it was? I don't know if I would have guessed right or not, because I happened to see who had won before I found these videos (so will you, if you Google it, so don't if you want to play).

All the videos are courtesy of Aires de Milonga, and as far as I can figure out it's okay to embed them. Go ahead and visit the website, there's all sorts of interesting stuff on there. First the tango:


Milonga:


And Vals (this one includes the introduction of the couples - ff to 03:15 to skip that):


There's a copy of the rules and format available at Puntotango.ar - I don't know if it will remain there. The part about what the judges are looking for is headed DEL CERTAMEN (PARÁMETROS DE EVALUACIÓN).

But the reason I posted this is that I really like the result. I really, really like their dancing, and I think they look as though they are dancing for fun with each other rather than trying to show off. As though they are really surprised and delighted to be there, but not letting it get to them. In between dances they do the sorts of things that people normally do when the music stops, like looking a bit hot and out of breath, fidgeting, flapping about and bumping into their neighbours (which incurs no penalty, between tracks). They are very rhythmical and musical; they are not scared to stand still at the right moments. To find the answer you can watch the presentations: either go to Aires de Milonga and scroll down for the whole lot, or watch the first one, the vals, here (04:43 for first place) and the milonga here. Note; there are ties for fifth place in the vals and second place in the milonga. I like the presentations too. Everyone looks so pleased. It must be lovely to have someone in your life who is having such fun and wants the same thing so much.

Strictly Come Dancing and the Tango World Championship

This post is here to clear up some mysteries about Argentine Tango on Strictly Come Dancing. It's going to be pretty long and it is VERY old news, that is, several years. [Update - I've just been forwarded a press release for "The Last Tango" dated 24th April 2015 repeating the claim "Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace - World Champions", so maybe not such old news after all.]

So, the mysteries. I have started from the premise that I am seeing, not a wickedness or an incompetence to be criticised, but a mystery to be explained.

If you're an SCD viewer and not particularly into tango, you may want to refer to Argentine Tango for TV Viewers. If you haven't got time, then just take it as read it's a ballroom show, and that's a totally seperate, unrelated community and practice to what I talk about on this blog.

The mysteries, in essence, are:

1.Why is it that when the Argentine Tango comes along, the celebrities usually look like perfectly decent beginners (and the men tend to look better than the women), but the professionals look awkward, stiff, effortful and disconnected? Sometimes, with good choreographies, this doesn't happen - but usually it does.
2. Why do the judges and commentators sometimes give technique advice for tango that appears to  contradict what we normally do in tango?
3. What exactly were Vincent and Flavia "World Champions" of?

It turns out, after some research, that the answer to each of these things explains the others, in reverse order. So I'll start with number 3.

What exactly were Vincent and Flavia "World Champions" of?

Here is the un-forgettable Bruce Forsyth, in an episode broadcast on 9th December 2007. At twelve seconds in, he says:

"Please welcome the two-times World Argentine Tango Show Champions, our very own Vincent and Flavia!"

Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace are a dance teaching and performance partnership who appeared on SCD for a few years. There is currently no such claim on their official site, but there is something like it on the website of their stage show, http://www.dancetildawnonstage.com/staff/:

Titles include: UK Professional Ten Dance champions 2002–2006; UK Professional Showdance champions 2003–2006; UK Argentine Tango champions 2006 (first time competition has ever been held); World Argentine Tango Show champions 2005/2006; UK Ballroom champions for several years; World and European Ten Dance and Showdance finalists 2002–2006. 2006 saw their move away from competitions, and from the fourth series onwards, into recurring roles on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

The UK part is clear. In 2006 there was a UK feeder competition for the Tango World Championship or Mundial de Tango, held at Negracha Tango Club.  According to friends and acquaintances who were there, there were very few entrants, and not of a high standard. Vincent and Flavia did a professional job, treated the event with respect, and won. No similar event was organised again until 2014 (see mega-footnote 1).

The "World Champions" part is the mystifying one. It sounds like the next level up of the same competition; but that's not true.

 This is the performance that won the Escenario ("Stage", or "Show") category of that same tango word championship ("Mundial de Tango") in Buenos Aires in 2005. The couple were German Cornejo and María de los Angeles Trabichet, of Argentina. German Cornejo, incidentally, is the choreographer of the current Tango Fire show at the Peacock, which I reviewed here.



In 2006 it was won by a Colombian couple, Carlos Alberto Paredes and Diana Giraldo Rivera. I can't find video of the performance, but there is plenty of video of them doing later demonstrations. Here's a tango-nuevo one, the style I think they look most at home in.

Neither of those couples, obviously, is Vincent and Flavia.

The Tango World Championship, or Campeonato Mundial de Baile de Tango, has been held in Buenos Aires annually since 2003. It has two categories, Salon (which means ballroom, that is, improvised dancing suitable, at least in theory, for a sufficiently roomy social dance floor) and Escenario (which means stage, that is, choreography suitable for the stage). It's very well known. I should clarify that not everyone who dances tango is particularly crazy about either the concept or the contents. Competition isn't much of a thing in tango communities; and a lot of excellent dancers, maybe the majority, maybe even a large majority, are uninterested in the Mundial or the styles of dancing that it promotes. However, it gets entrants from all over the world who dance extremely well in those styles. Most people who dance tango have heard of it at least once. It's definitely the only tango competition of which that is true. It's difficult to win, it's definitely prestigious in a certain way, and people get substantial career benefits as teachers and performers from doing well in it.

Although the official website of the championship is unhelpful, Wikipedia has a convenient listing of the winners from 2003, when it was first held. The first few years have had  to be compiled from newspaper reports, so I included those links above.Vincent and Flavia have definitely never won it in any year. So what was Brucie on about?

The obvious path is to email Vincent and Flavia at the address given on their website, and politely ask what competition it was that they won. So I did that. I got the following reply:

Hi Flavia

Can you help me with the answer to this one, or shall I ignore it? G X X 

This is what your web site used to say

2002-2006 UK Professional Ten Dance Champions,

2003-2006 UK Professional Show Dance Champions,

2006 UK Argentine Tango Show Champions,

2005/6 World Argentine Tango Show Champions,

2002-2006 World and European Ten Dance and Showdance Finalists

(Highlighting mine). This was actually rather helpful, as otherwise I wouldn't have been sure that they'd ever made any such claim themselves. Since it seemed needless to pursue an unwelcome correspondence, when I'd stopped laughing, I did a bit more asking around, with the help of a few friends.

The extremely careful and detailed stats website Ultimate Strictly has the following rather different information:

Negracha club UK Argentine Tango Champions, 2006 IDO World Argentine Tango Finalists, 2005/2006 (3rd place overall - winners, Show Tango section)

Aha! Ultimate Strictly to the rescue. So we're talking about an Argentine Tango championship created by one of the many general dance competition organisations, in this case the International Dance Organisation, IDO. They organise loads of  competitions, for all sorts of dances, and they classify Argentine Tango along with Salsa, Merengue, and West Coast Swing, under the "Special Couple Dances Department".

The IDO's website says this:

"Special Couple Dances department

Some of these dances are traditional favorites all over the world. Salsa and Argentine Tango have probably some of the largest dance communities in the world today."

My compliments to the writer. I might have done the same if I'd been paid to write copy for the website. It allows the reader to infer, if they wish, that this competition has a connection with that large dance community, without in any way saying so. Nicely done.

The IDO's website only has results since 2008. So I emailed them, and they were extremely helpful, just as I would have expected from a professional ballroom dance organisation. The Vice-President, Klaus Höllbacher, said that no official results were available for years before 2008, but he was able to confirm the following from his personal notes:

They have danced for the UK in Seefeld, Austria:
European Championship Tango Argentino 2005 = 4th Place
World Championship Tango Argentino 2006 = 3rd Place

Unfortunately, no detail was available on the 'tango-show' section, if any. So, to summarise:

• It looks as though they were, in 2006, placed first in an the "Show Tango" subcategory of an Argentine Tango category of a multi-category competition organised by IDO. They placed third overall. The IDO office was unable to confirm the Show Tango part, as they have not retained detailed records from that year, but there is still such a category, so this is surely correct.
• The IDO competition does claim to be a "World Championship". It  is certainly not the one that people have heard of, as far as tango is concerned, but it is called a world championship by the people who do it.
• They were in 2005 placed 4th in the IDO European Championship.  I don't understand the "2005/6" thing, but my best guess is that it  refers to some progression from IDO European to IDO World Championships, not a "two-time" anything.
• They did once enter the UK section of what would normally be referred to as the "Tango World Championship", on that night at Negracha in 2006, where they won.

I looked for video of the IDO competition, to get an idea of it, and I found this of the "Vals" final in 2012, and this of the "Milonga" semi-final. I would describe the milonga as awkward, hurried, disconnected, stiff and clumsy flailing in the general direction of the music; some of the vals is better, and looks like you might see from some long-term students in the intermediate class at a tango-salon kind of place in London. I am less inclined to criticise the samples of show-tango from 2012; I think the first one of those is sweet, sincere, technically nice, and more meaningful, musical, and engaging than tango-shows normally allow themselves to be. As for the second, although it doesn't look quite like what you'd see in Tango Fire, I've certainly seen far worse from people who ought to know better. It's interesting to see two such different approaches. Sadly, the first couple don't seem to have been placed. But they're dancing more like Mundial-style tango-salon, so I can understand that.

It seems only fair to mention at this point that I haven't seen Dance Till Dawn, but I'd expect it to be better than Tango Fire. Tango stage shows tend to be technically accomplished but unimaginative,  and shows that use a variety of dance styles do a better job of being entertaining.

As for the original claim in the video - the "two-times" part is an reasonable reading of the "2005/6" thing, but it appears to be wrong. It would be equally understandable for the viewer to assume that "World Argentine Tango Show Champions" referred to the Mundial, if they were aware that it existed. But mistaken. However, I think that most Strictly viewers who were into ballroom dance would be more likely never to have heard of the Mundial, and to correctly understand it as referring to something like the IDO competition. In their case, the only misunderstanding would be the assumption that it was world-class tango, which in my opinion is also very mistaken. But they might well not make any such assumption at all.  The general public might assume that world championships in dance are the same kind of thing as world championships in sport - but that's probably not a safe assumption for any kind of dance, least of all those that have real social communities.

2. Why do the judges and commentators give such surprising technique advice?

Short version: If you want to win a ballroom dancing competition that has AT as an event, like the IDO one we discovered above, all the advice given on Strictly is probably pretty good. Just don't expect anyone at a milonga to think you dance well.

Long version about how it's a bad idea to "kick! from the knee!", as advised on an ITT episode in December - edited out: if you want some better advice, Oscar Casas explains it briefly at 00:42 here. To me, the difference is huge and explains the huge difference in how everything looks; but I also think you have to know what the tango way looks and feels like, and you have to try both methods in the context of dancing as a connected couple, to appreciate what the difference is and why it matters.

On the same show, I thought following was explained completely wrong, but talking to ex-ballroom-professionals revealed that the explanation made sense from that point of view, given the changes they have to make to adapt to tango. So this also depends where you start from and what you are trying to achieve.

As for arguments about the embrace, tango people argue about that all the time anyway.

3. Why do the celebs look like perfectly decent beginners, but the pros tend to look just stiff?

The pros are generally ballroom pros who have carefully adapted their dance in way that would do well under the rules and description of Argentine Tango for the IDO competition (page 81 in the PDF). Tango dancers - social and professional - use a range of rather different techniques which it would take far too much time for a ballroom pro to learn, and which the videos suggest wouldn't benefit you in that sort of competition.

The celebs haven't been through this training, so they look like beginners who are trying to lead and follow, which normally looks fine. And the reason why the men look better than the women is that they mostly aren't being told to "kick from the knees", or indeed kick at all, and they also aren't attempting to do anything that physically can't work. Both the beginner women and the professionals are usually trying to do things that only look good if you've got a specific, very relaxed technique that just isn't there. Doing what Oscar says at 00:42, and having it work, physically takes more than a week's or a month's practice.

It's certainly possible to do a good job of Argentine Tango coming from a ballroom/latin background, especially with the right partner, but I would expect it to be quite a lot of effort.

As for the question of why nobody sorted this out before, I think the answer is that nobody cares. It's taken me bloody ages, and I think these interactions, confusions and relationships are actually  interesting.

____________________________________________________
1. The attempt to hold a UK competition was not repeated, as far as I know, until a different organisation had another go at the franchise in 2014, billing it as a "European Championship" and accepting entries from various countries, which is a whole other story. I watched the first round, and got a lot more entertainment for my £20 than I expected. There were thirteen couples, generally of a low to reasonable standard, but there was, again, one professional couple who turned up and treated the event with a great deal more respect than it deserved - for their own reasons which became clear afterwards and had to do with qualification for the actual European Championship in Turin. They were disqualified on the second night after (a) spectators had concluded they could not lose, because they really were genuinely rather good and (b) the representative from Buenos Aires pointed out that they were, in fact, not eligible to enter in the London section under the London organisers' agreement with Buenos Aires, despite the fact that the organisers had taken their (steep) entrance fee and confirmed in writing that they were, as well as so claiming in the list of eligible countries on their website (of course I have screenshots). The excuse given was that Valentin was "from the wrong part of Russia". The only sensible response to which was, "What?" followed by a lot of bemused but exciting speculation as to what could possibly really have happened, how many pissed-off Russians the tango world can handle, and how this made any sense when Russia is so hard-to-miss that even random rocks from space can find it all the time. Generally, it was the worst-organised sporting event I have ever had the privilege to see. Obviously, it was always going to start an hour late. But if you have the job of announcing the competitors' names, which are in several languages you don't know, this is what you do: you ask each of them beforehand to pronounce their own name for you two or three times, try it, get them to correct you, then write down what you said, phonetically, next to the name on your list. Then you concentrate and read it out. You do not stand there and insult the efforts of the competitors and the intelligence of the audience by foolishly simpering a mangled mess of names as you glorify your own cluelessness. And if you're going to run a sporting event certified by a governing body, you make sure you publish, and use, and stick to, a correct version of the rules. I am really not crazy about the Mundial, the dancing is boring at best, but I was embarrased at how the competitors had been treated in my country. Regardless of standard, they'd stood up and put themselves out there, and they deserved better. I was, though, happy with the result in the Escenario section, as the winner after the disqualification was in fact the performance I most enjoyed of the three total entries. It was somewhat well executed, and thoroughly sincere. I've never seen happier legs in my life. If you want to enjoy next year's edition, good luck.

This epic footnote is in memory of Terry Pratchett.

Tango Fire again

I took my Mum to this year's edition of Tango Fire.

I'd recommend it to Strictly fans who like tango. You'll see much better stage-tango than you've seen on TV. It's done with great energy and technique, so that they spend most of the time dancing rather than posing. And it's definitely authentic in the sense that they mean: for instance, the most alert and knowledgeable Strictly fans might know the choreographer, German Cornejo, as the same man who actually won the Tango World Championship (Show section) in 2005, one of the years Vincent and Flavia occasionally still make it sound like they did [it wasn't *that* tango world championship - as I discover here]. I think the performance he won with is a nice piece of tango-ballet, and so is this show. The choreography is such that the cast look as though they're showing off and enjoying themselves rather than being stressed out or frantic. As a whole it felt kind of warm and rather tasteful. I actually thought the nude jumpsuit with the leaves on it looked absolutely gorgeous, as did the taffeta dresses, and the young men in their coloured, matte suits.

Company pieces broadly alternate with one couple at a time; there are some solos with the singer; and some instrumental sections in the second half. The first half is the usual succession of scenes and horseplay.

In the second half, the women let down their hair extensions, the band play Piazzolla, and it gets more abstract, with more hotpants and more lifts. I loved the Piazzolla and so did my Mum. It's great, powerful music. The dancing was less one-paced than the last time I saw Tango Fire, in 2009 I think, but there was no variety of style and I remember no musical climax - not even in milonga or vals - that wasn't a lot of fast, static kicks. Again, this is much better done than on Strictly, with proper tango technique and connection instead of stiff legs and awkwardness, but I was sorry not to see a talented cast challenged to do a bit more. Maybe the problem here is me being only interested in tango rather than having any appreciation of contemporary dance or any of the other things the cast and choreographer have done.

Tango people won't see a single second of anything they haven't seen a hundred times. Nor will they see any more than the tiniest sliver of what they know is there. In a way this disappoints me, because it always feels as though, if you really wanted to make a tango-ballet of two hours including interval, you could have all sorts of fun not only with different styles, but with things like love, friendship, teamwork, rivalry, conflict, confidence, gender, sexuality, role-playing, society, history, and so on. Even just with what the songs themselves are giving you. They used El día que mi quieras and Ventarrón for the soloists with the singer - both of which have stories that there were no more than nods in the direction of telling. Hell, you could even say something about tango, beyond the cliché of the hilarious accidental kick in the balls (scene 2). I don't know that it would even necessarily alienate the less-informed audience.

The show is not tempted by any of that.

However, that would be a different sort of show - and nobody wants variety or originality in a serving of steak and chips. The intended audience probably wants steak and chips; this is steak and chips, with a reasonably happy salad. And Mum was highly entertained by the whole thing, especially the band, not having seen a bandoneon before and being fascinated by how it was played.

I detected no trace whatsoever of meaning. But it is exactly what it says it is, the programme notes are sensible, it's very pretty, and I really enjoyed the band.

Take your favourite Strictly fan to the Peacock Theatre, Tuesday-Saturday at 19:30, Matinees at the weekend, tickets from £15 for some innocent entertainment.

----------------------

* This long-ago misunderstanding probably explains a lot about the 'tango' technique seen and discussed on Strictly, in my view.

El Flaco Dany

I was privileged to see that performance - it was extremely interesting.

Last Chance to See: Dany and Lucia are at the Crypt tomorrow (today now actually), Negracha (I think) on Monday and a couple of other places for a few more days. The tango-uk list will probably fill you in if you haven't got a flyer.

Here were the things that were in my head afterwards.

1. If you can wear a golden-beige silk suit and two-tone shoes, chew gum, and walk up to a woman exactly like that, and it all really works and you don't look like a fool, you have something very special for which there is absolutely no substitute. Call it presence, or style. Whatever it is, imitation would miss the point.

2. About half way through the second track I had a revelation about someone completely different in a totally unrelated performance; I suddenly understood what he had been trying to do, and why it hadn't really worked in performance terms, because now I could see where it came from and what was needed for it to work. An otherwise baffling memory made complete sense.

3. That same thing - the transforming thing - is very difficult to film when it's there in real life. So I'm glad I saw this live, it was very informative. (I've heard that actors with great screen presence are sometimes the other way round - it just isn't there without the camera).

4. I'm sorry I missed seeing him dancing socially, I think I was too late by a tanda or so.

More Performances

A few weeks ago Los Ocampo did a show at Carablanca. Before their performance Monica announced that they had just become grandparents and were absolutely thrilled with their four-month-old grandchild, who they were missing terribly, and that they would celebrate by repeating their first-ever choreography from twenty-five years ago. They followed it with their second-ever choreography, which Monica described as "very romantic, we were very much in love, and it's still pretty good". Or words to that effect. And it was, in a highly dramatised way - not in the way tango is intrinsically romantic, but more representationally. Anyway, they had great connection.

As you might suppose, they weren't under-rehearsed and they weren't wooden, and for once I was smiling and not sitting there wondering why I was meant to care. I didn't resent the extra I'd been charged for the performance. I barely even resented the twenty-five minutes of dancing time it took up, there or at the Crypt, when they did the lift where her legs go right round a clock-face. It was the purest show, properly written, properly done, properly over the top. I wouldn't really go and see it on purpose, since I'm not that interested in performances as such and I've seen enough now that I treat them as a reason to go somewhere else; but it was very good and it was fun to watch. I really appreciated their excellence.

As for another performance I saw quite recently; the couple were somewhat less experienced than Monica and Omar. I don't know if they are married to each other, but they both looked as if they'd been texting their lawyers about a divorce. Violently molesting two tangos and a milonga (IIRC), they didn't include any lifts; a relief, since whatever their dance communicated to me, it wasn't the level of mutual trust and personal regard it takes to get a lady's toes ten feet above the floor. The audience applauded, much of it sincerely.

They have a hard life, these people, a very hard life. And it's a sad, sad world.

Another dance of love

Here's a completely beautiful "dance of love" Tango.

The man is Julian Elizari, who teaches at the Dome. The woman I only know as Audrey, she's a regular on the London social scene. She has a stupendous grace and elegance of movement, but the thing I'm really studying in this video is her beautiful, gentle, soft, fluid, connected, lively embrace. I want to be able to do it like that one day.



Hat tip Psyche.

Chemistry

Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne at the Crypt
Originally uploaded by webwandering

I love this picture, and I loved this performance. There's plenty going on for the audience, but there's so much going on between them. Their connection is electric, whether they're actually touching or not.

This is how good you have to be to turn your backs on each other during a tango performance and never break the connection.

Photo by permission of Carole Edrich (website, photostream). Carole has an exhibition opening on Friday at Zero Sette Restaurant, next to the western entrance of ExCeL .

A nice performance

I saw a nice performance tonight by some teachers who were visiting London.

In the tango, there were some lifts and some splits, which are the kind of thing that makes me laugh; and because the performance was to some extent at least improvised, they looked a bit rough. But I found that appealing. I liked it as a whole - it was playful and not overwrought. The daft bits are just fun if they're not taken too seriously, which they weren't.

The milonga was great, and functioned as a very good advertisement for their milonga workshop tomorrow (later today, actually - oops).

Boring Performances

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with a salsera friend about performances. I said that I see a lot of performances that are technically impressive, totally professional, and, to me, tedious and embarrassing. I don't think there's anything wrong with show-tango as such; it can be done well, and sometimes it is. I've seen performances I loved. But most of the time, I have every sympathy with a non-dancer who remarked that as far as he could tell, tango was a matter of flicking a few legs and looking a bit silly.

My friend pointed out that there is nothing special here - the same happens in salsa. Maybe the explanation is that dancing well is one thing, but choreography is quite another, and good choreography is very, very difficult. I have seen it done, but not very often. I mostly prefer performances that are wholly or partly improvised, because what they lack in spectacle they more than make up in expressiveness and taste. Perhaps that means good choreography is like a good referee; invisible. Everything flows, and looks as though it came naturally, right then and there. Just performing it is as difficult as saying “To be, or not to be” and giving the entire speech as though the idea had only just occurred to you, and Shakespeare never existed. And most of the time they're trying to write the play as well.

Anyway, I was trying to define to myself how it works; what it is in particular that I don't like, and what I do. The results seem, on reading them over again, to be quite useless. I have been present at shows that repelled me, shows sparkling (in my opinion) with unintentional humour, shows perfectly devoid of musicality, taste, or point, some of them by people who are famous enough that they ought to do better. And I have found myself surrounded by gushing, emotional praise which I could only presume to be sincere. I know what I like - but what can it mean to anyone but me?

I like:
Light and shade.
I don't like:
Continuous drama in a shouting monotone.

I like:
Elegance of movement and clarity of form.
I don't like:
No beat escaping unmolested.

I like:
Chemistry.
I don't like:
Vulgarity.

I like:
The couple looking absorbed, interested in each other, or happy to be dancing together. Some people even manage all three.
I don't like:
The distressed expressions of a pair of breeding coots. Or, worse, the woman looks like a breeding coot and the man looks as though his mind is already on next year's female.

I like:
The woman getting to express her personality without having to SHOUT.
I don't like:
Indiscriminate knees-skywards action. She's a pro and wants you to know she can tickle his right ear with her left heel, both forwards and backwards.

I like:
Connection and intensity.
I don't like:
Broken connections, diversions, mere synchronisation, and fuss.

I like:
Interaction of two personalities.
I don't like:
Empty dramas about dominance and power.

I like:
Emotional content.
I don't like:
Crap acting.

I like:
Differences in personality and structure between tango, milonga, and vals. Differences between one tango and another. Even if I don't know the track or remember the tune, I am left with an impression of what it sounded like that is reinforced by my impression of what it looked like.
I don't like:
A show that has nothing whatsoever to say about the music, merely using it as a framework of the appropriate speed. I am left with the impression that whoever waxed her knicker line did a very good job.

I like:
A dance performed as though to be seen by an informed and intelligent audience, or no audience at all.
I don't like:
A dance performed as though to be seen in the furthest seat at the Millenium Dome, when in fact you are in a small hall in front of a very well-informed audience, many of whom who would really prefer that you got out of the way so they could talk to their friends or go on dancing. And some of whom, though physically unable and aesthetically unqualified to put their legs behind their heads for public entertainment, lead and follow better than you and are more interesting to watch.

Professional dancers work very, very hard for probably not much money. Some of those whose performances I like the least are also those whose business sense, work rate, and other abilities I most respect. But most of them aren't William Shakespeare. What's new?

Oh, look - it's David and Kim

While I was looking for something on YouTube to illustrate a different post, I noticed that David Benitez and Kim Schwartz - popular teachers in London, be warned that their website, TangoMovement, makes a noise - appear to have changed their video policy.

They used to ask people not to record their performances. Maybe they still do (I haven't attended one recently), but it seems they have now got themselves a friendly videographer they are happy with, and a YouTube channel under David's name.

I applaud them for putting themselves out there and taking the risk of people like me saying whatever they think about it, like Stefano and Alexandra did with this promotion.



Not that I don't say what I think in real life, but the risk of some nobody criticising at a milonga, and the risk of being permanently blogged about, even by that very same nobody, are two quite different things. It's nice for their fans and friends that they've done this.

Torvill and Dean

Here are two videos from my childhood. I knew they were good - I watched on TV at the time. But I'd almost forgotten how good they were. I didn't understand what was good about it. I just knew that I couldn't speak or look away.

Here they are dancing to Barnum in 1983. Look at 01:05, and 01:15. The mimed clown costumes at 03:20. The mimed trombones at 03:40. Hear them?



And here it is - Bolero, 1984. The story enacted is about a pair of lovers who climb up the side of a volcano and throw themselves in. Notice the little dip at 01:45. Hear it?



There are no links. There was never any routine in any routine of theirs. And notice what happens to the commentary in both.

A problem with watching that last performance is that it makes it hard to watch anyone else dance anything at all to the same music. I get the same thing, listening to Plácido Domingo singing E lucevan le stelle - it seems so definitive, so fundamentally right and proper, that anyone else's recording sounds like Domingo without the Domingo. But that's how it goes.

Going to milongas, workshops, and whatnot, I see quite a lot of tango performances. And I do sometimes see dancing that's technically brilliant, and bores me stiff. It's not because it's 'show tango'. There's nothing wrong with show, and I like a good show as much as anyone. What makes any dance dull or exciting is not the style - it's the content, I think.

Dynamic lead-and-follow

M.B., this one is for you. With thanks to Psyche who pointed them out to me. It's Martin Maldonado and Maurizio Ghella at a festival. Watching some of the other videos available on YouTube, I deduce that Martin is the shorter one.


I like performances where the couple, while not necessarily smiling, look as though they want to be dancing in general, and to be dancing with each other in particular. Which is the case here. I suppose that's how I perceive a good connection. Here the connection is extremely interesting because of the way they exchange the lead. It's as fluid and dynamic as the way some people switch from a close embrace to an open one and back again. Notice at 02:16 how the embrace passes through symmetry and lingers there for a while. More variations in this (lower quality) video.

Because they dance together exchanging lead and follow, and are near-equal in size, mass, and shape, you can see how the dance changes depending on who leads and who follows, and how leading or following changes the way someone's personality comes out through the dance.

Miguel Angel Zotto at Tango in Action and Union Chapel Studio

Miguel Angel Zotto comes to London once a year and does this show about argentine tango. I didn't go, but a colleague of mine did. He enjoyed the dancing and even the history, but was deeply impressed by the suits and hats.

I was sufficiently curious to book myself into one of the workshops with Miguel organised by Stefano and Alexandra of Tango In Action. It was billed as a general-level class about vals, so I took along a friend (leading) who wanted some of that.

Well - live, he looks a lot more human and not nearly so desperately worried as he does in the show stills. He has a lot of presence and gives the impression of being a pleasant person with a passion for his subject and real desire that you should learn about it too.

I thought the class was intelligent, well thought out, and very useful to the social dancer. He doesn't really speak any English, which adds to the fun. [Edit: I was later told by people who have met him before that he can speak English well if he chooses, but on this occasion apparently he preferred not to.] Stefano interpreted most of it, but my smattering of relevant Spanish was quite useful. I was surprised how much I understood. It must be a like that at football clubs - given the common subject, fluency is far from crucial.

It started with some general advice about vals - dancing on the 'one', not trying to dance all three beats, and avoiding forward ochos because the pivot needed is to great and takes too much time. Then it was in three parts - an elegant turn with or without a sacada, a walking pattern using some linear back ochos and a cross, and then what I call a holding pattern, useful in heavy traffic. Taken together they added up to a really handy vals kit for the social dancer, plus some sensible advice. And all in an hour and a half - a very professional product. Not everyone there was equipped to take advantage of it, but most could get at least something.

My companion said the explanations were confusing because he kept changing things half way through, but it helped that they split the man's and woman's steps up. It makes it easier to see what's going on. I often have my doubts about that because sometimes it can give the followers the wrong idea, but I agree that it really helps visual comprehension. I was interested to find that the holding pattern was for most people the trickiest to get right. It only consisted of a long step and then three rapid weight changes, repeated in various directions; I think it would be a good practice exercise. Nobody I danced with got it exactly.

The main digression was a brief and businesslike talk about line of dance, when it became clear that some were strangers to the notion. But there was also a more interesting digression about history in which he suddenly said that the forward ocho was invented before the backward ocho. That surprised me, as it's quite difficult to avoid inventing the backward ocho accidentally in your first week of tango, but then he did a little demo resembling Canyengue, and I realised that if you invented tango by starting from something a lot more like Canyengue, which is what seems to have actually happened, a forward ocho would, indeed, present itself first. It wasn't directly relevant but it was very interesting, and he obviously loves to communicate this stuff.

I also went to the milonga in his honour on Sunday at the Union Chapel Studio. The floor there is extremely sticky, so if you ever go to the same place take a bottle of talc with you. It's very hard to pivot without wrenching your knees. Also, to get to the studio you have to walk round the back of the chapel to the left, and it's the first door on the right. They don't tell you that.

The first performance was a show by some students of Stefano and Alexandra, and was as enjoyable as amateur dramatics generally are. The second was by Stefano and Alexandra themselves, and I remember nothing of it except that part of her dress fell off and was picked up and flung in the Zotto direction by Stefano at the end*. And then later on Miguel Angel gave a performance with the same young lady he'd been teaching with. She was twenty, and very sweet and appealing, and she had endeared herself to me in the class by making the universal gesture for "please wait, I'm dizzy" after an energetic demonstration.

The performance was perfectly calculated for performers and audience. He excels at a very fast, balletic style which is not my personal favourite but is along the same lines as Stefano and Alexandra's, so it was certain to appeal to their students and fans. I thought it was an extremely professional, technically brilliant, committed performance. Afterwards he gave an emotional speech, interpreted again by Stefano, saying that performers live on applause, London was always good but this year had been better than ever, and that his partner (whose name, sadly, I did not catch) [Edit: Daiana Guspero] had a great future. Very nice.

You can see plenty of Miguel Angel on Youtube, dancing in more than one style - for example here (Gallo Ciego @ Salon Canning) and, in the stage style but with his previous partner, here. It's interesting to compare his brother Osvaldo Zotto, who is here and here (Gallo Ciego again).

Overall, I thought Miguel Angel Zotto was a complete pro, which was exactly what you would expect, and although it did not challenge me or give me anything new as a follower, I think the class was very well worth the money for a social-dancing leader at the appropriate level. He is passionate about tango and wants you to learn. I was impressed to find that the virtuosity of his commercial performances does not interfere at all with the usefulness of his classes, and if I were leading I wouldn't hesitate to go again next time he is in town.

* Paging David Attenborough ... Will Sir David Attenborough please report to the Incident Room ... Thank you.

Marek & Veronique

Veronique Bouscasse has posted some video on her YouTube channel from the performance at the Welsh Centre I described in a previous post. I liked it, and apparently she does too. Here it is.



I'm not sure who made this video - I don't remember who was standing where the camera is. [Edit - it says that Daniel Martinez made it]. I'm never in shot, incidentally.

I think it's very nice and unpretentious. You can't see her face very well, which is a pity because I remember she looked really happy.

The Welsh Centre

[UPDATE 01-Aug-08: this milonga has now MOVED PERMANENTLY to Conway Hall. UPDATE 13-Jan-09: There is now a new and different milonga on Fridays at the Welsh Centre. I haven't reviewed it yet, unless it's shown in the links on the right hand side.]

There's a milonga at the London Welsh Centre every Friday, dancing from 9pm till 11pm, and I go there quite often to start my weekend and drive work out of my mind, so this is partly based on previous experience. [Note: for June, July, and August this year, this milonga will move to a different location.]

The Class: There is a progressive absolute-beginners' course that restarts every month; there's also a recent beginners' class and a general level class. Today, the general level class was given by Rachel Greenberg & Jorge Pahl (on tour). It was very standard stuff, especially in the method. It happened to be thinly attended because the very popular Pablo Veron was teaching at Negracha the same night, so I got a little individual attention, which was nice. A rather long sequence was demonstrated and broken down. In as far as there were important concepts involved, they weren't mentioned. You had to guess. But it was well larded with technique tips and the alert student could certainly pick up useful information. The most interesting bit involved doing a very short step very slowly and deliberately; this gives you some nice musical possibilities, is not hard to learn, and feels good for the follower. She speaks English quite well, he said very little. They're both much taller than Argentinian teachers usually are, which I'm sure is helpful to students anywhere in Northern Europe, who can sometimes get the impression that there is a height limit to tango. All in all, it was good dancing, workmanlike teaching.

What I thought of the DJing: The DJ was Fernando Moro, who is a regular there. Very traditional. A lot of vocal lines, and an agreeable proportion of milongas and valses. The tangos didn't make me want to dance quite as much as usual, but it's a matter of taste - you might have liked them more. Well-organised sets with a little pause between; there were no cortinas tonight (I like cortinas), but there always have been when I've been there before. Maybe he just wanted to fit more dancing in because of the performance.

Layout and Atmosphere: Good sized floor with round tables around, and enough chairs. Proper comfy chairs and sofas in the foyer and bar as well, which are very welcome if you want to chat to a friend or sit out a set or two nursing your drink and giving your feet a rest. The bar, with its remarkable roof, is upstairs. There is a a proper, curtained stage for the band when there's live music. Friendly to the beginner and recent beginner, with usually a good mix of levels on the dance floor, which is rarely too crowded. The room is not very well ventilated and it does get hot, but the giant floor-fans to keep it down are rather fun, especially if you're wearing (or your partner is wearing) a dress that responds to the breeze.

Hospitality and Refreshments: Very good. No food, but as much water from the water cooler as you need, free. Enough hangers on rails for everybody's coats. You are politely asked not to put anything on the piano or the left hand side of the stage. At the bar upstairs I was charged a reasonable £2.60 by a friendly Welshman for a G&T which tasted like a double and wasn't too padded with ice. The loos are reasonably clean and always working.

Anything or Anyone Interesting that Turned Up or Happened: Jorge and Rachel gave a performance. They're tall and her legs go on for ever. There were lots of interesting things going on musically and technically, but I was left with an impression of intense busyness and her making a thing of adjusting her dress, which just made me think "buy some tit tape." Maybe I was just a bit distracted. They danced to Gallo Ciego and I forget what else. [Edit: I like this performance on YouTube - they are very elegant]. [Second edit: someone has posted one of their dances at the Welsh Centre.]

Dances: It was a bit thin, for the reason above. My good ones were good and the rest harmless. It tends to attract some really good dancers who like a relaxing evening.

Admission: Normally £7 class only or dancing only, £9 both. Tonight (guest teachers, performance) £10.

Getting There and Getting Home: From King's Cross underground station take the exit for Euston Road (south side), and the left-hand side of that exit, which is T shaped - i.e., not the one signed for the library. Follow your nose in the same direction; you almost immediately take the right hand fork of the main road you are walking along. This is Gray's Inn Road. Keep walking along the same side long after you are certain you must be wrong and lost in a not-very-nice part of London, and just after you pass the office furniture place you will see a large Welsh flag above the door. The walk takes me about 10 minutes if I don't hurry. The music has to stop at 11, so all the Tubes are still running and you can simply reverse the process to get home. Or you can take a bus - the nearest stop is outside the Dental Hospital.

Website: Does the job. Gives you where it is, when it's open, how much it is, and the class schedule, and doesn't do anything eye-screwing or silly.

Summary: It's always a nice relaxing evening with decent dancing in comfortable surroundings. As you can tell from the above, I wasn't at my most alert today. The only problems with it are the early closing time and the not-very-nice external location. Quite a few people go to Negracha afterwards, and if you do you can get a discount there.

Playlist: Gustavo & Giselle in London

I've just found the first YouTube video of this tour. It's from the Dome (review here). I'm going to embed this as a playlist, and if I find any more of their visit I'll add them to the playlist so they appear here. I have hopes that the videos from the Welsh Centre and the Crypt might be easier to see because the light is better. I saw them at all three locations; all three of the performances, each of three tracks plus an encore, were magic, and all three quite different from each other.



Their own website is here: http://www.gustavoygiselle.com/.