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]

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.

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.

Tango Argentino per Telespettatori

I'm very happy to be able to present
this Italian translation of "Argentine
Tango for TV Viewers" by Francesca
Bertelli. If you would like to make a
professional translation into another
language, please email me.

Cari telespettatori incuriositi dal tango: questo articolo è per voi. Per voi che ballate il tango già sapete tutte queste cose, ma forse avete degli amici e dei conoscenti che non ballano con i quali desiderate condividerlo.

Strictly Come Dancing [l’equivalente sulla TV britannica del nostro Ballando con le stelle] è buona televisione e ispira molti a uscire di casa e a dedicarsi ai balli di coppia. Ma quello che viene presentato da loro come “Tango Argentino” è in realtà un’imitazione, ideata per fare audience. Non assomiglia per niente al vero tango. Vorrei farvi una piccola introduzione tramite dei video.

Che cosa intendo dire con “vero tango”? Il vero tango non ha a che fare con giudici o pubblico e non ha a che fare con il raccontare una storia - ma ha a che fare con l’abbracciare il proprio partner e ballare con la musica. Non è un’arte. Non è uno sport. È un gioco. È completamente differente.

Il vero tango è improvvisato dalla coppia, e non coreografato in anticipo. Questo è vero per tutti i video che vi mostrerò, anche se la maggior parte sono video di esibizioni, e non di tango sociale. Sono esibizioni fatte per altri ballerini, non per un pubblico. Tornerò sul tango sociale poco più sotto, e vi mostrerò anche quello. Ma è più facile fare degli esempi chiari e comprensibili quando potete guardare solo una coppia per volta.

Ho scelto il primo video perchè presenta una coppia che balla a un livello altissimo, in un vero abbraccio di tango, con vera musica di tango. Se tutto questo vi risulta nuovo, guardate come si abbracciano, e ascoltate la musica mentre guardate le loro gambe che si muovono. Potete vedere chiaramente come la coppia sta ballando con la musica, quasi come se i loro corpi stessero producendo il sonoro. Questi ballerini sono considerati dei superstar e sono molto conosciuti e popolari come insegnanti.


[Carlitos Espinoza and Noelia Hurtado in Marseille. Music: Porque Regresas Tú, Di Sarli/Florio]

Nel ballo sociale, quello che il tango è in realtà, le coppie non sono definite e fisse. Si balla con chi si desidera, con amici e con completi sconosciuti, e le coppie si muovono insieme sulla stessa pista, circolando in senso antiorario. La musica viene eseguita in gruppi di tre o quattro canzoni e si balla un intero set con una persona; al termine del set si cambia partner o si fa una pausa.

Nel tango non c’è un vero e proprio “passo base”, perlomeno non in un senso che sia utile, al di là del semplice camminare abbracciati. Come funziona questo processo di “improvvisazione con il partner con la musica” non è facile da spiegare e non tenterò di farlo qui. È un insieme di competenze che devono essere imparate. Il punto qui è che nessuno dei due membri della coppia ha bisogno di sapere in ogni momento quello che il partner farà in quello successivo, tutto si decide mentre si esegue. Cosa che, se ci pensate, ha molto senso quando si balla socialmente in una pista affollata e con altre coppie.

Il prossimo video mostra la stessa coppia del video precedente, però mentre sta ballando socialmente, cosicchè vi possiate fare un’idea di che cosa significhi. Fate caso a come sono assorti nel ballo, e guardate come scompaiono alla fine.


[Carlitos Espinoza and Noelia Hurtado in Amsterdam]

Se qualcosa di quello che vi ho raccontato fin qui vi ha sbalordito, continuate a seguirmi, siete sulla giusta strada.

Allora: è importante che sappiate che il tango è un genere musicale, la cui Epoca d’Oro è stata negli anni ‘30 e ‘40. È molto difficile cercare di capire la danza o la musica separatamente, dovete prenderle in considerazione insieme.

Nel programma Strictly Come Dancing non usano questo tipo di musica, e dunque, secondo la definizione di molti, i ballerini non “stanno ballando tango”. A volte utilizzano musica definita “neo-tango”, ma questo è in realtà un genere musicale diverso (anche se collegato). Ci sarebbe un capitolo lungo e importante da scrivere riguardo musica e danza che però sono costretta a saltare in questo contesto.

D’altro canto, la tecnica nel tango è molto efficace, e la potete utilizzare per eseguire praticamente qualunque cosa ballando in modo improvissato con il vostro partner. I ballerini di danza contemporanea trovano tutto questo talvolta molto interessante.

Il prossimo video usa un tema classico intitotalo "Emancipación”, registrato dall’orchestra di Osvaldo Pugliese. La musica di Pugliese è molto intensa, cresce con lentezza, e in questo video potete vedere come il tango abbia tutto a che vedere con quello che si sente nella coppia, e non con quello che si vede dal di fuori. Se non si può portare l’attenzione di questa musica poderosa all’interno della coppia, e lasciare che ci guidi, ci si perde completamente quando si tenta di ballare Pugliese. Se ci riuscite, è una sensazione intensa, di cui non dovete avere timore.

Notate come la musica cambia al minuto 02:05 e 03:05, e ascoltate e guardate come i piedi di Monica - e il suo corpo - si muovono al minuto 2:35 e al 3:00. Qui veramente stiamo andando indietro alle vere radici, con una esibizione di due argentini regolari frequentatori delle piste da ballo più tradizionali di Buenos Aires.


[Antonio Martinez and Monica Paz in Buenos Aires]

Vedete il pubblico seduto? Tutte queste persone, alla fine dell’esibizione, si alzeranno per ballare.

Se volete una guida alla musica del tango divertente e istruttiva, vi consiglio di leggere l’eccellente libro di Mike Lavocah "Tango Music Secrets" e di ascoltare la lista di Spotify allegata al testo. Ci sono dei bellissimi pezzi, sia precedenti sia successivi all’epoca d’oro e include alcuni tanghi che sono stati suonati e registrati dal vivo ai tempi nostri. Secondo me, se paragonati alla musica dell’epoca d’oro, hanno meno successo nell’equilibrare ritmo, emozione, forma, e melodia nel modo migliore per ballare. Tuttavia tali esecuzioni possono essere eccellenti.

Parlando in generale, ci sono tre tipi di musica del tango che hanno ritmo differente. Il tango ha un ritmo camminato. La milonga ha come un saltellino, chiamato habañera; e il vals è un ritmo di valzer, però [si balla] in modo più lento di quello viennese. Il prossimo video contiene un tango e una milonga, in questo ordine, e poi una clip di ballo sociale alla fine. Questa coppia non è particolarmente conosciuta, ma sono ballerini sociali bravissimi e mi piace davvero molto guardarli in qualunque contesto. Guardate come sono perfettamente calmi, comodi, e assorti e come scorrono e fanno pause con la musica.


[Alexis Quezada and Céline Giordano in Montpellier]

La maggior parte di questi video sono delle esibizioni, per un pubblico di ballerini sociali con esperienza, fatte da professionisti che insegnano il tipo di competenze per il ballo sociale di cui ho parlato in precedenza. E dunque, anche se sono esibizioni per un pubblico, sono totalmente diverse dal tango spettacolo.

Ora vi mostro parte di quello che può essere considerato l’anello mancante tra tutto questo e quello che potete vedere su un palcoscenico o in TV. Questa è forse la coppia di ballerini professionisti più famosa (ora non ballano più insieme) che qui balla una milonga facendo anche un pò di show. Questi due sono un idolo per molti di coloro che ballano negli spettacoli di tango.


[Geraldine Rojas and Javier Rodriguez in 2004, no idea where]

Ballano in un modo più vistoso delle coppie degli altri video (altri fanno anche di più e generalmente meno bene). Il pubblico si aspetta un po’ di ostentazione. Ma non c’e’ niente di quello che fanno qui che sia completamente avulso dal ballo sociale. Forse potete notare che non si separano o fanno pose. Camminano l’uno verso l’altro e ballano insieme, con la musica, fino a quando finisce.

Fanno la stessa cosa nel video successivo, con alcuni elementi in più forse riconoscibili per coloro che guardano Strictly. Il tango è uno dei più famosi e conosciuti, intitolato “Poema”. I loro movimenti - perfino quelli più marcati e i più grandi - sono soffici, fluidi, hanno grazia ed equilibrio, sono contenuti e causati dalla musica. Loro sono competamente insieme. Vorrei portare la vostra attenzione ai minuti 2:22-2:30, e 2:38 - dove si vede bene come questo tipo di movimenti dovrebbero essere eseguiti.


[Javier Rodriguez and Geraldine Rojas in Taipei]

Questa registrazione di “Poema” è della popolarissima orchestra di Francisco Canaro, con la voce del loro più grande cantante, Roberto Maida. Notate come sebbene la musica abbia un ritmo molto chiaro e regolare, il ritmo non è forte, ne’ acuto, ne’ rigido ne’ dominante. È energico, ma fresco ed elastico, come il respiro di un animale, non meccanico.

Adesso voglio mostrarvi una coppia che conosco e che mi piace molto. Ballano un vals, così posso farvi vedere di che si tratta visto che ancora non l’ho utilizzato. Vorrei che notaste come spesso lei chiude gli occhi, proprio come fanno le ballerine quando ballano socialmente, e sorride molto, ma tra se’ e se’ piuttosto che per il pubblico. Si sta divertendo. Questa coppia non è particolarmente famosa, ma gode di grande reputazione come insegnanti tra coloro che sanno chi sono. Vogliono mostrare ai propri studenti e ad altri possibili studenti qualcosa che è bello, piacevole, adatto al ballo sociale e ottenibile (lavorandoci).


[Carole Beauxis and Bernard Casas-Reales in Devon]

Non mi sembra il caso di criticare come ballano su Strictly. Non vorrei criticare la loro tecnica nel ballare il tango, perchè non ne stanno usando. Non sarebbe realistico aspettarsi che dei professionisti delle competizioni di ballo da sala e latino possano imparare tutta una serie di competenze completamente differenti e anche incompatibili con quello che sanno solo per una settimana di spettacolo, e infatti non lo fanno, semplicemente usano un tipo di abbraccio vagamente adattato dai balli da sala (gli specialisti del tango utilizzano alcune tecniche del tango spettacolo, ma ballano ugualmente soprattutto staccati con l’abbraccio aperto e dunque non si nota la differenza). [Alla trasmissione Strictly partecipano come insegnanti/ballerini professionisti del tango spettacolo]
Per quello che posso vedere, realizzano delle coreografie di “tango” che possano essere ballate e insegnate da professionisti del ballo da sala-latino che non conoscono la tecnica del tango e non potrebbero mai improvvisare. Le concepiscono per permettere al dilettante di turno di mostrare quello che ha da offrire, e per somigliare in maniera passabile al tango spettacolo, sempre che voi non sappiate come funziona veramente il tango. Raccontano storie convenzionali che sembrano appropriate, sempre che non sappiate che cosa sia quello che rende il tango veramente appassionante.

Scelgono la musica e disegnano i costumi nello stesso modo, e tutto questo ha certamente senso.

La cosa che mi colpisce di più delle clip di tango da Strictly è quanto appaiono annacquate. I ballerini non si abbracciano quasi mai se non per pochi secondi, normalmente per un sollevamento. Passano molto del tempo lontani l’uno dall’altro, o facendo finta di litigare. Non c’e’ alcuna indicazione di come la musica ti faccia sentire il bisogno di ballare con un’altra persona che è ciò che provoca la musica del tango e quello che fanno quelli che ballano il tango. La ‘passione’ è limitata a poche idee convenzionali.

D’altro canto, talvolta comunicano qualcosa di bello se siete arrrivati fino qua.

Francesca Bertelli, la moglie di Antonio Martinez (che avete visto nel terzo video) mi ha raccontato tempo fa una cosa che fanno nelle loro lezioni per principianti in Toscana. Iniziano la lezione semplicemente facendo abbracciare i partecipanti l’uno con l’altro, come potete vedere che Antonio e Monica fanno nel video - e li fanno rimanere così per un intero tango. Poi chiedono loro: “ Che cosa ne avete pensato? Se vi è risultato difficile, sentite che è qualcosa che volete superare, che potete superare, o vi sembra che questo non sia per voi?”

Questo perchè superare questo momento è il primo passo e dovete scegliere di farlo. Perchè se iniziate poi dovrete camminare abbracciati per tutta una serata, con una musica veramente emozionante (e con molte emozioni diverse), con, se lo desiderate, una quantità di amici o sconosciuti. Non c’e’ bisogno che li conosciate, che vi piacciano, o perfino che condividiate la stessa lingua. L’unica regola è che ciascuno di voi voglia ballare con l’altro. È una cosa talmente divertente che a volte non siamo sicuri come sia possibile che non sia illegale.

In questo video ci sono circa 200 persone, provenienti da 20 diversi paesi, che stanno ballando tango in una giornata di gran caldo a Parigi. La ragazza con il computer è la DJ. Io ero lì.

 
["Dans Tes Bras", Paris]

Quello che sto cercando di dirvi è che tutto questo è molto più interessante, più entusiasmante, più bello e che ha molto più significato di quello che vedete in televisione.

Se avete amici che ballano tango, può darsi che siano preoccupati che voi pensiate che loro ballano o si vestono come i ballerini in TV. Se dimostrate interesse a voler imparare, gli insegnanti si potrebbero preoccupare che vi aspetterete di imparare quelle false pedatine e scattini in una settimana, e che insisterete nel ballare in un modo pazzo, da palcoscenico, e antisociale e che vi stanchete o vi arrabbierete per quello che hanno da offrirvi. Ma adesso non farete più quegli errori.

Ci sono delle buone ragioni, anche pratiche, del perchè il vero tango non si vede in TV. Ma sarebbe davvero una bella cosa se quello che è in televisione potesse talvolta essere un po’ più informato e rispettoso del vero tango.

Mi sembra che questo possa bastare per ora. Ho scritto molto e ho tralasciato molte cose importanti. Non ho parlato per niente di come funziona l’improvvisazione, del processo di apprendimento, delle diversità del tango, o delle cose sulle quali le persone sono in disaccordo. Vi ho solo dato un’immagine di alcune idee fondamentali e mostrato alcuni esempi di grande ballo. Forse avrete molte domande. Io spero che siate adesso meglio informati.

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Hedgehog: mi piace molto poter presentare questa traduzione in Italiano da Francesca Bertelli, Tango Tuscany. Io non parlo molto bene l'italiano, ma se avete domande, scrivete commenti e farò che posso :)

Argentine Tango for TV Viewers

So, I interrupted the series of posts from my trip to Buenos Aires to work for a solid week on a video-illustrated explanation of what Argentine Tango is, for people who've only seen it on Strictly Come Dancing.

I have no problem with Strictly Come Dancing or its children like Dancing With the Stars or Ballando con le stelle and so on. But they have limitations, and we can't really complain if they give people a wrong picture of tango. If people are curious, it's up to us to take that opportunity, and if they're not curious, that's their affair.

I've made it a page, instead of a post, for ease of reference. This is a bit of an experiment. It's linked in the menu at the top ^^, or you can click here, and come back to the blog by clicking Home.

I had to cut out loads of stuff to make it not too overwhelming. I hope I didn't edit out too many of the good bits. Perhaps people will ask questions and I can blog them. It's still quite long, and has some lovely videos. I really hope it will help both people who want to know what tango is, and people who want to explain it to them. Please feel free to send the link around.

Tango Face

DanceTog:

I’ve often heard the phrase ‘tango face’ ... if a regular European social tango dancer was to use it they’d probably mean the display of zen-like awareness ... a kind of half-smile and a relaxed face ...The Strictly Come Dancing afficionado is more likely to mean the adoption of whatever expression the dancer most feels represents torrid passion. Quite apart from the cringeworthy cliche of such perceptions, the expressions themselves make me think of constipation rather than angst.

I think I said to Carole (DanceTog) at the weekend that someone I had seen in a performance the week before, had a beautiful tango face. I meant that her expression when she was dancing - both socially and in performance - was very nice to look at. It was absorbed, alert, and happy. A friend of mine has a tango face so warm and joyful that you want to bottle it and put it in a cupboard for when you're feeling depressed or cold. And I do look at men's tango faces when I decide about wanting to dance with them.

It never would have occurred to me to think of the other senses she mentions - artificial faces adopted to fit a convention.

I was chatting to another lady this weekend who had studied stage tango for a while but was now working on her social dance: she wondered about the expressions of people in the room. Well, to be fair, I said, some of them look like that because they're doing judo rather than tango. But when it works, you just look however you look when you're really, really into something.

People's tango face just expresses some mixture of concentration and whatever else they are feeling. It's pretty difficult to fake an expression when you're following in a totally improvised dance, because you need so much concentration. Whatever you're actually feeling is likely to show.

The tendency to giggle when anything goes wrong is a good one to cultivate.

People do work on their tango faces. They do look at someone and say "I want to dance like that girl - she's so blissful, I love her expression". But they don't mean by this that they are going to try to fake an expression. They mean that they are going to eliminate from their dance whatever prevents them feeling like that, and add whatever they think will help. They mean that 'that girl' looks as though she feels good to dance with and is getting the same from her partners.

I have been known to stick my tongue out at photographers going click, click click and trying to catch my tango face, they can be very annoying (Carole is very respectful), but mostly I don't pay them any attention. I'm glad I'm not so interesting that I have to go round deleting my YESYESARGH face off Facebook. That's a tedious task.