[Tango-L] IV Campeonato Metropolitano de Baile de Tango -- third semifinal round

[Janis Kenyon]

Waiting in line is part of everyday life in Buenos Aires.  There are people
willing to get up early on a Sunday morning to stand in line for an hour in
order to obtain free tickets for the tango competition.  Yesterday
everyone's patience was tried.  No one showed up at noon to hand out
tickets.  A written complaint was passed down the line for signatures at
12:30, which someone was going to deliver to the city government.  Finally,
a city employee showed up at 1:00 to hand out tickets to people who had
arrived as early at 11:00.  All 300 tickets were gone in 15 minutes.

Another fact of life in Buenos Aires is that events don't usually begin on
time.  The third round of semifinals did because Nuevo Salon La Argentina
had to be cleared for the milonga beginning at 11:30pm.

Judges were Jorge Firpo, Gachi Fernandez, Carlos Borquez, Veronica
Alvarenga, and Victor Milleno.  The evening included three rounds of eight
couples each in milonga, and four rounds of eight couples each in tango.
The judges' tables were separated to put some distance between them to
discourage conversation and peeking at each other's scores.

Dancing three milongas will put anyone to a test of endurance.  The
recordings of Juan D'Arienzo, Francisco Canaro, Rodolfo Biaggi, Ricardo
Tanturi, and Pedro Laurenz (different for each round) had the approval of
Jorge De Gouvea and Irma Barrientos, who are finalists in milonga.  Jorge
Garcia, older brother of El Flaco Dany, danced in the first round.   The
campeonato metropolitano is open to amateurs and professionals, with the
majority being social dancers from the milongas.  It seemed unusual for
Natacha  Poberaj and Fabian Peralta to be in this milonga competition for
they were the only stage professionals among those in the semifinals so far.

The music played during the dancing breaks was better than what was played
for the tango rounds.  The first round of dancers had Orquesta San Souci and
Octeto San Telmo recordings.  The latter had constant tempo changes in their
original composition, totally inappropriate for this competition.  The
second round selections began with Milonguero Viejo by Orquesta Escuela de
Tango to which Irma quickly responded--que error!  Fruta a mar by Orquesta
El Arranque with singer and Patetico by Pugliese rounded out the round of
mostly undanceable music.  The third round had selections by Di Sarli,
D'Arienzo and Pugliese.  Each orchestra has its own unique style, but so
many couples danced the same to each orchestra.  Evaluation didn't include
clothing, but the young man wearing blue jeans with his shirt hanging out
and sneakers could have made a little effort in that regard.  It is respect
for the tango.  The last round in tango danced to Tanturi, D'Arienzo and an
undanceable Pugliese.  One young couple in this round hadn't read the rules
and were surely eliminated for their ganchos.

Seven couples in milonga and eight couples in tango were announced as
finalists.  Five couples are finalists in both milonga and tango, including
Jorge Garcia (El Flaco Dany's brother).  Need I mention that Poberaj and
Peralta are finalists in milonga.   One more semifinal round to go on
Wednesday.