[Tango-L] Nuevo, Apilado, marketing

[Tom Stermitz]

On Jun 29, 2008, at 9:45 AM, Sergio Vandekier wrote:

> ""Clarin, the major Buenos Aires daily paper, called her one of the  
> four most important influences on contemporary tango..." I've heard  
> this is a fabrication. Does anyone actually have a copy of any  
> Clarin article that said this? --Chris"

I've read the article Chris is referring to, but it isn't saved in my  
email archives. His fabrication comment is a fabrication.

> I searched the archives of Clarin Newspaper from the year 1997 till  
> today and found only one mention of Susana Miller .

See the article below from Aug 8, 1999. I was first exposed to the  
close, rhythmic style of dancing at Almagro in 1996. On that first  
visit I learned the important lesson that I didn't know jack about  
tango, and I would have to work a lot harder to get it.

> Cacho Dante also started to teach that style, and fairly soon most  
> non-Argentine instructors did the same.


Where are your statistics on this?

Maybe 4 or 5 out of 15-20 Denver teachers teach or emphasize a very  
close, rhythmic style, 5 or 6 nuevo/modern (following Gustavo/Salas or  
adding elements from swing), 7 or 8 some variation along the  classic  
salon to fantasy spectrum (sometimes its hard to classify).

More important is the fact that most people in Denver vary their  
personal style, depending on the situation, partner or mood. In any  
given week have different venues: lessons, practicas, milongas and  
sometimes performances.



By Irene Amuchastegui and Laura Falcoff
Clarin NespaperSunday, August 8, 1999

NEW STYLES OF DANCE GENERATE CONFRONTATIONS AND POLEMICS BETWEEN  
MILONGUEROS

For ten years, the proliferation of teachers and schools have been  
modifying the way to dance tango. Although the change is evident, it  
has heterogeneous forms. As a result of that, there is a new paradigm:  
today, anyone can dance.

The static postcard of the milongas today, with its colorful mixture  
of "hippyoungster" and "old time historical habitues" united in the  
"ritual" of the dance, is not more than that: a flat image that rarely  
reveals something more than a repertoire of archetypes. Behind that  
frozen scene, nevertheless, an unsuspected and burning world exists  
where the old can be new, the novelty can be obsolete, a simple thing  
can be difficult, and the excessive is insufficient. And in that, on  
the other hand, all these values are in permanent change.

Ten years ago, and in a symptomatic coincidence with the world-wide  
triumph of the musical review Tango Argentino, the social dance of  
tango began to rise from the ashes in which it had been almost buried  
for decades.

It is known that throughout these last ten years, the panorama was  
modified completely. Today, hundreds of instructors shape thousands of  
dancers who attend tens of milongas. In order to have an idea, it is  
enough to take a look at anyone ofthe specialized publications  
(Tangauta, B.A. Tango), or to consider that at a single school  
(Estrella-LaViruta) there is an enrollment of 600 students.

But beyond the numbers factor, the phenomenon of the contemporary  
milongas marks a historical change in another sense: a new change of  
direction in the continuous transformation of the styles of dance  
throughout the century.

What is being favored today on the dance floor? If it is what can be  
observed with more frequency, one would say that three tendencies are  
disputing for supremacy: the Urquiza style, the Almagro style and the  
Naveira style, as the fans know them, - implying a neighborhood, a  
club and a teacher.

They are not difficult to distinguish. Make yourself comfortable on a  
stool by the bar and you will see them move over the waxed surface: a  
couple that advances with long steps, touching the floor as if they  
are wearing gloves on their feet (Urquiza), is followed by other  
couple closely embraced and whose short steps adjust synchronously to  
the beat (Almagro), and behind, a third couple that unfolds all the  
imaginable variety of figures which the previous couples can do  
without (Naveira). Adding to that, there will be another couple  
schooled in the style of Antonio Todaro and belonging to an elite with  
technical formation, that alternates between the social dancing at the  
milongas and the professional stage performances.

The fans are simultaneously protagonists and judges of the prevailing  
tendencies. In some halls, one or another one dominates. But on  
several "pistas" the practitioners of different styles mix with each  
other, they watch each other out, they appraise each other, they  
admire themselves or they condemn the others. The commentaries can be  
listened to between the tables, but they can be tracked all the way  
down to the Internet (currently a Tangolist site burns with opinions  
like: "So and so's dancing, looks like a cowboy with hemorrhoids").  
Miguel Angel Zotto and Milena Plebs led the first changes at the  
beginning of the 90's. When they reconstructed in their spectacle  
Tango x2 elements of style of the popular dance, they revealed to  
inadvertent eyes of the public, the wealth of the world of the  
milonga. Then, the halls, and the classes of Antonio Todaro,  
bricklayer and milonguero, with whom Zotto and Plebs had made their  
meticulous work of stylistic archaeology, began to fill with new  
customers.

A little later, Susana Miller began her classes at the traditional  
Club Almagro. Miller (of academic extraction) associated with Cacho  
Dante (a veteran aficionado) begun from her classes the propagation of  
which usually is known as the Almagro style - very similar to the  
typical style of the downtown night clubs of the 40's. Its less  
demanding requirements gave access even to those who were less fitted  
naturally, technically or sensitively. And it quickly put on the dance  
floor an enormous amount of new fans, generating a true leveling off  
of the dance.

Right now, the influence that registers greater growth is, perhaps,  
the one of dancer and teacher Gustavo Naveira. The faithful followers  
of his method of combination of steps and figures consider it "the  
acme of creative improvisation". The detractors, who detest the way in  
which the Naveira dancers move around the floor looking for space for  
their movements, define them as "the patrol cars of the dance floor."

Naveira himself affirms: "a single person cannot be determining in the  
evolution of the dance. That's been happening from the beginning of  
the tango, and without stop, always because of a conjunction of  
factors. Now, what is arising is a system of improvisation of an even  
greater variety of combinations. And these changes are also  
transferred to the marking techniques to lead the woman".

However, for disc jockey Horacio Godoy the future is in Villa Urquiza.  
Teachers Vilma Heredia and Gabriel AngiF3 also agree that many young  
people are focusing their attention to the floor of the old Sunderland  
Club of Villa Urquiza, where they still can watch the habitues of half  
century ago. "Urquiza is what it's coming," prophesies Godoy. "There  
is a group of kids that realized that the maximum wealth is there. I  
am not talking about figures, it's about the musicality and the  
quality of the movement. It's about a wealth of knowledge so subtle  
and complex that for the ordinary eye is imperceptible. "

The trends, in any case, hardly draw up general lines: common  
characteristics, airs of familiarity. As it has always happened with  
tango, there are so many ways to dance as there are dancers (it is  
what highly distinguishes it from almost all other forms of popular  
social dance). And in the same way, there will be so many opinions on  
the question as thenumber of people on the dance floor.