[Tango-L] Villa Urquiza Style

[Sergio Vandekier]

***"How about telling us in your words what defines Estilo Villa Urquiza. The videos you reference are nice, but I've never seen anyone dance like that at a milonga in Buenos Aires. So is Villa Urquiza style tango for the stage? Mel"

Mel, How about re-reading my initial note to get answers to your question.  **What I am saying here is my own opinion, others may have a different one.**

I am not planning to follow any arguments on this subject .

I said clearly this style is for social dancing and for stage. I provided videos of social dancing and exhibitions so that you could appreciate the style of tango in all
its beauty. Somebody else provided many videos showing social dancing. Like in any style you have those that are poor dancers, those that are mediocre and those that excel.

***"It is very demanding on the woman. I have seen variations of Villa Urquiza in some of the milongas, and always danced by people who are older than 70. It is not taught here. Probably never was except by uncles or brothers or cousins"


IMO it is not demanding, you need to know how to dance tango, that is all. I wonder how many times you went to tango lessons at Sin rumbo or at Sunderland.

***"Would you tell us some of the pointers that Nito and Lampazo gave you? It would beinteresting to see what they felt was worth noting. mil gracias"

Lampazo and Nito emphasized the need to walk with elegance. When I started to take private lessons from Lampazo, he made me walk, just walk, the long Sin Rumbo dancing floor for about one week. I had to walk toe first, in a line, external rotation of the leg (30degrees), caressing the floor with the toes, keeping a narrow line, brushing heels and knees together as one foot passed the other. While keeping an erect position of the torso, with forward lean and looking at myself at the mirrors on the walls.

Nito taught the same walk, both advised to practice this walk at home every day, the same as Osvaldo Zotto.

Summary: you can dance Villa Urquiza style just walking or with all the embellishments available to tango, or anything in between.

If this seems to be a broad description of tango to you, I agree, it is as broad as the real tango was and still is. The other styles are variations of this root form,

variations that select certain moves, or modifies them, to adapt the dancing to diverse circumstances. (Lack of space, keeping the torsos together all the time,

simplification of moves so that more people can dance easily. Selection of moves for surprise or great expectacularity such as tango nuevo, modification of moves to achieve the maximum of elegance such as in Tango Elegante,(Orlando Paiva), etc, etc,.  

The name changed with time, Villa Urquiza used to be the mother or root tango from where the other styles developed.  There many styles, everybody dances his own style, the styles known are groups of people that donce similarly but not exactly the same way.


This type of tango remained somewhat more like tango was danced in the forties.

You can take lessons at Sin Rumbo or at Sunderland, where you will find people of all ages and not only old people.

Best regards, Sergio

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