[Tango-L] Report No. 6 on the Tango Festival & Mundial Buenos Aires August 2011

[Shahrukh Merchant]

This report covers the last three days of the Tango Festival and 
Mundial, Friday-Sunday Aug 26-28, not counting, of course the finals of 
the Mundial on Aug 29-30 at Luna Park, which I do not have tickets for.

[ Newsflash: Winners of the Tango Salon finals last night were a 
Colombian couple (Diego Julián Benavidez Hernández and Natasha Agudelo 
Arboleda), with Venezuelans (John Erban and Clarissa Sánchez) and US 
(Brian Nguyen and Yuliana Basmajyan) couples placing 2nd and 3rd 
respectively, Argentina being entirely shut out of the first three 
positions! See the report at 
http://www.tangobuenosaires.gob.ar/festivalymundial11/web/index.php/en/index.html 
]

Back to the festival--some general observations first:

SOCIAL DANCING AT THE FESTIVAL

As I had mentioned, there is a dance floor setup in the main dancing 
area, which many people used in parallel, and it was usually filled with 
people dancing. During the qualifying rounds of the stage Tango, there 
were fewer people dancing, presumably as dancers in the crowd wanted to 
watch them.

Although there were often people who were proficient social dancers, in 
general the level of Tango dancing on this floor was quite poor. There 
were perhaps mostly real beginners, some people who claimed to have 
studied for a year or two but had very poor technique and yes, a small 
handful of dancers. And presumably those who did come for good dancing 
were disappointed and came in smaller and smaller numbers. This comment 
applies not just to the incidental dancing that happened while music was 
being played for other reasons, but also for the couple of events billed 
as "milongas." So save your good milonga experiences for later at night 
after the festival events end. But it was always clear that the festival 
was mostly about performances FOR an audience rather than participation 
BY the audience, so it is perhaps appropriate that the atmosphere was 
conducive to a bunch of people who know just a thing or two finding the 
courage to get out on the dance floor.

ATTENDANCE

Attendance on last Thursday and Friday was noticeably lower--for the 
first time, there were some evening music performance events at the 
smaller theatre venue that were not filled. I did notice that attendance 
seemed to be getting lower as the days wore on (but in general things 
were well attended). This changed for Saturday and especially Sunday 
since, of course, more people are free and inclined to go out during the 
weekend. The place was absolutely packed on Sunday, no doubt in 
anticipation for some big-name shows planned for that final day!

Now for the reviews:

Friday at 7 pm: I wanted to see Orquesta de Cuerdas (String Orchestra) 
Elvino Vardaro but they switched times around so I think I saw the final 
minute or two, hardly enough to make an informed review, though I did 
enjoy the minute I heard. :-)

Friday at 8 pm: DJ and VJ Summit. This promised to be interesting for 
Tango DJs (or former Tango-DJs like myself), or anyone interested in the 
music as played at and for milongas. Four or five Buenos Aires DJs 
(including Osvaldo Natucci (El Beso), Mario Orlando (Niño Bien, 
Sunderland, La Marshall) and Lucía Plazaola) on the stage were going to 
be playing their selections while people danced. Now I expected there to 
be some commentary on the orchestras or some "value added" information 
provided since it was a "summit" but in fact they merely went 
round-robin and played a tanda each, sometimes announcing the orchestra 
and DJ. Sounded just like a music selection for a regular milonga--it 
made no practical difference that there were 5 DJs instead of two. They 
could have done way more with that event, for example each DJ explaining 
why he or she chose that tanda, perhaps relating it to what had been 
played earlier, saying something about the orchestra, etc. Similarly, 
the VJ part of the event was non-existent; they merely projected a 
simulated or digitally processed abstract robotic couple dancing against 
some sort of swirling background.

Friday at 8:30 pm: Sesiones de Tango. This was another of the great 
small-group performances of "real" Tango by young performers--just a 
trio or quartet led by bassist Pablo Motta. Special guest was bandoneón 
great Walter Rios. Definitely worth leaving the DJ/VJ thing behind in 
the other room for this!

I know I said this report would cover the last three days, and the 
general observations do, but I think I'll send a final report tomorrow 
with some of the shows on Saturday and Sunday. There are some 
interesting observations that should probably not be buried deep inside 
this email, which has become long enough as it is.

So, until tomorrow with (final) report No. 7 ...

Shahrukh