FOREVER Stage

Forever Tango is currently in Toronto and this has many Tango-enthusiasts very excited.  Some of the dancers, for reasons we cannot really remember, are “stuck” in Toronto and offering classes and private lessons.  This means Forever Tango dancers are gracing our milongas with their presence.  They have been fun to watch and are very talented dancers.  However, the fact that our Tango community has been getting more excited about these STAGE tango dancers than previously or upcoming invited social Tango dancers/teachers and milongueros is such a shame.  The only reason to take classes with these dancers is to further one’s own Stage Tango abilities.  Perhaps it is true that there are many wannabe Stage Tango dancers in Toronto, but these individuals are taking to the milonga floor and not to the stage.

Learning to Dance Again: Floorcraft and The “Buffer”

(We decided this post needed editing and re-posting… here it is:)

We’re back in Toronto after spending a year in South America – 8 months of which were spent in Buenos Aires.  There’s so much to write about still… our observations and experiences of Tango in Buenos Aires, how it feels to be back “home”, and everything in between.  Let’s see when we get around to it.

While away, we were happy to hear that floorcraft and navigation skills had become issues that teachers and milonga organizers were more frequently addressing in our Toronto community.  The reason for this?  The Tango floor is a sad site in Toronto.  We did not fully realize this  until we experienced the milongas of Buenos Aires and saw for ourselves what it’s supposed to look like.   Generally, Toronto dancers move anti-clockwise in a somewhat homogenous group… at best.  There rarely exists and inside and outside track, and dancers are constantly passing each other in a zigzagging fashion.  Teachers are rarely teaching their students floorcraft skills and etiquette, and IF they are, the milongas do not reflect this.  In addition, learners/dancers actually fight against dancing with proper floorcraft skills.  No one wants to wait behind the “slow” dancer… no one knows how.

Before leaving for Buenos Aires, we did our research and knew the rules of the milongas.  We understood the seriousness of it.  Dancing in milongas where people respect your space and understand the movement of Tango was fantastic.  Dancers stayed in their own lanes, they didn’t try to pass one another (although there were exceptions – the infamous Tete being one of them), their feet stayed on the ground when there was little space, and couples were hearing and moving to the music in a similar way.

One of the biggest “lies” we heard about floorcraft was the no-steps-backwards rule (or the no-steps-against-the-line-of-dance rule).  We’ve observed this rule to be incorrect… or rather, inaccurate.  HOWEVER, there are two conditions that apply:

1) You cannot take more than one step backwards.

OR

2) You can only take more than one step against the line of dance if you can see the space and people in that direction.

One important fact we never heard about was the existence of the “buffer”.  This is the space that encircles a couple and always exists if you are dancing around good dancers.  This buffer allows dancers to move one step in EVERY direction (at a minimum).  Many tourists are not aware of this buffer and are usually the ones crowding the couple ahead of them.  They are also the ones getting mad at other tourists (or even locals) for going against the line of dance.

There is a mistaken belief that you are responsible for ALL the dancers around you on the dance floor.  However, our experience in Buenos Aires has taught us that you are only truly responsible for the couple in front of you.  When you are following all the other rules involved, the floor will take care of itself if you take care of the couple in front of you.

Take downhill skiing as an example.  If you are skiing straight in one track, you do not worry about the people skiing behind you.  You pay attention to the skiers (and the hill) in front of you.  The people behind you will keep their eyes on you.

Without all these “strict” rules and codes, leaders would be left in a man-eat-man world defending  his territory.  If you have to worry about every person around you on top of listening to the music, feeling your partner, AND dancing, you have a stressful situation on your hands.  All of this makes us realize there really is no acceptable reason why our Tango teachers and milonga organizers have not fixed this problem… (Hmmmm… We foresee a future project to undertake!)  It has not been fun having to relearn how to dance in the crowds of the Toronto milongas.  Believe it or not, it actually takes a special type of skill to dance in TO!

Who is Javier Rodriguez and Why Are Open Comments So Important?

We keep forgetting there is an unwritten rule regarding owning a blog and having closed comments.  That is, it is not allowed.  You will be shunned by your blog community and you will be considered less than human.  If your blog does not allow for disagreements and attacks, yours is a lost cause.  However, if you open up your comments and never comment on your comments (like Deby at TangoSpam), people will rarely leave comments at all, but then it is acceptable.

This little rant comes after attempting to post a comment on Arlene’s London Tango Pages.  Someone had written Arlene to ask about Javier Rodriguez.  After reading the 23 comments that followed, we felt we had a comment worth contributing.  However, since we censor our blog (other people’s words, not ours), it seems that Arlene chose to censor our comment.  We forgot that we live in an eye-for-an-eye world.

Regardless, we do feel that our comment was worth sharing and might have been useful to the individual with the question.  This is what we wrote:

Firstly, a little late on reading and commenting on this post… Secondly, we apologize for leaving a comment when we do not allow comments on our blog. We usually do not comment on others’ blogs since we do not provide the same “courtesy” to our readers. However, we just couldn’t pass this up :)

Let us begin with a quote a dear (tango) friend of ours made about Tango and Javier: “Not knowing who Geraldine and Javier are would be the same as saying you love ballet and you don’t know who Baryshnikov is.”

We are constantly amazed when people who love Tango have no idea who this couple are (were) and this is a thought we have had even before we came to Buenos Aires and before we finally decided to try a private lesson with Javier. We booked a private with him long after arriving in Buenos Aires and only after seeing him perform in Sunderland (a milonga here in Buenos Aires). It was there that we saw just how incredible and respected he is. After his performance with Stella Misse, the locals (including many milongueros) were on their feet and the sound of applause all but raised the roof!

Javier does not teach choreography unless it’s specifically what you are looking for. He dances an improvised Tango and his performances are improvised (unless it’s an OBVIOUS choreography). Whether he dances big or small is completely dependent on the space he has. There hasn’t been a dancer/teacher here who has said you should dance small all the time. In fact, we’ve been told the complete opposite: When you have the space, use it!

Javier’s lessons have completely opened our eyes to what Tango is here in Buenos Aires. He has helped us to understand how porteños view and feel about Tango … how to dance with male and female energies… etc, etc… We can completely vouch for Tango Pilgrim and Tina Tango’s comments. Javier can blow your mind and change your life with regards to tango. And he can do it in just one lesson.

Depending what level your Tango is at, relying only on a local teacher can be the worst thing you do unless you have watched videos of the milongueros and Javier (for an example of a younger Tango dancer) and feel like your local teacher is offering a very similar Tango. In our community, the majority of the teachers are teaching a Tango that is not found here in Buenos Aires.

We cannot recommend Javier enough to you, Yabotil. He is an incredible dancer and an incredible teacher. However, one must always be aware that not every teacher is for every student. If you didn’t catch him this time around, maybe next time. Good luck!

Perhaps if we hadn’t apologized then our comment would have been posted ;)  We also could have easily commented under a pseudonym, but we wanted to be honest!?  Oh well… We keep saying we’ll open up the comments on our blog one day.  We’ll finally give in to the peer pressure and be accepted by the popular crowd!

“If people only want to read your blog if they can post their comments then they aren’t really interested in what you have to say but rather telling other people what THEY think.”

- Dear Tango Friend