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Digest from 26 Jun 1999 to 27 Jun 1999

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Subject:  TANGO-L Digest - 26 Jun 1999 to 27 Jun 1999
There are 3 messages totalling 295 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Preview alert: Argentine Tango on WGBH Channel 2
  2. New tango, old pizza dough
  3. locale specific postings





Date:    Sat, 26 Jun 1999 10:42:00 +0100
From:    Anne Atheling <atheling @EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Preview alert: Argentine Tango on WGBH Channel 2

Argentine Tango fans in New England will be pleased to know that PBS
station WGBH Channel 2 will air a triple-header evening of Argentine
Tango on Friday, August 13 (subject to change):

8pm Evening at Pops "Forever Tango" program from last season
9pm "Tango Magic"
10pm LA PLAZA's "Tango: Duel and Dance", which opens with a "Tango by
Moonlight" on the bridge over the Charles River in Cambridge, MA.

"Tango Magic"

Like the Tango itself, the one-hour special "Tango Magic" captures
the drama, sensuality and mesmerizing melodies of an immigrant community
at the turn of the century. The musical journey back to traditional
Tangos begins with the lilting, infectious melodies of the first song
and continues through the melding of music, dance and commentary by
program host, actor Hector Elizondo. While Elizondo tells the story of
the dance, the set design, lighting, choreography and costumes evoke the
different moods and periods of the Tango. Airing on Friday, August 13,
"Tango Magic" features four pair of dancers, including Diego Di Falco
and Carolina Zokalski, the stars of Broadway's acclaimed "Forever
Tango", who also choreographed this program.

Of special interest to tangueros in New England, The Tango Socety of
Boston, Inc. will host Diego and Carolina in Boston for the weekend of
August 7-8 with master classes and a demonstration at La Milonga on
August 7th. Complete information on The Society web site:
http://www.bostontango.org

In a setting reminiscent of the La Boca district of Buenos Aires at the
turn of the century, Elizondo tells of the birth of the Tango and of the
career of Astor Piazzolla, the man who created the "New Tango," bringing
the dance back to life in the 1950s and changing it forever. The program
presents the music that inspired Piazzolla, but mostly it celebrates the
rich repertoire of work he left as his legacy.

With slow, sensual moves, the dancers interpret the virtuoso violin work
of Gidon Kremer, the melodies of brilliant bandonist Ryota Komatsu, the
inspired voices of Maria Grana and Jose Angel Trelles, and Piazzolla's
own star pianist, Pablo Ziegler, all backed by the Orpheus Orchestra,
the celebrated chamber music ensemble from New York City.

Ziegler, who was the pianist of Piazzolla's famous quintet for 10 years,
is the expert on how to interpret the new Tango. An encounter in Buenos
Aires in the summer of 1997 sparked the idea of a musical collaboration
between Ziegler and the Orpheus Orchestra; that spark became "Tango
Magic".

The program is co-produced by Automatic Productions, a television
production, distribution and packaging company headquartered in New York
City. The director is Larry Jordan, and the producer is Erinn Williams.
Automatic has a diverse slate of music variety product, and is a leading
supplier of entertainment programming for network, cable and broadcast
syndication, including the critically acclaimed weekly public television
music series Sessions at West 54th; A&E's Emmy and CableACE
Award-winning series, Live by Request; and various specials featuring
such artists as Mariah Carey, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Gloria Estefan,
Wynton Marsalis and Yo-Yo Ma.

The executive producers are Pat Philips and Ettore Stratta of
Stratta/Philips Productions, who together have produced and staged more
than 30 concerts of pop, jazz and classical music including the
Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremonies for the past 10 years and From
Harlem to Hollywood: A Tribute to the Nicholas Brothers. Italian-born
Stratta, an international conductor/composer/arranger/producer, has
worked with such artists as Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett and Lena
Horne, and has conducted and recorded with the London Symphony and The
Baroque Chamber Orchestra. Philips alone has produced more than 50 major
concert events including The 80th Birthday Salute to Stephane Grappelli,
Bach at The Beacon and the highly acclaimed Merchant/Ivory Celebration
at Carnegie Hall. Currently, the pair is developing and producing The
Grand Master Series for Carnegie Hall, including Tango Magic and All
Jobim, featuring the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim.

TANGO MAGIC is a co-production of Automatic Productions and American
Public Television's Premium Service 10, which distributes the program to
public television stations nationwide.

American Public Television (formerly American Program Service), located
in Boston, is a major source of programming for the nation's public
television stations. Known for identifying innovative programs and
developing creative distribution techniques, American Public Television
provides stations with program choices that enable them to strengthen
and customize their schedules. It also serves as an essential
distribution and funding option for producers.





Date:    Sun, 20 Jun 1999 04:28:01 -0700
From:    Planet Tango <tangoman @HOOKED.NET>
Subject: New tango, old pizza dough

Shortly before the successful Congreso Internacional de Tango Argentino held
in Buenos Aires at the end of March 1999, Fabian Salas, one of the
organizers of the event was interviewed by the underground publication
Danzarin. In the March/April issue of the eight-page publication, Fabian was
featured on the cover in a Tango pose with Lucia. The tongue-in-cheek
headline reads "El catedratico," (the professor). Inside, along with the
interview, the same photo is framed behind lines, triangles and circles to
emphasize the title they conferred to Salas on the cover.

There is no name anywhere to identify who publishes Danzarin or who's the
interviewer. A phony website URL promises English versions of the interview.
The chat with Fabian Salas proves to be candid and revealing.

Asked if he always dances with Lucia, the girl on the cover, Fabian says,
"No, but she is one of those who accompany me the most when we train."

To the interviewer, the word "train" sounds like it refers to sports instead
of dancing.

"What happens is that for us the tango is gymnastics," Salas explains. "We
get together to work on movements that allow us to improvise continuously.
Above all, we dance fully aware of what we do, like a research that leads us
to specific results.
What we have generated in the tango until now, comes from a process of many
years working together with the intention to apply a reason to the movements.
We consider the tango as a dancing technique and as such having a theory and
certain tactical questions that make it a science and not a pastime.
It sounds extravagant but there are mathematical questions in the tango that
deal with the logic of the bodies. Besides, I feel that rational knowledge,
can't take away from the emotional aspect."

The interviewer is concerned about Salas projection towards an excessively
specialized society.

"One thing is to talk about professionalism," Fabian says, "and another is
to talk about mediocrity. Soccer continues to be very popular, yet it is
more and more professional."

The interviewer says that doing what Salas proposes will generate some
resistance from the people who base the tango on feelings.

"That's anecdotal," Fabian says. "The tango was born in the neighborhood,
I'm a product of the neighborhood and I like that twist, but I can't help
recognize the value that technique has on the most advanced couple's dance
in the world.
What's fundamental about the renaissance of the tango is not a feeling that
somebody who lives abroad can't feel. Why do they dance in the USA for
example? They dance because the tango represents the universal man/woman
relationship. Today we analyze the dance as language. Most people speaking a
language know nothing about grammatical rules, however they speak. Here (in
Buenos Aires) it is the same; we dedicate ourselves to do the grammar of the
dance."

Fabian Salas began to dance eleven years ago and he learned like everybody
else with things that later he realized didn't work.

"The first time I went to Almagro, they kicked me off the dance floor; it
was a time when they danced a style with very short steps," he says. "I
tried to do what I had learned from Copes: 'one-two-three and ocho,' and in
the ocho they systematically pushed me away, until I had to leave."

Fabian Salas in the beginning had very few options.

"Yes," he confirms, "and they pushed you around everywhere. If you went to a
milonga right away somebody would come close to intimidate you, or if you
were lucky to be like," here the interviewer uses the letters XX to hide the
name of a well known show dancer who according to Salas is the mama's boy of
the milongas. "He sat at the table with the milongueros and they adored him;
he could screw up at will and all was cool, but if you just screwed up once,
they would push you, kick you and hit you. I'm not complaining, but that is
the way it was.
Mingo Pugliese would tell me, 'if you take classes with me, you can't take
classes with anyone else,' and he was the kindest of all. The rest would
tell me, 'if you are going to see so and so you are not allowed to set foot
here anymore.' Antonio Todaro was the only one nobody would badmouth.
Everybody else was at each other's throat. I was in that quandary when I met
Gustavo Naveira. I thought I was number one and he slapped me to reality. I
realized that he was on the same road as I was, but he had been traveling
longer. We became friends and began to hang out together in spite of the
fact that until very recently we continued to work separately."

The interviewer expresses a wide accepted impression that Salas is Gustavo's
lieutenant.

"Sometimes they refer to me in a derogatory way as a clone, but the truth is
that I never took a class with Gustavo. Long ago he helped me with some
choreography and I worked next to him as an assistant, but never as a
student. Notwithstanding, it is not an offense because for me he is the best
dancer in the world."

The interviewer wants to know if Gustavo and Fabian transmit how to reach
the foundations or do they convey a sequence of steps derived from the
foundations.

"Our wrongly called 'clones' understand the functioning of the system. They
come from a different direction because they learn to dance the way we teach
them (sic). We mix in the teaching  what we do now and what we used to do
before, so they don't really know how to distinguish what is traditional and
what is not.
To have a guy who in three years can dance, like Chicho for example, is
something that didn't happen before. So they chastise us and they say that
we have 'clones.' But, look at Zotto and tell me if he doesn't have
'clones.' You enter a milonga and see a kid dressed in a suit, stiff
looking, his dancing looks refined, and a look of consternation on his face,
and you say, 'this guy took classes with Osvaldo or with Miguel.' Their
'clone seal' is more evident than ours. To me, dancing brings me happiness,
not sadness. I can have a look of concentration, but I'm not suffering and
my heart is not broken."

The interviewer points out that Fabian seems to find pleasure in making
things difficult. For example he rotates his hip 270 degrees when a move may
require only 90 degrees.

"Yes, of course, but as a dancer I'm still in the formation period. As a
teacher I am clear about what I teach and one of my tasks is to find all the
possibilities."

So what's the idea?

"Every change produces resistance. We are beginning to value some elements
as techniques for dancing, which is not to say that you dance better or
worse. It means that they are elements, essential knowledge that make the
dance what it is."

So what are those elements?

"As a technique of motion between two persons, it is handled as a system of
axis. The possibility of motion of two bodies in general is handled in a
circle, that is, the dance is designed to flow in a circular trajectory.
>From the moment that an axis appears, there is circular motion around that
axis. This is changing constantly and the dance is built rotating, not in
the limited sense of turning around the same axis but in the sense of moving
the axis. The axis can be in the man, in the woman, or be external to them.
Always one of these elements is the axis and they represent the concrete
motion possibilities between two bodies with four legs. This is an important
element too. When you walk, you go from a position of balance to a position
off balance constantly. Between two legs and another one you get a logic of
pizza slices, that's the reason of the triangle."

The interviewer wants to know if it is mandatory to step inside the pizza slice.

"When you mark with your body, you don't need your hands because the dance
is handled in space. When you occupy a space, the woman cannot occupy the
same space unless you slap her into it. She goes to the space that you
generated with your body, that's why she is inscribing a triangle into where
the motion has dynamics. If you are standing in the center and the woman
approaches the center, you fall unless you look for the centrifugal force.
We don't mark with our hands. We use the hands for containment. We use our
bodies very much."

Is Fabian worried about polemics created by C.I.T.A.?

"They are useless. We are beyond the anecdotal. We are doing something for
the tango, good or bad we have clear intentions. For C.I.T.A. we convoked
all the teachers. Many are not here because they didn't want to be here, or
because they couldn't be here.
The problem is that it takes a whole lot of money to organize something like
this and that is the reason for the high prices. We would like to do
something that is very good and has lots of popular support."

How can the locals participate at about $700 a head?

"We are looking at the possibility of offering grants so the cost of the
whole week would be around $200. We are working with the people of New
Direction in Culture. Those interested in grants can come to see us everyday
from 2-6 PM at Cochabamba 444."
************************************************************************
Copy of the March/April 1999 issue of Danzarin courtesy of Judit Lentijo
Commentaries and translation by Alberto Paz
Thank you for visiting Planet Tango
for up to the minute information at,
http://www.hooked.net/~tangoman/





Date:    Sun, 27 Jun 1999 01:44:38 -0400
From:    Melinda Bates <tangerauna @EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: locale specific postings

I agree with Walter.  Learning about tango event in other communities is
interesting to me.  Watching at a distance as tango "grows" in new places is
encouraging.  Asking about tango events in other communities seems to be a
perfectly appropriate use of the tango-L (one I found personally useful).
There are plenty of messages which do not interest me, and for those the
delete key is handy.  I would not make the mistake of thinking that just
because I am not interested, no one else is..... Keep sending them!  For
example, I was hoping to hear from someone who attended the tango week in
Santa Fe.  How was it?





End of TANGO-L Digest - 26 Jun 1999 to 27 Jun 1999
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