Another GEM from a Gavito Interview- SOME EXCERPTS

"By the way, as a professional dancer, I always make the distinction between social tango, and the tango performed on stage. One has nothing to do with the other. Stage tango is done to sell tickets, while social tango is dancing for your own enjoyment. That's why I've never understood the "ganchos" (hooks) and kicks in social tango. I always make it clear to students that I don't teach
ganchos. I would only do it if you want to become professional and you want to learn a specific choreography from me; then ganchos. I would only do it if you want to become professional and you want to learn a specific choreography from me; then I will do that, I will teach ganchos. But not in social tango. I feel strongly about that."

 Before we go any further I would like to mention my teachers, I made a promise to always mention them: contrary to many tango dancers, I didn't
have dance teachers, I had tango teachers. One was Julián Centeya, he was a poet and he was my best teacher. If you listen to the tango "Café Domínguez," the one who is talking at the beginning is Julián. He was my best teacher because he taught me tango from the inside. The other teacher I would like to mention is Miguel Caló. I worked with him and his orchestra in Buenos Aires around 1963. He would say "listen to the music, now listen to the voice of Raúl Berón, dance the voice, just the voice, now dance the piano". He directed me like I was another musician in the orchestra. He made me understand how to listen to the music and what I should listen to. These were my two tango teachers."

Mike and I are working with Vince Brust- studying the musicality in Cafe Dominguez. It's a beauty. Violins, verse and chorus in the sweetest style.

Again from Carlos Gavito
"Today, when people dance tango you can see every dancer rush to do steps. There should never be a rush to do a step, we should enjoy it while we are doing it and make it last, dwell on it. I often say this, when I dance tango, I enjoy so much the step I'm doing on that moment, that I want to make it last. The same as when we were kids and we would get five pennies to get an ice cream; we would lick it slowly, trying to make the most out of it because we knew that when the ice cream is gone there's no more! So I don't see the rush to finish one step and go into the next one. I think it's much more interesting to do one, stop, without really stopping but more like a pause and just do nothing for a while, enjoying the moment and then go on to do something else. I think most people rush because they don't know how to do nothing and that's the most difficult.
.....And that is also something that people should understand: the relation between you and your partner is not personal. What is personal between the two of you is that you are both trying to caress the music with your feet.

Some girls get fed up with following, and they want to dance like a man because they say it's more entertaining. But I say you don't have enough time in your lifetime to learn how to follow well. So I would recommend to these girls to really learn how to follow."

R: What makes a good tango dancer?
CG: A good tango dancer is one who listens to the music.
R: Is that the only criteria?
CG: Yes. We dance the music, not the steps. Anybody who pretends to dance well never thinks about the step he's going to do, what he cares about is that he follows the music. You see, we are painters, we paint the music with our feet. Musicians play an instrument and use their fingers, their hands. Dancers use their toes.

.....the way I dance is the way I teach, and I teach simplicity. Sometimes, a step can look very easy and simple, but when people try to recreate it, they can't, because simplicity is not always easy.

R: It’s easier to dance fast than dance slowly...
CG: Right. I sometimes see that the person who dances fast is actually trying to hide mistakes. The dancer who dances slowly does it because he's a hundred percent sure that what he's doing is perfect.
R: Who would you want to model your dancing after?

CG: The answer is not so much who but what. My model would be the way a cat moves. When a cat moves, you see his paws, and every single muscle. He moves slowly but he's always ready to jump, you can't catch it. I like that when it moves slowly, there's a rhythm to his slow motion, it's something beautiful to admire, and I think all dancers should try to imitate it.
R: What is your favorite tango?
CG: It's tough to answer since I've been dancing for so long. There was a time when it was "Quejas de Bandoneón," another time "Chiqué", "La Ultima Cita", and also "Yunta de Oro". I'm very much in love with Pugliese's music especially "Pata Ancha".
One of my favorite tangos is Café Domínguez because at the beginning you can hear the voice of my "godfather" Julián Centeya. I also love the tangos of Miguel Caló, each one of them. I love the voice of Raúl Berón, also Alberto Podestá. I love Pugliese and Ricardo Tanturi. But I'm not a big fan of Biagi or Canaro. These are not my kind of tango. Biagi is from the 60's, and I don't like the rhythm, it's too sharp on the beat. I prefer the music that goes away from the beat, that is softer, smoother, even looser. I don't like strong marks or accent on the music. I prefer tangos that are more like a dream, like flying.

And from me: I always thought skiing gave a feeling close to flying- the wind, the speed the steady rhythmic motion. But tango, after the Julian Centeya words and the beat of Cafe Dominguez begins IS flying.

Maybe I Should Call This MIKE'S BLOG

Mike sends me these little finds in emails when he can't sleep at night.
    From a Gavito quote:                             
"The essence of tango isn't in the steps, but in the pauses."

      Dragan finds information everywhere!

Actually, Gavito was a cultivated man, and he loved music. I think that he may have adapted this from a well-known quotation from a famous pianist…I don’t recall his name, but I think you can find it online. (A quick “Google” search proved Dragan correct. The classical pianist was the Viennese maestro Artur Schnabel, and the quotation,
      “The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses
        between the notes—ah, that is where the art resides,”
according to Wikipedia, quoted from the Chicago Daily News, June 11, 1958). It is really about musicality. Musicality resides both in the mind, and in the body. But where do we find this musicality in the dance? For me, I dance to the woman first, and not the music. People shouldn’t need the music. You step, you make a pause. The pause can be 1/100th of a second, a 10th of a second, or 10 seconds, but there is a pause, and it should be felt by the woman. This pause gives time for the woman to feel what you have done, and lets the leader feel what she would like next. The woman can influence this pause. She can ask for this pause by altering the intensity of the embrace, or by beginning an embellishment, depending on the level of her skill. My preference is when they suggest the change by using the length of the step or intensity of the movement, sometimes by changing the intensity of the rotation around the man, with more spiraling.

Now, back from our 11th trip to Buenos Aires I am dancing to the music only and into the floor.  Putting the technique AWAY. This should give me a summer of happiness in the dance for our 5th "tango tent" season.

Again from Milonguero Mike

From the book "The Meaning of Tango" by Christine Denniston

"...mastering the tango is more like learning a language than a routine."




The Meaning of Tango: The Story of the Argentinian Dance



Christine Denniston is a former theater director who has been teaching the tango for more than 20 years and was the first non-Argentinian to teach the dance in Buenos Aires.