The amazing Roberto Segarra

 
He'd be seen sweeping ladies, young and old, off their feet at Buenos Aires milonga venues, such as Obelisco Tango.  We'd shake our heads and wonder how he did it.  Last May we saw him, as always in great form at the ripe old age of 97!!  Born in 1920, he had danced to the great Golden Age orchestras playing live.  Imagine that!

However, his time had to come. We heard of his passing this month through Janis Kenyon's blog.

Here is the sprightly Roberto dancing, along with a brief interview (with English sub-titles) about his life in tango.




We'll miss your gleeful smile and joyful dance, Roberto.

It's not hard to see why he's a ladies' favourite!

Several seasoned milongueras have let slip that they simply adore dancing with him.

Just watch his delicious response to the music, the lovely embrace and how he communicates the cadences of the music to his partner.

Thanks Jantango for sharing these clips of Ismael Heljalil.

PP

Diaries from BsAs #1 - The price of honesty

From her:

During recent visits to Buenos Aires, I’d noticed him appearing at milongas, tall and usually clad in a suit. He’d dance with a few ladies, then disappear again into the night. His style of dancing impressed me and it looked like his partners enjoyed the experience, but I’d never been able to catch his eye.

Then on our first night back in BsAs, he looked my way and we danced a tanda of tango (Calo, if memory serves me correctly). Later, we also enjoyed a tanda of milonga together. After three hours that night, I decided to leave the milonga. Jet-lag had been playing havoc with my body-clock. I needed some dinner, which I mentioned when he asked why I was leaving so early. I should have seen it coming, but I’ll blame the jet-lag.

He, of course, asked me to join him for dinner.
What I said: I breezily declined the offer, saying I was dining with my partner.
What I should have said: “Thankyou, but I’m very tired after the long journey.  I enjoyed our dances. Hope to see you again at another milonga."

Well, I saw him again at several milongas thereafter.  Did he even glance my way? Of course not! I suppose I’d injured his pride with the direct refusal.

Moral of the story: Keep ‘em guessing gals!
PP

Update (1 May):  Looks like I've been forgiven, as he's invited me to dance at a couple of milongas since my initial faux pas.  But things appear to have changed.  He seems to be exhibiting some interesting bits of territorial behaviour since establishing the identity of my partner .... but not winning!

How was it for you?

Gentlemen! If you want to dance real tango, you should leave exhibitionist figures and mind-sets at the door when you enter the milonga.

You'll need to focus your attention on the embrace and the music, and not on elaborate steps. What is the point of executing tricky figures, if the connection with your partner is broken? Do you really want her to feel like a puppet in your arms, rather than a woman?

So .......

      if we dance, I don't want to be your partner for a performance.

      if we dance, I will want you to dance with and for me.

      if we dance, it will be to share the feeling of the music.

After the first tango of a tanda, some milongueros gently check with me that I feel comfortable. Such is their respect. They know that a woman cannot give of herself in tango, if she is not at ease. True milongueros know that for a partner to share her passion, there must be trust. 

Guys, to dance tango, you must listen to the heart of the woman. Cacho Dante.

PP

Territorial tendencies

Have you ever been dancing, blissfully transported by the music and your partner, only to be rudely shaken by another couple colliding with you? They appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, moving out of the line of dance. Adding insult to injury, they made no sign of apology and danced on oblivious.

Humans are, by nature, territorial animals. They can exhibit aggression when someone tries to muscle onto their patch. Milongueros in Buenos Aires protect their partner and their space in the ronda.

Of course, they are not immune to feelings of annoyance when subjected to an intrusion. In the early days of tango, knife fights reportedly took place, perhaps over a woman or due to lack of respect on the dance-floor. Nowadays, the milonga tends to be a more civilised environment - on the surface, at least.

Codes of etiquette in traditional Buenos Aires milongas evolved to prevent violent encounters, and to curb other anti-social behaviours associated with the primitive part of our brains.

When even a minor collision happens on the dance-floor, the male dancers immediately signal an apology to each other.  This happens even if the dancer was not responsible for the collision. It keeps the peace.  It shows respect.

I suspect that those who don't do this in BsAs are considered no better than barbarians.

So, how do you deal with such mishaps on the dance-floor?

PP

There's a woman in your arms!

A few weeks ago, a chance encounter with Pedro Sanchez at La Nacional led to a number of meetings and animated conversations with him. He’s a milonguero, a lovely man, a teacher, a bit of a philosopher and uncompromising in his personal values.

Some of his strong beliefs about tango, the dance, were simple, yet quite profound:
When you have a woman in your arms in a milonga, your bodies are touching. You are cheek to cheek. What do you feel?  There should be a desire to give yourself to your partner, to share with her the emotion that you feel coming from the music, and to communicate your intentions with your body. All very intimate & intense stuff.  (Of course, we must remember that it’s only for the duration of a tanda, otherwise life would get unnecessarily complicated!)

By accepting this description of the dance, a few thoughts inevitably follow:
> Embrace a partner like you would a lover, otherwise why dance with him/her? 
> Why dance with people you simply don’t want to dance with? 
> There’s no room for self-importance. We need to be open to the other person. 
> Personal hygiene and dressing well show regard for your dance partners. 
> Do you want to simply ‘dance’, or do you want to move with passion?

And now for a few final words from Pedro:

Vegetarian tango!

Do you want to avoid being treated like an item on the supermarket shelf? What's vegetarian tango?

I always look forward to the insightful chats with milongueros which Mónica Paz posts on her blog.  This time we are treated to Oscar "Cacho" Dante reflecting on tango. He's a gem with an amusing turn of  phrase, like those quoted above.

For the record, I love my greens. But when it comes to vego tango, I think I'll pass!
PP

Some holiday viewing

Got a few days off for the festive season? Like to indulge yourself in some videos?

Thanks to Irene & Man Yung, I've just found the Tangotradicional Youtube channel. If you've never seen social tango at its best, this is a must. As for those of us who've experienced some of these great milongas, you'll want to book your next flight to Buenos Aires asap.

PP

Tango lives of milongueros

For anyone interested in the traditions of tango, the interviews with milongueros on Mónica Paz and Chan Park's blog PractiMilonguero are gold. The recently recorded videos (sub-titled in English) not only convey the unveiled passion each milonguero has for tango, but also shows us glimpses of their personal history. Chan and Mónica are to be congratulated for this valuable initiative which captures some of the story of tango.

Definitely unmissable viewing! The final treat at the end of each clip: we get to see each milonguero dancing.

Here's the latest, quite moving, video of Ricardo "Tito" Franquelo. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

PP

Milongueros in action

I’m delighted! At last, I’ve found a series of Youtube videos featuring milongueros of Buenos Aires doing what they love – not performing, but dancing socially in the milonga.

That’s when they’re at their best: feeling the music, dancing with real connection to their partner; dancing with and for her, and at the same time, showing the utmost consideration for dancers around them.

They keep their partner safe in their embrace, allowing her to relax and respond calmly & intuitively. You can see the look of serenity, almost meditation, on the faces of the women in these videos. Tangopilgrim hit the nail on the head, when quoting his teacher: The most important dance is the one that happens inside us.

Don’t do anything, unless you feel you have to. And do anything that you feel you have to do. (Tangopilgrim)
These milongueros and their partners are dancing in the moment. They are both being carried by the demands of the music and all its rhythmic variations, and savouring each second.

Thanks, Irene and Man Yung (video above) and Jantango , for recording and posting these gems on your sites.

PP

Musicality of The Last Compadrito

Maybe it's the Buenos Aires withdrawal symptoms, but today I found myself dipping back into Rick McGarrey & Alejandra Todaro's fabulous Tango & Chaos in BsAs website. There's a feast of anecdotes, advice and general musing. Being a visual person, I was drawn to the videos again - just to re-visit some of those traditional milongas where the music is consistently excellent and the dancing ..... well you know what I mean ...

Despite the lure of the visual, it was the affectionately told stories framing the video clips of the late Ricardo Vidort which especially stayed with me. Those tantalising glimpses of the fast-disappearing milonguero sub-culture are the stuff of tango social history ..... and the videos of him dancing socially, including one clip showing him with his old chum Osvaldo Cartery, are an absolute delight. Milongueros dancing together at a milonga is an extremely rare sight indeed, but as young men, Osvaldo learned to dance tango with Ricardo leading, being the older male.

Vidort was a master of playful musicality. According to McGarrey, the milongueros used to play a game where the first one who danced outside the compas (the music) would have to buy his mates champagne. Apparently Vidort never had to open his wallet!

"When you dance tango, you must give everything.
If you cannot do that, do not dance." Ricardo Vidort


PP

Tete @ Practica X

Here's Tete Rusconi, a true milonguero who feels the music in every cell of his body, having a great time performing a vals for his birthday at one of the "nuevo" venues in Buenos Aires.
Looks like he and his partner are having a blast.

Enjoy,
Pat.

What is tango?

This is a question guaranteed to generate animated debate. In his blog Miguel Angel Pla quotes the great tango poet Discépolo when he says “it’s a feeling that you can dance”..... there is more thought-provoking stuff in Miguel’s musings.

The subtlety and musicality in the dancing of the older milongueros is being appreciated by many more people, helping them to define their meaning of ‘tango’. Take a look at the links to Pocho & Nellie, & the late Ricardo Vidort y Liz Haight, to see examples of how “less is more”. However, it’s not just the old guard, as Ney Melo & Jennifer Bratt’s Poema illustrates.

Some of the words that come to mind when people talk about tango include, “connection”, “the embrace”, “elegance”, “musicality”, “passion”. Marcela Durán personifies the latter in a stage performance of A Evaristo Carriego with Carlos Gavito.

Feel free to give your opinions by writing a comment to this posting, but just one more thing … consider what Carmencita Calderón might mean to the culture of tango. Firstly, watch her in a 1933 movie with "El Cachafaz", then sit back and absorb the significance of her dancing at her 100 years birthday celebration!

Bob.