JOURNAL OF SALON TANGO IN LONDONT h e 4 0 0 C l u b

After hugely successful summer and autumn tours, the400club talked to one of the neatest, most elegant and musical couples to grace the sprung fl oors of London’s tango clubs:

The400club A: Could you explain a little about where are you from and where are you based now?JM: We are from Montevideo (in Uruguay). And now we are based in Buenos Aires. After one year studying tango in Montevideo, we felt that we wanted to leave… studying Tango there was quite difficult at that time. That was six years ago now. Then we moved to Buenos Aires and started to take classes there, and to work there. The400club A: And have there been teachers who have been important to you?JM: Yes – our most important teachers…S: In Montevideo there was Raul Gonzalez…S: Y Guadalupe Artigas. We started with them. And then…JM: Another teacher who was important to us in Montevideo, for the development of the milonga style…S: And for the musicality…

JM: Was Adrian Larosa.The400club E: And he gave you your musicality? Because for me, this is one of the things that really sets you apart.S: Yes – he was really important for the musicality.JM: Yes, but also…S: We used to take classes for musicality for dance (general dance) at our dance school – at our ballet school, in Montevideo. We both had the same style of teacher, sometimes the same teacher. And then my grandmother was the teacher of my teacher…JM: And this teacher was the same teacher of musicality for both our classes.S: And this was a great coincidence, because we hadn’t met each other at this point... Tabarez Fernandez was a great teacher of music for dancers in the National Ballet School of Dance. JM: And also in the Atelier of Montevideo, he was dancing there and this was very important for me…JM: And then in Buenos Aires, the most important teacher for us, both now, and when we first moved there, is Mario Morales. For us, he is the only teacher who can combine knowledge of music with the real culture of tango… with the folklore…S: Also with technical things about how people ‘see’ you. He’s a really good

Juan Martin Carrara & Stefania ColinaIssue 9: SOÑAR Y NADA MAS November 2011

remainder of the black population was wiped out by the Spanish and Europeans. In Montevideo this did not happen, and we still have a lot of black people.S: Now we still have a lot of black people, and if you go to Argentina, you don’t see any. The400club A: So has this helped preserve some of the black roots of tango in Montevideo?JM: Yes, in Montevideo we have another concept about the rhythm... it’s special, there is more rhythm in tango. If you go to a milonga in Montevideo, the floor will be jammed full when the DJ plays a milonga.S: And the DJ always plays milonga!JM: Yes they play milonga a lot!S: The DJs in Buenos Aires play things differently - they like more tangos, and the vals. If you look at the floor when they play a milonga, it’s just not so full.JM: In Montevideo if you go to milonga and they play a tango, that’s fine... but if you play a vals, there will be very few people dancing.The400club A: And this is reflected in your musicality... something coming from the black roots of tango?JM: Yes, all the time people in Montevideo will be drumming out the rhythm of a candombe, on their legs, on the table... It’s something deep... This is the difference. I think Montevideo is more passionate about the rhythm, about the milonga... And Buenos Aires is more about elegance!The400club A: And do you think that this is one of the things your tango is most about - combining musicality, the rhythm, with elegance, with poetry?S: Yes, I think for me the really good tango would be in the middle of the River (Plate)! Combining both things.

teacher of professionals, because he gives you, no, takes from you what is good in you and makes it bigger – so that the people can see that. The400club E: So he takes your strengths and develops them?JM: Yes very much so. Also I think he is one of the best choreographers in the world for tango. He was in the ballet, he has studied theatre techniques at the Colon, staged and directed…

The400club A: Have you been based in a specific part (barrio) of Buenos Aires?JM: No, no… Over the past year we have been more comfortable for money, but before… the life, you know, was hard – really hard, to be a dancer.S: And also we were from Uruguay…JM: And the Argentine people were more closed at the beginning - you know, when you’re not from there, its difficult to go to the milongas and make your space… But we stayed in a lot of places, in apartments, shared houses, hostels… in many places, because we didn’t have money…The400club E: Always on the move - the student life, eh?JM: Yes – we have lived everywhere in Buenos Aires… Palermo, Recoletta, San Telmo, Monserat, Almagro. You see, when we arrived there, we didn’t have much money, and one day, we really, really didn’t have much money and we needed to do something to make some money – or go back to Montevideo, with our hands empty… and I didn’t want to do this, I wanted to stay in Buenos Aires... to continue learning. And so, we just had 40 pesos in our pocket...S: Because we had already paid two months of the rent in advance…JM: And so we went to the supermarket – to buy something to make empanadas. We spent half the money, and the next morning we went out to sell the empanadas. And we didn’t sell anything… We ended up eating them and giving them away… So the next day, we only had the last half of the money left and we really need to make something of this. And this time we got up a bit earlier – because people don’t buy empanadas close to lunchtime, they like to buy earlier in the morning. And so we got out earlier to sell to people in the street – and in half an hour we had sold everything! We started like this and then we started to cook lots of things. S: So much that in the end, we had a delivery service from our house… People would call us to ask what is on the menu today!JM: This was how things were at the beginning.The400club A: Hard work…JM: But this was too hard, too hard. To go to the shops, to buy all the food, clean all the food, prepare the food… it would take all day. And in the night we would go off to the milonga. And then come back and stay awake cooking… maybe go to sleep about 3 in the afternoon for a few hours before getting up to go to the milonga. And so then we tried to find a normal job – a normal job in Buenos Aires means working maybe ten or twelve hours a day.S: He worked as many things. He is also a hairdresser. He worked as that. He worked in a toy store…JM: So we spent six, seven months like this and things got easier. Just go to work then have a shower and go out to the milonga. Then in October of 2009 we entered the Intercontinental Championship of tango in Buenos Aires and we won. We had already been giving some exhibitions in Buenos Aires, I remember our first performance in Buenos Aires was on the 8/8/2008…The400club E: And where was that?S: Milonguita.JM: It’s in Palermo, a very nice milonga in Palermo, the second was one month afterwards in Canning, Salon Canning. And then after winning the championship, all the milongas in Buenos Aires were interested in inviting us to perform, to work. Then we came to Europe (via Brazil) and Uruguay, and in the last year everything has changed… too crazy!

The400club A: Do you think that coming from Montevideo, not growing up in a specific part of Buenos Aires has influenced your tango?JM: Yes, there are differences between the tango in Montevideo and in Buenos Aires. Tango was born on both sides of the River (Plate) - in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. But I think that (in the 19th century) the yellow fever outbreak was very bad in Buenos Aires and this killed most of the black population of the city – well this and the wars (wars of independence and unification), when the

the400club Issue 9: SOÑAR Y NADA MAS November 2011

The400club: People often refer to “Authentic Tango”, which seems odd, since in reality, tango is such a mix of different things in the first place. Do you think that nevertheless, there is something that can be described as classic salon tango? Something that combines poetry and elegance? JM: There is not a book which says tango should be danced this way, or that way. That this is the truth.S: Only a book which says this is my way...JM: Tango is like a language - you can say the same things, but in different ways. But Tango is not a combination of this and that. Salon is Tango Salon. And Tango Milonguero is Tango Milonguero. Each style has one thing that might be stronger. Tango Salon might be more elegant, and can maybe be more musical, but Tango Miloguero is maybe more passionate. And also Tango Milonguero is a good tango to dance in the crowded milongas - where you cannot make the bigger shapes of tango salon - when you are in a milonga that is full you cannot make a lapiz - it’s a big thing and you can hit another couple. In the busy milonga you can dance for a minute, for one song, and you’ve just gone from here to here...

The400club E: It’s interesting that you talk about language, because I always think that when you dance it’s like a conversation (between the man and woman) on the dance floor... In the workshops you talk a lot about the time for man, and the time for the woman, and the time for the couple. This seemed a very explicit way of describing this. Could you explain a little more about this?S: We think that tango has evolved. The way of dancing is always a reference to society - to what’s happening in society. In the beginning, women didn’t have any rights, it was a dance for the man and the competition was between them. The woman was there to demonstrate how good the man was. Over the years things have changed, woman are presidents, and we have some space. We think it’s good that it happens in tango too.JM: There’s been an evolution in the role of the woman. And now that it’s equal, we like to work in tango that way too. S: It’s not equal yet - but we are trying to make it equal, each generation, but it’s difficult, because most of the times, in the championships for example, they still look at the man. The400club: We’ve noticed that sometimes, a man might need to start with a new partner - say because his partner is having a baby, and then they start with a new much younger partner - and this can lead to an imbalance, with the man being too strong...S: That depends... it depends on experience, but also on talent. Sometimes if man has a lot of experience and the younger woman has a lot of talent, this can also be very nice to watch. And also the reverse...JM : In our way of dancing tango, the couple have the most important time in a tango, but then there is a time when the man or the woman need to do something special. And to make something special for the woman, the man needs to give her time. This is like a chat. The man is in control, but the woman is able to answer. This happens in the use of the music. We try to use the music to show different things. It happens that if you practice and study a bit the music of tango, you can have a much more fun. Because you can dance to this instrument, or this instrument, and to this melody, or this singer, and to this or that orchestra. And each orchestra it is changing - the characteristic things. You can make the same step with different intention for different orchestras and different instruments - for bandoneon, for piano. And this also gives a difference for our performance. To show this theory in practice - to show the woman, to show the ability of the woman, alongside that of the man, of the couple.S: And when you’re in a milonga and not doing a show, its the same. It’s a way of allowing the woman to enjoy herself, because you are making time for the her. the400club: In the workshops, we found the linking of specific instruments to the man or woman very interesting...S: It gives us some responsibility.The400club E: And makes us understand the music much more.JM: And this comes “comes with the hand” - now the lady needs to really start to dance. Not too long ago, the lady was just the follower. And I don’t want the lady just to be a follower any more. I want a dance as a chat - as dancer to dancer, not just from dancer to follower. Because this would just be boring, like going to the cinema and asking your girlfriend “what do you want to see”, and she just says

the400club Issue 9: SOÑAR Y NADA MAS November 2011

“whatever you want to see”; or in the restaurant and she says “whatever you want to eat” and if it’s always “whatever you want”, it’s just boring. S: And this is not just about adornments... It’s way more than that. It’s a proper conversation.

The400club A: Could you also talk a little about the concept of ‘preparing ahead’ (in the dance)... Is this how you find the space, the time to give each other - by knowing the music, knowing the song?S: Yes, we all need to listen to a lot of tango. Sometimes people ask, how do you know all the tangos? And really this is impossible, to know all the tangos, but we listen a lot, and we know some structures of the orchestras and the singers... The style.. And with that you can be ahead, can hear the music, you know what is going to come - by knowing this structure. For dancing an improvised dance you need to listen to a lot tango.

The400club A: You also showed a choreographed piece in your recent performances. Is this a new thing for you? And did you enjoy the experience?JM: Yes, we enjoyed it alot - during the performance. Before the performance, I was very nervous. But, the first improvised dances went well and it was good keep that level of energy. I thought an I would feel nervous during the performance, but no, we really enjoyed it. And then when we finished, there was too much adrenalin in me... And it was difficult to bring the level of energy down. The400club: Is it easier to control the energy level in improvised dances? JM: Well we have been improvising now or more than six years, so its normal for us - whatever is played. But to do choreography is something new for us in tango. Not entirely new, as we used to do ballet.

The400club A: You had great success at this years Mundial in Buenos Aires (coming 7th in the world championship), was this a good time for you?S: Yes it was good for us. But you know, you train for a long time before - and learn a lot before, and this is good. And then you when you’re there it’s something of an anticlimax. JM: This time it was really nice. We have never won this championship. But, a few years ago people kept saying go on, enter, you can win, come second, third place. And this year we have been teaching, because we have experience of this championship, and we taught a number of couples who went to the final - almost fifteen couples who participated, seven who went the final, some from Europe. And the one couple from Europe, became European champions. So it was great to be involved with people who trust us, great to go this year as teachers and participants. And it’s important... As one day I want to win this championship!

We would very much like to thank Juan Martin, Steffi and Veronique Arnoldi for devoting time to organise and undertake this interview.

A Thing of Beauty...

Thanks to Dr Bachelor, the400club recently had the distinct pleasure of listening to original 78rmp disks by Gardel and others on this beautifully maintained, hand cranked gramophone. Such joy! A new ‘needle’ is required for each play, but what a sound! No amplification, just the gorgeous full horn. Perfect!

essentially no history of men and women dancing as a couple, such behaviour being considered immoral). In the waltz, however, the couples danced as individual pairs with the partners looking at each other and, perhaps its most revolutionary element, in continuous physical contact not restricted to holding hands. This was seen by many as shocking and shameless behaviour that “broke all the bounds of good breeding” (Geshichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim, Sophie von La Roche, 1771). It was allegedly noted by Goethe that “none but husbands and wives can with any propriety be partners in the waltz”. Quite apart from the pleasure such freedom and intimacy gave the dancers, the waltz was also far less intricate than aristocratic dances like the quadrille or minuet and thus easier to learn. In gauging the impact of this it should be remembered that at this time social dancing was far more widespread and popular than it is today.

The name ‘waltz’ derives from the old German Walzen, meaning to turn about or roll, and it was originally a country dance in 3/4 time from Austria and Southern Germany with a history dating as far back as the sixteenth century. In the second half of the eighteenth century it was adopted and adapted by a growing Viennese middle class who picked up the dance in inns on the outskirts of the capital where social etiquette was less strict than in the city ballrooms. In contrast to rural dances, the inns had parquet floors which allowed the movements of the dance to become more elegant and gliding. By the 1770s waltzing had become all the rage in Vienna. Early in the nineteenth century Napoleon’s victorious troops brought the waltz back to Paris

where it was taken up enthusiastically, and it arrived in Britain soon after to much shock and outrage. Byron wrote a letter preceding his satiric poem ‘Waltz: An Apostrophic Hymn’ (1813) in which he noted the “voluptuous” and “spirit-stirring” nature of a dance in which the man and woman were joined together “like two cockchafers spitted on the same bodkin”. Further afield, el vals was being danced in bourgeois salons in Buenos Aires and Montevideo (both then part of the Spanish Empire, though not for much longer) possibly as early as 1810, from where its popularity spread into rural areas.

Mozart had written waltzes in the 1780s, when they were often known as Deutscher (German dances), and from early in the nineteenth century the waltz became an expressive form for classical composers like Schubert, Chopin, Lenner, Brahms and Johann Strauss (father and son), all of whom wrote music to dance to. The waltz was heard in concert halls as well as in ballrooms, where it became the most popular and enduring dance of the century and the model for the development of many other couple dances.

The waltz of this early period was not the fast, spinning dance that evolved from it in the nineteenth century, now known as the Viennese waltz, a name it was given only after the development of slower waltzes at the end of the century. Initially there were several ways to waltz: couples used a variety of holds [Fig. 1], of which a closed position with the man’s right arm around the woman’s back and his left hand holding her right was only one. According to Christine Denniston’s The Meaning of Tango (2007)

Thomas Keenes tells a potted history of the waltz from the unorthodox perspective of a London tanguero:

One of the first things we learn when we take our first steps in tango is that there is a ‘line of dance’ - known in Spanish as la ronda (‘the round’) - a path along which one couple follows another around the ballroom in an anticlockwise direction. The origin of this custom is the waltz, which can justly claim to be the ancestral mother of all modern couple dances. Histories of tango usually mention the waltz, polka and mazurka as some of the extraordinary range of ingredients which went into the pot that cooked up the tango, but few give what I believe is due credit to or explanation of the essential foundations that these dances, especially the waltz, laid for tango, nor the vals’ continuing importance within tango as a whole. For example, Robert Farris Thompson’s otherwise superb and deeply-researched Tango: The Art History of Love (2005) lists just one index entry for ‘waltz’ in a book of over three hundred pages.

According to Belinda Quirey in May I have the pleasure? The Story of Popular Dancing (1976), “The advent of the Waltz in polite society was quite simply the greatest change in dance form and dancing manners that has happened in our history”. Social dances in Europe before the waltz were formal group dances in which men and women had only minimal physical contact, swapping partners in a prescribed choreography facing out towards spectators as much as in towards each other. (In Africa dances were generally segregated by gender and there was

I Waltz The Linethe400club Issue 9: SOÑAR Y NADA MAS November 2011

this hold was formalised in the early nineteenth century to make the dance less scandalous by taking the man’s hands from the woman’s waist. Until the late 1840s couples always turned clockwise whilst travelling around the ballroom in an anticlockwise direction. This unvarying rotation could induce a sense of euphoria (yet another criticism levelled at the waltz), but from the 1850s onwards balancing anticlockwise turns were incorporated. In the nineteenth century the word ‘waltz’ primarily meant that the dance was a turning one, thus one could ‘waltz’ in the polka to indicate rotating rather than moving straight forward without turning. This turning motion of waltzers was captured on camera in 1887 by Eadweard Muybridge for his pioneering series of books, Animal Locomotion [Fig. 2].

4], asked “What young man is there, although formerly most opposed to dancing, whom the polka has not snatched from his apathy to acquire, willy-nilly, a talent suddenly become indispensable?”.

Polkamania briefly eclipsed the popularity of the waltz and stimulated renewed interest and new developments in other couple dances such as the Polish mazurka. Like the waltz, the mazurka had its roots in a sixteenth century folk dance. It had spread to Germany, Eastern Europe and Russia by the eighteenth century and arrived in ballrooms in Western Europe during the 1830s, taken there by Poles fleeing Russian rule after the failed 1830-31 uprising. Also like the waltz, the mazurka was in 3/4 time (though accented differently), but it did

legs of the audience around him. Further, if a man wished to put his arm around a woman’s back, she would prefer to be on his right to avoid tripping on his sword. All these conditions existed before the waltz of course, and other dances may have used an anticlockwise line of dance, but it was the waltz and subsequent polka which established it as the norm for couple dances. From the middle of the nineteenth century the plethora of new ballroom dances would be divided into ‘round’ dances done by individual couples following a line of dance and ‘square’ dances done by groups of couples using a set choreography: an 1880 edition of the Buenos Aires newspaper El Siglo carried an announcement for a ball featuring the round dances waltz, polka, mazurka and schottische (a Bohemian dance rather

One crucial element that was a integral aspect of the waltz from the very start was a line of dance, known as ‘the circle’, which, as affirmed in dancing master Thomas Wilson’s Correct Method of German and French Waltzing (1816), “must be preserved throughout”. [Fig. 3]

One theory as to why a line of dance would preferably be anticlockwise rather than clockwise is because most men (and indeed women) are right-handed. After offering his right hand to his partner for a simple promenade, travelling anticlockwise around the room - with the man on the inside of the circle - would allow the woman to be seen by the audience. Also, until the eighteenth century men wore swords in everyday dress, the sword being worn on the left side of the body for ease of drawing, so progressing in an anticlockwise direction would ensure that a man’s sword would not hit the

like a slow polka), and square dances the quadrille and the habanera (of which more later).

The waltz’s intimacy was still considered by many as licentious, even wicked, until the arrival of the polka. This fast, light-hearted and vivacious dance in 2/4 time launched a second transcontinental craze in the 1840s that made dancing in a closed hold more widely acceptable. Legend has it that the polka was invented by a Bohemian girl named Anna Slezak around 1830. Travelling from Prague to Vienna it had arrived in Paris by 1840, where in 1844 the polka became a dance craze through all levels of French and then English society. Within the decade it had spread across Europe and to the Americas, being danced in Buenos Aires by 1845 at the latest. The Parisian dancing master Henri Cellarius, author of the most widely published and influential dance manual of the era, La danse des salons (1847) [Fig.

not exclusively use the closed position or the line of dance, at least initially. The dashing, vigorous and more technically-challenging mazurka also required dancers to come up with their own moves after learning the basic steps. Developed as a ballroom dance it retained this improvisatory character [Fig. 5]. Cellarius again: “I do not hesitate to assert that only a part of the mazurka can be taught, the rest being invented, improvised in the course of its execution; and it is this constant inspiration which renders the mazurka so attractive, so varied, and which has won for it the first rank among the dancers of our ball-rooms”. I have not been able to find a date when the mazurka arrived in Argentina or Uruguay, but it would have been by the 1850s if not before (it was certainly danced in the United States from the 1840s), where it is highly probable that its improvisational aspect was transmitted to the milonga and then the tango.

the400club Issue 9: SOÑAR Y NADA MAS November 2011

The 1850s was the decade which saw all the ingredients for tango coming together on the banks of the River Plate. In 1853 Argentina’s new National Constitution actively encouraged immigration from Europe to exploit its natural resources and following years saw increasing numbers of migrants, predominantly Italian and Spanish but also Poles, Russians, French, Germans and others arriving in Buenos Aires. In both Argentina and Uruguay the indigenous population was a mix of creoles (criollo in Spanish) - people of Spanish descent, sometimes intermarried with Native Americans - and black people of African descent, who at the time comprised a significant proportion of the population (the estimated figures vary between a quarter and a half). The new European arrivals soon

seventh century it was taken to the Americas with the Spanish invasion of the fifteenth century). This catchy, lilting 2/4 beat became incorporated into the milonga campera (country milonga) of the creoles, at the time a guitar-accompanied folk singing, along with dance steps taken from the polka and mazurka: thus the milonga as a dance - the embryonic tango - was created. This became popular amongst the lower classes of all colours in Buenos Aires by the 1870s, at which time improvised solo moves from the candombe, a drum-based music and dance descended from African traditions, began to be incorporated into the closed hold of the milonga: cortes (sudden stops) and quebradas (body breaks or contortions). Initially regarded as a new way to dance the milonga, this turned into a dance in its

The line of dance in tango would initially be a source of contention. The style of dancing in indoor dancehalls, where space was limited, respected the line of dance, using simple and smooth movements that would not disrupt it. This style of dancing was known as tango liso - smooth, or plain tango - and was the tango that travelled to Paris and then the wider world in the early years of the twentieth century. Meanwhile, porteños from the outskirts (orijas) of the city, who danced in larger spaces in the streets and tenement blocks where the dancefloor was more uneven developed a rougher, more rhythmic style of dancing that did not always respect the line of dance. Although both styles of tango had the same origins such differences were exacerbated by perceived class distinctions, with the orilleros seeing

began to outnumber the original inhabitants and by the 1890s would form the majority of the population of Buenos Aires.

The catalyst for the creation of the tango seems to have been the Afro-Cuban habanera, which was brought to Buenos Aires some time around 1850. The habanera was a recent Cuban development of eighteenth century Spanish and French contradanza/contradanse, a dance generally believed to have its deepest roots in seventeenth century English country dances. Unlike the waltz, polka and mazurka the habanera was a square dance with set figures: what was significant about it was the distinctive syncopation of its music. (Intriguingly, Joaquín Amenábar’s Tango - Let’s Dance to the Music! [2009] proposes an earlier arrival and alternative origin of this rhythm, noting its relation to Arabic music and stating that after having arrived in Spain with the Arab invasion in the

own right known as the tango by the 1880s. (Tango was therefore born as a dance before it developed as music, when the rich melodies brought by Italian, Spanish and German immigrants began to be played to the milonga rhythm, and acquired its distinctive, plaintive sound when the bandoneón - another import from Germany - was introduced in the 1890s).

The exact history, where it is known, of tango’s genesis as a dance from the mid to late nineteenth century is complex and contested and is presented here in a much-simplified form, but it can at least be said that while habanera, milonga and candombe were all essential to tango’s creation, all built on the foundations laid by the polka, mazurka and, ultimately, the waltz: individual couples dancing in a closed hold, with a line of dance.

themselves as being uncontaminated by middle class pretensions, even when they themselves had adapted their dancing after moving from the streets into dancehalls and ballrooms once tango had gained wider popularity. Even today there are some milongueros in Buenos Aires who do not always respect the line of dance.

By the time the tango had evolved the waltz had been danced in Argentina and Uruguay for three generations or more and was known as the vals criollo (creole waltz). Meanwhile, in the United States the waltz had undergone another evolution by the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Known as the Boston waltz from the city where the dance had first been introduced, this slower form of waltzing used longer, gliding steps and was associated with a change in the role of the piano in which the player now marked only the first beat of the bar with the

the400club Issue 9: SOÑAR Y NADA MAS November 2011

left hand rather than all three beats. Throughout the nineteenth century ballroom dancers’ feet had been held in a turned out position derived from ballet, but the Boston waltz is believed to be the first ballroom dance to be done with feet parallel rather than turned out. Thus in tango not only the position of our hands and arms but also the position of our feet came from the waltz.

In the early years of the twentieth century the Boston waltz became popular in Buenos Aires and may have had an influence on the development of a specifically porteño style of vals being written by tango musicians. The earliest tangos heard in milongas today date from the turn of the century - the first known written, structured tango being ‘El entrerriano’ (The Man from Between the Rivers), composed by Anselmo Rosendo Mendizábal in 1897 - but the earliest tango valses still in the repertoire date from after the arrival of the Boston waltz, perennial favourites such as ‘Desde el alma’ (From the Soul), a Boston-style vals written by 14-year-old Rosita Melo in 1911 [Fig. 6], and Pascual De Gullo’s ‘Lágrimas y sonrisas’ (Tears and Smiles, 19??), recorded in 1913 by Eduardo Arolas. (The Boston waltz would fall from fashion by the time of the First World War, but did also contribute to the later development in England of the slow, graceful ballroom waltz). This was to be a last period of wider popularity for waltzing before it began to lose its appeal in the face of further North American imports - ragtime and then jazz music and their associated dances such as the Foxtrot around 1917 and the Charleston in the mid-1920s.

By the 1920s tango had become the national music of Argentina and the mid-1920s saw the birth of la guardia nueva (the New Guard), a new generation of classically-trained musicians joining and forming orchestras, most notably Julio de Caro, who began to write music of greater complexity, stressing melody and harmony over rhythm and slowing the tempo somewhat. New valses continued to be composed and recorded during this period, but generally this was not a good time for tango dancers due to the new subtlety and sophistication of the music combined with the competing attractions of star singers like Carlos Gardel, jazz music and the burgeoning movie industry. Surprisingly, the Viennese waltz had not yet disappeared entirely from porteño ballrooms and according to Christine Denniston was still being danced in some parts of Buenos Aires right into tango’s Golden Age. Francisco Canaro, who dominated tango from 1916 to 1935, recorded several old European-style waltzes by the world-famous French composer Émile Waldteufel, such as ‘Très Jolie (Muy lindo)’ (How Lovely), which had been written in 1878.

But the vals had a spring put back into its step when ‘Desde el alma’ became Juan D’Arienzo’s first recording for RCA Victor in 1935. Compare the propulsive drive of D’Arienzo’s orchestra to the sedate, even ponderous feel of Canaro’s ‘Tú y yo’ (You and I), recorded in the same year. D’Arienzo’s pianist Rodolfo Biagi went on to further success

with his own orchestra and proceeded to record a number of the best valses, scoring a hit with ‘Lágrimas y sonrisas’ in 1941, and along with new arrangements from Alfredo D’Angelis, Miguel Caló, Pedro Laurenz and Aníbal Troilo in particular [Fig. 7] the vals was reborn in tango’s Golden Age. D’Arienzo was mocked in some quarters for playing simplistic music, and for playing it too fast, but his genius was to return the tango - and the vals - to its dancing roots, and dancers loved him for it. As Troilo said of D’Arienzo, “Laugh if you will, but without him we’d all be out of work”.

In the trinity of tango dances, the 3/4 time signature of the vals sits outside the closer relationship between the 2/4 time tango and milonga, both of which were formed by the distinctive beat of the habanera. Indeed, the poet and tango historian Horacio Ferrer does not consider the vals to be a true member of the tango family. Nonetheless, it is indicative of the waltz’s enduring appeal to porteño musicians that whilst other dances such the polka and mazurka fell from fashion the waltz did not. In this sense it can be said that the waltz, after laying its primal foundations, joined the tango once the later dance had developed.

From a rhythmic point of view the tango vals is exactly the same as the Viennese waltz, the only difference is the speed: the tango vals is faster, and for this reason we do not step on every beat of the bar as in the Viennese waltz. Also, unlike the Viennese waltz the vals can be danced using tango’s cross system of walking, which began in the mid to late-1930s, hence the dance is sometimes known as the vals cruzado. The character of the vals is often described as being the most ‘romantic’ of the three tango dances, but it as well to remember that, just as with tangos and milongas, a sweet melody can carry bitter words. With its rich musical expressiveness the vals remains a vital component of milongas today, and seldom fails to get people out of their seats and on to the dancefloor. At milongas and prácticas a birthday is honoured with a vals. This most likely derives from la fiesta de quince (The Fifteenth Party), a tradition dating back to the days of the Spanish Empire in which the fifteenth birthday of a girl marks her passage from childhood to womanhood, celebrated with a special party at which the she dances a waltz with her father, friends and relatives.

All couple dances can be categorized as either progressive or spot dances: progressive dances are those like the waltz and foxtrot which travel along a line of dance; spot dances, essentially the swing and latin families, are those in which the couple generally remain in one area of the dancefloor. Tango is unusual inasmuch as it can be both a progressive and a spot dance. While it is an essential skill to learn how to dance on the spot when the ronda is slow moving, at the milonga the forward motion of the line of dance takes priority. The ronda is the backbone of the milonga. Dancing along its line we are in a link with the couple in front of us and the couple behind us, creating a sense of a dance that

is both individual to each pair yet at the same time a part of a collective whole, especially so in those moments when the ronda moves in harmony with the music, whilst for the spectators around the edge of the floor there is the entertainment of a continuous parade of dancers, each with their own look and style. Of all the currently-popular social dances it is only at a milonga where everyone can spend the whole evening in a line of dance, participating in a collective ritual, and this is one of many reasons why tango is so different and special.

Thomas Keenes

the400club Issue 9: SOÑAR Y NADA MAS November 2011

El CentroKey Milongas: Fri Carablanca, Conway Hall WC1 Fri Negracha, Wild Court WC2 Fri Milonga 8, Hops Gardens WC1 Sat Corrrientes, Havestock School NW1 (we know this is the wilds of the north, but it used to be in Tavistock Square and remians truly a central milonga in exile!) Sun Dance Tango / El Once, The Crypt EC1 Sun Tango on the Thames, HMS President EC4Key Teachers and ‘Faces’: The latest guests from BsAs; Mina and Giraldo; Diana and Danny; Nikki Dance Tango; Ivan; Grant; Gerardo and Yvonne...Most likely to be overhead: “Ouch (as someone kicks your right shin once again)!”

El Norte y El EsteKey Milongas: Tue Tango at the Light Bar, E1 Wed Zero Hour, The Dome N19 Thu Milonga Bohemienne, Old Chomondley Boys Club N16 Sat Tango at the Light Temple, Shoreditch E27Key Teachers and ‘Faces’: Lots of young people...Least likely to be overheard: A decent ‘cortina’ (they seem to be banned at The Dome, and dreadful at The Light - but maybe that’s just our age).

El OesteKey Milongas: Mon Tango Bar, Chateau 6 SW6 Thu Milonga Poema, Latvian House W2 Thu The Bedford, SW12 Sat Stardust Milonga, The Putney Club SW15 Sun Pavadita, Hammersmith Club N6 Sun El Portenito, The Bedford SW12 Sun La Mariposa, Wessex House SW11Key Teachers and ‘Faces’: Nikky Dance Tango; Leonardo and Tracey...Least likely to be overheard: “I tried on these combat trousers the other day...”

El SudKey Milongas: Thu Milonga Sur, Old Whitgiftians, CR2 Sun Tango South London, The Constitutional Club SE22 Sun Corrientes/Milonga Sur, Roysten Club Penge SE20Key Teachers and ‘Faces’: Mina and Giraldo; Oscar And Soffia; Claire and Luis; and a host of beautifully dressed tanguros from TSL (thanks for the fiver guys!).Least likely to be overheard: “Would you like to dance” - the ‘cabeceo’ is strictly observed (and enforced) south of the river.

El Suburbios and beyond...Key Milongas: Sun Tango de Salon, Aldenham War Memorial Hall WD25 Sat Tango Victoria,Tring; Eton Milonga, Suenos de Tango...Key Teachers and ‘Faces’: Asta and Beto; Krissy and Ange; Barry Leadbetter et al.Most likely to be overhead: Laughter - once Beto gets started on his jokes...

Ok, So I know it’s been a long time a comin’... And enough of you have been asking “when’s the next one out?” to make it all seem worthwhile (or perhaps to shame us into getting our act together)! So here we are again, at the tail end of another year, but this time with a new, revamped, redesigned and restyled format. No reason for this really. It’s not that we’re trying to re-define the demographic of our readership, re-position ourselves within the market, or even react to the intensive feedback from frantic focus groups.

No, it’s simply that here, at the400club head office, we get bored easily... we get itchy feet (and that’s not a result of wearing acrylic rather than silk hosiery - some respect, please; or an allusion to any kind of fungal infection picked up at the swimming baths, gym, local spa etc. - the400club does not generally participate in any public activities requiring the removal of more than one layer of clothing). That’s itchy design feet, and, with the magic of modern technology, and the minimum amount of pain, we can soothe our design wanderlust, by recasting your favourite (sorry, only) London tango publication in super duper magazine format.

Now, we have no idea how you will react. We have ‘ran things past’ a couple of you - in manner similar to trying a new move or an adjustment of the embrace in the practica, but as ever, bringing things to the dancefloor is a different matter... Please let us know what you think. As cliched as it may sound, ‘we value your input’! The connection between us is important in maintaining the400club as a vehicle for bringing you news, views and a distinct interpretation of wider tango culture.

As you will have seen, in the issue we feature a long interview with the beautiful Juan Martin Carrara and Stefania Colina. The musicality and sense of connection between this couple made a profound impression on the400club during their recent London tours. We hope that the interview captures just some sense of how close the connection is between them - the constant to-ing and fro-ing, the finishing of each others sentences, the respect given to each others role etc., all seem to underline the important things they have to say about (and implement in) the way they dance tango.

We also bring you an incredible, extensively researched, piece on the influence of the waltz on tango from our ever diligent contributor, Thomas Keenes. Is there anything that this boy doesn’t know / can’t find out? Now, we know that the tango vals is part of every tangueros repertoire (and they are often some of the most popular tandas on London’s dancefloors), but to dance the tango vals beautifully, expressing both the rhythm and the poetry, now that takes real connection...

And Finally...We would like to thank all those involved in the creation of this issue. The400club is an irregularly produced, amateur newsletter for the London Tango scene. We do not intend to cause offence to any parties and take no responsibility for the accuracy of information, views or otherwise expressed in this newsletter. The next issue will arrive when and if we have suffi cient time and inclination to get round to doing one. If you would like to contribute an item please

contact: the400club@esharpstyle.co.uk

It’s All In The Connection Los Barrios Del Tango En Londres

the400club Issue 9: SOÑAR Y NADA MAS November 2011

the400club@esharpstyle.co.uk

PS. We are wondering about including a “readers’ free small ads” section in the next issue - a place where those of you not fully wired into facebook, twitter etc. can advertise or notify others about those hardly used, ill fitting shoes you’d like to sell or swap; that beautiful little apartment you know about in San Telmo, that’s free for two weeks in March; or the need for a dancing / travelling partner for said two weeks in March; etc. etc. But this, of course, is entirely dependent upon you... All adverts will be the same, small size. No charge will be made, but neither will there be a guarantee of publication date etc. If you are interested, please contact us at the above email address.