The Tango Arts Magazine number 3 | june 2021 | Bimonthly Edition

AGUAAGUAFFUERUERTTESES TTANGUERASANGUERAS 1 editorial - edition number #3

I want to begin this editorial by paraphrasing Allen Ginsberg’s depositaries of a technical, moral and absolutist integrity that poem ‘Howl’. nobody granted them, more than themselves. I have seen people who in their beginnings approached this culture with ‘I have seen the best dancers, musicians, djs and organizers of apparent humility. Then, as the years went by, taking a step out my generation consumed by their own ego.’ of the anonymity to which they were destined, they became the new idols of a supposed non-existent reign that they self- Yes, in 22 years of participating, in one way or another, in this managed. And they did it by convincing (deceiving) a public merry-go-round called tango, I have seen things that many of that follows them (whether in their neighborhood, town or city) you cannot imagine (another crude citation). But nothing so of a truth that in the end was not valid. They invested not only serious or so rude as to say - oops, this is too much! It all falls money but also time in themselves. within the normal canons of human behavior and happens in all environments, but...We are almost to the point. With time, his entourage - we are not all fools forever - discover him, in his limits, in his arrogance, in his mediocrity, whether We must not fall into generalization, there are exceptions that human or technical. The same public that used to adore him, are not rare. Tango, with its generosity, has given exacerbated now sees him as a friend they are fond of. That same public prominence, through an insistent self-promotion (through the that entered tango for various reasons and wants to continue different social networks) to characters in this labyrinth, continues trying to of innate mediocrity, as well as to others grow, trying to develop, trying to of great talent. The latter with well- invent itself, and not to be a puppet in deserved recognition of their talents, the hands of some, consumed by ego. be they in dance, music, organization or simply playing music. I remember an anecdote, many years ago. At a dinner, a well-known tango That is where the distinction between character who could be a dancer, dj being a professional and an amateur or organizer, all the time we were comes in. Difficult dichotomy. There sharing the table, he did not stop is an important sector of the public talking, not only about his technical that when they enter this world, skills, but above all about how much sometimes dark, sometimes bright, the world of tango had to thank him. which we call ‘beginners’, does not At one point he started talking about have the necessary elements to fame, “his fame”, and he was insistent distinguish between one and the other enough to the point of being irritating. (professional or amateur). Clearly In my umpteenth glass of wine, or many do not ask themselves about this amaro, I don’t remember, was when distinction, since the reasons that lead the respect passed me by, and I told them to learn a dance such as tango him: “What fame are you talking are the most varied. From plain and about? If we leave this restaurant simple socialization, to the search for a now, there are hundreds of people job (which many disguise as “passion”). in the street and nobody will look A famous Argentine proverb says “The at you, you’re just one more idiot in fault is not of the pig, but of the one the crowd. If you want to talk about who feeds it”. fame, look at Mick Jagger, Monica Bellucci, George Clooney. These are As I said at the beginning, in these years people who can’t go out on the street I have seen many things, from those because of the number of fans who who have created their own ranch as recognize them, and who won’t stop if it were a sect, those who threaten asking for autographs or selfies. That competitors, those who denigrate their is fame, and that fame leads you to peers, those who denounce alliances to live a life that neither you nor I ever shit on others, and the list could go on, dreamed of”. Needless to say, that it is quite long. But exposing the other character never spoke to me again. side of the coin, I have also seen great artists, dancers, djs, musicians and In spite of the fact that in the last 10 organizers finally consumed by their years tango is living an international own ego. relevance it never had before (in my opinion a new “Golden Age”, either Let’s digress here. Without going because of the orchestras, or dancers, into psychological merits that do not with events that go from Alaska to concern me, I want to go into what is Hong Kong), there is something that the “Ego”, and I will go for the simplest, can lead it to its own decadence, the commonplace. and it is what was present before the pandemic, the ego, the one that Ego is like cholesterol, there is a good creates disasters, not the healthy one and a bad one. The good one and creative one. Just as the ego can allows you to do things, it gives you courage, the necessary create, it can destroy. At least we could handle this “virus”. Let courage to go on stage, to paint a picture, to compose a us not fall into its trap, something has changed in the world, we song, to model a sculpture or to invent a dish. The bad Ego, had more time to reflect, to develop ourselves internally. Let’s on the other hand, is destructive, manipulative, generates not let it consume us. Let us allow our ego to play, to create, banal problems, distorts, confuses and places you in useless to invent, to have fun and without much thought we will obtain competitions. It sets up schemes of success that have nothing achievements never imagined. to do with the creative act or with the true nature or essence of creating something. (Thanks Tute) Colorín colorín colorado this story is not over yet.

Back to what I was saying. I have seen great blah blah blah J.V blah... who, through their supposed superiority, look at the world (of tango) from a pedestal that they themselves built, The management is not responsible for the opinions expressed and try to make their entourage believe that they are legitimate by its collaborators. La Catedral © Martin Malamud IndEX #3

P. 3: Editorial by La Redacción Edition N° 3 /June 2021 P. 5: INDEX. Editor: Jorge Vacca P. 7: A LO CHICHO by Mariano “Chicho” Frumboli.

Translations: Monica Maria Fumagalli (Ita- P. 10-11: FASHION: Blonde & Brunette by Alevtina Silaeva. lian), Alevtina Silaeva (Russian), Sofia Galanaki (Greek), Suria Lopez Echeverria (English). P. 12: “Gran Tango” by Carlos Alonso.

Graphics and Layout: Gonzalo Parada P. 13: TANGOURMET by Carlitos Espinoza. P. 14-15: THE IMPOSTOR’S PLUMB by R.R. Barrios. Style Editor (Spanish): Diego Amorin Pages 16-18: Mandrágora Porteña. Interview to Matías EDITOR Mauricio by Diego Amorin.

Legal Headquarters P. 21: VEGANISM by Lucila Cionci & Joe Corbata. P. 22-23: I am not Milonguero by Ricardo Shoua- PINTA BRAVA SRL Illustration Pablo Lobato.

Paraguay 1307 2nd Floor, of 24 P. 25-27: IN TRIP: Tango in Russia by Fernando Sanchez & Alevtina Silaeva.

BUENOS AIRES Argentina P. 28: “Silence” by Enrique Ringa. Cover illustration: Carlos Nine P. 29: Queer Tango by Mariana Docampo. P. 30-31 RECOMMENDED. Books and Music Carlos Nine was an Argentine cartoonist, painter and sculp- tor. P. 32: INCLUSION. Tango Fog Interview to Emiliano Naticchioni by Jüri Lehm. Between 1983 and 1990 he drew countless covers for Humor magazine, directed by his colleague Andrés Cascioli. P. 33: TWO TO TANGO: El Abrazo by Ariadna Naveira and Fernando Sanchez He drew for the magazines Fierro, L’Écho des Savanes, Il Grifo, Co & P. 34-35: BATIENDO LA POSTA. El Chino Laborde Co, Noticias and the US, Argentine and Italian editions of Playboy. His interviews Adriana Varela drawings appeared regularly in the newspapers Clarín and Le Monde. P. 36-38: SAY NO MORE. Interview with Miguel Angel He illustrated the first editions of Zotto and Daiana Guspero by Georgy Korovin. Crónicas del Ángel Gris and El libro del fantasma, by Alejandro Dolina. In P. 39-41: The Violent Office of Dancing by Pamela Damia France he edited, among others, the books Crímenes y Castigos (1991) P. 42-43: DJ WORLD. Interview with Yatma Diallo by and Fantagas (1995), with his own Jorge Vacca texts and drawings.

In 2005 he saw published an adapta- tion of chapter 16 of the first part of Don Quixote in the collective work Lanza en astillero.

Regarding an article exploring the nature and particularities of his work, Nine observed in early 2009:

“When you turn the corner and run into a unicorn, there’s nothing you can do, it’s a unicorn. [...]. My work enjoys and suffers from the same singularity as my land. I was not born from a cabbage; I am the result of this particular culture. I am as original or detestable as my country, and I take on that loving responsibility.”

In 2012 Carlos Nine received the Konex Platinum Award as the most outstanding illustrator of the decade in Argentina.

Street Art by Nafir -Teheran- Iran 5 6 a lo chicho

believe that there are many terms, from past times, and defini- but because it was already happening before. Itions, to name the different movements, elements and techni- ques within tango. Beyond the feeling they can transmit, and that Perhaps it is a new era for all of us in which we learn once and for they can hardly be translated, terms such as: “soltada”, “sacada” all to be human, with feelings of solidarity without conditions. Still, and so many others, were invented for their effect. Let’s remem- here we are, and we will continue to move forward, and to put our ber that the conjugation would be “suelta” or “yo saco - ella/el chests in front of bullets. We continue growing, learning and evol- saca”. But verbalizing words today is part of languages in general: ving. That is why tango is not left behind, and even if it is minimal, “googlear”, for example, which the Real Academia Española does the evolution reached the movement, a new form and expression not yet recognize. But this would be getting into neologisms that was installed. It took a long time but it arrived and I don’t think any would divert me from the reason for my writing. To call “molinete” pandemic can beat it. to the turn, “vollea” to the boleo, “castigo” to what became bo- We have to let time give the tango vocabulary that same evolu- leo later on, “mordida” to the rubbing of feet in turning tackles or tion, without forcing it. Giving it “strange” names to make the di- occasional stops, and a number of names that we still use today, fference between maestros is part of the same insecurity of which are part of the history, tradition and folklore of an era that we can I have already spoken a little, and I will speak about it some other hardly continue to live. Rather it is reproduced, imitated and tried, time. We, the true teachers, must unite, but not from a ridiculous from the image, to be “more tango”, it seems to be what people political mobilization, but for the tango itself. are looking for. But as I have said before, tango is unstoppable and its evolution is not alien to us. And I am grateful to whatever It gave us so much and we owe it so much! it is, that this evolution has been generated in these last decades. I know it is a utopia to reach an agreement among the thousands It went from being a popular dance in a city to being the center of festivals in the most important cities of the world and even in of teachers that exist in the world. An impossible dream. I have the most remote ones. To be able to understand that tango exists seen many teaching videos, and seeing the number of ways in everywhere, is part of the spiritual force that we live today. Let’s which they teach, for example, a colgada, gives me the feeling that say that in a world in which the seas are being sabotaged, infec- the road to union is going to be very long. So long that neither I ted with our own garbage, in a world of mafias that control the nor all these people are going to see it. We are not eternal. Maybe lives of the weak, a world where children have only an uncertain in 70 or 100 years tango will speak of this historical moment that future, where the elderly are not respected for what they did for many are going through. So why worry about it today? us, where injustice is common currency and the screen of some “device” becomes essential to our lives, what tango gives us, is The message is and will always be the same, tango is unique in its that contact, almost like the caress needed at the end of each day. form and expression. Let’s not fall into the trap. Appearance is the least of it. It is stronger if we go into the background to be able to Contact that fills, that accompanies, that moves and contains; it dialogue and tell our partner, without words, just traveling with this doesn’t matter how it is, as long as it is to feel in that contact. Life music as a pattern of union and pleasure. has become empty, distant, full of appearances and values that have been lost. And I say this not because of the global pandemic, Hugs to all of you!

7 8 9 fashion Blonde & Morena Tango Dress “WE BELIEVE IN THE HARMONY OF BEING YOURSELF” Interview with Katerina Zak & Gala Gardari

by Alevtina Silaeva

Blonde&Morena”: behind this laconic pseudonym hide two “young women from Yekaterinburg, a large industrial city located in the central-western part of Russia. Strong and determined, with a long background in dance and a solid university education, they look at the world in a broad way, studying and recognizing themselves through the prism of new experiences, searching for the possibilities to realize their desires. Adept at femininity and freedom, they created their brand to show who they are without thinking about business. Named in Buenos Aires with their nicknames due to the contrast of their appearances (Gala is brunette and Kati is blonde), they took inspiration based on it for their collections. That’s where we started the interview.

Tell us a little about your experiences in Buenos Aires.

We only wanted to make comfortable clothes to go to the milongas, first of all we thought about our own needs. One summer we went to Buenos Aires and all the time we wore a tube skirt, we liked its versatility, because you could change the top and go with this look for a walk, to dinner with friends and then end up at the milonga. The collections made for Buenos Aires don’t have any difference with the others, we simply create the things we would like to wear ourselves. Maybe we used less velvet because it is too heavy a easy to wash. The dress has to be your second skin, to be part material for the 30 degree heat at night, so we used lighter fabrics of you and not a “piece of design”. Rubia&Morena for us is art, and bright prints, lots of colors. the continuation of Katerina Zak and Gala Gardari, what we are in tango and in life. We admire the people who managed to take Buenos Aires gave us a lot, or rather, its women: nothing compares their tango clothing brand to the level of business, but for us this to the love of an Argentinean woman for herself and her ability to was never the goal, we make tango dresses because we can’t not accept herself. The Argentinean tangueras proved to the whole make them. world that a pencil skirt can look good on any woman, not only on the skinny ones. What is your source of inspiration?

What does Rubia&Morena mean to you? A painter we know once said “You ask me, what is the muse for you? Maybe it’s a falling leaf, or the child laughing or crying, For us it is the way to express our vision of beauty, to materialize anything can be a muse”. our ideas of harmony in a feminine image. The idea that tango clothes can also serve in normal life has always been a flagship for Inspiration can come from the most unexpected place, it can be us. Tango, just like fashion, is a cultural fact based on the context the combination of the colors of a building or the name of the of life, of the times, of social values. Rubia&Morena for us is life, and fabric, or the color. Imagine what it is like to dance knowing that so is tango. We do what we love. you are wearing a dress made of “angel skin” colored “lark in the dawn”. It’s not the same as a piece of yellow fabric. It’s a different What we like most in the process of creation is to see how the feeling. We are inspired by the great women of fashion and art, image is filled with life, with harmony, to see the smile of our happy Diana Vreeland, Coco Chanel, Diane von Fürstenberg and many client and to hear: “I liked it very much”. When the woman sees her more. But first and foremost are always our customers. Once we beauty, she becomes a happier creature in the world! And we like created a dress in one evening. The lady needed a dress to go to to give them this feeling. In this we see our mission and the way to the opera in Vienna. One day before traveling she realized that be useful to the world. she had everything: shoes, bag, accessories except the dress - it’s very feminine! And well, as one woman understands the other, we We are always the ones who talk to each customer, we buy the came to produce it and deliver it from our city directly to the airport fabrics, we control the production process. We create the dresses in Moscow. It is very inspiring, to make a tango dress not for the and dance in them. We are our most demanding customers: we milonga, but for such a remarkable event (which later, obviously, test each new model in different situations, we adjust the molds, went to the milonga as well) We have a lot of such stories! we look for the ideal cut height, we test the fabrics so that they are not too hot, so that they do not wrinkle, so that they are What can you say about men’s fashion?

10 Generally we like to work with women’s fashion, because women, so we run all ideas through us. Maybe that’s why we haven’t How do you see the future of tango from an economic and created a collection for men until now. Before the pandemic there cultural point of view through the prism of fashion? was no occasion for that. Fashion in general is a reflection of social trends. And tango too, Katerina: “In the period of quarantine, my partner Max Izvecov it is not a dance that exists only in the milonga. For example, moved from Moscow to Yekaterinburg. Realizing that the lockdown the clothes that are produced for professional ballroom dance would be long, he started to think about how to create costumes tournaments do not leave those dance floors. However, with the for him, as he has several specialties. Then I got carried away with dresses that we make for tango, a woman can wear it to work, to that idea too. I love fabrics, textures, color combinations, so little a meeting, an event, and also to dance. by little we began to experiment. The idea was always the same: the costume does not have to be used for disguise, it has to be The main fashion trend now is maximum comfort, simplicity, and part of the daily image of a person, to be able to wear it both in the clearly respect for the environment. The same principles are valid milonga and in life”. also for tango, since it is a big part of our life. Why buy a dress if you can wear it only for one occasion? Clothes have to be versatile, Who knows where these experiments will lead us? In the meantime and reflect the personality of the person who wears them. we continue to do what we love, to create clothes. Now many small brands that produce clothes (not for tango), do not work with mass production to avoid excesses of garments that How did you get through the pandemic? nobody buys. From an environmental point of view it is much more responsible to work with pre-orders. We fully support this idea, we In the first few months, when you could only go out to buy food don’t have a lot of ready-made clothes, even though it is not very or throw out the garbage, we had a tide of orders. We thought profitable economically because people don’t like to wait. no one would need new dresses for tango since there were no milongas, tournaments or other events. Instead, we discovered What advice can you give to tangueros? that a woman always needs a new dress, especially when she has nowhere to wear it. So, we were creating dresses for our clients Harmony is when there is no contradiction between what you do, and for ourselves as well. We would do the photo shoots at home how you dress, or how you dance and what you are. And that is going out to take out the garbage in a velvet dress, with heels and what we wish for each person and each tanguero, to find harmony. a mask. The new dress became the symbol that we will get back to getting pretty, dancing, hugging and that everything is going Rubia&Morena to be okay. Katerina Zak & Gala Gardari

11 CARLOS ALonso

Carlos Alonso (b. Tunuyán, Mendoza; February 4, 1929) is an linked to the commercialization of meat, source of wealth. Argentine painter, draftsman and engraver. Representative of the social current of art in his country. He presents dense and colorful “One of the most popular and renowned artists of his country”, Alonso acrylic brushstrokes. resorts to meat as a symbol of the ruling class and the violated human body. He lived through the military dictatorship and lost a daughter. He continued working, going into exile and allowing himself all his The wounds of the dictatorship, the tortures, the disappearances energy and way of understanding life to be transmitted to his works, during the military regime are present in the neo-figurative or neo- sometimes difficult to understand because they are very personal. expressionist works of this creator who bets on political commitment, without undermining the eroticism that permeates part of his Painting has the immediate capacity to transmit “the truth” of an production. Alonso himself lived in his own flesh the drama of the artist, that is to say, one can clearly see the authenticity of a work, dictatorship. After a very critical exhibition, he had to go into exile how much he has put of himself in painting it. and his daughter Paloma was “one of the 30,000 people” who disappeared at the hands of the military between 1976 and 1983.

Carlos Alonso’s technique is acrylic, using fast drying, which allows With the arrival of democracy, Alonso returned to Argentina and him to incorporate greater chromatic ranges and transparencies. A “spent two or three years painting landscapes because he could not technique that also gives much room for other mixed techniques, approach the human figure, feeling that he was putting the victimizer adding drawing and collage (especially glued paper). and the victim on the same level”. Already in the works of the last period represented in the IVAM exhibition on view until April 24, the An example of this is the work Gran tango, where half-naked women artist alludes directly to the disappearance of his daughter with a “dance a tango in a slaughterhouse, in a butcher’s shop”, in a crisp style, while denouncing “the great national stigma of Argentina, pessimistic and bleeding atmosphere, far from the original optimism which is the violence of power over men”.

12 TANGOURMET “The kitchen, something very personal that is cultivated over time” by Carlitos Espinoza

(Carlos Espinoza is an Argentine dancer and teacher. His dance style is based on the tango milonguero. He teaches tango at various tango festivals around the world).

nce I was making pizza with mom’s recipe, it was my first pan, no hot or cold dishes, scrambled eggs are eaten from the pan Oattempt. I called her and asked her what temperature I should with pieces of toasted bread and with the hand, especially the yolk set the oven at. The answer was sublime, “turn on the oven, put should be juicy. Sometimes simple things made with dedication your hand in and when it is ready for pizza, put the dough in”. I are usually a delight, on the other hand I believe that a little more think this is a faithful image of what cooking is for me, something elaborate cooking should have the same dedication, I am a faithful very personal that is cultivated over time. Time gives you those believer that good cooking takes time. tricks that grandmothers have when it comes to cooking, like when you see them cooking and you turn around, they put dirt or During the first wave of the pandemic I was in France. Like who knows what enchantment that makes everything so delicious, everyone else, I imagine, we started to have a little time to spare, you wonder how they make it so tasty. In the end, I think it’s all a so I decided to share my passion for cooking. The slogan was matter of habits acquired over time. Trial and error. How to make scrambled eggs for example. First the oil, then the salt, don’t put it simple, it should not exceed the 15 euros budget and there were at the end. Then make them as if they were fried, leaving the yolk 3 of us at home. Just to prove that you can eat very tasty food untouched, you start to stir the white, as if it were scrambled but without spending a fortune. The kitchen is for the eyes, so it also only the white. When it is done, only at the end you break the yolk, had to look good, a few times I exceeded my budget, but they it takes only a few seconds, because the yolk does not have to be were the fewest. I think it was a lot of fun, I invite everyone to overcooked. Keep in mind that the pan is hot, so when you take play around in the kitchen mixing things up, as it’s the beginning it off the heat it will continue to cook. They are served from the of everything! Bruschetta Di Sarli (sober, elegant, colorful, appetizing from the first bar)

First step: - Cut the tomatoes and the red onion cut into small square cubes, (twice as much tomato as onion). It is better to wash the onion with warm water after cutting it to remove some of the acid. - Put it in a bowl and add salt, a pinch of black pepper, paprika or some other smoked chili bell pepper that is not too strong, a squeezed lemon, pisco or aguardiente, a spoonful, and a little parsley. Cover and take it to the refrigerator to let it rest for a while. - Separate the juice from a tomato in a deep dish.

Second step: - Grate lemon until you have about 3 large spoonfuls, in a small bowl mix with three large spoonfuls of black sesame and two spoonfuls of olive oil, and set aside also to rest.

Third step: - Cut the bread into slices to taste, if possible large. - In a frying pan put vegetable oil and 3 cloves of garlic without cutting, just crushed with a knife, let the oil absorb the garlic, dip the bread on one side only in the tomato juice that we had prepared. - Fry the bread on both sides, it is usually a little loose, so we put it in the oven to toast, or in a toaster. - In the meantime grind an avocado. - Take the bread out of the oven, and spread plenty of avocado on the toast, place a layer of the salad we have in the refrigerator on top. Then season with the lemon zest and sesame that we had prepared.

13 the impostor pen

by R.R. Barrios HOW MUCH TANGO DOES APRIL HAVE?

* April Sundays are always yellowish, early in the morning they set sail for the memory, they take you by the lapels they adjust your scarf or take you in your pajamas to your distant years and invite you, evoking to start the journey...

From eight to ten in the morning (at most, until eleven o’clock) I go out to study the colors (without making too much noise because uncle Carlos sleeps) they are of a tawny sun tone, between straw and bronze, as if they were hesitating between lemon and raspberry, tangerines or cinnamon, grandma’s tea! we are already going to her house, those are the given tones as long as it doesn’t rain...

“You remember, brother, what times those were! Twenty-five years, that will never come back! Twenty-five Aprils, to have them again! if when I remember, I start to cry...” (“Tiempos viejos” 1926 Canaro/Romero)

“The rain of an April that was a lullaby of song, that saw the night of that lover. So pale of moon I dreamed of you, that my pain in shadows, perhaps I was waiting for you...” (“Lluvia de Abril” 1945 Francini/Centeya) ** From ten to twelve o’clock (stretching until one o’clock) the sidewalk all golden, the lighted hopscotch, where my neighbor plays, the one with the golden braids, and a little waltz is danced between earth and sky, and it was the amber in her face with the honey of her little hairs

14 without blushing I fell in love. **** And when the pots boiled We set up camp the nonna poured the paste between five and six o’clock in the afternoon, and to wash her hands well because it’s already getting cooler, because the stew is coming; and the coppery ones begin the lemony memory to dye our day, the Sunday Abriles family and tallarinada, hugging the grandparents Uncle Carlos appears we fill them with kisses, his first wine is poured, and the sidewalks, the mallows impeccable, black glasses the sidewalks, the malvones, and cigarette in his hand... as we return home, exactly ten blocks, “...Do you remember, my precious hurí, my parents go hand in hand that your soul in love, was like high school sweethearts. in all my happy love Uncle Carlos is smoking, an April rose...? he writes down in a little notebook, (“Rosas de Abril” 1927 Rossi/ Cárdenas) walks at a tired pace, suddenly enlightened “First the distant date of April because he found the words your dark balcony, your ancient garden. it seems he was looking for; Later the letters of feverish pulse there in front of his eyes Lying no, swearing yes...” the mournful languor (“Romance de Barrio” 1947 Troilo/Manzi) of a saffron sunset...

...Who could it be that once On April 27, 1933, “¡TANGO!” is released. Argentina’s found you as you are first sound film. Directed by Luis Moglia Barth, it had and managed to understand your color? a cast of stars of the suburbs and acting: Libertad What soul, what good soul Lamarque, Alberto Gonez, Pepe Arias, Tita Merello saw the sorrow, sorrow and Luis Sandrini, among others, as well as the of the gray cloud, orchestras of Juan de Dios Filiberto, Edgardo Donato, of the blue road, of the pain of April?... Ernesto Ponzio, Pedro Maffia, Osvaldo Fresedo (“Landscape” 1943 Piana/Manzi) and Juan D’Arienzo, and the prodigious dancer “El Cachafaz” alongside the legendary Carmencita *** Calderón. Sunday after-dinner conversation between two and four o’clock ***** (or maybe even five o’clock) Between six and six thirty there was custard, pudding, moscato we already arrived at the houses and apple strudel; with the last little sun grandfather’s snoring, pale golden, amber, a wind passes through the courtyard as Don Camilo passes by shaking the leaf litter, with his proud sorrel it’s a siesta rusting as if suspending time the orange trees and the grapevine. between toasted and reddish. And another glass of oblivion Uncle Carlos lives next door, that Uncle Carlos drinks, Dad pats him on the shoulder, silent, thoughtful, Mom hugs him very tenderly, and another lit cigarette caresses my head, rehearsing a sadness, gives me a smile a lament, a nostalgia, -the only one on Sundays- a grief imprisoned and I see his sorrow between wisps of smoke; under his hat, in the meantime stealthy, the routine that awaits him of querusa, pata e’ lana, on Mondays he arrives at the workshop Sunday is planning almost always without sleep, to escape through the window... he stays up all night writing On April 19, 1917 at the La Giralda tearoom, in Plaza all night writing, Independencia, in Montevideo, had its official premiere “La the loneliness that squeezes him Cumparsita” by the Uruguayan musician Gerardo Matos kicks him in the face, Rodríguez, arranged by Roberto Firpo and whose most popular the photo of Tía Marta lyrics belong to Pascual Contursi. who left us three years ago, a yellowish autumn... In April 1943, Tania premiered at the Teatro Astral, as one of the makes verse the suffering, songs of “La revista loca”, the tango “Uno” by Enrique Santos I remember you uncle Carlos, Discépolo and Mariano Mores, which became a great hit. It was if it was Sunday and April, originally called “Si yo tuviera un corazón”. you always wrote a tango...

15 MANDRAGORA PORTEÑA interview with Matías Mauricio by Diego Amorin

DIEGO AMORIN Anthropologist, dancer and tango teacher, producer and cultural manager, currently style corrector of Metafierro.

orge Luis Borges pointed out that tango lyrics make up an Lyricism is a very particular world, not in vain Manzi and Discépolo Jinexplicable poetic body, vast and complex, with which one gave their lives to the artifact of song poetry without making the could compose another human comedy like Balzac’s. Entering leap to book poetry. this sacred forest of monsters is an adventure as great as life itself. Therefore, what better than to do it by the hand of a great What is then the “poetic turn”; and what is it and how does a contemporary poet and lyricist, Matías Mauricio. poet become a “lyricist by trade’’?

Poet, lyricist, tango researcher, cultural manager, member of I call “poetic turn” to that finding, or sparkle that sometimes the Academia Nacional del Tango and the Academia Porteña del becomes present in the song. Perhaps, a lyric does not Lunfardo, teacher at CETBA, all titles that fairly reflect a solid communicate beyond the mere countable and singable story, but career, but that leave intact the central question: who is he and if the poetic twist appears in it, the battle is won. Let’s think of “not what is the quest of Matías Mauricio, a singular character who even the final shot will get you”; “braids of bitter mate color”, “life has encounters in dreams with the spirit José María Contursi? is an absurd wound”, “Today you are going to enter my past”, although -among us- this phrase belongs to the French poet Paul Who am I? At the risk of stumbling on the answer: a desperate Géraldy. man, Yes! A desperate man of “imaginative” trade. And in that box, or if you will, in that sacred illness of the spirit, I go walking, How does a poet become a lyricist by trade? dreaming, digging, and then the astonishment, the surprise. For instance, since you mention José María Contursi, I remember the Ah, that’s a question for the wise. For starters, sit down in front night when Homero Expósito appeared to me; he was lying on the of a blank page and start playing, inventing stories, digging into curb of a sidewalk, wrapped in a transparent nylon, and he was one’s own stories, or those one has been told; but above all, a lot rolling and unrolling like someone playing with a roll of carpet, the of gymnastics of reading poetry, and if we are lucky enough to be strange thing was not that scene, but the jacket he was wearing, visited by the muse, the goblin, or who knows what spirit or ghost, bright colors and plaid. Some time later I told the dream to Nelly so much the better. Expósito (Homero’s partner). Her answer was: Matías, Homero had a jacket like the one you describe. Back to the subject matter of tango lyrics, Daniel Vidart in a I don’t know if I answered your question, but my search is there: memorable book attempts a classification of lyrics on four trying to live poetically, communicating with my poets, being axes: language, style, elocution and subject matter (dramatic, amazed by the wing of a bird that strangely just fell in my backyard, lyrical, humorous, amorous), warning that any classification will getting lost in a Discépolo’s song, what do I know..., I think there be precarious to the extent that the quality of interpretative is a message in everything, one more step towards that never- thought is more important than the formalist scaffolding. Do you ending search. think it is possible to introduce a system of analysis that allows a classification and a greater knowledge of the lyrics and poetics Listening carefully to the lyrics of the tangos we find great of tango, or is it a vain effort to try to put order in such a vast and poems on the most varied subjects, from the death of God to disparate creative universe? the pleasure of returning to live in mother’s house in adulthood (a practice -not to say self-generated psychosomatic fatality- From a research point of view, tango lyricism can be mapped; very widespread today among many exponents of the genre). this is possible thanks to the great amount of work that the genre Beyond the subject matter, it is clear that not just any poem can has given us and continues to give us. I would like to tell you that be the lyrics of a tango. What are the characteristics that a lyric this year a book of mine about tango lyricists POST-2001 will or poem must have in order to be considered a tango? be published. There I deliberately traced a corpus of lyrics that no longer follow the topics of the tango canon: the languor of You called my game. Just as neo-impressionist painters mastered nostalgia, the chair on the sidewalk, etc., but a corpus that hunts pointillism, tango lyricists must master the laws of song lyrics for a starving, raging, screeching, enemy (but also companion) city. (different from book poems). First, they must focus on the However, this snippet is just one more link in the vast production of communicative fact; a lyric that does not communicate is a dead lyrics that have followed and follow one another throughout these lyric. Then, it must deliver the message in the very short three 140 years of tango. minutes of the song, adding a perfect pairing with the composer’s melody, and as if this were not enough, it must handle verse Diving into the poetics of tango is a one-way trip. Images that measures, rhythm, internal accentuations, rhyme games, refrain make you vibrate, slides of cleanly intertwined words through development, etc. In short, not every poem is a tango lyric. which you can slide freely, a plethora of brilliant poets. Which

16 are your favorite lyricists and why? little further, what can we expect for the future of tango and its urban poetry? Discépolo at the top of the list! His work is of a frightening perfection, to such an extent that it transcends the genre, I would even dare The production of tango lyrics in these last decades is vast, to say that he did not write lyrics but psalms. Cátulo Castillo is also especially in terms of lyrics written by women. I believe that the my weakness, either because of his handling of literary precepts or passage of time will sift through all of us and we will be able to because of his poetic truth, there is practically no rhyme or reason see with clarity what of all this remains as a significant work of in his work. Expósito is the poet of astonishment, everything in him the epoch. For the time being, there are already firm traces in is possible, he is the freedom of tango, something that Ferrer will Alfredo Rubín, Alejandro Szwarcman, Raimundo Rosales, Victoria continue later. What to say about Manzi, perhaps the one who best Di Raimondo, Jorge Alorsa Pandelucos, Juan Lorenzo, to name the understood the game. I could go on through Le Pera, Cadícamo, ones that interest me the most. As for their future, my wish is that Eladia, Celedonio Flores, the Contursi, La Madrid, García Jimenez, a new generation of lyricists with another color, other searches, 20 Tavera... year olds who come with the desire to kick the hornet’s nest will soon enter the scene. Borges was obsessed with a particular jargon, “carancanfunca”. He understood that this slang or dialect that emerged from the The bonus! cultural cauldron of Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 20th century entailed a mysticism and a secret that could almost How things change over the years! The world changes at the become a sociology of the urban language of that time. What is speed of the engine. Speech changes without asking permission your reflection on this and where does jargon stand today? and without asking for forgiveness. It is remarkable the evolution of modern urban poetic expression, especially oral improvisation, The motto of the Academia Porteña del Lunfardo, -institution to which has found in the alchemy of the confluence between which I belong- is “The people enlarge the language”. I dare to beatbox and rap/freestyle a space where to cultivate a modern share with you a fragment of a text by Alfonso Reyes, which I have lyricism with a powerful identity. What is your reflection on this? been rereading this week. Here is the answer to your question. Trap/Rap and Tango, that place where the tension between Reyes, in an imaginary dialogue, says: “Language is a living and tradition and modernity is played, an unlikely or impossible changeable thing; the educated, in their desire to fix forms, kill marriage? language. Where language is properly engendered is among the anonymous people of the town. This possesses the living seed of “Everything is possible; the heart knows it” wrote Tedesco; or the language”. as Marechal said “Tango is an infinite possibility”. I usually listen As for today’s jargon, “lunfardo”; I think it is more alive than ever, to Trap and there are kids who hallucinate! Without going any and if not let’s go to any corner of Buenos Aires, to the chicxs further, I confess that my beginning as a lyricist was in rap (back in del Trap resignifying it; just this single example that I share with the ‘90s). There I not only wrote the lyrics but also rapped them; you: The word bondi, which comes from the Brazilian bonde = Javier Arias (director of the Orquesta Típica Misteriosa Buenos streetcar, by extension we use it to name the bus. In the last few Aires) was the one who handled the keyboards and synthesizers, years it has given birth to a new meaning: “Se armó alto bondi!” Patricio Bonfiglio (bandoneon player of the first Fernandez Fierro kids use to say when referring to a conflict or fight situation. Also and director of Rascasuelos and Rascacielos) played the guitar; the freestylers -those who improvise rapping- often say: ¡Dejá de tirar group was called Zokoa. I learned a lot from that school, and I can berretines! when they construct bad phrases or cheap rhymes. In even improvise a free. I take this opportunity to tell you that for another context, tirar berretines can be a synonym of mockery. the last four years I have been giving a writing workshop for kids Look if the lunfardo is not alive! from Lanús schools, most of whom do trap and hip hop; I keep on drinking from them, from that freshness, which was also that I would like you to tell us a little about the contemporary of the first payadores and tango lyricists, or are Villoldo’s lyrics panorama of tango lyricists, who are the most notable exponents not feasible to rap? So, long live the marriages, long live the true and what is the creative path they are following? And going a crossbreeding! Like the ones that take place in bed, at meals.

17 MATÍAS MAURICIO’S LYRICS

STORY OF A GOODBYE Lyrics: Matías Mauricio Music: Eduardo and Nicolás Guerschberg

When I wanted to turn so many plots upside down and in your bed undress your heart; you fled like a fish in the storm like a train in the deserted THE OTHER BUENOS AIRES dead track of love. Lyrics: Matías Mauricio Music: Pablo Nemirovsky When I knew that to the rope of your body only those who know how to forgive can climb, Lost in the mist the dogs of the rain I decided to camp out between your arms wander scared looking for an alley. SAN PUGLIESE and in an old hotel The night is a ghost that turns in madness Lyrics: Matias Mauricio we flew away. and throws on the sidewalks its cardboard remains. Music: Eduardo and Nicolás Guerschberg

I had a heart with two windows, The face of death hides on the rooftops, Left-handed and without a handle I think Don you spoke of a country and a love, an angel and a transvestite pickle in a bar. Osvaldo I dreamed so many things, that dreaming At the end of the street they left forgotten that you are walking along Humboldt Street I forgot how to write a song. the boy who cleaned your glass for a loaf of bread. of tangos that go against traffic I dreamed so many things, that dreaming of a sky already covered by concrete monsters. I forgot how to start this song... And in that corner of the “Quita penas” bar the tables ask what has become of him, You know, Buenos Aires lacks your mystery, And so it was, you abandoned me at the border maybe the last death was waiting for him your tango mystique that made people delirious; so that I did not know how to distinguish in an ambush of alcohol and lintel. that’s why I ask you “little saint” in this hell if on the crest of the wave of your lips Or maybe the dealers looking for food hurt those who want to darken the city! only the remnants of the kisses I gave you behind a corridor with platform lights of the kisses I gave you. are undressing him in mud and mist Saint Pugliese taking him to heaven on the last train. new suburban archangel But everyone who waits for you, despairs in which twisted courtyard and waiting for you is a coffee with a taste of salt, And so in my Balvanera, La Noria or Puente Alsina your heart was left. a jungle of knives in the bones, the sky has untied its tragic crepe; Saint Pugliese the yawn of another kiss, and now in these streets one can only breathe Antimufa, milonguero, and loneliness again. the filth of this absurd city without heart. light us from heaven bleeding of love, I had a heart with two windows, that today your tangos you spoke of a country and a love, are the soul of the asphalt, I dreamed so many things, that dreaming they are the heart and the heart attack I forgot how to write a song. of this “ispa” (country) in rebellion. I dreamed so many things, that dreaming I forgot how to sing this song...

18 Tanino Liberatore

© Tanino Liberatore - La Fumatrice Scarlatta, Portfolio Femmine, COMICON Edizioni 2013

Gaetano, known as Tanino Liberatore, was born in Quadri, in the pro- The death of Stefano Tamburini in 1986 leaves the last story of the vince of Chieti, on April 12, 1953. “synthetic strongman” unfinished: Liberatore, who in the meantime has been engaged in various activities (movie posters, advertising In 1978 Andrea Pazienza involved him in the experience of the news- posters, theater sets and decoration projects), reprised the character paper Cannibale, in which Liberatore illustrated several stories writ- in 1996 with the help of his friend, actor and director, Alain Chabat. ten by Stefano Tamburini. Right in the third issue of the magazine, The same year, he created the story In Dreams, for DC Comics’ Bat- Tamburini, Liberatore and Pazienza give life to Rank Xerox, which man Black & White series, based on texts by Andrew Helfer. will land in Frigidaire magazine in 1980, despite having changed its name to Ranxerox after a warning from the photocopier of the same Today, alternating digital tools with more traditional ones such as oils name. Liberatore is now completely in charge of the graphics, giving and watercolors, he creates magnificent illustrations, on paper and the character his definitive characterization, from a skinny thug with canvas, which are exhibited in Contemporary Art galleries around the Asian features from the early stories to a hypertrophic gorilla. world.

19 20 Street Art by Pøbel Veganism

“No animal on earth should die and suffer in the name of beauty.” by Joe & LuciLa

What do we think about when we put on our makeup? Most embryonic or fetal genetic damage, toxicokinetics (to study likely to look good in front of the mirror and to show the best the absorption, metabolization, distribution and excretion of visual version of ourselves in front of our eyes. But do we really chemicals). know how they get to us, and what happens to the “Make up” However, the ban on animal testing fortunately already exists in we have? 40 countries around the world and more than 1,000 so-called “animal cruelty-free” companies have joined. Before a cosmetic or beauty product is available for human use, it must go through a series of processes to evaluate the safety of How to know and buy animal cruelty-free products? the components and the final product, to ensure that it is not a risk Very simple, on each product you will find the “cruelty free” logo. to human health. And up to this point we all agree, lest a make-up causes our eyelashes to fall out, or generates a rash on our cheeks What are the alternatives to not using animals for testing? and ruins our evening party, or generates an unbearable itching, In order to promote a product, it must be shown to be safe, burning, etc. Please don’t!!! Is it wrong? Of course not! How can we and that can be done using validated non-animal tests and use something that harms us? We would be attacking ourselves, methods, and the combination of existing ingredients that are safe our own health, and this is why we have to confirm that cosmetics for human use. Today there are about 15,000 ingredients that have are dermatologically tested... tested... tested... tested... so we have already been tested and declared safe. More and more companies no problem. avoid cruelty to animals and still produce safe, effective and high quality products. The problem is present, so today we cannot omit it, and it is much more terrible than we think. The lack of information about it is the Why is it beneficial to use *cruelty free* products? silence that every cosmetics company hides behind the reality of Because they are made with natural ingredients, they are ideal for the final product to generate mega-millionaire profits and benefits all skin types, including sensitive and intolerant skin. thought only for the success of the company. Is that wrong? No, it Animal cruelty free, you will be helping and supporting the is not. The positive result of a company is fine, the point is precisely elimination of animal testing worldwide. Contrary to what you may what they hide to reach that goal. think, cruelty-free products are not expensive. In fact, there are high quality products that are much cheaper than luxury brands. Let’s understand what is behind, what is hidden, what you are not going to see in any advertisement, only in the one we are going to Some brands of cruelty free products: leave you at the end of this note. According to the latest statistics, Cosmetics: Natura, Biferdil, Biogreen, Weleda, Veganis, Biolage more than 12 million animals are used in EU research every Raw, Aura Botanica by Kérastase, Biogreen,Suntegrity skincare, year. This is equivalent to 137 animals suffering cruel and painful Lush, Garnier, Herbal essentials, Moroccan oils, The Body shop, experiments every 10 minutes. And only in the European Union. Herba Tint, La saponaria, St.Ives and more... many more. To make sure that no product harms us, experiments are carried Makeup: PUPA Milano, Essence Cosmetics, Vogue Cosmetics, out on animals such as rodents, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, Urban Decay, NYX, Kat Von D Beauty, Lime Crime, Too Faced, monkeys, cats, birds, horses, pigs and many other animals. These Tarte Cosmetics, Wet n wild, Real Techniques, KIKO, ELF experiments consist of testing products on live animals to see cosmetics, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Catrice, H&M Beauty, Kryolan their reactions. These tests are extremely painful, stressful and and more ... many more. invasive and most of these animals are killed after being used in And we say goodbye leaving you with one of the best an experiment. advertisements on the subject. Ladies and Gentlemen, with you... The Ralph Bunny! What kind of experiments are performed? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnu2W4wHzWE Tests include skin or eye irritation, skin sensitization (causing Don’t miss it... it’s “light”. allergies), toxicity (poisoning), mutagenicity (genetic damage), Source: Círculo Natural, Conscious Consumption. Anima Naturalis. teratogenicity (birth defects), carcinogenicity (causing cancer), Formulatango. Cruelty Free. Vegan Command.

21 I am not a “milonguero”

and I don’t want toby Rbe!icardo Shoua

he title is a bit provocative, isn’t it? But notice that I put “milon- Tguero” in quotation marks. Because I am not referring to the Tango has a vibrant history of breadth, creativity, different styles, beloved and glorious milonga-goers, but to a kind of non-existent compositions, arrangements, versions. The dance has largely ac- (or almost non-existent) character, invented, dedicated to prevent companied that history. So why restrict it with absurd rules? The tango from growing and being really enjoyed by more and more only rules are the musical ones, which define it as such. Apart from people. That “milonguero” (actually those who hide behind him) that, tango has no limits and no owners. Any restriction that at- is responsible for the fact that some, who pose as organizers, re- tempts to impose in its name is a falsehood and highlights the limi- commend DJs who do not understand anything about the subject, tations of those who issue it. and who dedicate themselves to playing carefully selected tan- das... because they are boring, insipid and monotonous, with the The bureaucratic regulations that people try to impose and that story that “that is what milongueros like”. Sacred words to which we have criticized in these pages are not intrinsic to tango. Even it is not possible to oppose. I wrote “almost” non-existent because the rules of behavior are inherent to life in society. The way of we all know someone who frequents milongas to criticize others. dressing is a reflection of the evolution of that society, therefore He is the one who, when one proposes something different, says: it is not possible to force, in the name of tango, to use a certain “this cannot be danced” (because he cannot dance it). This “what dress. Every milonga should be a party, where people go to enjoy, can” and “what cannot” be danced is quite curious. I am not re- to express themselves, to feel good. In this, the musical director is ferring, of course, to those compositions that are explicitly not a key player and it is good that there are different proposals, but written for dancing. What I think is wrong is the generalization. It it is the dancers who have the last word, and it is healthy that they is logical that not everyone likes the same themes. The correct are aware of it. thing to say then is “I don’t dance to it because I don’t like it”. The Ideally, the DJ should include in his tandas a variety of orchestras diversity of opinions about orchestras and themes can be seen in and classic songs, but it is important that he broadens the pano- social networks. The bad thing is that those who give their opinion rama by proposing something out of what is commonly heard, as act as censors, dictating what is allowed to be played and banning long as it is danceable. The DJ should know that dancing is not just what they don’t like. And they fight with others who operate in the tango steps with a musical background. No one should be scared same way. On top of that, each one of them has a small group of if something new is proposed. How else did the orchestras of the followers who blindly adore them. There are people who, instead golden age do when they had to premiere a new composition? of thinking and forming their own criteria, prefer to repeat what And tangos were premiered every day? others say. As an example, I have read that with the Royal Quintet There are many mediocre people who, as they know they cannot you cannot dance. Don’t tell anyone, but the times I have played advance and want to keep a captive audience, invent restrictions, “Ensueños” or “Mal de Amores” by the Quintet in a milonga, the try to discredit others and put stones in the way. I am fully confi- dance floor was full. Poor people, I didn’t know that you couldn’t dent that tango will continue to make headway, and there will be dance to that! more and more real milongueros. Let us contribute to make it so.

Ricardo Schoua Director, for more than 20 years, of the first digital magazine: Tango y Cultura Popular and Mundo Tanguero Newspaper.

Tango y Cultura Popular: www.tycp.com.ar Mundo Tanguero: www.scoop.it/topic/mundo-tanguero

22 pablo lobato

Pablo Lobato was born in the city of Trelew on April 27, 1970. After finishing high school he moved to the city of La Plata whe- re he studied Visual Communication Design and some subjects of the Plastic Arts career. After graduating, he started working as a graphic designer in the editorial area in the city of Buenos Aires. After 5 years of dedicating himself exclusively to that, he decided to try his luck with illustration. Represented by Anna Goodson Management, he entered the US market where he has worked for publications such as Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wired etc. and for clients such as Nike, Ritzenhoff, Monterey Jazz Festival, El Abrazo, etc. His work has been published in Taschen’s Illustration Now and Por- traits, Communication Arts, American Illustration and Applied Arts Magazine. He currently lives and works in Buenos Aires.

Pablo’s characters are built on geometry and flat colors, and are perfectly recognizable. A very personal and unmistakable style, with an unmistakable predilection for musicians. 23 www.tangowine.net [email protected] www.monsupello.It [email protected]

24 Tango in Rusia: Beyond the Bear, the Vodka and the Balalaika. by Alevtina Silaeva and Fernando Sanchez.

ango has always been presented all over the world with its Later, in the films of the Soviet period, you can often find tango Town imprint, following the footprint of the Argentine culture, choreographies and music, moreover, in some films participated because that is how it became known and that is how it is loved. the well-known Argentine artists, Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau The attraction can be found in the dance and the embrace, the with their eccentric choreographies. interweaving of legs and arms surrounding the feelings and the melody that accompanies them. However, in many latitudes it is Irina Petrichenko, a dancer and tango teacher, besides being a only the music that attracts attention. The complex contribution doctor, tells us what she remembers of her incipient relationship of the bandoneon, the distant and experiential sound of suffering, with Tango. “My parents liked movies with Lolita Torres, which grief. The depth of the soul. The dance comes, but later, if at all. was quite common in Russia at that time. I have known the music before the dance.” I remember once, being in a milonga with a great tango teacher, looking at the dance floor, following a couple in that swarm, she At the end of the 1980s, the very famous Russian choreographer told me: “look, they dance tango abroad”. The expression is just Igor Moiseev presents his ballet “Night in the tavern” expressing his that, certainly not insulting or derogatory, they dance ours as vision of the Buenos Aires milonga, which does not contradict at all they are, in their own language! And what better compliment than to what it really is. Later came the tango shows in theaters, which, to continue being one and to be able to dive into what others obviously, were not requested by the knowledgeable public. elsewhere have been able to develop in a different way to what our daily environment proposes. Tango is so rich and genuine in Who knows? Perhaps, we should be grateful for this “preparatory” that, that it achieves, it allows, that beyond the origin, that intricate past that allowed in a relatively short period of time such a growth feeling belongs to all of us. The manner may change, the form of such magnitude of this “sensual” dance. may vary, but at the end of the day it does not change its deep essence. We have talked to several characters of the tango community There are cultures all over the world, diverse and rich, that belonging to different cities, with different ages and diverse assimilate in one way or another this rioplatense expression. But experiences. They all breathe tango and for most of these people, it is not always the same. Today we will talk about the Russian it is their only job. The most curious thing is that none of them community that in recent years has not stopped growing, thought that this passion would be a way of life. They did not know developing, and constantly creating its own stamp. That is why that it was going to be “a love from the first step”. we have talked to its protagonists, who currently run schools, milongas, festivals, championships, orchestras and thanks to their We asked them some questions, hoping to elucidate our curiosity contribution we have achieved this article, the first of this series about this “exotic dance” in those lands. Let’s get to know a little which we will baptize, “In Trip”. bit about the current tango, the Russian tango made in its own image and likeness. Russia is a mysterious country. Most people have got an idea of it full of stereotypes, and it is not surprising. Russia, between the social and the academic.

The history, the culture, the famous enigma of the Russian soul Russia and dance have always had a close relationship. And tango form a unique and not very understandable phenomenon for as a social dance has allowed them in recent years to reach the those who have not delved into it. development of a social link that the USSR for a long time did not allow. The combination between the doctrine, the incessant We are talking about a country that occupies almost one sixth of work and the need to relate finds in this dance a cocktail that the the world’s land with 11 time zones, 70 religious denominations Russians have known how to develop in a very particular way. and more than 160 nationalities. It is in this context that tango is Both socially and academically. conjugated. Almost in every region there are schools, milongas and various events. Orchestras, shows and teachers worldwide What is tango, was the first question Alexander Vistgof answered, are also part of the conglomerate. “it is something not always understandable, but very dear. Something that brings sadness and joy; something you can have The history of social tango is just over 20 years old, but this does inside or share, where you always have the possibility to learn not mean that tango as a musical and choreographic genre is something new”. unknown. Since the ‘30s when this dance began to conquer the world, it was presented in the vast country in the form of a musical. He has been running his school for more than 20 years and created

25 the first Moscow milonga. He also directs the most important this conceptual union. Now that I think about it, the same thing Moscow Festival “Planetango” with two annual editions, and the happens everywhere, even if we do not know if there is only one “Milonguero’s Night”, another event in August. In other words, truth... three major events organized in faraway Moscow. In vindication of those milongas porteñas, the ones organized by Sasha (nickname Oleg from Nizhny comments: “Before the pandemic, we used to used for Alexander) focus on the social aspect. In the embrace, organize workshops with Argentinean masters twice a year in our the chats, the arrangement of the tables. The totally Argentine city, and in the last 10 years we had almost all the top masters concept of a milonga. as guests. At the end of the event with them, we would ask the students how it went and some of them would say: ‘We like the “We can feel and love this music, we like the closeness that this lessons given by you and Elena better’. This does not mean that dance gives”, Elena Sidorova tells us from another city that knew the teachers are not competent or that we are more competent how to embrace tango and that became well known in the last than them. It does not mean anything. However, not all Argentine World Cup held in that country, where the Argentine national team teachers are compatible with regular group lessons. Workshops played one of its matches, we are talking about Nizhny Novgorod. at a festival are one thing, but teaching a person on a day-to-day basis is another. How to do the steps, how to mark, how to turn, Elena appeals to those how to motivate, how to who keep this fire to dance in the milongas; it not cease on this path, is absolutely another kind “I sincerely hope that of work. That’s why in the people who are every place in the world promoting the social part local teachers and guest of this phenomenon, find teachers do a different the strength, inspiration job,” he says. and desire not to abandon it”. Understanding the possibilities in the capacity She knows the risk of Russian masters, Irina of Tango becoming Petrichenko tells us, a sport, an academic “Russian masters can now expression only as her do more, but this will not husband Oleg Okunev replace communication states, “today to tango with those who grew up come more professional in this culture, such as dancers, and people who Argentinean masters and have some education dancers. What interferes either in dance or in with this process and choreographic dances. changes the logic on both I believe that this trend sides is that it has become of rapprochement will a commercial enterprise. remain. Undoubtedly The Argentine masters this fact helps to improve want the highest fees and a lot the quality of the the organizers want big teaching of dance as a profits.” motor skill, but it does not move much in the “Russian masters, in sense of learning tango general, help dancers in as a social historical their development and phenomenon”. make them aware of what Argentine masters have Ballet schools as created. Also Russian standard ballroom masters solve many dances, more ballroom problems of methodology style, are common that in Buenos Aires are currency. This is the not always solved. They reason for the successful work at the regional existence of GallaDance, level, the Argentines at which is an academy focused on this type of system where Tango the world level. It’s not is also included as one of its artistic edges. a juxtaposition, it’s just two different roles,” says Sasha from Planetango. “Tango is the mastery to be studied” - says Sofia Seminskaya, director of the academic establishment. Therefore, she adds, “we The social and historical context. need Argentines like air, not only for dancing, but as the bearers of culture, its sense and inspiration. Yes, we have many wonderful Zlata Shulikovskaya, the Kazan organizer and teacher, tells us that dancers, but it is very difficult for them to develop without this compared to the Argentine tango reality, there “it takes place air, without the advice or correction that comes from outside. without that historical and cultural context that exists in Argentina, It is possible to make this path alone, but it would be long and it is purely a place for men and women to socialize. Women often tormented. Without Argentines we will reach, at best, stagnation come to tango to solve their inner problems; to learn to connect, to or even regression. It is important that Argentines relate tango to trust, etc. Men, on the other hand, do it more commonly for leisure art. Without Argentines the very idea of tango is lost”. and communication.”

In the same way he confers to Argentines the gift of custody in Elena, from Nizhny, adds: “We didn’t listen to this music in our the transmission of important concepts. “Many things are told by childhood, our grandparents didn’t go to milongas. We can’t word of mouth. We also have YouTube and other sources, where understand why, for example, the waltz ‘Pobre Flor’ with such facts are distorted or simply misunderstood. The more people dramatic lyrics and such light and cheerful music”. However, he there are, the more opinions and experts appear, which makes it says, “Historically, tango appeared in Argentina, but it could easily harder to get to the truth. Opinions are very disparate: from the have been formed in any other country in the world. Its very nature roots of tango to its styles. Everyone will have their own truth. And is very cosmopolitan.” here we need the inclusion of Argentines as the contributors and custodians of that information”. This is his opinion in relation to the They understand that the lack of a context makes it difficult to Russians. Perhaps he does not know that the same thing happens understand Argentine tango by itself. The understanding must among Argentines and that we are also incapable of achieving be another, and it is not something that prevents them from

26 developing their own gaze. have gained international recognition and the growth has been sustained and unstoppable but I must say that knowing the original “Russian culture can contribute nothing to Argentine tango and culture is very important. It is like the lighthouse that guides us in there is no need for that. The same as Argentine folklore cannot our navigation through this sea called tango. We, are always in add anything to Russian. And these things should not be mixed contact with Argentine musicians and we can’t wait for them to because they are already wonderful as they are. We can only open the borders so we can finally play and sing together.” touch another culture, including that of dance, and live it in the way our body and the culture where we grew up allows us. Some Regional tango. more, others less.” This is how Irina Petrichenko presents her view on cultural exchange. Yes, there is also this reality since this country is divided into 85 subjects. Undoubtedly in recent years, tango went beyond Argentine tango or Russian tango? What does it matter, tango is Moscow and St. Petersburg, creating schools, events and teachers tango, it doesn’t matter if it is from yesterday or today, from here wherever the thirst for tango required it. or there, as long as it is Tango. Oleg Okunev says: “The regions are developing rapidly and almost Russia and the desire for competition. everywhere there are various schools. There are events in different formats: marathons, weekends, festivals, which are often at the An important and remarkable point is the one that involves the level of those in the capital. Being a very big country, sometimes competitive part of tango, which in the last years grew remarkably, in each part of the country there is a group of its own. Dancers and even more in the obviously travel, but going pandemic year. It is quite from Moscow to Nizhny logical considering the Novgorod or the other way perfectionism of the around is not the same as Russians. For that we will going to Vladivostok.” return to the words to Sofia Seminskaya. Irina Petrichenko follows the same line: “being a “In Russia tango multinational country, tournaments grew. Society the difference between accepted them. However, cultures can become very the pandemic and lack of big, that’s why tango income also played their can also vary. Of course, role. The trend, anyway, most of the dancers are had already appeared long concentrated in Moscow before COVID. and St. Petersburg, but sometimes two adjacent Another reason was cities differ in the level the massive arrival of of dancing and activity professional dancers to of tango life as much as tango. I relate this fact to if they were in different my work at GallaDance and parts of the world. I think thus to the professionals that in this fact several who were connected with factors play their role: the social tango, whether energy of the city, the in Moscow or in other activity and movement of cities. All the champions the organizers, and how and award winners at the much time they devote World Cup are or were to the process. It seems teachers at the academy.” to me that now, although the level is not so high And then, he adds, “the yet, often in the regions situation is going to change people are more eager for very soon, and it will be information and take it with even more professional more dedication, than the (more prepared dancers public in the capitals.” are going to come). Social tango and professional tango will develop in parallel. Festivals “The differences may also be related to the economic situation will come back with strength and championships will be no less in each region. During the pandemic, since it was not possible to dominant. The pandemic factor and the closing of borders have travel outside the country, local tango tourism made a great leap influenced a lot.” and I believe that this will be the trend in the near future”, says Sofia Seminskaya. Russian orchestras. Russia has been able to capture the charm of tango and adapt it The demand for shows by the Russian public and the interest to its forms, to its culture and surely in a few years we will see the aroused in musicians led to the formation of several tango groups, result of this combination between Argentine and Russian tango which are called orchestras. Among them, the most outstanding is as a new point of reference that will guide new generations to an Solo Tango. We spoke with its creator, Irina Peretyatko, and this is embrace more in line with their traditions and idioms. “It takes quite what she told us about her view of Tango in her country. some time to delve into this culture” - says Elena.

“I got to know tango 14 years ago thanks to the musicians. The For the moment, the professionalization of tango leads to this music was the first thing that impressed me, exactly, the music ballroom dance, social, dirty and genuinely popular, promoting of Astor Piazzolla. Then I got to know the more traditional music a standardization through academies and championships that and was impressed again by the style and way of playing of the far from falling into the enslavement of the technical yoke of orchestras of the Golden Age. movement could create a propitious springboard for its continued development, provided the right doses are mixed in the right way. In the last 10 years everything has grown so much that in Moscow We are still at that threshold. Time will tell whether we lose or win; alone there are 4 tango orchestras. Russian musicians and dancers someone, everyone, no one and even tango itself.

We would like to thank those who collaborated with this interview. Sofia Seminskaya, Irina Petrichenko, Oleg Okunev, Elena Sidorova, Zlata Shulikovskaya, Irina Ravinskaya, Alexander Vistgof, Irina Peretyatko.

27 Enrique Ringa

“SILENCE” (2013) Collage and enamel on canvas.

Born in Mar del Plata (Argentina) on March 31, 1975. He started painting by vocation at the age of 4. After severe years of study in artistic nude and live modeling, he followed his passion for theater and dance, until he became an actor and professional Argentine Tango dancer in the 90s. But his career did not allow him to move away from painting, dedicating himself to it uninterruptedly, as a self-taught artist. He loves improvisa- tion and experimentation with different materials, using multiple styles on canvas, paper, wood and leather. In the last few years her originality has had great success in some of the most renowned international tango festivals, where she has made herself known to a wide audience for her paintings in which she represents recognized personalities of the Argentine Tango world. As well as for the extravagant hand-painting he does on his dancing shoes. Enrique has lived in Ireland since 2007, where he teaches Argentine Tango and exhibits at private events.

28 queer tango

When and why did it emerge and how has it helped the Law in 2016, and at the same time, in a consolidation of feminism community in general? that hatched in 2015 in the first “Ni una menos” (Not one less). We The first practices of what we now call “queer tango” emerged could think that queer tango was expressing these achievements, in the mid-1990s. Augusto Balizano, for example, began at that and at the same time helped to boost them, considering the strong time to teach gay men to vdance both roles. Later, together visibility that tango dance implies, and the symbolic importance it with Roxana Gargano, Augusto created La Marshall, the first gay has for Argentines. milonga and I myself started in 2001 teaching lesbians in rehearsal rooms and then in a cultural center called La Casa del Encuentro. In addition to the LGTB community, there were many heterosexual In 2005 I opened a practice in a bar in San Telmo under the name women who came to queer milongas to exercise in leading, and also Tango Queer. From then on, the term began to be conceptualized straight men who were not prejudiced about being led by men or and the proposal began to spread at a theoretical level as well, women. The proposal of exchanging roles was something not only which made it assimilable to a public that had strong resistances. novel but also expressed a need for all good milongueros. Many It is necessary to consider that at that time it was quite difficult for teachers talked about the importance of knowing “the opposite/ many people in the tango environment to accept that two men or complementary role” in dance, but there were no spaces where two women could dance together freely, considering the strong you could exercise it in a relaxed way, without being the object of sensual charge of the dance. By that time other queer practices suspicion or anger. So queer milongas also accommodated a lot and milongas also appeared (Besos Brujos, Baires Folk). It was like of people who wanted to be in spaces less conditioned by codes an eclosion, justified by the desire that many LGTB people had to or norms that had begun to weigh. What I mean is that one thing dance tango, and who did not feel like doing it in the traditional is that you choose to dance a role because you like it more or way. because you feel more comfortable with that role, for whatever reasons, and another thing is that you are forced to occupy that Let’s think that tango environments at that time were not what role if you want to dance tango, that is, that the role and sexual they are now. They were very closed environments, I would say identity are linked in a way that we could call “essentialist”. At “macho”, and one of the things that the most traditional milongueros that point, our milongas were proposing something else, and defended to the hilt was the heterosexual composition of the responded to the needs of many people. dance couple, and the distribution of roles: male driver and female driver. This was not discussed, it was something like a “hard core” of tango, at a time when formal and technical renovations were Queer tango implied a renewal of the idea that many people had of beginning to be proposed in the dance and also in the music. But “tango”, it made it more flexible, less homogeneous, modernized in relation to social inclusion there was a lot of resistance, and it is it, diversified it, adapted it to the times. Let’s think that any young not precisely that in the so-called “traditional” tango there were person who begins to dance tango today, enters a much more no gays or lesbians, it is that the possibility of dancing it without open and friendly environment than in the nineties, much more in masks or hypocrisy was enabled in the queer milongas. But all line with their daily life. On the other hand, queer tango gave the that first time, queer tango was highly marginalized. tango community the possibility of dealing with its own prejudices, because the movement was imposed without asking permission, Until that moment, many LGTB people and feminists, in spite of and as a consequence it implied a liberation from a great burden, being very attracted to tango dance and music, preferred not to losing one’s own fears. It is no longer a novelty that two men dance or visit the traditional milongas because they found them “out or two women dance tango publicly, and whether or not they of time”. We have to think that the whole queer tango movement are homosexuals is not something that everyone is asking. And developed in a social and political period of great achievements if someone, after dancing a tango, discovers he or she is gay or in terms of civil rights for the LGTB community in Argentina that lesbian, or bisexual, or whatever, it is not the end of the world resulted in the Equal Marriage Law in 2011 and the Gender Identity either. There is room for everyone, also in the tango environment.

29 books & Music

ARCADIA- Astillero Tango Astillero’s album, released in the midst of the pandemic and houses, living on the banks of streams, polluted by factories. called Arcadia, is a conceptual work with a new repertoire that surpasses all their previous searches. The participation Arcadia is a forceful album. Six songs resolved in eighteen of singer Chino Laborde, Julián Peralta’s old partner in the minutes, which are accelerated by the virulent and deep Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro (one of the mainstays of voice of Chino Laborde, a singer with a discepolian tone the new tango scene of the XXI Century), and the association -tragic, hyperrealistic and rock and roll- who gets into with lyricist Juan Serén, are formidable. those characters that had not been told in tango. The texts are bestial and speak of a present time with crudeness. These tangos tell the story of life in the corridors of the Astillero’s music -the combination of beats provoked by conurbano, the open-air fairs, the hairdressers in the street, that ensemble of piano, two bandoneons, double bass, the changarines climbing on the train, the addicts looking violin and cello-, as well as Chino’s voice, resonate with the for the transa, the fatal destiny of two lovers, the short life intensity of a train trip to that land forgotten by God and the of the pibes chorros, or those landscapes of prefabricated rulers”. (Gabriel Plaza)

URBAN CROSSROADS 2 - QUINTETO NEGRO LA BOCA

Two years ago the group presented its first album “Cruces of fury, the one we love to hate, precisely because it embraces Urbanos” -which was nominated for the Gardel Awards in its diversities. Tango is party, it is protest, it is complaint, it the category “Best Tango Orchestra and/or Group Album”- is existentialism. A look at the history of the genre reveals with the participation of Chango Spasiuk, Antonio Ríos, very quickly that tango has always been much more than Nonpalidece and La Mississippi, among others. This new the commonplace lament for the girl who fell down. And in album features: Miss Bolivia, Víctor Heredia, Dancing Mood, any case, it even shares this with other rhythms that are also Dakillah, Raly Barrionuevo, Malena D’Alessio, Kapanga, Pablo urban (or is there not in cumbia as much love lost as in tango?) Agri Cuarteto, Responsables No Inscriptos, Adriana Varela There is a reflection on life in tango that it shares with rock, and Mariano Martínez from Attaque 77. The cover artwork is an anger at injustice that makes it similar to punk, a desire once again by the great Rocambole. for happiness and liberation that makes it similar to funk, to reagge. It is not only that today’s musicians seek in tango some Cruces urbanos” redefines the idea that tango is the music sound that distinguishes them from the amorphous mass of the of Buenos Aires. The QNLB reminds us that tango was born international markets. No. It is that they are artists plucking mestizo and mingled with other rhythms, before the packages vital strings, trying to tell their lives that intersect in the city. gave it airs of purity and pedigree. This album -and its first And then they are tango, regardless of what rhythm it sounds volume- remind us that tango is the sound of this city, the one like.” (Andrés Valenzuela)

MILONGAS Illustrated book with drawings and texts by Martín Malamud, Buenos Aires, 2019

In Buenos Aires you can go tango dancing any day of gas in Buenos Aires chosen in a personal and quite the week. From noon until the following dawn, there random way: I portrayed the milongas that we got to is always a milonga open to welcome the dancers and know in our tango travels: La Viruta, El beso, Gricel, celebrate the reiterated rite. La Glorieta de Belgrano, Plaza Dorrego, Centro Re- gión Leonesa, Salón Canning, Bar Los laureles, La Ca- I started dancing tango twenty years ago. Now resig- tedral and Teatro 25 de Mayo. ned to being an eternal and grateful apprentice, I try to portray in these drawings what I see in the milongas: There are many beautiful milongas that were literally magical spaces of encounter, of a simple and profound left out: Parque Patricios, Milonguita, Nacional, Obe- happiness. lisco Tango, Academia Tango Club and many others. I hope to add them in new editions; in the meantime: The book Milongas gathers drawings of ten milon- Let’s dance, let’s dance, the orchestra is leaving!

30 Cristal Sextet

“Sexteto Cristal” keeps alive the sound of the almost “Viento del norte” is in line with the sound of the tangos of the ‘golden forgotten musical tradition of tango. The desire age’. They follow the approved ingredients of the ‘orquesta típica’ with two of the tangueros for the danceable “classics” of violins (played by Maja Hunziker and Rupert Dintinger), two bandoneons all times was the first inspiration and horizon (Christian Gerber and Hendrik Lessmann), a piano (Pablo Woizinski), and of the sextet on the way to create its own style a double bass (Rodolfo Paccapelo); and invited Guillermo Rozenthuler as a and repertoire. The original sound of different singer. The 13 songs (7 Tangos, 3 Waltzes, 2 Milongas and 1 Foxtrott) have orchestras can be heard in their interpretation, everything necessary to please milongueros: dramatic phrasing, emotional reflecting the very special melodious phrasing, melodic lines and accentuated rhythms. dramatic articulation and powerful rhythm of the golden age of tango. Pure and refreshing Argentine They have opted for a repertoire that is not yet fully drained, i.e. we hear Tango for dance and concert. old treasures such as “Viento norte” (1929) by Alfredo Gobbi & Juan Carlos Suncho, “El adiós” by Maruja Pacheco Huergoa & Virgilio San Clemente, The ensemble is based in Hamburg and Berlin (Germany) and is connected “Caricias” by Juan Martí & Alfredo Bigeschi, and “Flor de Montserrat” by with famous Argentine singers and musicians all over Europe. The album Juan Santini & Vicente Planells del Campo.

Entrador Sextet

“Entrador” is the title of an old tango by Alfredo Gobbi. And according formed by the aforementioned Tomás to the Diccionario del habla de los argentinos, of the Academia Argentina Nine (direction, arrangements and piano) de Letras, entrador is that nice and pleasant person, who knows how to and Damián Sánchez (double bass), to quickly gain the trust and friendship of others. Entrador is then -as its title whom are added Guido Wardak on cello, anticipates- this first album by the sextet of the same name. It immediately Martín Cecconi on bandoneon, Luis invites to listen and to dance. Alberto Simó on violin, the singer Pablo Fayó and the French violinist Charlotte Latzarus, who today is replaced by Born as an idea of pianist Tomás Nine and double bass player Damián Andrés Magula. There are several things Sánchez, this group of young musicians decided to adopt -with slight that stand out in this album. The first variations- the sextet structure imposed by emblematic tango figures such is that, despite the youth of its members, the sextet has chosen as Roberto Firpo and Julio de Caro, known today as Orquesta Típica, in its a very traditional repertoire (with the exception of La garlopa, a song by smaller version, and used by most of the tango orchestras that have emerged Nine), with works from the so-called Golden Age of tango, avoiding pages in the last two decades. The Sexteto Entrador that recorded this album is that have become clichés because they are so well-worn.

Michael Lavocah - “Tango Stories - The Music Takes Us”

“Tango Stories - The Music Takes Us” created a new genre of writing about tango music when it appeared in 2012. One aimed specifically at those who dance tango. In this exceptional book, Michael Lavocah will guide you through an amazing journey through tango. He reveals the key figures who forged the history of this musical genre and explains the influence they exerted on the evolution of this music, telling their stories throughout a series of illustrative accounts. Engaging, entertaining and exciting, this is the quintessential guide to tango dance music. The Spanish version was presented at the 41st Buenos Aires Book Fair in 2014. It is the essential account for those who wish to better understand tango. www.milongapress.com (also available on all amazon websites).

Stefano Fava: Argentine Tango. Beauty in an Embrace

An embrace and the sea. the birth of a strange music never heard before: that flattering and a little bit cool rhythm that danced inside them. An embrace in which the The embrace is that of tango. But also that of contact between the two bodies was total, to the point that the breath of two cultures, of two continents: Argentina the two mouths blended into one. and Europe, more precisely Italy. In the notes of the first tangos, transgression and sensuality burst into The sea is hope, the escape route from the population of Buenos Aires where, at the end of the 19th century, poverty and hunger that our emigrants one out of every three inhabitants was Italian. traveled by the millions to go and “make America”. In this book, in which the non-fiction and narrative styles intertwine, the author takes a journey through the history of tango and the They tried to rebuild a piece of Italy on the other side of the ocean, and contribution of the stories, the sensibility of its music, dance and those who disembarked on the shores of the Rio De La Plata witnessed poetics, and the culture of the emigrants in our country.

31 inclusión

TANGO FOG “Dispel the fog and see beyond the visible.” Interview with Emiliano Naticchioni by Jüri Lehm

ango Fog is a social and inclusive Argentine tango project. and nod”. The idea is that the TInitiated at the Sant’Alessio Regional Center for the Blind in blind dancers are as indepen- Rome, in 2018 by Emiliano Naticchioni, owner of the “RiesgoDe- dent as possible to invite each Tango” school, it obtained the sponsorship of the Argentine Em- other. The thrill of seeing these bassy in Rome. experimental codes implemented is always moving. The main objective of the project is to include visually impaired In the first two years, the students par- people in milongas, the place where Argentine tango is danced. ticipated in open-air milongas organized The name Tango Fog evokes the image of a blind tango in the fog, by us, performed several Tango Teatro shows including one at the which dissolves during the dance, a metaphor that represents the National Academy of Dance in Rome for a diploma thesis. idea of overcoming the limit of blindness through dance by dissi- pating the fog and allowing you to see beyond the visible. Unfortunately, due to the health emergency in 2020 everything was more difficult, some blind students are waiting to start again, Teaching blind people is a wonderful experience for me and my while others have tried their luck in the online technique lessons, collaborators, it enriches from the human and emotional point of maintaining continuity and managing to organize themselves with view and I would say also in personal growth. However, the diffi- the computer! It was great! culties from the didactic point of view are many and special atten- tion to the body is needed. In these three years we have develo- As a future goal, it is planned to organize the Inclusive Tango Fes- ped a specific teaching method aimed at achieving and improving tival in Rome, where visually impaired people will be able to inte- the perception of movement and postural maintenance, a “critica- grate on the dance floor sharing the emotions of Argentine tango lity” of the blind, which is different in the case of those who have with us. lost their sight or are born without it. The results were surprising in their ability to acquire space management, once the body was Video interviews: prepared to create structures in line, in an attempt not to lose the Somos - TV 2000it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu- longitudinal dance and follow an orderly round. VLcd-xGnU Love each other a little: Italian Coalition for Civil Rights and Free- “La Pareja Ciega” is the inclusive milonga I organize, in which sigh- doms: ted and non-sighted people learn to share the dance floor while https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhaMg15K9hU&t=10s respecting the common spaces. At the beginning of the evening, the blind person dances with my assistant so that he can evaluate Buentangolab: the geometry of the room and take his own sensory references https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLiTgCjIJRM&t=2021s to orient himself. Afterwards, he can be invited to dance by the participants of the evening. In the middle of the evening comes the Emiliano Naticchioni moment of the call to the dance floor of the “Blind Couple”, two Dancer - Choreographer - Tango Teacher - Art Therapist blind people dancing together. At this point it is very important that a couple of assistants dance near them, intervening in case Official Facebook page there is a loss of linearity in the dance, which would destabilize the https://www.facebook.com/RiesgodeTango circulation in the round, also causing safety problems. The “Blind https://www.facebook.com/emiliano.naticchioni/ Couple” is usually integrated at the end of the evening with an event to support the Project, the “Blindfolded Sensory Dinner”, a Instagam: dinner in the dark with a more flexible protocol. emiliano_naticchioni

Obviously some unforeseen events can happen. I remember one Master of Argentine Tango and National Technician CSEN, sports with sympathy. A sighted dancer who loses control of the dance organization recognized by Coni. bumps into a non-sighted student of mine and turns to him saying, “What, you don’t see?”; my student promptly replies, “Of course Training in Art Therapy (Theatrical Therapy - DMT - Music The- I don’t see,” leaving the dancer petrified. Also during this milon- rapy) SIPEA - Italian Society of Psychological Education and Art ga, we try to use invitation codes to replace the impossible “look Therapy Onlus

32 the hug by Ariadna Naveira & Fernando Sanchez

he embrace, we could define it as the most valuable constitutive understand without the intrinsic desire to want to embrace the Telement that characterizes this dance. Not only for its structural other. That is the initial motor. performance but also for being the container of the emotions that will produce this ephemeral and complex expression. Then, the dance, through its plasticity, will demand us to adapt itself according to the demands of the moment, of the body that Functionally speaking, it carries out the important task of containing we involve or even of the interpretation that arises from us. That is the movement. It transmits through its arms valuable information to say, the dance never adapts to it, but quite the contrary. that, by means of impulses and spaces, manages to clearly direct its path, always maintaining its function as transmitter, and not as To arrive at this point is not an easy way, it is not easy to generator of the movement. understand it, because as it happens with all the dance, from always and forever, the understanding comes with the sensation The same torso rotation, for example, can create a pivot or a of the movement in the body. The structure, the functioning, the twist, depending on whether or not there is space to move. Very codes, are paths that we use for a greater understanding of the technical, but simple to understand. The arms allow us to dance, dance and that can lead us to the bodily sensation if we do not don’t believe it. have it yet. In it is loaded the true value of the movement, even that of these tools. The rest is everything that surrounds it but not My arms do not belong to me, they belong to the other, they what defines it. envelop their movement and keep me in direct relation with the one who is in that moment embracing me, doing the same with Therefore, in the embrace we can find expressions, nuances and me. even the possibility or impossibility of movement. It is that bridge that accepts or refuses the other to be able to be in itself, with me, The arms, the embrace, is the primordial concept of this dance or me with the other, in a single motor wave. because in it there is also the desire to stay with the other, to listen to him, that is to say, we are talking about communication itself. Therefore, the physical embrace without that abstract that defines The whole dance, from the movement itself or the absence of it, is our character as a couple, does not offer us any possibility of expressed under this premise. achieving a fluid, organic, natural dance. The concept of the embrace is so important that we have even developed in this dance the possibility of not physically embracing To embrace is an act of interest, of risk, of bravery, of gallantry the other while still maintaining its native characteristic, that of we could say, and even more so is the fact of letting oneself be communicating with the other. The embrace can stretch, break, embraced. Perhaps we should think of it as a bet on ourselves, disarm but never disappear if the intention of being is still latent. a courage of joy that allows us to share our deepest desires, thoughts, longings, not only with those who accept to be with us Clearly we can dance without the contact because beyond what it at that moment, but also with ourselves. provides us physically, the primary concept in it does not begin in the contact, but in that human pulse, that of connecting. To be embraced, to embrace, is one of the most highly praised virtues of this dance. However, to go through it embracing the The absence of the physical embrace and the possibility of continuing other, breathing the shared emotions within the choreographic to dance together only defines the importance of it without it being maelstrom is undoubtedly the most extraordinary of this rite. palpable. We understand it, then, as an expression, as a conscious matter and not as a form, which can easily lend itself to confusion. The embrace then, ceases to be only a functional element, very important indeed, to be transformed unfailingly in the breath of There is no form in its totality, no specific position, that we can the other, of their dreams, that without wanting it, become ours.

33 BEATING THE POST El Chino Laborde interviews Adriana Varela

“In Tango, the avant-garde is in the essence”. and they make me feel so), El Polaco gave me his Chevallier ring that had been given to him with honors in Japan. Born and raised in the slums of Buenos Aires, her destiny as a song artist would link the essence of “that tango posta” with a What do you think about the idea that “tango is infinite, there new era, establishing her as the mythical singer she is today. is tango for a while”? She is also a mother and a voice care professional. But collaborations with great stars and cultural references, records, Let’s see... let’s say that I adhere to it; because I consider that awards and a recognized social commitment, crown her with the music of the people never dies; it keeps changing names, the love of her unconditional public and a prominent place in becoming the new classics. Tango is and will always be because history. the vanguard is in its tango essence, not in appearances or fashionable words. First memory with tango? Differences and similarities between the Argentine and When I was a child I sometimes heard some tango sounding European tango audiences? bad from a neighbor’s window; in my family home I listened to blues and jazz on my father’s side, and classical music, I am going to talk about my audience: in both cases they react boleros, Edith Piaff and popular music from the 60’s on my in the same way; in Spain, France, Austria or in Mexico, Chile, mother’s side. So the first strong memory was produced Brazil or Bolivia; there is a back and forth in the winks, in the by me; as an adult, incipient singer and rocker, through the story, in the vibration of emotions. I have enjoyed the most film “Sur” by Pino Solanas I discovered “Polaco Goyeneche” generous audiences in Colombia, without a doubt. Of course, and then... it was a revelation! it was a revelation! Suddenly I I have also experienced something very strong at the Liceu in understood everything, the tango lyrics, that poetry, my roots! Barcelona. I also remember Madrid, Teatro Real. “It’s not the He transferred EVERYTHING to me. language, it’s the language”. In other words: if there is no inner language, there is no communication, no verbal or written When did you decide to sing tango professionally? language. That is why it transcends. I never had that intention, I was simply dazzled and plunged Any advice or care for those who are starting out in sung into tango at the end of the 80’s; one night I went alone to tango? “Café Homero”, the last temple of the last gods, and at a given moment he appeared, EL POLACO. I don’t like to give advice, I’ll just say: sing it, live it, transítenlo. He sang live and killed me. And he talked to me; he invited me to go on tour to sing with him (...). And I accepted right then and there; I abandoned my previous world, my family life. Even Words about Enrique Cadícamo (poet, 1900-1999, creator of my profession as a speech therapist! “Los Mareados”)? So I knew and learned everything, what I liked and what I didn’t like about tango and its world. And I chose him; I came from What can I tell you! My FRIEND. He chose me to record his rock and he was my hero, my Maestro, my connection with unpublished prison tangos; he told me “either you sing them or tango. Suddenly I was his colleague and partner! nobody sings them”, what a moment! One of the last of a unique breed, a true gentleman who illustrated me with anecdotes Who lent you a hand or helped you grow artistically in your about a magical Buenos Aires, about “Carlitos” (Gardel), about solo career? “Rodolfito” Valentino. An out of series that crossed the whole 20th century. A true hero. My friend. First of all, the popular Juan Alberto Badía: journalist, host, a very warm and unforgettable being; inviting me to his popular About Roberto Goyeneche (1926-1994) TV music show in my beginnings, singing rock, ballads and some songs by authors that I love, such as Fito Páez, Juan El Polaco Goyeneche: a true and profound artist who moved Carlos Baglietto and Jaime Roos among others. But I have even the stones. I saw many times Polaco’s audience cry with also been taught by illustrious figures of our tango: Atilio emotion, always in silence. He was a guy with the viscerality Stampone, Héctor “Chupita” Stamponi, Leopoldo Federico, the of rock and with the street and the necessary experience to Sexteto Mayor! The one with whom I best understood or who transcend. He is the most loved tango singer in the world of understood me best: Néstor Marconi. Also Osvaldo Tarantino, rock and in his last stage, already with little voice, he transferred Berlingieri, Cadícamo! And of course Roberto Goyeneche, who feelings like no one else. I miss him more and more, and when became my artistic godfather. he left I was wondering for a long time how to go on.

Events that “marked” or deeply moved you throughout your Do you dance tango? Do you go to milongas? career? There is a saying that “He who plays never dances”. I agree; I There have been many and diverse. But I am going to choose a don’t dance, but I can’t stop recommending it. In my opinion, it very special one: the day when, in his house in Saavedra and in is another science, not even Miguel Ángel Zotto could beat me! front of his whole family (of which I still feel an indissoluble part Hahahahahaha (laughs).

34 “Walter” Chino “Laborde: Singer, Actor, Interpreter, Artist. Considered one of the best Voices of Tango today. His passage through different and different tango orchestras, theaters, series, and rock groups speak of his multifaceted and versatile talent “ 35 “A new revolution in dance is coming” aiana Guspero Interview with Miguel Angel Zotto and D by Georgy Korovin

n a magazine like Metafierro, Miguel Angel Zotto needs no intro- Iduction. His artistic trajectory in Buenos Aires and on the stages of the world makes him one of the most representative people in the world of Tango. He has been living in Milan, Italy, for several years, where he has opened his own Academy, which not only teaches hundreds of Italian and foreign dancers, but also takes place three times a week in a very porteño atmosphere until the wee hours of the morning, something very rare in Italy. And on the first floor, a year ago, the Zotto Restaurant was inaugurated, an intimate place where you can taste a great Argentine menu. Miguel and Daiana Guspero, partner in dance and in life, and mo- ther of two beautiful twins, opened the door of their Academy on a cloudy Sunday in May to listen and answer our curiosities.

There is Tango Argentino and Tangox2 as the headline shows in tango, what is the difference between the two? M: The difference was that Tango Argentino was the story about the story, we were, at that time, the most important tango refe- rents in Buenos Aires. The dancers were all there, the story was because each character had his own incredible story. At the time Tango Argentino started with Horacio Salgan, Ubaldo De Lio, Go- yeneche, Maria Graña, la Negra Beron, Raul Lavié, Jovita Luna, Alba Solis, I repeat again, Salgan, De Lio, Sexteto Mayor at that time were the most, then Salgan left and Tano (Roberto) Berlin- gheri came, it was the story about the story, They sang and dan- ced what they lived, then (Juan Carlos) Copes and (Maria) Nieves with their forty years of dancing, Virulazo in life with another forty years of dancing, Gloria and Eduardo (Arquimbau), Mayoral and Elsa María was the history of Tango, there were no more impor- tant things. Later, what generated Tango Argentino in the world was this ope- ning and this new rebirth with Tango. It was something incredible.

On the other hand Tangox2 was for young people, because I was the oldest at 30 years old, then the violinist was 17 years old at M: Tango has to evolve as it has always evolved and is evolving, the time, the orchestra that we put together with Julian Bar with now there is a lot of aerial, I call it that way when there is a lot of seven musicians, Julian was 22 or 23 years old, Roxana (Fontan) choreographic flight, which is always a show and it is very good. I also, Osvaldo (Zotto) 25, Guillermina (Quiroga) 20, it was a young think we have to change, but as Petróleo said, tango can be repi- group. And the difference was also the staging, it was nothing like quetear, swinging, shaking but .... .you must not lose the milongue- tango Argentino, and I used the lights of a rock recital. The costu- ro embrace. And that is exactly what is difficult. mes were made by Renata Schussheim, Ariel Del Mastro did the li- ghts, Gaston Brisky did the sound, Oscar Araiz did a contemporary dance choreography, Jean Francois Casanova directed the acting What does a dancer have to have to be a tanguero? part, he sang Gardel’s songs in mime, he came out characterized M. Tango has the characteristic that you have to feel it, you don’t as Gardel. It was a show with acting, and Tangox2 because at the have to be a liar with tango, you feel it or you don’t feel it. You beginning we were a couple that did everything, then we incorpo- can do it as a profession or as a dancer, to become a tanguero rated Osvaldo and Guillermina. And we have been doing it for 36 you have to feel it, go to the milonga, respect the woman, do not years now. I still do it, the company still exists. It is the longest-lived mistreat the woman dancing which is fundamental and listen, listen Tango company. to the music, listen to the lyrics, start to interpret what happens to us because tango is not only the dance. It is something deeper. Do you think the tango show format should be changed or To know the codes. When we talk about the codes many people should the same formula always be repeated? say: yes, I am tired of the codes, but the codes help you to grow,

36 it is not that someone invented the codes just like that. They were What do you feel you were never able to do in dance and what invented out of necessity, just like the curtains, and by intuition to did you do? manage well within the milonga. I don’t know about dancing, I had the opportunity to be in Ho- llywood, two or three clear opportunities and some fair people, Do you feel that there was an evolution in your dancing? How and because I didn’t speak English I missed the film. I’m passionate did you develop it? about cinema and I’m missing that, it’s still among the projects but M: Basically when I met Antonio Todaro, he changed my dancing, it’s very difficult, I’m already 62 years old. But I would have liked a it was like 86/87 and there I was very confused, because I went feature film with history. from being a natural dancer in the milongas to doing a show. My first choreographic show was “Jazmines” with Ana Maria Steckel- How do you see tango today and how do you think it should man who is a teacher, a very important choreographer of contem- develop in the future? porary dance. So we worked tango at a theatrical level with two I think that at the beginning people are going to be suspicious of different styles, she with another technique, more modern dance, hugging again, but I think there is going to be an important revo- and I tried to do my own, milonguero but more stylized. That took lution with tango, a new boom. People want to embrace, people me a lot of work because I had to remember everything, I was want to dance, it is the only dance and the only music that gives not used to respecting the timing and the whole structure of the you this possibility that enters through the ear, goes through the show and then I noticed that I was moving away from tango. Later, heart and down through the feet, which is a phrase of Toto Cirillo. when I continued studying, I was confused about the embrace! Then, referring to an important youth movement in Buenos Aires, where should the left hand go? in what position should the other a new revolution is coming, “It has to come, it is very important, hand go? Virulazo taught me to put my hand up, because he had it is necessary, to incorporate new things, to mix, to do different his style, Copes taught me with the torso and the embrace a little things. I was in Buenos Aires recently and I saw very talented kids. further away and Antonio had the right arm of iron, he embraced strongly. Virulazo had an impressive marking and indication with Daiana arrives after a class and we take the opportunity to ask his left hand, he didn’t use his right hand. So I said to myself, if I her some questions. incorporate Virulazo’s hand, Copes’ torso and Antonio’s embrace, I get Zotto’s. And that’s what I did. And that’s what I did, work with How do you see the role of women in tango today? the embrace and not look like any of the three. I took a little bit the position like Finito, and his plasticity, the ca- Daiana: Let’s see, I’m going to be very honest, it’s true that a lot ress to the floor and the care for the woman. Fino used to tell me: has changed and maybe today women have a role that they didn’t women are not to be kicked, don’t look at those who kick women, have before, but I don’t know if it was because of machismo, I think women came to this world to be caressed, not to be kicked. it happened by itself. I think it’s great that in tango you can share Petróleo told me not to forget the eight, the eight is the pillar of more and that both have a decision and both dance for both. I this dance and the eight is feminine, not masculine, and it was a thought it was great that before it was possible to dance between phrase that I elaborated over time. Time... time, the regularity of men, in fact, I think there was a much higher level of men before the woman and the irregularity of the man, so I elaborated all that, than now. Now instead, you see that women are flying, women an unconscious work, and a lot of it, not to say I want to be Zotto. An inner work, but what was clear to me was that I didn’t want to look like anyone else. I never did a step like the others, never. Antonio would teach me a sequence and I would tell him: Antonio won’t get angry if I don’t do it the same way, and he would answer me: no, on the contrary, why would I get angry, it’s wonderful, you have to modify it, you don’t have to dance like me. So I would learn it and then I would go and work on it, modify it to make it feel like my own. And then yes, with the company, with the dancers we were always modifying, doing classes with them, improvisation. Modifying the aesthetics, the company Tango x 2 has a very clear aesthetic, a personality, a style. That was what I did unconsciously.

Are you more of a milonguero or a dancer? M: It’s hard to say today. Because I am not going so much to the milonga, I lived every day in the milonga being a professional, every night. My tango for many years was the stage and the mi- longa. If you asked me this question some years ago I would have told you that I was more milonguero, today I am more dancer than mi- longuero. Yes, I am in my milonga but it is not the same thing. Let’s clarify...the milonguero is Tito Roca, Tito Champagne, milonguero was Flaco Dany, the milonguero is the one who goes to dance every night, he is the one who lives for the milonga, no matter how he dances, no matter the style, there is no style. The milonguero is the one who lives to dance, milonguero was Petroleo, 70 years in the milonga he never married, he was the guardian angel of all the milongas of Buenos Aires. And sometimes you go and you don’t dance, you go to socialize, it’s your world, and when you enter the milonga you feel that you are you and your people, you are part of that world. That is why today I am not a milonguero, I have my family, my work, my profession, I am busy with this and thousands of other things. Yes, I still dance, I have the milonga but today I can’t say that I am a milonguero.

37 are studying, studying and studying, women have taken a very classes and that is really a problem. The man doesn’t care about important role. I don’t know the exact reason why men let them- learning. selves be, why they abandoned themselves so much. Maybe because the man learned two or three things and already Miguel: Because of a need, before there was a need, if you didn’t thinks he can go out on the dance floor, and seeing that there are dance nothing happened and you couldn’t be with anyone, on the so many women he doesn’t worry. other hand you could dance with the prettiest girl and everything would happen, to get a boyfriend, or just dance. Miguel: Of course, and besides, they go out to dance but they start to say no. And that is a big problem. And that is a big problem, that Diana: It’s a pity that there is such a shortage of men, I love wo- women dance with anyone because they are not sitting down, it is men, for example he (Miguel) in the dance proposes, he asks me a big problem in the world. with his body and I have to answer him and I also have to ask him, so for me it’s a conversation. It is giving the best of each one of us. Diana: No, it is a problem here, in Argentina that does not happen, In the pandemic we women went out in full force! there women know how to say no, there if a woman sees a man Miguel: And they saved the economy. Women study and many mistreating her on the dance floor she says no, in fact she does not teachers were able to overcome this crisis because women were look at you. When I see a person who mistreats, mistreats in the really interested in studying. sense that it is a dance that does not go according to my perso- nality, and you see that he is hitting her and I say to myself, poor Diana: Women are prepared for everything, they are prepared to love, to suffer, to understand, to have children, they have gone woman, what is happening at this moment. through many struggles. For me here (Italy) the current struggle, I There will come a time, which is what I talk a lot with my students, say this as a woman, has to be the man’s, he has to get his act to- when that person feels that nobody is looking at him, that he has gether. The woman here is more secure, she has her identity and no protagonism and nobody wants to dance with him, there will authority and the man is like he is behind. come a time when he will say, do I have to get my act together? do I have to start studying? do I have to be calmer, nicer? do I have Miguel: The woman’s need is for the man to dance, with all the to take care of the woman? I think that is the secret. The woman sacrifice they make, studying, buying the shoes, getting pretty, would have to think, in herself, I am worth, I go to the social, to sha- choosing the dress and arriving at the milonga and finding the guy re a glass of wine with a friend and look at the person with whom who mistreats you dancing because he doesn’t care about dan- she wants to dance because it is the woman who is choosing the cing, and in fact we have fewer male students, and not only us, man, if I look at you it is because I want you to invite me, the man it is general, and we have to call the assistants to help you in the is always in search but it is the woman who chooses.

38 The violent profession of dancing by Pamela Damia*

hat follows are not the danced chronicles of Rodolfo The historiography of tango speaks of the genesis of the WWalsh, it is the look of them in the struggle of them (which dance from the sexuality, but, since almost three decades ago is everyone’s). The tango dance is in galloping deconstruction. the dance began to have other meanings, it was evolving and Among men, debates and opinions take place in private spheres: modernizing, do you think that the changes were made flesh in there are those who are lost, angry, guarded, understanding, the practice of dance or was it a facelift? condescending, and there are also those who are partners in It has not been a facelift, but there is a defense of image, aesthetics the struggle. Stereotypes and bodies, essence and history, the and language that are sustained, a defense of chivalry, whose life question of power and freedom are central axes that run through begins in the cabeceo. However, I think I have understood that the tango as much as through society in the heat of the women’s greatest evolution that has taken place, at least where I work, is in movement that dynamited the established paradigms. the question of roles. What has to be broken is the idea that one leads to the other, because it implies at least less role activity on They crucify me and I must be the cross and the nails. the part of that other. They pour me the cup and I must be the hemlock. A testimony that is repeated is that in order to give classes and They deceive me and I must be the lie. stop using the nicknames “man and woman” so that everyone They set me on fire and I must be hell. feels included, for example, driver-driver or leader-follower, everyone ends up working their tongues out. Jorge Luis Borges’ “The accomplice” comes to mind, says Pablo Retamar, dancer, teacher and tango organizer. Within What effect does the women’s movement have on the milonga? the field of dance, his perception is that the subject of gender It’s been more than a year since I’ve been to a milonga, you’re inevitably happens with contradictions given by the fears that its watering me down in a pandemic,” she smiles and brings us back incandescence generates; even an opinion -assuming with good to reality. - I think that everything that has been happening around milk and for the debate- is looked at, if not with opprobrium, with us has a very big echo, inside the milonga, for example, everything challenge. that was behind the abortion was felt. He smokes and takes a sip of his Amargo Obrero aperitif: “Dance Pablo, who is also a member of the Asociación Trabajadores del in itself is crossed by roles, that is to say, one of the centers of Tango Danza (TTD), says that in a class the male is diminished, discussion of the prevailing patriarchal system; and the claim of losing a place when a girl appears who stands up to him with some gender is linked to stereotypes, aesthetics and so on. Therefore, technical issue. They, in general, suffer helplessness because of the reigning masculinity is not only part of the problem but also a that discourse created about the need to manage the situation. determinant of the historical subjugation, which has to be modified. “Someone who starts to dance and is told that he has to wear, it Tango cannot and will not be able to avoid it”. fits him on all sides,” he says.

39 You took the question out of my mouth. Do men feel they are way to work he went through the Ni una Menos march, he was losing their protagonism? very moved by the energy that was experienced. He says that as I think so. I think it is being experienced as a loss, there are those who soon as he saw a violent situation in a couple of fellow actors, he are angry. That is why many of the defenses have appeared from intervened. an aesthetic point of view, because it is also the politically correct For the girls it is difficult because they feel they will not get another thing to defend oneself from. -In the evening a torrential rain would partner and that they will lose their jobs,” Carlos says. fall in Buenos Aires and Pablo’s hair was already beginning to curl. Dancers, in general, find themselves in a precarious labor situation and many things happen because of this insecurity that those in The perfect couple: commitment and empathy power take advantage of. Some of his colleagues told him that Inside their house in Wilde, the birds can be heard. Julio Zurita they have been asked to do things or go to bed to get a job or choreographer, director and musician- sips mate and focuses his stay in it. gaze under his thick eyebrows. Carlos is a native of Santiago del Estero and says: “in my How does the scenic tango historically represented by the neighborhood it is normal to hear that the neighbor beats up the stereotype of the hetero patriarchal binomial play in this process woman, technology helps the information to get there faster; of transformation of society? the guys don’t act so smart anymore... so everything keeps on -It is necessary to change something of how this is presented from happening”. the point of view of the staging, the physical treatment, the way to manipulate the bodies, to show them, to change the levels, tango How do you get along with the tango image that shows the has that the woman goes more to the lower level and the man femme fatale and the hot male? stays on top (if we talk about a pose, for example). Sometimes things get confused and people say “how much tango His creations promoted new aesthetics linked to telling stories is in that image”, and there is not even a dancing pose. I don’t of the present with current tango music but also recovering the know, I’m not going to say “this is tango and this is not”, because memory of the struggle against the dictatorship as in Arrabal, tango is the way each one feels it and dances it. a show produced by Gustavo Santaolalla never presented in In the pandemic he started making chinstraps in a workshop in Argentina. He practically no longer uses the symmetrical embrace Aldo Bonzi to round up his salary, but the other day he saw a flyer or the hooks; he says that this leaves him in a more comfortable for an audition that said “bring sexy tango”. place to make a current treatment of what is happening and he is The balance of the revolution happy about it. In the twelve years Marcelo Lavergata has been organizing two milongas, he has seen more and more women leading and men So you saw the future in the past. following, people of the same sex dancing or doing it in slippers, And... you don’t do what you can’t do or what you don’t believe and he has heard grumbling about it. He says in this regard: “If in; of course, you can do any job by request, but if you have to there are older people who criticize young people, I dismiss them choose, you will do something that has to do with your thoughts, immediately, although I do not accuse them because I understand it comes out. that they are linked to another education and for them the Julio considers that women have a strong and strong participation deconstruction is much more difficult than for me, who is already in tango couples, he affirms: “women are more educated and 41”. many times they dance with men who do not have the same level. Marcelo started dancing when he finished high school while After 2000 I felt that tango went more through them and that is studying Social Communication at the UBA, he even dedicated still the case. Regarding stereotypes, I think they are a very bad, his degree thesis to it, which was directed by the philosopher and forced and light performance that nobody believes. essayist Gustavo Varela. He says that the rock generation, those The body, which for the dancers is an instrument of work, is at who are now in their sixties and whose parents used to dance, the center of the revolt. The choreographer says that in his came to learn tango. But, in the classes there are often more professional experience he always works with respect, and when women than men and there is a double discrimination of gender he has witnessed mistreatment in castings, he does not call those and ageism: they are women and mature. people. In this sense, he adds: I reflect on the harassment that women suffer, when I was eighteen Conservative milongas respond to the codes of a milonga that I got into dance and I also received harassment from guys. Maybe once existed, such as men sitting on one side (and at the bar) and I never felt in danger because at the end of the day you can stop it women on the other. with a punch and that’s it, but a woman can’t do that. I think there is an exacerbation of that, I see it as something What else has to happen for this deconstruction to be translated picturesque. When you ask the milongueros if there was such and into tango? such a thing in many of them they say no. Supposedly they used I don’t have the answer, but putting yourself in the other’s place to stand in the center and the women around. Supposedly in the and being aware is fundamental. If I am walking at three o’clock past they used to stand in the center and the women around; that in the morning on the same sidewalk as a girl, I cross the street so separation existed to some extent, but if you poke around a bit that she doesn’t feel in danger. Before, people were not so aware you realize that it depended on the place or that not everyone was that they suffered so much. dressed in a suit. Julio is about to finish his studies at the EMPA (Escuela de Música Popular de Avellaneda) as an instrumentalist in popular music Have you witnessed violent situations in the milongas? playing bandoneon. His thermos has almost no water, he put it Yes, otherwise it would be a world apart. Sometimes it is said that upright in the last barley and the birds are still there. “tango is more macho” and no, tango reflects society. I know young Violence is also the fear of losing one’s job. and old people who are either violent or good and deconstructed.

When I started out I saw tango as both macho and homophobic, In the 21st century, should we still refer to the nodding of the now it has been broken down a little, perhaps before the head or ask the permission to the partner that before was asked expression “death to the macho” could have seemed strong, but to the lady’s mother? now there is more talk of equality and I have come to understand Marcelo has a conciliatory look and a good argument. that “macho” is also a stereotype of the patriarchy, I feel that There can be a resignification of the nodding, that it does not everything is cleaner and we can talk about the problem out loud, always go in the same direction, that they do it between women says Carlos Cisneros, a twenty-six year old tango dancer who and men or the woman to the man, because that relationship has worked in Caminito and in several casts of Casas de Tango-show. to do with power - he says while he remembers Bourdieu and Carlos speaks serenely and recalls that a few years ago on his his concept of habitus: the society inscribed in the body of the

40 individual. you inherit from your parents, you are likely to repeat patterns One of his three sons calls him and, without nodding, approaches successively for generations. For this reason, he relates: him with innocent conviction, putting fatherhood to the test as -I have a teenage daughter who has a hard time walking down the another form of balance. street. We men don’t experience that. In tango, it often happens Deconstruct that I like it because of the clothes, as we men can’t get it into our heads that they can dress for themselves and they don’t do it for us or Do you think tango is sexist? because they want something. The subject excites him and he I don’t think tango is sexist, I think people are sexist and tango continues: brings them together. The tango lyrics, or at least the best known -I know that we are learning, that we are missing a lot, unlearning tangos, were written in a time when the world was sexist, in the something costs a lot. Also now everything is enhanced because 30’s women had no civil rights, only after 1947 women could we are in the middle of the revolution. But I understand that it is vote... - Reflects Fernando Galera, tango dancer for 34 years, he necessary. devoted himself in recent years to teaching, to the participation in international festivals, recalling his career, he remembers: Even if as men they lose protagonism or power. -I danced 18 years with Vilma, with whom my career grew, we used I like that. I like to improvise in dance, which means that you can to say “tango is 50 and 50”. But one day, he heard a dancer with get to places you had not thought of. And well, enjoy the journey. whom I worked later, Silvina Valtz, say “tango is 100 and 100”. My Before I didn’t like to lose control, until one day I said to myself: head exploded. Today I no longer enjoy women following me, I “Why not? don’t enjoy a dance where I lead, I propose and women dance to How do you imagine the future? my music, my dance. On the other side of the screen, he answers: He explains that he saw the milongueras dancing with the men What future? The future is today. wearing them, that they would turn because they made them turn because of the twirling they did with street shoes. He puts his hand *Pamela Damia to his chin and looking up, he says: She is a dancer and tango teacher “http://www.pamedamia. I thought there was something in the speech that didn’t jibe with com/” (pamedamia.com ). the dancing I was seeing. I realized that before it was equal to In addition, she has a degree in Social Communication from the equal. The speech drags, but it wasn’t the reality. School of Journalism and Social Communication of the National He thinks that the generation after his generation started to analyze University of La Plata. In 2005 she received the XIII Latin American that between 2000 and 2010, but he was against everything he Journalism Award José Martí - Prensa Latina agency in Havana, thought was going to be a great change for tango, everything that Cuba. would make it lose its essence, but in the end he saw that process As a journalist he published in Página/12, Altaïr, Caras y Caretas, as an evolution. Today he does. And it was thanks to the socio- En Estos Días, Agencia Periodística del Mercosur and Rebelión. cultural changes. Articles: “https://linktr.ee/pdamia” @pdamia | Linktree -There are things that changed my life when I had a daughter who was a woman. One day I told my partner “I’ll do the dishes for you” This article was published in two parts in the magazine Caras y and Morena (fourteen years old) made me listen to him. And after Caretas: that discussion everything changed. “https://carasycaretas.org.ar/2021/04/27/el-violento-oficio-de- bailar-i/” El violento oficio de bailar I - Caras y Caretas Fernando is one of those who analyze his personal history and “https://carasycaretas.org.ar/2021/05/04/el-violento-oficio-de- that is why he emphasizes that when you do not evaluate what bailar-ii/” El violento oficio de bailar II - Caras y Caretas

41 DJ WORLD

“I believe in professionalism and I invest in what I am passionate about”

Interview with YATMA DIALLO by Giorgy Korovin Yatma Diallo was born in Senegal. He is an audio and video technician, as well as a professional DJ known under the pseudonym “El Africano Bien Milonguero”. He also dances and teaches Tango. You were born in Senegal, tell me a little bit about your life, your dreams. Your first dance steps, your music. I lived in Senegal until I was 24 years old, then I went to Europe. I lived in Dakar, it was the ‘80s and the music we listened to was pachanga, ngeros and salsa coming from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba. I am referring to the orchestra of Aragon, Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz, so to speak. My friends and I would go to school singing Caramelo and Acuyuyé. Then some relatives who lived abroad started sending us taped videos of MTV, which was not seen in Africa, then the revolution broke out in the neighborhood. We exchanged tapes to find out what they were listening to in the rest of the world. And what they were dancing to. We would meet at the house of the few who had a VCR and it was hell: we would copy the choreography of Michael Jackson, Mc Hammer, Bobby Brown. We would rehearse for hours. We also put together a trio and gave ourselves a name: the Rose Guns, we had a poster of Guns N ‘Roses, a group we had never seen, but the name on the poster read wrong or at least we read it backwards. In Dakar, at the end of the year, the schools always organized dance contests and we prepared for that occasion. Then, in the 90s, with the boom of zouk, or thiembe, which is kizomba, I became a cassette collector. When I was given the first 31-band equalizer, which came from the United States, I realized that the sound really fascinated me and I began to dream of knowing more.

Tell us about your decision to come to Europe and how you found yourself in the early days. I didn’t decide anything. My mother gave me her greatest gift: a ticket to Europe, a visa and a traveler’s check, which don’t even exist anymore. I took the plane with no idea what the destination would be, never having seen a plane or an airport before, and landed in Belgium. After a month I moved to Italy. Newly arrived I had to deal with something I didn’t know in Africa: diversity. I mean social differences are suffered in Africa, classism exists but racism, for me it was a story read in school books or seen in movies. It was difficult to associate it with my life. Until I arrived in Milan and I realized that there was a role to which people like me were “predestined”: selling on the street. Of course I didn’t accept it and with the necessary effort I managed to do the things I dreamed of, immediately asked the dancer if there were any black dancers or at least a good part of them, like dancing, dancing and dancing. and he replied that he didn’t know any. I immediately looked for a Music was again the lifeline: in the mid ‘90s I started dancing also in course, then Boris Decebal, who unfortunately is no more, a close Italy, first hip hop and then salsa, I frequented the first multi-ethnic friend and great dance teacher from Guadeloupe, introduced me clubs that had opened in Milan and it was happiness. to Monica Maria. And we are still here...

How did you discover tango? So you went to Buenos Aires and...? I had a girlfriend who taught tango ambrosiano, a popular dance In Buenos Aires I felt at peace with the world, there is no other typical of Milan, but that didn’t tell me much. However, at the place where I have felt so welcome. So much so that as soon as end-of-year rehearsal of the school where she worked, a couple I landed I forgot how difficult it had been to get the visa. Buenos gave a performance of Argentine tango and I was impressed. I Aires is a truly multicultural city, especially if you have the privilege

42 of getting to know it through the world of tango, where no one posters and have their own audience. I don’t exclude that, as has feels like a foreigner. Of course, from the first time, I lived the city already happened with genres such as disco or hip hop, DJs could ‘a pan y tango’, trying to learn as much as possible and finally see be the architects, in the near future, of important changes. the things I had heard so much about. And nothing has let me down, tango is not just a dance, tango is everywhere. It was as if You taught tango in some African countries, I saw some of your I had to come into direct physical contact with as many people as videos and I’m very curious, how was it received? Do you think possible who had known my idols, Troilo and Salgán. In Buenos tango would have its own audience? Aires I saw the happiest old people in the world, protagonists of Yes, Monica and I have taught and danced in different clubs their lives, despite the internet and the passing years. And then, in Dakar, Benin and Burkina Faso. Tango in Africa is considered the fundamental thing, which I only understood upon my return: in “white people’s stuff” so to be in front of someone like me who, Buenos Aires I had forgotten about diversity. with dedication, tries to teach you, is at least disorienting. But then, after the shock, tango is tango, the embrace is universal and What is the term “milonguero” for you? prejudices are put aside, it is not difficult to be fascinated by it. Not Milonguero, by definition, is everything that revolves around even in Africa. milonga, it can even be a way of life. This is what I thought of when I chose my DJ name, El Africano Bien Milonguero. Although a How do you meet your DJ colleagues? dear friend, Osvaldo Natucci, who taught me so much about this I think it’s difficult to experience a real exchange between profession, would have preferred the name Milonguero Negro colleagues. Maybe it’s a bit of human weakness, which also exists Complicado. in other sectors. Of course, That said, it cannot be it would be nice if you could forgotten that from the honestly share discoveries, 1950s onwards the word technical knowledge and, why milonguero began to be not, also your musical tastes. used to indicate a way of dancing typical of I suppose you have a personal downtown Buenos Aires, style, do you make your where dance floors were own or do you adapt to the small, many people and milonga in front of you? few couples. Words have I don’t know if I have a their own history and personal style, I think others change along with men. will eventually tell. In general, So today, if we say “baila when I play music I try to milonguero”, at least we understand the context in know exactly what we which I find myself, the place, mean. Everyone knows. the audience. Then I draw on the repertoire of my heart. Your first experiences as In short, I imagine myself on a DJ? the dance floor and as much Actually, my first as possible, I build the night I experience as a DJ would like to live. was lending my zouk The only personal detail I claim selections to DJs. I was is the addition of ‘The African’ twenty years old, in to my name. It matters to me, Senegal. Then, six years it is the title of a tango by ago, while working in Benin, in Cotonou, on the installation of a Eduardo Pereyra that somehow represents me, because it recalls radio station, I took the satisfaction of running the FM for a whole the African presence in tango and I like to open the milongas with week, rebroadcasting my tango playlists. this theme. Joking aside, I started working as a DJ at events and VelayTango vacations organized by our school, and by Horca Myseria, together How did you live these months of pandemic (more than a year) with Monica. Then I went to the Netherlands, the United States and without being able to teach or perform music? then came the first Italian invitations. During this period I had to do other things, like many others, but I have never stopped listening to music. The 2x4 can be heard I know that you work a lot both in Italy and abroad. Tell us a little everywhere now and it also allows me to improve my Spanish. I about the gratifications and the dark moments. studied new software to perfect the technical part, which is still one As a DJ it is very rewarding for me to be invited to different of my passions. I danced with Monica, in short, I never stopped. Of countries and to feel that, in many of them, my experience as a course, I keep the bitterness of the jobs that have been cancelled: technician is considered an added value. And also to play music in Bari, Calabria, Turin, Chicago, Berlin, Holland, Guadeloupe. the places of the heart, which for now are still those of the people who opened the doors of their events to me at the beginning, And finally, how do you think our profession will continue, betting on me. As for the dark moments, maybe I am ‘too young’ improvised or professional? Do you think everything will go back as a DJ. to the way it was before or will something change? At the moment nobody can know how things will really go. What I Do you feel that the DJ profession is underestimated, for can say is that I have tried to keep going anyway, because I believe organizers, teachers and even the public? in professionalism and I want to keep investing in the things I do No, on the contrary, I think DJs are very important nowadays. and that I am passionate about. Otherwise, as the tango says, “to They are often the protagonists of events, they are displayed on live is to change, in any old photo you will see it...”.

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