Alberto Dassieu and Isabella Szymonowicz perform at La Cachila Toronto, April 17, 2011

For your instant viewing pleasure: performances  by Maestro Alberto Dassieu and Toronto's very own talented and always lovely Isabella Szymonowicz at La Cachila Toronto last night:

Alberto Dassieu and Isabella Szymonowicz perform to Carlos Di Sarli's Tango "Llueve otra vez" at La Cachila milonga Toronto, April 17, 2011.

Alberto Dassieu and Isabella Szymonowicz perform to Juan D'Arienzo's Vals "Pabellon de las Rosas" at La Cachila milonga Toronto, April 17, 2011.

Alberto Dassieu continues classes and workshops in Toronto over the next week and a half.  For more information, please follow this link to Paradiso's website.

Blessings

I know, I know.... we complain a lot about Toronto Tango.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), at times it is endless inspiration for tango blogging - which, if you are the intrepid few who have been following along with us since the beginning, may not always be a good thing (at least, not for the Fabios that we are making fun of!)

Well, picture this:  Sunday night at La Cachila.  It's past midnight, but since it's the milonga before a holiday Monday, there are still plenty of couples on the dance floor.  The lights are low, the music is pulsing in that mellow, nostalgic, tango way... and I'm sitting on the sides munching on half a bag of T.G.I.F.'s very savoury Bacon and Cheddar flavour potato skins.

That (and I mean the bag of chips) in itself is a little bit of heaven in the books of  La Casa de Irene and Man Yung - but what really made the moment special was happening on La Cachila's dance floor. 

When did tango dancers in Toronto get so good?  I swear, the Toronto Tangueras and Tangueros dancing out there (well, ok, 90% of them) are absolutely fantastic!  The ladies were like angels with their sweet embraces and soft, smooth footwork; the gentlemen danced with reverence and style.  There was musicality and feeling, they all danced for themselves and each....were unique.

It was beautiful, really beautiful - just like we had stepped into a traditional milonga of Buenos Aires. 

I was so happy...and the ones who were dancing, I could imagine that they felt happy too.  Because it was Tango...y nada mas.

It is a blessing that Tango is evolving this way in Toronto - I suspect thanks to many people who have their hearts in the right place, whether they are dancers or organizers.  They're the people who truly love tango. 

If Toronto tango keeps this up - we'll have to move to a different city to dance!  After all, with our heroes and heroines being the Hokey Pokey Ostrich and the Crazy Chicken Lady (didn't we say once, for your own personal safety, LOOK AWAY when we are dancing in your vicinity! Who did you think we were talking about, of course we were talking about ourselves), I think it's only time when they turn us away at the door!

Art

In Tango, going from Toronto to Buenos Aires is like once thinking that this is art:

... to realizing that Art is really more like this:

Of course, not every dancer from Buenos Aires is great.  Some are just terrible, and teach the dancers here in Toronto awful things - movements that are inappropriate for the dance floor and the music and that have neither grace nor dignity.  But some dancers here worship these traveling charlatans - who are, despite their padded resumes and slick advertising, nobodies in Buenos Aires. The poor fools here can't help it, they have seen and only understand stick drawings - they can't conceptualize a tango that has beauty, emotion and colour.

We always tell our teachers from Buenos Aires - no matter whether it's Martha and Manolo, Osvaldo and Coca, or Alberto Dassieu - that they should not travel so much to teach all over the world.  They are getting on in years, and traveling is tough for them.  They have family and friends in Buenos Aires. Many of them don't need the money (or the financial or health-related risks) of a tango tour abroad and could live quite comfortably just teaching tango in their home city. They could get sick or worse, navigating strange cities and living with strangers, dragging their heavy suitcases with them wherever they go.

Not a single one of them could be persuaded. For them, teaching the world how to Tango is more than a mission - it's a duty.  If their efforts could illuminate, for even just one person, what the Tango of Buenos Aires is all about - then it would be all worthwhile.

Thank you, Alberto and Paulina, for bringing Buenos Aires to Toronto. 

[Update 10/07/10 - Dear Readers, the videos of Alberto and Paulina at Toronto's La Cachila milonga are temporarily unavailable, as they wish to use the footage for an upcoming documentary someone is making of Alberto!  I can't wait until the documentary is available!]

Alberto and Paulina dance to Orquesta Tipica Victor's "Adios Buenos Aires"

Alberto and Paulina dance to D'Arienzo's "Valsecito Criollo"

Alberto and Paulina dancing late in the evening at Toronto's La Cachila milonga 

Alberto and Paulina dancing late in the evening at Toronto's La Cachila milonga

Following her Heart

The past week has been an emotional one - as we all said "hasta luego" to a dear Toronto milonguera and the organizer of "La Cachila", Lorena.

Lorena is following her heart and moving to Buenos Aires to be with the man she loves. Some people would say that she was "lucky", but as we all know, it takes courage and determination to seize the day. In her goodbye speech last Sunday, Lorena was frank - she is not merely "lucky", she made it happen. She is the captain of her destiny.

"La Cachila" was a milonga that she created with help from her DJ Berenice to bring to Toronto what they both loved about Tango as it is danced in Buenos Aires. Whenever we stepped into their milonga, we were transported. Their milonga was always infused with the spirit of the cabeceo and the codigos, the joy of the chacarera, the magic of the music, and the pure emotion of the dance.

It wasn't easy - it took courage and determination, and unwavering belief in what they did. They never made any pale North American imitation to pander to the lowest denominator. And as a result, they attracted like-minded people - people with passion for Buenos Aires and its Tango - and made beautiful dancing and respect on the dance floor the standard to which all could look up to. The word spread, the dancers came - and loved what they found at "La Cachila".

We simply can't let Lorena go without leaving us some souvenirs!

Here's a video we took of Lorena dancing with Man Yung at "La Cachila" right at the very beginning of last Sunday's milonga before all the people came. Man Yung is the tango step-a-thon horror as he is always (look away, look away) but Lorena - que milonguera! Feel free to be rabidly jealous - that's how wonderful followers are in Toronto.

Man Yung and Lorena at "La Cachila"

And here's a video of an improvised Chacarera that Lorena danced with Ruben Bustamente, tango teacher and local expert in argentine folklore. Yes, you heard me correctly - improvised. Lorena had arranged for Ruben to give Chacarera lessons at "La Cachila" every first Sunday of the month, and now here in Toronto we dance a brilliant Chacarera. You can be doubly jealous - you would be hard pressed to find an improvised chacarera like this anywhere outside of Buenos Aires!

Ruben and Lorena - Chacarera at "La Cachila"

Dear Lorena: Thank you for your warmth and your good humour (she didn't mind at all Man Yung's lame jokes and flirting!) and of course, for dancing with Man Yung! Thank you for "La Cachila", and all the wonderful times we had there. We miss you already.

All the best to you and may your new life in Buenos Aires be filled with joy and love - and Tango!

(And see you in October. You thought you would be able to get rid of us and our terrible jokes? Not a chance ;-)

Invasion

La Cachila, Toronto's Sunday night milonga, is currently being held on the top floor of Dovercourt House. Now, Dovercourt House consists of several floors of dance halls/dance studios, and the weekends are the busiest days of the week for events. Sunday is no exception - while La Cachila is held in the hall three steep flights of stairs up, the ground floor hall is occupied by a popular weekly Salsa dance.

The salseros are always milling about the lobby and the landing on the ground floor, chatting and taking a break from the literally sizzling hot atmosphere of their salsa dance. I say literally, because the sweaty crowd and the lack of air conditioning results in this humid, sweaty mist that permeates the area. To access the top floor milonga, tangueros have to wade through crowds of attractive young salseros sitting and lounging all over the steps. More so since so many of the salseros are overheated and have to take a breather outside the front door in the relative freshness of the night air.

Dovercourt House has nice floors and a great location but it really is an old building without air conditioning. The building's caretaker opens the ancient vertical windows - but to no avail. When you have a lot of sweating on the ground floor, the hot air rises up like it was the gulf stream and collects at the very top of the building. As more and more people crowd into the milonga (it's the long weekend, La Cachila has its regulars as well as plenty of people from out of town) the air gets thick with heat and moisture from the exhalations of many lungs. The milonga gets piping HOT.

I went to the ladies' washroom on the top floor and encountered a lady dressed to the nines in dancewear, diligently applying her makeup over the only sink. As she was going to take some time, she stood aside a little to let me wash my hands.

"Are you going to tango?" She asked.

I nodded. "And you.... you're from downstairs?" I didn't recognize her as a milonga regular, but then again I couldn't account for tangueros who were visiting Toronto from out of town. And sometimes the toilets downstairs are so crowded the salseros would head upstairs. In any case, there was something about her that didn't... seem to have anything to do with tango.

"I'm performing later downstairs," she said proudly. "Tango Salsa."

I must have blinked but I kept a straight face. I grabbed a paper towel and dried my hands.

"Have fun .... performing," I said. And made a hasty exit.

The Cabeceo at "La Cachila"

By the location, the venue, the music, the quality of dancing and high level of attendance, Lorena and Berenice’s brand new milonga “La Cachila” located on the white-hot Ossington strip (100A Ossington Avenue, Sundays 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.) is “THE” place to be for tangueros and tangueras in Toronto on Sunday night.

We had a little bit of free time to spare from our gansey-knitting and buffet-eating to attend La Cachila over the past two Sundays and had a great time. Lorena is a most gracious and charming hostess, and the music of DJ Berenice was very danceable, with the music on the second night we went surpassing the music of the first night – none of the usual monotonous repetitiveness or lack of variety that we have been finding recently in some of the other venues in Toronto.

But what was really special about La Cachila’s Labour Day weekend milonga was Lorena’s little experiment with the attendees - namely, with the “Cabeceo”.

The cabeceo may be de rigeur in Buenos Aires, but here in Toronto, it’s usually a mad frenzied free-for-all when it comes to soliciting potential dance partners. I myself have been quite annoyed when asked to dance by leaders I have absolutely no desire to dance with despite being visibly occupied with eating, talking to my neighbour, surfing the internet on my smartphone, taking a nap, or deliberately looking in another direction, running for the washroom, wearing no shoes, etc. etc. Man Yung doesn’t mind so much about being ambushed because he loves to dance with everybody - but after six tandas of tango whirling dervishing with “Dancing Dynamo” Man Yung, the last thing I want is a tanda with anyone else. Thank God someone is trying to introduce the cabeceo to Toronto Tango ... at last!

For a few tandas last Sunday, Lorena gently directed the leaders to take their seats on one side of the room, and the followers on the other. Couples sat on the third side. And although some of the dancers unfamiliar with the cabeceo were hesitant at first and there were a few awkward moments of misunderstanding between some of the cabeceo rookies, within seconds people had found their match and the dance floor was filled with dancers for every single tanda.

In the past, we have suggested to other organizers about introducing the cabaceo to their traditional milongas. The organizers we have spoken to have generally concurred that the cabeceo is a great idea, but no one has ever followed through with this. There’s this general fear among organizers that people in Toronto won’t get it, or they won’t like it, and they’d go someplace else to dance. In fact, we heard dire predictions that the cabeceo will result in nothing less than Tango Calamity - the dance floor would become a wasteland and it would get so quiet as people would either be too confused or too embarrassed to dance that you’d be able to hear the crickets chirp and the pins drop.

But surprise, surprise, this was not the case last Sunday at the La Cachila. In fact, most people (with a show of hands after the experiment) liked the using the cabeceo. We observed that people were dancing as much and as intensely, or even more so, than when they were not using the cabeceo.

We have our own theory about this. Despite what some trendy (or clueless) extranos may think, the cabeceo is not just some silly old outdated ritual that they follow in Buenos Aires for no particular reason. The cabeceo actually works to bring two people who want to dance with each other together - but there's more to cabeceo than just functionality. The embrace begins before the dancers hit the dance floor, with the meeting of the gaze, the nod of the head. The poetry that is communicated by the cabeceo does not require words. The cabeceo is magic: without it you lose a bit of Tango's heart and soul.

It is fascinating to watch our Toronto milonguera friend use the cabeceo. She is a pro, having honed the skill in the milongas of Buenos Aires. When we are at the milonga together, she'd be talking to us one moment, and then, without us knowing what had happened, she would be drawn to the dance floor by some mysterious force, right into the arms of her favourite dancer. After the tanda she would return to her seat, perfectly nonchalant and completely composed, keeping her calm and regal bearing even as she assesses the dancing skills of the leaders on the floor and scans the room for her next dance partner. She never looks desperate and never breaks a sweat. It's amazing.

I wish Toronto Tango could be so dignified - the practice of the cabeceo would certainly help. Instead we see dancers begging and bullying: coaxing, whining, pleading, threatening, shadowing, giving the evil eye when rejected, you name it, you got it. Sure it looks "lively" and "friendly" and "jolly" and "noisy" to have so much commotion and wheeling and dealing going on, but somehow all this contributes less to the atmosphere of Tango and more to the sights and sounds of ... a Fun Fair, or perhaps a Barnyard.

Not every milonga in Buenos Aires is arranged strictly with women in one row on one side and men in one row on the other side - some of the barrio milongas, like Glorias Argentinas or Sin Rumbo are frequented mostly by couples and they have a different seating arrangement and different dynamic. But many of the downtown ones, like the ones at Maipu 444, Lo de Celia, El Beso and Centro Region Leonesa, have similar layouts for seating as the one at La Cachila during the cabeceo experiment. Others, like the ones at El Arranque, Viejo Correo, Saraza and Fulgor de Villa Crespo, will have "sections" of tables in groups in which men and women sit apart. But no matter where you go in Buenos Aires for serious dancing, the cabeceo is important - as it should be.

It is a fine idea for the cabeceo to be imposed in Toronto Tango and we are so happy to see it being introduced at La Cachila. Not only can Toronto dancers practice this integral part of Tango right in their hometown, the consistent use of the cabeceo can also bring a little of the tradition, quality, decorum - and yes, magic - of dancing Tango in Buenos Aires back to Toronto.*

* Having said all that, please make no mistake, neither Irene nor Man Yung are experts at using the cabeceo. In fact, do not do as Irene did at El Beso in February of 2008 - in which she was not only totally oblivious that Tete wanted to cabeceo her, Tete actually had to cross the dance floor from the opposite side of the room, disrupt a whole row of people and finally get Alberto Dassieu to get Man Yung's attention to get Irene's attention that Tete wanted to dance with her.