Heck, a good Milonga is just a really fun party with music and dancing.... and not the tryouts for the Mundial! - March, 2010

Some extranjeros who have not grown up in tango culture have a tendency to put tango up on a pedestal. They reason: Tango is such a transformative, powerful experience... could it be anything other than "sacred"? These grim crusaders consider themselves the last bastion of the "authentic" and cast their travels to Buenos Aires in the light of a "pilgrimage". As for the so-called "codigos" - these are relevations of the "divine" and are therefore inviolate.

For the hard-core tango "authentistas" - the hallowed halls of the "milonga" are no less than the proving-grounds of the "faithful". May the most "authentic" win!

Such specimens of gringo tango can be found throughout the less "turista" milongas (god forbid that they should hang around in "Confiteria Ideal" or "Salon Canning"!) in Buenos Aires, sitting surly and sullen in their tasteful "tango" attire. As I have mentioned before in this blog, the way they frown and sigh and furrow their brow - "they look like someone has killed their goat". They must be extremely disappointed to find that the Portenos do not take tango quite as seriously as they do. In fact, they may be quite upset at the sheer amount of fun and glee that could be found at a Buenos Aires milonga!

Many Portenos - the ones that have grown up with tango as part of their lives - do not go to a milonga to prove their worthiness to the "Tango God up on High". That is just plain ridiculous. They go to the milonga to relax and chat with their friends, to enjoy a drink and a light meal. They go to catch the performance of a live orchestra or singer, to celebrate a birthday or an anniversary. They may even dance a little. And that little dance may not even be tango!

They may dance a little Chacarera:

Oscar and Ana dance a Chacarera at Glorias Argentinas, March 20, 2010

Oscar and Ana are two of the VIP regulars at Glorias Argentinas - they have been sitting at the same reserved table for decades. Oscar happens to be one of the most respected dancers of 40's style tango at Glorias - with such "lady-killing" energy and musicality that I have heard onlookers warn me while I am dancing with him that he is a real "peligro" (danger) on the dance floor. And yet here he is dancing with his wife Ana - one of the sweetest, least pretentious chacereras ever!

They may also dance a little cumbia:

Ruben and Elena dance cumbia at Caricias, March 16, 2010

Ruben and Elena are very close friends of Martha and Manolo and also padrinos (godparents) of the milonga Caricias (Tuesday nights, Ricardo Balbin 4699). Ruben has been involved in the tango scene for decades, both as a DJ (he has been a well-respected DJ at many milongas, had helped train DJ Dany Borelli, and in fact was the first DJ of Lo de Celia) as well as a milonga organizer. We're talking serious tango history here - and of course Ruben and Elena are also beautiful dancers of tango salon.

What is wonderful about Caricias and milongas like Caricias is the totally relaxed atmosphere you will find - as Ruben remarked to me, "This milonga is lindo (pretty) and familiar (could mean familiar, informal, or family)". The level of dancing at Caricias is very high - in fact, the highest we saw at any milonga we attended during our trip in 2010. Even though the floor could get crowded, there was no shoving or bumping, and everyone respected each other on the dance floor. And everyone was dancing for their own enjoyment and not at all to show-off to onlookers.

As you can see in this videoclip and in the videoclip we posted previously of Osvaldo and Coca, even the lighting at Caricias is nothing less than a warm inviting glow. The night we went we saw Ricardo Viqueira, Amanda Lucero, and even El Chino - we know that Ofelia and Adela Galeazzi also go there. We saw El Chino having a wonderful time sweet-talking to two gorgeous blonds (he was so cool, just like the James Bond of tango) and dancing salsa (too bad we couldn't video it). I have a feeling that El Chino would think all that fuss that the gringos were making about "Villa Urquiza world tango domination" was all hooey - why would he care, with two beautiful women on each arm and a bottle of champagne on ice? He was there to enjoy the milonga, and that was that.

I know you must be disappointed that we don't have footage of El Chino or Alberto and Paulina dancing salsa (which they did at Glorias Argentinas), but as a consolation, here's some more cumbia:

Osvaldo and Coca dancing cumbia at Confiteria Ideal, March 18, 2010

You may find this is insanely cute (we do) but don't be fooled - notice that Osvaldo and Coca stay completely in the compas. When Osvaldo and Coca were competing at the Mundial or whenever they are performing, they have the intense focus of top professional athletes. And when Osvaldo teaches, he is a fearsome Maestro. But when Osvaldo and Coca relax at a milonga, they relax and have fun!

This post cannot be complete without mentioning Adela Galeazzi. Whenever we saw her at a milonga, we saw her dance to everything - tango, vals, milonga, rock n' roll, cumbia, salsa, merengue, chacerera - beautifully. Tango is wonderful and the object of our passion, but it's just also another dance among dances - and dancing is to be enjoyed. We sometimes forget that the some of the best dancers of tango are also experts in other dances too - Tete, Facundo Posadas, Oscar Hector are also known as really great rock n' roll dancers. Here's a video of Adela with another such great dancer of rock n' roll and tango, Jorge Garcia:

Adela Galeazzi and Jorge Garcia dance Rock n' Roll at Fulgor

Alberto and Paulina - March, 2010

Our first two days in Buenos Aires are never complete without a visit to see Alberto Dassieu and Paulina Spinoso at their apartment on a leafy residential boulevard near Abasto.

A year has passed... and there's so much to catch up on. We talked about Alberto and Paulina's recent tour of San Diego and San Francisco. There's also their upcoming trip to teach at the Chicago Mini Tango Festival on April 8, 2010. Alberto and Paulina both have very busy schedules. It seems that every single day of Alberto's schedule is filled with classes and other appointments with his students, and during a few of the days of our stay, Paulina had to work until 10 p.m. at night at the University, where she is a Professor of Philosophy.

Every year, Alberto checks our progress. While I never give Alberto anything to worry about (ha ha! as I would say quite humbly, "I'm an excellent student") - there's always something that Man Yung is doing that troubles Alberto. "Still with all those little tiny steps and inability to pause? Man Yung, I love you but you are a very impulsive dancer!"

Summary of a class with Alberto on March 16, 2010

... I'm only joking about Man Yung. In fact he has improved a lot in the past year - but the journey for leaders is much longer than for followers, and we are extremely lucky to have teachers like Alberto in Buenos Aires who could pinpoint exactly what needs correcting and offer us advice on how to improve the quality of our dancing.

We also followed Alberto and Paulina to the milongas. The milonga scene in Buenos Aires is always changing - some days the milongas at a certain venue would be terrific, and on other days (and sometimes other times on the same day) the milongas held at the same location would be terrifying. We didn't like the milonga we went to at Maipu 444 two years ago - but upon Alberto's advice, we went on a different day this year and encountered a milonga filled with the best local milongueros and milongueras (we even bumped into Adela Galeazzi and Roberto Segarra) and excellent music. What a difference a day makes!

On the Saturday before our return to Toronto, Alberto arranged a little get-together for us with Adela Galeazzi, Elba Biscay and other friends at Glorias Argentinas. We were able to capture some amazing footage of Alberto dancing vals with Paulina:

Alberto and Paulina - Vals at Glorias Argentinas

Everywhere we go, Alberto and Paulina always steal the show whenever they take to the dance floor. I've learned a lot by just watching Paulina dance. "Your feet have to caress the dance floor," she once said to me. When Paulina dances, she is always totally at one with the music and the lead - her dancing is so gentle and loving. That's something I have to learn how to do (if I could only stop thinking about Wal-Mart!)

An evening wouldn't be complete without a surprise. The surprise of this particular evening was that Alberto had made arrangements to perform with me at Glorias Argentinas!

Exhibition at Glorias Argentinas with Alberto
(ha ha Man Yung, you will have to wait for your turn next year!)

You know it's a surprise because if I had known beforehand I wouldn't have worn THE SAME LULULEMON TANK TOP AND SKIRT THAT I WORE IN VIDEOS OF ALBERTO I POSTED LAST YEAR. Now the whole world thinks I only own one outfit.

If you are in the Chicago area this week, don't miss the opportunity to learn from Alberto and Paulina at the Chicago Mini Tango Festival!

We spend a lot of time with Osvaldo and Coca - March, 2010

With Martha and Manolo and Osvaldo and Coca at Sunderland, February, 2009

Martha and Manolo are not merely our tango teachers, they are our "Tango Parents". In 2006, we took all the classes that they taught in Toronto - all 52+ hours, equal to a whole year of weekly classes. We had never planned to travel so far from Toronto to Buenos Aires, until Martha and Manolo told us to fly there and visit them at their Camicando festival in 2007. And every year since we have returned to spend time with them. Without their love, guidance and teaching, we would not be where we are today.

The time we spent with Martha and Manolo in Buenos Aires was not all about the Camicando festival, classes and eating out - they would often take us to milongas! We learned a lot about respect and proper behavior in the milonga and in the world of tango just by sitting with Martha and Manolo, talking to them and observing how they interacted with the people of the tango world. There are codes beyond the so-called "codigos" - who would know them better than two of the best and most respected dancers from the older generation? But that's a subject for another post.

Unfortunately this year, we didn't get many opportunities to spend time with Martha and Manolo - their teaching tour to Comodoro Rivadavia in the south of Argentina coincided with most of the dates on our trip, and therefore we were only able to have dinner with them on the day that we arrived, and see them a little during their class at La Salsera on the next day.

We have a sneaking suspicion that Martha and Manolo were probably worried about letting us loose in Buenos Aires without having them around to keep an eye on us! In any case, we have found that on this trip, we spent a lot of time hanging out with Osvaldo and Coca, two of Martha and Manolo's closest friends.

We have been taking classes with Osvaldo and Coca every year since they taught at Camicando 2007. We even spent some time with them at a few milongas last year. But this year, we saw them all the time - even when we didn't make plans to meet! Did Martha and Manolo give Osvaldo and Coca a call before they left to tell them: "Keep an eye on our Tango children! We don't want them to get into any trouble - or to cross over to the dark side and start dancing Tango Nuevo!"

We visited Osvaldo and Coca at their house in Lanus. We visited them there last year too, but this time we were able to actually photograph one of the horse carts that passes their house several times a day:

It's not shocking to see this scene at all in Lanus - it is normal.
How else could you transport your stuff from one place to another?

In addition, we took some of Osvaldo and Coca's excellent classes at El Tacuari. It's a lovely little tango school in San Telmo, run by by a very nice couple called Ruth and Andreas:

Osvaldo and Coca's vals class at El Tacuari in San Telmo

Osvaldo and Coca were planning to go to La Baldosa but went with us to Sin Rumbo anyway just to indulge us. It's just a little ritual we have - to go to Sin Rumbo at least once every trip to say hello to Julio Duplaa:

At Sin Rumbo: Did Osvaldo order the Milanesa?
In fact, no - he ordered the Matambre. And we got to eat some too.

Then, by pure coincidence a few nights later, we bumped into Osvaldo and Coca at Caricias in Villa Urquiza - so far from downtown that two blocks over we would be in "la provincia" (as the taxi driver told us).

Osvaldo and Coca dancing at the Tuesday night milonga Caricias
(we were almost the only tourists in the room!)

We tried to film an entire tango, but it was impossible. Osvaldo and Coca knows everybody every place that they go - they always have to interrupt their dancing to say hello!

Osvaldo and Coca really live their tango life to the full. We asked them how often they go to milongas, and the answer was almost every night. Sometimes they would even go to two milongas in one night. Following them around, we went to milongas that we wouldn't normally go to - like Confiteria Ideal and Circulo Apolo. And they would stay sometimes to the end, 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning. Were they staying up so late just for us or was it their habit? We're not really sure, but what an adventure to spend time with them! We have never experienced such an exciting and multi-faceted view of the tango scene before.

Of course, being around Osvaldo and Coca also meant that we got front row seats to some of the most beautiful tango dancing in the history of tango:

Osvaldo and Coca perform to Francisco Canaro's "Poema"at Confiteria Ideal