Ricardo Vidort

Sixty years in tango--December 2003

August 30, 1929 – May 21, 2006

Ricardo was one of only two milongueros who learned English. He had the opportunity to teach classes and organize a milonga in New York City for a couple years. Ricardo said that people didn’t need more than eight classes with him– then they had to find their own tango.

I recorded Ricardo talking about his life in tango. He was also filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico during his last few months for a documentary. He had many important things to share.

“You move with the grace that the music gives you to do it in the way you want to. We put that into a few steps in which there are infinite possibilities. We hold a woman with strength but softly so she feels safe. She feels you are taking her. The priority is the music and the woman. I have been asked to do exhibitions, but then I have to change my style and dance for others. I dance for my partner. No one can teach you feeling. I can show how to be better through movement, but you dance your way, your feeling, and your thoughts. You can copy my steps but you can’t copy what I feel. You can love ten people in your life with passion, but you’ll love each one differently.”

Miguel Angel, Ricardo, Alito and Ivonne Laens in Leonesa (Aug 30, 2001)

Rosita

Today is her 82nd birthday!  She is in good health and dancing regularly at Cachirulo and El Beso.

Alito, Rosita and Pocho in Gricel (Dec 2005)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ismael Heljalil

Dancing with Ismael in Italia Unita (Nov 1999)

August 30, 1930 –

      It’s impossible for me to accurately describe what I feel while dancing with Ismael. I like to say, “if God could dance, he would dance like Ismael.” He masterfully improvises what he feels in the moment. He walks, and oh…how he walks with intimate knowledge of every phrase and nuance of the music from his soul.

      I started dancing with Ismael at Milonga de Los Consagrados when it was held in Italia Unita in the El Once district. It was a Saturday afternoon milonga, just as it is now in Centro Region Leonesa organized by Enrique Rosich.

       Look into his eyes and you know that Ismael is a kind man with a good heart. He transmits that from his soul.  He allowed me to record him talking about his life in the milongas, and I also filmed his birthday a few years ago in Lo de Celia. He had never seen himself dancing until viewing the video. He is the epitomy of elegance in movement.

Dancing in Caribean on his birthday (2001)

 

 

 

 

Jorge Uzunian

August 28, 1930 –

Jorge is known in tango circles as “El Jardinero” since his business is landscaping and gardening. He has been dancing in Oscar Hector’s show “Milonguisimo” at Confiteria Ideal for more than four years.  Watch Jorge on stage with Haydee in Milonguisimo.

Last year Jorge decided it was now or never for him to travel, so he accepted the invitation of a tango friend in Spain and paid his own way there for a month stay in December 2007. Nothing was arranged in advance, and he didn’t have the opportunity to teach classes while he was there to pay for a month abroad; all he did was attend a few milongas. He was happy just to travel the first time outside of Argentina.   

Pedro Sanchez

Pedro and Janis in Club Gricel (October 1998)

August 27, 1935 –

Pedro used to have a reserved table on Fridays in Club Gricel on La Rioja near San Juan. That is where I danced with him for the first time more than ten years ago. When Pedro retired in July 2000, he started his first class and practica at Salon G.O.N., Pavon 3916 in Boedo. I went and filmed him there. Since then he has organized a practice in several places including Salon Carpanel on Independencia.

I danced a tanda with Pedro in Centro Region Leonesa a few weeks ago. What a pleasure! I didn’t need to dance again that night. One tanda with Pedro satisfied me completely. It’s too bad that foreigners aren’t studying tango, vals and milonga con traspie with Pedro.

There is finally a video of Pedro on YouTube with 500+ views already, thanks to Tina Ferrari of Seattle. He and Alejandro Gee organized a milonga in Club Buenos Aires on Peru for the last three months, but they closed it a few weeks ago. 

I have met Pedro’s wife and two daughters. He’s a gentleman and fine tango dancer who knows how to transmit his dancing. I encourage teachers to learn from him…before it’s too late. Pedro is interested in traveling to the United States, but first he needs a contract from someone who will sponsor him and petition for his work permit and visa.

Practica in Salon Carpanel (Aug 30, 2004)

Pedro participated in Milongueando 2009 held in Buenos Aires.  Unfortunately, he didn’t dance with a partner with whom he could demonstrate his talent as a dancer.

Pedro appeared in the documentary El Ultimo Bandoneon which premiered in Buenos Aires movie theaters in October 2006.  It is available on DVD at music stores.  Pedro has interesting things to say about the milonga, women, and codigos.  You will see him invite a woman to dance by moving his lips–vamos.  She happily responds with a smile and a nod.

 

 

Eyes wide open

During my first several visits to Buenos Aires, I closed my eyes while dancing in the milongas in order to focus on the music and my partner. Then in October 1999, I began dancing regularly with Miguel Angel Balbi in Club Gricel. He noticed I had my eyes closed when I danced with other men. He commented that I would eventually open my eyes while dancing. At the time I doubted I would change, and I told him so, but it happened just as he said it would. His gentle encouragement was all I needed. It happened as I realized the difference in enjoying others dancing.

Miguel Angel told me that it was customary years ago for women to keep their eyes open while dancing. Women can see where the man cannot-to his right and to the rear. We help our partners avoid collisions on the floor by using a slight pressure with the left hand on the man’s shoulder. This gentle signal is useful. If a woman turns her head to the right or closes her eyes, a man cannot rely on his partner for this information; he has to turn in order to check the space around him.

I remember one night several years at Club Almagro where I gave my partners absolutely no help at all. First I danced with Cacho with my eyes closed for the entire tanda, never opening them even between dances. I did the same for the next tanda with Jose Luis and a tanda with Alberto. Dancers must have thought this was strange behavior in the milonga-even I do now. I didn’t want to lose my concentration while dancing, so I never opened my eyes. I didn’t know what I was missing at the time. I had never closed my eyes dancing other ballroom dances, but it seemed practical for tango. I didn’t want to be distracted by others. It has taken years for me to be comfortable, and I never close my eyes completely.

A friend shared an experience with me. An Argentine couple advised opening her eyes while she danced. It was the first time she had heard this in her short time in tango, so she asked a milonguero for his advice on the subject. Alito gave it to her straight-tango is a social dance. We come to a milonga to be with each other and to see one another. Therefore, you should have your eyes open when you dance. You help the man navigate and avoid being bumped with a gentle squeeze with your hand on his shoulder.

The next time you enter a milonga, look around and see how many women have their eyes open. They are the ones who are enjoying the dancing of others and helping their partners navigate.

Revised as previously posted on Tango-L, November 15, 2000.

No lessons required

My sister Linda and I were regular viewers of American Bandstand, a television program of teenagers dancing to the rock ‘n’ roll tunes we heard on the radio. American Bandstand with its host Dick Clark was on five days a week after school beginning August 1957-1963, our preteen years. We listened to rock ‘n’ roll music on WLS-Chicago radio with Dick Biondi. We bought 45 rpm records of our favorites. We practiced dancing at home with the kitchen doorknob and each other. We aspired to dance like the teens on American Bandstand. There weren’t any dance classes for teenagers who wanted to dance to rock ‘n’ roll music. Teenagers just watched television and copied what they saw or their friends showed them how. We danced to the tunes we heard on the radio. It was our music growing up in the 1950s and 60s. My sister and I knew how to dance when we got to high school and attended Friday night sock hops. The problem was that the boys didn’t dance.

 

Teenagers on American Bandstand who have a nice embrace for tango

Dancing in Buenos Aires was entirely a different matter where teenagers were concerned. Tango was practically the only music on the radio in Buenos Aires during the 1940s and 1950s. Most families didn’t have a television in Buenos Aires until the 1960s, if at all. Boys wanted to meet girls, so the social activity of choice was dancing. Boys had family as role models at parties where dance and music were always present. They went to a neighborhood club to see others dancing. There weren’t any organized classes, so the boys in the neighborhood gathered on a street corner and learned from each other. Some practiced together until they were ready to dance with partners. Girls were escorted by an older relative to learn by dancing with the boys at a neighborhood club. They sat accompanied by their mothers or aunts at tables around the perimeter of the floor waiting for the boys standing in the center to invite them to dance. They learned tango and vals by dancing. No lessons required. The young men weren’t allowed to enter the downtown confiterias until they were 18, but that didn’t stop many from going with a relative or friend who had instructed them on the codes and introduced them to friends. As soon as they owned their first suit with long pants, they were ready to enter a confiteria where they observed for a year or two before dancing publicly. Then once they tasted the nightlife of downtown Buenos Aires they became regular inhabitants of the confiterias and cabarets lining the streets of downtown Buenos Aires. There they perfected their individual styles dancing to recordings of their favorite orchestras. A few of these men who danced in the 1940s and 50s are still dancing today. They are the milongueros—self-taught dancers who can dance well with any woman with musicality and elegance.

Pedro Vujovich

Pedro and Graciela in Plaza Bohemia (July 2005)

July 9, 1935 – April 2, 2007

Pedro and his wife Graciela Cano were married 45 years. They won the III Campeonato Metropolitano de Tango Salon in 2005. I remember how the audience applauded them in El Dorrego during the final rounds. They were the only ones dancing with the music. I had never seen them dance before the competition. Graciela was the only woman dancing with her eyes open, as it should be. I spoke briefly with Pedro that night before the decision of the judges was announced to tell him that he and his partner were the audience’s favorites. They never missed a beat, danced creatively and according to the rules. He modestly said, “well, we’ll see what the judges decide.” They went on to place second in the III Campeonato Mundial de Baile de Tango.

It took time for Graciela to return to the milongas after Pedro’s death. I’ve seen her dancing at Salon Sur and Lo de Celia. It can’t be easy to go dancing without your regular partner of so many years.

 

 

 

 

Bailarina No. 6458

During my second visit to Buenos Aires in March 1997, I went to the milonga in Club Almagro on Medrano where a stout gentleman invited me to dance a tanda of Osvaldo Pugliese. Afterwards, he escorted me to my table and asked me to write my name on a piece of paper. He then gave me a small scrap of paper with a number on it. No, it wasn’t his telephone number. It was a number given to me as dancer No. 6458. I asked the woman with whom I was seated about the significance of this number. She told me that he is an accountant by profession and is keeping a record of the women with whom he dances in the milongas in a checkbook register.

In 2001, this same man—David Derman—gave me one of the cards he had printed to give to his dance partners with these words: You will always be registered in my heart for me not only as a name or a number. You will have this memory from one who deeply appreciates to have shared these minutes of dance in which we left the material world and we introduced our toes in the kingdom of emotion and joy that we call tango. Thanks for dancing with me. David referred to his register for 1997 and found my name and number.

One September evening, he parked his car on Riobamba in front of El Beso before going to dance. He never entered. David’s dance partners numbered around 7,600. His goal was 10,000, but he wasn’t given the years to accomplish it. He loved tango and jazz.

David Derman   –   April 9, 1933—September 4, 2002

Previously posted on October 3, 2002 to Tango-L

 David danced with Sally Potter in “The Tango Lesson.”  See a clip http://lanuitblanche.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/the-poetics-of-space/

 

 

 

Tango — a dance for all ages

Little girls at Salon Moreno practica 1997

Carmencita and Juan (September 1997)

I have danced all my life, thanks to my mother. I believe my soul chose her for her love of dance and music. She was a life-long dancer and a musician who continued tap dancing and playing the piano into her eighties. Dance and music are necessities for me–I couldn’t live without them.Classical ballet is physically demanding and at a certain age you realize the body can’t do what you want it to do. Tap and jazz dance also require an agile body. Ballroom dances are for normal, everyday people who want move to the music. They aren’t physically demanding nor do they require a dancer’s body to enjoy them.Children are learning tango in Buenos Aires. I snapped the photo of these two little girls at a practice in Buenos Aires. They are probably good dancers by now. They saw adults dancing, and it was natural for them to dance to the music as well. At the other end of the spectrum was Carmencita Calderon who lived past her 100^th birthday in Buenos Aires and was still dancing tango into her 90s.

Music inspires us to dance. And tango is a dance for all ages. We don’t need years of training or a dancer’s body to dance tango. All you need is a love for the music, a partner, and lots of feeling. I plan to dance tango forever.

Miguel Aprile

October 12, 1929 — July 30, 2008

Miguel and Delia were together the last eight years.  Two years ago they went to Miami to visit her nephew, his wife and their son.  Miguel continued working in a furniture store on San Juan near Boedo.  He and Delia would go out dancing on Friday nights to Lo de Celia.  They were always invited to Pocho’s birthday celebration at Nely’s house.

Delia - Pocho - Miguel

And at the milonga “Buenos Aires Tango Milonguero” in Mundo Latino on Esmeralda and Lavalle in 2001.

Beto, Teresa, Marta, Chiche, Delia, Miguel