Miguel Angel Balbi

Nov. 29, 1937–

I wouldn’t be writing this blog if I hadn’t met Miguel on October 15, 1999, in Club Gricel where I was seated next to the milongueros’ table.  Miguel invited me to dance vals.  Although I had never seen him dance, I took a chance and accepted.  That was the beginning of our relationship and my milonga training.

As a young boy, Miguel Angel was exposed to tango in the conventillo where his family lived.  He learned tangos listening to family members sing and began dancing at 11 with his mother.  His uncle Carlos escorted him to his first dance at a downtown confiteria on his 14th birthday. 

Isabel Garcia y Miguel Angel

Miguel Angel met Isabel Nelida Garcia (“Chuni”) at Club Monte Carlo on Corrientes and Libertad where afternoon dances were attended by school teachers.  They married five years later in January 1962 and had two sons Nestor and Aldo. 

Miguel Angel has sung in Oscar Hector’s show “Milonguisimo” at Confiteria Ideal for several years.  During June/July 2002, he recorded a CD which I encouraged him to do.  When he sings “El Conventillo,” he is singing what he has lived.  Miguel Angel sings more than he dances these days now that his milonguero friends are no longer dancing regularly. 

His favorite orchestra is Carlos Di Sarli.  Miguel went to the cabaret Chantecler when Di Sarli celebrated twenty-five years with his orchestra.  When he hears a vals by Di Sarli, Miguel Angel is inspired to dance.  I had the pleasure of dancing every Saturday night with him at Club Bailable Juvenil on Corrientes during the year 2000 where I filmed the dancing.

Raul Poli

I’ve been asking around about him for the past year, and no one seemed to know anything about Raul.  Yesterday I went to see Tito at his grocery store in Almagro, something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time since he, too, has disappeared from the milongas.  I entered his little shop on Gascon just before closing time.  As soon as he recognized me, he began talking about the milongas–I didn’t have to ask.  I asked Tito if he knew anything about Raul.  He has been living in a geriatric in Ituzaingo for several years.  After closing up shop, Tito and I walked and talked about how many milongueros are dying or in poor health.  Tito hasn’t been to a milonga in four years and said he has no desire to go.  I wanted to know about his friend Eduardo Calo, another milonguero who has disappeared from the milongas.  It seems Eduardo needed hip surgery and has endured five operations.  This explains why he hasn’t been dancing.

I was delighted to find a video of Raul Poli on YouTube.  This is an appropriate tribute to a milonguero who always danced with a smile.  He dances a vals in El Beso with Nelida Noemi Yodice (my neighbor around the corner who has also left from the milongas).  I searched the Tango-A archives and found my post announcing the last time Raul was teaching in El Beso–January 2006.

Nilda Araceli

Adan and Nilda in Lo de Celia (June 2004)

November 22, 1936 –

They are one couple who I enjoy watching on the floor.  Their tango is all feeling and being with the music.  I haven’t seen them in Lo de Celia since I took this photo of them.  Nilda told me today that knee problems are keeping her from dancing.  She wants to dance but suffers afterwards with pain.  I thought they might be going to Salon Canning tonight to celebrate her birthday, but instead they will be spending time with friends.

Ernesto Jorge De Gouvea

Irma and Jorge at Buenos Aires Tango (Milonguero) in Mundo Latino (Nov 2001)

November 20, 1934 –

Jorge is a master of tiny steps. I’ll never forget my first experience dancing with him in Glamour in 1997. We were dancing milonga con traspie. I made a mistake, and Jorge asked me what happened. I was thinking what an amazing dancer he is instead of being in the moment and enjoying it.

Jorge and Irma have been dancing together for the past twelve years. They competed in the IV Campeonato Metropolitano de Tango finals (August 2006) in which they placed fifth in milonga. They are champions of milonga. No bouncing, no butt swinging, no shoulder movement whatsoever. Just pure feeling-the way Jorge has danced for decades. They are an equal partnership. I remember seeing Omar Vega one afternoon in El Arranque watching Jorge and Irma on the floor.

Jorge once told me that he danced in Club Atlético Huracán in Parque Patricios as a young man. That experience meant so much to him that he said, “I’d let someone cut off my right index finger in exchange for one day the way it used to be at Huracán.”

You’ll find Jorge and Irma in the milonga El Arranque in Nuevo Salon La Argentina. They truly become one when they dance.

Bailarina de tango

This tango is probably best known for the 1951 recording by Rodolfo Biaggi’s orchestra with singer Hugo Duval. The music was composed by Oscar de la Fuente with lyrics by Horacio Sanguinetti. The Todo Tango site includes the 1973 recording by Hugo Duval. My English translation is written below the original lyrics. When I listen or dance to this tango, I can think of only one milonguera — Amanda Lucero.

De satén y color negro, la pollera.
De charol y tacos altos, los zapatos.
Dibujando garabatos,
del ritmo que se adueña
tu estampa de porteña.

Tu conoces el secreto de los tangos
y es por eso que los bailas como nadie.
Y en los brazos que te abrazas,
que mística que pasas,
danzando en el salón.

Sacerdotisa del tango,
sacerdotisa sentida.
Rito es la danza en tu vida
y el tango que tu amas
te quema en su llama.

Sacerdotisa del tango,
que en los salones de rango,
bailas en brazos de un hombre
que luce el renombre
de gran bailarín.

Of satin and color black, the skirt.
Of patent leather and high heels, the shoes.
Drawing scribbles,
to the rhythm which you take possession
your stamp as a port city woman.

You know the secret of the tangos
and that’s why you dance as no one else.
And in the arms that you embrace,
what mystical things happen,
dancing in the ballroom.

Priestess of the tango,
Priestess sense.
Ceremony is the dance in your life
and the tango that you love
that burns you in its flame.

Priestess of the tango,
that in the ballroom of status,
you dance in the arms of a man
who shows the fame
of a great dancer.

Eduardo Naldi

November 9, 1932 — September 23, 2004

I haven’t seen Eduardo for many years since the photo of him was taken at Lo de Celia. He loved dancing to jazz as well as tango. I called the telephone number he gave me years ago and was surprised when I reached his wife Ilda Chirino at their home in Caballito. She informed me that he had passed four years ago.

Club Premiere is a club de barrio at Campichuelo 472 in neighborhood of Caballito where Eduardo had lived. Elisa and Antonio held a one-night-only milonga on the outdoor soccer court on December 8, 2001. Eduardo was there. I remember asking him how it felt to return to the club where he danced on Saturday nights as a young man. He smiled and said it brought back lots of memories. He and many other milongueros returned to dance under the stars on an unseasonably cool night where they had danced as young men. I captured that special night on film for Elisa.

Ada Peloso

Ada and Ricardo Suarez

November 5, 1929 –  

I called Ada today to wish her a happy birthday. She says that it’s not only her health that keeps her from the milongas, but the shortage of good dancers. Recently she was asked to dance an exhibition in Salon Canning with El Chino Perico, but she declined. The last time she danced was at the ceremony on April 28, 2008, honoring Maria Nieves Rego as an illustrious citizen. Ada didn’t know she would be invited for a tango with Julio Duplaa.

I went to Club Akarense only once, but it was there that I first saw Ada dancing with her companion Armando Giocovelli.  I have footage of Ada dancing with El Chino Perico in Salon Canning and with Miguel Angel Balbi in Afiche.

Ada learned to dance when she was a teenager. Her husband wasn’t a dancer so she didn’t go to the milongas until after his passing. She went to dance in her early 50s at Sin Rumbo and Club Sunderland, but hasn’t danced at all in the past year. She said in part:

“Tango is a feeling. Every one dances what they feel. All one needs to learn is how to walk and the salida. After that, learning steps isn’t important. I can tell if someone is dancing with feeling or not.

Tango was created for us to dance. Even though my husband didn’t dance, he felt what I transmitted when we danced together. Once at a milonga, the tanda ended and I asked “where am I?” I didn’t know with whom I was dancing or where I was. I was present in the music. I felt the music and danced the silences.

I’ve had a good life and traveled around the world. I have my family–two daughters and two grandchildren. I am content.”

Noche de Milongueras in Salon Canning (Sept 21, 2004) Pocho, Ada, Nely and Coco

 

 

Salon La Argentina

Salon La Argentina

 The salon was designed by architect Juan Manzini and constructed in 1902, a time when it functioned as a place for social encounters for the members of the Argentine Philanthropic Society.  Given its excellent acoustics with oak floor from Slovenia, chamber music concerts were held there during the 1910s.  The association rented the salon to organizors, some of them orchestras who played every Saturday.  During the 1930s, the first tango dance was organized by alumnos of the College of Medicine.  The 1940s was an era of splendor for the salon when it had regular gatherings.   The orchestras of Juan D’Arienzo and Osvaldo Pugliese performed on stage, and Angel Vargas, Julio Sosa, Alberto Castillo and even Carlos Gardel among many others sang there.

The ladies wore long dresses, and the men gladly paid the entrada for the privilege of inviting someone to dance with the cabeceo.  Salon La Argentina was characterized by its hierarchy, differentiating itself from other tango venues with compadritos and lower class elements.  From the 1970s to the 1990s, the salon was rented out for dances and other social events.  It remained closed from 2001-2004 for a restoration project and transformed into a modern theater while preserving the original identity of the edifice.

The address is Rodriguez Pena 361 near Corrientes.  Nearby at  Bartolome Mitre 1759 is Nuevo Salon La Argentina, named after the original, where the milonga El Arranque is held four days a week.

It must have been crowded for dancing at Salon La Argentina

Photos and historic sketch from Palacio Rodriguez Pena