International Dance Day

The official message for Dance Day 29 April 2009

The future of dance lies where there are persons who do not dance.

These belong to two categories: those who simply did not learn, and those who think that they are not able to dance. They represent the greatest challenge for the dance teacher’s profession.

In line with UNESCO’s struggle against prejudice and discrimination, we are trying to expand the boundaries of dance and to change the current perception of what a dancer is.

Dance performances are not necessarily exhibitions of extreme physicality, accurate precision, or bursting emotion – they can be celebrations of interaction between performers. We can enrich dance concerts with dancers, singers, actors, narrators, mimes, acrobats etc., of all ages and all degrees of ability.

Bringing the ‘excluded’ into dance is a moral duty, but also opens a great door in times of economic crisis and unemployment. In every country there are millions of persons with physical or mental disabilities. We believe they are ready to dance.

They will create jobs to thousands of dance teachers. They can be assisted by the Ministry of Health, whose budget is many times bigger than that of the Ministry of Culture.

Integrating marginalized persons into the practice of dance is as important as integrating them into the workforce.

CID holds to the philosophy that everyone can dance.
Dance Day 2009 is dedicated to inclusive dance. Let us include all members of society into our classes and our performances.

Prof. Alkis Raftis
President of the International Dance Council CID
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO, Paris

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International Dance Committee
International Theatre Institute/UNESCO
International Dance Day Message 2009 by Akram Kahn

This very special day, International Dance Day, is dedicated to the one language that everybody in this world can speak, the inherent language of our bodies and our souls, of our ancestors and of our children.

This day is dedicated to every god, guru and grandparent that ever taught and inspired us.

To every song and impulse and moment that’s ever moved us to move.

It is dedicated to the little child that wishes it could move like its star. And to the mother who says, “you already can.”

This day is dedicated to every body of every creed, colour and culture that carries the traditions of its past into stories of the present and dreams of the future.

This day is dedicated to Dance, to its myriad dialects and its immense power to express, transform, unite and delight.

This video proves that people everywhere of all ages love to dance.

Tanda Trifecta

A new visitor to Buenos Aires was going regularly to her favorite afternoon milonga.  She was gaining more confidence each day in using the cabeceo and was enjoying tandas with several Argentine men.  There was one in particular with whom she enjoyed dancing.  She accepted two invitations from him one afternoon.  When it came to the third tanda with her, other dancers on the floor were teasing him that they must be novios.

In our conversation that night, she related the sequence of events and wanted to know what people were talking about.  She thought she had done something wrong and needed clarification from me on los codigos.  I explained that if a woman dances three tandas with the same man, it is because she is either in a relationship with him or wants to be.  My friend was surprised and asked if she should stay away from that milonga because of the incident.  I encouraged her to return, because now she knew what three tandas, especially three consecutive tandas, with the same man means in the milongas of Buenos Aires.  Everyone makes a mental note of who is dancing with whom. This can be interpreted as a clear signal to all the other men in the room that she wants to dance the entire afternoon with the same man.  Other men will ignore her, just as they would if she was seated at a table with a man.

This is an example of why it can take years to fully understand los codigos milongueros.   The milongueros observe the women first, and if they see they do not have a compromiso with one man, an invitation comes later.  One codigo is never to dance with the partner of another man.

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Trifecta: used in horse racing in which the bettor must predict which horses will finish first, second, and third in exact order; a term used to describe any successful or favorable phenomenon or characteristic that comes in threes.

Exhibitions in the milongas

A milonguero goes to a milonga to dance.  He is not interested in watching exhibitions.  They are the nightly entertainment at most milongas these days in Buenos Aires.

I don’t remember exhibitions at milongas when I visited Buenos Aires in 1996, except for Club Almagro.  That milonga was organized from 1993 until it closed in 2000 by Juan Fabbri and Dolores de Amo who were interested in tango shows.  Today they produce the shows at Esquina Carlos Gardel and Tango Porteño.  It was a total change from the way the milonga at Almagro had been since 1960.  Not only were there nightly exhibitions, but announcements and raffles.  The entire milonga environment changed and others followed suit.  Famous personalities began coming to Buenos Aires to see tango, and they went to Club Almagro: Madonna, Julio Iglesias, and The Rolling Stones.  I was there when Wynton Marsalis and his band showed up the night before their concert at the Gran Rex on Corrientes.  They say that Almagro was no longer Almagro, and that was the beginning of its demise.

Couples are invited by organizers months in advance to perform in milongas so that advance promotion can be done on the internet and in tango magazines.  Organizers pay well for top performing couples because they bring more people to the milonga. 

The problem I have with exhibitions is that they interrupt the evening for those who came to dance, and the performances usually don’t demonstrate good social tango.  It’s all about fancy steps to gain applause and be videotaped for YouTube promotion.  If everyone danced like those who performed, we would kill one another on the social floor. 

There is one refreshing example of an exhibition that is simple and elegant.  When Beto Ayala dances an exhibition in Salon Canning with Amanda Lucero, he doesn’t change anything about his dancing.  He dances as he normally does in a milonga.  He follows the line of dance around the floor.  He keeps his feet on the floor.  And he dances for his partner and with the music.  Beto doesn’t dance for applause.  Here is their recent exhibition in Salon Canning dancing to El Tigre Viejo by Fresedo.  It’s pure tango.  Beto is a milonguero who feels tango and doesn’t have anything to prove.

I’m glad that there is at least one milonga where people can go to dance tango without interruptions for raffles, announcements or exhibitions. The owner welcomes everyone and mentions the times for her other milongas.  Then it’s back to dancing at Lo de Celia.  There is too much talking these days, another big change from the way things used to be only a few years ago when everyone wanted to listen to the music.

Fileteado, as porteño as tango

The finishing touches on milk carts in 19th century Buenos Aires were the hand-painted lines.  The artists later added decorations, and everything from buses to signs were being painted in this unique artform that originated and survives only in Buenos Aires.  There was a time when it wasn’t permitted, but in the last twenty years the masters have trained young artists to carry on the tradition.  Fileateado has returned and is flourishing once again.  There are no more than a few dozen who work and earn a living painting fileteado.

I wanted to give my partner a special gift for his birthday and met with Alfredo Martinez to discuss the sign I wanted him to paint.  He had it ready in a couple weeks.  My partner talked about a name for our milonga, so I had this hand-painted sign made.  It shows how the simple lines of fileteado on milk carts developed into elaborate decorations created by each artist.

One of the most impressive works by a fileteador was painted on the nude body of Guillermina Quiroga, who is well-known as a tango performer all over the world.  She is interviewed in the April 2009 issue of El Tangauta.

You probably don’t want to have your body painted, but there is no end to the objects which are being painted today by fileteadors.  See what is available in the Gallery on my friend’s website.

Paris of South America

That’s what Buenos Aires is often called.  There was a time when French was taught in schools.  French architecture with impressive domes is prominent in the city.  Many of the cabarets during the 1930s used French names.  Porteños enjoy croissants with café for breakfast, only they call them media lunas.  The influence of Parisian life is evident in many ways in Buenos Aires.

The same is true for Paris where tango was popular in the 1920s.  Paris has its tango clubs Le Temps Du Tango and Le Bistro Latin for many years.  The tango has left it’s mark on Parisian life. 

The last time I visited Paris was 1989.  I searched for a place to go dancing in the afternoon and found La Balajo, established in 1936.   It’s where Edith Piaf won the hearts of Parisian music lovers.   The club had a variety of music played by a deejay including tango.  It was just like an afternoon milonga in Buenos Aires.  There were more women than men so some danced alone or with another woman.  La Balajo still has tango dances in the afternoon.

 

Cabarets in Buenos Aires

The style of  Parisian cabarets reached Buenos Aires during the first decades of the 20th century.  Cabarets were lavish places that opened at midnight where the wealthy went to dine and dance to music of jazz and tango orchestras.  They weren’t exclusively for men, although they were the majority of patrons.  Coperas were women who made a living selling drinks to the patrons and who sat with customers at their table for pleasant conversation.  They had to work until the cabaret closed and then paid a commission to a cafishio.  At one time, the city had 5,000 registered coperas (also referred to as alternadoras) working in cabarets.

The cabarets had large salons with large dance floors surrounded by tables and a bar.  Two orchestras alternated sets for tango and jazz music for dancing, and musicians were well paid and enjoyed working nights at the cabarets.  During the 1940s when lunfardo was prohibited from use in tango, cabaret was also included, so tango lyrics had to be changed. There are very few witnesses of those times who remain–they are the milongueros who could tell us. 

One of the most famous cabarets of Buenos Aires was Chantecler, which opened December 24, 1924, with Julio De Caro. It was located at Paraná 440 near Av. Corrientes.  Juan D’Arienzo’s orchestra performed there regularly.  The owner gave D’Arienzo the name El Rey de compás.  Chantecler was demolished in 1960.

Cabaret Marabú, which opened in 1934, was located at Maipú 365.  Many years later it was called Club Maracaibo, and several milongas were organized there before it was finally closed in 2000.  The owners were bankrupt, and the place was sold at auction.  Walking down the stairs to enter Maracaibo (below street level) was an experience in itself.  I remember when Jorge Orellana told me that we were dancing where Anibal Troilo debuted in 1937.  Rodolfo Biaggi performed there in 1938 and Alfredo De Angelis in the late 40s.

Cabaret Tabaris, formerly called Royal Pigall, was located at Av. Corrientes 829-831.  Today it operates as the Teatro Tabaris and currently has the show La Fiesta esta en el Tabaris.   Leopoldo Federico made his debut on bandoneon at the Tabaris when he was 17.  His father would go at 4:00 in the morning to escort his son home, and then he went off to work at 6:00.

The downtown neighborhood of Buenos Aires is San Nicolas  bounded by Av. Cordoba on the north, Av. Rivadavia on the south, Av. Leandro Alem on the east and Av. Callao on the west, encompassing approximately 144 square blocks where at one time tango permeated the air almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in the dozens of cafés and cabarets. 

My research on the internet produced names of cabarets that once existed in San Nicolas, such as Desiré (corner of Sarmiento and Cerrito), Casanova (in front of Marabú; Lucio Demare played for opening night ) Casino Pigall (next door to Casanova), Lucerna (Suipacha 567), Jezebel (Corrientes 900), Tibidabo (Corrientes 1244), Cote D’Azur (25 de Mayo near Corrientes), Novelty (Esmeralda 400), Empire (Corrientes & Esmeralda), Bambú (Corrientes 600), Montmartre (Corrientes 1431-35, where Miguel Calo performed), Shanghi, El Royal, Rendez-Vous, Moulin Rouge, El Derby, Cielo de California, Abdulah Club (in Galeria Güemes at Florida 165), and Petit Salon (where Rufino debuted at 16 in 1938).  Corrientes is known as the street that never closes for good reason.

Carlos Alberto Bustos

April 15, 1933 –

I saw them dancing regularly at Club Bailable Juvenil on Corrientes when the Saturday night milonga of Stella and Ricardo had the best dancers of Buenos Aires.

Carlos grew up in the barrio of Chacarita.  He and Elvira have been together for 16 years.  They danced in clubs Huracán, Premier, Buenos Aires, Estudiantes, Palacio Rivadavia as well as the downtown confiterias Montecarlo, San Souci, La Nobel, and Domino.  Their favorite orchestras are Osvaldo Pugliese, Carlos Di Sarli, and Miguel Calo.

They live in Palermo and occasionally go to Centro Region Leonesa to dance on Friday.  Elvira once owned an apartment across the street from where I live today.

Cacho Masci

March 12, 1939–April 5, 2009

The Masci brothers–Eduardo and Cacho in Nino Bien (Dec 2000)

I heard the news early Wednesday morning on the way to Ezeiza airport that Cacho (Omar Benito Masci) died at the milonga “Lujos” in Plaza Bohemia on Sunday evening.  The remise driver has friends in the milonga who told him about Cacho.  He was one of seven children; now there are three remaining.  His friends took comfort in the fact that he was dancing in the milonga for the last hours of his life–where he was with friends and enjoying tango. 

Salones de baile

The ballrooms have stages where orchestras performed for dances.

 

 

Salón La Nacional
Asociación Nazionale Italiano
Adolfo Alsina 1463
Montserrat

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salón Reduci
Pte. Luis Sáenz Peña 1441
Constitución
since 1929

Friday, Saturday & Sunday dances

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salón Sur
Avenida Sáenz 459
Nueva Pompeya

Thursday dances organized by Oscar Hector Malagrino, occasionally with an orchestra.

 

 

 

 

Salón Suiza
Sociedad Filantropica Suiza
Rodriguez Peña 254
San Nicolas
founded August 6, 1893

 

 

 

 

 

Salón Asturiano
Centro Asturiano
Solis 475
Montserrat

Where Osvaldo Centeno did his first cabeceo.

Salones de baile

  

The Palais de Glace opened in 1910 in Recoleta as an ice-skating rink for the upper class. When interest in skating declined, an oak floor was installed to convert it into a ballroom for tango. Carlos Gardel, Francisco Canaro, and Julio de Caro performed there.  Posadas 1725.

 

 

 

Salón El Pial
Ramón L. Falcón 2750
Flores

Thursday/Sunday dances in a modest neighborhood club with one of the largest floors in the city.

 

 

 

 

Salón Savoy
Savoy Hotel
Callao 181
San Nicolas

The Savoy was originally built in 1910 and had a ballroom for dancing. Unfortunately, the recent renovations to return the hotel to its original splendor included meeting rooms instead of a ballroom.  The photos on this site give a glimpse back at what it was like a century ago in Buenos Aires.