Eduardo Carlos Gavito

April 27, 1942 — July 1, 2005

 

I saw him for the first time on stage with Forever Tango at the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place in Chicago on April 25, 1996. That was ten years after Tango Argentino was presented at Arie Crown for one week. My two sisters saw Tango Argentino, but I didn’t. I was living in the suburbs without a car and couldn’t get to Arie Crown in 1986, so I made up for it by going to see Forever Tango five times during six months at the Royal George Theater on North Halsted Street.

 

 

During his time with the show in Chicago, Gavito was giving classes at Chicago Dance Studio. I had the pleasure of demonstrating with him during classes. He and the entire cast showed up one night at my milonga on October 12, 1996, at an Arlington Heights dance studio escorted by Bob Dronski and his wife Kathleen Kreher. Gavito encouraged Bob and Kathleen to open a space dedicated to tango in Chicago. There were few places to dance tango at the time. They were his proteges and put their hearts and souls (and lots of money) into the design of Tango…nada mas on Northwest Highway in Norwood Park. On May 3, 1997, they held their grand opening and, of course, their dear friend Gavito came all the way from Buenos Aires to be there.

 

 

The first “La Noche de Gavito y sus Amigos” was held at La Trastienda at Balcarce 460 in San Telmo on July 22, 2002. He invited six couples and two singers to perform in his show. Here is a photo from that night with Miguel Angel Balbi (“Pepino”), Ernesto Hector Garcia (“El Flaco Dany”), Carlos Enrique Gavito, and Ricardo Enrique Maceiras (“El Pibe Sarandi,” who was born one day after Gavito in the same hospital in Sarandi).