Ten years ago today the Argentine newspaper Clarin published an article about the current trend in tango styles: Villa Urquiza with long steps, Almagro with short steps, and Naveira with a new variety of figures. [Spanish version] [English translation]
This is what Nito Garcia said in his interview published in the July 2009 issue No. 177, page 35 of El Tangauta:
“Does the Avellaneda style exist nowadays?
Nito: No, at times I taught a “milonga from Avellanenda,” but I called it that because they were the steps I learned in Avellaneda. I don’t believe that either the Avellaneda style or the Villa Urquiza style exists. I even doubt that the great creators of what they call today Villa Urquiza style ever lived in that neighborhood. How come the Villa Urquiza style appears now and did not appear before? When tango turned commercial, strange things began to happen.”
Tags: Club Almagro, tango, Villa Urquiza style
August 10, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Dear Janis,
I totally agree with you on this one. Commercialization has done strange things to tango. Many tango dancers think they need a label with cache to be “authentic” – as if buying a Louis Vuitton handbag would automatically give you class!
I heard from some older generation Buenos Aires dancers that were dancing at the same time that Fino was dancing and who knew Fino personally that the great “Villa Urquiza” Fino was actually known as “Fino from Paternal!” Just shows that not everything one reads on the internet is truth. Your work in researching right at the source by talking to the milongueros and milongueras is so important in dispelling all this self-serving speculation and misinformation that is spreading all over the internet.
Irene
August 10, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Nito calls it as he sees it, and I agree with him.