Tango Express, February, 2012

While we’re on the topic of brave tango dancers, consider Mirabai Deranja’s quest. The Bay Area tanguera teacher, and performer set her sights high—on the TV show, “So You Think You Dance.” She enlisted the help of tanguero Diego Lanau, to help her, showcasing her skill and talent for the audition on February 22 in Salt Lake City. They won’t know the results-whether Mirabai advances to the next stage in Las Vegas until Saturday, February 25.

If you were lucky you would have caught Mirabai and Diego’s performance at one of the local Bay Area milongas where they practiced their routine before some of the toughest judges in the tango world. They performed two numbers, a salon style tango to Canaro’s La Poema and a riveting stage, or fantasía tango to Pugliese’s La Cachila. If you missed them, watch them here on YouTube.

Mirabai says that in addition to proving her excellence in  tango, she will need to also show that she can dance many other dance forms, including foxtrot, disco, break dancing, quickstep, jive, swing (whew), and all those dances that tangueros forsake once tango enters their lives.

In case you are wondering, Diego is not actually auditioning for the show. He is helping Mirabai audition. “He’s been awesome,” she says, “giving me a helping hand with this.”

Once she gets the desired call back, it’s lots of rigorous work from there on. Our fingers and toes are all crossed that she gets that call back this Saturday.  For more about Mirabai or Diego, check out their websites: www.miratango.com or www.diegolanau.com

Continued from Tango Express:

Share your views here:

Tell us what you do for “tangovers.”

Is it good or bad form to inquire of a tanguero/a about how another partner of theirs dances?

Is tango really a vertical position for horizontal desire?

From Tango Express newsletter (February 2012)

Silvano Colombano is  a pioneer worthy of our admiration. Last year,  he braved the first Argentine Tango USA Championship. He agreed to share some high–and low–points of his experience.

I have always been ambivalent about the idea of artistic competitions, mainly because of the inherent subjectivity in the judgment of peers and even “experts” in any human activity that is not quantifiable either in terms of scores or times, as in competitive sports.

So, one of the attractive features of Argentine Tango was precisely the fact that there seemed to be less emphasis on competition, favoring instead connection and individual style, whereas ballroom folks seemed to be always preparing for the next competition, and working on style and steps for that purpose.

On the other hand, I soon came to realize that Tango is very much about competition but not the official kind, instead the constant underlying competition for the acceptance of our respective followers and leaders. So, last year I jumped at the chance of finally exposing my dance to the critical eye of experts.

Well, my first loss in a tango competition hit me much harder than I had envisioned and in ways that I found analogous to the five stages of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s “Death and Dying”(denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance). However, I found seven phases in this type of loss:

Denial: 1. After the final qualifier run, they announced the couples that were advancing to the semifinals. These were the longest two minutes I have ever experienced. There must have been a mistake! We had coaching for this event. We were ready. Am I having a bad dream? At this point I actually performed my lucid dreaming “test” to see if I was dreaming or awake.

2. Anger: These judges are crazy! What are they looking for? I can’t believe they picked Couple #-over us!

3. Depression: Note that I’m skipping the “bargaining” step that accompanies actual dying. That seems appropriate only in the contest of possibility still being open. But, man, depression hit me like a ton of bricks. I sat there stunned while the milonga got going. I was holding back my tears. I did a perfunctory dance with a friend I had invited to come and enjoy the event then went off to find my partner.

4. Drama: I’ll never set foot on a dance floor again. I’m tired of the tango scene. I’m going back to Europe. I’m definitely not coming back tomorrow.

5. Embarrassment  There is no such feeling in Kübler Ross’s stages, but it was strong here, at least for me. I had announced the contest on Facebook! And I had added that it was part of a celebration of my upcoming birthday. Got lots of support and wishes, and congratulations for participating. This is far worse than having been turned down by one of the followers I admire. Not only that, but if one of them was present she would see her dismissal of me reinforced and confirmed by the “official” judges: It’s now official. Silvano can’t dance!

6. Rationalization: OK, so I needed to calm down and step back. First, the contest was in strict Tango Salon, therefore no ganchos, high voleos, leg wraps or any moves that take a foot more than a few inches off the floor were not allowed.  That put us in a situation we were not used to, and a leg being too high at any point could have cost us points. We accepted being part of the game. How we were being judged depended only in part on how we “normally” dance Tango.

Second, we, along with other participants, had the courage to put ourselves out there in front of everybody and fight the butterflies in our stomach. People will only remember the winners (who really did deserve to win!) and the fact that we took part. Whether we made it to the first or second round or whatever, is something that loomed gigantic only in our own minds. As a friend of mine aptly put it “nobody cares” and nobody really should. We took our participation seriously, with extra lessons and some extra practice to adapt our dance to the requirements of the competition, but we didn’t go overboard, and we were fully ready concede that there would be many other couples that would do better than we.

7. Acceptance: I still went home determined not to return the next day. I felt I needed at least a day away from the scene in order to “detox.” Well, by 6 pm next day, I called my partner. “I’m ready to go back,” I told her. I was ready to be there to support and cheer on our friends who had moved up. We were all on the same team and we had put on a show together. Now somebody would go on to win and they deserved our friendship, support and rejoicing. “It’s all about spreading happiness,” I had been saying prior to the contest. “Either we win and we’ll be happy, or somebody else will win and they will be happy, and we can be happy with them.”

To my own surprise, at first I found this harder to do than I had expected, but I got there, and I hugged everybody and the new winners, and I danced the night away.

A year after Silvano’s day in the limelight, we asked him for some more insight of his on the competiton experience.

La Pista: What did you like about the competition?

Silvano: I liked having a chance to measure myself against some possibly objective dance standards, and I liked the motivation it provided to take a deeper look at my movement and how I connected with my partner.

LP: Do you feel you got enough helpful information ahead of time?

S: Not really. It remained unclear what “tango salon” really meant. We were simply told “no ganchos”,  “no voleos” etc.  I understood that flying legs couldn’t be part of salon, but there was no reason why low voleos and low gancho/leg-wraps shouldn’t be allowed. In fact several couples who advanced included these in their repertoire. I think I ended up following the “rules” too rigidly  and I handicapped myself. It wasn’t clear how, say, a voleo, would affect your score. Would you be disqualified? Lose points (however point might be given…)? Ignored if graceful and small?  I still don’t know.

LP: What did you not like about the competition? Were there any unpleasant — or pleasant—surprises?

S: Didn’t like the lack of clarity mentioned above.  A couple that missed something as basic as moving with the flow and thus blocked everybody (we were told NOT to pass) was still allowed to advance, so, again, it wasn’t clear what the consequences were of violating “rules”.

LP: What tips would you offer people entering the contest this year?

S: Relax,  do your best, enjoy and accept whatever happens.

LP: In the end, regardless of outcome, was it a rewarding experience?

S: Yes, it was. I was disappointed by our results, but still proud of “our dance” no matter how it was judged. I was also impressed by the sense of comradery  among the contestants and the feeling that we were all in it together and “putting on a show.”

From Tango Express, February, 2012

Dance Like a Star (or With Stars in Your Eyes)

So you think you can tango? Then get ready for the 2012 Argentine Tango USA Championship, April 5-8, at the San Francisco Airport Marriott. The contest, officially sanctioned by the Ministry of Culture of Buenos Aires, is only in its second year in the U.S.

Andrea Monti and Hugo Valdez, master tango teachers and performers, have spearheaded the effort to bring the championships to the United States. In October, 2009, when UNESCO declared Argentine tango as part of the world’s “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” the couple decided it was time to bring the prestigious competition to the United States. And they did just that last year. Read More.Andrea and Hugo, ardent lovers of tango who met in 1998, teach their salon style to people in the Bay Area and around the world. They’ve been dancing tango for many years-16 for Andrea and 26 for Hugo. “Tango, it’s everything, the love of my life,” says Andre, “Once tango enters your life you can’t leave it.

“It’s the best addiction you can have,” she says, and that seems to be the case for many of us. Whether you compete or not, she says, “The event is fabulous, you get to see people dance, perform.” The four-day event includes workshops, performances, live music and milongas. [See full schedule.]

Like tango itself , the championships are a labor of love. “It was very difficult organizing it,” says Andrea. “We had to follow all the rules from Buenos Aires. The government sent up a representative to make sure everything was in order. The judges have to follow the same criteria in scoring. But the response was very good last year. We were happy.”

Dancers can compete in either or both of two categories of tango dancing-Stage and Salon. The winners in each category move on to compete in the Tango Buenos Aires Dance World Cup (Tango Buenos Aires Mundial de Baile).

Since most of us dance tango as a social dance, the Salon category is apt to attract most entrants. Salon dancers are scored on musicality, posture, and embrace. Says Andrea, “You may be good at the steps and at technique, but if you don’t step with the music, you’re not going to win. You must dance on your axis in close embrace, too.”

She notes that salon is not milonguero style. “Salon involves opening up for the figures, while in milonguero you dance very close, almost never open. The salon embrace is more flexible, not sharing axes or weight. The head position is different-in milonguero, partners look to opposite sides. Salon couples look to same side and there is more air between partners. Steps are longer in salon-no high voleos no ganchos. Everything is done on the floor. No off-axis moves, no volcados or colgados. Embellishments are OK, but no higher than the knee. Salon style is about elegance, the posture/embrace, clean technique, and clean steps.”

Andrea and Gato are not judges this year. So they can teach their style, which has always been salon. Andrea is teaching a very advanced ladies’ technique. “You need to know my system before you can take it. It’s very difficult,” she says.

A couple of tips for the Salon category: Andrea says even the best of dancers should consider getting coaching because “everything becomes more visible on the stage or floor.” Also she advises, “It is important that people know all the orchestras that may be played, not just the popular ones. Otherwise they get nervous during the competition if it’s the first time they hear this music.”

Competing is open to everybody from an intermediate level and higher, professional and amateur. “I know many people are against competition,” says Andrea. “But the promotion and diffusion of tango through this event is very big. Last year, I noticed how the people who registered improved. Because of the challenge, they practice, work, go to privates, workshops. They learn navigation, floorcraft, get special attention to coach them. The level of dance improved in the whole community. People told me they saw it in the milongas here. This is very valuable.”

Last year’s Salon tango winners were Yuliana Basmajyan and Brian Nguyen from Los Angeles, who write, encouragingly, at their website: “We are ordinary people with problems of the common folk.” Brian and Yuliana went on to take third place in Tango Mundial 2011 Salon Category, in Bueno Aires.

So, whether you consider yourself ordinary or extraordinary, imagine yourself among the tango addicts who flock to the World Tango Championships at Luna Park, the historic arena in Buenos Aires that dates back to 1932, and where finalists compete with la crème de la crème of Argentina tango.