My favorite couple of the month: Dante Sanchez and Angelica Avalos, and what they helped me understand about my myself

As my fellow contributor Jaimito knows, in addition to having a favorite tango and vals of the month, I have a favorite couple of month. Previously this used to be a favorite man-crush of the month. I am completely straight, but there is this sort of infatuation that sometimes sweeps over me when I watch certain leaders. Mostly it's of the sort "I wish I could dance like that", but a lot of times it's "I wish I was a girl so I could dance with him". It creeps some people out, especially when I say it out loud. But hey, tango was a dance that evolved in large part by men dancing with men to improve and invent, so I'm sticking to that one. So why am I declaring a favorite couple of the month?

Well, as some of you may know, Dante Sanchez won the 2007 World Championship in the category Tango Salon, with Inés Muzzopappa (source). Now if you look them up on youtube or elsewhere, their dancing is absolutely beautiful. But, for me, there was something missing. A little pizzazz. I don't know how to describe it. I just couldn't feel a man-crush on Dante watching him dance with Inés. I committed the heresy of telling myself "He's good, but he's no Pablo Rodriguez or Fernando Sanchez". But then I saw his dancing with his current partner, Angelica Avalos, and consider me in love!

This is where I realize that what I thought were man-crushes were more of couple-crushes. Tango threesome fantasies? It was not the leader that I was infatuated with. It was more than that. It was the intense connection that I saw and felt, the beautiful joint expression of the music, the graceful movements, that raw human emotion. I now realize it's not even the couple that I'm infatuated with. It's the tango...

For your viewing pleasure: Dante y Anshi dancing to D'Arienzo's "El Cencerro" ... a breathtakingly beautiful dance. Unpretentious and flawless. Enjoy.

Jamás retornarás - You'll never return

A few weeks ago, I promised El Ingeniero that I would make a meaningful post on the blog after the local festival was over. Indeed, I was very busy, being in charge of translating for Javier Rodriguez and Andrea Missé for their classes. Working close to my first tango idol was eye opening, and I have many things on my mind that I want to share... but at this point, if I were to just write everything down, it would be a mess, more chaotic than my usual unedited writing. If I'm not imagining things, I believe both El Ingeniero and Dr Agsol Le Rac are going to (or went to) a nearby festival where Ariadna Naveira and Fernando Sánchez will be (or were). I hope they get some useful things to share on the blog. But anyway, while I organize my thoughts, I want to honour my promise with El Ingeniero and just write something on the blog. So here goes a translation to a great song:

Jamás retornarás (1942) Music and Lyrics by Osmar Mardena and Miguel Caló

Cuando dijo adiós quise llorar. Luego sin su amor quise gritar.
Todos los ensueños que albergó mi corazón, toda mi ilusión, cayeron a pedazos.
"Pronto volveré" dijo al partir. Loco, la esperé, pobre de mí.
Y hoy que tanto tiempo ha transcurrido sin volver siento que he perdido tu querer.

Jamás retornarás, lo dice el alma mía.
Y en esta soledad te nombro noche y día.
Por qué, por qué te fuiste de mi lado y tan cruel has destrozado mi corazón?
Jamás retornarás, lo dice el alma mía
y aunque muriendo está te espera sin cesar!

You'll never return

When she said goodbye I wanted to cry.
Later without her love, I wanted to yell.
All the dreams that I had in my heart, all the hopes, crumbled down to pieces.
"I'll be back soon" she said as she parted, and crazily I waited, poor me.
And now that so much time has passed without your return, I feel I've lost your love.

You'll never return; my soul says it.
And in this loneliness I summon you day and night.
Why, oh why did you leave my side and so cruelly destroy my heart?
You'll never return; my soul says it,
and even though it's dying it endlessly waits for you.

Notes:
No crazy lunfardo slang in this song, so pretty straightforward compared to Chau Pinela. But still, as usual, pretty awkward wording with the translation. I wanted to stay as close to the original as possible, so a lot of the grammar is also weird. It's also worth noting that the first part of the song refers to the woman in third person, but later in second person (i.e. she, then you)... WTF?
Yeah, I realize I cannot fully express the poetry and emotion of this song through translation, especially due to my inexperience in translating songs, but at least I hope you non-Spanish speakers know how sad this song is while you dance it. Next time, dance it with more passion than ever!

Stop leading to improve your leading

It sounds counter-intuitive but I remember having an "aha!" moment the day I realized this was improving my dancing and my dancing experience in general. Here I am referring to leading as the act of pushing my partner's body by moving my own without understanding how this body in front of mine actually moves.

If you are able to understand how your partner moves you can get her to do a whole lot of things she was not aware she could accomplish. Think of your own body. Hopefully you already have listened enough to your own body to know what it can and can not do. Maybe you feel very good at turns but those back sacadas are not working out as well. This tells you what you should do on the floor and what you should reserve for practica time. In a way you want to develop a similar knowledge of the person you are dancing with.

But how can you achieve such understanding? Well, it takes a lot of listening. One needs to wait a little more and listen a little more carefully. If you are a follower this probably sounds familiar. Turns out the skills that make you a good follower are very useful for a leader as well. This is why I advocate so strongly the cross-pollination between roles. It is amazing how you can improve your leading by learning how to follow.

So instead of forcefully wrestling your follower to move one way or the other stop and listen. Try to understand how her body is moving and how it respond to your input. And then stop and keep on listening some more. Eventually you become more aware and used to her own movements. And then you will start "suggesting" instead of "leading". You move her carefully and try to convince her to take a step instead of just going for it like a bulldozer and hope she will move out of the way.

A key element here is the notion of pre-lead. This is the nest where movement is created. It is a space where you prepare yourself and your follower before going anywhere. This preparation requires a constant feedback between partners in order to establish the basic ground rules for what the communication -the dance- will become.

This is by the way completely independent of the strength on your frame or the power of your steps. I am not saying that we have to dance like we were walking on glass all the time. What the "stop and listen" philosophy will give you is a better connection with your partner, not a wimpy lead. And a better connection does lead to a better overall experience independently of the level of the dancers.

Try it sometime. Suggest your way through the floor. Stop leading so much and you may start listening to a voice you were not aware of before: it is the voice of your follower leading you where she wants to go. Believe me, she will take you to a good place.

The Choke Hold embrace, or, Ladies, relax!

One new trend that I've been encountering among followers while dancing in close embrace is what I can only describe as a choke hold embrace. Their left arm is positioned such that the armpit is positioned against my right lateral deltoid or, even worse, my bicep. An immense amount of pressure is then applied to presumably achieve a strong connection. All I can say is 'Ouch!'. It feels extremely constrictive, especially when I'm trying to turn or even walk on the outside of the follower. Not to mention the pain I feel afterwards from straining against that embrace. Apparently there is a female technique meme going viral among teachers now: somehow the followers have to use their lats (back muscles) to achieve a good connection. I was informed of this by a follower who has a beautifully comfortable embrace, who has figured out how to get a good connection without squeezing the living breath out of leaders.

So now I am on a quest to counter this annoying fad. I am teaching my beginners to focus on connecting at the chest first without any arms, then let the arms fall wherever they fall. I have no idea if this is a kosher idea, but I know their embrace is very comfortable. I'd rather dance with an absolute novice who doesn't hurt my back and shoulders than a more advanced dancer who does.

So,ladies, relax! This is supposed to be a nice, intimate and gentle dance. Don't make it into a wrestling match.

The Tango 'Story'

First an obligatory introduction since this is my first post on MilongaParaTres: I started tango in the summer of 2008, mainly because I wanted something new to take mind off of various work and relationship-related stresses. Little did I know that I was going to be sucked in with such force. I am now truly obsessed with tango, not just the dance, but the entire tango experience, however you want to define that. I am not exaggerating; I will sometimes listen to the one same song on loop for several hours on end. I just find the music intoxicating.

Now, sadly, Spanish is not my first language. As such, I almost always miss out on the ‘story’ of many songs. I probably should start taking some conversational Spanish classes and hope that that would help me. Although, in all fairness, my fellow contributor Jaimito, who does actually speak Spanish as a first language, will often times be stumped at what some song is actually talking about. You see, Jaimito, speaks Español in some South American dialect, not the Lunfardo-peppered Castellano of Buenos Aires. His first attempt at transcribing the lyrics of ‘Chau Pinela’ by Sexteto Di Sarli, did not go very well. Only when he consulted an Argentine friend of his did he get the ‘story’ right!

But anyway, all of this was a complete digression, because what I really wanted to say is that knowing what the song is really about will affect the way I dance to it. I don’t know how, I just know it will. Understanding what Famà means when he says ‘Si es cierto que espiantás, qué papa, corazón!’ will certainly mean I will be taking some pretty powerful steps at the moment of that declaration. I'm actually looking forward to my next dance to Chau Pinela. Heavens help my follower whomever she may be!

The summary of all of this: I am certainly psyched that I now understand one of my favorite tangos, and even more pleased that it speaks to me in more ways than it originally did when I fell in love with because of its musical structure. It wasn’t even that long ago that I found myself in a situation similar to the song’s protagonist, and it would have been fantastic to have been able to then say “Cachame tu bagayo! Nunca, nunca vuelvas más!”

'Tango booty'

Last Sunday, my friend made an interesting (though maybe obvious to some of you perverts) observation at a milonga... Tango girls tend to have nice butts (Milonga para tres blog is by three guys, after all). Is this a coincidence or is there a correlation? Does having a voluminous, firm, round butt help at being a good tanguera (if this is the case, I'm moving to Brazil... now) or does tango help shape up the booty? I am thinking it may have to do with the followers' technique rather than just dancing, because in the time I've been in tango, I haven't noticed any change in my ass, but then again, as narcissistic as I may be, I don't really check out my own ass (though now that I say it, that's a good idea... In fact, I'm going to go do that now as soon as I'm finished with this post). And also, us guys don't have to dance in 4+ inch heels, but I think that works the calves, not the glutes... In any case, I am not an anatomy/exercise physiology expert... so I can just admire when I sit out a tanda... (the dancing, of course) In the meanwhile, if there are any anatomists/physiologists or even biomedical engineers among our readers or contributors, it'd be great if you could share your thoughts.
I was really tempted to, but I decided not to post any pictures to illustrate my point, because I don't want to be seen as stealing anybody's images. If you want to confirm my friend's observation, just look up any of the following names on google images or youtube and enjoy the view: Mariana Montes, Geraldine Rojas, Jennifer Bratt, Noelia Hurtado, Dana Frigoli, Juana Sepulveda... there are many examples, both famous names or just in your local community.
Thank goodness for blogging anonymity...

Chau Pinela! Sexteto Carlos Di Sarli, canta Ernesto Famá

At the request of El Ingeniero, I did my best to write down the lyrics to this song, hoping that this motivates him to take a break from his engineer duties and write something here. Like the last post, the lyrics are most likely not accurate due to the old, scratchy recording, and maybe outdated lunfardo slang.

¿Por qué no has de decir si pensás espiantar?
Hacé tu gusto, vieja, que para mí es igual
Mujeres como vos se encuentran un millón
si es cierto que piantás qué papa, corazón...
decide sino mal, ¿pa' qué tanto pensar?
cachame tu bagayo, nunca, nunca vuelvas más
si no resuelves vos piantarte de mi lado
cacho yo mi bagayo y chau, Pinela, chau

I made some corrections on the lyrics after consulting with my Argentine friend who has some knowledge of lunfardo slang. Thank you for your help, Lu. Most of this song would make little sense without your explanations of the words espiantar, piantar, and bagayo.
So the approximate translation of the lyrics, along with some notes, would be as follows:

Why wouldn't you tell me if you plan to run off? [espiantar = run away]
Do as you please, girl, it's the same to me. [vieja literally means old woman, but it's widely used in Spanish speaking countries colloquially to refer to a woman, regardless of age]
I can find women like you by the millions.
If it's true that you will leave, tough luck, love. [I'm assuming 'qué papa, corazón' means something like 'too bad' or something along those lines]
Make up your mind already, why think so hard?
Grab your sack of things* and never come back. [bagayo means two things: an ugly person or a big sack where poor people put their clothes and their belongings. So there is probably a pun intended here as well as in the last line]
If it's not you that resolves to leave me behind
I will grab my sack of things, and goodbye, Pinela, goodbye.