Listening to Carlos Di Sarli’s Bahia Blanca, it is immediately clear why his music tugs at your heart strings with undisputed passion. Even if I change mode to Juan D’Arienzo’s fast flowing beat, I am still riveted. My musical choice is inspired by an interview with two professional Tangueros I recently met during their whirlwind visit to Malta. Frank Obregon and Jenny Gil have been living the tango for many years and are today Master Tangueros in their own right. Starting out as a musician and an aerobics instructor respectively, in Venezuela, they travelled to Argentina for the unique purpose of perfecting the Tango.
Jenny recalls, “Carlos introduced me to Argentinean Tango. You discover this dance and you develop an addiction for it. It becomes a way of life.” It is hard for a person who has never danced the Tango to understand an addiction to one genre of dance but Jenny explains, “You practise Tango steps everywhere, even whilst sitting on a bus, in an office, while waiting in queue. Your friends change, your travel plans change. You seek similarly addicted dancers, you look out for Milongas. It is unlike any other dance – you constantly think of the music and the movements. Tango is a way of life.”
Frank agrees and adds, “In Venezuela our most popular dance form is Salsa. Jenny and I were making a good living teaching dancing there, especially when we focused on dancing and teaching Tango, but eventually decided to relocate to Buenos Aires purposely to improve our techniques. There you experience Tango everywhere – all you have to do is look at people and the way they walk and hold themselves and you can see they dance Tango. Tango dancing is public, Tango music is public, there are Milongas everywhere, regularly. At the Milongas anybody can join in to dance with other dancers at random. Then there are the regulars who are known as Milongueros.”
What makes Argentinean Tango so particular is the embrace between the two dancers. The dancers I am speaking to explain how many people find the embrace is the most difficult part of Argentinean Tango. “It can be hard to be so close to another person, possibly a complete stranger, and this unease is more pronounced with Europeans.” Frank says, “In Tango, the male is the leader and the female follows. Dancers hold each other close so that the male can guide the female and the female can feel the movements from the chest which is what connects the dancers. At a Milonga for instance, men and women will dance with each other, irrespective of their age, social status, or knowledge of each other.”
So do you simply turn up in jeans and tees or do you have to dress up when you attend a Milonga? Jenny explains how the professional and somewhat older Milongueros will shake their heads and bemoan the fact that dancers nowadays are not respecting the entire procedure of preparing for dance. “They remember a time when people were not allowed to join a Milonga if they were not properly dressed. In the past, people would dress up elegantly, women had their hair done up and wore their best dresses. Even the men would wear tailored suits, gel back their hair and shine their shoes. It was a public event, a spectacle of sorts, and a respectable one. With the advent of the new tango or Tango Nuevo when youngsters were enticed to dance to new tango music, the rigid levels slackened. The aim was to bring younger people in connection with this dance form, even if this meant losing some of the dress-up.”
Frank and Jenny mention two key Tangueros who contributed to making Argentinean Tango popular in Europe – Maria Nieves and Juan Carlo Copes. But how do you tell if a Tangueros is really good? Frank says, “It boils down to the way they walk and hold their bodies. You can tell a really good tango dancer when you note the body control in the slow Tango. Tangueros have full body control, extremely good balance. Chilrden in Buenos Aires start learning Tango as early as five years and that means they grow up with a good knowledge of how their bodies function and how they can use it to the best.”
As we sit and talk, their personal story transpires and turns out to be the stuff of movies. Whilst they were highly sought for their dance tuition and performances when in Venezuela, once in Argentina, they found they were unknown and not considered experts. They were aware they needed to learn more and took it in their stride to attend Milongas and observe and practise back in their one-room apartment. Jenny says, “We would stand the bed up against the wall to make space. We never took lessons, just learnt by observation and much practise. It was very hard to live in Buenos Aires because we were not earning money and at times had barely anything to eat. We slowly started performing at dinner shows but had to stop because of the strong competition from better known dancers. Then something turned up that totally changed our future.”
The couple found they could participate in an Intercontinental Tango Championship with a grand prize of 6000 pesos. Jenny says, “We trained hard but on the eve of the competition, we found we could not even afford to pay the bus fare to the venue. We woke up very early and walked non-stop from 5am to 9am. We ran our way past the last 15 blocks and reached the venue, breathless, sweating, with feet aching. We barely had time to change in our costumes and were immediately on stage. That day we won first prize – and from extreme poverty, we found ourselves celebrating with so much money in our pockets.” The experience changed their life bringing them popularity and requests for tuition and public appearances. Argentinean Tango had made their lives over again.
Frank Obregon and Jenny Gil were recently in Malta to carry out Argentine Tango master classes thanks to the initiative of The Malta Argentine Tango Association (MATA). Twice a year, the Association invites Maestros from Europe or Buenos Aires to share knowledge within the local community. Set up in 2010 MATA, which is a registered non-profit making organisation, promotes this creative dance form on a national level and. For more information contact MATA on [email protected]. MATA members also participate in events locally, organise weekly milongas and other similar events from time to time. A new course will start in January 2014 – for details contact Caroline Borg on [email protected]