How many times have you heard someone say, "I don't teach figures or steps?" I just don't like that simplistic, blanket statement. It is a pet peeve of mine, as there are so many variables at play. I have learned much from figures/steps and I regularly use them in my teaching.

Let me be clear though, I have been in classes where the focus was just on memorizing some 32 count figure with no concern about the quality. I do agree that simply teaching people to memorize a figure/sequence is probably bad teaching. I say probably, because I am rarely an absolutist and it could be a choreography class preparing students for a performance. Even with this though, I can tell the difference between a performance where the students know how to lead and follow the steps they are performing or if they are just regurgitating a set of steps.

So, what follows is my opinion and I am in no way suggesting that everyone “should” teach in this way. We find that this teaching style works for us. We are often told by our students that we focus more on technique than most other teachers, so it might seem funny that I am writing in support of figures. I consider a figure to be a box for learning technique, in other words, figures are teaching tools. We encourage our students after they have learned and mastered a figure to break it and use the individual pieces and combine them with other steps that they know. Improvisational dancing should not mean just going from figure to figure. Each step has a new life.

We usually teach short figures for the social dance floor, which start in the line of dance and then resolve in the line of dance. We then spend the class dissecting each step and technique used in that figure. Often there is a one technique that is the real focus of the class, which is contained within the figure. We also discuss different musicality options and ideas for entering, exiting and embellishing the figure. We discuss any adjustments that are needed to the embrace during the figure. Also, most of our students use both open and close embraces so we might discuss any problems, so we discuss issues peculiar to each.

Another benefit that I feel arise from this teaching style is that it allows us to focus on each student individually. If we were just teaching a class on boleos and several of the women did wonderful boleos then they might not get much out of that class. But if we teach a figure that includes a boleo, well we might see something else that we could help those women with, who already do wonderful boleos.

I feel strongly that teachers “should” think about floor craft and “should” teach figures which are easily accomplished on the social dance floor and explain this to students. This means that the figure should begin in the line of dance and resolve in the line of dance. Also, the figure should not take the dancers against the line of dance. I recently saw a class by a teacher that started with a rebound step which turned the couple against the line of dance and then proceeded two large steps directly against the line of dance. I just shook my head.

We also discuss music in our classes and will often discuss whether or not a particular figure works well with elegant tangos, rhythmic tangos, vals and/or milonga. Sometimes a figure is more elegant and flowing (legato) in nature and other figures are more rhythmic (staccato). Of course, this is not always true, but I feel that often musicality is easier to teach within a figure than in a purely technique class. Of course, we can talk about it, but students need to be intelligent enough to recognize that musicality can be extended to other areas of their dance.

Also, different students learn in different ways. I know that some students may get a technique, but unless they are given examples of how to use it, they are lost.

So, I hope that I have debunked this myth. I would encourage teachers to use all the tools available to them. Teach figures, teach pure technique classes, teach pure musicality classes, teach embellishments, etc.. etc… Don’t ignore a powerful teaching tool, simply because you once heard someone say, “I don’t teach figures or steps.”

I was just watching an interview with Nélida Fernando and she mentioned going to the club to hear Juan D'Arienzo and Oscar Alemán. I was curious if he was a singer or leader of an orquestra that I had never heard. So, I started doing some research and here is what I have found.

Oscar Alemán was an Argentine jazz guitarist born in 1909. He was considered one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time, on the same level with Django Reinhardt.

He came from a family of performers and musicians. His mother was of the Toba, a native Argentine people. As a child, he travelled to Brazil with his father. Shortly after this, tragedy struck, his mother died and his father committed suicide. He lived on the streets and at age 14 created a duo, Les Loups, with Gastón Bueno Lobos. 

In 1926, they travelled to Buenos Aires. In December of 1927, they recorded their first 78, which included the tango "Hawianita" and the wonderful vals "Criollita." It is worth noting that on "Criollita," Lobo is playing a cavaquinho, which is a 4 string ukelele type of instrument, while Alemán is playing guitar.

In 1928, they record "La Cumparsita."

During this time, Alemán and Lobo also performed as part of Trio Victor for the Victor record label with violinist Elvino Vardaro. Here is their recording of "Recondita" from 1929. Alemán also played guitar for other Tango artists such as Rosita Quiroga. You can usually tell that it is him, because of the unique sound of his Hawaiian guitar.

I should mention that most of his music was Jazz and not Tango, the songs above are a very small portion of his work. In 1929, Alemán and Lobos travelled to Europe to support the dancer Harry Fleming.  After the tour, Alemán stayed in Spain. He later travelled to Germany and France. In France, he discovered American jazz and met Josephine Baker. He ended up leading her orchestra, known as the "Baker Boys" at the Cafe de Paris. During his time in Europe, he also played with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. When Germany invaded France, in 1940, he returned to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Now is where we get back to what prompted me to do this research. Why was he mentioned in the same breath as D'Arienzo. It turns out that in the mid to late 1940s, Alemán's jazz groups used to play at clubs along with Juan D'Arienzo and these gigs were labelled as "Tango y Jazz." So, if I am understanding correctly, they would switch off playing sets. Back then, when you went to a club, you would hear tango, foxtrot, folk music, jazz, etc.

Here is an interesting video of Alemán playign at a club from a movie titled "El Idolo del Tango" from 1943. What I find interesting is that, it seems that one band or orchestra ends playing and he comes onto the stage and begins to play jazz/swing and the audience still dances with a tango like embrace. Then he gets off the stage and clearly begins dancing swing. So, when they are dancing tango type steps to the swing music, are they dancing alternative tango? ;-)

Again, the majority of his recording career, which spanned from 1927 to 1972, was almost all jazz. Here is a beautiful version of "Milonga Triste," from 1954.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, he is considered one of the greatest jazz guitarists, so here is his rendition of the classic "Sweet Georgia Brown." This is one of the best versions of this song that I have heard, you can hear his genius and that he really makes it his own.

He was friend with Django Reinhardt and supposedly he would fill in for Django when he livedi n Paris, when Django would not show up for shows. Here is what he had to say about Django,  "I knew Django Reinhardt well. He used to say - jazz was gipsy - we often argued over that. I agree with many Americans I met in France who said he played very well but with too many gipsy tricks. He had very good technique for both hands, or rather one hand and a pick, because he always played with a pick. Not me, I play with my fingers. There are things you can't do with a pick - you can't strike the treble with two fingers and play something else on the bass string. - But I admired him and he was my friend. He was my greatest friend in France. We played together many times, just for ourselves. I used to go to his wagon, where he lived. I've slept and eaten there - and also played! He had three or four guitars. Django never asked anyone to go to his wagon, but he made an exception with me. I appreciated him, and I believe the feeling was mutual".

And a comment he made about the tango of Piazzolla, Troilo and Salgán:

"They are two different things. Piazzolla introduces a lot of jazz into tango, Troilo has a pure way of playing. It doesn’t mean he’s a better bandoneon player or a better musician. I regard Piazzolla as a great musician. Salgán is also greatly influenced by jazz, I love him, he’s got much musicality inside."

He died in Buenos Aires in 1980 at 71.

More Information:

Todo Tango
Tango Reporter
Wikipedia

We are looking forward to hosting Rene y Junko later THIS week.

They will be teaching both our classes on Thursday at Daza (8pm to 10:15pm), performing Friday night at Angel Montero? and April Parker?'s Luna Milonga at Daza... then a Milonga Workshop on Saturday at Plaka (4:30pm to 6pm)... then finally they will be teaching our Monday class at Plaka (8pm to 9:30pm).

They are beautiful dancers and great teachers, so don't miss this special surprise visit.

Great picture of men dancing together from the 1904 in the river. This comes from the Archivo General de la Nación? in Buenos Aires.

There are actually many theories as to why men danced together in the early days of Tango. I think there is some truth in all of them.

1. This was a time when women were not out in public as much as men. Women were in the house and if they went out in public or to public events then they were accompanied by a male relative. Men learned to dance with one another on street corners, clubs and as this picture shows anywhere they could gather.

Women learned primarily in their homes from their brothers, fathers or mothers. So, men would HAVE practice with one another unless they had a female relative to practice with and women were few and far between. Most Buenos Aires was one of the busiest cities in the world and was enjoying mass immigration from Europe, but this was mostly men coming for jobs while their families stayed back home.

2. There were simply not many women to dance with, so men HAD to practice in order to get good enough to dance with the few women that were around. Some estimates state that men outnumbered women 7 to 1, at the turn of the century. This was also still a time when Tango was considered a lower class activity, so many women would have refused to dance this obscene dance.

3. It is also thought that perhaps the early, early Tango was a primarily male dance. That its early origins were on the outskirts by Argentine Cowboys gauchos who would dance around their campfires competing with one another doing very athletic movements and that tango became more tame as women became more and more involved.

This week's tanda is a set from the Guardia Nueva period by Adolfo Carabelli and is great for dancing canyengue.

Adolfo Carabelli (1893 -1947) was a brilliant pianist and one of the best orchestra leaders in the early days of tango. As a young man, he studied music in Europe, but returned to Buenos Aires during the First World War. In 1926, he was hired as the artistic director of the Victor label. He recorded many famous tangos under his own name and as the Orchestra leader for Orchesta Tipica Victor. These orchestas were made up of some of the greatest musicians of the time and was only for recording only, they did not play live. This tanda includes two of his orchesta's most famous tangos, "Inspiración" and "El Trece."

This tanda also features two of the earliest singers of tango, Carlos Lafuente and Alberto Gomez. Both of these singers began their careers in the 1920s as refrain singers.

Listen to this Tanda

• More Carabelli Tandas

This week's alternative tanda is a very high energy set inspired by Dubstep.

This set is a lot of fun and has gone over well here when I have played it. Personally I love dancing to "Too Close." I think this is an example of what I look for in alternative music to dance tango to. The thing that I love about tango is the structure: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse. You have 4 shifts of energy during a song, usually from more lyrical/melodic to more rhythmic/beat oriented. While I find "Radioactive" a little cheesy and pop music sounding, it has the shifts that I like for dancing. "Too Close" has those shifts also from very tender to very bold. I love those transitions. It gives me opportunities to go crazy and to calm down.

I like "Sail," but it has less dramatic shifts. Much of the alternative music that people play, I find very monotonous. They are long and sound exactly the same through the entire song. When do I dance close, when do I open the embrace? When do I go from rhythmic to lyrical? I would have to force those shifts rather than them happening organically with the music, because the music is the same throughout the whole song.

Listen to this Tanda

• More Alternative Tandas

This week's traditional tanda is a beautiful vals set by Miguel Calo with Alberto Podesta singing.

Sometimes I will start this set with "El Vals Sonador" and other times I will end it with "El Vals Sonador."

Listen to this Tanda

• More Vals Tandas

This week's traditional tanda is a fun set by Anibal Troilo with Francisco Fiorentino singing.

This is a very high energy, rhythmic set. Troilo and Fiorentino were one of the greatest duos in the history of tango and their partnership is often used as the best example of the use of the singer as a true member of the orchestra.Troilo is a favorite of advanced dancers because his music switches back and forth between strong rhythmic sections and more melodic sections.

I normally start a tanda off with the slowest tempo song and then increase the tempo during the set, but here I am doing the opposite. The reason is, hearing the first few notes of "Te Aconsejo Que Me Olvides" tells you exactly what this tanda is. It is going to be fast paced, highly rhythmic and spirited. If that is what you like, then head to the dance floor. If it is too much for you, stay seated, listen and enjoy.

Listen to this Tanda

• More Anibal Troilo Tandas

This week's traditional tanda is a fun set by Osvaldo Fresedo with Roberto Ray singing.

This is a playful set, which always goes over well. People are always happy after this set.

Listen to this Tanda

• More Osvaldo Fresedo Tandas