ENJOY YOUR TANGO
El Flaco Dany, who died in 2019 was one of the few remaining milongueros from the golden era, tango history itself. The following piece from an interview he gave. Plenty to think about.
"Take your time.
Tango is too precious not to enjoy learning.
First learn the technique, then forget about it.
The body will have it, but it's only your spirit that does the tango. As my friend Gavito used to say "Clean doesn't work."
You have to dirty it, your personality has to dictate the dance, that's what Europe lacks."
Clean, correct is not good, you have to do it dirty, let your own personality design the dance, this is what Europeans miss.
Posture, technique can be taught, even some music, but subtlety and improvisation are within you or not, you must be born with them.
It's good that so many people just started to tango, but also look at what they dance. They dance moves, instead of feeling ('dance movement, not feeling'), they look at the floor, they don't care about the woman in their arms. Many look like clones. This is sad for me, I learned that tango is respect, maybe I'm outdated, but then why do so many young people come to my classes?
Nothing is really new, everything had been invented already, if you see Todaro dancing in 1953 you'll know I'm right.
Tango is all about subtlety. I'm afraid you have it or you don't - says so much about you, the way you embrace the woman, the way you pause-.
Tango literally happens step by step, the less you do, the more tango it is."
Translated from the original Spanish
"Take your time.
Tango is too precious not to enjoy learning.
First learn the technique, then forget about it.
The body will have it, but it's only your spirit that does the tango. As my friend Gavito used to say "Clean doesn't work."
You have to dirty it, your personality has to dictate the dance, that's what Europe lacks."
Clean, correct is not good, you have to do it dirty, let your own personality design the dance, this is what Europeans miss.
Posture, technique can be taught, even some music, but subtlety and improvisation are within you or not, you must be born with them.
It's good that so many people just started to tango, but also look at what they dance. They dance moves, instead of feeling ('dance movement, not feeling'), they look at the floor, they don't care about the woman in their arms. Many look like clones. This is sad for me, I learned that tango is respect, maybe I'm outdated, but then why do so many young people come to my classes?
Nothing is really new, everything had been invented already, if you see Todaro dancing in 1953 you'll know I'm right.
Tango is all about subtlety. I'm afraid you have it or you don't - says so much about you, the way you embrace the woman, the way you pause-.
Tango literally happens step by step, the less you do, the more tango it is."
Translated from the original Spanish