About a year ago my wife and I went to the movies to distract us from a difficult period in our lives. I had no way of knowing then that one day I would end up in a shoe shop in downtown Buenos Aires wearing a Carlos Gardel hat while strutting the tango snugly against various young Argentine women in tight clothes. And not just with my wife’s permission, but it was her brilliant idea in the first place.
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In a beautifully renovated antique building on Esmeralda sits Tango Brujo, one of the most innovative Tango schools in Buenos Aires. Gaining a world-wide reputation as one of the foremost schools for introducing new possibilities in Tango, the school attracts both locals and foreigners from all over the world who want to be challenged by the art form’s cutting edge. Here you will find stimulating and inventive teaching methods for what is often called Nuevo Tango, the evolutionary next step in this age-old social dance that has been recently capturing the attention of new generations of Argentines and foreigners.
Picture a large hall with little or no ambiance of its own, filled with young dancers spiraling in and out of each others’ arms. The atmosphere has a lightness, a sense of experimentation, and an air of the future as you watch dancers try out movements never seen before on a tango floor. This is the “Practica” at Villa Malcolm, a social club at Cordoba 5064. For the aficionado, it is the place to invent steps, discover new possibilities, and socialize with others who share the same questing spirit. For the novice, this is a place to witness the evolution of Tango as it is being created.
Tango Paradise Bed and Breakfast – The Ideal Respite for the Traveling Tanguero
Jun 20, 2007 1 Comment
You would never know, walking down cacophonous Corrientes Avenue, that behind a pair of old wooden doors lies a peaceful bed and breakfast specializing in housing Tango dancers from far and wide. In a 100 year old building that is as old as Tango itself, you arrive at Tango Paradise in an antique elevator that creates a special feeling even before you enter the beautiful space created by its owner.
It is already five years, and here I am, still living in Buenos Aires, inside the next incarnation of my very long career in dance. I was a budding ballerina at three, blossoming into the real thing and then moving into Jazz, a more accurate expression of my nature at the time. My career took me through a prolific life on stage and then into teaching and choreographing, with my base in New York and work all around the world.
I moved to Miami and one day was called to choreograph for a television series being produced in L.A. Could I create a tango? With my usual bravura, I said of course, found a maestro, and tried to absorb what I could in three days. Fortunately it was a comedy scene where the few steps I learned could translate into something that worked! After the shoot, I needed to apologize to the art form. And so, in ecstatic penance, I began learning the dance for real.
