Thursday, August 2nd - Birthday of Ceferino

Birthday of Ceferino -  We love having him with us, but he's leaving to go home to Buenos Aires for a while.  We will miss him.  In the meantime, let's have a great celebration.  Eva will start the birthday dance, and I will follow.  Then, all you tangueras can cut in.  

August 16th - Nameday of Maria Zampetoulas

Firehouse friend, Maria, had so much fun last year celebrating her nameday at Firehouse that she decided to do it again.   The more of you who join in her nameday tango, the happier she will be.  So, to all of you Firehouse tangueros, let's make it wonderful for her.

Thursday, August 23rd and 30th

No special celebrations.  Just great dancing and socializing with the friendliest crowd around.

Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. One of our Firehouse regulars recently asked me to comment on a currently popular way of dancing to Tango music, called “Tango Nuevo.” This is a subject I’m often asked about by students, so I’ll take this opportunity to put my thoughts into print.

Tango Nuevo or “Neo Tango” as it is sometimes called (along with “Alternative Tango” or simply “Alt”) is both a style of music, and a manner of dancing in partnership to such music (although practitioners seem to prefer to dance this “style” to more traditional Tango music as well). As a dance, Tango Nuevo involves a way of interacting between a leader and follower, which is significantly different from traditional social Tango — or, for that matter, even Tango Fantasia (performance Tango). In Tango Nuevo, the dance connection takes on far more of an active push/pull character than that of Golden Age social Tango. This profoundly altered connection enables dancers to execute an elaborate repertoire of physically demanding movements, which are often acrobatic, off-axis, and distinctly theatrical in nature.

From what I’m able to gather in my own research, Tango Nuevo most likely began its existence during the late 1990s from experiments in stretching the physical and creative boundaries of Tango by Gustavo Naveira and a group of his students — namely, Fabian Salas, Pablo Veron, and Mariano “Chico” Frumboli. Young people — ever eager to change anything and everything in order to establish a unique identity for themselves — enthusiastically embraced Gustavo’s ideas, and very quickly generated a radically different manner of dancing, which turned traditional social Tango on its ear.

“This is not the Tango of our elders,” they proclaimed. “This is our way!”

When Tango Nuevo first appeared in the milongas and practicas of New York City during the early 2000s, its few practitioners were routinely ejected from every venue they attended. This strange way of dancing was not only repellent to the Tango community at large, but considered to be quite dangerous, when attempted on a floor filled with traditional social dancers. Gradually, however, over a two to three year period of gestation, more and more young people began to adopt Tango Nuevo as their preferred manner of dancing — in sharp contrast to what they thought of as the rather stodgy traditional approach more or less forced on them by the older generation.

Tango Nuevo had indeed become their way.

As this new wave of dancing gained more and more popularity (almost exclusively among young people, it must be said), many of the promoters who hosted milongas and practicas both in Argentina and around the world, actually defined separate spaces for the two kinds of Tango — one room for traditional, and another room for Nuevo. Ultimately, however, such arrangements became impractical, and for better or worse Tango Nuevo took its place in the main arena.

Have any of you now reading this Tango Tip ever attended CITA (El congreso international de Tango Argentino)? This is a very elaborate annual Tango teaching event, which is hosted by Fabian Salas, and held every year year in Buenos Aires. Pat and I have access to the videos, which CITA makes available at the end of each year. What we’ve observed is that when CITA first started, all the teachers on the videos were dressed quite formally, and were clearly teaching traditional Tango. However, over a period of about two years, everything suddenly changed. As Tango Nuevo became the Holy Grail coveted by young people (the folks who spend the most money, as it happens), participating teachers quickly altered their manner of dress — ripped jeans, sneakers, and tee shirts replaced suits and ties — as well as the material they taught. What young people often refer to as “retro” Tango (help!) was summarily replaced by nuevo figures in order to give the paying customers what they were willing to pay for.

Authenticity? Purity? Integrity? Tradition? These values seemed to conveniently fly right out the window, when dollars and cents were on the table. Oh well.

In any event, Tango Nuevo seems to be here to stay. As a person involved in Tango, you may have your own opinions about this way of dancing. I certainly have mine. And next week, I’m going to share those views with you.

Recognizing that people have lots of things they want to do during the summer, we’ve responded to your needs with our special Summer Schedule! We’ve now combined our two Tango classes into one for Mondays, and the same for our American Social Dance classes, which will now move to Monday as well.

Bottom line: Monday is now your night to enjoy a fun-filled evening of dance with us at our New York teaching location, Studios 353, 353 West 48th Street (between 8^th and Ninth Avenues), 2^nd floor, in Manhattan. Tango starts at 7:30 p.m., followed immediately by American Social Dance at 8:30 pm. There’s always plenty of room for parking during these early evening hours, so come join us, and get ready to have a ball!

• Still The Friendliest!
  
• Still The Best Music!
  
• Still The Longest-Running Practica in New York City!
  

Fran and Pat are on hand to answer any questions you have, and help you with material you’re working on. No partner required, all levels. Dardo Galletto Studios, 151 West 46^th Street, 11^th floor, (bet. 6^th & 7^th Aves) www.franchesleigh.com

Would you like a private lesson? Visit our website at www.franchesleigh.com, call us directly at 212-662-7692, or email us at franchesleigh@mac.com Join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/franchesleighllc

 I want to point out that Terri Lopez is more than a helper who I call Wonder Woman and who takes my place when I am out.  Terri is our CEO and has as much, if not more, responsibility and authority than I do. 

Let me make it clear: Firehouse Tango would not exist without her.

• ​​​​​​Barbara Lombardi - Popcorn
  
• Ingrid Jacob - Blueberry Cake