This report covers the last three days of the Tango Festival and Mundial, Friday-Sunday Aug 26-28, not counting, of course the finals of the Mundial on Aug 29-30 at Luna Park, which I do not have tickets for.
[ Newsflash: Winners of the Tango Salon finals last night were a Colombian couple (Diego Julián Benavidez Hernández and Natasha Agudelo Arboleda), with Venezuelans (John Erban and Clarissa Sánchez) and US (Brian Nguyen and Yuliana Basmajyan) couples placing 2nd and 3rd respectively, Argentina being entirely shut out of the first three positions! See the report at http://www.tangobuenosaires.gob.ar/festivalymundial11/web/index.php/en/index.html ] Back to the festival--some general observations first: SOCIAL DANCING AT THE FESTIVAL As I had mentioned, there is a dance floor setup in the main dancing area, which many people used in parallel, and it was usually filled with people dancing. During the qualifying rounds of the stage Tango, there were fewer people dancing, presumably as dancers in the crowd wanted to watch them. Although there were often people who were proficient social dancers, in general the level of Tango dancing on this floor was quite poor. There were perhaps mostly real beginners, some people who claimed to have studied for a year or two but had very poor technique and yes, a small handful of dancers. And presumably those who did come for good dancing were disappointed and came in smaller and smaller numbers. This comment applies not just to the incidental dancing that happened while music was being played for other reasons, but also for the couple of events billed as "milongas." So save your good milonga experiences for later at night after the festival events end. But it was always clear that the festival was mostly about performances FOR an audience rather than participation BY the audience, so it is perhaps appropriate that the atmosphere was conducive to a bunch of people who know just a thing or two finding the courage to get out on the dance floor. ATTENDANCE Attendance on last Thursday and Friday was noticeably lower--for the first time, there were some evening music performance events at the smaller theatre venue that were not filled. I did notice that attendance seemed to be getting lower as the days wore on (but in general things were well attended). This changed for Saturday and especially Sunday since, of course, more people are free and inclined to go out during the weekend. The place was absolutely packed on Sunday, no doubt in anticipation for some big-name shows planned for that final day! Now for the reviews: Friday at 7 pm: I wanted to see Orquesta de Cuerdas (String Orchestra) Elvino Vardaro but they switched times around so I think I saw the final minute or two, hardly enough to make an informed review, though I did enjoy the minute I heard. :-) Friday at 8 pm: DJ and VJ Summit. This promised to be interesting for Tango DJs (or former Tango-DJs like myself), or anyone interested in the music as played at and for milongas. Four or five Buenos Aires DJs (including Osvaldo Natucci (El Beso), Mario Orlando (Niño Bien, Sunderland, La Marshall) and Lucía Plazaola) on the stage were going to be playing their selections while people danced. Now I expected there to be some commentary on the orchestras or some "value added" information provided since it was a "summit" but in fact they merely went round-robin and played a tanda each, sometimes announcing the orchestra and DJ. Sounded just like a music selection for a regular milonga--it made no practical difference that there were 5 DJs instead of two. They could have done way more with that event, for example each DJ explaining why he or she chose that tanda, perhaps relating it to what had been played earlier, saying something about the orchestra, etc. Similarly, the VJ part of the event was non-existent; they merely projected a simulated or digitally processed abstract robotic couple dancing against some sort of swirling background. Friday at 8:30 pm: Sesiones de Tango. This was another of the great small-group performances of "real" Tango by young performers--just a trio or quartet led by bassist Pablo Motta. Special guest was bandoneón great Walter Rios. Definitely worth leaving the DJ/VJ thing behind in the other room for this! I know I said this report would cover the last three days, and the general observations do, but I think I'll send a final report tomorrow with some of the shows on Saturday and Sunday. There are some interesting observations that should probably not be buried deep inside this email, which has become long enough as it is. So, until tomorrow with (final) report No. 7 ... Shahrukh _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
