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Tango: by a horse’s head — 8 Comments

  1. Here’s what got me into tango: This number from The Tango Lesson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX_R6QYr2_g
    Love the location, love how she starts with a Danny DeVito lookalike and ends with the late Omar Vega & the fabulous Carlos Copello.

    I made it to Buenos Aires and danced in that location, the Confiteria Ideal with some good dancers (alas, Vega is no longer with us). The BBC did a documentary on CI 10 years ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wx-LNAVlxbk

    Tango is not about steps, though. It’s about walking, stopping, and connecting with your partner.

    The best instructor I’ve had, Mario Bournissen, is a most musical dancer. Look at how he projects the energy of the music by stopping to mark a phrase http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ycc2BT9k84

    One of the famous tango dancers said, The essence of tango isn’t in the steps, but in the pauses.

  2. Like Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and Big Bopper, Carlos Gardel died in a plane accident. While they died in their 20s, Carlos Gardel died in his mid 40s, with a much more complete obra already accomplished. Argentines say of Carlos Gardel, “Gardel cada dé­a canta mejor.” [Gardel sings better every day.] Which Neo can attest to!

    éstor Piazzola, the famous tango player and composer of tangos, spent most of his childhood in the US, where he began at age 8 to play the bandoneé³n, the accordion-like instrument featured in the tango. At age 14 in the US, éstor Piazolla met Carlos Gardel. Impressed by éstor virtuosity, Carlos Gardel invited Astor to tour with him. éstor couldn’t get his father’s permission to go with Gardel, which was fortunate, as this was the tour when Gardel died in a plane crash.

    Libertango is one of Piazzola’s better known compositions.

  3. Pity the Pacino clip does not open for me. Never saw the movie; the title is off-putting, as I have scented many women as patients, to generally negative effects. The very obese and the seriously ill have their own scents, to be endured, not enticed by.

  4. Shifting from dance to literature, lyricist Alfredo Le Pera is an important reference. Excerpts from his poems punctuate the chapters of Manuel Puig’s most beautiful novel, “Boquitas Pintadas” (Heartbreak Tango).

  5. Sorry, but when I see “horse’s head” and Pacino in the same thread, I immediately think of a different movie.

  6. The actress Pacino dances with in Scent of a Woman is Gabrielle Anwar, who now plays Fiona on Burn Notice.

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