Tango in Rio

I think this will be my final posting from Rio de Janeiro, as I fly this evening to Buenos Aires. Before I depart, I wanted to include a short entry about my experience with tango in a cidade maravilhosa ("the marvelous city," Rio's most famous tag, at least in Portuguese). I first discovered tango two years ago, in August 2003, in my first trip to Buenos Aires. The trip was inspired first by simple obviousness--after traveling yearly to Rio for about 12 years, it was about time to get to know that other grand city of the Latin southern hemisphere (apologies in advance for those who believe there are other candidates). I also had a friend there--he runs a wonderful website called the Gourmet Musical (www.gourmetmusical.com/home.asp). We originally met via a musicological listserv, but we subsequent met on trips he made to New York, Pennsylvania, and Rio. So it was time to return the favor. To make a long story short, I fell in love with Buenos Aires--it is one of my favorite in the world--and I became fascinated with the tango. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to practice tango again for a full year, until my return trip to Buenos Aires in August 2004, when I had also arranged to teach a graduate course in Music and Cinema at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. My first three weeks pursuing tango was a frustrating affair. I found that many classes were not graded, and that barely had you begun that the teachers were having the class do complicated giros (turns) and sequences that were difficult to memorize. A week before I was to leave, I was lucky to meet Charles. Originally from Nigeria, and a native of London, Charles also had become enamored of tango, and was spending extended stays in the world capital of that dance. I was fortunate to spend a week tagging along to nightly milongas and finally getting an introduction to tango as it was actually danced by the porteños themselves (porteño is a local term to describe native residents of Buenos Aires, as carioca is used to describe natives of Rio de Janeiro). Charles now runs a service to facilitate the study of tango in Buenos Aires (http://www.argentinatango.com/).

In the year since returning from that second trip, the tango bug has been gradually grabbing hold of me. Still, I did not find the opportunity to do any dancing in the US, where I live most of the time, until November, when I made a weekend trip to Boston to see a performance by Ghanaian musician Koo Nimo (see my link section to learn more about Koo Nimo). It so happened that the Tango Society of Boston (www.bostontango.org/) was offering one of their third-Saturday tango workshops that weekend. I decided to sign up, and had a delightful series of classes on milonga (a spritely 2/4 dance with a happy mood that contrasts with the more serious tango) by Omar Vega, one of the luminaries of the current tango revival. After the very positive experience in Boston, I decided to make an extra effort and check out tango offerings in my area. The closest available tango community was in Philadelphia. I cannot compare it to many others, but it has to be one of the nicest, with great teachers, a number of weekly dance events, and a very interesting and international assortment of people involved (these are characteristics that seem to be common in international tango communities; for a listing of Philadelphia tango activities, check out http://www.tangophiladelphia.com/). In January 2005 I taught a special course on the cultural history of the tango, and Juan Carlos and Teresa, two accomplished dancers from the Philadelphia scene whom I admire greatly, came to give weekly workshops for 15 of the students.

It has been especially since this past May that I've been able to attend milongas on a more regular basis, and thus begin to improve my dancing. Since that time, I've danced at milongas in Philadelphia, New York, London, Rome and in Rio. A great thing about tango is that one can find quality dancing in just about any big city in the world, as well as in many smaller places; I made these trips for other reasons, but sought out the tango whenever evenings were free, and dancing was available. It was in June when I danced tango in Rio for the first time. It was a delightful surprise, because in 14 years of traveling here, I had never thought to explore tango. Simple recourse to google was all that was necessary. I found a tango calendar (www.riotango.com.br/riodejaneiro.htm) and was able to visit and dance at two milongas, both in Botafogo: one was Café Xangô (on Rua da Passagem, on Friday night), and the other, the Centro de Dança Jaime Arôxa (on Rua São Clemente, Saturday night).

Tango in Rio was especially on my agenda for this visit. I was inspired by the colorful series of reports on tango in Rio by a contributor to the Tango-L listserv, under the rubric "Randy Does Rio." I contacted the author of these posts, asking recommendations for a teacher in Rio. He named several, including Paulo Araujo, who operates the milonga at the Café Xangô. According to my friends in Rio, Paulo is known as a leading figure in the Brazilian tango scene, and a little web research revealed that he is known internationally. I was able to find his email on the web, and I was lucky to be able to arrange two private lessons, conducted by Paulo with the help of a lovely young assistant, Tugliana, a fine dancer (and when not dancing, a biology student). I honestly found Paulo to be among the very best teachers I have had the privilege to work with. He has sharp powers of observation; is extremely economical in his teaching style; is a masterful dancer himself; and is a non-pretentious and extremely warm individual. I hope to be able to continue working with him on future trips to Rio!