Interview with Fabián Salas
Tango pioneer, organiser CITA (Congreso Internacional de Tango Argentino)
…. we have invented a new profession: Tango teacher. We, Gustavo (Naveira) and a few others in the early 90ties- are the first professional tango teachers. Of course, when we started Pepito and Todaro (Pepito Avellaneda, 1930-1996, King of the Milonga and Antonio Todaro, choreographer and creator of sequences) were still around and they were gorgeous, however, these were milongueros.
· But also teachers…..?
Sure, they were the first to travel and teach, however, they did not run a “school” in a general sense. The goal of their best students was to dance tango on stage. We were the first to focus on teaching to dance, not necessarily to perform it. The emphasis on teaching has become ever more important and wide spread. Gustavo already lead the practica a Cochabamba (street in San Telmo with a very popular practica) when Pepito was not around. When Todaro and Pepito retired Gustavo also took over their role as tango ambassador in Europe. This was in 1991 and I went to the US to teach.
· Back to the beginning: How did you start with Tango?
At the age of 16 I went to the US for one year. When my father brought me to the airport he gave me a cassette with tango music which I listened to every night. It was the connection to my country, to my culture. When I went back to Argentina in 1981 I was determined to learn to dance tango. Of course there was nowhere to learn, let alone in La Plata where I lived with my family. Instead, I started university and studied law. Only in 1987, one year before graduating, I started to dance. However, this was not the tango that was becoming popular in Buenos Aires. Shortly afterward I saw “Tango Tango” with Juan Carlos Copes and I realised that tango had much more to offer and –together with some friends- we decided to go and take lessons with Copes.
Fabian and his friends waited for Copes at the stage door and convinced him to teach them …..
Copes taught in the Confiteria ‘Volver’, Calle Corrientes opposite of the Gran Teatro Rex. Eduardo(Arquimbau) used to teach there and I did so as well, later. I used to take classes with Copes and went back to La Plata to teach the steps to my friends, becoming a teacher almost against my intentions. I only wanted to dance, not to teach. However, I learnt a step and wanted to share it with others. I think this attitude is typical for a good teacher, and this is how I became a teacher. Shortly thereafter I graduated and moved to Buenos Aires. I was a lawyer without a job and accepted a job as a tango teacher at the Academy of Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau. I wanted to have a gap before taking up a real job also because of the difficult political and economic situation at that time. That was 18 years ago and I never worked as a lawyer.
· Any regrets?
Not at all…… to be a lawyer for me means to enter difficult grounds with respect to ethics and moral: I cannot defend a criminal; however, he has the legal right to be defended –but I do not want to understand the rationale for his wrong behaviour. It is better if I am no longer involved with this business, I am much more relaxed. My tango teaching will not kill anybody and nobody gets a prison sentence because of me. I do not want to feel responsible for other peoples lives and you have to do this as a lawyer.
· How did you get to know Gustavo?
One day, somebody mentioned Gustavo to me and suggested we should get to know each other because we had similar novel ideas that contradicted the old tango traditions. However, it should take quite a while to meet Gustavo…. I was unsure whether he wanted to get in contact at all. And I had seen some photographs of him and Olga (Olga Besio, his partner at that time) that I did not like at all. Gustavo and Olga were dressed quite extravagantly which did not fit my perception of “beautiful” tango at all.
· So, how did you get to know Gustavo?
I was doing a show in San Telmo and we have been working for one month when the choreographer buggered off. It was on a Friday and on Monday the show should start. We had to create three stage tangos over the weekend. My partner suggested to contact Gustavo because he was her first teacher. I finally called him on Saturday evening and he asked us to come to his studio the following day. We worked for the whole day and he didn’t charge us a peso. This was extremely generous, I’ll never forget that! For me, this is a perfect example of a great teacher. We became good friends and talked a lot, much more talking than dancing. Gustavo analyses everything.
· The two of you invented “Cosmotango”. The related festival, Congreso Internacional de Tango Argentino or CITA goes in its 10th year and is one of the biggest and most important tango festivals world wide. Why did Gustavo quit after a while?
When we started there were a number of festivals abroad but none in Buenos Aires. We wanted to do something extra, a bit more than just a festival. We wanted to create a platform for teachers and their different styles and ideas. A creative melting pot for performances, shows, books, videos….. we had big dreams! However, because of Gustavo’s and my packed schedule we were never able to realise more than about 5% of the plans we had for Cosmotango. This was a very frustrating situation for Gustavo because he travelled a lot and could not work on his plans here and that situation wore him out. At a certain point he decided to leave Cosmotango.
· CITA also hosts a “Noche de los Milongueros” with the presentation of old tango dancers. What is a Milonguero?
The milongueros today have changed. When I started there was a different kind of milongueros, Miguel Balmaceda, for example (the father of Julio Balmaceda) was a milonguero. They danced at the “Sunderland” and the “Canning”. When Tete (a famous “milonguero”) appeared in the Buenos Aires tango scene I have been dancing for 6, 7 years. Today the term “milonguero” represents a marketing strategy…. Susanna Miller, for example, sells the brand “milonguero” very successfully.
On the other side, milonguero contains a chronological aspect: Tomorrow, we’ll be the milongueros. Those dancing Tango Nuevo today are the milongueros of tomorrow. Milonguero is simply someone who goes to a milonga.
· At the time you had differences with some of the old milongueros?
When we started, nobody wanted us, we were insulted because of the way we danced because we did something new with tango. A similar thing happened to Piazzolla, he said, the only crime I committed was to try to change something in tango. That was enough to make him a hate figure… and today they adore him. A similar thing happened to us. We had a different approach to tango and got shouted at. Nowadays dancers go to milongas and are not even aware what is traditional and what is new. They adopt our structured approach to tango in a natural way and dance moves without knowing their origin.
· Why were people so offensive?
Because we changed the dance. Everything started in a closely knit community with people who did not realise the importance of the process. They were against our ideas because tango was their one and only and they were afraid of loosing it. They were not even aware that they wanted to protect something and they did not realise that we were engaged in a creative process. They could not stop us. Today our perception of tango is accepted throughout the world, there is no return to the old tango tradition.
· What made you study and analyse the structure of the dance?
We started because we wanted to understand and learn the tango. You can do this like in the old days by practicing for 40 years. Alternatively you can understand the structure of the moves and use your head to direct your feet. We did not change the tango for the sake of change but because we could not afford to learn it for 40 years. We were convinced that dance students had to understand the structure of the dance, because they lacked the opportunity to practice. In the US tango dancers could probably go to about one milonga a month. Imagine these Americans, practising tango for only 5 hours a month, they would never gonna learn to dance tango. If you take this view as a teacher you are a liar if you advertise and sell your classes. You would have to warn them that it would take about 120 years to learn tango and more realistically suggest trying golf. We searched for a solution of this problem by speeding up the learning process. This was only possible by dissecting the dance and understanding its structure.
· How did you find this structure?
We closely observed the dancers and realised that the dance must rely on a basic structure. Dancers from different backgrounds could meet at a milonga and dance together, meaning that basic body language or codes is common to all the dancers. These codes were not specific steps such as the salida, for example but a body language that was not taught in classes but worked with unknown partners. We decided to decipher the codes of this body language.
· There are different perceptions of hoe to teach this language, how do you teach?
I am often asked about my teaching style. I am teaching a neutral style, the material I teach is suitable for any tango style, no matter whether open or close embrace. I teach the basics that one can develop in any direction. If I taught you in the so-called milonguero style it would be a lie to pretend that you can dance…. It is like you wanted to learn to play the piano and the teacher told, of course I teach you to play, but we’ll only use ten keys! You enquire about the other keys and the teacher replies: You don’t need them, the ten we use are the most important ones. Brillant, the day you’ll be confronted with a complete piano you’ll feel the urge to strangle the teacher! Milonguero, its only a limited aspect of tango.
· The ones who dance milonguero style will vehemently contradict…!
Those who learn strictly a milonguero style will not like to experiment towards other styles. It is difficult to step back and learn something new. My female/follower students enjoy dancing with a milonguero. On the other side, if a woman learnt and always danced in close embrace she will hardly enjoy a dance with me in open embrace. She’ll suffer and pretend that she can dance but only in close embrace…. really, either you know how to dance or you don’t. It’s a whole other story if she tells me that she tried everything and prefers milonguero above all other styles. However, there is not one milonguero who deliberately chose this style. It is the other way around, they are not able to dance other styles that is why they dance milonguero. They are prisoners of a given situation, there is no choice. I chose, when I feel like it I dance in close embrace.
· A controversial topic….
Oh, that is indeed controversial and almost political: Milonguero or tango Nuevo, traditionalist or not – this often discussed with a fire similar to real problems –who will be the next president…? Wait a minute, we are only dancing tango! And why, for example, does an European teach me about traditional tango? What does Argentinean tradition bother an European? Isn’t it silly if some stranger defends the tradition of my country more fiercely than I do.
· How comes that tango provokes such heated debates? What is so special about this dance?
Tango is a very intellectual dance, very rational and people are increasingly capable of understanding it. They like the complexity of the dance, its many layers. I think people enjoy tango more than for example salsa. You can grab the essentials of salsa in ten minutes and enjoy dancing. With tango it is conceivable that you learn for 2 years and 95% of this time is a rather tense experience. It is a kind of narcissism that drives you, you cannot give in and admit that you’ll never figure the dance out.
In addition, the tango contains a layer of a sophisticated short version of a male/female relationship. In every society on earth such relationship has its own characteristics: Everyone follows specific rules and carries responsibility, everyone tries to take a share of the power. This question of shared power between male and female is represented with its own variations in every society. For this reason tango does not necessarily follow the Argentinean rules. Every tango dancer will integrate his own cultural background into his dance, regardless in which country he or she grew up. If you are extremely macho and maybe even violent, it does not matter whether you are German, Russian or Argentinean, the violent aspect will be reflected in the way you dance.
· Does not every dance work like that?
Most other dances are more or less choreographed and use set sequences of steps. In tango you may change any time whatever you want. Tango offers the opportunity to be creative and exert power. Most other dances don’t. In rock n’ roll, for example you cannot change the basic step the woman started it, she has to finish it. The leader can use his power in a much more sophisticated way in tango than in other dances and this freedom can lead to an intensely satisfying, overwhelming experience. It is difficult to dance salsa and feel the breath of your partner in your ear. In tango you can come very close and to express yourself with your body- not only in a situation of seduction, also in anger, disinterest, in a game of power and submission. All these components of a relationship are expressed in Tango.