[HouTango-L] FLASH - Houston Tango article in Chronicle this Sunday

[A. Lester Buck III]

The Chronicle has a terrific article on Argentine tango in Houston
this Sunday, out today (Saturday) in the early edition.  There is
a gorgeous picture of Martin & Natia in full pose stretched all
over the outer wrapper of the early edition, and pictures from
Cafe Tango Bar and HATA adorning the story inside.  There is also
a long sidebar summarizing where to learn and dance.  Be sure to
buy a copy of the Sunday paper.  It's a collector's edition for
Houston tangueros/as.

================


There's a lot more to this complex and beautiful Argentine import
than just romance

Dec. 8, 2006, 5:52PM

By TARA DOOLEY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Though both are natives of Buenos Aires, Gonzalo G. Olano
discovered tango in Texas.

Back in Argentina, Olano was more of a Beatles kind of guy. So
were most of his friends. It was the late 1960s, and for Olano,
tango was a sound and dance nestled dormant in the back regions
of his life. It was an old-folks' dance, he said.

"I had a normal respect for tango because I saw my stepfather
and other people dancing tango in the old days," Olano said.

About five years ago, Olano decided to explore the dance of his
homeland and discovered a piece of his culture shared by dancers
and musicians in Houston and around the globe.

"I found out that there was a world of tango . . . and people
involved in tango were not Argentinian necessarily," said Olano,
a Houston architect. "That, I found, was very refreshing. They
knew about tango and my culture and in a very favorable way,
sometimes more than me."

In the years since Olano learned his tango basics, interest
in Argentine tango in Houston has grown significantly, he
said. Longtime teachers have created a corps of impassioned
social dancers. And relative newcomers have boosted the ranks of
dance teachers.

This fall, instructors Natia and Martin Pelaez opened a River
Oaks dance studio dedicated to Argentine tango. The couple are
putting the finishing touches on an adjacent bar, Cafe Tango Bar,
expected to open next year and offer wines from Argentina, tea,
coffee and tango six days a week.

"I wanted to have a place where people could say, 'This is a great
cafe, and where you can go and see the real Argentina in Houston,"
said Martin Pelaez, a native of Argentina.

Gift to the world

Throughout the United States and much of the world, interest in
tango has grown in recent years. Starting in the 1990s, films
including Scent of a Woman, Evita, Assassination Tango and others
have brought this dance to the silver screen. International and
American ballroom versions  distant cousins of the Argentine
original  made their way into family living rooms recently as
television viewers tuned in to Dancing With the Stars.

"People come to it for many different reasons," said Joan Bishop,
president of the Houston Argentine Tango Association. "They come
seeking something that is missing in modern-day life. We live
across the United States and around the world from family. From
its origins, tango has more or less given people permission to
be in closer contact with their fellow human beings."

Exported and danced around the world, tango is distinctly
Argentinian, said Robert Farris Thompson, a Yale University
professor and author of Tango: The Art History of Love (Vintage,
$15.95).

"With the exception of (Jorge Luis) Borges' writings and (Astor)
Piazzolla's music, (tango) is the contribution of Argentina to
world civilization," he said.

Tango  in its many forms  drew inspiration from immigrants to
Argentina from places such as Italy, Eastern Europe, Africa and
Cuba, Thompson said. These immigrants brought native instruments
and dances with them to Buenos Aires and over time mixed them
with local influences. Incubated in brothels and dives, the dance
developed in that city in the late 19th century.

"It is an example of what happens in the New World," Thompson
said. " ... They creolized the language of dance with this
incredible blend."

The story of the dance emphasizes its seedy roots, which Thompson
considers exaggerated. But as the dance evolved, it became accepted
by dancers of many social classes.

Among Argentine tango dancers, styles evolved over the years. In
some, dancers are chest to chest, and in others there is a more
open embrace with flashier moves. There are stage styles that
feature fancy footwork and acrobatics. Others experiment with
the styles. And then there are those who insist tango defies
simplistic categories.

In Bishop's classes, dancers are indeed close, chest to chest as
dictated by the milongero style she teaches. But even with other
Argentine styles, tango is danced closer than many other partner
dances, earning it a reputation as the most romantic and sexy
of dances.

Bishop and many other dancers will dispute that it's a sexy
dance. Sensual and passionate, sure. But it's not about shaking
their groove thing.

"Communication is the main part when you dance the tango," said
Victor Collins, a Buenos Aires native who has taught tango in
Houston for 14 years. "But it is with the bodies. With American
people, they want a pattern, they want to know exactly what they
are supposed to do. But in tango that does not exist. We are
supposed to dance, to feel, to create."

Sometimes, between the stumbles, the missed cues and the
anxious movements, a tango does feel like a creative, emotive
conversation. The leader is decisive, patient and attentive; the
follower combines complete trust with an interpretive independence;
and both allow the sound of violins and the accordion like
bandone¢n to move the dance.

"There are those moments which are completely magical," said
Diana Candida, who has danced tango since July 2005. " ... It is
a special chemistry where both the lead and the follow are on
the same wavelength. Sometimes it doesn't happen with the same
person twice."

Which is probably why some dancers sound like addicts when they
describe tango. They talk of money and hours dedicated to the
elusive pursuit of the next fix: About three minutes of dance
magic.

"When you learn tango, it gets you like a habit you don't want
to quit," said Juan Carlos Suarez , who with his wife, Alicia,
teaches and hosts dances through their company, Always Tango.

Gaining through the pain

Marisol Monasterio was introduced to tango as part of a performance
she did with the Colombian Folkloric Ballet. About four years
ago she embarked on really learning the dance with her husband,
German Carvacho. The couple knew other Latin partner dances such
as salsa and merengue, she said. But tango seemed different.

"It really caught our attention how difficult and at the same
time how fluid and intimate it was," Monasterio said.

After the first seven weeks of classes, Monasterio said she and
her husband almost gave up, she said.

"I think tango is really a style of life," said Monasterio, who
now performs tango. . "You start integrating it, the closeness
and the discipline. "

The dance, especially at its most elegant, requires as much
patience as passion and as much discipline as emotion. And it
can be hard to learn.

Ask the most elegant dancers how long it took them to feel
competent, and the most confident will say two years. Many will
tell you they still don't consider themselves good.

Katrine Wu and her husband, Jim Liu, have put the work in for about
four years. Wu has scars on her legs from her husband's kicks to
prove it. The couple practice at least four hours a week and for
the past three years have taken private lessons with Pelaez.

Wu dragged her husband into dancing because she sought relief
from the workaday stresses of the software consulting company
they own. The couple started with ballroom dancing, which they
liked well enough until one day Wu heard Argentine tango music
in a nearby room at the dance studio and was drawn to it, she said.

Learning the basics is not hard if you are determined enough and
are concerned only "with the superficial steps," Wu said. But
the tango isn't a monkey-see, monkey-do activity.

Though the old adage is that it takes two to tango, many dancers
see it as a much more social pursuit than that.

"It has brought a lot to my life," said Sheema Muneer, who has
danced for years. "It has brought me a new family."

tara.dooley at chron.com