pep

HIS MAJESTY PEPITO
by Marco Castellani

I am aware that the following few lines are quite inadequate for sketching one of the best Tango dancer ever; i wrote them at the end of 1995, when the Pepito's Great Art was still there, speaking for him and making my writings - any writings - look even more inadequate. He came with us in Italy for the Milonga Boulevard tour. Pepito's last tango - right him, the King of the Milonga - was La Payanca in the Pugliese's arrangement performed by Color Tango. His last stage was the Teatro Comunale of Casale Monferrato: it was the 25th of march, 1996.

Talking of perfumes, in Argentina they say that the essence is in the tiny bottle; when they coined that speech they were certainly thinking to Pepito Avellaneda.
From the bottom, his height starts simultaneously with Magic Johnson's; not only this: as Pepito himself would say, "if i losed ten grams or if i were three months younger, i'd get engaged with the most beautiful girl in town". I don't know you, but personally i have no doubt about this.
Inside this small bottle, ladies and gentlemen, there is the blended fragrance of milonga, vals and tango. Pepito is excellent in all three but, generally speaking, he is a Master in the art of processing music into movement instantly. It is a real delight to see him improvising, even on a tango he has never listened to before: he builds the choreography little by little, with amazing skill for composition and rhythmical refinement.
Nobody but him, gives you that impression of naturalness. Pepito, while improvising, seems to undestand the most suble intentions of the music composer and sometimes even to forestall them, as he didn't do anything else in life, but meditate upon those notes.
Last year, 1995, he celebrated his 50th anniversary with the tango. Since 1952 he had worked as a professional dancer in the most renowned clubs and theaters of Buenos Aires. .Besides, Pepito is an irreplaceable instructor and a brilliant creator. Everybody owes him a debt: he created so many choreographies, even for the big names such as those of Orezzoli and Segovia's Tango Argentino.
Pepito's field of action is not merely the dance: like a indefatigable Cupid he has planned, arranged and cemented several marriages. His large heart, or an extremistic professional bias, doesn't let him tolerate the loneliness. Pepito can't stand singles, he does not admit someone unpaired. His nature is so beaming with joy that people get married just to see him smiling.
During these ten last years Pepito spinned around the world; he taught tango also at the Universities of Illinois and Stanford. He did all this with Suzuky who, talking of perfumes again, is an even smaller bottle.

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