The Tangueros Monthly Newsletter international edition - january 2004

30

The ritual of good intentions

It's good to start a new year well, with news as good as good intentions. Nowadays, these ones are a dramatic genre, pure fiction, like vaudeville, window-dressing or the serenata. "Don't worry - the Eldorado Serenaders used to say to a young Gabriel Garcia Marquez in love - we are gonna make her bite her pillow". That was a very good intention indeed. Being not able to do such a thing by ourselves, we have asked one of our best contributors to write something "positive" about the Tango, something that might be considered a wish and a moral support to our readers for this unfriendly-looking 2004. And that's what Marco Castellani has sent:

Being born in 1958 - After Christ, i want to make that clear - i have read the Antonin Artaud's great pages only many years after he wrote them. On the other hand, i am lucky enough to be not a Luca Ronconi's descendant and to be able to see his lavish shows. Artaud used to write much, especially before staging any theatrical action, or even regardless of that: formulations, purposes, manifestos; Ronconi, the biggest spender among our directors, is hard to get two written lines from, unless you pull his tongue. The chance encounter between the determinations by the former and the indolent notes by the latter, allow us to understand something more about our inscrutable bonds of affection to the Tango. Let's read what Artaud wrote in 1933:

The Artaud's like came to an end in 1948, with the these words:

And Ronconi, just a few months ago, has introduced his work on the Bacchantes and the Frogs in this way:

It's true, the Tango is anachronistic, but not only now, when it's easy: it always was. Since it had appeared under the Rio de la Plata's crowded skies, the Tango has been staying behind, "arrastrando" as we say in Buenos Aires, keeping itself off beat, not taking part in anything. The Tango has always been out of time: that's why it has always had much to say. Nothing is more vain and pathetic than trying to update it to the rhythms, the fashions or the shoes we use today. Other dances are more apt to express the collapse of the world, which is what we have earned. On the contrary, the Tango is here to remind us what we are losing; all the time its eloquence hides what the embrace reveals of us, our desire, our obstinacy in walking and dancing together, in spite of love that separates and the world's hate that unites us. The Tango, like the Artaud's theatre, is yet to exist; nevertheless it has been able to work out an organic form, to melt the individual outcome into the species, to take care of our intentions' secret garden, to make us better. And it did it with all the grace the human pair can have. A wonderful and untimely sunset that concern right us, which is beautiful for all we can't go without, for all we possibly haven't lost yet.

These were the good intentions, now the good news.

 

The Tangueros School's new courses

Starting from the first week of February, a new course will start for the very few beginners left in Milano. The lessons will continue till the end of May, according to this schedule:

Monday and wednesday, at
Scuola d'Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi - via Salasco 4, Milano
Tuesday at 
On Stage - piazza Medaglie d'Oro 2, Milano

THE TANGUEROS SCHOOL
teacher: Mariachiara Michieli
assistants: Silvina Aguera and Sebastian Romero

informations & registration: ph. +39 02 4989919 - 335 208782 - 340 7601274
email: escuela@nctangueros.com

 

Relaxing with César - Trio Esquina on tour

The Trio Esquina tour in Italy is taking shape. The following gigs are confirmed; others are on their way:

TRIO ESQUINA
César Stroscio bandoneòn
Claudio Pino Enriquez guitar
Hubert Tissier double bass

informations: www.nctangueros.com
email: NCT@nctangueros.com

 

 

 

And with the Toma Dos too

The Colectivo is a selfmanaged cooperative established in march of 2000 in Villa Urquiza, Buenos Aires. The Colectivo's mission is the vocational training and the production of music, dance, painting, photography, drama. In the Calle Bauness main office, which was made out of an old repair shop, the teachers give regular courses to almost one hundred of pupils. Every friday there is a typical “peña”, or an "open show". In fact, the Colectivo not only has a nice performing hall, but it promotes live events in front of a real audience. Thanks also to these special nights, the Colectivo has achieved a very good reputation among the similar institutions and the people  in Buenos Aires.

Claudio Pino Enriquez, world-wide renown guitarist, composer and arranger, is one of the founders and leading force of the Colectivo. He plays with the César Stroscio's Trio Esquina and is professor in residence at the Paris-Gennevilliers School of Music.

In 2003, the association El Barrio Tanguero of Torino has founded an education grant for the financial support of an entire school year for two deserving students at the Colectivo. This is a quite good news, but there is an even better one. Mr. Enriquez was asked to make the selection, and the two chosen musicians - Javier Vargas and Fernando Cappelletti, a bandoneòn-guitar duo by the name of Toma Dos (a pun between "take two" and "got tight") - will tour Italy soon. The Toma Dos will play a program of "Tango de patio" based on the Troilo-Grela purest repertoire. El Barrio Tanguero will back the tour which will take place from February 20 to March 15.

There nothing left but to applaude the noble initiative and to invite you to call and book in advance these two musicians of the Tango to come.

 

El Barrio Tanguero

tel/fax + 39. 011.8987517 www.barriotanguero.org

email: sam@inrete.it

 

Chewing the idiom 

But the Barrio Tanguero doesn't rest on its laurels. As in the past three years, it organizes in Turin the traditional Course of Tango interpretation for musicians - The Tango language from the origins to Astor Piazzolla also in 2004. The lessons will be given by Claudio Pino Enriquez (February 28 and 29) and by Hugo Aisemberg (April 9-12 aprile, May 22-23, July 10-11). Once again, informations at

El Barrio Tanguero
tel/fax +39.011.8987517 www.barriotanguero.org  email: sam@inrete.it

 

Removals

For all those who missed our Newsletter special edition, we reiterate the Nueva Compania Tangueros and The Tangueros Quarterly Review new electronic addresses. The NCT website is now www.nctangueros.com
whereas the TQR will move soon to www.theTQR.org
And here go the e-mail accounts

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