Sensitivity, the senses, the sensation of silence and heightened awareness.

A tango conversation  between  Noel Strazza and Richard Sagala

(translation from French: Carole Newman)

download the interview in Word

Presentation of Noel Strazza:

Buenos Aires-born Noel Strazza has studied the tango with its Argentine masters.  A gifted professional dancer, with a rigorous training  in both  classical ballet and contemporary dance, Noel’s versatility has enriched many distinctive dance companies. She has featured in numerous international festivals.

Her dance partnership with Pablo Veron began in August 2000 and has taken the couple all across the world to teach and perform.

To name a few,here are just some of the places  and circumstances in which Noel has found herself over the last five years:

A tour of Korea and Japan with Pablo Veron, October-December 2005

Guest appearance with Pablo Veron at the « XXII Gala of the Stars », Place des Arts, Montreal, September 2005

« Tango Sinfonico” with Pablo Veron and the Potsdam Kammerakademie Orchestra, Germany, August 2005

Tour of Australia and New Zealand with Pablo Veron, October 2004

Show with Pablo Veron and the Buenos Aires  Tango Via Orchestra at the Theatre de Chaillot, Paris, June 2003

Show  with Pablo Veron and the Quintango orchestra in May 2002 at the 2002 Washington Tango Festival in the National Building, Washington D.C

Show with Pablo Veron and the Color Tango Orchestra at the Fireworks Tango Festival of Los Angeles, July 2001

Show with Pablo Veron at the Gran Ballo di Gala, Salone di Prima Classe della Stazione Maritima in Genoa, December 2000.

Show with Pablo Veron and the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Varmland Classic Festival, Karlstad, Sweden, August 2000

Noel teaches regularly in Buenos Aires and in her adoptive hometown of Montreal at the Studio Tango.

 The Interview begins…. 

-Does the tango, independent of passing crazes and period dance styles, have a definitive character all its own? And can we pin down exactly what its underlying essence is?

 N.S. Yes, I think it always comes back to the same thing, this feeling of connection between two people coming together as one, of two completely different energies meeting to create something quite magical together: of being able to feel deeply, and enter into a game that is really a conversation, and then to be able to dance all that.  That for me is the very essence of the tango, this sense of connection and improvisation. It is that which is so enriching and ever-present, and yet which tantalisingly changes each time, depending on our partner, our own state of mind at the time, the stage of life we’re at, our reaction to the music – all these things are in permanent change and evolution. If I think of the Twenties, of the Eighties or even of my day today, that fact never alters. That is the tango’s lodestar, guiding the dance, be the style more traditional, more modern, or the accompanying music modern or traditional.

-Connection and improvisation, then.  So is connection an attribute exclusive to the tango and not to other couple dances?

N.S.  No, not especially.  It’s difficult because we tend to make an abstraction out of the word “connection”, whereas I find it a very concrete thing.

-Then let’s talk concretely about it.

N.S.We need connection in all couple dances.  I don’t know them all, but I’m familiar with some of them through having danced them.  The minute we no longer dance alone, we need connection:  Usually one person leads and the other follows.  The tango is the dance par excellence to distinguish the leader and follower roles, so I don’t know whether connection has more rapport with the tango per se but, yes, its strong role identification perhaps makes it even more noticeable. It also seems to me that, in the other dances, there are far more cues to help couples follow each other in the dance than in tango.  In the tango there now exists a nomenclature that is being elaborated as we speak but, before that, hardly any signals existed.

-Before when?

N.S. I’d say that from the Nineties onwards, when the craze for what was called the new tango - the « nuevo tango »- first appeared, a group of people began to identify certain dance codes or, to put it better, a nomenclature for teaching purposes.  They began to accord tango a terminology in order to better identify individual steps or sequences. But not to the point of robbing the dance of its rich potential for improvisation. Quite the reverse….

-So this nomenclature is truly useful for teaching ?

N.S. I think so. It’s useful, but you also have to know how to teach what has been passed down through the oral tradition and not abuse it with this kind of codification. If not, the whole thing could become artificial and choreographed, which goes entirely against the grain of tango. So I believe that this ascribing of a terminology, this codification, can only help if one incorporates it into teaching as a means of explaining the dance, but not it as an end in itself, since we’d risk losing sight of the dance’s true nature.  And we mustn’t forget that those who have embarked on this work are people who have come up through the tango tradition, and very much so, and know exactly what tango was, and where it was coming from. But they had difficulty in studying with masters who didn’t have at their fingertips the wherewithal for transmitting their knowledge.  So these people undertook the task of rendering transmissible what they themselves had acquired from the oral tradition by using as an intermediary a little decoding process to throw light on the subject.

-We’ve spoken of the Nineties, but put in the context of the entire century, are we speaking here of a natural evolution in the dance, or a revolution? How are we to view the arrival of modernism in, let’s say, the last fifteen years?

N.S. I think we’re talking of an evolution.  We must learn to be more willing to embrace this idea of permanent evolution, yes it’s exactly that, an evolution, but not a linear one. At any given moment it might seem that nothing new is happening and yet, ten years hence, something will erupt onto the scene; it’s an evolution, but one that is neither continuous nor regular.  A growing number of people are dancing, but only a handful will emerge, and bring either new or different dimensions to more or less alter the evolution’s course.  I’m talking of the one-offs who have left their indelible mark on the dance. But surely everyone should have their own style and, since we’re talking of an improvised dance, for me, the ideal would be to have as many styles as there are dancers.

-Would that indeed be the ideal?

N.S. Absolutely, that would be the ideal, but at the same time we are all human beings, seemingly alike in that we are all beings with two legs and a heart… but there are times when one of our number stands out from the rest as having a presence which is that much more different.  But I’m not sure that there are that many actual differences in style.

-So the tango encourages the dancer to express his own style and personality but are we in danger of trying to cultivate originality for originality’s sake, to the detriment of the core values of the dance?

-N.S. I think we have to let things be. The person who is going to break out is going to do so even despite himself.  It’s not by shutting oneself up in a room of wall-to-wall mirrors with the intention of creating a new movement that a new movement appears. One has no control over that.

We’re also talking about a degree of talent here, inspiration, a tenacity for work and research… if you like that sort of thing then you have to dig deeper.

-It’s necessary to study, then, but is it possible to do so without masters?

N.S. I think so.

-Can one then learn tango without the tutelage of a teacher?

N.S. Without the direct influence of a teacher, yes I think so.  But, nevertheless, it’s important for each and every dancer to find a suitable "master", be it a source of reference, be it a partner, or a role model one admires, who will help us establish certain benchmarks and set us on the right path to our own evolution.

-However, if I can draw on personal experience here, when you consider that it’s more than three and a half years now that we’ve been working together, all this heightened consciousness and awakening to the real sensations emanating from the correct movements  and the exchange of energy that it induces, never could I have done it alone, or with a partner, or through all the workshops in the world.

N.S.  Ah! Thank you… (she laughs)

No, it’s true, it’s very true.

-So I find it very strange, this idea that one can learn this dance without working one-on-one with a teacher who is guiding our progress.

N.S. Yes, that’s so. We need a hands-on mentor, and I would say that in the life of every dancer, no matter who, there needs to be someone he can talk to, engage in a free exchange of ideas, an exchange of presence and energy.

-There’s a saying in Zen, « Ishin Denshin »,that means that the Zen spreads from my heart your heart, from my spirit to your spirit.  Is it the same in the tango?

N.S. Yes, you could say that.

-Or from my body to your body, from my feelings to your feelings?

N.S. From one being to another with all that  being has as such; they have a body, a heart, a skin, a spirit, a sense of music, a sense of life – a sense of all that, I think, and all that is what is going to be brought to the connection, on their meeting in the dance.

-It seems to me that, in your teaching, you attach great importance to quality, am I right?

N.S. Quality in what sense?

-In the sense of the genuineness that emanates from the right feelings that  get generated by the excellence of the movement, from clarity, that sense of truth, really, that we find in all good art form...

N.S. Yes, quality in the sense of honesty in fact.  There is no quality without honesty, I believe, and when one speaks of connection and this profound capacity of being able to let go in an improvisation, all that must stem from honesty.  You can’t improvise on the basis of falsity.  You can’t give something to someone else if you’re not prepared to commit yourself to the other with complete honesty and feel that the other absorbs it equally into what is their total honesty.

The minute one tries to fake this channel of communication through false interpretations, the underlying truth has evaporated, the improvisation no longer exists and, in the final analysis the connection isn’t there either.

 -Do you see it as your duty as a teacher to bring each of your students to a realisation of this notion of honesty that is in the centre of a good dancing technique?

N.S. Yes, completely.

-Even though that person only intends to take one or two lessons and just wants to amuse himself ?

N.S. Yes, because the tango is a form of amusement for me too. I enjoy the feeling it gives. I’ve been very fortunate in finding the tango to give me that.  I certainly didn’t come to the tango in order to dance… I’ve danced all my life. I came to the tango because I couldn’t comprehend how one person could invite you to perform just one movement with him, and then that situation would repeat and repeat itself until the couple was dancing an entire dance solely on the basis of step-by-step improvisation and the communication between them. I couldn’t understand it. Even when I was doing duos and pas de deux I never felt that. The duos in contemporary dance and in ballet consisted of movements that each of the two learned on their own and then someone put them together. It wasn’t a question of intense communication all the time, all the time, all the time. That’s why I wanted to know more about the tango, so that I could take it all in.

And that’s what attracted me, and amazed me, and that’s what I try to communicate. And I even try to convey that to the person who just wants a little light entertainment from the dance, by trying to make him see that the more he takes it up, and the more it appears hard to understand, the easier it’s going to be in the end; no-one’s being forced to learn complicated steps and hyper-difficult sequences, but if some-one can learn how to connect in all simplicity with another person then he’ll have in his grasp all the enjoyment of this dance.

And if that person can’t fully appreciate the significance of that, then they must be made to realize that maybe they should be learning another dance…(laughter)

I’m not going to torture anyone, but I’m going to try my utmost to convey what the tango’s essence means to me, and do it in the most simple and enjoyable way I can.

-So this mysterious connection that unleashes the freedom to improvise, that's what fascinated you?

N.S. Yes, quite, because at the time I was a member of a contemporary dance company that was doing choreographies to Piazzola pieces.  The choreography consisted of bits of contemporary dance interspersed with bits of tango choreography. But when I saw that, and when I saw the people who were actually dancing the tango in the tanguerias and milongas, I was in no way seeing the same thing.  So when I saw myself on video doing my little tango steps, I said to myself, we’re not doing the tango at all… but I didn’t understand why.

So I said to myself that I really had to find out what the tango actually was in order to know whether I was dancing it or not.  I’m insisting on this point because this is something I’ve lived and felt.  No–one actually taught me. Well, yes, they taught me, but I wasn’t entirely sure, because I was just listening to their words.  I finally convinced myself of the truth through my own physical efforts, because the teachers had given me sufficient input for me to be able to take myself to the point of being able to feel tango in my soul and with my body.

-You always attach great importance to the student’s transcending the technical skills you’re trying to develop in them in order to feel their effect at a sensory level. I can certainly bear witness to that. And even though you are not a leader when we’re dancing, you always succeed in guiding me and making me experience the proper feeling that should arise from the technique, and one that I must learn to recognise…it’s quite exceptional!

N.S. Thank You! (laughter)

-So, from those empty steps on stage at the beginning, you embarked on and orientated your research towards discovering some real emotions that would take you to the core, and capture the essence of this dance?

N.S. Yes, that’s right. When I’m teaching someone, I would like that person to dance as they would wish, but I’d also like them to master certain technical elements so that, once again, they can create their own style, their own way of moving, of dancing. One can’t get to that point without working on deep personal feelings. So I try to make it so that this person appropriates whatever has come up in the lesson through what they were feeling, and not through thought processes nor constant repetition of mere technical movements, because, when all’s said and done, it would be very easy to forget all that.

And in contrast, a feeling is something one’s never going to forget.  A genuine feeling, you’re never going to forget it.

-So no putting it on; it’s got to be real?

N.S. Yes, it’s got to be real, but yes one can also put on an act. Providing it’s done consciously, it can be fabulous. But not while you’re learning, more as a trump card maybe.

-Is improvisation very difficult?

N.S. Well, it demands great … the Spanish word <entrega> comes to mind. Let’s call it being able to give oneself with utter  conviction, to give oneself completely.

-For the leader does that mean giving oneself through the act of offering, the “yang” idea, and for the follower, through the act of receiving, the “yin” concept? Can we speak in terms of such polarity?

N.S. As far as roles are concerned, the more the connection grows, the more comfortable the improvisation becomes and the more the roles begin to merge.  Initially, there is an invitation from the leader to perform a movement and an acceptance of that movement by the follower that effectively transforms it. So the follower is replying; the leader replies in his turn, the follower replies to that, the leader replies once more, and this game of responding invites us to grow within the improvisation, and one becomes increasingly alert and more and more aware and sometimes one can no longer feel who is leading or who is following…. even though one really knows deep down who the leader is and who is the follower.

- I think these are key issues for you. It seems- and correct me if I’m wrong- that you sincerely believe it to be absolutely necessary for the leader to be directive and really lead, and not as one sometimes hears to the contrary, to soft pedal a little in order to blur the lines somewhat. Do you see the bond between leader and led as hierarchical?

N.S. For me, no.

-Because it’s by consent?

N.S. Exactly. That’s how it is in tango; I learnt it like that, and I enjoy it.

-Is it a fundamental characteristic of the dance in your opinion?

N.S. For me, yes, because this is tango that I am dancing. When I dance this dance, when I dance the tango with all its tradition and feeling, it ought to be like that.

And I wish to add this, a lot of people use the word “tradition” or think of tradition as something old: “Everything traditional is old they would say”.

But for me there’s no connection between what is old and what is traditional.  Tradition is more akin to something that is linked to the very essence of a given thing.  You could say it’s old because it began a very long time ago… but for me something that is traditional is rooted in feelings, in essence, and even though it did begin a long, long time ago, tradition is very rich and extremely important. Whether one dresses in period clothes or not, draws on steps from a certain era or not, dances in period style or not, tradition is there, even if one is dancing to the most off-beat music, dressed in the most outlandish clothes and with the wildest hairdo thrown in for good measure.

And what I admire in those whom I consider to be great dancers, is that I see reflected in them a tradition; I see the essence of tango, be they older or extremely young, ultra modern in style or more conservative.

-Can you describe for us some key elements of this tango tradition?

N.S. Everything we’ve been speaking of: well-defined roles, this sense of connection, this game we call improvisation, two energies meeting to create something magical, all that is to do with tradition. And it’s not dependent on any particular style. Style evolves, the style of the steps evolves and the abrazo (embrace) evolves, but tradition is tradition and the essence of tango remains the essence of tango.

-Has improvisation always been part of the tradition?

N.S. Yes, absolutely, even though all down through the years, there have always been people who have choreographed the tango. Choreography’s a legitimate way of doing it. But in creating choreography, the starting point is always improvisation, and you draw on the sheer magic of being able to improvise; you invent sequences and other elements. Then you go on to select some of these and bring them alive and juxtapose them in a way that blends well with the music, and then costume the piece to help it tell a particular story…

-And it’s not the reverse? That you start off with a step sequence that you know will make a strong visual impact and try to fit it into a given piece of music?

N.S. Yes, you can do that too, but where have you got that step sequence? From improvisation!!!

-By concentrating too much on choreography, don’t you risk losing the elemental quality of the improvisation?

N.S. You have to be vigilant, you have to know what you're doing!  If you want it to still look like tango, you must always leave the door open a little in order to keep the fresh air of improvisation circulating and refreshing the whole thing.

-When Pablo and you mount a choreography, is there any built-in flexibility during performance that allows chance elements to arise spontaneously and prompt improvisations or, conversely, do performance pressures, technical challenges and audience expectations force you to place every single step and control everything?

N.S.  No, no, no, not in my experience, and especially with Pablo. He often keeps large sections totally unchoreographed and there are even times when we want to dance what we’d planned in the choreography but we never make it because, in the dancing, something has come up whereby improvisation just takes over because it’s stronger than what we intended. But then I’ve had the good fortune to work with Pablo, who is an improviser par excellence, and an extremely good choreographer too.  Working with him, it’s never been difficult to keep the spirit of improvisation alive.

-You’re dancing with no safety net?

N.S. Exactly.

-There’s risk taking?

N.S. Spot on, absolutely! And personally, I revel in the permanent dizzy heights of it all!

-So it’s not a source of anxiety to be eliminated?

N.S. On the contrary, it’s a source to cherish, to nourish, because it helps us maintain this state of heightened awareness that so characterizes the tango.

-I once remember your taking me to task over the fact, that in the course of improvising, I relax the lead and chance takes over. Does chance have a place in improvisation?

N.S. Yes, chance can make us lose track, and for me – I don’t know how other couples react- but for me the lead is paramount.  The more absorbed I am in my own role, the more I communicate, and the more I feel I’m an equal partner.  That might seem paradoxical but I feel I have more freedom when I am better led.  The better I’m led, the more I feel I’m being encouraged, and the more ample is my response.

-So to be led with conviction doesn’t make you feel more confined?

N.S. No, not at all; I try to give my partner confidence and I think that any leader who feels confident, the more confident he feels, the more his partner can commit totally to him and the more totally he can commit to her. It’s at that point that they establish communication. Never fear giving too much; the more one gives, the more one’s going to receive. So the more I let myself go, the more at ease he’ll feel, and the more he’s going to allow me to do what I want as well. 

-What is it that characterizes the follower’s role?

N.S. In the first instance, you could say that one is there to be invited.  I really like to refer to the lead as an invitation.  For me the lead is not like driving, the lead is an encouragement, an invitation. So, from this invitation, a conversation springs up. You can start to communicate and for me that’s what the lead is. And to abandon oneself to the lead in fact, rather than say ‘abandon”, I’d prefer “empty oneself”, be in neutral, without colour, simply there, present and transparent….

So, through that invitation, I  am going to reflect the colour of the dance: black, blue, red, pink or green, depending on who’s inviting me, depending on the music, depending on my state of mind, depending on whether it’s raining or not, depending on… so many things. That initially is what the role of the follower is. So far so good, but it would also be good if the leader could abandon himself to listening and replying.  It’s just like a conversation.  You’re not speaking right now because you’re listening to me but, if I say something, it’s because I want a response from you, and then it’s my turn to remain silent and listen to you.

-You talk of emptying yourself, a creative emptiness.  Is that something you try to teach your female students?

N.S. Yes.

-We say in Zen that “the empty hand can receive everything”.

N.S. That’s a beautiful analogy.

-We also say that the main attribute of a vase is its emptiness, the mere fact that it is empty: A full vase is no longer useful.

N.S. Yes, but the "vase" in question has a soul; it has a shape, a colour, a presence.  But not all vases are alike; each differs in form, qualities and presence. And a sense of her own unique presence. This is what I try to instil in my female students.

Empty, yes, but with a strong presence, capable if receiving what the leader is going to give: Not empty, as in dead, without energy.

-What are the basic techniques a follower must master to allow herself to evolve and achieve full expression in the dance?

N.S. I’d say they were to acquire a sense of silence, an active silence. A state of awakened awareness.

To be calm, alert, silent and completely aware.

-And inversely, for the leader, what would be basic techniques for a good leader who wants to flourish and achieve his potential in the dance?

N.S. You’ve asked me a difficult question because it sets me thinking of what I would want in return from someone else… because just now we were talking of my role. But, in the other’s shoes, I think he should be able to offer a tremendous sense of connection with the music.

-Even before his connection with his partner?

N.S. Yes, and that helps him enormously to establish his presence and determines what sort of invitation he can extend to his partner.

-Does he guide from his musicality or according to his dance technique?

N.S. Musicality is a most important element of technique. Musical instinct is paramount.

And it’s the prime motivation to dance after all.  One has always danced because there has been music, no?

-This musical dimension, does it apply to both partners?

N.S. Yes, of course.

-But it’s primordial for the leader?

N.S. For both.

-So for a dancer to develop in the most complete sense, together with his technique must come a commitment to develop his musical instinct. Or is that already a given like the colour of his eyes and not required to be improved through hard work and research?

N.S. No, a bit of both, but you can study and study and study; it’s rather like being able to move well.  Some people are considerably more gifted in this area.  It’s the same thing with music.

-But aside from one’s innate capability, where musicality or sense of rhythm are concerned, can one boost and further evolve these?

N.S. Musicality is  very important, extremely important. It’s a hyper important fountain of inspiration. It’s a motivation for even moving at all. And as a tool in the dance, it helps with leading and responding.

-Freedom in the dance, is it the reward of hard work and effort, or can one avoid the work and enjoy instant freedom?

N.S. No, I think you have to work to get to that point.

-Work a little, or total dedication?

N.S. Depending on the degree of success you want, but no it’s not easy.  (laughter)

It’s difficult, and the more you want to delve into the dance, and the more you want to enrich your experience and go for quality, the more effort you must make, and the more you must work.

-Is it reasonable to expect that, if someone only wants to expend limited but well-directed efforts, if they’re well-orientated, they can reach an acceptable level vis-à-vis the quality of their dance?

N.S. Yes, it is an accessible dance, but you mustn’t think that you can avoid having to learn the basic techniques that the tango tradition requires of us.

-So the amount of effort to be put in can vary?

N.S.  It all depends on what your aims are.  It’s a dance in which you might need to be extremely supple in order to achieve certain goals.  But it’s not necessary to go to those lengths in order to say one dances tango. Virtuosity and acrobatic contortions are on a completely different plane and must be seen as separate from the dance itself.

-In our work together, you seem to make much of « intention », and I know of few people who have conceptualised and insisted on intention quite as much as you, as a crucial component of leading. Could you tell us more about it?

N.S. I see intention as a concentration of all our energy and all our being, and a prerequisite to the invitation to execute a movement.

 
-It seems that it’s the initial phase of preparing to move, right?

N.S.  It’s a way of harnessing energy; a way of deciding what amount one is going to call upon in order to accomplish a given aim.

-It appears to me to be more akin to the realms of transmission and communication than to any physical action you transfer to your partner’s body, if I understand rightly…

N.S. Yes, that’s right.  It is what precedes, and ultimately results in an action. To have action without intention is like producing an action without having adequately invested in it.

-Can you clarify that further?

N.S. It’s like an intermediate stage between an idea and its enactment.  You have an idea: you’re going to amplify that idea through intention and finally end up with an action but, before arriving at the action, a degree of intensity is also involved. So there is an intention, accompanied by an intensity, and it’s all going to result in an action. Whether that action be short or long, a pivot, a voleo, a jump, a pause, a suspension, it doesn’t matter what the movement is that you are inviting the other to participate in. What does matter above all things is that it is preceded by the intention of what one wants to provoke.

Intention, invitation, execution.

It’s all done almost imperceptibly, but distinctly just the same.

-You were speaking of the pause just now. Is making more pauses to our advantage, in your opinion?

N.S. I believe it’s an open choice and each person must do as he pleases. Personally, I love it.

-But is it necessary?

N.S. Me, I love it. The pause is a silence… Silence contains movement; silence is an internal action, and it’s a very rich element that makes an enormous contribution to the dance. But it remains a personal choice.  It’s like using double time and acceleration, that’s personal. Even so, these are important elements that I try to convey to my students so that hopefully they will add them to their palette and eventually use them in their own dance. To me these seem more useful than teaching fixed step combinations and predetermined sequences.  And even if I do teach a set sequence, I invite students to include what elements they already command such as silences, pauses, accelerations, different dynamics, and discrete quality of movement. So, ten people could perform this same sequence, ten times in ten different ways. In fact the same person could do it ten times in ten different ways, and that’s what is so rich about this dance.

-We spoke of evolution at the beginning of this interview and how we should view the future.  Have we invented all there is to invent in the tango?

N.S. No, most certainly not, not even just in terms of combinations.  We’re far from having explored them all.

-Faced with seemingly endless choices, of schools and style, what advice would you give a student to help them find their bearings?

N.S. You have to dance, search, explore, and follow your own instinct! In my own research, never has anyone told me what to do, never.

-Is that because good teachers didn’t exist or because you hadn’t found the right person to direct you?

N.S. It doesn’t work like that in Buenos Aires where I learned to dance; it doesn’t work like that at all. The way they learn there is far more, one might say, teach–yourself. So, for a while, you go to someone you’ve come across, to master certain aspects that respond to a pressing need at the time, but it’s difficult. There is no one person of whom you could say, so-and-so is my teacher, he’s my master, and to whom you would stick like glue and in order to learn everything there is to know. Anyway, that was my experience.

Before, when there were more of the old dancers around, young dancers would approach them hoping to learn from them. Not that they had a school or that they were teachers even. It was more like” Alright, come round and we'll eat and I’ll show you a few steps” or “Come and have tea at my house with your partner and I’ll show you some stuff.” Or “ Come this weekend! We’re going to watch so-and so dance and you should see how he moves.” It was like that.  You were always responsible for your own research.

It’s not necessarily like that in other parts of the world, like here in Montreal, where there are schools with  organized syllabuses and set timetables -levels one, two, three, four, five, six; that didn’t exist at all there and no-one learned like that in Argentina. It was a question of going out dancing, taking a course here and there, picking up everything, writing your own book…studying and constructing your own dance.

You’re on your own!  (laughter)

« Here! I’m showing you this and don’t ask me any questions about it because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing” (laughter)

 … and that without any ill-will at all. But since the Nineties, far more dancers have begun to teach, tour the festivals and organize workshops on a regular basis. So there are more opportunities for taking courses, and if you like a certain teacher, you can follow him.  But don’t forget that that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get special attention or a rapport in strictly the personal sense…

-Believe me that, where I’m concerned, I consider it a pleasure and privilege to have had the opportunity to develop such a rapport and to have enjoyed your teaching for several years now. Finally, many thanks Noel, for giving us this interview and accepting to become “god-mother” to our tango  club.

N.S. The pleasure is all mine.

Montreal, 2006-03-09                                                                                                                                                                                        All rights reserved