On Being Queer in Tango before QueerTango - Lexa's Talk with Miranda Lindelow at Abrazo Queer Tango

 Hi All, 

Unfortunately we did not record the talk but here is a (partial) transcript of questions asked and answered. This interview took place on December 19, 2020.

 

Lexa Roséan, milonguero and psychoanalyst talks to Miranda Lindelow about being a legendary butch milonguero in straight and queer milongas and why the queertango community needs a close embrace.

 

INTRODUCTION

Lexa is a milonguero and a psychoanalyst, who wrote her thesis on tango and psychoanalysis. Lexa has been queer in the tango world since before the birth of queer tango. 

I would like to quote what Karen said when we prepared this conversation: "she (Lexa) is such a legend! I used to read her blog when I first started out and it was so helpful to me as a queer masculine person trying not to get rolled over in the straight community"

Welcome, Lexa!

 

Miranda Lindelow: The first time I heard about you was around 2010. We had just started the queer tango in Paris and I was talking to Helen La Vikinga who asked me "if I had met Lexa, a milonguero who goes to the traditional milongas in BA in a suit and leads". I had never heard about any woman doing that before. Can you talk a bit about your tango journey and how you arrived at that point?

 

Lexa Roséan: Ah, well this is a 25-year journey. I fell in love with tango from the start. First the music from the show Tango Argentino in the 1980’s and then from a performance by Tango Mujer in 1995. From there I had the idea that women were dancing together as there were no men in the show. Women in dresses, women in suits, beautiful graceful sensual women exploring gender fluidity. I thought this is what tango is about. Little did I know there was this entire heterosexual macho Argentine culture. My first teachers told me I had to follow for a year before I could learn to lead. At first this frustrated me but I embraced it. Now it seems to me very much in line with the tradition of young boys who must first follow. It was great! I got to explore my fem side in a very safe way. It took me 2 and ½ years to be ready to learn to lead. By then, I had been held in the arms of so many men, we had a bond. And most of them, although confused by my choice – were supportive. It was only bad dancers who felt threatened as my leading improved. They tried to get me thrown out of the NY milongas but I had Argentine men who stood up for me. And in some years, I became a really great leader. Mostly this was because I had great teachers. In those years, I was blessed to have a large house in Manhattan. So, I hosted many of the best teachers who came from Argentina. They lived with me in exchange for lessons. And people in the straight community would comment how great I was but then add: “but you know they won’t let you dance like that in Argentina!” After 8 years, it finally dawned on me – who is it that would not let me dance the lead in Bs As? All the old milongueros who had taught me how to lead and lived in my house? I decided to go with my best suits and I had the most amazing time in all the milongas. And I heard my teachers shout “ESO” as I danced past their tables.

 

ML: During our conversations you have told me that to you it was obvious that "tango was queer from the beginning" could you talk a bit about that?

 

LR: Yes! From the beginning Tango was queer. I’m quite sure of it. I was immediately struck by the homosexual relationship between Carlos Gardel and Alfredo la Pera. We don’t dance to Gardel but he is the one who brought tango to the ears of the world. And they were singer and lyricist but also lovers with a tragic yet somehow romantic end. Gardel is adored in Argentina yet somehow this truth of his life is ignored. I feel as queer milongueros, we should honor that truth. The other bit is the brothels. Many argue the validity of this but I put trust in Borges who writes that the tango began in the brothels. I have even read that the prostitutes were brought in to discourage homosexual activity between the young immigrant men. Somehow, there has developed a sort of romantic heterosexual mythology around these tango brothels. I can’t possibly think of it as something romantic between a man and a woman. It’s a thing a man paid for to have access to a woman. It’s a business transaction. Brothels are full of lesbians. Most prostitutes are lesbians. And brothels themselves are a place for intimacy between women. So, I have always felt that considering these aspects of the history, one should honor the queer beginnings of tango.

 

ML: How have you navigated the tango world as a queer dancer? 

 

LR: My analyst once told me that I have given 100’s of women their first lesbian experience by dancing tango with them. Also, as Judith Butler says - gender is performative. Maestro Carlos Gavito got that. I had heard that he was so against women leading but when we met, Gavito said: Lexa leads with her Macha. He got that I was dancing more with my masculine gender expression than with my sexual preference. And I do believe that I was a great influence for others in New York to feel free to play with their own gender expression in tango. Of course, I have also encountered a lot of homophobia but there seems to be a pattern, at least in tango, that it is the bad dancers (both men and women) who felt threatened by me. I had to become a very good dancer to overcome prejudice.

 

ML: What does being a good dancer mean?

 

LR: It means you are committed to becoming a serious student of tango. It means group lessons, and private lessons, and practicas. It means really pushing yourself to improve. This is a challenging path yet always rewarded through effort. It also means observing the codas – codigas. Or at least be aware of them. One should know the rules before breaking them.

  

ML: Why do the queer tango community need milonguero style? 

 

I think maybe Queer people push off from the close embrace with an idea that it is too sexual and therefore too revealing. I think it may or may not be sexual but mostly it is nurturing. I believe the queer tango community needs a close embrace and the experience of being held. Milonguero style is a real merger experience – you are dancing so close that the bodies become one. Perhaps this could open something up. If you can merge with so many people on the dance floor maybe you don’t have to do it off the dance floor. People (especially lesbians) get into relationships too soon because of sex and then don’t know how to navigate. Tango is a great way to navigate intimacy and the commitment is only for 12-15 min. There are some amazing tango teachers who have stepped up to gift the Queer tango community with estilo Milonguero.  It brings intimacy and comfort and we deserve to have it.

 

ML: Why is the milonguero style in itself queer?

 

LR: I think the milonguero style is definitely the queer one among the styles of tango. Not always accepted although when you are on a crowded dance floor – there’s nothing like it! The cabeceo/mirada also strike me as queer. It is a coded language much like gay people have always had to use in darker times to make connections.

 

ML: How was it to see queer tango emerge and why is it important? 

 

LR: I was not so sure it was important after I had carved my niche in the straight milonga world. I thought the best option is for all of us to dance together. That is until a woman came up to me in a straight milonga and told me that everyone loves me but she is glad there is only one of me. It would be frightening to her if there were many more. Wow! Shortly after that, Ute Walter invited me to teach and dj in the Queer Tango Festival in Hamburg. I had never seen anything like it. The energy was incredible and it made me understand why queer tango is necessary. How wonderful to not be alone in this thing and to have hundreds like myself.  Another thought and it is a pensamiento triste y amargo one for me, is that through the years, I have seen wonderful tango marriages and relationships in the straight milongas. I have had my share of tango lovers but unfortunately fraught with closeted and homophobic situations. What I see now are many queer tango marriages and relationships that are free to flourish without shame and not relegated to the shadows. I am sad to have not had that option in my early tango life but I feel happy to know I have helped to cut a path to that for others.

 

ML: Can you tell us something about your milonga Cielo?

 

LR: Ah, yes! After the famed Rubyfruit Bar closed where I organized the first lesbian milonga in nyc, I moved location and opened Cielo. Two Chinese lesbians invited me to make the milonga at a Chinese Restaurant in midtown called Heavenly Bamboo. We served a buffet Chinese dinner that everyone loved after the class and then the milonga started. Since the dancing was illegal, the manager had to close the curtains over the front windows once the dancing began. Upstairs there were old Chinese men holding illegal card games with gambling and they had young beautiful escorts sitting on their laps - most of whom were either lesbian or transwomen. It really did have the feel of a brothel and it's when I began to have daydreams about the original tango brothels in Bs As. Cielo was indeed heavenly and many people loved that milonga :-)

 

 

 

 
Miranda Lindelow has been organizing and teaching queer tango since 2006. In 2010 she started the first queer milonga in Paris and since 2016 she teaches queer tango in San Francisco. 

Salvados por las bolas y los senos

My first Argentine tango instructor taught me many cosas. Along with how to dance tango, there were also transmitted many codas y tradiciones, supersticiones, informacion cultural sobre Argentina - and of course - palabras sucias en Lunfardo.  All of these are necessary to dance the tango. These lessons, given almost two decades ago, still prove to be of immense value and they remain with me.

The other night, I arrived to the milonga early to set up to dj. The class was still in progress and I discovered right away that there was a problem with the sound system. The teacher, who usually sets the Pandora radio to teach, was using his iPod and apparently not happy about that as he prefers the radio with Fresedo. As I went to examine the sound equipment, I observed that many wires were tangled and the whole thing in general was a quilombo! Just at this point, I heard the tango "Adios Muchachos" begin to play. It seems, the teacher (expecting to use the radio) had not had time to prepare a playlist and was just playing the music in his iPod in alphabetical order.

The words of my teacher immediately came back to me... "It is muy mala suerte to play this song in the milonga. Even though it is a beautiful tango, we don't play it in the milonga because it was the last tango that Gardel and Le Pera wrote and recorded before they died in the plane crash in Medellín."
My teacher also told me what to do to ward off this bad luck should I ever hear this tango in a milonga. Without even thinking, I immediately shouted out this remedy to all in the room: "Todo el mundo toma su testiculo izquierdo o la mama izquierda immediatamente!"
"What!", I heard the organizer shout out.
Knowing that my español is not always clear, I repeated with even more urgency in English: "Everyone grab your left ball or left breast. NOW!"

The teacher, who was in the middle of teaching a cruzada, looked up in great surprise but nonetheless he repeated: "You heard what Lexa said! Gentleman - grab your left ball! Ladies, grab your left breast! Immediately!!!" He caught my air of urgency yet he retained his own element of complete surprise and bewilderment having no idea what this strange tango move I was suggesting was about. All the students and everyone in the room followed the instructions.
Then, on the last note of the infamous tango, a huge speaker on a stand (total weight of at least 70 lbs.) came crashing down. It missed my head and my laptop by a few inches and landed right where a lady would have been sitting had she not stood up to grab her left breast.

I am now convinced more than ever that the superstition is true.  Adios Muchachos is extremely bad luck and should not be played in the milonga. I am also convinced that the grabbing of the left breasts and left testicles worked and saved us all from disaster. After careful analysis, I realize it is more than just a superstition but a very spiritual ritual and psychoanalytical intervention. Adios Muchachos is about saying goodbye and Gardel and La Pera said the ultimate goodbye when they died in the plane crash. The song has now come to symbolize the death drive. The left side symbolizes the unconscious. The testicles are the containers for semen and the breasts are the containers of milk. Milk and Semen represent the libidinal or life drive. The Argentines are very wise. It seems important and advisable to reaffirm the life drive in the face of death.

It is also important to note that the management of the venue is now committed to cleaning up the quilombo so no such incident will ever happen again!
Deseando a todos buena suerte y buenos tangos!

We Love You Marilyn!

911 Tango Commute

posted on You Tube by Amy Zheng
"9/11 is being remembered for the loss of life but will be empowered by an expression of the love for living. TangoCommute is turning the tragic events into some positive action while remembering and supporting those who were directly affected by the tragedy since:
Terror is an act of intimidation spreading fear. Tango - on the opposite - is an expression of freedom generating joy Music "Abrazame" - you do not only say to anything abrazame to me. your glance is enough to me to include/understand that your wraths. abrazame, as if outside now the first time as if you wanted to me today just as yesterday, abrazame. If your you go away and you forgot that a day for a long time back, when eramos even young you began to me to love and I gave my life you if you go away.----If your you go away me kedara silence to talk, the shade of your body and solitude seran my companions if you go away, if your you go away Iran with you the time
time and my better age, you seguire keriendo every day but will hope to me to that you return if you go away."

2008 U.S. Tango Stage Champs

Here it is - Our WINNING choreography!

Gayle Madeira y Lexa Roséan dancing El Choclo by Piazzolla
Lafayette Grill NYC July 17, 2008
2008 U.S. Tango Championship

We are the CHAMPIONS!

WINNERS OF 2008 U.S.A. TANGO CHAMPIONSHIP

STAGE CATEGORY
1ST PRIZE Gayle Madeira y Lexa Roséan USA/USA
2ND PRIZE Mayumi Fujio & David Chiu USA/USA
3RD PRIZE Natalia Atepaeva Vladimir Khorev RUSSIA/RUSSIA





SALON CATEGORY
1ST PRIZE Mariana Parma & Omar Lagos USA/USA
2ND PRIZE Mayumi Fujio & David Chiu
3RD PRIZE Gayle Madeira y Lexa Roséan USA/USA

Kai Cheung has some great pics on his website.

tango death and rebirth

The faces of my students
the eager faces of my students are a beacon of light
a budding spring
reminding me of my own tango youth.
reminding me of the hope I once held for my dance and my life.
reminding me that I can still inspire in others what I no longer carry within.

Dancing and Depressed.

Tonight the Egyptian asked me if I was tired.
"No I am not tired. "I said even though I was resting out the tanda.
"Then perhaps you are in love. It is the same, you know - tired and in love.
Being in love makes you dizzy." he smiled.
"Yes, I know" I smiled back.
I was feeling dizzy.
I had gotten a bit drunk before the milonga (something I never do) because I lost a job earlier in the afternoon and it seemed appropriate to get inebriated. If I had been tired or in love, these feelings were quickly supplanted by the onset of deep panic.
A long long time ago, my astrologer told me that I needed to dance in order to avoid committing suicide. So I began to dance.
It saved my life for several decades.
I am now wondering if this is still an effective remedy.

It was only in the elevator on the way out that I found my lost sense of humor, dignity, and desire to live.
A gentleman and two ladies accompanied me down. The ladies buzzed about my dapper hat and I made some comment back to them. The gentleman was taken aback and he said:
"Your voice is higher than I expected. I thought you were a -"
"The ladies buzzed again and chuckled deeply.
"Shall I lower my voice for you?" I asked while straightening my corbata. And I did so speaking in a deep husky range.
"I thought you were a -
You are dressed like a -
I thought you were a -" he repeated.
"I AM" I said in my best basso.
"It is ok, the ladies assured him. It takes a woman to know these things."
In that moment I ceased to feel so depressed for being such a loser.
At least I was recognized for the milonguero I am.

Halloween @ Corazon

This was a wonderful milonga but I must say that I was not greeted with the usual enthusiam. In fact, hardly any women said hello to me. They treated me like a COMPLETE STRANGER! The host la Turca did invite me to dance immediately and the hostess told me I had a "nice rack" "Ggrracias!" Many men invited me to dance and I understand they are still talking about the Mystery Woman. Carmencita may make another appearance tonight at La Nacional!

tango intervention

williamsburgh bridge ny/bklyn, ny -Sep 16, 2007

Hola, here are my fotos of tangointervention. A dozen couples tangoed from the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, across the Williamsburg Bridge and into Williamsburgh Brooklyn. It took us 3 hours and it was an AMAZING day!! Ofcourse, my battery died after 18 pics and I was too busy tangoing to focus on fotos anyway. There were some great photographers there so check Robert's website www.tangointervention.org for upcoming video and images. Also below a short clip - I didn't even realize the video was rolling!

Tango for Peace

Immediate Release by AP*

This morning at sunrise in the Old City of Jerusalem, a Palestinian and a Jewess ascended the Temple Mount and proceeded to dance a tango counterclockwise around the Noble Sanctuary. The couple, Mo Salaam y Ahava Levi danced in a close embrace style known as milonguero or salon. Their tango was accompanied by la musica of orquesta Edgardo Donato. The tangos were heard emanating from an iPod attached to a small speaker. The tanda included Triste Amanecer, Mis Pesares, Se Va La Vida, Te Busco, y La Melodia del Corazon. The couple had danced a full circle around the dome by the end of the set and completed their tango para el amor y la paz prayer. Imams and Israeli Police surrounded the two at Ground Zero but hesitated to interrupt their dance. In fact, they seemed to be mesmerized by the swirling man and woman/Muslim and Jew who were no longer two but a perfect ONE. A peace and utter calm descended upon the area during and immediately following the dance. A few moments later, all mayhem broke loose until the couple danced one final song, which again captured the imaginations of all present and put an end to all the loud clapping and shouts of otra más. Mo y Ahava danced with all their souls to Fue Mi Salvación and during this tango, Imams and Israeli police were seen embracing each other to copy several movements of the dancers including a secada, an ocho cortada, and a cunita.

Tomorrow morning, the matter of beginning a mixed milonga for Muslims and Jews on the Temple Mount will be negotiated. It is further rumored that Catholics,+ Pagans, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Baha'i will also be allowed to dance. At the moment, authorities are not willing to permit Atheists or Nuevos on the sacred grounds of the Viejo Ciudad.

+for whom the dj will also play the tango La Novena
*a punto.

ABC News: American Couple Tangos to World Finals

Eso Eduardo y Cyrena for making it to the finals in Bs As!
Suerte!
ABC News: American Couple Tangos to World Finals

World Tango Championship finalists Eduardo Goitia and Cyrena Drusine. (ABC News)

By JOE GOLDMAN
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Aug. 24, 2007

Eduardo Goitia, 43, and Cyrena Drusine, 25, are unlikely finalists at the World Tango Championships being held in Buenos Aires.

Eduardo was born in the Bronx in a family of immigrants from Puerto Rico. He is an architect at the top New York design firm Mancini, Duffy and lives in midtown Manhattan. Cyrena is from a Russian émigré family that ended up in Manhattan. She is an NYU graduate student studying performance arts from an anthropological perspective.

Perhaps the most intriguing fact about this couple is that they have only known each other since this past April when they met at a milonga, or tango dance hall, in Buenos Aires.

In these contests, partner synchronization is considered one of the most important facets of the judging process.

Speaking about the night they met, Eduardo told ABC News, "We danced believing each that the other was Argentine. Not until we sat down and chatted did we realize we were two New Yorkers. So we exchanged phone numbers and started dancing as a couple in New York in May."

The rest is history.

In July the couple won the United States championships in New York, which carries among its prizes an invitation to the annual event in Buenos Aires, the birthplace of this exquisite dance.

The World Championships brings together close to 500 couples from 154 cities to compete in the main event during an 11-day spectacle replete with dance shows, tango orchestra performances, specialized classes, seminars and other happenings revolving around the tango.

"It's a thrill to dance in this competition with all the historical significance of Buenos Aires," said Eduardo, in a short break while waiting for the semi-finals to begin. Eduardo and Cyrena are vying for top honors in ballroom, one of the two categories of tango dance style at the championship (the other category is stage).

Stage is the more stylized and choreographed version, while the ballroom category is the more traditional, neighborhood-style tango that developed in Buenos Aires in the early part of the 20th century.

"We actually danced in both categories at the New York festival. We came in first in ballroom and third in stage. But here we decided to concentrate on ballroom dancing. It's more traditional, especially here in Argentina."

In the ballroom semi-finals, the contestants go in groups of 10 couples and are asked to dance in counter-clockwise circles while a panel of five judges rates each of the couples. Three recorded tango tunes are played for each grouping of 10 couples. The music is not prearranged, so the couples cannot plan their dancing according to any specific composition.

The judges look at factors including how the couple first walks out onto the dance floor, their general appearance and ambience, their elasticity, their rhythm and dancing in harmony with the music, and even to how they relate to each other.

A crowd of about 3,000 people also attended the semi-finals, with rooting sections for local participants as well as the many Colombian couples vying for honors.

The New Yorkers danced with energy and flair, and that combination of rigidity and elasticity that marks tango. They stood out in their group and were selected one of three dozen finalists for the competition that ends on Sunday night.

"We're excited but also confident," said a tired Eduardo on Friday night after the finalists were announced.

Kumi and Lexa Warm UP

This was the warm up for the semi finals in the US Tango Salon Championship. (July 17, 2007 at La Boca Milonga) Kumi and Lexa took 3rd place and were the first same sex couple to compete and to be officially accepted by the Mundial in Buenos Aires. Suerte! to Eduardo y Cyrena who won 1st place and will be competing next month in Bs As!

1st USA TANGO Championship

THIS MESSAGE ORIGINALLY POSTED ON TANGO A BY GAYATRI MARTIN: ORGANIZER OF THE 7TH ANNUAL NYC TANGO FESTIVAL

A crowded room of people watched as the
6 semi-finalists
of the
OFFICIAL SALON TANGO
in alphabetical order they were
Carolina Jaurena & Stephan Zawistowskei
Cyrena Drusine & Eduardo Goytia
Erika Rullman & Jorge Nel Giraldo
Kumi Clara Ueki & Lexa Rosean
Linda & James Gucciardo
Ryoko Takari & Omar Lagos

Danced their best and the following
3 Salon Finalists
were chosen
in alphabetical order they are
Cyrena Drusine & Eduardo Goytia
Kumi Clara Ueki & Lexa Rosean
Ryoko Takari & Omar Lagos

the Official Judges:
Jorge Torres
Alejandra Arrue
Sergio Natario

Selected
As WINNERS of 1st Place
CYRENA DRUSINE & EDUARDO GOYTIA
for the Grand 1st Prize of travel to and from and accommodation in Buenos
Aires representing the USA in the V Mundial Campeonato.
2nd Place
Ryoko Takari & Omar Lagos
3rd Place
Clara Kumi Ueki & Lexa Rosean

STAGE TANGO COMPETITION
THE 3 COMPETITORS WERE
Christine Lopez & Jerry Perez
Cyrena Drusine & Eduardo Goytia
Ninah Beliavsky & Jorge Nel Giraldo

the Official Judges:
Jorge Torres
Alejandra Arrue
Sergio Natario

Selected
As WINNERS of 1st Place
CHRISTINE LOPEZ & JERRY PEREZ
2nd Place
Ninah Beliavsky & Jorge Nel Giraldo
3rd Place
Cyrena Drusine & Eduardo Goytia

To quote Alejandra Arrue ( judge)

"It is an honor for us to be here as judges and we are truly surprised at the high level of dancing here in NYC. We will do our best to pick the best representative for the USA"

I extend a big thank you to the Tango community for your help, support and participation which made this a beautiful and exciting event and opportunity for us to really watch some of the incredible dancers and friends we have here.

The celebrate Tango Week NYC 15 ? 22 July, 2007 continues
with exciting classes, Films, Lectures, the Elegant Black & White Ball
TONIGHT!!
See the stage winners dance there in an exciting show with the Festival masters!
And the Sunday Soiree Finale more incredible performances including our own
Salon Tango Winners!!
Get your ticket http://celebratetango.com/festival/register.html s now!!
See the program
http://www.celebratetango.com/festival/ctwschedule.html

Looking forward to...
Celebrating Tango!
Gayatri Martin
212 725 1078 (24/7)
Www.celebratetango.com
Remember..Life is supposed to be FUN!

win? place? SHOW!!!

Kumi and Lexa made it to the final round and won the BRONZE!
third place Kumi Clara Ueki & Lexa Rosean
second place Ryoko Takari & Omar Lagos
first place Cyrena Drusine & Eduardo Goytia

Kumi y Lexa were invited to dance tonight at La Nacional.
nos vemos en la milonga!

"Sacred Monsters"

I've been reading Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys by Peter Evans. I even traded in a few nights of milongas to stay home with this great read.

Ari immigrated to Bs As in the 20's after his family was forced to leave their home in Smyrna (I believe the Turks refer to it as the "citizen exchange" of Izmir?) O, already this is becoming more touchy than a Tango L discussion (war) on whether one steps with the ball of the foot or the heel. Anyway, Onassis made his first million in the city of Porteños selling Turkish tobacco and he marketed his cigarettes to women who were just beginning to smoke in public. He also took tango lessons every day and frequented the milongas. Unfortunately the book doesn't delve too deeply into these years of his life but it certainly sparked my imagination. Onassis was a ruthless man. Those must have been the days of the REAL malevos in the milongas. Not the wanna be bad boys of the barrio we have today. These guys in shorts would never have made it through the rough night. Back then the rooms were full of MEN in LONG PANTS!

Of course there are still a handful of evil ones among us. There's that fellow* who used to be a gynecologist but unlike Alberto Castillo the ladies do not fall in love with him. Neither his voice nor his manner are sweet. His dance is dreadful. The word is that he used to ask his female patients to undress and put on a robe that opened in the back. Then they were instructed to lay face down on the examination table. He then pressed a button causing the table to lift their bottoms high in the air and the robes of course would part and open. Then at the right moment - meaning the derriére was raised in the most exposed and compromising spreadeagled position, he would snap a Polaroid of their vaginas. He even had the gall to snap two and present one to the ladies while informing them that the other copy was for his files. Carlos Gardel knows how many women accepted this behavior as normal. Finally one woman sued his pants off and he was forced to close his practice for good. He continued on to take up the favored Argentine occupation and become a psychiatrist. I am told that most of his patients are women. This is scary stuff. Real malevo material. This guy is not even a charming sociopath like Onassis! And what's even worse is that he could pass for the twin of one of the most evil men in America. Fuckin' malevo!

Thanks for tolerating the political break. During the cortinas we really should take time out to Impeach Cheney and get rid of some of these culos destroying the beauty of our dance.

Now back to Ari... (according to Peter Evans) he did some of the most horrific things, like funding the hypnosis of Sirhan Sirhan to assassinate RFK. Kind of like a Manchurian Candidate thing because Ari needed Bobby out of the way to marry Jackie.

Onassis was also fond of saying "He who beats well, loves well". Ouch, that's about as milonguero as it gets. (Although nuevo tangueros say: "He who steps on the beat well, loves well".)

Nemesis is very compelling. It's easy to get caught up in the sordid lives of the rich jet set. Did you know that Jackie started her affair with Ari when JFK was still in the White House? That's right. He seduced the First Lady in Capri on his yacht, the Christina. Before that he had been sleeping with her sister Lee. O, and did I mention that Jackie also had an affair with her brother-in-law Bobby? I'm telling you, hands-down, this book outdoes our own tawdry little affairs and incestuous change of partners in the milongas. You can see why I've been staying home nights.

"Right" - some of you are saying - "hey Tiger, this isn't exactly news. All this Onassis stuff happened over 40 years ago. Even Evan's book has been out since 2004!"

Yeah, well that's what happens when you've been dancing tango for over 12 years. You miss stuff. Kind of get out of touch with the real world. Ok, give me a break here. I'm trying to catch up!

I'll just end with this. Onassis first seduced Maria Callas away from her husband by dancing tango with her all night. He must have had some good instructors. Maybe he took private lessons with El Cachafaz. Needless to say, he used all his prowess to woo and win her.

In The Queen's Throat, Wayne Koestenbaum writes:

Walter Legge, who produced many of Callas's legendary recordings, once peered inside her mouth and remarked that it was shaped like a Gothic Cathedral.

(No wonder Ari wanted to prey there.)
I don't think the divine diva of music would have fallen in love with a bad dancer. She was holy perfection. Although Koestenbaum also records that:

After the affair with Onassis began, she had a vocal crisis, retired, and then returned to the stage. She collapsed at the Paris Opera after the third act of Norma; she sang one more Tosca in London, and then she never sang an opera again.

The tango of malevos is powerful stuff.


*Characters are entirely fictional and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Some of the characters may have certain traits and/or mannerisms that may seem to suggest actual persons but I make no claim that these traits exist at all or in this combination in any person, living or dead.

Una Fija II

You go Girl!

Rags to Riches (7), ridden by John R. Velazquez, wins the 139th Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York on Saturday, June 9, 2007

100 years of Belmont history! The first filly to win it in over a Century!!!

Una Fija

She was never defeated, and never headed. She set or equaled a new stakes record in every one of the eight stakes races she won. She raced at distances from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles with an average winning margin of 8 1/3 lengths. She was queen of the track, and everyone knew it. Read the full history of Ruffian.

Tiger y Kumi Make Tango History

Last week Lexa and Kumi officially entered the US Tango Championship. We were informed that if (I prefer to think, WHEN, ) we win, we will be officially welcomed to the Mundial competition in Buenos Aires. This is the first time that the Mundial has officially sanctioned the entry of a same sex dance couple. It feels great to be part of history in the making! Please wish us Suerte and read below for more info on the NY Tango Festival and the competition.

Celebrate Tango Week, NYC July 15-22, 2007

Stage & Salon Categories
ENTRY DEADLINE EXTENDED!
click on the logo for more details.
NOW OPEN TO ALL LEGALLY IN THE USA!!
1st Prize winners will be flown to Buenos Aires and qualify to enter directly into to Semi-finals of the V Campeonato Mundial de Baile de Tango!!
Come to enter (open to all nationalities and passport holders) or come to watch but come for fun! Enjoy the amazing adventurous talented couples and see who the judges decide will take the Grand Prize.

Club Sin Rumbo. The Cathedral of Tango

The video collector Anton Gazenbeek opens his archive of rare footage (over 1000 videos, included the recently Juan Carlos Copes' career donation) about Argentine Tango dance to show a fascinating inside look at what really goes on in a Buenos Aires "barrio" or neighborhood milonga.
Rare and never before seen images of the Villa Urquiza milonga Sin Rumbo from the 1980s and early 1990s during tango's rebirth as a social phenomenon. Images of dancers Carmencita Calderon, Maria Nieves, Virulazo and Elvira, La Rusa, Pablo Veron and other legends will be seen.
Club Sin Rumbo milonga is one of the oldest milongas in Buenos Aires. It has 85 years of tango dance history.
This is a lecture not to be missed.

DATE: Thursday, June 14th, 7:00 - 8:30 PM

PLACE Chelsea Studios:
151 West 26th street. NYC, NY, 10001

PRICE: Reservation in advance $15. At the door $20
Tango Traveler Members $2 OFF.

CONTACT & RESERVATIONS: (212) 725-1078or (713) 893-1716
sergioseguratango@yahoo.com.ar
Conducted by Anton Gazenbeek: Tango dancer, choreographer & historian

About Anton Gazenbeek: Antón's passion for traditional tango lead him to start collecting all types of photographic and video material related to tango. After nine years, he has put together the largest and most important tango video collection in the world (now with well over 1,000 videos from all time periods). He has written articles for many magazines including those of the Asociación de Maestros, Bailarines y Coreógrafos de Tango Argentino, Explore Dance in the USA, and Tango Danza in Germany. Antón is a highly recognized expert on the show “Tango Argentino” and on the life of Antonio Todaro and is constantly consulted by different types of media including Balletin Dance and El Tangauta to collaborate on articles about those topics. Antón gives lectures on the history of tango with videos from his private collection and has been invited to give lectures together with big tango personalities such as Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau, Maria Nieves, and Juan Carlos Copes. Recently he gave a presentation for the University of Carnegie Mellon, invited by the Pittsburg Tango Association. He is at the moment writing two books on the origins and evolution of tango and is finishing up two film documentaries filmed entirely on location in Buenos Aires. Juan Carlos Copes recently hired Anton Gazenbeek to compile a book with all Juan Carlos Copes' images career.
He is one of the starts of NYC summer Tango & Film Festival (July 15th to 22nd), where he will present his first book "Tango Argentino Show". The history of the show "who started it all"