Jun. 23, 2002
Body language defines the tango
This Argentine dance is a conversation between partners with each step
By Mary Ellen Hunt
TIMES CORRESPONDENT

The couple on the floor is completely immersed, focused on each other and moving precisely, but with great pleasure in a meandering pattern through space. They're so close that in movies, it would be a clinch. This, however, is the embrace of tango, a dance of intimacy and refinement.

The husband and wife team of Marcelo and Valesa Solís teach Argentine tango and dance together throughout the East Bay at milongas, the regular social gatherings of tango dancers. But dance aficionados will have the pleasure of seeing the Lafayette couple perform in a different setting when they take the stage at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival on Saturday and June 30 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater.

The style that they have chosen to exhibit is the kind of subtle and highly polished tango that one might have seen on the dance floor in Argentina in the 1940s, when tango established itself as the national dance of that country. It was in Rosario, and later Buenos Aires, Argentina, that Marcelo first fell under the spell of tango, which he says brings together music, poetry, and a connection of soul and body.

People who take up tango, he says, are likely to become not just a little obsessed with it.

"They want to dance every day, all the time," adds Valesa, "and their friends start to say, 'What's going on?' They just want to talk about tango. Their family doesn't understand. I think it's very different to look at it from the outside and not be in the dance."

Valesa herself was drawn to tango after studying many other kinds of dance in her native Mexico, including ethnic and folk dances as well as Latin dances such as salsa. She and Marcelo met while he was teaching in Texas and both are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about transmitting the history and nuances of the dance.

Although other styles of tango abound, Argentina, and more specifically Buenos Aires, is where tango was born. A truly new-world dance, tango had its origins in the mix of cultures that arrived in Buenos Aires in the late 1800s, from African rhythms and the influences of colonial Spain to the indigenous Latin American music. Immigrants to Buenos Aires, mainly men who had arrived looking for work, searched for a way to create a social life in a place where, perhaps, they didn't understand the language and felt culturally isolated. "They used body communication," Marcelo explains. "The tango embrace became the main element of the dance."

"In tango, the first thing you know is to be very close (physically) to the person," agrees Valesa. "We say that the last thing you know of your partner is the name. You never talk on the dance floor."

The Solíses describe tango as a democratic dance. Although there are steps, tango doesn't have set patterns the way other ballroom dances do. The music has a strong accent, but you are not required to stay in a symmetrical musical structure.

"And tango is not cliquish," Marcelo says. There is no specific "tango type" of person, in body or character. At any milonga you might find a wide range of young and old, short and tall, dancers from varied backgrounds and professions.

Unlike other Latin dances, such as salsa, tango is more than just a dialogue between the dancers. In the finest tango dancing, the leader and follower in the couple have a heightened awareness of each other's every movement and shift in mood.

"You must care about how you are connected to your partner, what your attitude is. You have to stop thinking about yourself and think more about your partner," says Marcelo.

Valesa notes also, "This is the case in tango, more so than other forms of social dance, because tango is the closest embrace. Whatever you partner does, you feel. You can discover a lot about their mood, their feelings from the body."

Perhaps, Marcelo suggests, this is why this Argentine form is beginning to enjoy such popularity in America.

"You go through all these feeling and the movement tells you, it lets you express what you have trouble expressing with words. Now, in this time, there is a loss of confidence about words," Marcelo says. "Politicians, publicity, they use speeches and words to convince you, and you often suspect that the words are not sincere. With body-to-body contact you create an experience that cannot be faked."

The Bay Area is home to a large community of tango aficionados, and the Solíses, who teach in Lafayette but have taught and performed around the world, bring their understanding of the essentials to the local tango community.

"In tango, the important things are good posture, to do everything with elegance, keep the embrace and stay connected with the music, but it's natural, like walking," Marcelo says.

Ultimately, it is not the steps, but the fundamental attitude that differentiates a good dancer from a not-so-good one. Many Americans have had their appetite for tango whetted by showpieces like the dazzling "Forever Tango" or the PBS film "Tango Magic," but such exhibition dancing is very different than dancing at a milonga.

"You would never do steps that way," Valesa says. "You would be robbing the energy of the dance floor. You must respect the other couples." In their own performances, the Solíses keep as much of the social base of the dance as possible. The dance is improvised, as social tango is, and it maintains the structure of lead and follow, giving both dancers equal opportunity to create and improvise a unique choreography. Their tango performance, even onstage, will be like a conversation -- impromptu, emotional and intensely personal.

"You respond to the situation," Marcelo says. "You can get an answer for things that are in your life in the dance."

DANCE PREVIEW
• WHO: Dancers Marcelo and Valesa Solís
• WHAT: Appearing in the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
• WHERE: Palace of Fine Arts Theater, 3301 Lyon St., S.F.
• WHEN: 2 p.m. today, and again at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m. June 30 (the Solíses perform Saturday and June 30 only)
• HOW MUCH: $20-$30
• CONTACT: 415-392-4400 or online through www.tickets.com • MORE INFORMATION: 415-474-3914 or http://worldartswest.org/

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This review initially appeared on June 23, 2002 in the Contra Costa Times.

For questions or comments, please contact maryellenhunt@yahoo.com.