A Game of Seduction

"The Tango is not a dance but an obsession. For the tanguero, it is as much a part of life as eating and sleeping. Erotic and passionate, haunting and melancholy, it involves not only the body but also the soul..."

At last YouTube's come alive for me....tango! This was the first clip I came across when I did a search. And then this. And this. Then, when I thought I'd probably already seen the best....this.

I could watch tango all day: in fact that's just what I've been doing. It certainly beats Christmas shopping. If you don't feel the same, this post will be of limited interest.

Here's some more goodies. These five were all filmed at a Salon Canning milonga in Buenos Aires in August 2005:
Osvaldo Zotto and Lorena Ercimoda
Ezequiel Paludi and Sabrina Masso
Federico and Ariadna Naveira
Geraldine y Ezequiel Paludi
Osvaldo Zotto and Lorena Ercimoda

Then a couple from Istanbul (yes I know, tango in Istanbul??):
Ezequiel Paludi ve Geraldine Paludi
Fabian Salas ve Carolina del Rivero.

Then Gachi Fernandez con Sergio dancing to Milonga de mis Amores.

Luna Palacios y Oliver Kolker at La Viruta (OK, playing to the crowd a bit, but I think we can forgive them).

A theatrical one - Passionale, with Carlos Gavito y Maria Plazaola.

You want more? Here's Mariela Franganillo y Pablo Pugliese. Doesn't say who these two are. These are Ney Melo & Jennifer Bratt (what kind of a name is that for a tango dancer?). Short but sweet.

No need to just sit back and watch of course. Check out TangoCity's Learn How To Dance Tango in YouTube. "The tango as a dance is a game of seduction...." Only 20 lessons to work through.

I couldn't finish without some music.

Perhaps the greatest of the tangueros, the legendary Carlos Gardel, here and here.

The master of tango nuevo, Astor Piazzolla, with Libertango (and, um, Libeltango, by four Japanese girls).

These guys make the Buena Vista Social Club look like youngsters, but they're pretty good.

Finally, a video from the excellent Gotan Project, the contemporary face of tango.

Comments

[Dom]

Did you know that Robert Duval gave up acting is now a serious Tango dancer?

[Mick H]

Nope, didn't know that.

Clive James is a tango aficionado. Has a specially-floored room in his London flat solely for tango, apparently.

(OK, it's not the most fascinating piece of information...)

[Terence Clarke]

Hello Mick:

I hope you'll take a look at my new blog "Terence Clarke: Books, Art, Music, Film, Style".

http://web.mac.com/teryclarke/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html

I'm a writer and film maker now making a documentary about tango, and I've written in the blog about some of the tango- and Argentine-related things that interest me.

Best to you,
Terry Clarke