Many thanks to Sarah, who just sent me this clip (and apologies to her, as she intended it to be an argument *against* my point, not for it).
It's Pupi Castello at La Ideal. What I'm excited about is that he leads a long 30-second-or-so soltada right at the beginning of it. This giant of 'traditional' tango joyfully and playfully leads something widely considered to be an evil invention of 'nuevo' tango, an empty 'trick' which undermines the sanctity of the embrace. Clearly he didn't consider it to be evil! Or new, probably! He was probably doing that back in the 50s before people like me were twinkles in our mothers' eyes. And he's in open embrace for most of the clip - obviously he didn't consider that evil, either.
(Edit for clarification: that paragraph was not directed at Sarah, and I apologise if I looked like it was. She didn't say anything about soltadas or embraces or similar. She sent me that video simply to show me Pupi saying that he felt that Geraldine danced the way they did 'in the old days'. I then got excited about the soltada, and posted about that, and perhaps I should have been clear to say that the two issues were separate. Sorry Sarah.)
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7 comments:
I never said, nor do I believe, that traditional tango has to be danced in only close embrace and without any "fancy" steps. It is plain to see that Pupi is not dancing nuevo tango.
Ah, sorry - I've accidentally misrepresented you. I didn't intend to say that you had said those things. Those points were not directed at you. I'll see if I can edit the post to make it make sense.
"soltada" ?? Would that be a "sentada"? A 'sit'?
No need to publish, but you might want to correct it here and in the earlier post.
No - a soltada! A change of embrace. A great long sequence in an altered embrace - her with her back to him.
This is not a soltada, it was danced that way many, many, many years ago.
That's my point - it's not new, *and* it's a soltada. A soltada is a change of embrace. Simple as that. Soltadas are not new.
> It's Pupi Castello at La Ideal.
... doing a show for the camera on a nearly empty floor. Let's not mistake this for social dancing.
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