Gustavo Naveira’s influence on tango is vast, global, and unparalleled. To say that the dance owes something of its livelihood to him is not hyperbolic. Following Argentina’s return to democracy in 1983, when tango as a social dance had nearly disappeared in its country of origin, Naveira taught a tango class in Buenos Aires that became so popular he had to turn people away at the door. In their now famed “tango investigation group” of the 1990s, Naveira and colleague Fabian Salas developed a new means of analyzing, deconstructing, and teaching tango that revolutionized the dance. Over the past 20 years with his wife and partner, Giselle Anne, Naveira has built a reputation as the consummate teacher of tango teachers. Based in Colorado with their two children, the pair have made a life of travel and teaching around the world, including yearly stints in Buenos Aires. Their seminars—advanced, partners only, designed for large groups—regularly sell out, and their presence draws dancers from across state and country lines. In the case of Philadelphia’s festival, tangueros attended from as far away as Argentina, Canada, and Europe.

 

Their seminar, “Rhythm, Phrasing and Musicality,” allowed participants to explore the relationship between tango dance and music by deepening our understanding of the structure of each. We began with numbers, distinguishing between the eight counts in a phrase of music and the steps that make up tango’s 8-count basic step, and agreed that numbers designate steps. From there, we moved on to double time—executing two steps within one beat—identifying the steps (or numbers) within the 8-count basic that lend themselves to double time because of their “natural” (I would say habitual) length. We covered traspie, a “trip” that happens when two steps within a single beat are executed in place, or when the foot moves out while the torso remains where it is. Highlighting the crucial nature of precision—that timing is created in context, that a couple can never execute double or any other time without first establishing the downbeat—they drilled that downbeat into us through one slowly paced exercise after another. In a nice visual model that students continued to reference throughout the weekend, Gustavo and Giselle broke a single beat of music into 4 subdivisions (or quarter beats) with 5 physical chairs (the first and last being the downbeat):

 

1 ^2 3 4 1

 

Gustavo demonstrated with the chairs, and then we played with emphasizing different quarter beats. Together, we listened and danced, embodying one of the more common rhythms in traditional tango music, where the quarter beats “one-two” and “four-one” are highlighted, one being the downbeat in each case:

1 ² _ ⁴    1 ² _ ⁴ 1

 

The seminar was also a mini-education in the history and mechanics of the dance. Tango’s two walking systems—cross and parallel—differentiate it from other social dances. The introduction of the cross into the 8-count basic, and the follower’s movement from the cross to a front ocho to a turn, revolutionized the dance in the 1940s. Rather than the oldest or most “traditional” of styles, milonguero or “close embrace” is actually the last style that developed in tango’s evolution before the dance’s near demise in the 1960s.

 

Throughout, they shared anecdotes—of their own lives, tango history, and famed dancers no longer with us. They sparred playfully and completed one another’s gaps. Watching them together, I was reminded of tango’s contradictions. The image of machismo and of female submission, so often on the surface in stage shows and films, has little in common with the real thing (at least when it is done well). If Gustavo is the more recognized, lauded, and charismatic of the pair, Giselle more than holds her own, as a teacher, partner, and performer. Whenever necessary, she intervened—returning to a concept that hadn’t been comprehensively explained, reorienting the class to the reasoning behind technique. When my partner and I asked for feedback on a short sequence, she quietly observed once and offered, “it’s okay...” and then succinctly rattled off a laundry list of things we could work on to make it more than fine.

 

The seminar was a whopping time commitment (4 hours each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) in a weekend that invited tangueros to dance from 9:30pm-2am every night (and until 6am Sunday at the late-night milonga). When I asked Gustavo in an email conversation about the intensive nature of the seminar and the festival, he highlighted the opportunity to broaden one’s perspective on the dance by connecting with new dancers, both professional and social:

 

In a conversation with Philadelphia dancer and sculptor Jerry Klein, he reinforced this idea of connecting with the larger tango community and tango history when he described tracing his own roots through his teacher to Naveira:

 

 "In my mind, Gustavo Naveira stands for the tango rebirth that has grown, through the    participation of countless creative individuals, into what we now have. I know that Gustavo was the fundamental teacher of my fundamental teacher, Andrés Amarilla, so you might say that, in studying with Gustavo and Giselle Anne, I am looking for reliable  intergenerational roots. I hope, especially, to strengthen my feeling of personal membership in the tango family.”

 

Others highlighted Naveira’s expertise as an instructor, the excitement they felt to be in the room with him:

 

 

Still others remarked on the benefits of studying with new teachers, a testament to both the festival and to Meredith Klein’s tireless organizing of top-notch instructors in Philadelphia:

 

 

I took advantage of the opportunity to study more intensively with Gustavo and Giselle than I had previously, and to observe the very real impact of such intensive study. Tango is known for attracting engineers, and the seminar was heady at times. To be present, intellectually and physically, four hours a day after dancing all night is no small task. That 29 couples happily pushed through the weekend is a testament to Gustavo and Giselle. They are gifted, inspiring teachers, adept at taking the temperature of the room and adapting their instruction to the group while still attending to individuals, providing just the right measure of correction and encouragement.

 

 

As I learned from experience researching tango in Buenos Aires between 2005 and 2007—including an interview with Naveira—much of tango history is unknown, forgotten, lost with the passage of the earliest generations of dancers. In our email conversation, Naveira reiterated this point when he explained the basis of the lecture he and Giselle presented on Sunday, “The Unfathomable History of Tango Dancing”:  

 

An overview of the “dancer’s experience” from tango’s origins in the late 19^th century to today, the highlight is the footage they shared of some of tango’s most celebrated dancers, from some of the earliest recordings that exist. This footage, the anecdotes they shared, and explanations they provided—in words and movement—would be a rare treat for tango dancers anywhere, even in Argentina, because so much history is held in private hands. If they highlighted the personal and the anecdotal rather than the shifting socio-political context tango has moved through over time and space, this seemed appropriate given their expertise as dancers and teachers and the connections they were lucky enough to forge with their forebears. Their lecture dispelled arbitrary distinctions between the traditional and the modern in tango, the footage a testament to tango’s essential characteristics: a search for novelty and individuality, in the moment with another person. They suggested that tango’s evolution is far from over, that after a little more than a century, the dance is still just in its infancy. And while it is important to know our roots in order to move forward, they said, the future of the dance lies with the young. “Encourage the youth” were their closing words.

 

With all the reasons to attend this year’s festival, perhaps the most essential is the opportunity to feel part of something larger—as Naveira put it, a cultural tradition that transcends boundaries, that facilitates communion:

 

 

 

5^th Philadelphia International Tango Festival, Philadelphia Argentine Tango School, May 28-31, Christ Church Neighborhood House and PATS, http://philadelphiatangofestival.com/about.html