Jorge Dispari: Bien Villurca, Bien Bailarin

BT: Up to what degree should one be musically educated to dance tango? JD: It depends upon the way you want to dance. There are people whose only wish is to integrate into the dance floor and to move without killing anyone… Others want to dance cool without bothering anyone. And there are people who want to be professionals… It depends upon people’s desire and/or consumer’s qualities. But if you want to dance really well, you have to educate your ear as seriously as your body.

BT: How good ear should one have to dance the Villa Urquiza style?
JD: First, you need to dance tango de salon to be able to understand the subtleties added to Villa Urquiza style by Luis “Milonguita” Lemos and genial Jose “Turco” Brahemcha. If you fail, you are out of it. You need to dominate very well tango de salon, to know what to do at milongas. And after this comes the next one…

BT: Do you play any instrument?
JD: When I was a kid I was watching my elder brother working hard to master guitar. He had been learning it for several years, and then quit. I only scraped it a little. But, no, I never played any instrument.

BT: How would you define Villa Urquiza in terms of tango?
JD: This is something personal. And by no means it exists in tango, the absolute truth. But I would define this style of dancing as tango de salon danced with maximum elegance. With the signs of geniality tremendously impossible to repeat. Given that the geniuses of the past have already ended, none of the today’s talents interprets tango (the music) as before. Those are the major differences… The delicacy of stepping in caminatas, the details of giros around the common axis, slow ones, instead of the velocity without feeling… Only the velocity with music.

BT: What is the difference between the climates of Sunderland, Sin Rumbo and the clubs of other districts of Buenos Aires?

JD: Today there is virtually no difference. It’s the same people salad that goes to the rest of milongas. One could write a book answering this question. But let’s try to be specific. The tango is a piece of popular culture of the lowest classes of the capital and outskirts (Gran Buenos Aires and Rio de La Pata). So, today it’s absolutely different from the tango that we used to see 32 years ago at Sunderland and Sin Rumbo. Today they come from Asia, Oceania, Europa, North America… You’ll find people from all over the world at milongas. But before it was not like this. Hence the difference. In old days you could see only the authentic things, today you see the salad of styles, of people with different culture. Some neither understand the lyrics of tangos, but nevertheless dance to them. I think that the number of people in tango today is for no good for it. At the cultural level…

BT: Would it be just to say that the spirit of Gerardo Portalea has been preserved till today? Are there any dancers who follow the traditions and principles of Portalea, Ribera, etc.?
JD: No. The spirit of milongas organized by Portalea lasted till 90s, then it gave up to the changes. First it was show tango (or, to phrase it better, show dancers), the first ones to give classes of tango in USA, in Europe. But later tango milonguero made a furore (this name was given by Susana Miller to tango petitero, another dancing style). This style was adopted from the very start by almost 90% of the foreigners for the simplicity of dancing. But they had eliminated the caminata. For that reason it’s so difficult to dance in Centro, each couple choses its square meter and dances there revolving from one side to another without moving around the floor. To my taste, it’s a little boring and little logical to be considered a social dance.

BT: Is it difficult for you to spread around people the ideas of dancing three equal steps in a 4/4 time, like it was danced by Portalea according to legends? How do you teach people the principles of polyrhythmic music?
JD: As for me, you are using strange words. If you mean tiempo, medio tiempo, contratiempo, double tiempo, yes, I teach all that. I make them listen to it in almost all the orchestras. But after that it’s within their personal determination. Take into account that we cannot be all the year in Argentina, neither abroad. We split it into periods, and by the weekend you can show an approximate idea of the musical interpretation topic, or musicality, as you prefer to call it. So, since the miracles do not exist, you return the next year… You spend only three days per year at each place. As for people, we should teach them to “walk”. Of course, within music, but to walk, to make pauses. The tango is full of pauses. If you don’t make them, you are dancing some other tango.

BT: What does the code of a “villurca” consist of? What should one possess to be able to be called so?
JD: Look, there are many. I would like to emphasize the respect to the others. As an example, when different couples used to go to dance, the men used to be dressed spectacularly. I enjoyed watching every detail of the suit like a handkerchief playing with a necktie. A tiepin, a tie clamp, cuff-links.. The women painted as doors, in their best dresses, used to arrive at milongas and after having paid the entrance fee went to their tables, left everything there and started greeting everyone. Then the dancing style… And at last, when the floor was at the edge of being overwhelmed with people, all the figures started to disappear. It was understood without saying. The dancers were spectacular. Nobody ignored the orchestras that were sounding, people knew the singers, the lyrics of tangos, and the tangos themselves… Today this knowledge is still pending. In old times a milonguero used to “cabecear”, invite the woman to dance, and then accompany her to her table - of course, if he was from Villa Urquiza! – at the end of tanda. The milonguero definitely used to take the woman he had danced with to her table.

BT: What efforts does it cost you to convince people that tango is not “figures”? Do people believe you?
JD: Look, I don’t apply many efforts. The people look for tango. It’s coming back. I’m not sure if I understood your question, the efforts applied by me and Marita are those of leaving our children and grandchildren for three months, missing them terribly. As well as the rest of family, friends, people of milonga. The milongas themselves are missed very much too. The music is missed incredibly, which means if only you are not Fumanchu, it does not appear on any computer, only the Spanish one. But during classes people are confident with us, believe in us, and end up convinced that they had been practicing something for real, something that could be useful always, on all the dancefloors around the world.

BT: We would like to know if the constancy of the couple means for vilurcas more than for tangueros of other styles.
JD: No, no way. Look, this used to be done by the majority of couples before. The partnership used to last whatever it might cost. Today they separate, they fight, they change five partners, sometimes more…In most cases there are more than three he- or she-partners. But no, that’s only a matter of generations, and nothing else. It doesn’t make sense to say that there something like this.
BT: Why don’t the real villurcas teach?
JD: Look, I can tell you one thing that seems to be of a destiny. The greatest dancer in tango history (at least for those who saw him dancing) was about to give classes in Teatro San Martín almost in 80s. But the thing ended up being Gustavo Naveira a teacher there. Perhaps, if Luis Lemos had entered Teatro San Martín to give classes (that’s him who I refer to as the greatest dancer), the history of tango could have been totally different. But it did not happen to be that way… And look, Juana “La Rusa” says it very clearly in the movie of Jorge Zanada, the brilliant documentary of tango of 1984-85. She says that we shouldn’t have taught tango in America or Europa (in the film she says of teaching “los Yonis” o “gringos”), but rather have gone to the interior to teach our popular culture. In reality, we are privileged this weekend to have Jose “El Turco” Brahemcha giving a seminar in our school “Vila Urquiza Tango Escuela” This style makes people speak about it all over the world, making those who dance “tango Nuevo” tremble. Tremble to the point of Chicho Frumboli’s declarations that in fifteen years that he has been bearing a title of a teacher, he hasn’t been able to teach a single student the essence of the tango. And you haven’t asked many questions. Finito (Fino Rivera) didn’t dance Villa Urquiza style. He danced his own genial style, but of Villa Devoto. In that film there was Miguel Balmaceda who was an impressing master of tango, but neither of Villa Urquiza. Which doesn’t mean he was bad. Just different. Guys, I would like to clarify what Ney Melo spread around the globe. He took it out of context and declared as Origins of Villa Urquiza. No. These dancers came to dance at Sin Rumbo, but because all restarted there in late 70s.
ElBuentango #1, 2010