Alejandra Mantiñan on Tango’s Lost Secrets and the Courage to Dance
Podcast and transcription.
“Few people today have the courage to truly expose themselves—to show both their misfortunes and their blessings.” – Alejandra Mantiñan
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Hi, this is Dimitris Bronowski, author of The Curious Tanguero newsletter and tango books like Tangofulness, Tango Tips by the Maestros, and the tango novel When the Embrace Whispers.
Today, I’ll read a few excerpts from Tango Tips by the Maestros, hoping you’ll find them useful—and maybe even check out the book on Amazon. It’s available in English, Spanish, and Italian, with more languages coming soon.
Let’s get started.
This excerpt is from the chapter written by Alejandra Mantiñan. I asked her a few questions. The first topic Alejandra covered was:
“What is missing from the world of tango now?”
I often hear comments and questions from colleagues, students, and organizers about this topic. I have to recognize that throughout all my years of performing and teaching, I have not felt the need to analyze the community or tango in general. It is not that I do not care about the rest, but in my opinion, tango is what each one of us does for the tango; thus, I try to work on my contribution and nothing more.
If I need to analyze what I miss now, I would say that I miss the quality. Nowadays it seems that it is all about quantity. People are weaker when the moment comes to explore their tango more deeply. I think this is because people are so young that they do not care about the philosophy of tango and, as a consequence, the way to live it. It becomes a sport or a fashion. What I feel is missing is the capacity to create an individualized relationship between how and what people want, how and what they expect, and how they take responsibility for their choices. This is something that one rarely sees anymore.
The second topic Alejandra covered was how can someone dance like her.
Her response was:
I have been asked this question on many occasions by women who were inspired by my dance. I always answer the same thing with the risk of being seen as unsympathetic. The only thing I am trying to do is to provide an answer that addresses the topic on a deeper level, which is, in my opinion, very important.
I believe that everybody in this world can dance like me because tango has some very specific conditions. When someone can understand tango, and when they can dance at the level we dance, then it will be clear that the priority is to understand and respect your life, your memories and that you express things about your life, your experiences. In my dance, I am elegant or sexy or sensual because, like a woman in ordinary life, with my partner, I try to be elegant or sexy or sensual; as a consequence, I express it in my dance. There is a well-known analogy that I use as well that connects how people dance with how people make love or have sex. You can use this analogy to understand why your dance looks as it does.
The moments of pain or happiness, the relationship I had with my father, my grandparents, my teachers, the one I have with my mother, the experiences in the milongas with all the stories I heard from people that were involved firsthand (from the protagonists and not through other people’s mouths after being filtered through one hundred repetitions and thus being inevitably altered); experiences like all of the above and more, of course, touched me deeply and imprinted a mark that affects the way I express my dance. Your experiences will affect your dance, and of course, who you truly are as a person.
Unfortunately, nowadays, few people have the courage to show themselves: to truly expose themselves. To do that, you really must not be afraid to show both your misfortunes and your blessings. For example, sometimes, when I teach, I am really unsympathetic. I permit myself to show that part of me. I do not pretend that people see me always like Mother Teresa from Kolkata. I try to be honest, and this comes from the ability I have not to lie, even when it comes to simple things. When I embrace someone, I try to be sincere. I embrace, and I forget whatever happened before, and only remember all the love that I received from some people that embraced me without ego.
About practice, it’s a utopia when people start to learn and are told not to copy. It is like children. When they begin to learn, the first thing they do is to copy their parents. Then, after they gain identity, they feel sure of themselves and more secure, and they can walk their own path. I have students who love me, then later they hate me, and in the end they admire me and accept me. This is the process.
How to practice? First, you have to find yourself, to understand who you are and what you want. Second, you need to work hard, practice, try, train, and consequently develop yourself. If it is possible, take dance classes of ballet, salsa, cha-cha. You need to train your body to move, to use each part of your body to express yourself. Then, when you have that capacity, you can choose, you can decide. Without having information, you cannot choose. This is one of the things I always tell the people in tango. Do not go after the different tango styles because they are a big lie, a limitation. You need to learn, and you need to go deep inside yourself. When you have all the information available, you can stop and ask: ‘This is my stuff, this is me, what do I want to do now?’ and then you choose. Without choice, there is ignorance.
The third topic Alejandra covered was:
What has been lost in the mentality of the dancers and maestros?
Milonga is a social situation, and the society changes through time along with its members. Therefore, I can only say what I miss from my time in the milongas in Buenos Aires. Back in the day, there was more empathy, the people were really friends, and the relationships were honest. People were hating and, at the same time, were loving each other. They would fight, love, and kiss sincerely. Today, all is fake. All the dancers are friends, but everyone talks behind the backs of the same people they kiss; I believe that this is a representation of today’s approach worldwide. This is not one of the topics I like to talk about because I cannot do anything about it. I do not like to talk about things I cannot change, because it feels like lost time and energy. I can express my point of view but nothing more than that.
The fourth topic Alejandra discussed in the book was about teaching others how to feel or find meaning in tango
I believe that nobody can really say why they decided to do anything. If you understand why, I think that this stops making any sense. Life is an adventure, a choice, and we are simply exploring our feelings.
In this regard, I am very spontaneous, and I almost never have a plan when I do something in my life. Every time it feels like things happen by the “hand of destiny.” I believe in destiny, and the only thing I follow is my needs. If I feel that I need something, I just do it, and I do not analyze the consequences.
For this reason, I do not like it when people come and ask me to teach them how to feel or how they must feel. I cannot teach that; you are feeling or you are not. What I can do is to show you the way to get there, but normally people understand and recognize it from the beginning by themselves. You cannot see it, but somehow you know that the light is there. If you cannot see the light, I might be able to show you the way to understand how to find the light, but the light is already there. Sometimes, people come to me and tell me: “I do not think that the light exists in me. Can you show me that it does exist?” This moment, I feel like someone gives me a seed of beautiful mountain flowers, and then low-quality sand and a container to put them into. It is just impossible. They will not grow.
The fifth question I asked her, was the following:
Should dancers search and learn more about the history, the music, and different orchestras so that they dance better?
One of the reasons that I feel different from the crowd is that I never follow the trend. To understand about orchestras and music, is, of course, important. If I want to do ballet, I need to know classical music. But I strongly disagree with the statement that “if I know the life of Beethoven, Vivaldi or Tchaikovsky, I will eventually dance better ballet.” I will dance better ballet because I work really hard in the ballet class. What happened in the life between Beethoven and his wife, or if he had severe deafness, does not change the quality of my dance. My quality depends on how much I worked inside the ballet studio. In tango, I think these topics are “big business.” There are many people who do not have enough information to talk only about dance, and then they need to create some kind of mystique around the music, the styles, and the years. This is something that the DJs must understand, not the dancers.
But, it is possible that this is one of my limitations. I really do not care, and I do not want to understand this part because it has nothing to do with my work. What I need is to express these composers, musicians, and singers, and I need to understand the majority of instruments that I can express using my body. If it is in the ‘30s, in the ‘40s, in the ‘25s, if he was three times divorced, if he made jokes with other composers and they fought because there was an issue with the record company, for me has nothing to do with becoming a better dancer. Having all this information is irrelevant.
I met many people who knew everything about the orchestras, the musicians, the composers, and the companies, but they did not understand anything about the music. They could not express the music. They did not have musicality. I believe we confuse people when we equate knowledge of tango culture with dancing capability.
I believe most people are not prepared to understand these subjects. In the milongas, when I started dancing, the people that I heard talking most were the older ones. They used to share anecdotes, but they did not become good dancers because of that. Of course, the history is important to know and understand, especially for people who want to understand tango in 360 degrees. Still, I know people who have lots of knowledge about orchestras, and when I mention ‘El Vazquito’ they do not know who he was. So, they know all about tango music, but they do not know anything about the people that contributed to the tango as a dance genre and built all that we do today. I know people who tell me that they visited Buenos Aires and they ask me about “the smile” they found in everything that had to do with tango. This smile represents Carlos Gardel. How can someone know all about Juan D’Arienzo and not know anything about Carlos Gardel? This is something that I find really bizarre, and I think that when someone chooses to research tango, they must simply be interested in finding out more about it without believing that all this knowledge will make them better dancers. Greater knowledge may extend your cultural point of view of tango but not your dancing capabilities. There is a big difference.
Alejandra Mantiñan and 40 other remarkable tango teachers covered more topics in Tango Tips by the Maestros.
If you enjoyed what you learned in this episode, visit tangotipsbythemaestros.com to find the book in all available languages, or simply search Tango Tips by the Maestros on Amazon.
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For a curated list of free and paid resources to help you improve and enjoy your tango, go to thecurioustanguero.com/argentinetango. I’ve put together a list just for you.
And remember to smile—you’ve discovered tango. Most people haven’t.
What a gift!