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Dance> Drunk
on Tango
Drunk on Tango
in Argentina
By Kim Knode
Published July 2001
Award-winning filmmaker, Adam Boucher declares,
“I like to make documentaries like
Tango: The Obsession as a discovery process
which I can share with the audience.”
Apparently audiences take pleasure in exploring
subjects such as tango in Argentina together
with Boucher. After a showing at the Smithsonian
Institute in 1999, the Argentine Embassy
was moved to declare Boucher’s documentary,
“a significant film.” (Also, in
the April of 2001, a representative from
Jungle Films reports that recently a request
for two thousand video versions of the film
came in from Germany.)
The 1999 Marin County Film Festival also
acknowledged the significance of the “Tango”
and awarded Boucher first place. In the
same year, at an Orlando, Florida film festival,
despite the sold-out performances, Tango:
The Obsession took second place. (The opinion
poll after each screening may have influenced
the ranking.)
The thirty-something director shifts his
slight five-foot nine frame in a black easy
chair as he starts to tell me about Orlando.
(Outside, the twilight shadows fall on the
streets of Santa Monica.) Inside my brightly
lit office, I can see Boucher slightly blush.
He grins and his green eyes flash as he
confesses; “I got in an argument with
a guy in the audience about tango.”
Boucher strikes me as a sweet, mild-mannered
man. (He chose Argentine tango as a topic
for his first film because he wanted to
learn about the dance that “made my
mom’s life happier and better.”
Boucher also dedicated the movie to his
mother.) So I am momentarily surprised by
a streak of the confrontational in Boucher.
But then I remember that everyone has an
opinion about the Argentine dance. (Not
one dancer that Boucher interviews in Tango:
The Obsession is neutral on the subject.)
Carlos Copello of The Tango Lesson (film)
and Forever Tango (stage) fame compares
tango to a drug. In Boucher’s
documentary, the Nureyev of tango mimes
a drug addict shooting up. “It’s
like you start to give yourself tango injections
– continuous tango injections,”
he says.
Despite the best efforts of his teacher,
Boucher did not get addicted to the Argentine
dance. His instructor?
Ten-year old, Geraldine Rejas, (featured
in the film) started lessons at age four.
“Why did you choose a child?”
I ask.
“She picked me,” he replies.
“Geraldine was a good teacher. And
there wasn’t the sexual tension of
being in the arms of a woman.” He explains
that tango with contemporaries is a little
intimidating. “I mean what usually
takes two or three dates (in North America)...You’re
doing on the dance floor!”
Seduction and sexual tension is a part
of the tango. However, Boucher and
his movie embrace a larger truth about the
scintillating dance. “It is like a
meditation,” says the documentary filmmaker.
“There is no talking. And you can almost
hear each other’s heart beat.”
Boucher takes a sip of water and continues,
“I experienced many of my ‘moments’
(of epiphany) dancing to “La Mariposa”
- “The Butterfly” by Osvaldo Pugliese.”
“I get transformed because I get absorbed
in what I’m doing. I don’t think
about this or that. I just think about what
I’m doing,” is how Margarita in
Tango answers Boucher’s questions about
the impact of the Latin dance on her life.
The swarthy, middle-aged Margarita matter-of-factly
states in the film: “I was taught to
dance by my mom’s brother.” (When
she was six and seven years of age, she
practiced her steps with a broomstick.)
Another lady in her forties, Boucher interviews
in Tango: The Obsession whispers that daughters
from good homes were not permitted to attend
the late night tangos. So the younger girls
picked up steps from older cousins. And
then practiced with one another at home.
Besides the class restrictions to enter
the milongas (dance salons), in tango’s
earlier days in Argentina, only adults were
allowed in. One man with a huge smile and
gaps between his teeth sips espresso and
elaborates on the details of his youth with
delight into Boucher’s camera. He speaks
of sneaking in with other little boys to
watch Argentina’s experts twist, tangle
and turn with ladies in stiletto heels.
“We would hide and then do what they
did.” (His initial tango training also
started at home with older relatives.)
Thanks to his dancing mother’s connections
to Copello, Boucher was granted entrance
and access into the authentic (no-tourists-type)
Argentine tango clubs. However, all
the credit goes to Boucher for his ability
to create intimate conversations on camera
while delving into the heart of the tango
dancer.
He tells me he spent hours “hanging
out” with lovers of tango to gain their
trust. (In and out of the dance halls, time
was spent munching media lunas (a half moon
croissant) and downing “watered down
versions of Italian espresso.”) He
says, “In Argentina, it is common to
share espresso with a fellow tanguero. In
fact, they drink one after another.”
Boucher states, “I am not particularly
a coffee man. However, friends are treated
like family. And quality time like drinking
a coffee together is cherished.”
The filmmaker smiles and says, “So
under those conditions how could someone
not love coffee?”
Boucher may also have needed the extra
boost from the caffeine. It is evident that
the director did hours of homework on the
history of the dance. Countless frames of
black and white footage and sepia tone prints
illustrate the emergence of tango. In addition,
interviews with historians illuminate the
beginnings of Argentine tango. (Boucher’s
clips with the so-called intellectuals of
society - the historians - also take on
the tone of a friendly chat on a street
corner.)
One of the attention-grabbing moments of
Tango: The Obsession was the proclamation
that Italian immigrants were instrumental
in the development of the dance. Photos
of the European men arriving in Argentina
- a land of opportunity - exemplify some
of the strains of melancholy, which filtered
into the tango.
Tango: The Obsession demonstrates that
Italians were not the only ones who needed
a dance to deal with the blues. The early
blacks of South America, the solitary gaucho,
the stressed out citizen living in a high-tech
society are all featured in the film.
Boucher’s probing camera lens provides
insight (with his interviews and photographs)
into why tango becomes an obsession. He
gives us a glimpse into the lives of tango
dancers who answer the call to touch and
hear each other’s heart beat.
You can also directly contact
the distributor, Jungle Films:
Jungle Films
11271 Ventura Boulevard, PMB512
Studio City, CA 91604
Tel: 818-771-8668
Fax: 818-753-8305
| Kim
Knode's interview articles focusing
on artists, celebrities and dance champions
have been published in various print
and on-line publications. |
 |
| See
more of Kim's work at www.kimknode.com |
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