Modern Tango World #4 (Bucharest, Romania)

Romania’s Modern Tango Scene
Dragos Samoil
The tango scene in Bucharest is quite new considering the overall tango history. It is only eleven
years old. I have been a tango student and a tango dancer since the very beginning of the tango
movement in Romania. I witnessed the complex dynamics of the Romanian tango community.
I’m not afraid or ashamed of the fact that I was first
attracted to tango by tango nuevo music., specifically
Gotan Project’s album La revancha del Tango. When I
started to listen the music, I fell in love with the rhythm
and furthermore with the feeling of tango. After listening
Gotan Project for several times I wanted to find more
about it and I was starting to look for some tango classes.
When I first arrived at the tango class, it was a love at
first sight, even if the music was classical tango. I have
the vivid memory of listening to Francisco Canaro’s
Poema. I felt that this music it’s a part of me, I fully
understood it, even though I had no knowledge of
Spanish, timing or musicality. I felt the urge to dance,
to move, to express myself.
I have danced almost every day for the last eleven
years. My tango experience has spanned three continents,
and thousands of tandas. I have danced to the
music: from Gardel to Metallica, from Canaro to Pink
Floyd and Chopin.
I think that tango evolves not by abandoning itsroots and
musicality, but instead by integration and a bigger resonance
with contemporary society and reality. I love different
kind of music besides tango like rock, jazz, classical
music and feel a resonance in my body and soul related
with these genres. Of course, I cannot stop myself from
dancing to this kind of music.
In my opinion, tango nuevo is generous because it allows
the tango dancers to experiment more, to feel
more, to connect more and to share a bigger spectrum
of music and emotions that you cannot find in
the traditional tango. In this respect, tango nuevo enriches
the overall tango heritage.
This is also the reason why from the very beginning
of my teaching days I incorporated tango nuevo
in the playlist of my classes and the practicas and
milongas that I hosted., with about 20% tango nuevo
or neotango. I have done this on a regular basis
since 2013.
The year 2006 gave birth to the first major event that
brought Argentine tango to contemporary dancing
in Romania. The show Un Tango Mas, directed by Alexandru
Dabija for the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest,
presented the leading Romanian choreographers
Razvan Mazilu and Monica Petrica, with the participation
of Tangotangent Club. In addition, this event
was responsible for bringing international artists, such
as Horacio Godoy and Pablo Veron, to Romania.
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