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Santigo Steele
by Jackie Wong
Shawn, Dario and I traveled by train to NYC. Shawn, to get out of a "Tango Funk" by taking Carolina and Diego's advanced workshops....Dario, to paint Fay's apartment and then Tango at night....and me, as support for Shawn and to take a private lesson with Carolina and Diego. We started the weekend by taking a last minute workshop at Triangulo on "colgadas" (hangs), a nuevo tango move popular in areas accustomed to trying new steps. Triangulo is one of my favorite places to dance in THE city. The people are easygoing and friendly. Sabina, with her smooth ochos and ear plugs. Peter, who makes a great apple pie and has such a nice lead (while listening to opera in his head). Carinna, who is the owner of Triangulo and looked fabulous demonstrating the "colgadas" with Santiago. Alec, who I love to dance with because he is so creative and full of adventure. Henry, a gentleman who never fails to lift my spirits. Martin, a beginner dancer who has a very clear lead and I expect will become one of the best dancers. Lutz, who has such a wonderful soft lead and touch.and many other personalities.
Santiago Steele was conducting the workshop and Shawn and I loved the feel of the "hang". We both enjoy trying out new moves in our dance, improvising (to the horror of some leaders) ...just doing what feels good to the body. It's difficult to describe, but basically out of the cross, the leader steps forward and uses his weight and his partner's weight to create opposing leans which are not static. Okay, so it's not a very good description. Has anyone figured out an easy way to notate dance?
Anyway, I discovered that Santiago is from San Francisco and I thought it would be interesting to interview him and get a sample of West Coast flavor. I asked Santiago and he kindly agreed.
Scene: We are sitting out in the hallway on the stairs so that I can record our interview without too much noise.
However, in reviewing the tape later, the music is still deafening...oh well...So, we followed up over the phone and through email.
Q: Santiago, what's going on in your tango life right now?
Right now I have a workshop set up in Cologne, Germany in mid July. Following that, I'm planning to make a move to New York City,
where I hope to start teaching regularly. I also have a tentative part in a tango show that may go on next year in Montréal.
I`m also searching for a partner that will be that "perfect" fit for me.
Q: What's a perfect fit for dancing?
I believe that it is similar to classical dance, where ideally the man is a little bit bigger.
Perhaps the most important thing isn't so much size but how you use your weight, though.
Some people move as a block and others slide over to the side.
Some of the teachers that I had in Buenos Aires talked about contra weight - stepping forward but keeping your weight back, for example.
This helps make the connection more dynamic.
Q: During the class, you drew a lot of information from your recent ballet training. How has it helped your tango?
For me, the main difference between classical dances like Ballet and Modern and Tango has to do with the relationship
of the dancer to his or her own body. Ballet and Modern are very physical dances, where dancers move in a variety of ways
and use their entire body for creative expression. Tango, being a social dance, on the physical level is essentially just walking around.
On the other hand, some dancers who come from a classical background are only used to dancing choreographies,
and/or dancing solo, and have a hard time working in a couple. Also sometimes they have difficulty being spontaneous
and have too much control of their body, especially in the hips. But the positive outcome of this control is the posture.
I have a long ways to go before mastering the posture and control that classical training can provide.
I guess if you practice long enough, it becomes natural. I still make mistakes.
What is lacking for Tango dancers is that often they don't have the physical training that classical dances provide.
They try to execute complex movements but they don't understand balance.
I think that they should experiment with ballet, modern, and/or martial arts and yoga,
which teach flexibility, how to transfer weight, stand up straight, etc.
Also in Tango you get intricate patterns taught to you without understanding exactly WHAT it is that you're doing.
Everyone is too concentrated on the end result. I think it's better to work with individual movements and then bring it all together.
I took a great workshop with Chico a few years ago in Buenos Aires, where he explained all the different movements in Tango,
and broke them down into groups. Many Tango teachers don't use this method.
Q: What do you think attracts people to Tango?
I think the show, Forever Tango, and the movie, Tango Lesson, turned a lot of people on to Tango.
The implication of intimacy and connection that you see between the dancers on stage, is very powerful.
In this culture I think that there is often a lack of community, which makes it difficult to relate to one another, especially between men and women.
Tango is a way to bridge that gap, and certainly to insert some sensuality into your life.
When you think about how isolated many of us are in our daily lives, Tango is a great gift.
Q: Do you think that Americans approach Tango differently from other cultures?
A friend of mine in Buenos Aires feels that Americans dance Argentina Tango superficially.
For her, there is too much emphasis placed sex and not enough on sensuality and connection to the music.
In my experience, there are many ways that Americans approach tango, and I don't think that we're particularly less deep
about dancing than most people. At the same time, I think that it's true that many Americans seem most
attracted to the most stereotypical aspects of Tango - the sexual imagery in particular.
Q: And you?
For myself, I have to admit to having had a goal orientation to Tango. Maybe it's because I'm American.
At first, I was curious and then it became a challenge. My first class seemed so complicated. I found Tango to be intellectually challenging.
I would think, "How did these people get so good?" After many years, Tango now seems very simple and easy.
It's just walking around, as compared to ballet, where the dancers are more athletic.
Right now I'm trying to bring in some of the expressiveness and elegance of ballet, and also to find new ways to experiment with movement.
What's sad is that Tango can get so stagnant. A lot of people have tangoed for 6 - 7 years and
they're not dancing any better. They're not improving.
Q: But some people aren't success or goal oriented. Instead, they're looking at it from a social perspective.
But if you spend money on something don't you want a measurable result? Or a special something?
Q: How does one acquire that special something?
You need to unlock the natural movement that is already in your body.
It's part talent, part luck, and part ambition.
For a lucky few people, dance is intuitive.
Guided visualizations are a good way to get immediate results. For example, take the alignment of your head and shoulders.
You can try to `hold' yourself in the desired position, or you could try experimenting with images.
In this case, the idea that your head inclines in the direction that you are looking, and
since most of the time that you are dancing you are looking more or less downward, your head tilts forward.
You could try to tense the muscles in your neck to snap your head back into position, play with the idea that your eyes are in the back of your head.
If you `looked' with the back of your head you would naturally move your head into an upright position.
There are other people who are just beautiful when they move. I want to do that - have flavor.
Not just walk around but also to move with grace and style.
For me, Tango is often boring to look at as well, unless the dancers engage their emotions, and seem to have more of a soulful connection.
Maybe for leaders it's more difficult, because they have all these patterns in their head and
have to navigate the dance floor simultaneously, sort of like a mathematical problem,
while followers are perhaps a little freer to let go and engage their emotions.
Q: So you're in NYC, how is it different from California?
NYC is more traditional. Nuevo, open style, is more popular in California. I think young people like open style.
California has a group of young people who are really experimenting with the dance.
They travel and they're fanatical, like me. Changes to tango are happening outside of Argentina
In San Francisco, some of us have formed a club of dancers and we practice twice a week.
Each person has the responsibility of teaching something to the group. They also host workshops.
This group has been called snobby, because it has ended up keeping to itself a lot.
Some people think that everyone in the community should dance with everyone else, but I disagree.
I want to only dance with the people I want to dance with. I put the work into it, after all.
At the same time, I rarely dance with the advanced dancers, and
dance mostly with intermediate and beginners who are growing and have a good basic movement.
Another exciting development is that the Portland, San Francisco and Seattle tango scenes have been getting closer,
and holding more and more regional events.
Q: Santiago, how about new music? Jazz.... different instruments?
Personally, I like Piazzolla because each of his songs tells a story.
A teacher that I had once told me that I was leaving my partner out of the equation when I danced, and
that one way to fix this is to focus on dancing an emotion, rather than thinking about steps.
He told me to pick an emotion and focus on that while I dance. Every time that I would drift back into dancing patterns, he would say,
"You're thinking again! Focus".
So now when I listen to music I try to find a story and dance the emotion.
At the same time, I'm still waiting for Tango to move beyond Argentina.
Even Fabian Salas talks about Europe and what's happening there as being the cutting edge of Tango.
There are also a lot of exciting new things happening in popular music, with many experiments in fusion between modern,
digital sounds, and traditional music like Classical, Jazz, and world folk music. I think that it would be interesting if we could bring some
of that experimental flavor into Tango music.
Let's take this Tango thing and make it our own.
Q: How would we make it our own?
By writing our own music. There's a band in Montreal, Quarteto Vivo de Montreal, for example.
They write some of their own stuff, and have produced some really quality Tango music.
We can also try dancing to different styles of music. There is a lot of great stuff from electronica, and
a lot of new Classical music from movie sound tracks that is great for Tango.
Q: And in the dance?
Experiment. Why the same relationship in partnering? Why both hands?
Why do we need to touch each other? I like the idea of fusion, of mixing styles.
I'm not saying abandon traditional tango forms or tango music.
I think that it is definitely the base and starting point for any experimentation.
I take inspiration from groups like the Nederlands Dance Theatre. They take classical ballet and mix it with tribal dances,
Asian folk dances, and other dance forms to come up with ballets that are extremely good ballet but also extremely original.
Jiri Kylian, the choreographer once said, "People are so concerned with breaking away from classical ballet.
It's okay but if you want to parody something you have to do it well first."
I think that's a very interesting idea for tango. As they say, you have to learn the rules to break the rules
Q: Tango lives in what part of body?
For me it's starts with the feet, and connection to the floor.
Q: Okay Santiago, finish this. Tango is..........
I don't know...that's hard...unanswerable. It shouldn't be defined. It should be left open. You should make it your own.
Find yourself. Get in touch and find out what you believe. There is no one right way!!!!!!
Don't allow it to be a product that you can just buy at the store. Make it more holistic.
For your own health explore dance on a deeper level.
You can email Santiago at santiago@tangonauts.com or visit his website