Argentine Tango circa 1900 - 1925

Vals

Steve I'm not an expert on orgins of vals but this sounds interesting

Vals Peruano (Waltz)
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(Redirected from Vals (Peruvian))
The Vals Peruano (known in Peru as the Vals Criollo) is an adaptation of the European Waltz brought to the Americas during colonial times by Spain. In the Viceroyalty of Peru, the Waltz was slowly changed to the likings of the Criollo people. After the independence of Peru, the dance became symbolic of that nations culture as it gained widespread popularity in the country. By that point, the introduction of more musical styles (including African and Andean influences) made it characteristic of the Peruvian music genre known as Música criolla. Even though the dance was at first mainly restricted to the social classes of high status, during the 1930s it further expanded in the Peruvian middle and lower class neighborhoods. In the 1940s, composer and guitarist Oscar Aviles created a unique sound that made the now called Vals Criollo and music more distinct from the European Waltz and other dances of South America such as the Tango. By the 1950s, popular composer and singer Chabuca Granda helped in making the music widely known throughout Latin America, and the name Vals Peruano in time became used to refer to the dance in countries outside of Peru. At the height of its national and international popularity, the sounds of the 1970s were introduced into the Vals Peruano by musicians and singers such as Lucha Reyes. In modern times, the Vals Peruano remains a widely popular symbol of Peruvian culture and still holds a certain degree of popularity in Latin American society.

Steve check out you tube
Historia del Vals Peruano (5 de 5)
This is a tribute to Ojeda if you speak spanish it's helpful if not you will certainally recognize his music.
 
Well, i did some more research, and now i am pretty sure that the video i posted was way later - i kept in my list of favourite videos mainly for the dancing. The bandoneon player is actually not eduardo arolas, but it is juan jose miguez who plays eduardo arolas in the 1951 movie "derecho viejo" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121197) a movie about eduardo arolas - so this is an example of what a 1951 argentine director thought was acceptable as a depiction of early social tango.

Oh well, that will teach me to post before doing proper research. I apologize for this misleading comment. It is still an interesting performance, but it offers no clue about early dancing whatsoever. Instead it is a 1950's recreation of early dance, and more part of the creation of the mythology of early tango than the history of early tango.

Sorry.

Gssh
 
Re: ancient valses

Well, i did some more research, ... the bandoneon player is actually not eduardo arolas, but it is juan jose miguez who plays eduardo arolas in the 1951 movie "derecho viejo"

Wow, thanks for clarification!! Always thought Arolas must have been starving, as haggard as he looks in that clip.


Steve check out you tube Historia del Vals Peruano (5 de 5) This is a tribute to Ojeda if you speak spanish it's helpful if not you will certainally recognize his music.

in this respect I posted the peruvian vals video, too: http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=32695
 
Vals Peruano (Waltz)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Vals (Peruvian))

The Vals Peruano (known in Peru as the Vals Criollo) is an adaptation of the European Waltz brought to the Americas during colonial times by Spain.
This might be a misprint or misread, or perhaps I have incomplete info. I was in conversation with a friend from Peru who says that the vals from Peru was/is Vals Peruano. That it was adapted from the VW from Europe, and was danced with what actually resembles a country/western waltz today, but without so much travelling around the floor. The main movement was more side to side.

The Vals Criollo, very much like what we see today, was actually the argentine version of vals boston from the US (that should tick off some persons :rolleyes: ). Certainly there was vals before then, but it was danced differently.
 
Well, i did some more research, and now i am pretty sure that the video i posted was way later - i kept in my list of favourite videos mainly for the dancing. The bandoneon player is actually not eduardo arolas, but it is juan jose miguez who plays eduardo arolas in the 1951 movie "derecho viejo" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121197) a movie about eduardo arolas - so this is an example of what a 1951 argentine director thought was acceptable as a depiction of early social tango.

Oh well, that will teach me to post before doing proper research. I apologize for this misleading comment. It is still an interesting performance, but it offers no clue about early dancing whatsoever. Instead it is a 1950's recreation of early dance, and more part of the creation of the mythology of early tango than the history of early tango.

Sorry.

Gssh

I kind of thought something like that might have been the case...seeing as the background female dancers all had floor length attire (sort of pre- 1920 style) but the main female dancer was wearing something rather a bit racier (a skirt with a button up front exposed to the mid thigh).

That was some great researching!
 
Well, i did some more research, and now i am pretty sure that the video i posted was way later - i kept in my list of favourite videos mainly for the dancing. The bandoneon player is actually not eduardo arolas, but it is juan jose miguez who plays eduardo arolas in the 1951 movie "derecho viejo" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121197) a movie about eduardo arolas - so this is an example of what a 1951 argentine director thought was acceptable as a depiction of early social tango.

Oh well, that will teach me to post before doing proper research. I apologize for this misleading comment. It is still an interesting performance, but it offers no clue about early dancing whatsoever. Instead it is a 1950's recreation of early dance, and more part of the creation of the mythology of early tango than the history of early tango.

Sorry.

Gssh

Just as an aside...I did a little more looking around and Ney Melo cites the performance dancers in the video as:

The dancers Lita y Jose Mendez from the argentine movie "Derecho viejo" (1951) about bandoneon player Eduardo Arolas who died at the age of 32.
 
.. found anything earlier than this.

May be this one posted by the Tango Evolution Club in Atlanta ?


BTW, what Cachafaz and Calderón are dancing, I would call Orillero style (Canyengue with figures and showy stuff). Whereas the people in the Melodias Porteñas vid were dancing something close to nowadays Milonguero style.
 
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And here some more Carmencita Calderón vids:

an interview
kind of a lesson
and her birthday
Enjoy !
 
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Secrets of the Tango - 1914

Christine Dennison's web site includes several books on antique tango. You can download them for a few pounds from her web site.

http://totaltango.com

I did this for her "Secrets of the Tango - 1914" which also requires you download a free viewer similar to the Acrobat Reader.

The dance described reminded me of the American tango, with cortes both forward and back, and to the side. The steps were fairly simple walking steps with a steady rhythm.

The music played in the mid-teens were similar to this example recorded in 1912.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRLJKaGReqA


Laer Carroll
 
What Chachafaz and Calderon were doing in the 1933 film was a showy version of tango such as you might see on the stage. No one in polite society would do as Cachafaz does at about one minute: kick his partner's butt.

In the background you see people doing social dancing: simple, smooth steps, mostly molinetes (giros). This is true of all the (few) black-and-white movies I've seen from Argentina in the 30s and later.

In these movies you see what popular movie makers consider polite high-class dancers of the day would do in public, with an occasional fancy performance by a character shown as being amusing, but atypical.

The movies were telling stories and the dancing was incidental, but my guess is that what we're seeing is typical of tango in the Golden Age.


Laer Carroll
 
Tango's never-ending investigation

When I want to know something about tango, whether on an orchestra, singer, or lyrics, I go directly to TodoTango.com where I usually find what I'm searching for.

This site is a wealth of information and the labor of love of Ricardo Garcia Blaya. The English translations are excellent. The Chronicles include historical information that has been researched and connected with links for more details.

I came across this article http://www.todotango.com/historias/cronica/310/Un-millon-de-tangos/ about the number of tangos. Blaya teaches a course at the Academia Nactional del Tango and tirelessly investigates unrecorded and unpublished compositions.
 
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I downloaded "Secrets of the Tango - 1914" at a cost of £7.99, together with the ebook viewer, but the viewer will not run. Christine Denniston's site says report problems directly to ebookpro, which I have done, but I would urge anyone thinking of buying this to hold fire until I can report what ebookpro said.
 

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