Mingo's Golden Anniversary as a Bailarin de Tango
by Alberto
Paz
Copyright (c) 1998-2000, Planet Tango. All Rights Reserved
On June 12, 1998 the Tango people of Buenos Aires packed Salon
El Pial to honor Mingo Pugliese's golden anniversary as a Bailarin de Tango.
That is how the great master humbly defines himself, a Tango dancer.
The gala event started at 10:30 PM and lasted past 5 AM of the following
morning. During the celebration Mingo was honored by many of his students
who played, sung and danced Tango and folklore numbers. There were people
from neighbor countries Uruguay and Brazil, including several distinguished
members of the Rio de Janeiro's Jaime Aroxa Center for Dance and Sao Pablo's
Victor Costa Group. One of the most emotional presentations of the night
was a surprise tribute by two of Mingo's most talented and grateful disciples,
son Pablo and daughter Marisa, who acknowledged their father's enormous
influence in the quality of their artistic and personal lives.
In sharp contrast with a common Buenos aires practice of attracting
customers for windfall profits by staging fake "homenajes" to both local
and foreign individuals, the gigantic party was underwritten by the Pugliese
family and admission was free. Long lines formed outside Salon El Pial
as most of the evening, the salon's capacity was largely exceeded. At the
end more than 700 people have come to celebrate and joined those who admire
and respect the son of Italian immigrants who started dancing in 1948.
Mingo Pugliese was born in the neighborhood of Villa Devoto. His
father arrived to Buenos Aires in 1905 and first lived in a high crime
area, by the Arroyo Maldonado, the creek that today flows under Juan B.
Justo Avenue. In 1922 Gregorio Pugliese marry seventeen year old Maria
Pugliese (no relationship), an Italian girl from Cozenza, Italy. They had
three sons. Mingo is the youngest.
The arts claimed Mingo Pugliese's attention at an early age but he
never graduated from Fine Arts School because of political reasons. He
was thrown out of school because his ideas clashed with the Peronist regime.
It was around 1953-54. He had dissenting political views at a time when
asking the wrong questions could get people in a lot of trouble.
By the time Mingo started dancing there was already a process of
transformation in the way the Tango was being danced. Two distinctive styles
mixed in the dance halls. There were those who danced in the old way and
those who already were being part of the musical and dancing transformation.
In the early days, the Tango had a 2 by 4 beat. A hybrid derived
a from other musical expressions, like the Habanera, the Candombe and the
Fandango. The Tango lacked musical arrangements until the appearance of
Juan Carlos Cobian in the 1920s.
In 1940, a group of dancers led by Carlos
Alberto Estevez, a.k.a. Petroleo and Salvador Sciana, a.k.a. El Negro
Lavandina, belonged to a new generation that was replacing the old bailarines
orilleros. There has always been only two types of Tango: salon and
orillero. Salon was the Tango that was allowed to be danced at the
salons. Orillero was the Tango danced on the fringes of the city. Originally
the fringes were the territory of the scoundrels and rogues. Later the
fringes became the neighborhood clubs. In other words, in the center of
the city there were the salons and in the barrios there were the clubs.
The Tango salon was danced walking in a very simple way, plain, unadorned.
The Tango orillero was danced with steps. This is the way it has always
been.
Mingo lived through that time at an early age because he was lucky
that being so young, the older guys accepted him in their circles. He entered
in the dance circles by the hand of a person that was loved and respected
but nowadays is one of the many forgotten people of Tango, El Negro Lavandina,
whose real name was Salvador Sciana, the name the Puglieses chose to identify
their Tango academy.
Eight years after the transformation of Tango dancing had begun,
Mingo joined a prestigious circle of dancers integrated among others by
Petroleo and Salvador Sciana. This transformation and the movements that
were being incorporated in the Tango continued until 1953-54. Among the
people of that era, there were still a few that mixed new and old dancing
movements, that is why what Mingo teaches and the way he dances incorporates
many principles that were utilized in the old style of dancing. The way
to place the feet without raising the heels, for example.
Many dancers around the world have been "touched" by the impressive
knowledge and clear teaching method of Mingo Pugliese. His knowledge has
been passed to the new generation through the talent of his only son, Pablo
Pugliese, who is just turning eighteen next month. Pablo and mother Esther
have been regular touring teachers in the US since 1996 when Pablo became
the youngest ever faculty member of Stanford University's now defunct Tango
Week. Some notables who publicly have listed Mingo Pugliese as an inspirational
master include Lorena Ermocida, Osvaldo Zotto, Cecilia Gonzalez, Gachi
Fernandez, Sergio Cortazo, Natalia Games and Gabriel Angio. There are bonafide
witnesses who can also remember Pablo Veron, after Tango Argentino, spending
countless hours under closed doors with Mingo, a fact vehemently denied
by Veron himself, who claims to be his own teacher. Many other names escape
this writer's memory but their images going up and down the old Naval Museum
turned dance studio in Avenida Caseros in Parque Patricios are as fresh
today as they were when Valorie and I climbed those stairs during a month
that forever changed our lives, our love and respect for the dancing and
the quality of our teaching.
Congratulations to Mingo Pugliese for his fifty years as a bailarin
de Tango and a very special thank you for sharing his knowledge and experiences
with all the readers of El Firulete.
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