Alberto Paz
Alberto Paz (1943-2014)
In 1983, "Tango Argentino" revived public interest in
Argentine tango in Europe and North America, but it was Argentines, such as Alberto Paz, who introduced the close embrace dance of the tango salons to the world. Alberto was a great tango historian, writer, teacher, and milonguero, who had a huge impact on the tango world.
Early Years: First the Music, then the Dance
Alberto grew up in Buenos Aires, and like every other boy in Argentina, his passion was soccer. He didn't dance tango until he was an adult. Like most Argentines, he grew up immersed in the culture and music of tango. He knew the tangos of Buenos Aires by heart, long before he ever danced tango.
In 1968, with an engineering degree from the School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires, Alberto found himself in California working for high-tech video companies. Science and engineering were in his blood. When he later took up the tango dance, he approached it with the same scientific logic.
1995, The Year of the Tango
By the mid-1980's, he became a U.S. citizen, and he took up tango, just as "Tango Argentino" was making its appearance in cities across the U.S. Alberto learned tango the same way we all did-- first learning a few basic steps. He returned to Buenos Aires and learned from the masters in the tango salons. When he "felt the tango for the first time," he was hooked.
Beginning in 1991, the head of dance instruction at Stanford University began holding a very popular Stanford Tango Week. Many attribute the beginnings of tango in the Bay area to this annual retreat. Alberto participated in these annual retreats; however, he saw a need to focus on a more useful salon style Argentine tango, as opposed to the performance tango that many new learners had picked up from the Broadway shows. Some local dancers were traveling to Buenos Aires only to experience culture shock at the codes and customs found in the Argentine dance salons.
With Alberto's encouragement, new milongueros were brought in for Stanford Tango Week 1995-- "The Year of the Tango." These milongueros taught the traditional close embrace tango of the crowded Buenos Aires dance floors. This brought the "milonguero style" to the West Coast. See Alberto's account in "Sweet and Sour Tangos" El Firulete October, 2000. https://elfirulete.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/sweet-and-sour-tangos/
In 1995, Alberto married the love of his life, Valorie Hart.
"I believe, that in my case, that is why I was drawn into tango, first as a listener and later as a dancer. Having grown up in the cradle of tango, it didn’t take long for me to identify the conflicting feelings that the music was carving deep inside me."
"One day I found the tango, or it found me. Like everybody else I went through the time structuring stages until I felt it for the first time. Then, it happened again, and I began to to look forward to the reward that the tango has for those who are willing to love it and respect it. One of the many rewards of the tango experience is the possibility of reaching various of intimacy between the two persons who embrace and walk around the floor to the beat of the music."Alberto Paz "As Time Goes By" El Firulete https://elfirulete.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/as-time-goes-by/
Throughout the 1990's, Alberto and Valorie published the Argentine Tango Newsletter El Firulete (most of which Alberto managed to put online before he died).
Alberto and Valorie quickly established the tango school Planet Tango. Together they traveled the world teaching tango, and started many communities still in existence. From the Hudson Valley, NY, to Tallahassee, FL, from San Francisco to Germany, tango communities can trace their origins to workshops with Alberto and Valorie.
Alberto felt very strongly that tango should be taught as a complete package of culture, music, and connection-- not just steps and kicks. In order to help non-Spanish speaking students, he translated the lyrics of hundreds of tangos into English, providing a free database of lyrics for learners.
New Orleans and Planet Tango, then Katrina
In 1999, they taught in New Orleans. Their class was so popular, they were urged to move there to establish Argentine Tango. Planet Tango is still centered in New Orleans.
When Hurricane Katrina hit in August of 2005, Alberto and Valorie were teaching in Tallahassee, Florida. They didn't know if they had a home to return to. The 5 day road trip turned into 4 months. Alberto and Valorie turned this tragedy into an opportunity to teach and write.
Gotta Tango
They flew to Buenos Aires staying in the flat of a friend. This gave them the opportunity to research their new book at the National Archives of Argentina. There Alberto came across Hugo Lamas and Enrique Binda's classic work “El Tango en la Sociedad Porteña, 1880-1920” (Tango in the Buenos Aires Society, 1880 -1920).
Lamas and Binda attacked the accepted myth that tango is simply a provocative, sexual dance from the bordellos of 19th Century Buenos Aires. They presented a new history of tango as a social movement originating in the lower and working classes of Argentina in response to the many dictatorships the country has experienced.
Building upon this well-documented study, Alberto and Valorie wrote their definitive work Gotta Tango. https://elfirulete.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/the-truth-the-whole-truth/
"When Gotta Tango finally was released for publication in November of 2007, we were very proud of being the first ones to have written about tango history with honesty, accuracy, and verifiable information."
"We acknowledged our deepest gratitude and respect to Hugo Lamas and Enrique Binda for their formidable and well-researched book El Tango en la Sociedad Porteña, which put within our reach a verifiable and contemporary documentation that narrates a period of the history of tango from 1880 to 1920 where bibliography did not exist before."
Alberto Paz. The Truth, Nothing but the Truth. El Firulete. https://elfirulete.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/the-truth-the-whole-truth/
The Passing of a Milonguero
Upon returning to New Orleans, Alberto and Valorie continued sharing their tango around the world. In 2009, they won the 3rd Annual U.S.A. Salon Style Tango Championship. They followed that with the Mundial de Tango Salon (world salon tango competition) in Buenos Aires.
Alberto passed away unexpectedly in 2014, doing what he loved--- teaching a tango class. Valorie continues to carry their love of tango to the world. People can contact her at mizvtheb@yahoo.com for any information on the Planet Tango page. Currently the CDs, DVDs and books are not for sale.
Resources
Obituary: http://obits.nola.com/obituaries/nola/obituary.aspx?pid=169648098
Wikipedia contributors. (2018, May 3). Alberto Paz. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:49, May 3, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alberto_Paz&oldid=839367706
Facebook Gotta Tango: https://www.facebook.com/GOTTA-TANGO-learn-how-to-dance-the-Argentine-tango-at-a-social-level-128627163659/
Valorie Hart: http://www.bizneworleans.com/Bizness-Style/October-2015/Valorie-Hart/
Flirty Dancing. By Jim Rendon, Photographs by Christopher Gardner. December 24-30, 1998 issue of Metro. Metro Publishing Inc. Maintained by Boulevards New Media. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.24.98/cover/tango-9851.html
Argentine Tango Society celebrates 10 years of dance. Tallahassee Democrat. May 16, 2015. http://www.tallahassee.com/story/life/2015/05/16/argentine-tango-society-celebrates-years-dance/27454471/
Works by Alberto Paz and Valorie Hart
Gotta Tango by Alberto Paz and Valorie Hart http://www.amazon.com/Gotta-Tango-Alberto-Paz/dp/0736056300
El Firulete https://elfirulete.wordpress.com
"Carlos Gardel Biography" http://antiquehistory.net/gardelweb/bio1.htm
Planet Tango http://www.planet-tango.com
Translation of Tango Lyrics into English https://letrasdetango.wordpress.com