Prelude to Kuala Lumpur: A Weekend of Tango, 2-4 November 2018, with Karina Colmeiro and Maximiliano Cristiani
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Interview
Part 1: Introducing Karina Colmeiro
By Petra Gimbad
Karina Colmeiro began studying dance at the age of 9 years. She developed a teaching pedagogy culminating from her many years of dancing ballet and contemporary dance in addition to tango. Her strength in teaching lies in her comprehension of body mechanics, and the ability to identify how these mechanics differ for each person to reveal one’s individual tango. As a consequence, Karina has acquired a deserved reputation as a detailed and attentive teacher: one who is able to pinpoint how a weakness can be turned into a strength. She provides with this the necessary feedback required by the student to execute his or her individual tango confidently.
Karina has danced across Argentina and Europe, and partnered with dancers such as Horacio Godoy and Ezequiel Farfaro. She is a respected choreographer in Argentina and abroad, and has also directed tango companies that fuse ideas of traditional tango and contemporary dance, to create new and personal languages.
Please enjoy Karina’s dancing with Maximiliano here.
- Let us get this question out of the way. You are an experienced tango dancer, teacher and performer, who has partnered other skilled tangueros. Why did you decide to partner Maximiliano Cristiani to teach and perform tango?
Those who know something of my career would have seen how I have journeyed through different styles in tango. Part of having a solid training as a dancer, is exploring diversity to make one’s dancing more complete. This means that I have danced and studied many different techniques in say, contemporary dance, and I have done the same with tango [by dancing different styles in tango]. I continue learning different styles and diversities because learning never ends.
With Maximiliano, I have known him for several years and watched his evolution. Coming from different worlds, dancing with him provided a challenge, in addition to growing my own dancing and career. However, I liked where he was going with the tango, so when the possibility of working together arose, I accepted it quite happily.
- You have danced since you were 9 years old, and you have danced ballet and contemporary dance. Why did you commit to tango?
This is a good question. It is one that that I have asked of myself in the past, given that I had prepared myself to be a contemporary dancer during all my life.
It was the last stage of my contemporary dance studies when I discovered the tango and fell totally in love with it. There was magic in the idea of letting go, in being guided and above all, the relationship that exists between a man and woman who have tango. I think that it was the last [the relationship between partners] that stood out in my early perception of tango.
My professional move from contemporary dance to tango was very gradual, so much so that it happened almost without me realising it. I found myself working in Europe in dance companies and linking tango with contemporary dance on several occasions. You could say that life took me in that direction until that one day when I knew that I wanted to be a tango professional and did everything within my power to be able to be one.
- Who were the teachers who influenced you, and what did you learn from them?
When I started in tango I took classes all over the world – I was so curious that I wanted to explore everything. This was until I found a method that drew my attention and decided to commit to it.
The teachers who influenced me were Fabian Salas, Gustavo Naveira and Chicho Frumboli. With them, I learned the structures of tango, their development and eventually, the rupture of these structures. I learnt to think and understand the functionality of the dance, to ask the why of things, and the study of different possibilities from a basic structure. This was a time when tango was in plain evolution, where contributions from other dances were received to favour the understanding of the technique.
I also have to say that I learned a lot from my colleagues. I have spent many hours with groups of friends researching, searching, discussing, drawing conclusions, practicing, exchanging ideas. This enriched and contributed to my training greatly. At the time, there was no YouTube, and people did not own cameras, which meant that we relied on memory, we got together in groups to practice what we learned in class, or we found and created our own.
I have learned many things from many teachers over time, to the point that I cannot name them all. However, one teacher who I would like to name for importing so much knowledge to me on a pedagogical level is the Master Olga Besio. She has not only helped to guide my thinking as a tango dancer; she has also made me think deeply as a teacher.
- When did you realise that you have something to offer tango as a teacher?
Firstly, I am a qualified teacher of classical and contemporary dance. I am trained to teach, and have a long career of teaching. I am passionate about teaching, and to date, teaching is something that I have been doing for more than 20 years – which encompasses the teaching of the tango. Personally, I always had the interest to investigate how one can transmit knowledge effectively, and I think this is something that is innate in me. This innate interest therefore translates into the need to teach tango, which has evolved in a very natural and logical way.
- What is your passion as a teacher in developing students as tango dancers?
I believe that the teacher’s job is to guide the student to carry out his or her own learning process. I never impose a way of doing things, but I like to give the students tools so that they can develop their dance. I am interested in that they can understand what they are doing, in every sense, at every level of the movement, of the sensitivity involved, and even on a philosophical level. We dance with one another, with music and with people around us.
I like to transmit the idea of respect and listening to the person in front of us, as well as listening to the other dancers who are sharing the same space and of course listening to the music. I hope that the student acquires the freedom to be able to develop the dance that he or she wants without having to look like anyone else, while being in control of his or her own body and communication with his partner, with the space, and with the music.
This is part 1 of a 3-part interview with Karina Colmeiro and Maximiliano Cristiani. Join us for part 2 of the series, as Maximiliano discusses his walk and the importance of connection. Karina and Maximiliano will be teaching, performing and providing private instruction from 2-4 November 2018 in Kuala Lumpur. Details here:
Weekend with Maximiliano & Karina in Kuala Lumpur 2018
Please click on highlighted venue for location map and organizer.
Tango Malaysia 