Report on dancers (Second part)

his is a continuation of the first part of the report, published on this site:

El Chivo (The Goat): and his brother Melena (Mane).

El Cívico: His name was Bautista Salvini; descendant of southern Italians. He lived with “La Moreira” in the room number 15 of the “Sarandí”, a tenement house located on 1356 Sarandí Street and where the Greco family occupied some rooms. He was a good dancer and a respected perfect “compadrito”.

El Flaco Alberto

El Flaco Alfredo Carozzi

El Flaco David: He frequented the “Patria e Lavoro”, an infamous dancehall located on Chile 1567.

El Flaco Enrique Costa

El Flaco Saúl: A country landlord who stood out among the early dancers. According to “Viejo Tanguero”: «this dancer, “a well-known amateur”, was capable of performing tango in its two styles: the original, bright, complex, full of figures and shaking, with agility, strength and character, and plain tango, that was developed at the time of the so-called Guardia Vieja (old trend) as a need because female dancers were unable to follow the creators in the former style. It was defined and ended up being the tango-dance or the characteristic style of the Guardia Nueva (new trend), or “cabaret tango”.»

El Francés

El Gallego Méndez (José Méndez): He used to dance with “La Cachito”. They were known as Los Méndez.

El Guengue: A dancer that had a group of fans that followed him in Parque de los Patricios.

El Ingeniero Alcorta: He frequented the cabaret Imperio -Suipacha and Lavalle- where he gegan to dance with “La Cachito”. They were known as “Los Pampas”. The cabaret was closed in 1939 because of a death.

El Inglés Davidson

El Japonés Iturrioz

El Lento

El Macho

El Mixto: He was a half-breed that used to put white flour on his face when he went out to dance. People say that he brought the outskirts tango from Avenida San Martín to downtown. Héctor López defined him as: «a man from the outskirts, a dodger, with a tall, slender figure and long legs that favored his displacement and highlighted his good-looking appearance».

El Nano: He very well danced milonga and canyengue tango. He was also known as “El Nano de la Boca”. He was a close friend of El Cachafaz’s.

El Negro Alfredo (or El Negro Núñez, or El Sordo): Alfredo Núñez was the dancer of the blacks of Flores, he was deaf. His female dancing partner was “La Peti”, wife of the composer Bruno Ginochio. He was married to Rosendo Mendizábal’s daughter. He was step brother of the bandoneonist “El Negro Machado”. He was known as “El Rey de los Negros”. Carmencita Calderón was his last dancing partner. He stood out as a good canyengue tango and milonga dancer.

El Negro Benguela

El Negro 48: Mayoral was acquainted with him.

El Negro del Abasto

El Negro Galarza

El Negro Pedro: He used to dance with “La China Mauricia”.

El Negro Tajuaira

El Nene del Abasto: He was a newspaper vendor. His stand was on Azcuénaga and Corrientes. He was the only dancer who performed the American turn the other way around, turning to the left.

El Ñato Garbarino: «He had command of the outskirts tango and was a dancer of a refined tango with original figures». So Héctor López defined him in his notes for the “Clarín” newspaper.

El Ñato Reyes

El Pardo Santillán: His competition with El Cachafaz was much talked after. His female dancing partner was “La Parda Esther”. He organized dances at the “San Martín” dancehall on Rodríguez Peña Street.

El Pardo Sebastián

El Pendejo Echevarne (Carlos Kern): Also known as “Carlos, El Inglés” or “El Ingresito”. He was partner of “María, La Vasca”. He also danced with “La Vasca Ernestina”. He used to dance the crossed waltz very well. He was an impressive male with clear eyes, generally calm but efficient at the time of being tough. It was said that he had a name for being a bully, with a heavy blow and he was capable to face the aggressive guys alone. For a time he organized the dances at Patria e Lavoro, on Chile 1567. It was a narrow saloon in which it was difficult to keep pickpockets and rioters at bay. According to César Viale’s words he ended up working as a porter at the legal office of doctor Carlos Delcasse.

El Petiso Zabalita

El Pibe Colón: A good salón and fantasía tango dancer.

El Pibe Cristo: They say he is a master of tango fantasía.

El Pibe del Abasto (Roberto Grassi)

El Pibe Gascón: He was a disciple of El Cachafaz. He is among the wealthy dancers alongside Torres Agüero and Pereyra Lucena.

El Pibe Palermo (José María Baña): He danced with Norma Soto. He was the son of another famous dancer whose nickname was “El Tarta” (The Stutter).

El Pibe San Telmo: His name was Ángel Serini. He stood out as a canyengue dancer.

El Picaflor del Norte

El Rusito Elías (Elías Borovsky)

El Ruso: His name appears in a police record in which “Manuela, La Orientala” was presumed to be his dancing partner.

El Sordo Pablo: A great dancer of outskirts tango.

El Tano Ponce: Mentioned by Domingo Greco in his unpublished memoirs as one of the most famous dancers in Buenos Aires in the 1900s.

El Tano Roque: He died at age 90. In the movie “Cabalgata del Tango” he danced with Carmencita Calderón. He was from Avellaneda.

El Tarta: They say he was the Pibe Palermo’s father.

El Toto de Caballito: A dancer that stood out in tango de salón.

El Turco Juan Sarquis

El Turquito: He was a cobbler in Villa Crespo.

Fait, Mario: Classic and fantasía dancer. He was in the cast of the Francisco Canaro’s shows.

Fernández, José: After the 20s with Pedro Lopresti he went to Paris to teach tango dancing.

Filiberto, Juan “Mascarilla”: Father of the musician and composer Juan de Dios Filiberto. A virtuoso tango dancer in the early days; a natural and spontaneous creator. Owner or administrator of the “Bailetín El Palomar”, later the “Tancredi” (c. 1882), a resort near Suárez and Necochea, in the middle of La Boca. We transcribe a part of the interview by La Canción Porteña (Buenos Aires, 1963) in which his son says the following: «“My father was a merry fellow, a little bit absent-minded but simple and good. He used to easily laugh and humor was shining in his eyes and he had a witty remark always ready on his lips as natural as himself. He used to sing in a pleasant tenor range and I liked to hear him. He was a natural-born dancer, he was one of the best tango dancers in La Boca; his fame was well deserved. According to his temper he was able to carry out the most different and contradictory trades, from dancehall owner to sailor, fighter or bricklayer. He was friend and many times also bodyguard of Pepe Fernández, strong man of La Boca, who was firstly supporter of Mitre and later of the general Roca. He possessed an extraordinary strength and many times he appeared at the Rafetto circus as fighter and weightlifter».

Firpo, Jorge

Freites: In the twenties he run his dancing school on Rivadavia 1525.

García, David “El Pibe”

Gariboto, Atilio “Polenta”

Gianbuzzi, José “Tarila”: He lived in Villa Urquiza on 6238 Pirán Street. He started dancing at the Sin Rumbo club. He was the first who teamed up with Carmen Calderón and it was him who introduced her to El Cachafaz. For a short time he run a dancehall near the Mercado de Abasto on Gallo Street. He was a bricklayer. Dr. León Benarós said about him: «He was fair-haired, stout, short, in his old days he curiously looked like Leopoldo Melo. He always said that dancing tango required elegance and he scorned the “calesiteros” that limited themselves to turn around the track like in a merry-go-round. The nickname “Tarila” -Giambuzzi himself explained it to us- derives from the difficulty he had when he was a child to pronounce the word barrilete (kite) which he called “tafilete”. From that to the short form there was only one step. His nickname became irreplaceable for him».
Carmencita Calderón said about him: «El Tarila danced very well and even though his style was slightly similar to Bianquet’s, in fact it was quite different. And the difference was evident in the clean, perfect movements of El Cachafaz while Tarila rather moved without the inborn elegance of the former. To that we have to add that he was even more diminished because of his mania for bending down a little».

González, Ricardo “Mochila”: Dancer, musician and composer. A very close friend of Eduardo Arolas’s. He used to dance at a well-known venue on Sáenz Peña and Garay.

Güiraldes, Ricardo: Writer. Author of “Don Segundo Sombra”. He was born in Buenos Aires on February 13, 1886; he died in Paris on October 8, 1927. He became famous also as a good dancer. He was one of the first ones in introducing danceable tango in France where he made shows at the renowned Madame Rezke’s dancehall.

Herrera, Carlos: He was from Balvanera. He used to dance with “La Gallega María”. The P.B.T. magazine on September 27, 1913 mentioned him as contestant in a tango competition held at the Sociedad Sportiva.

Herrera, Juan Carlos: Dancer. He was dancing teacher at the Plaza Hotel and he had the difficult task of spreading tango dancing among ladies and gentlemen of the Buenos Aires society of his time. He run an Academia on Bartolomé Mitre 1282. His competition with El Cachafaz is well remembered.

Kalisay: His name was Antonio Marino and was an outstanding tango dancer of milonga and outskirts style.