Tango in times of crisis

It is now just a few weeks to the festival ! We have a lot of work handling all the subscriptions, but that's better than waiting for people to come. We are happy to know that despite the economical circumstances, our visitors appreciate the festival and choose to be there, on Doble Ocho. Because in these times, it's all a matter of choice. But see it from a different perspective ! When people wait to buy new cars, houses, fridges, LCD and plasma TV's, interior design stuff, new phones etc etc, there is more money left to either save or spent ! And some people will choose to keep on spending and investing in their social life !
In times of crisis, sociologists and economists have found out, that consumers tend to look more again to their social life ! We just had a decade or two of individualisation and self-enrichment, let's call it the bling bling era. Looking back at it, it does feel a bit empty, all these people chasing money and putting materialism as their main target. But let's say that real value lies in human interaction. What we learn from life and from eachother, through writing, art, music, dance...
We are moving slowly towards a new era of social entrepeneurship and management, sustainable growth ( not because it is trendy, but out of pure necessity), green innovations and the introduction of morality over individuality. The focus will also shift slowly on our social interactions and the sheer celebration of living on this great magical planet.
And at this moment, people start to invest on their social lifes more, and for most tango people the tangodance is their social life ! But also spending more time with family and friends, eating together, just talking together, and dancing together.
OK, this sound pretty optimistic ! some people would say, people like to go to festivals or concerts to forget their daily troubles !, and.. what if you just lost your job ? Well, my answer would be, a crisis is allways a start of transformation, and transformation is essential for growth and a fundamental part of our human excistence.

Lucien Lecarme
Doble Ocho festival Director

New Festival paper published !

The new 2009 edition Doble Ocho festival paper is published and distributed through the international tango community. When you would like to receive this paper, please mail the organisation (tango(add)dds.nl).

Read Visions of tango by karin Venverloo and Isolde kanikani, a column by Aisling, Leo Vervelde's view on tangomusic and the globalisation, the history of recorded and recording tangomusic by Arnoud the Graaff, facebook,tango & Photography by Lucien lecarme, photo's by Alexander Zabara from Moskow, tango& food, an Interview with Lizelot de Stigter and lot's more....

NEW

This year the full programme including the locations and workshops is part of the festivalpaper too !

GET IT IN YOUR NEAREST TANGOSCHOOL !!

NEWS !!  VALE TANGO TOUR CANCELLED

Hello
I'm Andres Linetzky, pianist and director of Vale Tango
I am writing you to transmit our sadness for the tour that we planned and will not be able to made concrete in 
April, 2009 for Europe. The crisis that affects so much Europe as Argentina did that the numbers that we handled for this tour could not cover the expenses that implies do a trip of these characteristics . So much I as the whole group apologize for the disadvantages that this can have generated you and hope that you could understand the situation. Otherwise I am sure that in the future we will meet with you and be able to share our music with you.
 
Best regards

ANDRES LINETZKY

The Orquestra Vale tango will be replaced by ASTILLERO TANGO from Buenos Aires. The Doble Ocho concert will be their first in Europe

about Astillero tango

The sound of Astillero is forceful, vertiginous, breathtaking, raw yet sophisticated: a rollercoaster ride of 
throbbing accents modulating into earth-shattering pianissimos and beyond. Yet this wild sound is entirely hand-made, free of any gimmicks, 100% acoustic: the sound of just wood and strings, brought to searing life by an acute sense for translating the experience of 21st century urban life into new music, built on a solid traditional foundation of Buenos Aires' tango.

The orchestra, though featuring the typical instruments of a classic tango ensemble (two bandoneons, violin, piano, cello, double bass, and a singer) is a tango formation that has nothing to do with the 'tango' of our 
collective conciousness. Astillero proposes a completely new vision of tango, incisive and intense, rough and 
violent. The sounds of this group are the sounds of Buenos Aires today - the way they play their music reflects 
the incongruities and madness of this urban jungle; it kicks, breaks, hurts, jumps. Just as the world we live in.
From their all-original compositions, some instrumental, some with lyrics, emerges a tango that is stripped down yet rich and original. The fresh lyrics add to the rawness - a rough but tender voice, that cares and tears at the same time. The concept goes even beyond music, developed further by video images, both poetic and political,projected live to complement the deluge of sound. The group's young members have been steeped in traditional tango from early on. At the forefront of the recent  'Maquina Tanguera' movement of contemporary tango in Buenos Aires, they have worked with a number of important groups from the scene before forming Astillero in 2005. Years of study and research have also led them to become themselves teachers to the younger generation, through their work with a number of independent organisations and social projects.

With two European tours in recent years, and a much-talked-about showcase at WOMEX 08 in Sevilla, Astillero are now fast building an international following. The secret is out, and the word is spreading! 

Website Astillero Tango
Astillero on Myspace
Astillero on Womex
Astillero on Youtube

Festival Paper

We are currently working at the new Doble Ocho festival newspaper. It will be 2 times bigger than the first edition with lot´s of interesting articles, photo´s, the festival programme and other usefull information. Whe have input from dancers all over Europe and from Leo Vervelde, who wrote his experiences and vision about the development of Tangomusic in Buenos Aires and Europe in the last century. Leo was co-founder of the Sexteto Canyengue and now Artistic Manager of the Rotterdam Conservatorium, Section World Music - Argentine tango.

The paper will be first distributed during the El Corte Chained salon of next march 7 / 8 and later will be published through the festival website too.

Tango Music Concurso

After the last edition's introduction, the tango music concurso is now a structural part of the Doble Ocho festival. The Concurso wants to stimulate and discover new musical talents, and offer them a podium and possibilities for a breakthrough in the professional circuit. Also the Concurso wants to be an international meeting place for musicians, podium programmers, festival directors, music labels and of course tango dancers and music lovers. With the professional jury the Concurso stands for quality and realises a selection in tangogroups and musicians. With music masterclasses organised in the doble ocho festival we try to supply a further stimulation to these talents. To make it affordable, the participation of the Concurso and the masterclass is free for music students. In the near future the Doble Ocho organisation intends to motivate regional music schools to participate in the Concurso and stimulate them to give more space to tango music in their educational programme.

These activities are starting to draw the attention of other tango festivals. Doble Ocho is currently setting up a collaboration with the new Antwerp Tango Festival , the Tiempo Argentino Tango Festival ( 29/10 – 01/11 2009). To make the music contest even more interesting for musicians to participate, we wan't to offer the winner the possibility to play on other festivals, not only at Doble Ocho. And Antwerp will be most probably the first International partner for the 2010 Music Concurso.

Lucien Lecarme

go to the Music Concurso website

doble ocho video, click on the arrow to play
Dancers in the video : Rozemarijn and Sing

What tango can do to you !

by Marij Faessen

In 2007 Ellen Kocken filmed in El Corte. She filmed El Corte’s founder Eric Jeurissen, the lessons and the milongas. Ellen describes her work as documentary portrait. During the next Doble Ocho festival the El Corte documentary will be shown again in LUX ! Marij Faessen interviewed Ellen for this special occasion.

Can you tell us something about DZIGA?
Dziga is a workplace for moviemakers and video artists. I founded it ten years ago, because I wanted to make documanetaries. DZIGA is a foundation, which produces short movies. Our goal is not the big, global movie industry, but the development of movie talents.

How did you get the idea to make a documentary about El Corte?
I have been dancing for fifteen years. I find Eric a fascinating person, as a teacher and as a tango organizer and El Corte is a wonderful meeting place for international tangueros. The idea of making a movie about El Corte has been on my mind for years, but since I was unable to raise enough funds, I never was able to do so. That is untill the province Gelderland granted us a subsidy.

Eric gets a lot of request for filming in El Corte. Most of these requests he declines. Why didn’t he decline your request?
Little by little I won Eric’s confidence. I have been dancing for 15 years and also know him in another context. My ex-partner was involved in the first great El Corte renovation. And Eric also knew that I had my own enterprise. He always showed a great interest in it.
I think I was able to win Eric’s confidence, because our approach was clearly different than what other people want to do.
Eric is not somebody who easily delagates tasks to other people. We made appointments about the moments we filmed, so Eric did have some influence on what we filmed. The deal is that I make my own movie, a documentary portrait of El Corte.

How did you experience the making of this documentary?
The extraodinary thing is that Bert Huibers, the camera man did dance tango for 5 years. He immediately understood what to film. I noticed that people were looking for a way to deal with the presence of a camera. They were looking for the right distance and involvement. People also did react differently because I assumed a role that was unfamiliar to them. Just like during my study (antropology), I was doing field work and that was quite a challenge.

What struck you most?
El Corte is a very special world. Personaly I discoverd myself in dancing tango and that is what I have in common with a lot of other dancers. The social aspect of tango is important, it is not about how you look, but who you are. I always experienced it this way and the documentary has strengthend this feeling. But also the confronting aspects of tango, the rejections, the part about not being a member of the group is there. What we tried to do is capture the essence of tango in images.

Did you succeed in this?
Not in words, you don’t get it explained. The dance can do a lot to you. It can give you a happy, warm feeling. However I think that we did manage to capture this feeling.

What was the biggest surprise for you?
The biggest surprise for me was that tango is a very important part of life for so many people. For us it was exciting to show that El Corte does mean a lot in the world of tango.

link to Dziga
read the complete interview here