Javier Rodriguez and Andrea Misse, two of the world's most admired tango dancers, perform at Club Sunderland

This video appears with permission of qmulus.

Javier Rodriguez and his partner Andrea Misse, will be in New Zealand from 19 to 22nd October for the Aerolineas Argentinas International Tango Congress of New Zealand. This couple, who were to come to Sydney for AusInternational Tango Festival in May/June, is cone of the most popular on the international tango circuit. Their style is described as Villa Urquiza - a way of dancing tango that is becoming increasingly copied by many of the great tango dancers.

TangoAustralia wanted to find out more about this style of dancing which is named after one of the districts of the City of Buenos Aires. One of the better known milongas, Sunderland which takes place in the Sunderland Basketball Club, is in the Villa Urquiza barrio (district).

We asked two leading teachers and dancers what Villa Urquiza means to them.

Ney Melo, teacher and dancer from New York who visited Australia with his partner Jennifer Bratt early in 2007 said : "When I entered the tango scene in the US, it seemed like everyone was dancing milonguero/susanna miller style or tango nuevo. Anyone who said they danced "tango salon" was basically dancing a modified stage tango (the women dressed in fishnet stockings and the men walking on their toes with agonized expressions).

It was difficult because I didn't identify with any of these groups. I wanted to dance to classic tango music, and I wanted to feel comfortable, and I wanted to look elegant. When Jennifer and I started working with Javier Rodriguez and learning the Villa Urquiza style, it was a turning point in the development of our dance. We were able to develop a style where the woman is the focus of the dance, where she is encouraged to adorn. The Villa Urquiza style is a much needed return to the traditional."

Jacqueline Simpson, Sydney teacher and dancer agreed and said that ‘'It is the way the woman walks, she has tidy feet and looks elegant and smooth. She does not lift her foot." Jacqueline, represents the World Tango Festival in Australia and has visited Buenos Aires every year for the last five years at the time of the Festival. "Susanna Miller with her partner Ana María Shapira ", she explained, "adopted the term milonguero to describe the style of dancing in a close embrace in a confined space. In milonguero everyone is on their own axis." Tango milonguero is sometimes called Tango apilado - but remember they are all just labels.

Jacqueline explained that the Villa Urquiza style is not for every tango dancer. She said "When people mature in tango they usually identify the styles which they feel most comfortable with and it might be milonguero or Villa Urquiza."

Well-known dancers of the Villa Urquiza style include Javier Rodriguez and his partner, Andrea Misse, Fabian Peralta and Virginia Pandolfi who will visit a number of cities and participate in the Byron Bay Tango Festival in September, Maria del Carmen, Jorge Dispari and Geraldine Rojas.

Copyright Tangoaustralia. 2007. This article may not be produced in any form without written permission of the publisher.

Ney Melo has given TangoAustralia permission to run this video.