Federico Mattiuzzi & Hosanna Heinrich

 Believing you can do it and working hard towards a goal has paid off for Federico and Hosanna, who this year won the Stage section of the Australian Tango Championships at the Sydney Opera House. Last year this couple came third in the competition, now their dreams have come true and they are off to Buenos Aires in August for the Finals.

Federico: "I work full time for EOWA (Equal Opportunity for Woman in the Workplace Agency) as a Reporting Systems Officer and have been dancing tango for about eleven years. My first tango teacher was Graham Dallow who was assisted by Olga Pommer.  

"About a year and a half ago I asked Hosanna to join me teaching and she agreed. Then about two weeks before last year’s competition. I’d been asking her for about four months,she said she’d like to enter the comp… Ahhhh! Our dancing partnership is fantastic! Very professional. I am really lucky to have such a great dance partner.  

"We started preparing about three months before this year’s competition with the last month being full on! I managed to get Thursdays off for six weeks before the comp so we could practise while we were fresh. (It’s hard to have a full-on practice after a full days work at the office.) We would practise on average four times a week for at least two hours at a time.  

We work out our choreography carefully.  We start by choosing a piece of music that we like and will have audience appeal. Then we divide the piece of music into bars, and make a list of all our favourite show moves and where we think they best fit with the music. The idea is that the movement accentuates the music. It is a case of trial and error, each time refining the movements until we create something that we were happy with. On average we would spend about two and a half hours per eight bars and there are 224 bars 'El Flete' and 256 bars in 'El Huracan'! You do the maths…  

When I was in Buenos Aires I spent the majority of my time learning ‘Downtown Buenos Aires Style’ from great teachers like Susanna Miller and Maria Plazaola. (‘Downtown Buenos Aires Style’ is often referred to as ‘Milonguero Style’. It is a very intimate heartfelt style devoid of things stage tango dancers like to do.) In fact I had a good friend of mine, who is a superb Downtown Buenos Aires Style dancer, who said, “Federico you are dancing very nice Downtown Buenos Aires Style, but I feel you are doomed for the Championship [In Australia]”. And if I had danced that style in the stage category at the Australian Championships he would have been right!  

Instead I found the lessons I did with Gustavo Naveira & Giselle Anne and Julio Balmaceda & Corina de la Rosa invaluable. Naveira taught me how to “phrase” music and how to do some amazing moves. He once told me that it normally takes seven months to master continuous colgadas So to be able to dance them at the Opera House after only four a half months was an achievement in itself! Continuous colgadas on the spot are technically very difficult. The lift and jump sequences were also challenging as we don’t normally dance this way.  

‘El Flete’ by Franciso Canaro and ‘El Huracan’ by Los Reyes Del Tango were the two pieces that we danced to this year. We wanted to show contrast. And I didn’t want to dance to Pugliese this year. (Last year we danced to ‘Pata Ancha’ by Osvaldo Pugliese). We wanted something new. 

I do suffer from stage fright - I’d rather swim with hungry sharks… so I prepare well! To the point that if you were to ask me what my name is and I really couldn’t answer you because of stage-fright, I would still know what came next because my body has movement memory from practising the piece over and over. I take some big deep breaths with Hosanna before we go on. I find her confidence really reassuring and I sometimes take a small nip of whisky! I find that the more I perform in front of an audience the less frightening it becomes. I can’t wait till next year when I might actually enjoy the whole experience.  

Between now and the Championships in Buenos Aires in August we will be practising, practising, practising!... What we already have and looking for ways to make it even better. Since the competition, we have already had a private lesson with the 2003 World Champions Gaspar Godoy & Gisela Galeassi. They were amazing to work with! They were able to help us with all the things we were having difficulty with. Little things that make all the difference. Our goal is to make it into the finals at the 2007 World Championships in Buenos Aires.

We also plan to tour Australia. We have performed in the Gold Coast and we gave workshops in Brisbane. There is also a possibility that we will perform in Canberra in May. We have been invited to give workshops in Melbourne in June. And we would like to travel to Perth and New Zealand before we go to Buenos Aires in August. We also choreographed the Argentinean tango routine for Fifi Box and Paul Green in Channel-7’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’.

Hosanna: During the week I work as a framer in Enmore. I am also involved in establishing an artist run space in Redfern which will be opening soon. I have been dancing for about five years. My first teacher was Angie, who teaches from a small hall in Byron Bay, she oversaw my first tango steps.

Federico approached me to come and teach with him, I accepted and we began practising together. Our partnership is fun and challenging. I think we bring out each other’s strengths and creativity. Being able to work together over a period of time has allowed us to form a solid connection and to be inventive in how we express that in our dancing.

We started preparing about three months before the championship this year. It really paid off to put in the time rehearsing, even though I think it was difficult for both of us to squeeze it in. We began with the music, listening to the songs and improvising. Then we started to put together ideas which best expressed the nuances and narrative of the piece. Creating a tight choreography which accounted for almost every beat was an entirely new experience for me. I learned a lot through that process, especially attentiveness to the music. Doing the same sequences over and over is also a great way to focus on technique.

We started with a shortlist of 140 or so songs! We wanted to do two very different tangos, one dramatic and one lighthearted and fun. For me the last section of ‘El Huracan’ was intense. The choreography is so tight and fast and tiring. We also played around with colgadas which was difficult but lots of fun.

I definitely feel excited and edgy before a performance, but I don’t find this sensation unpleasant. I need a certain amount of energy to dance in front of so many people and a bit of anxiety can help keep focus. I find performing really rewarding and it definitely gets easier with practice.

Federico and I will be training for the world championship in August, so lots of practice. We are organizing a few teaching trips over the next couple of months before we leave. I’m looking forward to going over there and doing our best…then spending some time eating media lunas and dancing.

Photo copyright Clare McClelland. To inquire about photos from the Tango Championships contact
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Copyright TangoAustralia. http://www.tangoaustralia.com.au/. 2007 . This article may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher