Javier Rodríguez

"Being a reference for youngsters is a great responsibility"

He spends six or seven months of the year traveling, exhibiting his dancing along with Andrea Missé and teaching seminars. Before leaving for Italy, the great dancer spoke about everything, his art and his life.

Javier Rodríguez is a young “old” milonguero, with a vast track record as a professional dancer which distinguishing him in the world and in Argentina. Since the end of 2005 he has been dancing with Andrea Missé, but he also danced for many years with Geraldine Rojas forming one of the unforgettable couples on the tango scene. He is one of the tango references that many youngsters take when it comes to dancing. In May he is off to Europe to dance and give lessons in Florence, Korea and Russia.

When you think about how to continue your career?
Every day, in the months when I’m traveling and in those I’m not, it’s my passion.  

What inspires you for your work?
The past inspires me, like when I saw Miguel Ángel Zotto and Milena Plebs dance and it attracted me to dance, and it was like that for me with other couples too. Nowadays, seeing Zotto at the theater continues to inspire me. What’s more, I’m motivated by the vast number of kids there are dancing these days, full of enthusiasm, but also lacking in all we had in our time. Inspiration is a mix of the past and the kids of today desperate for tango and not knowing where to go. They have 2 million videos on Youtube but…

But they’re not teachers…
Obviously. The spirit’s not there.
It’s that so many milongueros from the “golden age” have died.
Yes, many milonguero reference figures have died, like Portalea… with them you didn’t need to see them onstage, it was enough just to see them at the milonga. There aren’t any more now. In any case, there’s a new brood of milongueros, like Zotto, Díspari, or my dad, (Jorge Rodríguez), who are getting to occupy a space that has been empty for years.

How do you feel being a reference for the youngsters?
Many kids say it to me and it’s a great responsibility and yet at the same time it indicates to me that I have to carry on. They’re desperate for tango. There’s a lot of milonguerito in construction.

If you had to place a wager on one, who do you like?
They need to be given time. In five years I’ll answer you because there’s still much to be desired. There were many kids that you’d say: “this one’s a smash”, that showed promise and then later they were mistaken, they messed up. We’re in a positive time, of changes, that’s why we need to wait.

¿What do you think of the boom the “new” tango had a few years ago, and how do you set about returning to the traditional?
People like tango – put that in big letters – and tango is music. The dancer is born from the music. Many people, without realizing it due to not having the necessary knowledge, have taken a lesson in new tango and maybe in a while they’ve realized and then they go and look for somewhere where they teach traditional tango. It’s not that there’s a war, simply that there are many people who are confused or mistaken because there are so many classes everywhere. So we’re talking about new tango when we once talked of the milonguero, the “8 cortado” and tango-shows, styles are left in history, and people choose. What happens is that many people in the euphoria of getting started dancing, go and take lessons wherever and they don’t mind where it might be, but sooner or later those people end up embracing each other and dancing tango.

Julio Balmaceda told me one day: “Wait for time to pass, they’ll soon get fed up…”
Of course. And I say to you, they’ll soon realize. The person who is looking for tango, no matter what road they choose, is going to find it.

What is tango for you?
An embrace.

How has your evolution as a dancer been these last years?
After having sweated so much doing ganchos, boleos and enjoying myself so much with that strong blood that tango gives you with steps, today I find the simplicity of just walking very gratifying. I don’t want to say that it’s only necessary to walk, no, by no means, that isn’t dancing. It’s how you walk making a turn, in a straight line, to one side. It is how you place your feet on the floor.

How do you see Andrea’s growth in these last years she has been dancing with you?
Andrea has always been an excellent milonguera, the typical pibita who was grabbed by all the milongueros and they made her do all the steps, and with her brothers. As time went by, Andrea got as far as having her own show and her life was very nice. But the change that is seen today is that she became a woman. She married my cousin, she became a mother – of Guadalupe – and her dance changed to that level. It’s more complete.

And you, what’s happened to you in these years internally?
I think I’m much more serene, more secure in life. That I have my feet more firmly on the ground.

Have you fallen in love?
Yes, twice, but at the moment I’m single. I live love in a positive way, it has to leave me with something good, I don’t weep any more.
How do you see tango abroad?
In 2010 I went to Russia for the first time. They’re very disciplined and they have extremely high conditions for getting started with tango. And, well, as always the Asians at an extremely high point, and the Europeans fighting a bit between themselves with the matter of who dances better or worse.

Did it surprise you that Diego Ortega and Chizuko Kuwamoto came out as the world stage tango dancing champions in 2010?
I know them from Japan, in any case I’m not interested whether they have round eyes or if she’s Chinese, Japanese or Korean, what I’m bothered about is how they dance and the truth is they did it very well, although for me the winning couple was the number one. That couple danced and then no other couple could do any better, they stopped at Luna Park. They see themselves in the running, the girl went out to dance, her dress got hooked up and she carried on dancing like a lady.

María Nieves always says how she never won a championship…
Since I’ve danced tango, I’ve never, ever won a championship because they didn’t exist before, not the championship, nor the best in the world. The best in the world is when you dance. I love all that goes on with the world championship because all it has that’s negative, is positive for the growth of tango. Most of my students are Argentines, of stage tango who want to do traditional tango.  
Do people remind you of the videos dancing with Geraldine? They’re still uploading videos onto Youtube…
Everyone speaks of those videos.

Everyone says they’ll never see another couple like that.
It’s that there’ll never be another couple the same. And I’m not speaking as Javier Rodríguez who’s part of that couple. The truth is it’s a shame that couple isn’t alive still because as a duo it was very nice. But I don’t feel pain or grief, I used to but I’ve got over it. 

Txt: Silvia Rojas / Photos: Alejandra Marín