Interview with Carolina and Diego

 

Carolina Zokalski and Diego Di Falco toured for four years with “Forever Tango,” including two years on Broadway. Their Tuesday night classes help make Firehouse Tango a special experience. CJ Puotinen conducted this interview in October, 2004.

 

Carolina Zokalski

 

Firehouse Tango: Let’s start with you, Carolina. Where are you from, and how did you become a tango dancer?

 

CZ: I was born in Madrid but I grew up in Argentina. My mother was born in Spain and she grew up in Argentina, too. My father is from Argentina. So even though I was born in Spain, I think of myself as Argentine. I started dancing socially at 15 and professionally when I was 18. Diego and I met while dancing, not tango in those days but Argentine folk dancing. He was already a professional tango dancer, but I didn’t know anything about it when we met.

 

FT: When did you come to the United States?

CZ: Diego came here in 1995 as part of the “Forever Tango” cast when he was 19. He was then dancing with another partner. In 1996, when we were both 20, I joined the company and toured with the show for eight months before it came to Broadway in July 1996. At that time, we were the youngest tango dancers on Broadway. It was tango that brought us to New York.

 

FT: Your stage tango is of course dynamite, but what style of social tango do you dance?

CZ: Our style is the same on the stage and in the milonga. We dance differently because we feel different things, but still we are the same and our style reflects what we are. When we started; and especially when Diego started in 1986; practically no one in Argentina was dancing tango.  The only people doing it were 65 and older, and not very many of them, so we learned their style, the traditional style that people were still dancing 15 years ago. But the dance has changed a lot in the last 10 years, and it’s still changing. We lived through that change from here, with no other professionals around for reference or support, and that painful isolation helped us create our unique style. That’s why it’s hard to name styles. Every tango couple is unique. I remember when we went back to Buenos Aires for the first time in December 1995; we went to a milonga full of young new people. It was so emotional to see that! I felt happiness but also envy because they had people their own age to dance with. We’ve created our own style based on that traditional foundation, but that style has been helped by the search for possibilities and different ways of doing movements. There is a whole new generation of young people who are dancing tango in a traditional way, but what is traditional now is very different from what was traditional in the 1980s. Compared to other dancers our age, we’re definitely traditional! Diego leads and I follow, even when we’re doing something choreographed, and everything we do has that traditional foundation.

 

FT: When did you start teaching?

CZ: We started; let me think, in 1998 here in the United States. That’s when our performance with “Forever Tango” ended. After we left the company, we traveled to Japan, Israel, Canada, and the U.S.

 

FT: You’ve seen a lot of the world. Where do you most enjoy dancing tango?

CZ: Well, I enjoy dancing tango with Diego, so wherever he is, that’s where I’m happy dancing. In every country it’s a little different, and of course in Argentina it’s very special. But I enjoy dancing tango everywhere.

 

FT: What is your favorite music for dancing?

CZ: It depends on how I feel, but I like Osvaldo Pugliese very much. His is one of my favorite orchestras, but it depends. If it’s for dancing onstage, I like Astor Piazzolla very much. But for the milonga, I like Pugliese, Carlos Di Sarli, Ricardo Tanturi, and a few others.

 

FT: What do you most enjoy teaching people?

CZ: That’s a hard question. There are a lot of people teaching steps and moves, but Diego and I like to give our students a message. When we’re traveling and don’t have an opportunity to see them often or on a regular basis, we try to tell them that tango is not about steps or structure, it’s more like a language. It’s like a conversation between two people. We try to teach them to communicate with each other and then create their own movements. This involves leading and following, and also creating something, creating their own steps instead of copying steps from other teachers or other dancers. For most people, especially for the leaders, it’s difficult for them to let their partners know what they want to do and what they want their partners to do. That’s why the basis of tango, communication, is so important. We work a lot on how to let your partner know where you’re going and what you want and what you hope your partner will do in response.

 

FT: How do you teach that?

CZ: We don’t plan anything in advance. We go to a class, see what people need, and then decide what to do. We never decide what to do before we get there. We used to, but it never worked out because everybody has different needs. We just go and see what people need and try to work with them. We do different exercises, like we have people hug each other and feel the energy or the tension their bodies have. We ask them to have the same tension and the same connection while they are dancing. We have them walk and do very simple things while they focus on the upper body. We want them to be very connected and move as one, not as two separate people doing different things. So we do simple things like walking in different directions, focusing on being together, and moving as one.

 

FT: When you began working with Firehouse Tango, how did you start?

CZ: We started with classes in fundamentals. I wish everyone would take these classes because they emphasize the basics. They’re good for everyone, not just beginners. Fundamentals are the most important classes we have. In the first month, we worked on how to lead correctly and how to follow correctly. In the second, we taught some patterns and worked on technique. For example, we spent four weeks teaching turns, the technique of making turns, the lead and the follow in turns, and improving the communication of leader and follower in making the turns. We focus on one thing for the whole month.

 

FT: What kinds of questions or problems do typical new tango dancers here in America tend to have?

CZ: They usually ask about steps, they want to learn steps, or they want to do things with their legs, so they focus on the legs and feet. We believe that the thing to focus on is the upper body, not the legs. If you move the upper body correctly, your legs are going to be in the right place at the right time. The technique in tango is very similar to when we are walking on the street. The only difference is that on the street, we don’t think about what we are doing, we don’t analyze everything that we do and every move that we make. In tango, if we start thinking and analyzing, which is what most people do, especially focusing on the legs, we get ourselves all confused. We forget that if you move your upper body correctly, you don’t have to worry about the legs. You can relax, and relaxing makes everything a lot more easy. Tango is not like ballet or ballroom, where you have to learn a special position. Tango is more natural; it’s a lot more like our normal way of walking and moving.

 

FT: Did you grow up in a family of tango dancers?

CZ: No. I’m the only one. My father is a folk singer. He loves tango music, but he doesn’t sing tangos. I have one brother, but he’s not a tango dancer, either.

 

FT: How did you become interested in tango at a time when no one was doing it?

CZ: Well certainly no one our age was doing it. There might have been two or maybe three other young people dancing tango and everyone else was old. But I met Diego and he was very serious about tango. We didn’t have much time to see each other, so I followed him to all the shows he performed in and all the classes he took, and that’s how I fell in love with tango. I think tango feels much better when you do it rather than watch and focus on what it looks like, especially back then. It just wasn’t attractive to young people. Then it became very popular outside Argentina, in Europe and here in America. After the tango shows and the movies, Argentineans realized how wonderful tango was. When they realized how special it is and that it was theirs and they weren’t doing it, it’s like they suddenly woke up. Now it’s very popular in Argentina.

 

FT: If you were to say one thing that you want people to know about how to learn tango or how to dance tango, what would it be?

CZ: I want people to understand that tango is not just one more dance. It’s something completely different. Again, it’s not about steps or how it looks, but it’s a language. I want people to forget about how it looks and what other people think about how they’re dancing. I want them to tune all that out and focus on what they feel. When you spend two and a half minutes dancing with somebody, it’s just you and that person and the music. It’s just great when you can forget about everything else and enjoy those two and a half minutes. Don’t worry if you make a mistake or step on your partner’s feet. Just enjoy those two minutes. Every tango is unique and different. It’s important to appreciate that. So I want people not to worry about anything but instead relax and enjoy. That’s what’s important. Enjoy the dance.

 

FT: And your favorite tango partner is Diego?

CZ: Yes. Of course.

 

FT: Is he the best dancer you’ve ever danced with?

CZ: I think so. He’s a great dancer. Every dancer has something different, but Diego has what I think a really good dancer needs to have. When I dance with him, he’s dancing with me. He’s not thinking about steps, he’s thinking about me, or he’s thinking with me. Sometimes you dance with someone and you realize that you’re not important to that person. You don’t have the connection that tells you what that person wants to do and what he wants you to do. Or your partner is thinking more about steps or more about the people who are watching than about you. When I dance with Diego, we are 50 and 50. We are two halves that make up a whole. I don’t have to follow him all the time, instead we take turns and sometimes he follows me. I’m dancing, too. That’s the most important thing for me. I get to think and I get to do things, not just do what he leads me to do. I can dance. I can also improvise and do things together with him. He’s also very musical. He’s an excellent tango dancer, his technique is very good, but because he’s so musical, he lets the music move him. So he’s never thinking about specific steps or when is he going to do some new pattern. He just feels the music and lets his body go. I think that’s why I enjoy dancing with him so much.

 

FT: It goes without saying that a dance like the tango can lead to pregnancy. What was it like dancing tango while you were expecting?

CZ: Well, the pregnancy affected my balance and changed my center of gravity, but it happened so slowly that I adjusted without having to think about it. I never stopped dancing. I taught lessons and danced until a day or two before Paloma was born on May 12. The adjustments I had to make after she was born were more difficult. That was a much more sudden change, losing all that weight so quickly.

Over all, I think that dancing helped my pregnancy. I didn’t gain much weight and didn’t have any problems with fluid retention or any of the difficulties women usually experience. I felt really good all the way through, and I’m sure that dancing made a difference. Paloma is five months old now, and I started teaching again three months ago, when she was two months old.

 

FC: Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

CZ: Diego and I started dancing tango because we love it, and we became professionals without ever intending to. That’s what makes the difference. Tango is everything for us, not only our profession, but our lifestyle. We could not live without it.

 

 

Diego Di Falco

 

FC: Thank you, Carolina! Now we’ll turn to the other half of this dynamic partnership. Diego, how did you become interested in tango?

DDF: I started dancing Argentine folk dance when I was four years old. At the dance school I attended, they taught dances from Mexico and Latin America, but none of these had anything to do with the culture of Argentina. I decided to learn the only authentically Argentine dance, which is of course tango. Hector Davie was my first instructor, and I found him when I was 12. It wasn’t easy finding a tango teacher in those days, because the dance was not at all popular, nothing like it is now. I was in a taxi one day and the taxi driver was listening to tango music. I asked him if there was any place I could go and learn how to tango, and he told me that the milonga where he danced had classes. He gave me the address, and I went there with my mom to sign up for lessons. We walked into this huge room and there were only five couples, and they were all 50 years old or older. The teacher asked my mom if she wanted to learn, and she said, “No,” and pointed at me. “He wants to learn.”   I studied there for about six months, and after that, I got to know everybody who did Argentine tango, the different instructors, the places to practice, and the milongas.

 

FT: Did your mother learn to dance tango?

DDF: No, she never did. But she’s a very good critic.

 

FT: Then you met Carolina through folk dancing and got her interested in tango.

DDF: Well, we started dating first. There was a period where I was dancing both Argentine folk dance and tango, and that’s when I met Carolina. We started dating, and basically, she was surprised that I was interested in dancing tango. It was such an old-fashioned thing to do. No one our age was doing it. But within that first year, she started to like it, and then around eight or nine years ago, we started dancing together.

 

FT: Tell us about your videos.

DDF: Actually, we made two series of videos. Both are available at Firehouse Tango; you just have to ask at the desk.  They are also available through The Tango Catalog (PO Box 440394, West Somerville, MA 02144) and from our website, www.carolinaydiego.com. In Spanish, the “y” is like the “&” symbol, so the website address is our names. The first series of seven videos we did for Daniel Trenner at Bridge to the Tango, which later became the Tango Catalog. In that series, there’s a video for the man’s technique, another for the woman’s technique, then advanced salon tango, and advanced tango waltz, plus three videos on stage dancing. In our new “One Step Further Tango Series,” which we produced ourselves three years ago, there are four videos: the tango waltz, salon tango, the milonga, and complex tango.

 

FT: I asked Carolina about your style of tango. Would you like to elaborate a little on that?

DDF: I think our dance is like salon style, or salon style adapted to stage. Tango involves so many things and there are so many styles that it’s hard to be specific, but I can define our style in general as salon style.

 

FT: What is your favorite music for dancing?

DDF: For social dance, Miguel Calo and Ricardo Tanturi. For stage dancing, Osvaldo Pugliese, Astor Piazzolla, and Color Tango. We used the music of Color Tango in our “One Step Further” videos. 

 

FT: Which do you prefer, dancing on stage or social dancing?

DDF: Well, they are two different things. I like to do both. Actually, on stage, we bring in much of what we do in the milongas; we bring the social dance onstage. Of course, we do some different movements in a performance, but there are many things we can do in both places.

 

FT: If you could say just one thing about tango, the most important thing you can think of, what would it be?

DDF: Tango is so complicated; I have to say three things. The first is that it’s important to do tango because you like it. Some people pretend to be having fun, or it’s hard work, or they’re distracted. All of this gets in the way of good tango dancing. You should do it because you enjoy it, and if you don’t enjoy it, you shouldn’t do it. The second thing is that if you’re seriously into tango, then spending more time doing tango would be good for you. Many people who are serious about tango dance once a week or twice a week, but more often is better. Tango is a way of life; it’s kind of like an addiction. When you do it more often, it feels better and you do it better. Everything improves. The third thing is that whatever you do, don’t forget the heart. Let yourself feel the music, forget about analyzing everything with your mind; just let yourself be led by the heart.

 

FT: Do you dance anything besides tango?

DDF: Well, we do Argentine waltz and milonga. Those are dances I am comfortable performing anywhere. I dance a little salsa and swing, but those are not dances I would perform. I know how to do them, but I’m a perfectionist. I consider myself a tango dancer.

 

FT: How do you like teaching at Firehouse Tango?

DDF: Oh, very much. The people are very friendly, and they are motivated to learn. They want to improve. They put a lot of effort into it. This is not true everywhere. In a class of 20 people, we can expect that all of them or almost all of them will noticeably improve. This is good for the group and it’s also good for us because we can teach them more. We focus at first on communication, on helping partners understand each other, and we build from there. You can learn steps from anyone, but starting with communication and connection is what matters most. From that, you can build a repertoire of moves or steps that allow you to improvise and respond to the music in your own way. That connection or communication is the beauty of the tango. It’s like learning a language. We have our students change partners all through the lessons, so you become more and more fluent in the language of tango. Then you can dance with anyone. You can dance with anyone here, or in Japan, or in Europe or South America, it doesn’t matter. You speak the language. If you can lead or you can follow, you can dance anywhere.

 

FT: Where else are you teaching?

DDF: We do private lessons in midtown Manhattan in addition to our classes and private lessons at Firehouse Tango. Last month, in September, we taught in Argentina, because we lead an annual seminar of about 20 tango dancers from around the world. The tour spends 10 days in Argentina, and Carolina and I spend a month there altogether. This is a favorite time of year for us because we have a chance to visit friends and relatives.

 

FT: And now you have Paloma, which has to make the trip even more exciting than usual.

DDF: That’s right. She met her grandparents and all her other relatives.

 

FT: Do you think she’ll become a tango dancer?

DDF: I don’t know. I’ll just wait and see what she wants to do. If she’s interested, I will do my best to teach her everything I can. But if she wants to do something else, I will support her in whatever she decides to do.

 

FT: Thank you, Diego! Those who would like to schedule private classes with Carolina and Diego can contact them through Jean Torsiello, phone 201-585-8346, email gemjean29@verizon.net. Their group classes on Tuesday nights at Firehouse Tango focus on fundamentals and intermediate instruction.