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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Tango Workshops at John Waldron Arts Center

Since his first dance class, which he attended on a whim with a friend in college, Ben Bogart’s entire life has been devoted to tango.

“She dropped out almost immediately, a nd I never stopped, ” he said with a laugh.

Bogart is now the bandoneón player for acclaimed tango quartet Cuarteto Tanguero.

The quartet will present the Tanguero Summer Workshop, a learning opportunity for IU Jacobs School of Music musicians as well as members of the community. The workshops will be at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center from July 23 to 27.

The group has taught master classes at several music schools in addition to IU.

“Audiences learn the cultural context and history of tango through the quartet’s presentations, which aim to inspire audiences to explore tango as a vehicle for self-expression,” Cuarteto Tanguero’s website reads.

Prior to his interest in tango, Bogart first studied classical music at University of California, Santa Cruz, before moving on to jazz saxophone at Berklee College of Music. Berklee was where his friend asked him to join in on that tango class, and he’s never looked back.

“I have so much more of a connection with tango and the bandoneón than I do with the saxophone,” he said. “It felt like I was hanging on to something that was not really part of my life anymore. At that moment, my entire professional life became about tango.”

After meeting his wife at a tango convention in Washington, D.C., Bogart and his family are now based in Bloomington.

Bogart said that while Bloomington is not particularly concerned with tango at the moment, other cities in the U.S. of the same size have been able to build sustainable tango communities.

Cuarteto Tanguero has already reached out to the city, having played a handful of times in Bloomington. More often, they tend to play in larger cities such as Chicago which house larger tango communities.

However, the group recently played at Auer Hall to an audience of 400 people. Bogart said the response from the audience was extremely warm and everyone seemed excited.

Bloomington has been very supportive and welcoming to the quartet, the idea of these workshops, as well as the idea of fostering a greater tango community in town, Bogart said.

“I think there is a real hunger for it,” he said.

Since he came to the U.S. two years ago to form Cuarteto Tanguero with violinist Daniel Stein, he has been working to feed that hunger.

Any Bloomington residents who find themselves interested in tango will have a chance to explore the music and dance in several free events next week.

Introduction to Argentine Tango Dance, taught by Bogart’s wife Thuy, is one event, accompanied by others such as an Argentine “jam session” and a “milonga,” a tango dance, set to live music.

There will be a professional concert, in which Cuarteto Tanguero will perform. Additionally, the U.S. premiere of “Pichuco,” a new documentary film about a famous bandoneón player fighting to preserve his music will be shown July 23.

All events will take place in Whikehart Auditorium at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center and are free of charge, although pre-registration is recommended in case classes fill quickly.

For dancers, Bogart said he hopes this workshop opens their eyes to tango and plants the seeds for growing a greater sustainable tango community in Bloomington.

As for musicians like himself?

“The problem with tango music right now is that outside of Argentina, there’s a huge amount of guesswork about what’s going on,” he said. “Our hope is that by the end of this workshop, the musicians will gain a really good understanding of what makes tango tango.”

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