Carolina Bonaventura – Part 1 of 2

To read or watch Part 2 go here.

The life of Carolina Bonaventura

How did it all start?

I remember being a child in a house that could easily be described as a big musician meeting. It was very fun. Everyone in my family was an artist. My father was a singer and musician. His sister played Charango (a small guitar). My mother is a writer and architect. My grandfather was a pianist player and had a tango orchestra. Art was everywhere. 

My father was a good friend of Rubén Juárez. He was coming to my house when I was 3 years old. More musicians joined and stayed all night. Tango music was there all the time. 

Years later when I started going to milongas I was recognizing the lyrics, and I was asking myself: how is that possible? It was my childhood memories coming back to life.

The first tango steps.

My mother believed that it is very important to be connected with your body in life, so she sent me to ballet classes. When I turned 18 years old, one of my ballet teachers started dancing tango. I was curious so I went with him. Something beautiful happened. The tango music was already part of who I was; I was immersed in it since I was a child. But this time, I also let my body immerse and connect with it.

The decision

When I told my father that I wanted to be a dancer he told me no. “Dancing is a hobby, you can’t be a dancer.” he said. I went to the university, and studied political science. When I finally got my degree, I showed it to my father and told him “In two days I fly to Beirut with a tango company.” He was shocked. No words. Since this trip, I never stopped dancing. 

The contribution to tango and the birth of Mariposita

About 15 years before opening Mariposita, I asked myself “What would I like to be or do in 15 years?” I loved dancing, and I loved travelling. But what I really wanted was to have a place in Buenos Aires that I would love to live in, so I could give tango what it really deserved. 

You see, after travelling all my life, I saw that in other countries organizers gave to tango a very special atmosphere and environment. The festivals were in unique locations, the tango schools were beautiful.

In Buenos Aires it wasn’t like that. Tango was not in nice places. I remember places where I was performing or rehearsing. At times I wanted to go to the toilet, and to do that, I had to change my shoes because the toilet floor was wet. In the milongas and schools there wasn’t enough light, the places were not connected to life, they were always dark. I wanted to connect tango with light, life, and happiness. I wanted to build this place, not only for me, but also for the people that love tango. I wanted them to have a unique place where they can stay, learn, enjoy, connect with life. I wanted to have a floor designed for dancing, and a nice outside place for a coffee and… a good toilet. Tango is a very deep and complex dance that connects human beings and deserves a very nice place. 

Back then, I didn’t have the means to do it. 

It took me two full years simply to find the right place. It was a hundred-year-old building with no electricity or gas. We had to do everything. At the beginning we didn’t have the money to complete it, so I only did the dance floor, an apartment for my mother and two hotel rooms. As I started working, I slowly repaired more rooms and the second floor.

I worked hard. And the final result came with painful sacrifices. I had to travel a lot to collect money to build Mariposita, and my partner in life didn’t understand my trips. Tango and Mariposita, be a dancer and give tango what it deserved; that was my dream and I couldn’t let this go. We broke up. That was painful, since it was a very important relationship for me.

Troubles, fight, and victory

In tango people used to think that if you are not working with someone as a couple, you can’t be working in tango. All the students were used to having classes with couples. After my break up, I ended up having a school without a partner. 

I went to the dance floor to give a class. There was no one in the school. No one. An empty room looking at me.

I lied on the dance floor, and I cried. I cried like a baby. I cried myself out. And then I stood up. I am going to re-start the school, I said to myself. Only this time I will not build Mariposita based on a couple, but on a methodology. This school will not depend on the gender of the teacher. This school will need no man.

This is how the Bonaventura Method was born. I started working hard to create a complete tango methodology, my own way to teach tango. I also taught other tango teachers. Today teachers around the world are teaching using my methodology. I continue developing, fine tuning and expanding the methodology every single day till today. I am also writing a book about the methodology so that more people can learn from it. At the moment tango schools in different countries teach using my methodology. It has been a long way since that day on the floor.

Tango: the Bonaventura Method

What does it take to create the Bonaventura Method?

I love to understand why things happen. I always liked to research about movement, music, and culture. I did extensive research to understand what is the best way for a student to learn how to dance.

To do that I looked into different elements. For example, there are different ways to transmit information. Since every person is different, you need to be able as a teacher to select from a variety of teaching tools the correct one for that student. You need to find the correct way for that specific person. 

Moreover, I knew that people are looking for connection and grounding. So I looked into answers to questions such as “How can I be connected?” and “How can I be more grounded?” I tried to make these feelings possible, to teach students how to reach these feelings. I looked deep into how the body can organize, be sensitive, and connect.

I focused also on the question “How can a dancer prepare his/her body to be with another body?” How is the best way to communicate in relation to the music, in relation to the muscular tone, in relation to the quality that you have to put in your movement. It is deep research. I love to give what I learned, because it is the only way I can continue learning. If I keep the knowledge with me it will die with me, and it will not go deeper. I need to give everything I have, in order to continue learning. That’s why I like to teach teachers to dance and teach, that’s why I love writing the book where I organize the information I discovered. I want to give people a view and approach on how to dance tango.

About the book

This is not a book just about technique. This book includes my tango philosophy, what tango is for me, what tango was before, what it is now. I want to help people understand how to play different roles, how to connect with their partners’ feelings. I want people to know that it is a big act of generosity to dance tango. If you can’t be generous you can’t be a tango dancer.

The Bonaventura Method’s approach

You don’t need a couple to teach. You don’t need a father or mother. You can teach tango if you have a strong understanding of the theory and a way to transmit the concept. On the one hand teachers can use the methodology to teach, of course each one in their own way, using their own personality. On the other hand it’s important when you have a school that everybody understands tango the same way. It is important to have a uniformity inside the method when it comes to how to teach things. I don’t believe there is only one way to learn, there are many ways. To be a teacher of my method, you need to have the capacity to choose in each instance which of those different ways to use. 

For example, some people teach that when you are walking you have to step on your heels first. But you can also step first on the ball of the feet, or on the fingers. You need to be able to walk in different ways and the reason is simple: when you want to express the music, you will be called to express it in different ways. To not restrain your capacity of expression, you have to learn all the different ways of walking. 

There is also the question about choosing your style. To truly decide what is your style you need to learn everything. Only then you can truly decide. If you learn only one way to do things, then this is not your style, it is your limitation. That’s why I like to give people different options to move. Then they can choose their own way based on their personality, their life, and the person they are dancing with. 

And don’t forget that it is extremely important to express based on how you feel. You need to have different tools to experience and express different ways to feel. Tango is a meeting between two souls that decide to move together, engaging with the music and the partner. In tango you should be in a state of mind where you can accept things, where you don’t need to be strict with yourself and with your partner. We are improvising. We are creating instant art, something that will never be created the same way again. And this “something” will be a masterpiece only if you can be generous. 

A maestra, a school owner, a hotel owner, an artist. Who is there with you?

My mother, Leti. Without her it would be impossible to do what I do. When I am on tour she is taking care of everything. She takes care of Mariposita, of me, of my dog Simon. She is a very supportive person, a very smart person. We did this together. I am an only child, and my father was a very strong man and complicated person, and we had a complicated relationship with him. So, it felt great to give my mother the possibility to develop herself, to be in charge, to be the owner of her life. I built mariposita because I was with my mother. We are partners, we are mother and daughter, we are nice friends, we respect each other a lot. Without her Mariposita would be impossible. We enjoy doing that together. We are dreamers. We don’t put limits. We come up with an idea and go with it. For example, we could do all rooms in the hotel the same, paint them the same boring white color. We didn’t. Every room is inspired by a different region of Argentina. Why? Because we wanted to represent different parts of Argentina. I remember when I was a child and had my birthday party, my mother did everything; the invitations for my friends, the decoration of the house, the decoration of the cake, the maquete; I could ask her to make a city or a circus or anything else and she would do it. This woman is amazing.

Gender in tango

It was more difficult to build what I built because of gender inequality. I think what puts you in motion, what makes you get out after what you want, is when you have some things that are not so easy, where you have to fight. It was difficult, but on the other hand it helped me, because I said “Why not do it? Why not teach without a male leader? Why male leaders wouldn’t come to learn from me?” That put me in a position to learn more, to investigate more in which way you need to behave with a macho man that comes to learn from you for example. When you deal with people that are more strict on the way they see the genders it is more difficult. But that fueled me. I arrived at a point where an organizer told me “Please, I don’t want you to come with a partner. We want you to come alone.” It was a long journey, but finally I did what I wanted to do. I stood up.

What is tango for you now and what matters most?

In tango shows, tango is used to talk about tango. I want to use tango to talk about other things, to tell other stories. Tango for me is a language, an art, a discipline, it is a way to live. You have to be a sensitive person to dance tango, you have to be connected with everything: yourself, your emotions, your feelings, with your here and now. This is tango for me: the here and now. I have lots of projects that I need to do, but I enjoy the here and now. I am less stressed about the past and the future. Tango is this: presence. You are here and now. What matters to me is telling stories with tango, and empowering others to tell their own stories.

Thoughts on Tango Milonguero, the Mundial de Tango, the state of tango, balance, and connection

Tango milonguero

People say that tango milonguero is a way to organize two bodies together where we are not respecting each other’s axis, but instead we are creating an axis with two bodies. I like more Tango Salon, because there you have two bodies in freedom that don’t need the other person to be in axis. Of course we create a third axis, the axis of the meeting. But we are both responsible of this axis. It is not that the lady lies over the man and the man is responsible for the lady’s axis. We are two people creating something that we are both responsible for. 

For me tango milonguero doesn’t give you much freedom in your movement, and I need freedom in my dance, because when I don’t feel free I cannot express myself and give the best part of me. So I prefer to not dance tango milonguero. You are free to use this structure of organizing the two bodies, lying on each other in a way, but I don’t like to depend on another person’s body. Of course, during my dance, I may ask for some support for a few moments, but then I will go back to “saying” now it is fine, I don’t need it anymore. It can be part of the dialogue of the two bodies, but I don’t like to stay there more. I feel anxious, and I don’t like it. The fact that I don’t use it for me, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work for other people. I just choose not to use it in my expression.

Thoughts on Tango Milonguero, the Mundial de Tango, the state of tango, balance, and connection

Tango milonguero

People say that tango milonguero is a way to organize two bodies together where we are not respecting each other’s axis, but instead we are creating an axis with two bodies. I like more Tango Salon, because there you have two bodies in freedom that don’t need the other person to be in axis. Of course we create a third axis, the axis of the meeting. But we are both responsible of this axis. It is not that the lady lies over the man and the man is responsible for the lady’s axis. We are two people creating something that we are both responsible for. 

For me tango milonguero doesn’t give you much freedom in your movement, and I need freedom in my dance, because when I don’t feel free I cannot express myself and give the best part of me. So I prefer to not dance tango milonguero. You are free to use this structure of organizing the two bodies, lying on each other in a way, but I don’t like to depend on another person’s body. Of course, during my dance, I may ask for some support for a few moments, but then I will go back to “saying” now it is fine, I don’t need it anymore. It can be part of the dialogue of the two bodies, but I don’t like to stay there more. I feel anxious, and I don’t like it. The fact that I don’t use it for me, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work for other people. I just choose not to use it in my expression.

Mundial de Tango – the World Tango Championship

The Mundial de Tango is very good for tango, in the sense that many people come to tango because of the competition. Also, it is a big event where people from all around the world come together and meet each other. This is beautiful for tango. 

I believe though that we have to improve the way we evaluate the dancers. Why is that important? Because we have to keep in mind that our champions will teach tango around the world later, and we have to have a winner able to transmit tango in a good way. When we have our winners we tell to the world that these are the champions. They are now recognized ambassadors of tango. To do that we need to know a bit more about the champions, before making them champions. In this sense, I think a championship every year is too much. I would suggest having maybe one every two or three years, because like this people really have time to prepare themselves. Don’t forget that the Olympic Games happen each 4 years for example.

Tango Escenario – World Tango Championship

Let’s discuss the Tango Escenario part of the competition for example. If I were the organizer of the competition, I would first ask the couple to dance tango. No choreography, just improvisation. When I can see that they really know how to improvise in their dance, I would go to the second stage, where I would ask them to dance different orchestras. After that I would put a few choreographers -maybe four or five- to teach different combinations and the dancers would do them. There I would evaluate how fast they can learn the combinations, how fast they can interpret what each choreographer asked. After that, the couple would be able to dance their own choreography. I would give some points for improvisation, for the capacity to do what the choreographers asked, and then some points for your own choreography which is your artistic expression. Then the final result will be made by adding all the points. Those different stages of the competition would allow us to be less subjective.

Tango Salon – World Tango Championship

Similarly, when it comes to Tango Salon, beyond the actual dance of the couples, dancers should collect points for their technique as well. I should be able to ask them to do an enrosque on the left side and on the right side, or a sacada with the right leg for example, so I can judge the way they do that. 

Discovering true connection in tango

Everyone is looking for deeper connection in tango. But how do you get there? First you need to know more about yourself. When I teach technique, I don’t teach it “to be perfect”, “to create dancers with technique.” I teach it so you can know more about yourself. Doing the exercises alone, you get to know more about your balance, your stability, your limits; you get to know more yourself. The more you know about yourself, the more you can connect with other people. You know what you have to give and know what you can ask from the other person. The individual technique is important here.

Then you need to ask yourself why you are dancing tango. What is your purpose when dancing tango? Is your purpose to connect with other people, to improvise, to be part of something else bigger than yourself, to do something for someone else beyond yourself? You have to be ready to meet that other person, and it doesn’t matter how many movements you can do, it is the attitude that you need to have to be with someone else, deciding to put your ego and narcissism on the side, to be generous, to be there to help the other person feel good. Then, you will also feel good, because you are making another person feel good. 

After that, comes the physical part of the connection. I teach exercises for the frame for example, which is very complicated, especially when it comes to how much muscular tone you need to put in the embrace. Moreover, everybody is different, so you have to realize the difference, be able to observe how other bodies move or express, and adjust your frame accordingly. You need to have tools to adapt to different bodies and the reactions of those bodies too, no matter if you are a leader or follower. At this moment you realize the importance of your technique. It is not about being perfect, but about being prepared to connect with different bodies, and giving a good feeling.

You start from yourself and your purpose. Then you go to your technique. Then you understand the other people’s reactions, and then you choose from your technique “arsenal” the appropriate tools. 

Having done that, if you feel that maybe you cannot connect very well, you can start asking yourself what needs to be improved. Maybe you are not that balanced, maybe you are not flexible enough on your upper body to accept different ways of upper body movement, maybe you are used to having a lot of muscular tone in your hands. I learn a lot while dancing with different bodies. It is like a mirror of yourself. For example I may realize that with one dancer I cannot be too strong, I have to be softer. If I am too strong we might tend to bump on each other. I have to learn how to relax some parts of my body to move with this person. With another person maybe not. I might have to be more body alert because I need more from my muscles. This way you are learning a lot through your body and while looking for connection with another body. The Bonaventura Method is highly influenced by this approach.

The state of tango education

Maybe now it is better, but before what was missing was a process. When I travelled around the world, students were taking information from many teachers, often contradicting each other, and then they didn’t know what to do. Most teachers didn’t use to have schools with a true structure. Now teachers from around the world  have developed their knowledge so they can teach with more structure. 

Imagine a student who goes to a festival, takes a lesson with one teacher, then another, then another, and then being confused. “This guy told me to do this, the other guy told me to do that…” Now, realize that for some reason, for the students, the teachers from Argentina are like gods “If my teacher from Argentina told me that then it is that.” I think people need to learn in schools, in an organized way, not take just lessons all around and at the end don’t know how to dance. This is what was mainly missing, and I am happy seeing that it is changing now, little by little. This helps people learn tango.

What is highly important is to be generous in the way you teach. Sometimes teachers feel that if they teach all that they know they will have competitors and not students. This is complicated. But for this you need to be more mature in your way of seeing life, so that you can arrive at that point where you can realize that the more you give the more you get.

Balance

Nobody has balance. You have to create balance after each step.

The gravity is there, and we have been fighting gravity since we were born. As babies it took us a lot of time to stand up. Too long if you compare this with some other animals. Some of them know how to walk when they are born. For the human being it is hard to be standing and when we walk we use a lot of muscle compensation to be in balance. And when we are dancing we are challenging this balance. So even when we walk, we don’t have balance, we keep using muscles to compensate, even when we simply walk. So we don’t really have balance, we create balance at each moment. 

It took us about 8 months to learn how to walk with no consciousness. Our body learned to give us the compensation we need to not fall when walking on two legs. When we are challenging this natural compensation when we are dancing, we realize we don’t have balance. We have to create balance after each step. The people that are more experienced do it very fast so you can not see it, but they are doing it. To notice this it is easier to watch beginners. There you can see how they are learning to “build” their balance. What is important is to learn how to build your balance. Then you will do it faster and faster according to your years of experience. We don’t have balance, we create balance. Exactly as in life. 

Exercise for balance:

Note: if at any time you feel discomfort or pain, or any other signal from your body while doing any of the following exercises, adjust or stop. Consider asking for medical advice.

One good exercise is to be conscious of your balance. You can stand up with your back touching a wall, and feel the segments of your body. Feel how these segments are positioned in respect to the line of the wall. Are they all in touch with the wall? Some people cannot put their head to touch the wall without lifting their chin up. Some people have short cervical vertebrae. Some people have a lot of body issues because of the modern way of life. 

In our normal life we are not connected with our bodies, which is sad but true. To dance tango we don’t need special skills. We just need to be in our first and original body harmony, that we lost because of the way we live. We need to come back to this natural harmony. But to come back to this harmony takes time. We need to work to get back there. 

The first exercise is what I explained. Then, using the same position we can start playing and transferring the center of our body to the ball of the feet and then to the fingers. The important thing is that our body should move as a whole, all the parts together, maintaining the straight position we developed while having the back at the wall. Realize how to do that taking all the segments together. This is a good exercise for your consciousness. 

This exercise is supposed to be with both feet on the floor. But when you decide to be on only one, and have one support leg and one free leg, understand that the axis is not moving too much. You start with your axis in the middle of your body, and then, if you want to transfer the weight to one leg, you do that, while trying to keep the axis as close as possible to the middle of your body. And then you try to take the weight to the other side, while still maintaining your axis as close as possible to the middle of the body again. There are many exercises you can do, but you need to understand that you don’t need to move your body a lot toward one side. The balance is in-between. 

The next step is to apply this idea while you are walking. There you need to realize that in our body we have multiple axes; the legs have an axis, the hands have an axis, etc. You have to learn the axes of your body and then work on staying close to them. This gives you balance. You need to be able to recognize those axes and stay close to them while you dance.

The axis of the leg for example passes from the iliac crest, the knee, and the second toe. If while you are walking you can have this line in mind, you have more chances that your leg will be in axis when you transfer the weight to that leg, and you will have more balance.

Then, of course, some people need to train their bodies. Some backs are too stiff, some stomachs are too weak. In these cases you might need to do something about your body. But really, everybody needs to work on their body, not just for dancing tango, but to be a human being, to respect yourself. Your body is your home. You will be there all your life, so better take care of it. People with more consciousness of their body will be better dancers as well. It is a matter of respect: I take care of my body to be in the best state it can be to meet with someone else. Of course you might not be an athlete and you don’t need to be an athlete to dance tango, but you are responsible for your body. You need to be able to release tension, to have your body in balance. It is an act of love when you go and embrace someone else, with a body that is ready to be there, and not a body that should be nursed. 

Dancing with more elegance

The tango movements are already beautiful. We need to start from there. If the people try to be elegant, they will be disconnected from dancing with someone else. When we can be connected with someone else and when we really believe that tango is beautiful in itself, then we can start thinking about how to position our knees better for example. But you don’t have to do it because of the beauty or the elegance of the movement. You have to do it FROM the feeling of being there, not from your idea of beauty. You have to trust that this is already beautiful. Do it more beautifully, not against the existing movement, but from the existing movement. 

What happens is that people think they should have beautiful lines and look good. Then they don’t take care of being connected with someone. From this connection you can build up beauty and elegance, but not before this.

How can someone learn more about the Bonaventura Method? 

I created a page on Facebook and Instagram about my methodology that will be updated with the things we are talking about, thoughts, advice, so that students of tango can find out more about the Bonaventura Method there.

Impact:

Seeds of Tangofulness is fully funding the creation and maintenance of the platform Tango for Good. Tango for Good’s mission is to empower projects that use tango for alternative therapy, palliative care, trauma healing, and social inclusion. To help us in this mission to bring tango to the lives of people who need it, you can buy the book Tangofulness from Amazon or support us on Patreon with a minimum donation of 1 Euro per month.