Modern Tango World N° 8 (Moscow, Russia) | Page 16

The New Moscow
Polina Yegurnova
The echoes of the word tango sounded in films and TV shows of the 70s and 80s. But, it had almost
no influence on the interests of Muscovites. However, the 1990s changed the minds of many Russians.
After experiencing perestroika, young people rushed with double energy to study everything that had
not available beforehand.
A boom of ethnic centers, martial arts clubs, choreo-
graphic studios and yoga centers began in Moscow in
the late 1990s. Argentine tango was part of this explo-
sion. It first appeared in a small studio for modern dance
at the Maly Theater qith choreographer Valentina Usti-
nova introducing the rhythms and movements of tango
She first met the tango during a visit to Amsterdam. Af-
ter returning to Moscow, she she began her first classes
of modern dance, including lessons in jazz-modern, con-
tact improvisation and Argentine tango.
At this stage, the tango
music was not of key
importance. Most of
what was played was
the Ryssian tangos of
the 20s and 30s. The
main interest of these
tango pioneers dur-
ing the wave of the
90s was was primarily
in choreography. and
performance. Many
people were simply
fascinated by the form,
and movement. And,
in the possibility of
sharing their interests.
After two years of Ustinova’s classes, advanced skills be-
gan to appear among her students. These students later
opened their own schools, organizing more powerful
tango associations. In 1998, one 29-year-old student, Al-
exander Vistgof, began teaching Argentine tango, in the
empty halls of Soviet culture houses. By the early 2000’s,
the first milongas in Moscow began to take place. At this
time, the tango music played was from CDs, collected by
enthusiasts during trips to foreign countries.
Around this time in Moscow and St. Petersburg began
to appear the first tango-DJs. At that time, there were
no rules for organizing the music. But, there were at-
tempts to do something similar to the milongas of Bue-
nos Aires. DJs selected music intuitively, without mak-
ing cortinas, and the rules of movement on the dance
floor were very conditional.
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