Chapter 3, p.8: Fino

Fino
(Continued)

For me, Fino set the style for modern social tango in Buenos Aires. I know I’m basing it on thin evidence, because there were certainly other great dancers who were also influential, (Milonguita, for instance, of whom I have no film at all). But in the “Baile Nuestro” movie, the other great dancers of that era are dancing at the milonga with him, (including Pachin and La Gallega, Victor y La Rusa, Sansiñena and Nelly, and Portalea), and he stands above them. If you spend a lot of time watching in milongas, you sometimes notice a couple that move in a special way. Fino and Maria Teresa have that aura. You instinctively feel that they are the couple everyone is watching. Fino displays the tall, forward surging step that the best milongueros use today, and a flowing way of expressing the music that sets him apart. I have never seen it anywhere else, in any earlier film or photographs. Here is Fino displaying the techniques of the very best milongueros that we described in the last chapter. No one does them better: 

The Walk

Fino begins by tipping forward and leading with chest,
which is the key to the characteristic surging movement of milongueros.




He steps tall, with all his weight onto a straight knee, 



and he keeps his chest up and his back relaxed so he can stride out when he has space.



And just like the pictures of Duplaa and Alej from Sunderland in 2002,
Fino and Maria Teresa reach out and walk smoothly along parallel tightropes.

 

When Fino and Maria separate, the balance that has always been there becomes apparent.
Athletic turns look effortless because of their relaxed, centered posture.

 
Whether they dance in close embrace, or completely separated, 

...they stay balanced from head to toe.