Wouter Brave, the Dutch pioneer of tango

In 1985, in Europe, if you talked about tango you were probably talking about ballroom or the music of Piazzolla. Actually, though, a brand new interest for the Argentinean dance was beginning to raise in the world. The film "Tangos: el exilio de Gardel" by Solanas had great success and the show "Tango Argentino" by Orezzoli-Segovia was a big hit in Paris and in Broadway. Those successes were going to lift the veil on the tango art fallen into oblivion for more than thirty years.

In the mid-eighties in Europe some pioneers from Holland, Germany and Switzerland were already paving the way to the glorious return of tango-dancing and its outbreak in the nineties.

One of those pioneers was Wouter Brave: a professional dancer dedicated to contemporary dance since the late seventies. By means of another German pioneer, Wouter in 1983 gets in contact with argentine tango: he gets very fond of this dance and in 1985 decides to leave to Buenos Aires looking for a teacher.

In Buenos Aires Wouter knows Antonio Todaro: he takes lesson from him for some years, and in 1988 he convinces Todaro to come to Europe. From then on, Todaro will become one of the fundamental teachers of the first modern generation of tango dancers, not only in Buenos Aires but also in Holland, Germany, Belgium and the rest of Europe.

Together with his partner Martine Berghuijs, in 1989 Wouter Brave starred in the film "El Abrazo" made in Buenos Aires by the Dutch filmmaker Jan van den Berg. In this film you can see Todaro as well as other legends of tango like Virulazo and Petroleo, and the young promises Zotto and Aquino.
We interviewed Wouter on February in his beautiful house in the Dutch countryside, and in this radio show we share with you his memories and some curio.
In the interview Wouter speaks in English language.