Everywhere Orlando Paiva Jr. walks in Rosario, Argentina, people notice. When you're the son of dancing royalty, this tends to happen. Paiva's father, Orlando Paiva Sr., is credited with introducing the Argentine tango to Los Angeles and San Francisco. The passionate style of dance attracts dancers seeking a change from traditional ballroom dancing.
There are many physical similarities between father and son — the slicked-back hair, impeccable dress and cool demeanor. Both are entranced by Argentine tango, a dance Paiva Sr. taught for more than 40 years in Argentina, the United States, Chile and Japan. Paiva Sr. dedicated hours to meticulously perfecting his style, spending time in front of a mirror and improving his posture, foot placement, arm holding and desired look. Now Paiva Sr., 71, is retired and lives in Rosario, where he and another son operate a dance studio.
Stateside, Paiva Jr. is taking his father's initiative and teaching the tango to a new generation of dancers.
Traveling along the West Coast and to Reno and Las Vegas, Paiva Jr. and his girlfriend and dancing partner, Laura Tate, are stopping in Ventura next month to teach a new group of dancers in a four-week workshop at the House of Dance.
"What I really like is when people really want to learn and they are really intent and they ask questions and they ask you to show them something," Tate said.
Tate and Paiva had been searching for a location to teach in Ventura and she randomly called the House of Dance. House of Dance owner and instructor Patricia Monico, a ballroom dancer herself, took her first tango lessons from Paiva Sr. 20 years ago at Marcella's, a dance/dinner club in Van Nuys.
"It was wonderful," Monico said. "It was so much fun."
The couple give dancers a new perspective on what the dance is about, Monico said.
"People say, ¿Oh, my God, I could never learn how to do that,'" said Monico of people who see more intricate and difficult performances on stage and in movies. "But when Orlando and Laura dance, they say, ¿Oh, yes, I can learn how to dance like that.'"
Learning from a master
Paiva Jr. spent hours around his father growing up. By his early 20s, he decided to pursue dancing and spent a year practicing with his brother. Both took turns switching between the male and female roles.
"It was intimidating at the beginning until I got encouragement from (my father) to try and see what happens," Paiva Jr. said. "Obviously, since the style of dancing that I do is his creation, it came out pretty easily to me."
Up until a year ago, the 36-year-old Paiva Jr. used to live in Argentina and visited the United States to teach, but he's since settled in Los Angeles.
He met Tate at a social dance in the San Fernando Valley in June 2005. They chatted and eased into dancing. Tate, a longtime salsa dancer, was new to tango but possessed talent that could be refined.
The pair's relationship suits the intimate nature of Argentine tango.
"It's not a mechanical dance," Paiva Jr. said. "There's a lot of emotion. There's a lot of sensibility. That's why we like to do it smooth, elegant. It's (a) very romantic dance. There's a lot of connection between the man and the woman."
Paiva Jr. is at ease with physical contact, a byproduct of his Argentine heritage.
"It's easy for us to hug somebody else," he said. "I find that here in the states, sometimes it's harder for people to get close to each other if they don't know each other."
Back to Rosario
Tate experienced the birthplace of Argentine tango when she joined Paiva Jr. this summer on a trip to Rosario, where he grew up and the family name remains popular.
"Everywhere we went, people know who he is," Tate said. "They would come up to him and say, ¿Paiva.'"
Rosario, located in the Santa Fe province, is large, with a population of 910,000, yet it retains a warm, welcoming feel to which Paiva Jr. is drawn.
"It's not like you're this big hot-shot person who has no sensibility or anything like that," Paiva Jr. said. "You create friendships. We have barbecues together. We meet. We have parties together. We go social dancing. ¿ It's like a big family."
Paiva Jr. and Tate returned from their three-week visit in the middle of July. For Tate, this was her first opportunity to meet his father. She met a gentleman, she said, who enjoyed a good joke.
Tate experienced the rich culture and history of Argentina as she walked through the region with its older buildings and cobblestone streets.
Paiva Jr. and Tate spent eight nights in Buenos Aires, where they would go out dancing until 4 or 5 in the morning, have coffee and wouldn't go to bed until noon or later. They'd wake up, have breakfast and do a little shopping before taking a nap and going out to dinner at 10 or 11, then going dancing again.
Paiva Jr. says he always enjoys visiting Argentina. He can see his father and the acclaim the elder Paiva has gained from his work.
"For me, it's a reality that my dad is my idol," Paiva Jr. said. "It's an honor for me every time they name him or (people) tell me that I dance like him."
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