Argentine Fátima Caracoch, 27 years old, was born in the town of Lobos and started dancing tango at the age of 4, with her mother. Brazilian Brenno Marques, 30, who was born in Porto Alegre, started taking dance classes at the age of 13, and was greatly influenced by his Uruguayan grandmother. The two dancers met a year and a half ago at a seminar by Mariano “Chicho” Frumboli and began working together. This year they were crowned world champions in Tango Pista, one of the three categories awarded in the final of the 2024 World Tango Championship.
These were the three songs with which Fátima and Brenno competed on August 27th, representing Buenos Aires in one of the four rounds of “Tango de Pista”, in a packed Movistar Arena. “Una emoción”, by Ricardo Tanturi; “Nochero soy”, by Osvaldo Pugliese; “Paciencia”, by Juan D’Arienzo. In an interview with Clarín, they recalled what they felt at that moment, which could mark a before and after in their professional careers.
“I’m not one to get nervous because I’ve done this my whole life. The final was the most rewarding moment of my life, lived with a lot of emotion, with a lot of energy, with a lot of joy. When we finished dancing, I was so emotional I almost started crying. I decided that I was going to dance for the audience that was there and let them give me back all that energy”, said Fátima. Brenno, in turn, condensed his emotions into a single word: transcendence.
The couple qualified directly for the final of the world championship by winning the prize in the Adult Tango category at the “Baile de la Ciudad” tango competition, on May 19th. They also finished first in the Milonga category and fifth in the Waltz category.
But all this success could not have happened without the daily effort they have been making for a year and a half to form a solid couple, with consolidated performance and capable of interpreting the lyrics of the best tangos in history.
Brenno tells how he chose tango as his life’s profession. To do this, he remembers his childhood in Porto Alegre.
“My grandmother was Uruguayan and really liked tango. It was a song that we heard a lot at home. And that’s where my approach to that rhythm comes from. I started dancing when I was 13, there in Brazil. Shortly after, I won a scholarship to a school that had tango classes and that’s when I started. Over time, I started attending events, tango festivals, workshops, and had direct contact with Argentine teachers. So I decided to dedicate myself only to tango”, said Marques, who moved to Buenos Aires at the age of 18 to follow this dream.
He says that the influence of tango on his life also has to do with the gaucho culture, which is very similar to the culture of neighboring countries: “We drink mate, we eat barbecue, the traditional clothes are the same, there is the gaucho, the bombacha , the tango, the Chamamé, everything.” This is the sixth time he has participated in the Tango World Cup, and the first time he has reached the podium.
Brenno and Fátima have been teaching tango since before they met, and now they also teach together. Fátima, born in Lobos, province of Buenos Aires, also teaches in public schools with her mother, who introduced her to dancing and her passion for tango.
“My mother taught me to dance when I was 4 years old. I danced in a group that later ended, but I continued dancing with my brother until I was 17 or so,” she says.
When Brenno and Fátima met, they immediately “felt a vibe” and became friends. It was Brenno who wrote to Fátima to start rehearsing together with professor Aoniken Quiroga.
The prize for first place in the 2024 Tango World Cup was presented by the mayor of Buenos Aires, Jorge Macri, to a standing ovation from the Movistar Arena audience.
Right there they received an invitation to participate in the Florianópolis Tango Biennial next year. This will be an opportunity to continue dancing at important cultural festivals and, for Brenno, a way to feel closer to his origins.
“I think the key is work. We are fanatics and study a lot, and that is the beauty of tango. There are more possibilities to discover and that is what moves us. The fact of winning the World Cup is a window onto the world and the idea is to make the most of this possibility to be able to generate an image that lasts over time and we can continue working on it for the rest of our lives”, says Fátima.
Brenno says that the world championship will allow them to continue improving their artistic product: “I also like the fact that we are young and can reach today’s young people, because tango as a social dance has been very stigmatized as something for older people. We have to adapt to the society we live in.”
“That’s why I think it’s very important to promote tango around the world. It’s understanding the history of where we come from, the reason why things happened the way they did. Tango is everyday life. Musicians, musical directors and singers say that tango was the rap or hip hop of the 1930s. It is truly living culture”, he concludes.