It has reached its fourth edition the Pelando Variacion Tango World Championship this year. The final was on December 9 in Buenos Aires.

Just a reminder, this is the competition where tango music is more intense, the fastest part being played. Only 12 seconds are allowed before the Variación, so you have a maximum of 1-2 minutes to convince the jury that you are the best.

This is how the PV website writes about this:
The Variación in a Tango is musically the fastest part, usually near the end, comprising only a few measures of fast notes. Translated to the dance, it is the all-or-nothing moment, when the dancers reach a frenzied maximum passion in a display of speed and skill. source: https://www.pelandovariacion.com/

Voting criterias for the competition

According to the rules on the website:
1) Precision
2) Elegance of Movement
3) Musicality
4) Originality
5) Difficulty

“The contestants will perform only the variacion of the tango they choose. The minimum duration of such performance consists of two eights (measures of musical time) until the end of the song. The performance ends with the ending of the variacion.
– The music for the performance will begin a maximum of 12 seconds prior to the Variation.
– The length of the chosen Variación will not be taken into account by the judges, as long as it is a minimum of two eights measures of musical time.
– No elements (i.e.handkerchiefs, umbrellas, etc.) are allowed during the Variación part of the performance.”
Source: https://www.pelandovariacion.com/

Winners of the preliminaries

This year, there were qualifiers in New York, Shanghai and Athens.

 tango-pelando variacion- new-york-shanghai-athen

Pelando Variacion New York City, Usa

Winners of the qualification:
Yaisuri Salamanca & John Hernan Raigosa

Pelando Variacion Athens, Greece

Winners of the qualification:
Ravena Abdyli & Matteo Antonietti from Italy
For video on Pelandovariacion.com, click here.

Pelando Variacion Shanghai, China

Winners of the qualification:
Roberto Wang & Melody Wang

Final Winners

The final, as last year, was held at La Viruta and the jury was Alejandra Mantiñan , Leandor Gomez, Milena Plebs and Mario Morales.

The 2018. P.V. winners of the competition:

Leonel Herrera & Laura Castiñeiras

The next video is no longer from the competition, but the winner’s show, which was much very, very engaging. :) You’ll see why!

As the video is not available we have this from the winners official fb. page:

After a week the official video arrived too:

Pelando Variacion fb:
https://www.facebook.com/pelandovariacion/
Pelando Variacion web:
https://www.pelandovariacion.com/
The title of the cover image:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/pelandovariacion/photos

What a choreography! Congratulations to the winners!

For 2015 and 2016 winners click here