The 3rd edtion of the Pelando Variacion World Championship has been held in Buenos Aires and already have the winners! The winner had to move on to one of the six qualifiers, after which he had to go through the semi-finals and the final to win the competition.

What is Pelando Variacion?

First, let’s clarify what is a Variacion? We call it Variación (the variation in English) when the music speeds up.. Usually it’s in the end, but we know songs where the author composes this part it in the middle. Under the variation section, one of the musicians – usually the bandoneonista – shows its virtuosity, he plays much faster. During the variation, the dancer has to dance differently.
Unlike in the previous years, now everybody prepares only one Variación.

Learn more about Pelando Variacion and what the previous seasons have, here you can read it.

Winnings of the competition

We need to know that in Buenos Aires it is very easy and it is very difficult to be famous through tango. There are plenty of young talented pairs, but it’s difficult to show more comparing to the other. It’s a little like working with yoga in India. Therefore it was very motivating both from prestige and valuable rewards perspective

First prize winnings:
4 Semanas de gira PAGA por USA (4-week tour in the US with educational opportunities)
2 visas de trabajo en USA * (2 working days)
2 pasajes to USA * (two tickets)
Premio en Efectivo $ 15,000 (15,000 pesos in cash)
Orden de compra $ 15,000 (15,000 pesos available for purchase)
3 Meses de Entrenamiento en la Cia DNI Tango. (3 months training in DNI)

Semi-final

The semifinals took place on 7 December in La Viruta and 15 pairs came in. The jury list is already very impressive in the semi-finals:
Gisela Galeassi, German Cornejo, Martin Ojeda Casas, Alejandra Mantiñan

Here is the video with 15 couples. The interesting part, the warm-up circle starts at 2:27, followed by individual choreographers of the contestants.

Final

Although the event officially began on December 10, but after midnight the competition was a worthy celebration of the Tango World Day. Do you know why 11 December is the Tango World Day? Because Carlos Gardel was born in Toulouse, France, on December 11, 1890.The final was also in La Viruta, the jury list:
Dana Frigoli, Alejandra Gutty. Juan Paulo Horvath, Carlos Rivarola

Winners: Gonzalo Bogado and Jimena Tonanez.

In the final of the stage tango world championships, sometimes there are some surprises when compared to the semi-finals (stage tango world championship results: 2017 , 2016 , 2015 ), but here  first two place was the same. The third had slipped back to ninth place in the final.

Here’s the video about the finals:
1:40 seconds from the interesting part of the warm-up circle. Then there are individual variations.

Congratulations to the winners and I look forward to next year’s competition!