Last Nocturne at Empire

To fend off some of the expected post-festival depression, Deb and I hopped in the car Saturday and came to NYC to attend the last "Nocturne" at Empire. We were expecting everybody to be there and they were. A & S were so kind to host us on such short notice and after the 4 of us had dinner at an indian restaurant, Deb and I headed to Empire for the class before the milonga. The class was not all that much fun but not many group classes are.

After opening the evening with Deb as usual, my second dance was with A from Princeton. She has a very warm and relaxed embrace, good connection and musicality. The last time (which was also the first) we danced together at the NYC tango festival on live music which I didn't like much so this was the first time we danced on traditional recorded music. While I wasn't uber inspired it was a very pleasant couple of tandas.

During the dinner with our host, we were talking about the best women dancers in NYC, making a list. It was not a very big list. As I was at the milonga I realized that most of them were there, and most of them are people with whom I dance with most times when we run into each other. When I feel like bitching about where I live I need to remember that I am luckier then most. One person on the list who was there and with whom I never danced before was V. S introduced us and I asked her if she was going to stay later, as the floor was crowded and I prefer to have space when I dance for the first time with someone really good. Unfortunately she was going to leave soon, so off we went. On top of crowded floor issue, the next two tandas were also completely un-inspiring, some lyrical music with a lot of vocals. I tried to make the best of it, but I'm afraid I didn't make a stellar impression... Maybe next time I'll have better luck.

The surprise of the evening was a fellow blogger, Nuit. While we met some time ago, last night was the first time we had a chance to dance together. She's only been dancing for 6 months yet she has a relaxed and warm embrace, she is pretty good at following through the steps (not anticipating movement), a clear sense of the music and one other quality that is difficult to come by, she doesn't tense up when stuff doesn't work. She is already lovely to dance with and if she continues to progress at the same pace, she has the potential to be pretty great. In between sets I told her I found her dancing rather impressive for someone that has been dancing for such a short time and she replied along the lines of "oh, you are too kind". Mmm, no, not really. I don't remember ever making a compliment I didn't mean or even "padding" a compliment. Just ask Deb ;-).

I got to dance with S again, and the music sucked both tandas. Speaking of the music, Avik from Ann Arbor was DJing, the tandas that I liked, I really liked, but he kept playing throughout the evening lyrical sets with a lot of vocals and little rhythm. While this type of music is pleasant to dance once in a while, last night I think it was one in 3 or 4 tandas. She is such a blast to dance with on the right music, it wasn't meant to be.

The lyrical music did work for me once last night. Marika from Montreal was there and I saw her sitting down after dancing with Felipe for a few high energy tandas. I felt a little guilty for not letting her catch her breath but she is hardly ever sitting and I thought if I waited any longer I'd miss my chance. She has such a lovely embrace and she is one of the very few people I really enjoy dancing on very lyrical music. Absolutely lovely two tandas.

R was there and we danced one set, but once again, I didn't like the music. But she has a great embrace so it was a good tanda regardless.

Toward the end of the night I danced with L for the first time. I didn't remember seeing her before, even though she started about a year ago. I saw her dancing last night and she looked good. After the first song I asked her if she is studying with Robin Thomas, and she confirmed. She has some signature qualities which made it very easy for me to guess who her teacher was. The embrace, the way she steps forward and some other details, (all of them positives). Robin is such a good influence on followers I can't really imagine how the NYC scene would be without him.

Ciko was hosting and dancing so I only caught her about ten minutes before the milonga ended, it was way past 4am. She is so much fun to dance with, but I was almost wiped out by then so I'm afraid I didn't have much to offer. When "La Cumparsita" started I went and woke up Deb, who crashed about an hour earlier and we had our last dance, both of us being wiped out. We did good considering ...

Now Deb is driving back and I'm writing this. Was this worth the cost? My Jeep is a gas guzzler, so this trip cost us about $100 in gas plus the other expenses. Probably, I had a great time.

Next week we're going to Montreal for a special event. Looking forward to that, despite the optimistically 5 hour drive.