Boston tango festival - Day 4 & 5

On the last two days nothing happened that was worth mentioning. Saturday at the 1st milonga, from 9PM to 1AM, I only danced with Deb a few tandas and then two more tandas with two different women. It was by choice, while the live music was much better for dancing then the one on Friday, it didn't inspire me much. And the DJed music selection was totally uninspiring. The 2nd milonga, the "all night" one, from 1AM to 4:30AM was just as uneventful. The music selection was weird to say the least (each traditional tanda was followed by a two song alternative set) and after dancing with Deb at the beginning, I only danced a couple of tandas. All in all, it was a lame Saturday.

Sunday wasn't much better. While there was much more space on the dance floor, the music selection was odd (same DJ as Saturday), attendance was low, and I think I danced maybe 5 tandas all together, 3 of them with Debbi.

The Sunday afternoon practica was more fun then all the 3 festival milongas combined.

I will post soon a review of the festival on my Milonga review site.

Boston tango festival - Day 3

I decided I will soon post a review of the festival on my Milonga review site, so I'm only going to write now about my dances, nothing else.

Friday I danced just a little bit, most of the dances were rather unremarkable with a couple of exceptions. As usual I started the evening dancing with Debbi, which sets the bar pretty high. I danced with Tine, the DJ from NY, and she was lovely as usual, but for whatever reason we could not connect this time (dancing on live music, didn't help). I also danced with a woman I haven't been dancing for a long time, as she dropped out of tango to concentrate on studies. I used to love to dance with her but this time it just didn't work.

Towards the end of the evening I was taking pictures, as the music was rather uninspiring, when I noticed a woman who seemed somewhat familiar, sitting down rather bored. I was pretty sure she was a good dancer, even though I could not place her, and as I was trying to remember where did I see her, a vals tanda started. I figured what the hell, vals is a pretty sure bet, even when dancing with people I'm not quite compatible with. So I catch her eye, she smiles, I ask and off we go. From the first few measures it became obvious she was a really good dancer and it got better and better as we were adjusting to each other. As we were talking between the 2nd and third song I learned she grew up (in NJ) with tango music as her father was/is a (tango?) musician and she started to dance tango more seriously in 1995... When the vals tanda ended she didn't seem to be in any hurry to go anywhere, so we talked through the cortina and continued to dance on the next tanda. The music was inspiring, I had a great time and she seemed to enjoy it as well. When the tango tanda ended, I was thrilled to see that she was up for another one, when I realized the song played was "La Cumparsita". I looked at the watch, sure enough it was almost 1AM. I excused myself, as I was sure Debbi was waiting for us to have the last dance of the evening together. After the last song, as we were changing shoes, I realized who she was. She is the partner of one of the argentine instructors and she seemed familiar because I've seen her perform at the opening milonga on Wednesday...

Boston tango festival - Day 2

Thursday was the second milonga, at the same space. It was pretty much the same as the day before, it just seemed like there were less people, which I find odd. Maybe a lot of people came Wednesday to see the performances. Same horrifying lack of floor craft (Deb got hit in the head by one of the local "dancers", that guy is a menace on the dance floor, yet he thinks he's fantastic. He actually TEACHES tango and he gets gigs to showcase tango at weddings like you can see by following this link. I shudder at the thought of people watching him and thinking that is what tango is.), same light setup and once again the milonga ended at midnight. Sigh ...

Speaking of performances. It's rare I enjoy watching a performance more then watching the same people dancing socially. That's because in most cases, it seems like the dancers feel they have to do amazing athletic things in a performance, and the whole thing looks like a circus act.

I found it weird that argentine dancers would dance (at least during performances) almost exclusively in open embrace. I thought they are supposed to prize the connection and intimacy of the dance beyond anything else.

I feel that we might have a vicious circle going. The performers probably feel like they would not be as entertaining if they didn't go overboard with the athletics, so they keep doing it, and at the same time they make people think this is what tango is all about, so they sort of create the "monsters" who want them to execute the "dancing with the stars" performances. It's quite a shame I think.

I danced with one of the argentine instructors at the end of the night, on the last two songs (two versions of the "La Cumparsita"). On the first song she felt a little stiff and mechanical, like she was bracing for disaster ;), so I kept it simple and stayed in open embrace. On the second song, I switched to close and by the second half I felt we were really dancing (as in, she was participating in the dance rather then just tentatively going along for the ride). I wish it wasn't the end of the night, as I would need a few more dances to figure out if I could create a really good connection with her. Please note that I'm not questioning her proficiency in the technical aspects of the dance, I'm talking about how well we managed to connect with each other and the "chemistry" of the dance. It was too little to figure it out. Maybe I'll get another shot at it later.

Of course dancing what seemed to be the last dance of the evening with somebody else got me in trouble as Debbi likes to end the evening dancing with me, so she excused herself to the person she was dancing with only to sit down alone for the last song. Ouch. In my defense, I looked for her when the first "La Cumparsita" started and she was dancing with Miles, so I went to chat with the DJ and sort of ran into the teacher and without thinking it through, I asked her for a dance. Since I asked her halfway through the song, I felt it would've been really rude to excuse myself after just half a song, so I felt I had to continue.

When I got back to the table Deb was looking really disappointed, so not wanting to leave things as they were, I grabbed my cell phone, which among other things it's an mp3 player, quickly found "Re, Fa, Si" (Biagi), put the phone on speaker and asked Deb for the last dance of the night. So off we went, with the phone kept really close to our ears and had our last song of the night. Miles took pictures and some video of this dance which you can see below. So that's how I managed to dug myself out of the hole ;)

Boston tango festival - Day 1

Last night was the opening night at the Zero Arrow theater in Cambridge. It's a nice space but there are some things that I could live without. The main room is pitch black. And I mean walls, ceiling, I think even the floor. I was the photographer and when I take pictures in a dark room I bounce the light off walls and/or ceiling to make it look more natural. Well, that will not work with matte black walls & ceilings. To make it worse, they had variable red/blue lighting, so good luck trying to get pictures with good colors. As such, nearly all the pictures look like in a B category Sci-Fi movie. Oh well.

Even if I didn't have to take pictures, the room was way too dark, trying to see people at the tables to find someone to dance from across the room was impossible. So one had to walk (on the dance floor, as there was no other way around) around the room to find partners. I wish there was a corridor created between the tables so "pedestrians" can go around the room without having to walk on the dance floor. I'll mention it to the organizers tonight along with the lighting suggestions.

On a good note, the music was quite good. Tine DJed and she did a great job selecting music for the crowd, the dance floor was packed at all times. She is also a great dancer, the tanda we danced together was one of the best on the night. I however was not at my best. The complete lack of floor craft on the dance floor is screwing up my dance big time as I get stressed out about bumping into people of being bumped in. Unfortunately, I have not been to any milongas where the floor craft was great, so this is hardly an issue specific to this event.

I haven't danced much, for the reasons mentioned above. Maybe today... There were a few people in the room I've danced with months ago and I would've liked to dance with again, but I had no time. I wish milongas in Boston were open later, having to go home at midnight is a bit of a bummer.

38th birthday in Montreal

Weekend in Montreal

Debbi took me to Montreal for the weekend as a birthday gift. I love that city and every time I go there I wish I had more time. We met a fellow blogger, Caroline, and we had a great time chatting and going to milongas together. Yes, milongas. You didn't think I was going to be in Montreal and not dance, did you? That'd be just silly...

We made to the Royal Tango milonga Saturday night. I haven't danced much as it was crowded and the floor craft was marginal at best. Also with just a few notable exceptions, the level of dance was somewhat mediocre. I was told it gets much better after midnight (and the only other time I've been there it was better later), but we left early as Debbi wasn't feeling well.

Sunday was a true tango marathon. We started it at 3PM with the practica at Studio Tango then went to the Tangueria milonga where we made it around 7:30 and then we left around 10:30 to make to "L'Academie" where we closed the place at 2AM.

I'll post some reviews of there venues on my milonga review site later, so I won't go into details now. I'll just write about some of the highlights.

At the Studio Tango supervised practica I danced with Mireille for a little bit, as she was "on the clock" (she was the supervising teacher). I saw her at the milonga the day before, but we left before I had a chance to introduce myself. So I did at the practica. She is a dream to dance with. Unfortunately because the practica was crowded and the movements of the dancers were a textbook Brownian motion, I spent a lot of energy in trying to protect her (and myself) from being crashed into, so that made it somewhat difficult to truly enjoy the experience, but one thing was clear, she is awesome. She masters the "moving like moving through molasses" technique and I look forward to dance with her again in a more favorable setting.

At the Tangueria milonga I had the chance to dance with Laura and she was a blast to dance with. I wish I had the chance to dance with her on some music I really like, instead of Pugliese. Pugliese can be fun to dance to, but I have to be in the right mood, it's a difficult music to dance to and trying to make it interesting the first time you dance with someone can be challenging. Debbi took video of me dancing with her, here are a few fragments. Apparently I picked up this funny habit of dancing with my mouth open, which makes me look like a drooling idiot (which I'm not ... most of the time). I'm thinking I should stop doing that ...


The next stop was L'Academie. And it turns out that that's where all the great dancers were. Marika was there (my first "tango crush" as Debbi calls her) and we danced a couple of tandas. She was just as lovely as always, both as a person and as a dancer. She has this amazing warm embrace that can just make you melt. It just occurred to me, I think she should teach a workshop on embrace, a lot of people would benefit greatly if they learned hers. Or maybe she does that already as quite a few dancers in Montreal have a very pleasant embrace.

A while ago, the second time I was in Montreal, the first time I went with Debbi, at the L'Academie milonga we saw a man and a woman dancing that caught our attention. He is very protective about his partners, at times keeping his arms around her like a shield and he sings as he dances. He is obviously a very good dancer. She had this totally relaxed expression on her face, the "tango bliss" face. Last night I saw her sitting down and went and asked her for a dance. She is a great dancer (she is been dancing for 8 years) and we danced for a while, maybe two and a half tandas (there were no cortinas played at this milonga and it was a bit disconcerting) until a milonga set came along. She asked if I'd like to dance the milonga set, and I would've loved to continue dancing with her, but a milonga set was more then I could handle after dancing the whole day.

Last but not least, I obviously danced a lot with Debbi, she is (quickly) becoming a great dancer. While she's only been dancing since January, she is quite often one of the best dancers in the room. Her embrace, presence and following is often praised by her dance partners and she is quickly improving on the other skills that make someone a great follower (in my opinion of course).

I had a great time, thank you Deb, you're awesome.

Do you like it here in US?

When they find out I'm a foreigner many people ask me this question. When I don't look too enthusiastic about living here they ask me why and I usually have a hard time giving an articulated answer. But I was reading a blog written by a couple who went to live in Argentina for 6 months or so, and here is what they had to say about the difference between US and Argentina. That explains perfectly what bugs me about living in US.

"In the United States, there is always someone, something, some group, some law who will tell you what is best for you. In Argentina, the people take responsibility for their own lives. In the USA, people give away their responsibility in the name of safety and security. Here, in Argentina, they fight to keep it and are willing to take the consequences.

In the USA of my childhood, we had that. We lost it. Or we gave it away. We got lazy and complacent. We are no longer responsible for anything. We are a culture of victims. Things happen TO us. We are passive and reactive.

Argentinos live on the edge. They pay their money and they take their chances. In the USA, we take our chances only if it’s someone else’s money."

The original post is here.

How to Play (Live) Tango Music for Dancers by Bob Barnes

There was quite a firestorm of emotions on the tango-l list lately about live music for tango dancing, and in my opinion this post was one of the most useful post ever posted on this subject. If you know musicians who play (or are thinking of playing) tango for dancing, have them read it! :

Here is the link

Providence Alternative Tango Fest - A tanda with fireworks

Most of the dances I had at this festival were way above average, but some were simply amazing. Sunday, at the beginning of the milonga I was chatting with Shorey Myers (who was DJing that evening) as she was picking the music. She is selecting music as she goes, so I knew it was unlikely I was going to have a chance to dance with her once the milonga gets going, as she is very concentrated on the music selection and she never dances much when she's "on the clock". That seems to work, as I'm a great fan of her DJing (and her dancing and her teaching ...), can you tell I have a "tango crush"? ;)

So I asked her if she wanted to dance a tanda until it gets too crazy. I personally love to have the entire dance floor to myself, my navigation needs work and having to deal with that takes away from my ability to listen to the music. Shorey selected some DiSarli music (one of her favorite) and off we went. Debbi managed to grab a few shots and the one on the left is one of them.

That tanda was possibly the most fun I've had since I started tango. Half way through it, very in tune with the energy of the dance at that time, fireworks started outside (in celebration of Memorial Day) and they kept going for the remainder of the tanda. By the end of the tanda I was pretty much high on endorphins, it was so awesome. We got back to her DJ station as she had to pick the music for the next tanda, and as she's doing that she says "do you want to do another one?" ... Oh, I don't kn... OF COURSE SILLY! ;-) And off we went again, and the 2nd one was just as fun, if not even better.

I had the privilege to dance with Shorey a few times before, and it was always fantastic, but these two tandas were simply amazing. It was the first day I was feeling better after dealing with a sinusitis for the last few days, and I was in a great mood to start with. I began the evening by dancing with Debbi, and we had a blast, which probably set me up for the dances with Shorey. What makes Shorey such an amazing dancer (in my opinion), is that she is responding to the lead in a manner consistent with the feel of the lead. If I lead an energetic move, not only she moves like that, but she adds more energy, at all the right moments. When, after a dynamic section, I settle down in the embrace to "reset" for the next musical phrase, not only she's mirroring that, but she somehow makes it even deeper. She manages to suggest pauses and dynamic changes in such a way and with such timing that it doesn't throw me off in my leading. She is one of the very few people I danced with who I feel a have a "conversation" while dancing. I'm pretty sure she has to work extra to allow me to "hear" things that advanced dancers pick up on right away, and even with all that extra work, I miss a lot of her contributions, but I pick up on some, and it feels amazing.

Having the best ever dance at the beginning of a milonga is a mixed blessing. It certainly puts one in a great mood, but it almost made me to want to go home, as it would be unlikely to get any better then that. It didn't, and chances are, it will be a while until I'll top that one, but I still had some amazing dances that night and I'll write about those later.

Providence Alternative Tango Fest - The "official" photographer

I was the "official" photographer for this festival, which was fun. Photography is a passion, which was overtaken by tango in the last year, but it's now making a comeback. I've taken over 600 pictures and it will take me a bit to go through all of them, weed out the bad shots, fix what can be fixed, crop, resize, adjust colors & levels (so if you are waiting to see the pictures, please be patient). I also took video of the performances (and a little video of the events) and will post that soon as well

For this festival I implemented an idea I had for a while, I setup a projector hooked up to my laptop, and once in a while I'd download the pictures from the camera in the laptop and have the projector display on a wall a slide show of the pictures that were taken (you can see the projection on the back wall in the picture). People seemed to enjoy checking out the pictures, even though they were in their "raw", unedited form (all "duds" included : like badly focused, overexposed, underexposed, etc).

The light levels are very low at these events so I brought two radio remote controlled strobes. Sadly one of them went bad almost right away, but I use the other one which in "cooperation" with my on camera strobe worked pretty well. If I decide to try to make a business from taking pictures at these type of events, I'll probably have to acquire a lot more remote controlled lights. Maybe 5 or 6.

The great unknown is the demand for pictures and people's willingness to pay for them. Would people be interested in buying prints? Or maybe hi resolution files? It's unlikely one would be able to make a living with this, but if I could cover some of my tango expenses, that would be nice. Maybe I should make a poll and see what people think about a service like this.

Great article in my opinion :

Don't work too hard; it's bad for you

Tango music survey - ta da!!!!

I've been working on this survey for a while now and with the help of many people from the tango community, it finally got to a form where I'm (almost) happy with. Below the link for the survey, there is a link for the live report. I will add more reports in the future so it would probably be useful to bookmark this blog entry. The best way to keep up to date with any development is to subscribe to the "RSS feed" for comments (if you use a Feed reader, if you don't know what that is, on the left side of the page there is more info).

Please email the link to this post to anyone you know who is a tango dancer, the more responses we collect, the more meaningful the survey becomes.

Click here to take the survey.

Click here to access the live summary report. Please be advised that some of the bar graphs for the matrix responses are not relevant, and I couldn't figure out how to take them out. Always use the counts to draw your own conclusions. Once I get relevant participation I will start publishing my own reports so stay tuned.

Click here to access the live text report.

I would like to thank everyone that helped me putting this together and I would like to thank in advance everyone that will take the time to complete the survey.

Automobiles as a metaphor for followers...

There is person in the tango community who uses automobiles as a metaphor to refer to women/followers. By the choice of brand/model of the cars this person is choosing, it is obvious he means this as a compliment, yet I can't help but cringe every time I read one of these posts. While the cars mentioned are marvelous pieces of technology, often of beautiful design, they are still a big chunk of metal that is 100% reactive. As in, they don't do anything unless the driver initiates it (well, one would hope they don't, otherwise whoever drives it it's screwed, and not in a good way).

To me, if I was a follower, especially if I was an awesome dancer, being compared to a car, even one that costs a quarter of a million USD, it would be almost an insult. I am somewhat curios to hear from women how do they feel when (as tango dancers) they are compared with automobiles.

Can everyone please ...

... forward this link to any musician who plays tango at milongas? Pretty please?

http://totango.net/livemusic.html

Neo-tango music reviews by TJ Nelson

See this link : http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20060421211004852

Photography: how it all started ...

A few people asked me recently how/why I started in photography, tango or motorcycles, so I figured it would be fun to write about that, given the subtitle of my blog ...

This post is about Photography, I will write about motorcycles and tango in other posts.

It was the spring of 2000 and I was looking for a job as the company I was working for was ... "taking water" and was very likely to go under (which it did, shortly after I left). I knew it was likely I was going to leave Florida and I wanted to experience some "tropical" fun while I was still there.

I took a week of and headed to the "Keys", the long sable of islands connected by RT1/US1, that goes all the way to Key West, the home of "Mile 0" on RT-1/US1. The second day I was there I decided to try "Coral reef diving". It's a full day venture, first you get a crash course in diving in a pool, then you get on a boat, head to a coral reef and spend an hour or so under water. It was quite exhilarating to see a shark 20 feet away ... (it was one of the small sharks, not known to attack people), but ... I learned that AFTER I saw it ...

Anyway, before I got to the boat, I went ahead and purchased two of those one time use underwater cameras. When I was growing up I saw countless episodes of the Jacques-Yves Cousteau underwater documentaries and was looking forward to take pictures of that amazing colorful underwater life. Can you spell "naive"?

So, I did, take many pictures while diving, if I remember correctly I used two rolls of film (for the younger crowd, film is something that was used in cameras before the time of digital...), 36 pictures on each roll. As a person with no special interest in photography, taking 70 pictures in one hour was virtually unheard off (Of course, now I have cards that hold 207 hi-res pictures, I have 6 cards and I still have to take my laptop with me to unload the pictures if I go for more then one day trip...)

So, I have a blast during the dive, got a little sick on the boat ride back and rushed to the "one hour" lab to get the pictures developed. I paced in front of the store until they were ready and I opened the envelope expecting to find those amazing colorful shots that you see in magazines (in retrospect that sounds really silly). What I got instead was a bunch of blurry, grainy, blue tinted pictures, on 75% of them not even been able to tell what the hell I was looking at. To say I was disappointed was the understatement of the year. I went back to the store and showed them the pictures and they looked at me and said something along the lines of "uhh, what exactly were you expecting out of a fleshless $8 camera?" ...

Hmm, well, determined to get some better pictures on my next "adventure" which was snorkeling in the coral reef, I went to the local camera store and rented an underwater camera. That was a $200 camera (to me that seemed a huge amount of money to pay for a camera, now my cheapest lens cost me 3 times that much...) so it had to be great, right? Well, while snorkeling in the coral reef is something everyone should try in their lifetime (unlike diving where you can hurt your ears if you're doing it wrong, not to mention decompression side effects if not done properly, snorkeling is pretty safe), the pictures came out just as crappy (well, a bit better, but not by much).

I went back to the camera store and complained about the camera being defective or something. It was then, when the guy in the store (I think he was the owner and a photographer himself) looked at me for a bit, picked up a book from behind the counter, opened it to a specific spot and invited me to sit down on a sofa he had in the store and read. It was a chapter on underwater photography. After reading that chapter I found another one that was interesting, and then another. I ended up spending a few hours in the store going over the entire book. When I got back home I bought a similar book, then another. Then I made my first "big" purchase, I got a N80 Nikon SLR and from there on ... well, that was the beginning.

I never got the chance to take pictures underwater since, but I have no doubt it will happen again someday.

The guy could've said "The camera is fine, to take really good pictures underwater one needs thousand dollars worth of equipment", and if he did, my interest in photography would've never been initiated. Is there a moral to this story? I think so, but I'll let you find it.

Rave: dancing on alternative ...

If you read any 4 posts in my blog you're likely to run into at least one rant about alternative music. How it's boring, predictable, blah, blah, blah ... Last night I went to a practica and one of my favorite followers, R was there. She was busy practicing (as she will perform at an upcoming festival), so when I saw at some point she she was available I went and ask her to dance before I could her what music was coming, which is something I almost never do.

Can you guess what was the next tanda? Yeap, alternative! Rats...

So, we start moving and ... MAGIC! Dancing on that first song, I have no idea what it was, was amazing (for me, that is). The music was what you'd expect from an alternative song, predictable, steady beat, but it had an almost hypnotic feel to it and the connection was fantastic. R is extremely good at simulating "frictionless movement" (by that I mean that one could lead something (say a boleo) extremely slow, and it works just as it would work when it's done faster, when there is the help of inertia) and she also has great balance, it was so much fun to lead some things that are normally done on a single beat, much MUCH slower, like wraps and boleos, colgadas, etc.

I lost that magic after the first song and while we danced a couple of tandas, the second being traditional tango, the first song was by far the most fun.

So, I guess dancing on anything can be fantastic, given the right partner (and mojo, if it's one of those days when my mojo is MIA, the best partner in the world is not going to make a difference).

As crazy as it may seem, those 3 minutes made the one hour round trip to get there worthwhile... For those of you who are not dancing tango, watch out, if you start, you may end up like this ...

P.S. BTW, the title was just for the shock value, in case it was not clear, the rave here was for the dance with R, not for the alternative song ;-)

Guerrilla milonga (pics)

Tuesday Jacob organized another "Guerrilla milonga" in Porter Sq. That is an unsanctioned event which goes until we get kicked out and then we move to the "backup" location. This time we had it outdoors in the Porter Sq in front of the ice cream shop. People would stop, look, ask questions : "Why are you doing this?", "What is this?", etc.

I took some pictures, you can see them here :

http://picasaweb.google.com/sorinvarzaru/GuerillaMilonga

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 3 - "Closing" Milonga

This was in my opinion the best miloga of the whole festival and I certainly had the most fun, probably the most fun I had at any milonga to date.

After starting the evening on such a high note by dancing with Mila, I had my "mojo" on for most of the night and as such, I had a great time.

I've danced with way too many people to mention them all, and I'll only mention some of the highlights.

But before I get to that, it just occurred to me that I did not have a bad dance the entire time I was in Montreal. Actually with the exception of one tanda, which I would say it was an average experience, all the other ranged from good to fantastic.

Back to the highlights of the evening (they are in a relative chronological order).

I was chatting with this woman from NY (let's call her NL), as we were waiting for some music I liked (while most of the music was traditional, there were some neo-tango/electronica tandas when I took the opportunity to rest) so we can dance. She asked me, and that was one of the most elegant (not to mention virtually "risk" free) way a woman could ask a man she doesn't know for a dance. It was something along the lines of (and I'm heavily paraphrasing) "I saw you dance and I would like to dance with you, when you're free, come find me". A man would have to be a total asshole to respond with something unpleasant to such an elegant invite, even if he doesn't have any intention of dancing with her.

Anyway, she asked if I knew how long Mila was dancing tango for, saying she hopes it was a long time, as that would leave her time to "catch up". You know, if you see somebody that is been dancing for as long as you do and they are 10 times better, it tends to get depressing ... That sort of suggested she is been dancing for a while and she's not very satisfied with her progress.

Some music I like comes along and off we go. She is really good (balance, no anticipation, ability to follow dynamic changes, musicality, etc) so I tell her between tandas, asking how long she's been dancing anyway. 9 months. Uhh, well, that left me speechless for a second or so. I don't think NL has anything to be worried about her rate of progress... We danced for a few tandas and it was a delight.

Then I asked A to dance, a woman from San Francisco, I've watched her dance and she looks very peaceful. She is very light, very smooth movements, a pleasure to dance with.

I then danced with Ciko (Adam Hoopengardner's partner), they teach in NY and other places (BTW, I really like the way Adam dances milonga.) I did have the chance to dance with her before a couple of times, but each of those times was kind of bad timing (either I was tired, or I was uninspired, etc) so when she asked me to dance I was glad, as I was having a good night. And it showed, the first song of the tanda was amazing! If I could dance like that consistently, I'd be a happy man (for a while, anyway ... ;-). We danced for a couple of tandas, but that first song remained the best.

I danced a few tandas with E, from Montreal, she has a very warm embrace and she is an all around good dancer.

Also NT from NY, she is a very, very good dancer and we had a few great tandas, and I'm looking forward to my next trip to NY.

There were people I didn't mention, and it's not because it wasn't great, but mostly because there were no surprises, dancing with them was just as awesome I was expecting and I mentioned them in the past. Also towards the end of the night I was getting so tired, my memories are a bit blurry... ;-)

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 3 - Pre-milonga practica

I got there right at 8PM when the "Practica" was scheduled to start. I said I was going to explain why I made sure to get there right at the beginning. There are a number of reasons, among them having the floor all to myself (or at least large chunks of it), or people being more relaxed as this is a practica, so they feel less pressure to be "perfect" (which incidentally, makes most people dancing better) but the most important reason is it's the best time to try to dance with some of the teachers. They are usually rested and more available.

After changing my shoes I was chatting with someone when Robin Tomas, one of the teachers came in with a coffee cup in one hand and a huge backpack, gave a hug to Mila (of Mila & Korey), another teacher and that hug somehow morphed into a dance that lasted about half a song (all with the coffee in his hand and the backpack still attached). That was rather sweet.

Once they stopped, Mila was tapping on the music as she was sort of sitting on the armrest of the couch, it seemed like that half song dance got her going and she looked like she wanted to dance. I was not going to miss that chance, so I jumped (literally) of the sofa and said "Can I take over?". As the word were coming out of my mouth, I felt kind of guilty putting her on the spot, I felt like I kind of forced her hand to accept, but it was too late to take it back.

She graciously agreed, we started to dance and it got better and better, she was doing all sorts of crazy footwork (practica, remeber?), and you could feel the energy of the dance going up and up. Two songs later, as the tanda ended, instead of saying thank you, she took her coat off, and off we went again. That was so much fun, there is no way I could ever translate that into words, so I won't.

So, one would say I started the evening with a high, and, honestly, for a second or so I entertained the thought of jumping in the car and head home, as it was unlikely to get any better than that, and it's fantastic when the evening ends on (such a) high note.

I didn't and I'm so glad I didn't.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 3 - The Alternative Milonga

As some of you may remember, I'm not too fond of dancing on alternative music, so one may wonder, why go? Well, I was kind of getting bored hanging out in the city alone, and I figured I could just go and socialize, which is sometimes easier when you're not trying to dance.

This milonga, unlike the one the day before, was much better attended. Quite a few good dancers and they were a pleasure to watch, interestingly enough, this felt more like a practica, I don't know why, maybe because it was day time?

David Liu was the DJ and he played interesting music. I even danced a couple of tandas, which is something I hardly ever do. Oh, by interesting I mean good, just to eliminate any confusion ... ;)

It was kind of laid back, low key. I left early to have dinner so I can be at the last milonga of the festival at the opening. Why? I'll explain later.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 2 - the "Midnight" milonga

At about 1AM I made it to the "Midnight milonga" which was at the "Tango Fabrika" and was going to go until 6AM. Lots of people were already there and yay! Shorey was DJing. I was chatting with her while some tango electronica was playing. One of the guests turned around and said "Hey Shorey, when are you going to stop playing those cortinas?". Ouch, that was a harsh way to refer to tango electronica music. But funny! Soon thereafter Shorey started to play the music she usually plays, and I looked around for someone to dance with.

T was there with P, so once I changed my shoes, we danced until we coudn't move anymore, probably about 4 tandas. It was pretty crowded and for the first time it didn't stressed me as much as it usually does. Even T commented on my dancing being a lot more relaxed and complex despite the lack of space.

I found then E again and I asked her to dance. It was the last song of a tanda and the next tanda was the only tanda of non-classic tango I've heard that night (until 3AM when I left) so after trying one song (at which we both sucked) we decided to wait until the next classic tanda. Once we had a chance to dance on music I like, it was really fun, but my exhaustion was taking it's toll and I found myself many time falling into default moves and not being able to immerse in the music. By now the floor was packed so that didn't help. We danced a couple of tandas and then we stopped and planned to dance the next evening, when we'd be rested. Besides, she was wearing some shoes which were hurting her feet. Looking forward to tonight.

The last person I danced with, another E, let's call her E2, she was very fun to dance with, and very gracious to tolerate my exhaustion induce clumsiness. But at that time, it was 3AM and I was clearly done. I decide to head back to W's apartment and have some decent sleep, so Sunday evening I'll be able to keep my eyes open. At 3:30 I was sleeping.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 2 - introductions, more people should do it

Earlier that evening, Marika flagged me down and introduced me to a friend of hers, E from Montreal. She said she is trying to introduce people she really likes, Marika is such a sweetheart.

The woman I was dancing with when they started to play "La Cumparsita", the last song of the "Grand Ball" milonga, excused herself to go dance the last song of the night with her husband, so when I looked around I saw E sitting down and I went and asked her to dance. Excellent dancer, very musical and a very warm embrace, reminded me of Marika's embrace. I was glad to find out she was going to the "Midnight" milonga, (which was the second milonga of the evening, going till 6AM) so we can dance at least one full tanda.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 2 - the composer

The practica seamlessly morphed into the milonga as more people arrived. I decided to play smart and save my energy, just dancing with people I really wanted to dance with.

Through the evening I've seen this woman with awesome musicality, very elegant footwork and what seemed a great connection to her partners. I eventually saw her sitting down and I moved in quickly, but before I got there, they announced the live orchestra was about to start playing. That kind of stopped my dead in my tracks about 15 feet away, and as the orchestra started to play Piazzolla, we made eye contact. I don't like dancing on Piazzolla when played by Piazzolla, I'm going to like it even less when it's played by some random band. But I didn't want to give her the wrong impression, so since we made eye contact I went to her introduced myself and told her I was on my way to ask her to dance, but Piazzolla is not something I care to dance on. She asked me if I would like to sit and wait for some other music to come along and I agreed. We chatted a while, her name is L and she is from Toronto. It soon became obvious the band was going to play only Piazzolla and I didn't want to keep her from dancing with other people so we agree to look for each other once some other music is being played.

Half an hour later, I was chatting with someone and L shows up, asking if now would be a good time and off we went on a waltz tanda. Boy, I was right, she is awesome, great musicality, awesome connection, she was also able to catch the most subtle parts of my lead, something that so far, only teacher level dancers (and not all of them) have been able to catch every single time.

Once the tanda was over, the orchestra kicked in again. Grrrrrrr... OK, we agreed to try again once more danceable music is being played, and I went and found her again as the orchestra was playing what was supposed to be their last song. We chatted a bit more and I found out she is a (music) composer ... Well, that explains a lot. That also makes one of the questions she asked on the dance floor one of the best compliments I've ever got. She asked me if I was a musician. I consider that question coming from a music composer one of the best compliments on my musicality I ever got. Period. So the band was apparently a success, as people asked for some more, and the band obliged. Grrrrr... And when that was done, they announced the dance performances ... Double Grrrrr.... ;) The Gods are conspiring against me dancing with L again it seems as the milonga was supposed to and at midnight and it was already 11:40. Sigh ...

The performances were actually quite fun, and once they were done they announce the milonga will go for a bit longer. So I found L and off we went on a tango tanda. That particular set wasn't one of favorites but hey, I'll take what I can get. Interestingly enough, I didn't feel the same fantastic connection as I did for the vals tanda, I think the exhaustion was starting to take it's toll. It was an amazing dance nonetheless. Looking forward to dance with her again.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 2 - the practica

At 7PM the "Grand Ball" milonga was scheduled to start, so I went back to W's place, took a shower, got dressed, got in the car and went back to "Espace dell'Artes" where the event took place. What I missed in the brochure was that the milonga was actually starting at 8PM, from 7PM to 8PM was a practica. Cool. A bit after 7PM, Mila & Korey showed up and I took to opportunity and asked Mila to dance. Ahhh ... a huge empty floor, some Biagi music I like and a Mila as a dance partner, I didn't die and made it to heaven, did i? ;) Because it's debatable if I have the right to go to Heaven ...

Once I managed to get back on the planet earth, I asked a woman to dance, she was dancing for a year, but not very often, and once she was able to relax a bit she was lovely to dance with. I was heading to get some water and ran into Shorey, who was DJing that evening (I love her music selection), dressed into a lovely blue dress. She asked me if I wanted to dance and ... I resisted the temptation to look behind me to make sure she was talking to me. Uhhh, duh ... of course silly, and somehow I managed to accept in a dignified way, squishing my temptation to jump up and down clapping my hands ;) And off we went. Sigh ... and once again I departed the Planet earth.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 2 - the afternoon

I woke up around 10 after going to sleep at 5:30. I decided to leave the car at the W's place and take the bicycle instead. That was a fantastic idea as the weather was incredibly nice this weekend. I ended up riding around town, soaking in the vibe of the city. Awesome. After having brunch and riding around, at 3PM the "Alternative milonga" was scheduled to start at "Chez Lili". I figured, what the hell, I might not like alternative music but I was tired and they have a few sofas, so I'll just watch people dance and rest.

That milonga was not popular at all. I was there until about 4:30, maybe 5, and we were about 10 people all together. I danced a few tandas, a couple of them with an instructor from the Tango Fabrika, and that was a lot of fun.

I also watched a taller gentleman dancing with Jennifer (one of the teachers), and they were using an interesting embrace, where her left hand went on the small of his back under his arm. This would be interesting to try with a really short follow.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - random acts of kindness

As me and W, my host this weekend, were taking the elevator to her apartment, we were talking about how to handle the parking issue for the weekend, as in downtown Montreal is a bit of a problem. A woman in the elevator overheard us and offered her parking space in the basement garage for the weekend, as she was not using it. Just like that. I love Montreal.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 1

This is my third time in Montreal, this time all by myself as Debbi had to work this weekend. (Finally) learning from past experiences I decided not to take any workshops as one needs all the energy for the all night dancing. That proved to be wise.

Friday there were two milongas, back to back. One at Espace dell'Artes, from 9:30PM to 2PM and another one at Tango Fabrika from 2AM to 6AM. To sum it up, I had a great time.

Before the milonga I met Caroline, it's quite interesting to meet someone so long after "meeting them online". I've been reading her blog for so long, I felt like I knew her before we met. We had a coffee and a great time chatting, mostly about tango of course, but I promise there were a few non tango related subjects touched... I think.

We went together to the first milonga, and when we got there, we were pretty much the only ones there. We danced a couple of tandas, which was fun, but I was still kind of stiff from the long drive and didn't have the groove on yet. We grabbed a glass of red wine (why on earth we can't have a glass of wine at Boston milongas is beyond me. I've heard arguments about people drinking too much, but I've been to many milogas in both Montreal and NY and I've yet to see someone inebriated), and with it's help I was able to chill a bit.

After opening the evening with Caroline, I danced quite a bit. First with a woman from upstate NY, she is quite fun to dance with, so we danced together three tandas, when we had to take a break, as we were getting tired. Then I danced two tandas with S, one of my favorite Montreal follows, she is quite an awesome dancer. The surprise of the night was L, from Montreal. We talked at the Yale festival, but we didn't have a chance to dance, but we did last night. Wow, that was fantastic. She was born in Argentina, and even though she left the country when she was three, she must have the tango gene because she is incredibly good. Perfect balance, great embrace and musicality, I look forward to dancing with her again. I danced with too many other people to mention them all, besides as the night went on, my memories of it are getting blurry, as I was getting tired.

At the Tango Fabrika milonga I didn't dance a lot, as I was getting tired and I becoming self conscious about my clumsiness.

There are quite a few people I'd like to get the opportunity to dance with before this weekend is over, so it looks like this weekend is going to be a lot of fun.

To be continued ...

Selling prints of images shot at tango events, some concerns ...

It recently came to my attention what some people in the community have concerns I am making money by selling prints I shot at tango events without the consent of the subjects. I could hardly contain my laughter when I heard this, but let me address these concerns.

From the two events I posted online allowing people to place orders for prints, the two events being the Yale Tango Festival and the Harvard Spring Milonga, I sold 3 4x6 prints for $3.75 a piece for a "profit" of $8.35. That profit doesn't take into account the wear & tear of the equipment, nor the amortization of the equipment nor my time spent taking the pictures and the hours spent post processing them. So, anyone concerned I am getting rich by selling prints of them dancing should be rest assured, no one wants prints of those images, obviously not even themselves.

This was an experiment to see if there is a demand for such a service, obviously there isn't. People are not interested in buying prints or paying for digital copies, they will happily download the images if they are offered free of charge, but not if they are asked to pay for it. As such, I will likely discontinue the experiment, maybe just I'll offer my services to festival organizers as "the official" photographer in exchange for a pass.

But, to make sure I address the concerns, anyone who feels like their image should not be offered as a print for sale, contact me with the ID of the images and I'll take them off the website which handles my print orders.

Yale Tango Fest 2007 - part 2

So it took me a while, but here is the conclusion to my first Yale Tango Fest post.

In the last year I didn't spend too much time working on my photography. It kind of got pushed aside by tango, my motorcycle passion and new duties created by owning a house. So, at this festival, being the "official" photographer, I got to do what I used to do. Be trigger happy, take hundreds of pictures and get the joy of "nailing" a few really good ones. Of course I had forgotten the amount of work that goes on post processing, but well, you can't win everything... Another festival organizer after seeing the pictures from this one and others, is considering having me as the "official" photographer, which is great, now I can combine two of my passions into one, and, by selling a few prints, maybe mitigate some of the costs associated with the two rather expensive habits ...

At this festival I realized, I'm not obsessed anymore to dance every tanda, but rather concentrate on getting good dances. That involves watching people dance and ask the ones I think I would dance well with. I'm also less likely to dance on music I don't like or dance when the conditions are ... adverse (like crowded floors which I still dislike, even when the floor craft is decent). So, compared with other events, I didn't dance as much, but they all ranged from good to fantastic.

It also became obvious that taking a full day of workshops and then go to a milonga, especially an all night one, is a bad idea. So the next time, I hope I can learn from my mistakes and take it easier.

Satellite radio, if you like quality audio, buy CDs

I got myself an XM Radio receiver, as I was getting tired trying to get FM radio to work in the car. My fault, I haven't done my homework before, but boy, I'm disappointed.

The music sounds like a highly compressed mp3 file, flat and lifeless, the talk channels are even worst (as they are even more compressed). My 1950 FM radio (the one that looks like a piece of furniture) sounds twice as good as this ultramodern device. Every time you drive on an underpass the sounds cuts off and it also cuts off without any good reason.

I spent $50 for the radio and another $13 for a month subscription, I'll chuck this off to be an expensive reminder to do homework before making purchases. I can't even return it as it was a "final sale" from a closing store.

Anyone wants to buy a brand new XM radio?

Grrrrrrrrrrrr

That time of the month ...

Saturday it was that time of the month again, the time for the (only) regular all night milonga in the New England area at Providence tango. It goes from 9PM to 5-6AM. I left around 4AM as I was getting tired and my "mojo" was spotty.

As always this milonga attracts great dancers from NY, Yale and the surrounding areas. This month, one of my favorite dancers from Montreal was there and I had the pleasure of dancing with her a tanda. Lovely as usual (despite my less then stellar mojo). I might be able to make it to Montreal this weekend for the TangoNuevo Festival, so hopefully I'll have better luck in finding my "mojo" then.

Speaking about Montreal, if any of the readers are from Montreal and can host me for the weekend (friday, saturday and sunday nights, well, more like the saturday, sunday and monday mornings ...), please let me know. I will be happy to return the favor any time you come to Boston.

Back to the Longamilonga. I had the chance to dance with a few people I haven't danced before, including Y, a "beginner" from NY. She started tango in August and you'd think she's been dancing since kindergarten. Very light embrace, but great presence, good balance and great musicality. Some people have it all naturally, the rest of us need to work harder. Looking forward to dancing with her again.

I also had the opportunity to dance again with Shorey Myers, she is an amazing dancer, a great teacher and my favorite DJ of all time. I found out she's going to be in the area for a little while longer, so if you're looking to take a private with someone really good, I would highly recommend her (I took a private lesson with her a while ago and it was the most useful private lesson I took to date).

I had a good time, I wish there were more all nighters in this area, but for whatever reason, they don't seem to be popular with the Boston crowd, as very few people from Boston attend these events, even with Providence only 45 min away. I'm kind of curious why ...

Hey, look what followed me home this weekend!

Those of you who've seen my other posts know I have a motorcycle. It's a sports/touring bike and it's fantastic. But wanted to "play" with a big bore twin engine, so this weekend I went ahead and got this baby, so now I have two! Now if only the weather would cooperate so I can go play!

P.S. Since I trailered the bike home, it actually "followed me" ;)

Yale Tango Fest 2007 - part 1

I got back yesterday from the Yale Tango Fest, where I didn't get much sleep, but there was a lot of tango. Three milongas (of which, one was all night), two practicas and six workshops in 56 hours ... And since I was the "official photographer" I also took a few hundred shots and took videos of the performances.

Here are the high points of the festival (for me, that is), and they are not in any particular order, I'll list them as I remember ;)

Sunday night I had the pleasure of dancing a tanda with Jennifer Bratt. While in the last six months I took a number of workshops with her and Ney Melo, it was the first time I had an opportunity to dance with her. There were no surprises there, she is a fantastic dancer, and the only thing I remember is having trouble to get back on the planet Earth at the end of the tanda... I just wish I wasn't as exhausted as I was Sunday evening, as when I'm exhausted my musicality (not to mention motor control) suffers. I did OK though, I just wasn't at my best. Jennifer and Ney will be teaching a couple of workshops at Harvard on April 13-15, I am planning to take at least the milonga workshop.

Just before I jumped ship Sunday evening, as I was waiting for D to finish dancing so we can leave, a woman I've seen around but never danced with, came to me and asked for a dance, as she really liked the song and wanted to dance on it. While I was barely awake, I remember it was a song I also like and after explaining that she is not getting the best of me, as I was exhausted, off we went. Wow, that was a very pleasant surprise. She is a great dancer, she is musical and playful, we had a great time. And as it happens, for the 10 minutes the tanda lasted, I forgot all about being tired and about the pain in my feet. Such is the magic of tango (what a wonderful thing endorphins are ... ;).

I've had the pleasure of dancing again with T, from NY. While she comes to Boston quite often, we didn't have a chance to dance lately, so I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy dancing with her. She is one of the very few people I can dance milonga with, somehow she manages to read my muddy leading, and she also has a rare quality. Her movement doesn't get "muddy", even when my lead does. So instead of going into a downward spiral effect, like it usually happens when I lose it, she "keeps the boat afloat" until I can get it back together. And what is cute is that she doesn't believe me when I say she is one of the best dancers I ever danced with.

(to be continued ...)

Appologies & clarifications ...

It recently came to my attention that parts of my post titled "DJs and captive audiences ..." were misinterpreted by some of the readers, so I feel I need to clarify some of the statements I made.

Neither one of the people I mentioned in that post, said nor implied they don't like Jackie or her music selection. The comments they made, which I was referring to, were in reference to a particular song or tanda, not to the music Jackie plays as a whole. More then that, one of the persons I mentioned, recently told me they really like Jackie's music a lot, and they felt I used their names to "give weight" to my opinions about the music played at the event.

I am very sorry I inadvertently put them in a difficult position, that was certainly not my intent, as I value them very much, as tango teachers and as the wonderful people they are. While as a general rule I don't use names in my postings, I usually make an exception in the case of tango teachers, DJs or hosts as I feel they can use the publicity, being in this business. Sadly, in this case, it seemed to backfired and I may have to reconsider my policies.

As far as my opinions, they are just as I stated, opinions. I stand by them, and I have no need or desire to "validate" them by using other people's names. Maybe should have said this sooner, but when you read my posts in this blog (or when you hear me in person), don't look for hidden meaning in my statements. I say exactly what I mean and I mean exactly what I say.

I am so sorry some of the people I care about got caught in the crossfire, and I offer my sincere apologies.

A website about tango ...

It's rare to find accurate information about tango, information that is not presented as the "Absolute truth". But, I found it. While I admit, I skimmed it, as I'm at work, I believe this would be the link I'd send someone who wanted to read about tango.

Here is the link : http://www.planet-tango.com/ourdance.htm

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DJ Shorey Meyers this Friday in Providence

This friday we have a special treat, Shorey Meyers will DJ the Tango Incident milonga at Providence tango. She is one of the best DJ's out there, here's a blurb :

"Shorey Myers got started in tango in Portland, OR and over the years has become an integral member of the most respected and requested cadre of DJs on the U.S. tango festival circuit. She DJs all over the country (Portland, New York City, Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Ann Arbor, Providence, etc). On a recent trip to Buenos Aires, Shorey DJed at Villa Malcolm and Salon Canning, and she has a standing invitation to DJ Monday night at Canning whenever she returns. Shorey can be spotted on dance floors in many different cities all over the US, though she most frequently does her laundry in Seattle, WA."

This Friday Tango Incident has extended hours, until about 2AM. So if you'd like an alternative to the MIT milonga, this should be a good one.

New blog ...

I found yet another tango blog, at http://danzarin.blogspot.com/index.html. She has a list of favorite tango songs, and they are on my "5 star" list as well. It's always fun to read other tango addicts thoughts, so go read it! ;)

DJs and captive audiences ...

Saturday I went to the Tango Potpourri milonga. I had a good time and I might go over the details in another post, but right now I want to talk about the music and the DJing. The DJ was Jackie Wong, from Tango Pulse.

Until about midnight the music was fine. There were some uninspired tandas but overall it was OK. After midnight, it's when the alternative frenzy started. If you've read my blog before you know alternative is not my thing, I find the constant beat and the lack of depth in the music boring. But once in a while, a tanda with carefully picked songs can be quite fun. But not three or four tandas in a row and certainly not two hours of alternative songs, all sounding the same.

By the end of the milonga I was quite annoyed, and I'll tell you why. Murat & Michelle were in attendance as they were one of the visiting teaching guests, and around 1AM when a traditional waltz tanda was played, I asked Michelle to dance. This was the first time I had a chance to dance with her and I was really curious if we can connect, she seems quite athletic on the dance floor and I prefer the "calmer" dancers. But once again, the looks are deceiving, she does have that clam quality to her dance, she is definitely an amazing dancer (see my post about the "Perfect Follow") and despite the overcrowded floor I had a fantastic time. At the end of the tanda I was expecting her to say thank you and move on to the better leads in the room. But for reasons unknown, she kept talking through the cortina waiting for the next tanda. Score! When the first song of the next tanda started we sighed and rolled our eyes at the same time. Yet another slow alternative, the absolute same style that was played most of the last hour. Michelle says, "well, let's try it, maybe it gets better". So we start dancing on the painfully slow, constant beat music and despite having such a fantastic dancer in my arms I find myself wishing the song is over. When it was over we looked at each other, shook our heads and without a word we stopped dancing. That music was incredibly boring. She made a comment to that effect, and then we chatted about some other stuff and I was once again expecting her to move on, go back and talk to the people she was talking to when I asked her to dance, or whatever. But no, we kept talking through the rest of the tanda, and through the cortina and the next tanda starts and ... YET again another slow alternative tanda. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, my eyes rolled so violently I thought I was going to hurt myself. Michelle (shoot ooops, no, she did not shoot anything, I need to proof read better ...) shook her head disappointed and in mutual agreement we decided to give up and go talk to some people.

While my dancing got a lot better in the last few months, it's not often when a "Perfect follow" of Michelle's caliber go out of her way to dance with me, so when the music repeatedly screws up my opportunity to dance with such a fantastic dancer, I get really ticked off. But wait, I'm not done yet. Before I move on however, I want to recommend Murat & Michelle as instructors. I took their Sunday class and I loved it. I generally dislike group classes for a number of reasons, but this was great. Murat explained and demonstrated in detail the mechanics of the move, did not get stuck into teaching some pattern, the class was geared towards getting the "feel" of the movement being taught (I used the word "movement" on purpose, as it was not a figure that was being taught, it was a way of moving that one can use to make their on figure and patterns). I will take a private with them as soon as I can, they're awesome.

Marika & Bulent were in attendance as well, and if you read my early posts about my Montreal visits, you'd know she is, like my girlfriend likes to tease me, my "tango crush". She wasn't feeling good that evening, she had a nasty cough, so I wasn't expecting the chance to dance with her, but we were talking and a milonga tanda was just ending so I asked if she feels well enough to dance a bit. She enthusiastically agreed (she is so sweet), and we went on the dance floor waiting for the cortina to end. So what music started? Can you guess? Yeah, yet another slow alternative, the same style as before. Marika is a nuevo dancer and she rolled her eyes, that should tell you something. I had a great time, she is such an amazing dancer, but I had a great dance despite of the music, not because of the it.

So, if any DJ reads this, please, for the love of God, don't play the same style of music over and over again. The fact that people are still dancing is not necessarily a sign they like the music. Especially at one time events, there are people in attendance that you normally don't have a chance to dance with, so chances are, most people are going to dance anyway, but don't let that fool you. You have a captive audience, we don't have much of a choice, but that's not a license to torture us. ASK people, and ask the right way. Don't ask, "do you like the music?" most people are too polite to say "no". Ask "Would you like to hear more alternative, or would you like to hear some classic tango?" A milonga is not the place to "try new stuff", and if you HAVE TO try something, one "trial" tanda per evening is enough. I paid $20 to come to this milonga to have fun, not to be a guinea pig.

Additional note: while I had a big issue with the music selection in the second half of the milonga, the sound system was top notch. Unlike many other events, I could hear the music everywhere on the dance floor and it was not uncomfortably loud next to the speakers either. Good job there.

It's spring ...

It's 53F at 9:30AM, look what came out of the garage!

New tango blog ...

I just found a new tango blog here at http://tangoloveandotherdevils.blogspot.com, the author is quite funny, read it, you will enjoy it.

In one of the postings, she was wondering what are the qualities of the "Perfect follow", as she sees some of these women dancing and it's not clear why leaders consider them perfect. Here is my take on the subject.

I've only been dancing for a little more then an year, but I've been fortunate enough to dance with some of these "Perfect follows". I will make an attempt to describe why are they perfect, as I wish more follows would follow (sic) in their footsteps.

Here are some of their qualities :

Warm embrace - Their embrace feels like a hug you get from a close friend you haven't seen for years. And it lasts for the entire time you dance with them. It's relaxed, unhesitant, and you feel like you have ALL their attention. Once in a while you find a beginner that has this quality, and many (of the better) leads are just happy to dance with them despite their other shortcomings. This rare kind of embrace sucks all the tension out of me and allows me to completely relax and be at my best. I've danced in Boston, NY and Montreal, and I find Montreal had the most follows mastering this embrace. I can't wait to go back.

Grounding, presence, balance - They maintain their axis, they hold their own weight, they don't use the lead for balance and they are able to compensate for a bit of imprecision of the leaders part without compromising the smoothness of their move. I have to elaborate on this as I think it's a quality that is often overlooked. I don't care how good a leader is, he will sooner or later take the follow a little off axis during a turn. The "Perfect follow" will not tense up, she will communicate she is taken off axis by a slight increase in groundness, she will maintain her upper body vertical (as opposed to her tilting her entire body) by allowing her supporting leg to bend at the hip yet not allow her knee to go soft. As a result, she will go off axis but remain light, at the same time communicating to the leader she is off axis so he can correct.

Calm following - This is closely related to "Grounding & presence" but I felt it deserves a paragraph of it's own. The "Perfect Follow" will not get ahead of their leader, they follow through the step (as opposed to step on their own after the initial intent was communicated by the lead) maintaining their presence. This technique allows them to follow any change in the dynamic of the step a lead will make, including but not limited to : stops, sudden accelerations or decelerations, micro-rock steps, marking beats by slight dynamic changes while in a slow move, etc. She steps without hesitation, matching the dynamic of the lead.

Musicality - This one is going to be difficult to explain. The "Perfect follow" often looks to the outside observer like she's merely a passive dancer, not doing anything that wasn't lead, just being a receiver. That is misleading, as this cannot be further from the truth. With the "Perfect follow" a good leader will be able to have a bi-directional communication, in which he leads something, and she responds with her interpretation of the move, by varying the dynamic of the move, without breaking connection. That of course requires the lead to listen and not move like a steam roller. In addition, she never loses connection with the music and she takes the openings the lead offers to adorn or make her own contribution to the dance, As a result of all this, as a lead, you feel like she is dancing (with you, not by herself) and not merely move when the lead moves.

Unclear lead management - As a less then experienced leader I often don't lead as clear as I'd like to, and the follow is put in the situation of dealing with that. A "Perfect follow" will not tense up or start to resist movement as they're trying to figure out what the leader is trying to do. They will move, executing something that is compatible with the unclear lead, not lose their musicality or posture. Fortunately, as I gain experience these moments are getting less and less frequent, but they will still plague my dance for a while, and this is a quality that really helps.

Icings on the cake - The following qualities are for me, the icing on the cake, not required for an awesome dance, but if there, it's magic!

Navigation assistance - Many times when I dance in a crowded space, I make educated guesses on how the other couples are moving and act on those guesses. I cannot play it very "safe", if I did, that would not be a dance, it would me dodging other couples. I'm sure that more experience will help, but unfortunately one cannot buy that at the corner store. So until I can develop eyes at the back of my head, I will make guesses and take some chances, trying to balance the dance and the risk of bumping into others. Some really good dancers I've had the honor to dance with, would gently squeeze my hand, or tighten the embrace as a signal that I'm about to bump into someone, and they did that without tensing up or trying to resist the move, which allows me to gracefully avoid the impact

Playfulness - Too many people are just concentrated on their feet when they dance, they forget they have shoulders, hips and the ability to disassociate one from another. I was lucky enough to dance with dancers who, while following the steps I was leading, they would use their upper body to express something in the music, maybe a stray note, or a playful instrument bite, but at the same time, not allowing that to become distracting (for the lead)

Well, there you have it. I'm sure there are other things I can't think of right now, but someone with all the qualities listed above would definitely be a delight to dance with.

For guys, about pants ...

La Planchadora has a series of posts titled "attacked by a wild animal" showing all sorts of outfits women wear (but shouldn't) at milongas.

I felt men were shortchanged here, as they didn't get any useful advice, how should we know what to wear if no one tells us? Some may think "uhh, common sense?" I'm sorry to say, common sense passed away a while ago, so don't count on it.

So I took it upon myself to make a contribution (as modest as it may be) to the well being of the aesthetics of the milongas and the world in general.

Without further ado, the subject today is pants. Some think this is a trivial subject that doesn't require any thought. I mean, all pants are the same, right? You put them on, one leg at a time (or if you're really good, both at the same time) and you're all set. Right?

Wrong. First we all know that fashion goes in cycles, so what's hot today might be ridiculous tomorrow. Although, some people CAN pull off cool looks with outdated pieces. But here are a few "looks" you want to avoid at ALL COSTS.

There was NEVER a moment in the history of the world when the following looks were hot.

The "grandpa look". Trust me, no one EVER thought that was hot. EVER. Even if you are a grandpa, please, please don't sport this look. Here's a hint, keep the waist line of your pants WELL BELOW your belly button.




The "muffin top" look. For the love of god, get pants your size. The fact that you can still close the buttons on your pants doesn't mean it's your size (by the way, that's true for girls too as one can see in the picture).


The "I'm wearing my daddy's pants" look. If you are over 10, it is not cute. If you lost weight, buy new pants!





The "after flood" look. Umm, don't do it!






Looks that might've been hot at one point or they look hot on some celebrities, but you wearing them right now makes people laugh behind your back.

The "disco" look. I have to be clear about this, some flared pants are cool if you can pull it off (if you ever saw me recently at tango events, you know that's possible), but not all flared pants are the same and the 80s look (skinny on top with bell bottoms) are particularily difficult to make look cool (for guys that is).



The "rock star" look. Leather pants? Ohh, once again, rock stars might pull it off and so other other people with a flair for coolness, but trust me, if no one ever complimented you on your outfits before you bought the leather pants, they are definitely not going to compliment you now.


Well, I hope this helps! By the way, please show your support for this by posting some comments, so the offenders don't think it's the lone opinion of a crazy european ....

Tango high @ Practica(s)

Despite a mild headache, Sunday I went to the practica, I figured what better treatment could one get then healthy dose of tango induced endorphins ...

I wasn't really expecting to have too much fun though, being loopy from the pain killers and all ... A little bit into the practica L showed up. I only danced with her once before but it was at the end of the night, I was tired and wobbly ;) and she was upset about losing some favorite shoes, so I don't think either of us was at our best. I know I wasn't ... But despite all that, it was pretty awesome, so I was looking forward to dancing with her again.

While I was looking forward to it, I was trying not to be too hopeful, as the connection you have with someone is somewhat elusive and I've been disappointed before. You know, you dance with someone and it's just perfect and next time it's just ... adequate.

Anyway, to make the story short(er), I asked her for a dance and off we went. wow. Wow. WOW. WOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!! I have to explain why WOW...

Lately I've been able to dance with a lot of advanced dancers, teachers, etc. And it's been awesome. But (in my experience) it's quite rare to dance with someone who can completely immerse themselves into the connection. Or, able to make it look like they do. For the first time EVER I was able to successfully communicate to my partner everything I tried to, particularly dynamic changes in the movement. Having your partner match perfectly the acceleration or deceleration into steps, turns, boleos, etc, makes for an incredibly connected dance. I have no doubt that many people I danced with before, have the ability to follow like that, but I don't think I was able to lead it properly before.

We danced for quite a bit, maybe 10 songs or so (at the practica there are no tandas), she even tolerated my rather inept attempts to dance the few milongas they played during that time (for which I'm very grateful, as I really need the practice) so I suspect she enjoyed it as well, at least to some degree. While chatting between songs I found out she's been dancing for over 10 years, a lot of them in Berlin/Germany. We are so lucky to have her in Boston and I'm looking forward to dancing with her again.

A review for the "milonga review site" ...

So the first independent review of my "Milonga Reviews" site is out and ... (insert leitmotif from "Jaws" to create suspense) ... the author tears it to shreds!

First, I would like to thank the author for taking the time to comment on it. I'm not being facetious , I appreciate feedback on my efforts, even if they are not positive. But I would like to respond to some of his opinions. And since the forum he chose to state his opinions doesn't have a way for me to respond there, I'll respond here.

"All you need is one disgruntled jerk to tarnish the reputation of a good venue. Allowing anonymous comments just encourages that."

There is a saying in Romania (where I'm from), in a rough translation would sound like "It takes more then one flower (to sprout) to be spring". One would hope that a negative comment from a disgruntled jerk would not be enough to make a dent in the reputation of a good venue. Besides, you'd think some fans of that venue would jump in and reply to that jerk. And if you think that, you'd be correct, since that already happened!

"If people don't like a venue and the promoters choose not to fix the problem, the customers can chose not patronize that place"

Well, the customers would have to patronize that venue at least once, spending time and money before they realize there is something there they don't like.

"By setting up the website in its current state, it looks like he created the website so he could have a public forum for his *own* opinions."

At the top of the main page my website states "If you'd like to submit a review for an event that is not yet on the list please format the info as it is in the existing entries and email it to me at ...". So far, no one did, but I'm hopeful. It takes time and effort to write a review and not everyone is willing to make that effort. If BW would like to contribute with a review or comment, he is welcome to do so, even if I don't agree with it.

"I bet the webmaster of that website thinks that he shouldn't have sent a second note insisting that I list his website."

My second email I sent to the author of the article, the email where I was supposedly "insisting" he should list my website is quoted in it's entirety below (some of it is in response to a comment he made in the email I was responding to, the relevant part being "If I think your website is relevant to the audience of my website, I will add it."):

"I only sent this email to Argentine tango dancers/websites, so I would hope a (non-commercial) tango events review site would be relevant to their audience. So far, the feedback I had was positive.

Thank you for your consideration

Regards

Sorin
"

Before I buy a product or a service I usually look for review sites, in particular the ones that allow comments. I belive that is a useful public service. And I will continue to provide it as long as I have readers.

New York, New York again ... #2

Note : You can see all the pictures on my site at www.bostonphotographs.com under [travel/2007-03 GettoTango]

So I finally made it the Chelsea Market around 3:30, I had a soup from a soup place (wild mushrooms and potatoes, yum!) at the market and at 4PM we were at the milonga. I danced a few songs with D and it quickly became obvious I was tired and/or I had an off day. I only danced a couple of tandas after which I stopped, there was no point in torturing innocent people there and making a fool of myself. At that point, I was wondering if the trip to NY was a mistake. If I was tired at 4PM, how was I going to do at an all night event?

But 8PM came and a bunch of us with Adam leading the way we headed to his place in Newark for the Getto Tango party/milonga. He and Ciko live in a loft, a pretty big space, very artfully decorated, lots of sofas, some industrial sewing machines as decorations (D, as a costume designer, cringed when she saw a sewing machine used as an incense stick holder ... I guess I'd feel the same if I ever saw a classic motorcycle used as a flower pot ...) and a lot of other interesting widgets. It seemed like anywhere I looked there was something interesting to be seen.

By midnight the place was full (not packed, but full), lots of great dancers, most from NY, a few from Princeton, we even had one gentleman from Denmark ...

While I did make an unusually high number of missteps, balance & navigational blunders, on occasion I'd "nail" a few musical phrases in a row and that apparently kept my parters from running away at the first chance they got. As such, I did have a great time but I did learn a lesson. Again. Before traveling 4 hours for an all night milonga, I might want to "retire" early the night before... Yeah, I know, brilliant idea ...

I did get my ego stroked again when an advanced dancer (I think she told me she teaches, I assume she teaches tango, although she didn't say) told me she've never seen someone dancing like this after just one year, except for maybe in BsAs. And then she continued to dance with me for two or maybe three tandas. Purrrrrrrr ....

At around 4AM I crashed on the couch, got up around 7am to get some breakfast, Adam, Ciko and a bunch of others were still up, J was cooking eggs, so after I settled the growling stomach I went back to sleep until 1PM.

We took the train back to NY, we went to the Museum of Natural History, that was OK, but I was not impressed and then jumped on the bus to come back to Boston. I have to say, I might consider the bus again if I'm going to NY alone, as 4 hours of driving is too much for me, but if I'm going with someone that is willing to drive half the distance, I'll take the car. It's faster and just as expensive. Also you get to leave when you want, not when the bus operators want.

New York, New York again ... #1

I'm on my way to New York, riding the Greyhound bus. I should be there at around 2:30, we'll be heading to the Chelsea Mkt, have lunch, go to the milonga and at 8pm when that ends we'll be heading to Newark to attend Adam's GettoTango party/milonga. That should go all night but I'm guessing at some point we'll pass out in some corner as we didn't get much sleep last night. We went to Ben & Thuy "unofficial" farewell party/milonga and we were there until 1am ... Yes, we are insane!

Last night I followed R again, and then I followed P. I still suck, and I will be sucking for a long time ;), but I love it (dancing, not sucking)! When I expressed my enthusiasm for following, R was like "you will still be leading ... right?" Leading ... Improvise an interesting dance while watching for traffic, as in predict other dancers trajectory (based on what you know 'about them and on what are they doing at that time), predict the next few seconds of the song so the movements are on the music, avoid doing moves that your follower can't do, look good, make your follower look good, adjust your embrace and dynamic to hers and ... oh, yeah ... have fun! Or, embrace your leader, close your eyes, listen to the lead and music and dance. Hmmm ... tough choice ;-) ( P.S. I don't to imply that following is easy, to be really good it takes the same amount of effort as it does to become a good leader, but it's a lot less one needs to do on the dance floor)

To shorten the amount of time I'll be sucking at following, I booked a private class with Carlos Moreno next weekend. I'm hoping I can jump start my following career but learning the right way from the beginning (see my other posts about group classes and the joys of learning tango with other beginners). Forming bad habits that need to be "unlearned" later seems awfully inefficient.

Speaking of dancing with P, last night was lovely (even though I was not in the "zone"). I've danced with her a few weeks ago at the Odd Tuesday milonga she is hosting and I had a very hard time dancing with her that time. It's amazing how one day you can totally "click" with someone and the next day nothing works. Or the other way around. The crowded floor at that milonga really messes with my dancing, so no doubt that was a big factor too.

OK, I need to leave some "juice" in the cell (which is used as a wireless modem right now) so I'll sign off. But I'll post again soon, and I'll try to post some pictures as well.

2007-02 Yale milonga pictures ...

I uploaded all the pictures I took to my website at http://www.bostonphotographs.com (navigate to "travel/2007-02 Yale milonga" from the main page).