Video and photography at tango events

As some of you may know, I am a passionate photographer and in the last few months I covered a few festivals and milongas (you can see the results on my website under EVENTS). I have a 9-5 job, as a computer programmer but I'm getting to a point where I'd like to stop doing that. As such, I put some thought into becoming a full time photographer. Part of that research was to see if one can combine tango with photography and try to make some money (not necessarily make a living just by covering tango events).

So for a few of the festivals I covered, I offered prints for sale, at what I thought would be a reasonable cost ($3.75 per 4x6 print). Alternatively, I also offered the full resolution files for a similar cost. While I was not expecting much, I was quite surprised to see that among the three festivals I covered (Alternative in Providence, Yale in spring and Boston in June), only ONE person purchased 3 prints. That's it. I was wondering if anyone cared to comment on that. Is this what you would've guessed? I know I would certainly pay to have some good shots of myself. One reason I can think of is that people could see (and download) a decent size picture from the web for free and apparently that is good enough for most people.

To try to clarify what kind of future a professional "Tango photographer" and/or "Tango/videographer" might have, I have a few questions I would like to ask the community.

1) If a screen resolution picture of you dancing is free to download, would you have any interest in a 4x6 paper print at $3.75? How about in having the full resolution file for $3.75

2) If a screen resolution picture of you dancing is NOT available to download (but rather just a tiny thumbnail size one or a screen size image with watermarking covering most of the surface), would you have any interest in a 4x6 paper print at $3.75? How about in having the full resolution file for $3.75

3) I was thinking about offering (at festivals and/or milongas) a service to record video of the patrons dancing (on demand). It would work like this, the interested party would come see me, pay a fee (per song), and we'd agree on timing. Then I would record them dance with their favorite partner (using a device that allows me to film from a height of 12-15feet, which would allow me to track them at all times). They would then get a DVD at the end of the evening with a high quality recoding. The price I have in mind right now would be $10 per DVD + $10 for each song recorded. So to have a full 3 song tanda recorded, the fee would be $40. If one more DVD (with the same content) is needed, for the other partner, it would be $10 extra. Is this something you would be interested in? Do you find the price: too high, low, about right? An example of a recording I made is here : http://youtube.com/watch?v=tATLum7aDCc . Obviously the quality the youtube video is abysmal compared with the original file which the customer would get.

I would appreciate any thoughts you might have on this issue.

Water heater ...

Last year one of my tenant's water heater broke down. I called a plumber and $800 later I had a new heater installed. This morning the water heater for my apartment went dead. Screw it, I'm not paying another $800.

Browsed craislist, found a listing for a relatively new one, drove to Rockport (50 miles away) and picked it up for $75. The gas will be about $20. Stopped at HomeDepot and spent $30 on parts and 2 hours later ... :
Hot water! Not bad for $125 (and 4 hours of driving stop and go traffic ... Grrrrrr). I'm going to take a shower now.

Connection between effort/performance and reward

It constantly blows my mind how little connection between these two paradigms is in the tango world. The DJ plays crap music, everyone still dances. Some dancer sucks badly and they've been sucking for years, yet people are still dancing with them. From the dawn of time, evolution happened because there was a connection between performance/effort and the reward. You didn't move fast enough, you didn't eat. So you either learned to move faster or smarter or you'd die. The good old times ...

Listen, if a DJ sucks, he/she has no reason to change what he/she is doing unless there is a relation between his/her performance and the results (people dancing). In some cases, the DJ doesn't even know how badly they suck, since everyone is dancing anyway. Same with dancers.

So, when a DJ plays some music you don't like, walk off the dance floor. You PAID for the event, they are there to cater to you, not to play for themselves. When a dancer does something that's generally frown upon, walk off the dance floor, but DO TELL THEM WHY, as they might not be aware of it. It may sound harsh, but when I was a beginner, the few times when my partner thanked me in a middle of the tanda, I was disappointed AND confused. If a dancer is a bad dancer and he/she doesn't seem to improve, don't dance with them. That would make them either improve or quit. It's a win/win.

it's going to get worst before it gets better

In the last few months I had someone tape me dance a few times (you can see them if you look here) and while it seems I continue to improve, which is a great thing, my posture still sucks. So recently I started to work on it every time I dance. Unfortunately that affects the connection, the embrace, it makes me feel stiff and to some extent it ruins the experience. But the more time I allow myself to dance with a bad posture, the more difficult will it be to fix it later. Sigh ... so I guess it will have to get worst before it gets any better. So, please folks, bear with me while I learn how to maintain a proper posture ...

Saturday I went to the LongaMilonga in Providence. It was better attended then last month, but boy, the summer sucks for tango. Not only in Providence, but in Boston too. Actually, I remember someone saying that in Montreal some milongas are closing for the summer for the same reason. Anyway, back to the Saturday's milonga, M, a favorite follower from NY came down with a bunch of friends, which was awesome, as she is not only a lovely dancer but a sweet person as well. We danced a couple of times, a few tandas each time, which were good. Good not great, because I'm still struggling to adjust my posture and on top of that, I wasn't feeling very inspired.

Among the other dancers from NY who came up for the LongaMilonga was S, a woman I've seen many times in Providence but somehow never got a chance to dance with her. Well, there is a reason, when the milongas are better attended she is busy dancing non-stop with all the tango "Gods" so she's kind of hard to get to. This time I had more luck. Wow, she is REALLY good. In addition to the good technique (balance, embrace, following) she has an amazing presence, it was so surprising it took me the better half of the first song to get used to it. In addition, she is very musical, making her contribution to the dance by using changes in dynamic of her steps, using her shoulders and by changing the ... "groundness", among many other things. And all of that while she flawlessly followed anything I lead. I can understand why the best leaders line up to dance with her, I certainly am her newest fan. Too bad I wasn't in the zone, it kind of sucks when it happens and you dance for the first time with someone. First impressions tend to last for a very long time. Not to say I sucked, she did after all sticked around for a few tandas, but I was pretty far from my best.

The music was quite good, Ramji V from Ann Arbor (he's in the area for a while) DJed and I did like most of his selections. One thing though, he played a few of my favorite songs at the beginning of the milonga, before the dancing started and I remember thinking "crap, this is a waste of a good song". Kind of a catch 22, if you don't play good stuff, people will not start dancing, but if you play the good stuff at the beginning, it's a bit of a waste. When I DJ I always keep what I consider the best music for later in the evening. I'd be curios how others feel about this.

At the practica Sunday it was sweltering hot. I got to practice with a few people, nothing out of the ordinary. Most people were very self conscious about being sweaty, so that didn't help. The music was fantastic though. I liked every tanda. Amazingly, that happens every time when I dj ;-)

back to work ...

... after a week of vacation. Saturday to Thursday in Montreal then Friday to Sunday in CT for Yale's summer tango camp.

As you can read in my prior posts, the (Montreal International Tango) festival was a disappointment (though apparently festivals can be worst...). So Wednesday we (Debbi & I) went to the Studio Tango milonga and it was fun. Thomas Howlin was DJing, and the music was fine. I didn't care for some of his selections but that's to be expected. Even when I'm DJing and dancing I find myself thinking ... "what the hell was I thinking when I selected this song"

While the milonga went for 4 hours and I danced practically non-stop, I only danced with 5 or 6 people, all of which I danced with before. This raises an interesting issue. The more good partners one dances with, the more interesting dancing is, but so far I've been reluctant to "give up" a good partner for the chance at another good one. As in, if I find someone I like to dance with I usually dance until I need a break or they need/want one. For example Wednesday I asked an older woman, she is probably in her 50s (but one would not be able to tell from the way she moves). She is a wonderful dancer, the best leaders in Montreal line up to dance with her and we danced for 5 tandas in a row. Now, I could've walked away after say two tandas and maybe I would've found somebody else just as good. Or maybe not. Well, I'll eventually figure it out, this is one "problem" I don't mind having ... ;-)

Thursday morning we packed everything and headed back to my place, which we left Friday at noon to make it to the Yale's Summer Tango Camp site around 4pm (the drive only took about 2.5 hours, we had to run some errands). Friday evening there were maybe 10-12 people there, and I didn't dance much. Robin Thomas assisted by Kyla Mares taught a class on front ochos. I know that sounds too simple, I mean front ochos are probably shown within the first hour of any beginner class. But as it usually the case in tango, one can make any (simple) move into a fantastic experience and this class brought back to life the close embrace front ocho for me. I got to dance with Kyla a couple of tandas and she is not only good, but lots of fun to dance with. She is from Reno, AZ where apparently she is "growing" a small community. The big surprise came when she told me she was only dancing for a couple of years. Wow, that only shows how irrelevant "the years of experience" is as a metric for dancing abilities.

Saturday Robin & Kyla had another class, on milonga this time. I definitely like his teaching style with one caveat. I don't believe he allows for enough practice time before he stops the music to make another comment. Sometimes I would barely have time to execute the exercise once and then we'd stop again. But then again, maybe it's a good thing, it avoids practicing things the wrong way. While more people came Saturday, the milonga started late, around 11PM (the class went for 90 minutes before that) and it ended very early, around 1AM as everyone went to sleep or to hang out around the camp fire. That was kind of disappointing, but the room was very hot and humid, and the floor was slippery and I think people just got sick of dealing with that. While the room had lots of windows, all of them left open, there was absolutely no breeze, so that didn't help. I danced a little bit, the best dances were with Kyla and M, a follower from NY who I met at the last Longa Milonga in Providence. I also got to follow Robin which went well as long as he kept it simple ... Note to self : need more following practice ;)

Sunday we got up late, made breakfast and attended the last class, on vals. Again, there were no fancy moves (which is a good thing), but rather some work on musicality and rhythm. We danced a little bit after that, but other then a couple of tandas with Kyla there was nothing out of the ordinary. We left the camp site around 5:30PM after having a bite to eat with a bunch of other people and we made it home around 10PM (no it didn't take that long to drive home, I had to stop at the grocery store).

So, did I enjoy my vacation? Sure, it was fun. I was expecting a lot more tango, but I did get a few good dances, hung out in Montreal, I got to use the tent again (after two years), met friends from Montreal and NY and made some new ones. Not bad for one week. And I got a really nice shirt from Montreal that goes perfectly with my new blue linen pants. Speaking of linen pants, I need to remember when I'm making the next pair to really re-enforce the waist band. When it's hot and humid linen seems to "grow" and one of these days I'll find my pants around my ankles at the end of a tanda. Sadly I no pictures from the first part of this trip because the card in my new compact camera crapped out on me... Grrrrrrrrr

But I have some pictures and I'll post them soon, so stay tuned.

Montreal - International Tango Festival (@Tango Libre) - Tuesday

We met a friend from Boston for lunch and then hung out in the city for a while before we headed back to V's apartment to get ready for the milonga.

Since l'Academie has a new milonga on Tuesdays we decided to skip the festival milonga and go there instead. Also Caroline was going there so we figured it was worth checking out.

We got there at 8PM, and we were the only ones there for 30 minutes. I danced with Debbi, as the music was great. I don't know the DJs name but he did a great job. Caroline came in a bit later and she taped me and Debbi dancing.



After that I danced with Caroline a tanda and it went great. Her embrace improved tremendously since the last time we danced together and her following got a lot better as she is now much more calm and able to wait for the lead rather then anticipate it.

After 9:30 a few more people came in but it was mostly dead. There were a few good dancers in the room, so I had a chance to dance with them on a (mostly) empty floor which I really like. The first lady I danced with she's been dancing 16 years... While she didn't have perfect technique like some of the tango "Gods" I danced with in the past, she has a wonderful embrace and musicality and a confidence that I guess comes as years of dancing pass. I then danced with "L", another really good dancer and Debbi managed to grab that on tape. Watching the tape makes me wish I'd keep my back straiter and have a better extension as I step, but I guess I have to be ... gasp ... patient, I will eventually get there.



The lady who's been dancing for 16 year paid me a very nice compliment. She said something along the lines "It is such a pleasure dancing with you. After only a year and a half you learned to fuse with the music and your partner, which is the most important thing". She is french, which might explain the unusual choice of the verb (fuse), but I like it, I think I would like to be fused to the music and my partner. It seems like it's what should matter when dancing. I like compliments which are really meant. Too often people pay empty compliments and I think that practice just waters down the real ones. Which is why I never do that, if I pay a compliment to someone, a really mean exactly what I say. Because if you describe an OK dance as "fantastic" or "amazing", how would one be able to describe a really amazing one? "Oh, this was super-duper-fantastico-amazingly-great" ? So, if I say "fantastic" I mean, surprisingly to many, "fantastic".

Despite the good dances I had, the place was practically dead, so we jumped on the bike and went to the festival milonga, where we arrived around 11:30PM, just in time for the live music ... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... Se while that played, we chatted with some people, and it seems we are not alone in our opinion of the festival.

Once the live music was over and Michel started Djing again, I went and asked "D". We never danced before even though I asked her, as it seemed like it was always bad timing. She is fun to dance with and we danced probably 3 tandas. I then danced with a couple of other dancers I danced with before, and while it was not mind blowing, it was pleasant and fun. The milonga went until 2:15 which was fine, as I don't think I would've lasted much longer. There were a couple of other dancers in the room I would've liked to dance with, but they seemed to exclusively dance with one person so I didn't have the opportunity.

I'd say that Tuesday was probably the best day so far.

Montreal - International Tango Festival (@Tango Libre) - Monday

I'm not sure why we went there Monday, as we knew the DJ (same as Saturday) and we knew there was going to be live music (which I don't like). Monday was a complete bust, except for dancing with Debbi at the beginning of the evening on an empty floor. When I say empty, it's not just a figure of speech. We danced for at least 20 minutes alone on the floor, with everyone else sitting down. Don't know why, didn't care. I like empty floors. A few tandas felt really good, particularly a milonga one (milonga still being my nemesis).

With one exception, I have not danced with anyone else. While there were a few people there I would've liked to dance with, the music was atrocious. I thought Saturday was the worst music selection one could hear. Apparently I was wrong.

The one exception was Soledad, one of the Argentine instructors with whom I danced one song. After the performances they were on their way out, but a waltz was playing and Soledad had restless feet, she looked like she wanted to dance. All the other instructors were heading for the door, but I went for it anyway. I walked up to her and said something along the lines of "Oh, are you leaving already? Would you care to dance one song before you go?". So off we went. Not surprisingly she is a fantastic dancer. Light but steady presence, warm embrace, amazing balance and musicality.

Crap, all pictures are gone ...

I recently bought a new compact camera, something to keep in my bag all the time, when I don't feel like lugging around the SLR, and it's a great little camera. It does a great job in low light, which is why I got it.

But yesterday as I was downloading the pictures into my laptop, the computer froze and it corrupted the storage card. I may have lost all the pictures I took during this trip, which is such a bummer. If I manage to recover them, I'll post some here and on my website.

Montreal - International Tango Festival (@Tango Libre) - Sunday

In the afternoon we met with fellow blogger Caroline, and we hung out for a while, had a great Lebanese lunch and sat down on the grass in a park and chatted. That was a pleasant low key afternoon.

After the experience we've had Saturday, we went to the place where the festival milonga was going to take place, wary of what we would find. The milonga was going to take place in a room in the Old Port which has glass walls on two sides, it looked pretty cool. We got there at about 8PM and looking at the long line formed at the entrance I realized I did not recognize anyone. It seemed the live music with Beba Pugliese attracted a lot of people who are not avid tango dancers. Also, the Claude was DJing again (see my prior post) and the room did not seem large enough to allow such a large inexperienced crowd to dance comfortably. We heard there was going to be over an hour of performances and since the admission price was $35 we felt it was not worth taking a chance, so we went to L'Academie instead.

L-Academie was pretty empty, presumably most people went to the festival, which I later learned it was not exactly true. While the festival milonga was packed, I was told that a lot of regulars were in neither place. What I think happens in these cases, people assume everyone is going to the festival milonga, and if they feel like that is not worth going to, they just stay home or do ... gasp ... non-tango activities.

But despite being a slow night, I had a good time. Aside from Debbi, I danced with a few people. "L", a french woman who moved to Montreal because she liked the people here better then her compatriots, she is a good dancer. I danced with her before when I came to Montreal for the Neo-Tango festival, and when we came for my birthday, and back then she was very tense and her dancing suffered. But Sunday she was not nervous and it made such a great difference. It was a lovely couple of tandas.

I danced with "I", a girl I never danced with before, she is a lot of fun, highly musical, great embrace and while she did anticipate the movement a bit, the qualities she has certainly made up for that. "M", a woman who was obviously somehow connected with the milonga as she seemed to know everyone, was probably the best dance of the night technique wise, but somehow not the most fun, as she didn't seem like she was really enjoying herself much. But she did stay for 3 tandas, so maybe she was having an off night. "E" was there, a girl I met at the Neo-tango festival when she asked me to dance, while she doesn't have the best technique out there (not that she is not bad, mind you) she is fun to dance with in great part because it's really obvious she enjoys it a lot and she doesn't tense up when something goes wrong, and that is so important it makes up for any other issues.

Montreal - International Tango Festival (@Tango Libre) - Saturday

I was very excited and could not wait to come spend a week in Montreal, attending what I was hoping to be an exciting tango festival in a city both myself and Debbi loves. Saturday we got here around 5PM and after meeting with my friend V who graciously offered us his apartment to stay we got ready and went to the Saturday milonga.

The DJ was supposed to be Michel Auzat (according to the festival website), who is one of the best DJs I've heard yet. So I was kind of confused when I saw another guy DJing. Those of you who know me or those who read some of my other posts, know that the music selection is very important to me and I can't dance on music I don't like. Claude Paris (he appears to be the resident DJ at Tango Libre), who DJed all the festival milongas so far (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) has a soft spot for dramatic music (Piazzolla, Pugliese) and another for obscure orchestras and songs. Most of the music he played sounded to me like movie soundtracks. I didn't recognize more then half the music and I could swear I did not hear one DiSarli or Biagi. So, in conclusion, I have to say that Claude is at this point the absolute least favorite DJ I've heard so far. Ever. I will do my best to avoid any event he DJs, as it was incredibly frustrating.

As far as dancing, I had a few good dances (as good as could make them considering the music), some with people I knew from my prior visits, some new. One in particular needs to be mentioned, X from Ithaca, NY. After dancing a couple of songs I found out she was just dancing for 6 months. Perfect embrace and balance, great following skills and musicality. Quite amazing for someone dancing for only 6 months.

Weekend New York trip (long)

As I had some bureaucracy to fight at the Romanian embassy in NY, I took Friday and Monday off, the plan being to take care of business Friday and/or Monday and use the rest of the time to hang out in NY and of course tango! To save some cash, I got a room in Stamford, which I thought it was 20 miles north of NY on I95. With Priceline.com I got it at a Holiday Inn for $60 a night, which was a pretty good deal. Stamford, as it later turned out, it's actually about 40 miles north of midtown so next time I'll have to pay more attention to the distances ... The other idea I had was that I would trailer the motorcycle to the hotel, and take the bike to the city, as a bike is much easier to park. Assuming there would be parking at the hotel. Which there wasn't (well, there was PAID parking, but not for a car with a trailer attached). Something else I should ask in the future so I won't have to move the car around at 3AM while trespassing ...

Friday - the trip to NY

We (me and Debbi) left the house Friday around 10AM (to avoid rush hour) and we were hoping to hit Stamford by 2AM and then head to town for the afternoon milonga which starts at 4:30. Due to construction and heavy traffic it took us 6 hours to get to the hotel, so we decided to skip the afternoon milonga and just chill a bit and head into town early enough to have dinner and hang out a bit before the milonga. We left on the motorcycle around 7PM thinking we'd get into the city by 7:45 or so. Not so fast... It took us 2 hours to make the 40 miles to the city. Riding a motorcycle in stop and go traffic for two hours is not exactly that much fun. For those who are not aware, motorcycles are manual transmissions, and the clutch is operated by the left hand. When one goes in stop and go traffic, the clutch is basically used continuously. By the end of the two hour trip, I could not feel my hand anymore... On the up side, a few more of these trips and I'll be able to crush rocks with my bare left hand, who knows when that might get ... handy. Hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Friday - the milonga @ the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant

We made to the restaurant by 9:20PM, and there was still a pre-milonga class going on, so we ordered food, taking the opportunity to check out the local talent. I saw a few women in the room I wanted to dance with, but they were virtually impossible to approach as they were in high demand and when they were not dancing, they were engaged in what appeared to be intimate conversations which I feel are rude to interrupt. They didn't appeared to be interested in dancing outside of their circle so I didn't even try. Other then Debbi, I only danced with a couple of women, one of them being C, whom I met at the Boston tango festival where she performed with one of the argentine instructors. She is a lovely dancer and I enjoyed every minute of the 2 (or maybe 3) tandas I danced with her. It turns out she doesn't dance socially much, for various reasons, which I think it's a shame. So I "made" her promise she'd go out more often ;-) While I certainly don't feel (anymore) like I have to dance every tanda, it was quite disappointing to dance so little, but it was (mostly) my own choice so I can't really complain.

Saturday - bike adventures

We got up late and headed into town around 3PM, thinking we'll have time to hang out before the Central Park Milonga which starts at 6PM. Good plan, but the bike broke down on the way there. So there I was on the side of the road taking the bike apart to track down what appeared to be an electrical problem. The first attempt to fix it didn't work, but the second time I was pretty sure I got it right and since it was 5PM already and we were still an hour away, I decided to take the chance and continue to ride to NY (as opposed to returning to the hotel to get the car). It turns out the issue was indeed fixed so we made it to Central Park a bit after 6PM.

Saturday - Central park milonga

It turns out Central Park is quite big and we didn't have the best directions, so it took us a while to track down the milonga, but we eventually heard the music and tracked it down. The dancing takes place in a little ronda with a statue of Shakespeare in the middle. The floor is concrete, so not exactly ideal, but it's not that terrible. Me and Debbi danced for the first 20-30 min or so and then we went to find new partners. A favorite follower of mine, R from NY was there and we danced together 3 or 4 tandas, and it was just as lovely as always. I also danced with someone new, N, she has a wonderful embrace and we had a lot of fun. The two hours that we had went by quickly and before we knew it, it was over.


Saturday - Lafayette milonga

In the evening we went to Lafayette milonga. I reviewed this milonga a while ago and nothing really changed. The level of dancing is much lower then all other milongas in NY, I actually only danced with Debbi, L, a follower from Boston who happened to be there and one tanda with a local which was OK, but nothing special. Interesting though, while I'd say that most dancers were between beginner & intermediate, the floor craft was decent. The milonga had live music with a duo, which sounded fine, but I didn't find it very inspiring to dance to.

Sunday - Sancha dance sneakers!

Over the last year I've seen scores of people talking about sancha dance sneakers and seen even more dancing in them, so since we knew there was a Sancha store in NY (8th ave & 53rd) we went there so now I'm the proud owner of one pair for about $40. And it turns out, they ARE very comfortable and great to dance tango in (just make sure you get the ones with hard soles, as they make ones with soft soles which are way to grippy for tango).

Sunday - Tango Porteno (Sea port) milonga

Now, this was the best milonga of this trip, and possibly the best I've been in NY ever. There were a few issues, the most important one being the floor, which is an old wooden deck, complete with cracks, splinters, warped planks, etc. I was in sneakers and sometime had a hard time, but some of the women were wearing high heels and I have no idea how they do it... They are my heroes! ;-) The other issue is that the dancing area is not delimited, so unlike a traditional milonga, where if you can keep your follower on the outside of the outer loop you can keep her safe, in this case it was not true, as there were bystanders, bicycles, kids running, etc. I don't know if that would be allowed by whoever owns the area, but it would be ideal if the dance area was cordoned off, which would keep both dancers safe from pedestrians and keep the pedestrians safe from being stabbed by a rogue boleo...

But there were scores of great dancers, and I got to dance with a few of my favorite NY dancers and even find new favorites. T was there and we danced several tandas which were a lot of fun. Sadly that happened at the height of the evening when it was the most crowded, so it was not nearly as fun as it could've been. Same with R, which I was so glad to see, as she is so awesome to dance with and we both enjoy tremendously dancing with each other. I danced again with N, who I met at the Central Park and she was lots of fun. And I found a new favorite, D, from NY. She looked familiar but I could not remember where I knew her from, so I went to introduce myself and I was surprised to see that she knew my name. It turns out we met at Adam's party in the spring, though I can't remember if we danced together, I would guess we didn't, as I'm sure I would've remembered. It wasn't easy to get her as she was in high demand, one leader in particular (fantastic dancer according to Deb) monopolized her for over an hour. Grrrrrrrr ;) But we go to dance a few tandas toward the end of the evening, and it was certainly worth the wait. She has am amazing embrace and an elegance in movements that reminded me of Marika (my first "tango crush"). Looking forward to dance with her again, hopefully on a better surface.

Monday - Oops, embassy closed until late

Monday at around 10:30 we arrived at the (Romanian) embassy where I had some papers to get notarized just to find out they would not open until 4PM. The original plan was to leave the NY area around noon heading to Boston. Leaving right after the business was taken care of would've put us on the road at around 6PM, and that seemed like a bad time to get out of NY. So, we decided to stay later, and since we were there ;-), we decided to stop by at the monday's milonga, as it's unlikely I'll be in NY on a monday evening any time soon.

Monday - Luna milonga

The milonga starts at 9:30 and unlike Boston, there were quite a few people waiting to get in, so the floor got busy right away. The level of dancing was mixed, from good to beginners. I was quite tired as the night before I only slept 3 hours and since I was going to drive to Boston after the milonga I only danced with a few people with whom I danced before. N, was the woman I met at the Tango Nuevo Fest in Montreal who was only been dancing at that time for 8 months, yet she's fantastic (she's both fun and technically proficient, which is not a combination easy to come by). We danced for a long time, maybe 4 or even 5 tandas until she had to leave as she had to get up in the morning. We had a blast. L, which I danced with before at various events is also a great dancer, but I'm having trouble maintaining a comfortable embrace for some reason, it could be height related.

Monday night - the drive home

One advantage of driving during the night is the complete lack of traffic. I set the car on cruise control at 75mph and that was that. About 2/3 of the way I had to pull over for a power nap. After about an hour I woke up, Deb woke up and we made the rest of the distance without incidents.

Conclusion

I love NY.

More conclusions :-)

Taking the bike on a trailer to have to buzz around in the city was a good idea, but we had to deal with carrying the jackets around as I had no way to secure it. Next time I'll bring a cable lock to be able to secure them to the bike. Also, I'll have to make sure that wherever we spend the night there is space to park a car with a trailer attached. Alternatively, I could try to fold the trailer and try to squeeze it in the same parking spot as the car, but I'll have to find a way to secure it to the car (the cable lock maybe?).

As far a tango goes, NY is a much bigger scene then Boston and I've seen lots of people I would've liked to dance with but had no time or opportunity to ask. Looking forward to going again.

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.