Aside from technique ...

The quest for becoming a "perfect follow" or a "perfect lead" is a long one and it involves lots of practice to improve the technique. But there are some things that one can do right away, aside from technique, to make a single dance or an entire evening a better experience and PLEASE trust me, they are VERY important.

For both leaders and followers :
* NEVER talk (about people/room/shoes/scenery) to your partner (or even worst, with someone else) while dancing. Not only you are likely ruining it for him/her, but you are ruining it for everyone in your close vicinity. So, please do everyone the favor of shutting the hell up. If your partner is the "talker", don't talk back. In many cases, that should take care of it. If she/he insists, say you can't talk and dance at the same time.
* The milonga is the place where your joy of dancing should come out. It's not the place to refine techniques, to learn steps, etc. Many times I enjoyed dances with dancers who were far from being perfect, because I could feel their joy. Don't lose track of the fact that tango is a dance, and it's SUPPOSED to be enjoyed.
* For a lot of people it is extremely annoying when the music is drowned by chatter. So when you are on the sidelines socializing, lower your voice. Get closer to the person you're talking to, or move away from the speaker. Don't try to talk OVER the music for crying out loud.
* Do not be a "baby seater". If you asked someone to dance and they said, "I'm tired, maybe later", DO NOT SIT DOWN NEXT TO THEM AND WAIT FOR THE "LATER". Ever. The only exception to that rule is if THEY ASK you to sit down and wait with them.
* Bring more then one shirt/top, if you know you are sweating a lot.
* Use unscented deodorant (and yes, for the love of God, do use deodorant).
* Don't try to cover a bad smell with deodorant/perfume. It never works. Take a shower, now it's not the time to save money by conserving water.
* If on your way to the milonga, people in your close proximity had sudden respiratory problems, you may be wearing too much perfume. Knock it off.

For followers, under any circumstances do not :
* Look around while dancing, checking out people/room/shoes/scenery. Or, even worst, checking out yourself in the mirror. If you are easily distracted, close your eyes. Some follows like to assist with navigation, and it's useful ONLY when done right. That means, no head turning and not getting tense. If you can't help getting tense when other dancers are getting close, close your eyes.The only thing I should feel from you is a subtle increase in the groundness and/or a slight tightening of the embrace when you think the current direction we're moving could lead to a collision. The key words here are "subtle" and "slight".
* Second guess your leader in navigation. If your lead leads you to step somewhere, step, even if you think will lead to a collision (feel free to communicate your concern by the afore mentioned increase in groundness), but don't refuse to move (or worst, hesitate). I know I'll have some followers (and even leaders) disagree with this, "but he asked me to step on somebody's toes!". For the most part, you don't know that, since you didn't step. The other side of the coin is, do not dance with someone if you don't COMPLETELY trust their ability to navigate in the current circumstances. For example, if a beginner asks you to dance and you think they can't navigate competently in that environment, tell them "not now, it's a bit too crowded, how about later?". And do go get them later, when you think they can hack it ... errr ... I mean, do it.
* Apologize for ANYTHING but hurting someone. Whatever you do, NEVER, EVER apologize for missing a lead or screwing up a step. If you absolutely have to apologize for something, keep it until the dance/song is over.
* Allow your right hand to hang from your leader's left hand like a dead rabbit hanged in a tree. Unlike the tree, we get tired. And it doesn't feel that great holding a dead rabbit in one's hand either, I promise. Keep your own hand up please.

For leaders, under any circumstances do not :

* Aside for keeping an eye on your immediate surroundings, look around while dancing, checking out people/room/shoes/scenery. Or, even worst, checking out yourself in the mirror.
* Appologise for ANYTHING but hurting someone. Whatever you do, NEVER, EVER apologize for a step/sequence/figure that didn't come out as you wanted it. First, since she doesn't know what you wanted to do (hopefully, you are not trying to communicate verbally), she can't tell it didn't come out as you intended it. Second, it makes you look like an insecure leader, and we all know how much women love an insecure man...
* Teach on the dance floor at a milonga. While this is covered by the "do not talk" rule, it merits it's own space. Every time you stop to show your partner something, you are likely blocking the line of dance, forcing people to navigate around you. Which makes you an asshole. Stop that please. Most women resent unsolicited advice on the dance floor at a milonga anyway, so you are effectively shooting yourself in the foot there. If advice is solicited, get off the dance floor or at a minimum, go to the middle of the dance floor. If I see you trying to impress a beginner by "teaching" her your favorite (usually poorly executed) colgada-volcada-dip-sacada combination I will make it my mission for that milonga to dance with all your victims and gently inform them about milonga codes and what kind of leaders they should avoid. With a little help most women figure out the assholes pretty quickly.

And here are a few suggestions, they don't always apply, and they are not a huge deal, but at least consider them.

* For followers, take your glasses off. It's nearly impossible to dance close embrace comfortably with eyeglasses on. Consider contacts. This applies to leaders as well if you can still see well enough to navigate...
* For followers (not much a problem for men), don't wear anything that creates a bulge on your chest/abdomen, no matter how small (like dresses with a knot in front, jewelry, etc). It makes it very uncomfortable in close embrace.
* For leaders. If you get an erection during the dance, err on the side of caution and assume she's not appreciating it. Move to open embrace immediately if it's not visible or just excuse yourself claiming a "bathroom emergency".
* For followers, don't wear tight skirts, dresses. If you can't comfortably take a the largest step you can take wearing pants, it's too tight.

Feel free to add your own ...

God damn mega-pixels!

Since many people are aware I'm a photography nut, not a week passes without someone asking me for a suggestion on their next digital camera, since they have an old one that can "only" take 3 (or 2 or 4) mega-pixels pictures and the pictures are not that great. So they want to know if 6 MP is enough, or maybe they need 9 or even 12.

Sigh ...

OK, I'll try to make this as clear and short as possible. The "mega-pixels" (the number of individual pixels the camera sensor has) is ONE of a camera's properties, GENERALLY the LEAST important. Why is everyone talking about MEGA-PIXELS then? Because the manufacturers exasperated by the the increasing dumbness of the general public they finally found a NUMBER they can print on the box. Biiiig number good! Small number baaaaad! So when you're looking at your camera and you see 3 (mega-pixels) and then you look at the one in the store and you see 12, you KNOW it must be the missing 9 meeeeeeega-pixels that make your pictures look like shit.

For those that are not convinced, here are two pictures. Both of them are roughly 1 mega-pixel pictures (click on it to see full size).



Can you tell the difference? If not, stop reading right now and have your eyes checked. Seriously. go now. Don't drive though, take a cab, you must be legally blind. On the top is a picture from my "camera" phone. On the bottom, it's a picture from my compact digital FinePix F31fd (which was set to capture a 1 MP image). Why are they different? For the same reason two 6 cylinder cars are different, one of them can be a recent marvel of engineering german car which gets to 60mph in 4 seconds and makes 30MPG, and the other can be a 1950 piece of shit that needs 4 hours to get to 60MPH and it barely makes it from gas station to the next. Not to mention looks, handling, brakes, noise, interior, ABS, sound system, etc. When you buy a car do you take into account more then the number of cylinders? I certainly hope it's the LAST thing you'd consider. The number of mega-pixels should be the LAST thing you should consider when buying a camera.

Incidentally, the Brownie camera that Kodak started to sell in February 1900 for $1 was likely able to take more clear pictures then more then 50% of the current crop of "camera" phones.

What's important then? Like with anything else, it's a complicated answer. It depends on how are you planning on using your camera. Are you taking most of your pictures outdoors during the day ? Then almost ANY digital camera will do. Do you take lots of pictures in low light and hate the way the flash make most faces look? Then you have to look for low light perfomance (sensor and optics). Do you often go in the wilderness for weeks? Then battery life/type might be important to you.

Here's a list with the most important properties of a camera to get you started.

* The quality of the sensor (flashless low light performance is a good approximation of the overall quality of the sensor and lens)
* The quality of the optics (here bigger, in size, is better. The smaller the glass is, the crappier it will be. Sorry, the laws of physics are at fault).
* Battery type and battery life (bigger battery is better)
* Autofocus speed (try to capture the kitten jumping around? A camera that needs 3 seconds to focus might not work all that well)

There are many other things to take into account and yes, it involves research and ... gasp... thinking!

P.S. I just bought a compact digital camera to have with me when I don't feel like carrying my (rather large) digital SLR. It a Fuji Finepix F31fd camera. Great little thing, only $250. So if you can't be bothered to do your own research, get this one. Sigh ... I know you'll be asking. It's a six God damn mega-pixels.

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