“I miss so many things about tango.
People I got to know in the last 12 years. Their smiles. Memories we have built from house parties, camping trips, hiking, and dining together. I miss beautiful people who clean up, put their best clothes and take an effort to get to the tango place to share the joy of music and dance. I miss music tremendously. I miss the sensation in the middle of a good milonga night when you are completely dissolved in music.
I miss tango life. ”
Thank all of you for sending me your thoughts about starting to dance together. Overall, most of you are being cautious. With a few exceptions, most people do not want to dance in person: especially not changing partners. As Multnomah County has not opened at all yet and infections are on the rise, I think this is a good approach for right now.
My group lessons will be on Zoom for at least a few more months, and probably through next flu season, unless we get a vaccine up and running or the virus dies out in the area. I want to have everyone safe, and this is my FIRST consideration.
Private lessons will also be available on Zoom from now on. For some of you, we have found half hour lessons twice a week work best; and that works better without a commute. For others of you, you are more health compromised than I am, and need to be 100% safe. And then there are those of you who live in other countries and have been doing lessons—what a nice silver lining to this situation, to meet you and teach you!
I encourage all of you who are willing to continue learning via Zoom, to do this. I should be getting a new camera tomorrow to further enhance distance learning. I am continually working on improving online lessons. I know it’s not the same as in person, but we all want to be alive to dance together on the other side of this!
Be safe and take care of yourself and others: wear a mask!
I have been experimentally visiting some students and teaching them from outside their French doors, while they dance in their house. I bring my mask and the music, and don’t come inside.
This has worked well, but I have found I cannot really sustain a visiting teacher status without charging for travel because it affects how many lessons I can teach per day. If you want me to deliver tango to your house, let’s talk. We will need to come up with some sort of travel charge.
Studies have found that COVID-19 transmission is much lower outside. While the weather holds, this will be the new option available.
Private couples’ lessons OUTSIDE AT MY HOUSE are now open! As of this week, I am the proud owner of 1. an infrared, touchless thermometer; and 2. vinyl flooring on my back porch.
The porch is covered and it is big enough to social distance and/or have me stand inside to teach. Unless it is a downpour, the floor stays dry. There is room to change your shoes, etc., and you can come down the driveway and avoid entering the house. Unfortunately, heels are a no-go right now. I hope to strengthen the flooring later to make it heel-friendly, but for now, please wear socks or practice shoes only.
There will be a fan for more movement of air. There will be hand sanitizer available and I ask you to get used to wearing masks (please bring your own) during classes, especially if you want me out of the porch with you. I will take temperatures and run through safety protocol for each class. I know it’s a hassle, but a month is the hospital is more hassle than that.
I am a bit nervous about dancing with people, as I have a history of several bouts of pneumonia. I will be taking it very slowly in re-opening private solo lessons. The first people will be those who live alone, have not been socializing, and preferably have had a COVID-19 test. I hope by the end of the summer to have all of you back dancing, AS LONG AS numbers of cases in Multnomah County start to go down. Stay tuned.
Private one-on-one lessons will require:
hand washing/sanitizer;
temperature check;
masks;
dancing outside
me feeling comfortable with/knowing your level of socializing.
Thank you again for your input. I am taking into account all information. I have a few friends who work in infectious disease research, pharmaceutics research, etc., and I have been bugging them for information to help me stay au courant with COVID-19 news. Again, the county has not budged, and numbers are going up, so please bear with my slower-than-you-want opening, those of you who want to dance NOW :-)
My first email in my inbox this morning was the owner of the dance studio I rent for classes. Her county is opening up: when do we plan to come back to use her space? What are our plans/requirement/rules/etc.? Wow! We are still in lockdown where I live and I had not anticipated even THINKING about this for a few more months.
I have adjusted to online classes and am enjoying their safety despite missing teaching in person and being able to give hands-on help to my students. Some of my students are actually improving faster online than in person: it fits their way of learning better. For me, it takes the stress off of wondering if I am going to get sick, or if I am going to infect someone else. Because I have a compromised immune system from a bunch of rounds of pneumonia, I am careful. I also have many students in the at-risk age categories. Take one super-spreader in the tango community and look out!
Several of my students have reached out and asked me to find them a designated tango partner. They want to find another person who is also being careful, and only dance with them. When you add level, speed of learning, attitude towards practicing and personality to that mix, I feel like a matchmaker! Oy, the responsibility :-)
When you dance in a mask, wash your hands, and then only dance with one person, you are probably not creating a high risk. I can see that as a way to move from dancing with sticks, chairs, barstools, walls and the other accoutrements of Zoom tango.
Frankly, it’s a good idea for those dancers who don’t have a built-in partner at home. And like arranged marriages, there will be rough spots that are not anticipated. Any ideas from all of you as to how to implement that are very welcome!
I am feeling more hopeful of small groups meeting to dance outside than inside. It’s easier to keep your space in a larger, outdoor area. There are fewer surfaces to touch in common. There is fresh air circulating.
My neighbors, who also dance tango, met us outside in the parking lot across the street. We both staked out a few parking spaces, put the music speaker in between, and practiced canyengue for a half hour. We still wore masks, stayed at least ten feet away from each other, didn’t switch partners, etc. It still felt very daring to hang out with other people! And there is the question of pivoting on asphalt. . .
Inside classes would have to have that amount of space per couple, have good ventilation, be easy to access without touching a lot of surfaces, and would have to NOT change partners. That’s a lot of changes from classes before COVID-19. There is also the question of shared space: do I trust the other users of a room to be careful? I am going to spend part of my day pondering when I can feel comfortable doing that, because I am supposed to come up with an answer by Monday. Eek.
I want to start to formulate a plan for when we meet again to dance. I would like YOUR thoughts on what would make you feel safer: masks? hand sanitizer? designated partners? etc. What are your most pressing worries about dancing together? How would YOU structure a class to make it as safe as possible? When do you think that should happen? What health factors need to be in place (vaccine? testing? % contact tracing?)? I need to hear from you so that I can relay your thoughts to the studio owner about in-person classes; not just my opinions.
Thank you in advance!
For a lot of us, whether we are at-risk or in an area with a lockdown, many of our regular opportunities to stay in shape—like our tango dancing—are not happening. Here are a few things I have found that are helping me stay in shape, at home. Most of these are free, but, like me, they probably are struggling to pay the bills and would welcome donations!
Walking is free, except for the cost of a face mask. You don’t need any props. However, in some neighborhoods, it’s scary to go out because people are not being careful social distancing. I have found that if I go out first thing in the morning, there are fewer people. Because the lockdown is still in place, there is less pollution. The birds are singing and you can hear them better without all that noise. Plus, soaking up some of that Vitamin D is good for you!
If you feel tango deprived, you can practice your tango walk and really freak people out by walking backwards :-)
Yes, I have not done ballet since grad school. Yes, I am taking ballet classes from time to time online. Many of you know that I didn’t start dancing until college, but my sister danced from an early age, and went to college for dance (we switched along the way and now she is the health care professional and I’m the dance teacher….). One of her buddies from her dance training, Leigh Purtill, teaches a good class live on YouTube several times a week, alternating beginner and intermediate technique. The classes are up for about 24 hours after the live stream. As a dance teacher, I can tell you she is good!
My go-to yoga channel is Do Yoga With Me (thanks Nilande and Graham for introducing me to this!). They have free videos, as well as a subscription level that accesses more classes. I do one every Sunday morning, and try to do more throughout the week.
My neighbor, Suniti Dernovsek, is a talented yoga instructor and teacher trainer. She has a 30-day free code on her website right now: check it out!
I study with Heidi Weiss on a regular basis. She is offering online classes!
As most of you know, I am a dedicated Barre 3 fan. Barre 3 is based in Portland, although it is spreading around the world. You can check out their classes, and they have a 15-day free trial for their online classes. Try it out! They have very reasonable rates for online access to their content.
My online classes are going well and I would love to see YOU there! You need to download Zoom (free) and then sign up for classes (free if you are unemployed due to COVID-19, please pay if you can afford it!). The Tuesday class is usually full or almost full. The Friday noon class is smaller at this point, so there should be room there if you are free then. If you can only make Tuesdays, contact me and we’ll see what we can do to get you in!
So no excuses! Stay healthy, stay in shape so that we are all ready to get out there and dance together eventually!
Some videos and thoughts to keep you happy, thinking of the time when we can dance together in the same room! When I wonder what the use is to practice when I can’t go out dancing, I watch videos like this to get inspired again!
Those of you who prefer what my neighbor Margaret calls “Euro Tango” will be disappointed—sorry, no feet over the head! Those of you who like Argentine Tango—the feeling, the music, the connection, will enjoy :-)
Nito and Elba were some of the first Argentines I studied under. They taught class at Gricel, and I would go there with my boyfriend and take class together once a week. Nito was born in 1935, started dancing at fifteen, and met Elba dancing. They are over 80, and still dance with the elegance that attracted me to their dancing back in the 1990s.
They aren’t flashy dancers, but they are elegant. My favorite saying from their classes: “If you can’t do it in a 1960s Chanel pencil skirt, then you shouldn’t do that move!” The point is not to show off, but to dance!
Carmencita Calderon
A lot of you have heard me tell of Carmencita Calderon, who used to dance with El Cachafaz. Here’s a video that I can’t find the date for—but you can tell she’s no spring chicken. BUT, watch her spice that dance up!!!! How many of us can keep up with her? That’s my goal: have that much energy in a few decades.
Enjoy your day!
I find it hard to stay positive and upbeat right now. It would be easy to hide and just knit in some corner, watching podcasts (the grownup version of what my son is doing with Minecraft). I miss seeing all of you in person, although Zoom is really helping; seeing your smiling faces via the internet brightens my day!
I really look forward to teaching tango, even more than I did before. Focusing 100% on someone else, making sure that THEY feel better, that tango is still in their life, and that they can know that their tango will be improved when we get on the collective dance floor—that takes me out of my own worry and makes me feel useful. I am planning on doing short video “practice” moments that we can share, based on my classes. Again, I hope to be more useful to other people.
I would have never thought that teaching dance online would be in my cards. I didn’t understand how well it would work, and I dragged my heels despite comments on my Youtube channel (“I wish you lived here in Cairo!” etc.) that suggested I could connect with a bigger tango community than I could face-to-face. Now that I have been forced to look at this new idea, I see how good it is for our dance!
I think that our dance community will have permanently changed by the time we are allowed and/or safe to dance collectively. We need to be creative and find ways to continue to build our dance, tango and otherwise, in the upcoming months and maybe years. Perhaps it will be simply that we have thought more about our dance on a spiritual level, or practiced every day (ha!), or met people online to visit in other tango groups.
Tango has survived the 1918 flu epidemic, several world wars, the military junta, poverty, economic uncertainty on national level . . . and it will survive COVID-19. I feel sure of that.
Try to stay positive: we WILL be able to dance together again, at some point. I am going to make masks that match my tango dresses, I think. What about you? How are you keeping up your tango? How are you keeping up your spirits? Please share!
With COVID-19, I am trying to make lemonade out of the lemons that have been handed to me. Not much work? Guess it’s time to actually LEARN the scheduling and email parts of my website! THERE WILL BE MISTAKES, so please be nice when you contact me to tell me:
What is not working—please include details!
What is working for you—please feel free to add suggestions!
What you want to see that is not on my website yet.
If you are a current student, and you need to pay me for upcoming lessons, please try out the website and see if it works for you. I am happy to take cards over the phone and/or get checks in the mail, as always. I can also send you an invoice that you can pay; but I would like to have as many people as possible try out the website scheduler to see how that works. If you have a recurring lesson with me, I bet it will refuse that time….eek. More thought is needed!
And…you can sign up online! In an effort to both feed my family, and to make sure you can feed yours, I am instituting a pay-what-you-can approach. When you schedule for class, it is free. If you want to pay, there is an “Add-on” to click. If you want to pay for someone who you know can’t pay, there is also a place to click for that. Again, if you cannot afford to pay right now, THAT IS OK! We are all going to be in a rough spot for some time to come.
For now, group class will be at 6:30 on Tuesdays. I may add another class to the mix, but that seemed to be a good time when I tried it out this week. There is currently a limit of ten people for class, until I figure out more about how Zoom works! Another learning curve.
I learned about AFGOs when I attended a session for adult children of alcoholics. It means “Another F***ing Growth Opportunity. That is certainly where we all are right now. Be kind to each other, and use the opportunities to learn that are offered to you!
With coronavirus here, we need to find a new way to continue our dancing and learning. In the past five days, I have bought equipment, learned new software and begun to teach online. There is a learning curve, for sure, but I am relieved to see how much can be done remotely.
For those of you who come to group classes every week and have a punchcard to use up, I have an offer for you: 15-minute online private lessons = 1 group class on your punchcard, until you use it up! Think of it as a way to jumpstart your practice. We all know it’s hard to get going on individual workouts: I can help! Schedule a time, install Zoom on your computer, and we are ready!
For my private lesson students, you can continue to do your weekly lesson (or whatever your regular schedule is with me), but online. You may take your lessons in 15-, 30- or 60- minute chunks. Buying lessons by the hour or by the 5-hour chunk is much more affordable than a one-shot deal, as usual. You may buy lessons and gift them to your friends! I am here for you.
New students: Try me out! I have several students who have already started online, and I would be happy to connect you so they can tell you how it went, without me listening in :-)
Although I am still working out kinks in teaching online, I have taught dance since 1986, and I can see a lot and correct a lot of technique via video. The only part I can’t do, is dance with you (although someone led a front ocho today while working on musicality, and it was so clear that I automatically DID a front ocho while watching him!).
We are all in this strange new world together. Let me know what you want/need online, and I will try to provide it.
One of the reasons that I am excited that Jose Garofalo arrives in Portland TODAY is that we will be working with historical and modern forms of tango this week. I feel that I improve my dance the most when I try new things.
As a social dancer, I like to have the ability to dance with all styles of tango. As a dance performer, I like trying out different versions of moves to see what I like best. As a dance historian, I love to learn vocabulary that dates back to famous teachers and eras of tango.
Jose and I have cooked up a series of classes that will give you a chance to experiment on each day of workshops.
Come explore the world of turns Thursday 2/27 @ Om Studio, 14 NE 10th Ave. We will be doing a class on Salon style turns with sacadas at 7 PM. Then, we will do a contrasting style, Del Centro, looking at turns with enrosques and sacadas around 8:30 PM.
Most people in North America have learned from teachers of one of these traditional styles. A lot of you call the Del Centro style “milonguero” which means someone who dances in the milongas. “Del Centro” means the style that was prevalent in the center of town/downtown, and is a more accurate term :-) Salon style was danced outside of downtown.
Come expand your dance!
Saturday, 2/29 @ Shabu Studio, 6055 NE Glisan, at noon, we will explore milonga candombe! I am SUPER excited about this, as I love this and first studied with with Jose in Buenos Aires in 1999! Woohoo!
The next class, at 1:30 PM, will look at milonga lisa and milonga traspie. Don’t be afraid of these milonga styles: they are ALL fun, and Jose is fun, so YOU will have fun! It’s a chance to get more groovy and comfortable with your milonga. In my book, more milonga = better!
3/1 @ Shabu Studio, 6055 NE Glisan, at noon, we will look at the Old Masters and vals. There is so much good “swing” in vals—come get your vals to really feel lovely and get in touch with the Old Masters. There are decades and decades of vals expertise for us to mine!
At 1:30 PM, we will have a class to look at creating your own dance. No, you don’t have to have come to all the classes to put together your own dance. If you have taken all the classes, you will have a lot more to play with, but this is for everyone. Come spend a chunk of time looking at your personal dance and what you want to incorporate into it, and why!
Las Naifas Milonga 2/28 Friday, 326 SW Broadway, Jose will be guest teaching and then revving up our party with his outgoing, party spirit! The lesson at 5:30 PM will be: Making cool moves fit on the dance floor. There is no need to not dance well just because a space is small! The cost for the lesson + milonga + 1st drink + snacks is $20—you can’t beat that!
Workshops: $30/1, $55/2, $80/3, $100/4, $115/5, $120/6 (The Las Naifas class is separate from the pricing; please pay at the door)
Privates: $120/hr or $550/5 (to schedule, 541-914-4812/ewartluf@gmail.com) **There are discounts on the private lesson price if you take the workshops!
Register for group classes: At the door or here.
Hold onto your hats! Jose is coming, and if you have seen him dance before, you know that there is going to be some shenanigans! Jose learned from all the old masters, but was also one of the group who created “Nuevo Tango” in the 1990s. One of the class participants asked him about a move at the last workshops, and he said, “I was the one to name that,” when we talked about deep sacadas! He’s been in tango for over 30 years. He likes to look at different styles and ideas, and experiment with how everything comes together.
Come learn about different styles of milonga, tango and vals, and how they can be used by YOU to make your dance more fun! I am especially happy that I talked him into doing milonga candombe—he is great at this!
Registration is open, the schedule is posted, and we are getting ready for you! Here’s a taste of Jose.
“Argentina in fact was a kind of jungle, with everyone scratching and fighting for funds and a place in the pecking order, and a way to survive.”
Back in 1999-2001, while on my thesis on tango in Buenos Aires, I considered moving there to live. In the end, I realized that I would not make enough money to visit my family in the United States. If I lived in the USA, I had a chance of making enough money to visit Buenos Aires. And so I chose not to move there.
When Cherie Magnus contacted me and asked if I would review her book, Intoxicating Tango: My Years in Buenos Aires, I was intrigued. It is a memoir of the ten years she lived in Buenos Aires and danced tango. This was the life I had considered for myself, and I wanted to hear from someone who had made the opposite decision.
The book is well-written and I read it over the course of two evenings. Reading it, you get a feel for how difficult it can be to move to a strange city as an adult. You need to find housing. You need to figure out how the bureaucracy works. You need to find friends when the other adults have been friends for years or decades. You need to find activities to keep yourself busy. You need to learn the language. Whew!
In Cherie’s case, tango was the focus of her new life. She built everything else around that, even finding ways to generate income by working in tango tourism. She danced socially, taught tango, and made friends in the tango world and acquired an Argentine boyfriend. This was not a short-term plan: she intended to live in Buenos Aires until she died.
Cherie had an emotionally rough time in Buenos Aires. Her health issues—and those of her partner—added stress, as did her struggle to keep afloat financially. Throughout the book, crises cropped up in terms of health, money, relationships and tango. She gamely tried to problem-solve, but by the end, little difficulties bunched up and made major difficulties, and she chose to leave Buenos Aires and to move home to Los Angeles.
“Is your name Google? Because you are the answer to all of my questions.”
Cherie discusses the macho nature of the tango and relationships that she experienced in Argentina. This is a point that she returns to time after time in the book, hammering the point home. We have had an email exchange during my reading/reviewing of her book, and she reminded me that this question of macho culture was not just in the tango world, but in Argentine culture in general. Throughout the book, she includes quotes from other sources about machismo and male-female interactions in Argentina. She also quotes piropos (“compliments”) from men. She feels that the macho culture condoned violence against women, as well as giving men permission to cheat on women.
I do remember the feeling of the milonga scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I did my research on leading, following, and how masculinity and femininity were constructed in the Buenos Aires tango scene at that time. I did think that there was a macho element to the codes of behavior in the milongas, but I have come to see it differently; perhaps that is more about changing times. I personally don’t think it is more macho than other cultures. I think ALL the places I have lived, on four continents, have all had mostly the same ideas about men and women. The difference is that it is open, not hidden, in the tango world.
As an anthropologist who had to go through a rigorous Human Subjects clearance before conducting my fieldwork in Buenos Aires, I am astonished at the freedom a memoir writer can take. Even 20 years later, I have not published a lot of the material I collected because of my human subjects guidelines.
I felt a bit shocked at how much Cherie told about other people’s lives in her book. I emailed her to ask, and she said that her ex-partner—who is very much a big part of the book—doesn’t care what is written about him. She changed his name, but she said everyone would know who it was. She did change some names in the book. I felt relieved that she had warned people about the publication and discussed the book with her ex-partner. I wonder if the people in this book will feel that Cherie over-shared their information?
I have had a very different experience in Buenos Aires than Cherie did, but I think it’s good to see the range of experiences possible. There is not one truth. There are many points of view. You can tell she put a lot of work into crafting this book and she does not shy away from presenting her truth.
This is not a light read. Reading this book, I felt sad for Cherie that her dream had not worked out. I felt sad for her partner that his long-term partner had left for good. I felt sad that she walked away with a bad taste in her mouth and the book did not seem to suggest that any happier ending would be available for any woman. I hope that, as time passes, she will be able to see her years in Buenos Aires in a more positive light. After all, it gave her a lot of material for her book! In our email exchanges, she seems very upbeat and positive, so I don’t think that she is down for the count :-)
If you would like to buy her book, here is her website!
We had two Michaels on our tour to Buenos Aires in December 2019. Both use their full name, so we needed a way to tell them apart. We ended up with a Miguelito (little Michael) and a Miguelon (big Michael). Miguelon took to the streets with his camera, and here is guest blog.
Our first day was a pleasant surprise, even after the seemingly endless flight. We were warmly greeted by our driver, Luis, who serenaded us during our ride with tango songs crooned in an astonishing voice. Everyone should experience the taxi tango!
Our new home was just across the street from a wonderful coffee roaster and brewery, akin to PDX. My initial impression of our neighborhood, Palermo, was that it was a quaint, friendly, painted village. I later realized that the architecture as well as the street art, are expressions of the Argentine soul, not held to our small corner of the city.
I realized that I had a ‘problem’ with Buenos Aires on our second day. I crossed the street in the morning for coffee, then stepped outside to take a photo. Another immediately caught my eye and my imagination, and then and again and again, after that. This went on for about three hours, before I decided that I should eat. By then, I was miles from home and each direction looked the same. The Argentine soul captured my eyes and attention so much so, that I was thoroughly disoriented. (Thanks be to the techs, for GPS.)
I discovered a free-flowing expression of the heart and soul of the community and culture of Buenos Aires, entwined and painted everywhere. The passion of Argentina flows throughout the veins of the city and seems to find expression in every aspect of their lives. I believe that this is the same passion and need for expression, which gave birth to the music, the movement, the expression, and the beauty of Tango.
Thank you, Argentina; Let’s dance.
I am very excited to announce that Jose Garofalo will be back in Portland soon! I worked with him while I was in Buenos Aires in December, and we have cooked up some fun for all of you! Registration will be open soon, but in the meantime, here is the schedule so you can block out time to come to group classes and private lessons. There will be a progressive discount on private lessons, based on the number of group lessons you attend, too!
More info very soon!
When I teach tango, I ask people to let go of the idea of stepping on the beat. Moving with the music is SO much more than being on the beat. Connecting with the music asks you to step outside the box and look at the whole thing that is tango, including the music; but not just the beat.
Each song has it’s own flavor. It is unique—or else why would we have another song? Like ice cream, vanilla is great, but it can only go so far! “What flavor does this song have?” I ask students. Some answer with musical terms (staccato, legato), some answer in less musical ways (stretchy, sharp, smooth), and some have their own, culinary approach: “Lemon curd!” exclaimed my 11-year-old student! “Because you have to stir it slowly, and then it has a sharp taste!”
I think it is more important to explore that “flavor” than to dance on the beat. How YOU express the tango through your interpretation, it always going to be more interesting than thump-thump-thump for three minutes.
“But Elizabeth,” you say, “Do you remember x who can’t dance on the beat and how annoying that is????” Yes, of course I remember. It’s not that I am saying dancing to the beat is not important; it is just much less important than a lot of other elements of dancing. First, you insist your partner dance around for years, stepping on the beat, and then you complain to me that his dance is boring! Let’s look at ways to make our dances more fun!
What can I do with tango music?
Tiempo (dancing on the beat)
Dobletiempo (double time, like “Quick Quick Slow”)
Half time (step, pause, step pause; like the graduation walk)
Pausas (pauses, let’s say 1-8 seconds)
Slow motion (as slow as you can go/as slow as the music goes)
All of these elements are in all tango songs if you listen for them. Try paying attention to the melody instead of the beat. How does it make you feel? There is no wrong way to interpret the music! YOU are feeling the music and moving to it, so that is YOUR interpretation!
Some songs have more of less of one aspect of what can happen; some songs scream what to do “SLOW! NOW FAST!” and others whisper ideas to you. None of them are just about pounding around on the beat.
Just stepping on the beat makes the song flatline and die. Any time you explore the other musical options, even for a step or two, returning to dancing “tiempo” (on the beat) suddenly feels exciting! Experiment! Be brave! Play!
I would rather dance with someone trying out the feeling of the dance and failing, than dancing the whole tanda on each beat. One of the best feelings in the world is to dance with someone and find something new in a song I think I know well. They heard something I didn’t, and offered it to me! That is exciting. Even after almost 25 years of tango, there are songs I don’t know well. Even after almost 25 years of tango, I don’t know everything about a song from someone else’s point of view. Sometimes I think, “Wow…that’s int-er-est-ing….” but usually we can work out the musicality between us.
The follower can make or break a dance. As a follower, I try to stay with the leader, tuned into their intentions and suggestions re: musicality. However, I also adjust the dance to make it as rich as I can. One of my former teachers said it was “inspiring the leader” to do a move. I CAN drop my chi and make the leader do what I want most of the time, but I only use it to give a slight spin to what the leader suggested, unless their suggestion was dangerous. I am playing along, suggesting ideas, following up on the leader’s suggestions—it’s a musical conversation with give and take on both sides.
Most people name adornos as the place where the follower gets their say. To me, the adorno is another place where a conversation is going on. I like having moments where the leader basically says, “What do YOU think?” and gives me room to play; but that can happen on every move of the dance :-)
Comment and let me know how YOU let your leader or follower interact with you and the music! I am sure there are tons of great ideas out there.
I invited each member of my tour to put up a blog entry on anything they liked. Here is another one: Buenos Aires from the eyes of an engineer :-)
Virtuoso pianists perform difficult pieces and make some these pieces seem nearly effortless to
play. It takes many years of practice to play with such ease. And so it is with tango. When I
watch dancers in the milongas of Buenos Aires, moving with ease and grace, I know that many
of them have spent years perfecting their dance. With this level of perfection, they make
dancing look so deceptively easy.
There is, however, one aspect of tango in Buenos Aires that seems to defy improvement
through practice, at least for some North Americans. This is the “cabeceo”, the signaling used
by a man to ask a woman to dance. It is -- I think -- some synchronized combination of eye
movement and head nodding. The porteños have it down but we from the north, particularly
engineers, can’t quite figure it out.
A few months ago, I went backpacking with a friend of mine, Mortimer, whom I have known for many years. Mortimer is a crack robotics engineer in Silicon Valley, and he just could not grasp the concept of cabeceo. He was utterly perplexed. They do that!? However, we both concluded that cabeceo facilitates natural selection and efficiency in the milongas, thus improving the dance. It is all for the good.
The bike lanes in Buenos Aires are awesome! They are well marked and sometimes have
concrete barriers that keep the autos from spilling over into the lane. I was able to ride around
town with ease, and it didn’t take the years of practice required by tango. There is a lot of
biking occurring in Buenos Aires as well as a lot of running and walking. It is all inspiring and I
wish this level of activity could be imported to the United States.
Dancing at Los Consagrados milonga
Well-engineered bike lane in Buenos Aires
Running and Riding in Buenos Aires. Extremely low carbon footprint.
So much more than tango…
The initial draw to Buenos Aires for me was of course…Argentine Tango. Although we are "Tango-toddlers" as Elizabeth sometimes would say, my husband, Michael, and I thought the exposure to Tango where it all started would be an incredibly interesting experience.
Of the ten days in Buenos Aires, Michael and I were physically able to only attend 4 or 5 milongas (exhaustion from other activities overtook us)! All the milongas were different and provided wonderful observations, experiences and introspection. Not all were positive, but even then, they provided great learning moments for me. These milongas were so much more than fancy moves and complex sequences. They gave me an opportunity to understand and appreciate the true meaning of what a great tango can possibly look/feel like. Even the simplest of dancers were an awe to watch because of their connections to their partners and the music. It's all about the connection!
However, Buenos Aires is so much more than just tango. I found the people so incredibly genuine, helpful, nice, friendly and unpretentious. Everywhere we went, be it the Padres Café, the ice cream shop, La Boca, San Telmo Street Fair, Recoleta cemetery, the milongas – everyone was ready and willing to help us even with our next-to-none Spanish skills! (Google Translate was our close companion with a few memorable and comical moments.) Michael and I spent many of our non-scheduled tours/dance time wandering Palermo and the Buenos Aires surrounding area enjoying the sights, sounds, and scenes. As much as my senses could bear, I breathed in all that was Buenos Aires.
Elizabeth was so great providing much needed information, knowledge, guidance, friendship and support. The group Elizabeth put together was incredibly laid-back, self-sufficient, and cohesive. There was such a great balance between doing things with the group and doing things by ourselves. We started the trip as 'acquaintances' with the people in the group, but we left as friends. These friends added so much more to our entire experience in Buenos Aires.
Michael and I did so much in our ten days there, and yet we felt like there was still so much we didn't get to do. We left vowing to ourselves that we WILL be back. Next time we will arm ourselves with some passable Spanish to make our trip that much better!
San Telmo street fair
Caminito in La Boca
Dancing at El Beso
Recoleta Cemetary
This was not a regular night at Gricel, so I am not sure how much Gricel has changed from before. In the past, I danced at Gricel several times each visit to Buenos Aires, but I never stay in that neighborhood and it’s not my favorite milonga. The lighting and the long, narrow room, can make cabeceo tricky. Also, people sit in long tables, so many couples sit together, or groups of friends. If you are a new dancer, it could be a light night of dancing.
My happy moment: when someone who looked vaguely familiar asked me to dance. We did one dance and he said, “Wow! You have onda!” and I told him I was sure we had danced before. He told me his name—Juan—and I suddenly knew: La Nacional in 2010, 2011, 2012! He was a perfume salesman, and he had a huge fan that he flirted and used to cabeceo. I told him about a discussion we had on the dance floor about how life is a road with huge boulders on it, and he said, “You remember that??” and we danced two more tandas. It was a joy to reconnect after all these years. The sad moment: he told me he is almost 80, and I hope he’s still there when I go back to dance again.
The night we attended, there was a live band, Romantica Milonguera, and a competition. Oliver Kolker organized the Peleando Variacion competition, which features very short choreographies for the last burst of music/energy at the end of a tango. You don’t dance the entire tango: just those few seconds of a dance. It’s like watching fireworks. There were two or three couples who were really connected, giving a great dance as well as the more typical gymnastic, high-speed (tango?) routine. In particular, there was a male-male couple who were really THERE. I tried to find names and who won on Oliver’s page, but it’s not there yet.
The band was great, but we left after the first set because it was VERY late, and we were all very tired. Check out their music on Spotify: it’s very dance-worthy!
This cafe was a standby last visit, as it was outside the hotel where I stayed. This time, I ate breakfast there the last day that Michael, Tanya and Jim were in town. It was very yummy, although a bit pricy for the amount of food. Also, I told them I was celiac (which is easier than trying to describe being gluten-sensitive) and they brought me my meal with bread balanced on top of the entire plate. Sigh.
We had breakfasts, orange juice and coffee. The entire bill for four was under $40.
This is another old haunt of mine, back when I stayed in Congreso and could eat gluten. This is NOT the place for a gluten-free individual to eat. I got glutened despite eating food without wheat and taking my enzymes. However, it’s cheap and if you are a gluten-eating human, you will love this place.
FAINA! This is my place for faina, the chickpea (garbanzo bean) flatbread that most traditional pizzerias serve here. I had faina and a huge salad and a glass of wine. My buddies shared a pizza, slices of faina, more slices of pizza, a few glasses of beer, and finished my salad. All that for under $30, so about $6/person!
I went here with my friends Kent, Sara and Peter after an evening at Los Consagrados. It has become a tradition to do this when I am in Buenos Aires, and it was great to stroll over from the milonga, about 1.5 km, and have a bite with friends.
La Continental is a chain now, so you don’t have to be in Congreso to eat there. It’s soooo much easier now that Google Maps works better in Buenos Aires :-)
I hosted a party for my tour group at Las Malevas Thanks, Jose Garofalo, for making this happen! We had the absolute best food of the entire trip, and attended the class and practica at Las Malevas afterwards.
Jesus Pietropaulo is an absolute god of food! He even found gluten-free provoleta so that I could have some; and everything on the menu was gluten-free. There were options for the vegans, lots of meat for the meat lovers, and by the time dessert arrived we were almost too full to eat the lovely fruit salad! Thank you!
Hungry anyone?
