Advice for the new year (and for the rest of your tango life)

Tango is not a religion. Just because somebody important tells me that something is the way it is it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily right.

Challenge!

Filter!

Sheep will always be sheep. And sheep never go anywhere.

Tango LEGO

When I started tango I wasn’t so into going to dance in different places; I was quite happy in Edinburgh, I knew most people, had a regular group of people that knew enjoyed dancing with me and was generally confident. But my (full) time at Edinburgh drew to an end and, back in Braga, Portugal, I was getting cold turkeyed. So I decided to go to a milonga in Porto, about an hour drive and check out the scene.

I went in, the organisers greeted me, asked me about me, offered me a espresso and I went to sit quite happily. I stayed watching for a little bit and I was very confused. Everybody seemed to dance the same way! Everybody were copies of one another dressed in different bodies. The same ganchos, the same giros, the same embrace. Back in Edinburgh it’s the opposite. Even people that learn in the same place have different styles, different ways of walking, different solutions to get in and out of the dancing line. I asked somebody to dance and was again quite horrified when people did not understand a simple front ocho with a pasada. The simplest of things and they didn’t know how to follow it, even worse, they said that didn’t know what to do! I went home horrified that I had been learning the bad tango, that the last year and a half was hopeless.

It took me some time (weeks), but I soon realised that instead of dancing with an emphasis on the walk and on pure improvisation of movements derived from the walk, what these people were being taught was sets of moves that were pre-rehearsed and could be stuck one after the other, pretty much like a LEGO puzzle. LEGO tango? No thanks.

The pain of starting from scratch

I chose it, I can’t blame anybody. I chose to move into a place where tango did not exist. I never thought that I could live without tango but I just thought that I would come up with a solution once I moved there. It kind of helped me accepting the place.

Running away from problems (or ignoring them) has never solved anything and the cold reality set in very quickly once I moved to Coventry to start a new student life at University of Warwick. No milongas in a ray of 40 miles (and even those are less frequent than monthly) and no tangueros to be seen. Damn! I emailed the local ballroom and latin dance society, “Any tangueros there?”, “No” was the answer. Damn! But then a very tantalising suggestion “do you feel you can teach it?” Damn! This wasn’t going to be good for my (3^rd) degree.

I was and I still am very cautious about teaching. I always wanted to do it but I had to make sure I knew my basics really well. I don’t want to teach the bad tango. I’ve seen it being done and it ain’t nice. At all! So, to the loss of my Epidemiology lectures I sketch my Saturday classes, trying to make complete beginners understand tango dynamics without getting absolutely bored. I might as well be a rocket scientist, it would be easier!

Organising classes, milongas and trying to attract people into something that everybody thinks “it’s too difficult for me” is not easy, especially in a town whose population isn’t the most, say, latin friendly. Coventry is a melting pot of cultures, a dump of asylum seekers , an uneducated place and that makes it really difficult. It’s draining and sometime I feel that I can’t do it anymore.

But looking to the bright side of things, the plan is going well. I was very lucky Supantheress moved down to the same area and to be honest, I wouldn’t have done it without her. We were fortunate that Eleni is so enthusiastic about coming around to help us whenever we ask. But the very best thing was when our students came to the milonga we organised and, to everybody’s surprise, not only they ventured into the dance floor, they did it perfectly. Always out of the snake pit and trying to feel the music. That’s what keeps me going. That’s what keeps me sane.

La Negracha

It’s a cliché to say that things have to live up to the expectations. In fact, things have to live over the expectations created. It happens with cinema, music, and tango is no exception. La Negracha had to punch really high.

First things first - the music. It doesn’t work having one room playing clasico for the most skilled dancers and another playing neotango for the walls; walls don’t dance. Nevertheless, the music selection was quite nice. I knew Ivan’s good taste for tango from previous milongas in Edinburgh but, hombre, if you’re reading this, give up the bottom room and bring some neo upstairs!

The level of dancing was quite high. I had many sweet dances and I saw some lovely couples dancing really nicely to the tracks, trying to enjoy them as much as they can. However, it was painful (literally, I got a heel on my foot at some point) to have to constantly dodge away from Pablo Verón wannabes. Watching the very last three minutes of Assassination Tango where Pablo Verón & Geraldine dance on the empty floor should be forbidden before a milonga – you start getting murdering thoughts. Furthermore, those people 1) weren’t Pablo Verón, 2) their companions weren’t Geraldine and 3) the floor was crowded. They are the living proof that clean quick moves don’t make you a good dancer.

The bar was an absolute rip-off, even considering that we were in Holborn.

And I share with you a story that a friend of mine came across, in the same milonga (sorry J!). He went to a lady and asked her to dance, she asked him, very pretentiously, “Are you good?” to what he said “no”. Then she asked him “How long have you been dancing for?” and when he told him that he had been dancing for four years she said, patronisingly, “Ok, I’ll dance with you.” These are the kind of people that should be barred from milongas.

We walked back to City Road and realised how lucky we were to be tango-raised in Edinburgh.

And if you want another opinion about La Negracha, read mshedgehog's review.

Godiva's Lounge

Yet another milonga in the heart of England! It was an impressive start to the new milonga that we are organising. Coventry is on the tango map!

The next Godiva's Lounge is on the 20th of January, at 2pm (until 5) at The Lounge, 26 Warwick Road, CV1 1EY, Coventry.

Tango cosmetics

Ever wondered if you, as a follower, are costing to the leaders you dance with more than the price of the milonga? Makeup, like in tango, follows the rule that less is the best. Read Tango Baby's comment and reflect. It may be time to think laterally. It may be not.

From the Mordida de Tango to Le Latina of Paris

I am recalling the simpatica tangeros of Mordida de Tango, a Paris Milonga near Monmarte which lightly holds an informal and friendly atmosphere. It is half way to a practica with a delightful Musical selection of old as well as newer tangos, a few eccentricities to raise your eyebrows, and with cortinas that are gently respected and smoothly integrated. It enjoys a healthy number of people and fair few beginners who stay on following an earlier class. This is the sweetest little Parisian Milonga. It reminds me, from a certain soft light, of the early days of Edinbugh's La Otra.

In the centre of city, and later into the night, leads to Le Latina, the well trodden steps of my Parisian tango ritual. Although I find it a bit of a tough place to go, being somewhat inclined to cliqueyness and waving airs of pointless superiority, it draws in a huge mix of people, tango dancing actors, comedians, students, and professional dances, regulars and visitors. It's small space gets packed and becomes a good challenge for small playful steps. The standard of dancers is high, and with a little effort and simple outgoing smiles and good humour, I highly recommend it. Although, perhaps more for the confident who can ignore the famous bored and grumpy faced teachers who also frequent it. But this really is one of the lively hearts of Parisian tango and sometimes even enjoys lock-ins until the late hours become early again.

A wee pointer for other Milongas, Practicas and general Tango antics in Paris: http://www.republique-des-lettres.fr/tango-argentin.php

Organisers vrs dancers

I confess I see tango as a social event. I rejoice when I enter a tango venue to encounter a room full of familiar faces or abrazos; to greet them with a smile or a polite word, to sit at the tables around the dance floor and, while changing my shoes, to exchange a few words with the people next to me. Of course, there is the more personal social interaction of the tango, when we actually get these shoes on and our eyes meet an inviting gesture for a dance. When the music starts, and we translate its rhythm into movement, it's this very rewarding experience of harmony that keeps us hooked to tango.

However, what is a city that lacks a regular milonga for its tango community? How long can you just go to classes, listen to tango on the radio, or dance with your broomstick? A tango dancer is not a tango dancer until they enter a milonga.

With the urge of a tanguera that seeks for the materialisation of her identity, I seek for my milonga in the Midlands to be often met with disappointment. Lots of cancellations, few regular events, a habit of paralysis during festive days. Tango follows the term-time schedule of our job or our university. When our day planner is closed for the vacations, no tango plans are made in the city. There is a general assumption that there is no one around to dance. However, that is not true. People look for a place to dance in their town or city, they don't find it and they make other plans, or (in my case) go to another city where there will be able to tango.

What is the key into making tango in our city what it is elsewhere, which is of course a social event? Not to seek for it's identity, but make it. I've been thinking about founding a new regular milonga, to find out that there are not a lot of dancers who'd be interested in organising a milonga. Apparently, organising a milonga is a tough business, full of politics and dead ends. I hear stories full of intrigue and can't help but asking: Aren't the milonga organisers also dancers, who aspire to a social event after all? Why are they met with suspiciousness and mistrust?

Before deciding to organise a tango group at the university of Birmingham I found the experience of organising a milonga to be fun and informal, just like making arrangments to meet up with my friends. That was un otro caso at a different place, where a tango identity already existed and we were just hoping for a otra idea. Here in the big city, distances are important and politics play their part. The tango dancer can't become the organiser without taking up the organiser's role and behaviour. I can't but feel admiration to those that find the strengh to withstand the transformation. As for me, I still stand at a loss and hope that I will find a way to marry the tango dancer with the milonga organiser to organise a University of Birminghma Milonga in the new year.

La Otra Milonga - the jump

July 2005, a forsaken tendonitis knocked me off the dance floor for 6 months! Could I stay away from tango for that long? Of course not. I hooked up with a few friends and decided to organise a milonga, something different to what we had in Edinburgh, something more intimate, more relaxed, less formal, where the music invited everybody to dance.
Two and a half years past, the current management of La Otra Milonga takes it a little but further. A Xmas ball, a fantastic duo of maestros with a wicked musicality and a secret santa. After all is Xmas, isn't it?

Cortinas - tango palate cleaners

I didn't use to like cortinas. Maybe because I wasn't properly educated in that sense but when some external DJ came to Edinburgh I always found myself dancing to cortinas and making a fool of myself. But I realised why I didn't like them - because most people play really crap cortinas. Cortinas should not be danceable, they should be a short stretch of music that you don't feel like dancing to. This way you also lose the rhythm from the previous tanda. And for DJs is great. You can alternate between Firpo and Bajofondo - nobody will mind the drastic music style change!

The Robotic Crotch

Sweet Sea!?

First, I know that tango is often seen as something sexual or sensual but there's no need to put something so vulgar right in our face.

Second, if one is to continue with the sexy fishnet theme, it can be done in a more classy way.

Third, why associate 'sweet sea' with a very artificial-looking crotch with tights?

What am I talking about? --- the cover of "Mar Dulce", the second album by Bajofondo Tango Club. The artists are great, their sound is great, and their concert was obviously great. Their first album cover was also great, it was quite apparently sexual and eye-catching but it was more like... elegantly titillating.

Please, I am very interested in what everyone thinks about the cover. I'm just disgusted and unaroused.