Dancing with broomsticks

I am one of those who believes that it takes two to tango. Sorry, maybe I just used the cheesy line but, to be honest, I have seen so many people that dance only with themselves that I wonder, why bother getting a partner? Wouldn't it be easier for them just to get a broomstick and stay at home dancing to their favourite tracks?

The Lisbon Miracle

Portugal is a country with a deep religious feeling. Everybody believes that miracles just happen. For a city that did not have much tango not so many years ago it looks like a miracle how the standard of dance in Lisbon is so good. The miracle has a name (or two names): Juan Capriotti y Graciana Romero.
All of those who are involved in tango are part of the miracle, Lusitango for instance. But it's undeniable that JyG presence and expertise has propped the tango a few notches up.

An example on how not to dance tango.

The music is shite, the dance is shite and those (pseudo) back ochos... Gosh, there is just so much bad tango going on that you have to see it with your own eyes (from Fishnets and Fedoras)

The reasons I don't take Edinburgh for granted

I don't. I really don't. I never knew how lucky I was to have learnt tango in Edinburgh, until I started going to other places. I'm not saying it is the best place in terms of everything. Of course, as mentioned by koolricky and lots of other people, there are good points and bad points to the tango community of Embra.

Anyway, here are the reasons:

1) Friendly & Welcoming
2) Cheap & Frequent
3) Good standard of dancing
4) Good teaching
5) Relatively integrated (albeit some rivalries)

The first impression is so important. As a guest, one would like to be welcomed where they visit. Maybe one is nervous, is feeling lost, or maybe even doesn't speak the language! Somebody mentioned that the general atmosphere flows from the organisers. The hosts have the responsibility to treat the guests, that are potential future regulars, nicely, or else it's their loss.

In Edinburgh, Toby Morris makes sure that visitors are welcomed. He almost pounces on them as they enter. I've seen it so many times. He talks to them very attentively and introduces them to the local dancers. For a few years that's what I've always seen so I assumed that this would be the case wherever I go. Uh uh. Wrong.

When I was on the committee for the Edinburgh University Tango Society, I was always at the door and made sure I spoke to all those that signed up and came in, and learnt their names. When some of us started up La Otra Milonga, we made an effort to speak to people that we had. How else would people know more about what we did? How else would people come back for the next session? What organisers do, the attenders follow.

The Edinburgh tango community consists of various characters: multitalented, ultra-intelligent, dirty (I don't mean covered in mud and unwashed), tarty, hippie, posh, shy, confident, creepy, chatterbox-that-can-speak-for-Scotland, nice (genuine & fake), interesting, geeky, artsy, weird, temperamental, charming, opinionated, old, young, single, attached, etc, etc... On an unlucky day you might end up sitting next to somebody who is in a bad mood (this happens to at least once a month if you're of a female species) and might just bump into somebody who is rather hot-blooded. Somehow, somehow though, despite such a spectrum of people, MOST of them, I find are friendly and chatty and they are fairly well integrated. Even some known enemies are quite civilised to each other.

Those that complain that men have become lazier and stopped asking women to dance, I totally understand, as I used to be one of them. But what I can say to them now is that it's probably the general trend in life anyway*, and really, Edinburgh is doing well compared to other places. The only exception I can think of is if you're young and female, visiting a testosterone-filled milonga abroad, you have no time to sit down.

In conclusion, my dear Edinburgh tangueros, please don't take Edinburgh for granted, and do continue to be friendly to visitors and newcomers.


*I'm just trying to be provocative; seeing if I get any reactions.

Bajofondo ignites in the Midlands

The star-gazing ambience… The glowing sounds… The hubble-bubble of culture-loving intellectual voices… Is this Edinburgh? Is this the neo-Soho? Or maybe Paris? Mmm… no. Believe it or not, the übercool electrotango band, Bajofondo Tango Club took a brave step to our chavvy Cov, C-o-v-e-n-t-r-y less than two weeks ago. (Though I must add lest I may offend some Warwick uni students, they played at the well-established Warwick Arts Centre.)

Much to our delight and excitement, their performance was pretty awesome. Shame though the audience wasn’t any bigger, but it gave us good space to dance around and make use of the brilliant music. What is it about live music that gets us buzzing? Do they just play it differently? Is it louder? Is it because of the visual aid? Personally, as a performer, I always got a buzz out of the audience and big concert halls, probably because I had to tell my story to not just practice room walls and teachers but to so many individuals. You have to exaggerate, physically and emotionally, and you become much more dynamic and interactive as a result. You have to tell oh-so-many-of-them that you’re angry, happy, sad, or love-sick, whatever. My message to traditionalists is that this can be done so amazingly by electronic means as well as by classical instruments and golden-age music. Bajofondo was numbingly great at conveying their oomph. Only as I reached the bar after the show, I realised my heels were killing me.

What was so endearing was that we didn’t just love them. The Bajofondians also loved us, the audience. They showed their appreciation throughout and after each song. It was nice to see that the individuals were all very different-looking from each other. I’m not talking about outfit. I’m talking about their talents and characters. Individually, they were completely immersed in what they were doing, but somehow their strands of music, and their funky retro images in the background interwove so enthrallingly. Of course, that made the experience of dancing tango rather fabulous. As some of us were invited up on the stage for some serious bobbing up and down exercise, I realised the concert was worth every penny.

If you get the chance to see & hear & feel them live, grab a ticket immediately. Tracks from their new album sound pretty fantastic too… In conclusion, my rating for Coventry went up a notch :-)

Richer!

This blog has just become a bit richer. Lucas Dixon will share with us his tango experiences. Welcome Lucas!

Argentina with France

I could go on with the Rugby antics after last World Cup's opening game but I am here to talk about tango. Paris has always been a second home for tango and without being cliché about Bertolucci's sexual extravaganza, the feeling of tango fits quite well with that of Paris. Not that I have ever danced (any, let alone last!) tango in Paris. Unfortunately, I haven't been to the city of Light since I've started tangoing...
Since the death of Piazzolla, the circles in Argentina were agitated, everybody was expecting the new big thing to come from BsAs. But the hit came from the other hemisphere. It was in Paris that a Swiss and a French duo, a bit bored with remixing Brazilian music decided to invite an Argentinian friend, Eduard Makaroff, to start something new. And they created Gotan Project, a rearranging of the word tango that both echoed a dialect spoken in the streets of BsAs where syllables are shifted around but also says a lot of their attitude to tango - to take something that is there and turn it inside out, make something new.
And those who were crying over Piazzolla's tomb, unable to move Tango forward, weren't very happy about it. Dismissively, they shrug off the new groove but only to find that the rest of the world had been absolutely taken by the sound. Crowds of young people came to look for tango, know more about it and in places like Edinburgh it is amazing the amount of under 30s dancing in milongas. There is pretty much a new tango group sprouting every month in the UK. Places where you wouldn't think of finding a tango group are now vibrant and up-and-coming scenes.
It would be unfair to give all the credits for this Tango Renaissance to Gotan Project but it would be as unfair to exclude them as the main reason for the revival of tango.

Pablo Villaraza y Dana Frigoli

Bristol

My time in Bristol was too short. In a city with so much personality I wanted more time to discover the hidden gems of the city, to get to know more people and, I cannot hide it, to observe the growth of tango.
There are a few bi-monthly and monthly milongas. The monthly milongas attract people from more distant places and are worth going. In Tango Alchemy's milonga you may struggle to find a tango being played but it's good if you're a Nuevo Tango fan. The milonga in Pucklechurch is quite nice and in a fantastic setting. Jocelyne lends all her flair and passion to create a peculiar spirit to it. The music is good (although you shouldn't expect structured tandas) and the level of dancing is possibly the best in the region. The weekly milongas have less external visit and therefore the level of dancing is lower. The Dance Café can get quite crowded and nice but the level of expertise is quite inconsistent. As for the Tango West milongas, they have good dancers but the spirit is a bit muffled by the sometimes tedious music and by the man that shouts people around every change of track.
Bristol has got the right ingredients to be a centre of excellence in the British Tango scene. It's a reasonably sized city, it has a history of great music and arts scene and it is the central point in the Southwest. Is not uncommon to see people from Cheltenham, Bath, Exeter, Wales, Southampton, London or Oxford coming to dance in Bristol. Such a variety of dancers and schools create an influx of techniques, styles and practise that are essential for the increase in numbers of skilled dancers. But, nearing the celebration of 10 years of Tango, why is Bristol still waiting to boom? Shouldn't it have boomed already?
Some people over there will not like to read this but the problem in Bristol is that different parties do not collaborate with each other. I am not going into who is right and who is wrong because I don't believe that nobody holds the truth. What I am saying is that it will be difficult for Bristol to get out of the quicksand if people don't stick together.

La Revancha de La Otra Milonga!

It's next friday, on the 20th of July, that Edinburgh's funkiest milonga will resume again. La Otra Milonga, as the name says, it's different. It's not only the music, it's definitely not the people (as most of the people that go to La Otra also go to other milongas) and it's not the location. What is it? At La Otra we are not purists. We believe that Tango is much more than a music style or a dance. We believe that Tango is a state of mind in which you use the music and the dance to express yourself. We believe that you can do that with many music styles improvising your way through. Tango is a feeling. If you feel it, come to La Otra.

edinburgh I

I will try to refrain myself of talking about Edinburgh itself. 1, I would not shut up, 2, I would write about everything but tango and, 3, you might as well buy a travel guide; they have been to Camera Obscura and I haven't.
I was received in Cardiff as one that comes from the British Capital of Tango and that must tell you something about what generally British people think of tango in Edinburgh; very nice (and regular) milongas with nice tangueros. However, there is something very odd about Edinburgh! Whereas in most places you can find milongas crammed on fridays and saturdays, in Edinburgh most milongas come during the week. It may a bit detrimental to all those of us that have to work early in the morning but, hey, it's tango and we have to sort out our priorities...
Tango in Edinburgh is kept on a high by two independent but cooperational parties. The recently 10 year old Edinburgh Tango Society and the magnificient pair of professional teachers, Ricardo Oria and Jenny Frances. While the first provides classes (I started with Jessie and Monica's classes), milongas, workshops and a general framework for tango to improve, JyR pass on the intricate secrets of tango. They also organise Edinburgh's Tango Festival in December (Bailongo!) and occasionally they organise milongas and workshops. As for dancing, I love dancing in Edinburgh! Unlike most places I have been the best dancers are not pseudo-connoisseurs and they are happy to dance with less advanced dancers, just for the fun of it. And, as far as I am concerned that should be the only reason why one should dance tango - to have fun. And there is a fantastic fashion growing very fast in Edinburgh - women that lead! It's very nice to see women taking specially because they always give it a touch that man cannot. After all, hormones do make a lot of a mess sometimes, but once every often they produce magnificient outcomes.
So, what to say about Edinburgh? I think it’s a fantastic place for tango. Not only it has tango pretty much every day as the places are in walking distance of each other. Also, it’s very cheap to dance in Edinburgh and I think people don’t quite realise this until they set off to dance elsewhere and find that it’s bloody expensive. So I definitely give it two thumbs up to tango in Edinburgh. More than tango, Edinburgh tangueros make me think that way.

Cardiff - a nice milonga with a tacky cowboy

Were there any monuments in Cardiff 20 years ago (except for the most useless castle - made by a rich Welsh so that Cardiff could have one)? Certainly, they have been making a fuss of creating new ones. To start with, they built the huge millennium stadium slapbang in the middle of town. Not happy with that, they bulldozered the port and created a Millennium Cardiff Bay, quite an architectural feat, I shall acknowledge, but, nevertheless, a bit too spiritless. They probably got a few complaints about this and decided to rebuilt a Norwegian Church in the tip of the port and there was where Cardiff's sole milonga was held. Fair to say that the Church was quite Norwegian in a way that it resembled a huge comunal sauna. Have Norwegians not got hold of the air con technology?
Now, tango. To begin with, there have been few times that I was asked £10 for a milonga, except in festivals or balls but that is a different thing; a bit expensive. We were cheerfully received by the organisers and it was quite easy to blend in. The music was nice and audible enough, well structured in tandas and there seemed to be a bunch of very good dancers. Later, I came to know that they were Bristol and Southampton afficionados that just can't get enough of tango. I had some truly nice dances over there and if it weren't for the tropical temperatures they would have been almost perfect!
Then it was time for the moment of the night. Eduardo Villegas (aka El Gaúcho - the cowboy) was going to take the centrepiece. But instead of dancing he showed a tacky show of shoe dancing and one of those circus-like numbers with the strings and balls. He probably should have danced a tango or two (provided he was hired to dance tango, I think, after all he was in a milonga) with whoever was there but he didn't. They must have payed him well, though, because he spent a fortune on hair gel.
The night ended up very well with some nice tangoes. It's an absolute shame that they don't do this event twice per month. The place was packed and this way it is the only proper milonga that Cardiff has per month.
My verdict is that if you are around the area and have time to come to this milonga you should make the effort.

Festival international de Tango de Lisboa 2007

Such a nice place, Lisbon... All those hilly cobbled steep streets lined each side with limestone sidewalks, the old grannies putting their clothes to dry on the window sills and talking to each other in the thin streets, the scent of grilled sardines where you least expect it... It was in this kind of setting, in Graça, one of Lisbon most traditional neighbourhoods, that Lisbon Tango festival happened.
The festival started (for me) with a workshop with Graciana Romero and Juan Capriotti. The workshop was very nice, JyG were extremely amicable and precise, guiding us to giros and volcadas while exployting our axis and taking advantage of our weight. The next day we had a wonderful workshop with Pablo Villarazza and Dana Frigoli. My god, they are good! Their musicality and intricate understanding of tango dynamics were obvious and more obvious was that they wanted us to get there, to the point of the exercise. By the end of the class we successfully managed to get there, which was quite nice.
As for milongas, they were always accompanied by the magnificient orchestra Color Tango. Unfortunately they were also marked by the presence of Felix Picherna an annoying DJ they kept talking on the microphone over the tracks. The way how the music went was not very congruent either and, to be honest, I'll give FTL a miss next year if he is there. DJ Melenita was a bit better but a more ecclectic choice in the tracks would be desirable. How can you explain only 3 electronic tangos in two milongas? My partner found it really hard to be invited to dance. It seems that everybody is afraid or not interested in asking people out to dance and that is rather annoying - the reason why you go to a tango festival is actually to dance with other people and learn from them, right?
Finally, the show was again 1 hour late. I particularly did not like this year's show as the dancers did not seem to have rehearsed any of the tracks. Certainly, Roberto Herrera and Tamara Bisceglia were listening to other music because their dance was completely off the plot. The individual demos were very good, though. PyD for their musicality, RyT for their irreverence, GyA for their speed and JyG for their elasticity.
It's a nice festival with a wonderful selection of very good dancers, a lot from Madrid, but generally, a quite international festival. If man were more daring and invited more women that they hadn't met before it would make it an unmissable festival!