Overtaking

It has happened a billion of times. You want to go forward but there is someone in front of you. What do you do? You overtake. And then? You go to the middle and get evicted from the line of dance. In the centre (also called the snake pit or penalty box) you see only two kinds of people - the ones that are really good and for a few moments go there to do a few wider movements or the ones that have no clue about how to dance tango socially. It tends to be more of the second genre.
So, the secret is not to overtake! If someone in front of you is doing stuff in the same place, do so yourself as well! Overtake only when the couple in front of you has a good and unused space in front of them, which means that they probably don't move forward that much, and that tells you as well about their knowledge of social tango.
Overtaking but how? If you have space, overtake by the left. Be quick. Overtaking by the right, in principle, should not be possible. If you are dancing outside the line of dance there won't be space for anyone to overtake you by the right. If someone does overtake you by the right maybe you should look to where you are and think if it's really the other person's fault!

Tango goes to my hometown

Otango, choreographed and directed by Adrian Veredice and Alejandra Hobert is coming to my hometown. I take tango shows very carefully. I usually have a lot to criticise because they always put a lot of tango acrobatics that I am not so keen on. Hopefully that won't be the case. i respect Adrian and Alejandra so I hope this is worth it.

The theatre itself (Theatro Circo) means a lot to me as I have worked there for plays and as I was a frequent goer when I used to live there... Every time I go back to a show I'm always spotting for the familiar spots, where I twisted my ankle, where I used to go and have my lunch...
Once i dreamt that i was performing on the main stage of that theatre. Who knows...

Some photos of the theatre.


the Salão Nobre, wouldn't it be a nice milonga?



view to the stage...


or to the ceiling!

Tango and Yoga

It's been a while since I am getting that will to try other things that will improve my dance. I don't mean that I want to leave tango, it still grips me as much as it did since the first day I came across it, but I mean that I want to develop my body and mind a little bit more.
I have never tried yoga before, but people that have done tell me that it is a great way of getting to know your inner self and to reach an equilibrium that you rarely do in the "waking life". So tango and yoga sound like the perfect thing.
There is a problem, though. 500 miles. That's the distance that separates my place from Edinburgh. But if you're lucky enough to be in Auld Reeky, give it a try, it's probably going to help your tango a lot!!!

Going back home

I was back home during August. In early September I went back home again, but not to the same one, I went to my tango home - Edinburgh. Luckily for me, Edinburgh was hosting the Orquesta Típica Imperial, Alejandro y Marisol (we filmed them so I'll post them on youtube, they're worth it!) and a ball to go with it!
As soon as we stepped in the room where the dance was going around, I saw my tango-infancy friends, those with who I learnt with, all coming back with smiles, hugs and fantastic dances.
I was in that hall for over 4 hours and I didn't seat even once. Apart from the time when Alejandro y Marisol were doing their performance, I danced all night with those people who I danced so many times and with who I learnt so much. But after 1 year of not having contact with them they were SO different! Their moves much more elegant, their energy much more subtle, their musicality so much improved... I'm sure that Orquesta Típica Imperial helped to my enjoyment but, I had a tango night as I haven't had since... last time I was in Edinburgh!
For following week I couldn't dance. I don't know why but I had no will to dance. I just wanted to perpetuate the feeling of tango happiness as long as I could.

Lesson learnt

Is good when you see people that not long ago just wanted to learn volcadas and colgadas while finishing their first module of beginner's tango, now turning to me and telling me that the most important thing is the walk and how you dance to the music. It's just a small thing but it sometimes makes me think that I am not talking to the walls... And it really pays off all the effort of starting a tango community from scratch!

Sebastian Achaval y Roxana Suarez

I came across these two dancers in a fantastic post by una milonguera, trying to explain tango from scratch! It is a really good post (but it's in Spanish - you can always try Babelfish) but it introduced me to a couple who I felt immediately in love with, Sebastian Achaval and Roxana Suarez. i hope you like it

Tango in the beach

Hello everybody!
Tangologue had an interruption as I was taken into internetless places, with lots of sea and sand in the mixture... There was no tango in the place where I went but that didn't mean that I wasn't thinking about tango! And I discovered (or saw if it worked) a way of perfecting and understanding tango using that wonderful place that we all love - the beach.
So, leaders, a good way of practising your walk is to walk in the sea with your legs immersed in water. The movement you have to do in tango is exactly the same, chest ahead and the legs grabbing into the floor and pushing forwards!
The wet sand is also perfect for you to understand step patterns. You'll have to do this in a deserted beach (as the place where I was) or else you'll be very confused and will get odd looks. The wet sand will leave you a storyline of your walk. It will tell you if you're legs are too apart, if your steps are too big or even if you're putting the weight on the right place.
So, go on, indulge yourself. Grab your iPod, go to the nearest beach and try it out. Just don't try any giros, or you'll be stuck in the sand! ;oD
















by the way, these aren't my legs!

Dancing with beginners

I was inspired by Sorin's post about how beginners decide between a good dancer and the "good-dancers-that-only-look-good-to-beginners". It inspired me to write on how to dance with a beginner if you're a bit more experienced.
Not so long ago I saw an experienced dancer teaching an absolute beginner how to do a gancho. Now, this is like teaching a child that has never rode a bike to go downhill on a steep, rocky mountain. This person should be liable for any damages that this helpless beginner is going to do. I am not going to go into technicalities on how to lead or follow a gancho because that is NOT the reason why this blog exists. But needless to say that, if you're dancing with a beginner or even a post-beginner, DO NOT lead ganchos or any complex movements that will confuse this poor person.
If you dance with a beginner, walk to the music, keep it simple, make the beginner know how it acutally feels to dance to the music. You'll be doing a great job! A fantastic job! And if you think that dancing with a beginner is boring because they can only do a handful of things then you should (1) re-think why you're dancing and (2) lead SIMPLE things. Walking on the beat, front ochos, back ochos, crosses... These are all things that beginners should be doing and perfecting. Remember, when dancing with a beginner you're being responsible for the education of someone. Would you like to teach 5th grade stuff to someone who has just entered 1st grade?

Jenny and Ricardo

Here it is a promotional video of my tango mentors. They are partly responsible for this blog. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be the addicted tanguero that I am now.



Having lived in Leith (the port of Edinburgh, mostly known for the cult film Trainspotting) for a long time they decided to film most of this video there!

PS - And I can't stop being nostalgic when they dance in the Counting House, the place where I was born for tango.

Tango drought ahead

São Pedro de Muel, of my favourite places

Yay! I am going back home today!!!! It'll be good to see my family, friends and go to the beach without having to worry if it's going to rain (a thought always present when you're in the UK). But there is something I am not looking forward to. Tango has gone on vacations in the North of Portugal. All milongas stopped for August and I will probably have no tango near home... A bittersweet prospect!

Upfront

The perfect place to dance

I have danced in many places. Indoors, outdoors, in dodgy backrooms of dodgy bars, grand salloons of faded Halls, grand sallons of Great Theatres but I think none of them comes close to dancing in Firbush.

Firbush "marina" - Photograph by Christina Chung

So, what is Firbush? It's a centre for outdoor sports belonging to Edinburgh University and the favourite location for group meetings. You can do whatever you do in your daily work (I went there with my fellow geneticist's class and also, obviously, with Tango), have fun doing teambuilding exercises and sample some of the 17 different outdoor activities (supervision and training are given) that include windsurfing, sailing or doing it as I did, getting a canoe and row to the nearest pub, on the other side of the lake.

In the evening, the tables and chairs of the dining room can be re-organised and, voilá, there you have, a fantastic dance floor, perching over Loch Tay with views to the snowy mountains of the Highlands.

A room... with a view!

(First photograph by JK Stewart)

We can stay for as long as we like and that means until quite late. We just have to make sure we're ready for next morning because as early as 9 o'clock we have to be ready to do some kind of sporting activity!

I know tango is an urban dance, created in the deep end of a gigantic city like BsAs. But I think there is something special about tango in the country side.

What about you, what is YOUR favourite place to dance?

Traditionalistic fundamentalism

I have recommended here in this blog the tango site Tango and Chaos. I still recommend it but as with everything, you have to read it with a pinch of salt. Rick McGarrey is one of those people that still lives on the golden era. He understands tango very well, and the website is a good resource for some theoretical notions of tango. You may think this is boring, but if you are serious about tango you can't just dance it. You have to live tango, meaning, you have to know its history, its major composers and the way how they play tango so that you can adapt your dance to the music.

Rick dismisses everything that is not strictly milonguero, in fact, he says that everyone that doesn't dance the way he does doesn't dance tango. I don't mind people saying "Well, I only dance this way because it's the way I like it". It's very different than "True tango is only the way I like it". The former is something like "I acknowledge that tango has various phases and has been evolving but I prefer the traditional" whereas the latter is "Tango must be like it was in the 40's, everything else is bullshit". Dogmas shouldn't exist in tango.

Anyway, just to prove my point, in one of the chapters about dance Rick picks a reknowned nuevo tanguero to make fun of him and try to sell his fundamentalism. I suggest you have a look at the chapter. He tries to take the VERY VALID point that tango salón is to be danced within certain limits, that we should respect other people in the dance floor and we shouldn't dance like we do in a demo. This is all fine. Then, he shows us the clip and says:

"Then Gustavo Naviera and his partner Giselle are shown dancing stage tango. You can see right away that he picks up his feet, kicks, and moves his left arm around more than the milongueros. He and Giselle also separate and do large leg swings and poses. Unlike the milongueros, they move their bodies around, and dance apart from each other. It's a more physically active and demonstrative way of dancing because it's designed to entertain an audience: Stage tango."

Now, I am confused. In my very humble opinion, when I am dancing socially, nobody screams my name to come into stage and generally people don't come into stage with an orderly fashion. Rick seems to have forgotten that this clip is actually a GROUP DEMO and NOT A MILONGA! And for as much as GyG move around they bump into nobody. AND, as far as I can see, i don't think that GyG are unpredictable, I think they are trying to make the most of their space.

Fundamentalism and radicalism have this little drawback, life (and tango) are not black and white. They will never be. If you stick to black or white you'll just be looking to a very little spectrum of things.

I will still be advising people to read Tango and Chaos thoroughly. It's the best online resource if you really want to understand tango dynamics, history and lyrics/styles. But as I hinted previously (with the help of some fabulous comments) sheeps never go anywhere.

Expensive taste

If there is something that I am fussy about it's shoes. I can't buy shoes that I absolutely don't fall in love with, I just can't wear them. Everytime I have to buy shoes I know what expects me - long days watching every window in the quest for the perfect fit.
With tango shoes, is the same. Not that I have bought many, I haven't, but mine have started to deteorate so much that they are not working anymore. No grip, they are starting to fall to bits and they have developed a groovy but not so fashionable air conditioned system.
So, let's surf the net in look for the perfect fit. I look, look, look and, as if they came from heaven I find the PERFECT SHOES. They might look horrible to you but I never said that I had good taste! ;o)
Very excited, I email the company and they give me quote. £110 ($225)!!! They are more expensive than Comme Il Fauts!!! It seems that they have a fantastic and innovative sole that allows to be changed for different pavements... Is there anybody that can help me with this? Does it really work?

Neotango rant (II)

«The artist creates unconsciously, spontaneously. Pichucho, Di Sarli, De Caro, Salgán and even Piazzolla, created their oeuvre and none of them labeled himself as a vanguardist. They achieved that but were unaware of it. They show what they discovered, what they know, what flows naturally from them and nothing more. This is not avant-garde but a testimony of those that are gifted. The avant-garde is a label. The important musicians composed their oeuvre because they had a sacred fire inside them».


Carlos Garcia (1914-2006), founder and leader of the Orchesta del Tango de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires in Café de Los Maestros


So, as far as I see it, neotango (and not alternative tango) is today's innovation. Just like in the early 1920's tango that De Caro tried to do (the melodical tango that gave rise to the music of Laurenz, Fresedo and Di Sarli). At the time everyone called him mad. Now, everyone calls him a genious.

Café de los Maestros

Wow! I am speechless. Stunned with the last two hours. If you want to know what I mean, buy the film "Café de los Maestros". There is one big disappointment. It's only 90 minutes long. It could last forever.

The tanguero evolution

La Tanguera did it again! After a taxonomic analysis of the tangueros and tangueras types in the milonga, she comes up with a funny, witty but very accurate description of the evolution of a tanguero. An anthropological masterpiece. Read it. It's compulsive. It's great!

Tango World - a great idea!

TangoWorld promises to rock the UK tango scene. It's a great idea from Leandro Palou, and will certainly help to bring together the booming tango community in the UK. Back when I started doing tango there were only a handful of tango clubs in the UK, namely Edinburgh, London, Cambridge and Bristol. Now it seems that every little town has got one.
The other reason why I really liked and supported the idea of this magazine is that it brings us lots of nice stuff such as lyrics from favourite tango tracks (translated), interviews with the major figures of tango and a Q&A section by Jennifer Bratt.

Tango semantics

After all, what I have described as Passive Leading, which created a bit of a stir has got other name, Follower's voice. If the semantics haven't worked will the content do?

Unconventional

We talked about these guys here already but I can't resist it.



Hope you enjoy it!