Tango Thoughts

When you're feeling tired...

When it's not working

When you think you're not good enough.

Remind yourself that you're dancing Tango

and that it can be the best you want it to be.

Thank you Gabrielle.

The pulse of the milonga...

The pulse of the milonga,

the beating heart of the music.

Pumping life through your veins.

Forget time,

forget the cold,

forget pain,

forget everything.

Because the pulse of the milonga,

is your beating heart.

And your heart is alive

being with friends,

dancing in abrazos

to the pulse of the milonga...

Liquid Engineering...

Play this on mute if you can. The sound is no use for why I think this is how an embrace should envelop a woman. 

For four...

Crossing oceans and mountains 

in your mind, in your body

to get yourself there,

to stretch

to draw

just to walk

and be still?

...to turn 

and be turned

what for?

what for?

for four...

But when four 

becomes more

and more becomes

...real?

what for?

when real is the mountain

at the summit is joy

what for?

to fall and dive 

to dive and fall

into the ocean

what for?

to live

to live Tango

to live and die for four.

Metropolis, but Tangopolis?

London is a metropolis, with lots of culture and social options vying for your spare time.  I also think it's great that there is a fair sized community here, with classes, teachers, milongas and festivals.

So I want to ask at the beginning of this year, is there room for improvement?  What can we do to make it better, to grow, to attract more people?  Not as someone who teaches and works with Tango, but as someone who loves Tango. You can make the all or some of following choices, why not try for a month and see?

• Use the following codes in the milonga.
• • the cabeceo
  • keep your feet on the floor, unless you really have space for that boleo/gancho
  • respect the line of dance and the couple in front of you
• Invite someone new to dance (using the cabeceo) for every hour you spend at the milonga, 
• Take a tanda of songs and discover their lyrics and even the stories behind them and tell someone.
• Support those who are trying to present quality and not quantity, be it moves, milongas, or marketing.

Let's give London the gift of our Tango, it's important and not just because UNESCO says so.

Tandas...

 

Osvaldo Zotto: 1963-2010

Osvaldo Zotto, another truly world reknown dancer has also died. With some reports that Zotto passed on the same day as Teté, there was definately a double shockwave sent through the Tango world. 

Between Osvaldo and Teté, there couldn't have been more difference in their dancing, Osvaldo, brother of Miguel Angel, became known through his partnership with Mora Godoy in Tango x2, he performed on stages around the world and even famously in the Superbowl.  Here are some vids (thanks to Alberto Paz & Valorie Hart for the first), including a solo performance he made in Naples quite recently at Salon Margherita.  

Osvaldo, que descanses en paz.

with Mora Godoy, (in Spanish)

Why every milonga needs a Teté...

Teté lived for the milongas, you would always see him and if he didn't know you, he would make himself known to you.  Each time in Buenos Aires, in every milonga, he would say hello and give me a kiss. This was Teté.  He even had his own chair at the Centro Leonesa!

Why was he so important?  Some people have called him one of the "old milongueros", but I don't think that he was part of the group of dancers that this phrase refers to.  Perhaps it's a case of semantics but he was definately a "milonguero", he lived for the milongas.  You would see him without fail, watching the floor, joking with his friends, dancing or having a cigarette outside.  He made the milonga social, jovial, even for those who were visiting.

Here are some videos I found on YouTube, one is performance in the states when I think he was really at his best.  I love the way he's bashful at the end when taking his bow. 

The other is part of a documentary, he talks about how he feels when dancing, but the best bit is at the end (7:10), you really see the real Teté,  how playful he is and how he loves dancing. I will miss him for this, the energy he brought to the milongas, he really was one of the great personalities of Buenos Aires.

The last video is probably the last performance he did. Pedro "Teté" Rusconi 7 January 2010, te abrazo maestro, y que tu alma baile para siempre en las milongas.

Salon Clore: Thank you....

...for coming, enjoying, dancing and smiling.

Here's to 2010 and much much more Tango....

If you have video and or pictures please post here

More than words...

Floating, floating, you've never been apart.

Fused and floating, you never will be...

The feet aren't stepping, aren't moving.

They're gliding, skimming, drawing, talking.

A different conversation for each song

A new subject for each tanda...

A silence in the music inside,

All that matters is the dialogue, 

You look in on yourself

And the volume is on mute

But you know exactly what's being said.

A flourish, a breath, a tear, a smile

All around is chaos,

Shouting, animation

The couple, you....

quietly making their way,

They look so quiet 

in this noisy world

You almost don't notice

nearly missing their poetry

You almost don't notice

How together you are

Unti the tanda is over

And that piece of you is gone.