Anne's Tango Scouting Tour

December 8, 2011 to January 11, 2012

2012-01-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

Sunday, December 11, 2011
Milonga RoKo at Manhattan Ballroom Dance. I took the premilonga class, which was excellent as usual. I had a wonderful time at the milonga, staying much later than I intended, and only stopping when my feet started to protest. I danced with many new people, some of whom were local (woo hoo!). I had a few amazing tandas that just knocked my socks off. For some reason some Leaders were trying out things like piernazos and off-axis ganchos with me, which are extremely atypical here. My first piernazo sucked, but then we readjusted to get into correct position, and then it worked OKish enough; the Leader was happy since it worked; I think he thought I had a good time as I laughed in nervous embarrassment. Piernazos aren’t something I like to do, but after numerous workshops on it I can at least recognize the lead and execute it not horrendously. Still, it’s good to be stretched in our dancing, and I appreciated that we did it so my Piernazo technique doesn’t go entirely to pot. The Leader who led the off-axis gancho is a truly amazing dancer, new to these parts. Honestly, he is so good that I asked if he was a teacher. He is the most technically skilled social dancer that I’ve come across in the U.S. He easily led me to do things (with perfect timing and perfect musicality) that I learned in workshops taught by the likes of Carolina del Rivero, Donato Juarez, and Fabian Salas, things that no one ever does socially, or if they attempt to, certainly not as smoothly or with such confidence and skill. It was a very nice night, and even after my feet started to protest loudly, I floated out the door and back to Grand Central.

Saturday, December 17, 2011
Mariela Franganillo’s La Practica at Dance Manhattan. I got there reasonably early, as I missed going the week prior and really wanted to get my dance fix. When I got there, it was reasonably full, with a good gender balance. I danced with my usual regulars and a few new people, locals, which was surprising since I have been going to this event regularly for a while and have seen some of these Leaders at other events, too.

Maybe that’s the thing about the NYC community: it’s not as open as other parts of the country, perhaps a bit slow to warm up, or maybe I am so unremarkable and unmemorable that it takes a while for me to register on the radar. Then again, I understand all of us hacking away at this thing called tango for a long time, so for the most part people in the community dancing with each other for years at milongas, practicas, and learning together at workshops and practicas, and growing and improving together, and everyone having developed their list of people they like to dance with by the time someone new arrives.

You know, it’s funny. Some people say the same about San Francisco (it’s not very friendly to strangers), and I always saddened by the comment, and also thought they were wrong. But that’s because I had been part of the SF community for years and earned my chops there so never suffered from lack of dances unless it was a really slow night overall, or if the event was infested with whack-a-moles (which fortunately do not exist in NYC. [The deportment here is different with followers not so anxious about racking up their mileage, and more selective about who they dance with and leaders more direct and focused on who they cabaceo, and not easily swayed, interrupted or blocked by those trying to steal or intercept his cabaceo]).

Maybe we should all take a chapter from Clay and the Portland tango community and have mixer tandas to break the ice and get us all interacting and dancing with people who are new to us.

Anyway, back to the La Practica. I had a good time. I danced a lot, but was also very happy to sit a few tandas out, as I didn’t want to wear myself out before my private with Oliver Kolker (whoo hooo!). Earlier, I was so excited about the afternoon, I had butterflies in my stomach. It took a lot of consideration to figure out which shoes I would wear (I ended up brining three pairs, and wearing one of my bulletproof old faithfuls, beating out two new pairs). Thankfully, here was a two-hour break between the end of the practica and before my private started, so I had ample time to meander up to midtown.

My private was at Champions, which is a dance facility full of individual rooms (rented for $15-40 per hour, depending on size) that people rented for privates, group classes, or auditions. So the hallways were filled with dancers of all genres, sizes and persuasions, and the walls full of notices of classes, voice workshops, headshot photographers, etc., basically services for those who hope to be professional.

I have chosen to keep the detailed notes from my private lesson with Oliver Kolker exactly that, private.

After my lesson, Maestro was very appreciative. He said I was a good dancer, but also a very open student, pretty much doing whatever he told me to do (instantly correcting) and not having attitude about it or hurt feelings when he pointed out my shortcomings. Doing the work with him reminded me of Luciana’s assessment that I am lazy in my dance at times. I can do the work, I am intellectually and physically capable of it, but often just don’t. :::sigh::: Honestly, I think he was surprised that I took a private since, as he confirmed, I am already a good dancer.

Maestro asked me how many hours a week I dance, and I told him 4 (obviously, I miscalculated, as it’s really closer to something like 6-8), and he remarked that that’s because I have a life and other priorities, and that balance was good. However, it did remind me that this is a far cry from how much I used to dance (20+ hours a week). So maybe now that I have access to the corporate gym again with beautiful dance studio (although no barre), I should spend more time there, walking backwards until I get to China, and pivoting until I bore through to the center of the Earth.

This private was amazing because generally, people think my technique is pretty good (among the best is what I’ve been told from social dancers) . . . but maybe that is not saying much when most people's technique sucks. It kind of reminds of when you take a few ballroom, Latin and swing classes and go to a wedding where there’s dancing and folks think you are a teacher somewhere because they think you look great. Then you go to a dance event, and everyone else is so much better than you know and you realize how badly you suck.

It was a very eye-opening, humbling lesson, which is a very good thing.

Since I usually dance with mere mortals, most folks think I am good or sometimes great or excellent. It is an amazing opportunity to be able to take privates with Maestro, since he is Luna’s former partner and has danced with Alejandra and other dancers of their caliber—basically, the best tangueras in the world, ones that I admire and the ones who are regularly called “Diosa”. Since Maestro usually dances with diosas, he can point out what I need to do to improve and perhaps in a thousand years, get to diosa level.

Sunday, December 18, 2011
Milonga Roko and Manhattan Ballroom Dance. It was a difficult night dancing for me. I was way off. It’s a good thing I sat out a lot.

Saturday, December 31, 2011 to Monday, January 2, 2012
Providence Tango New Year’s Celebration:
3 milongas over 2 days.

New Year's Eve milonga, Saturday, 9 pm to 5 am.
Includes appetizers, buffet dinner, desserts and performances.
According to Homer, this was the place to be on the East Coast during New Year’s. Since Providence is centrally located, it draws dancers from New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and lots of other states on the East Coast. Ellen’s food is legendary, as is the hospitality of the local Providence community, and this New Year’s celebration was no different. Since I was staying in the Providence area rather than driving back and forth, I defrayed my costs by volunteering. And I am glad I did as I got a chance to match the names to some faces I had seen around the New York tango community, and I am glad that several of my favorite dancers were there that night. I got to dance with a few dancers that I have seen for months but had not yet danced with. The dancer quality was extremely high, and though it was crowded, floor crafting was generally not a problem. Lots of folks were also happy to sit out and enjoy the evening, chatting and eating with friends old and new. It was a fun night.

New Year's Day milonga, Sunday, January 1: 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, includes brunch. I got there early, since I was part of the setup crew. When my shift was over at noon, I spent the next two hours straight dancing. It was fun, more fun than the night before as the floor was less crowded and I got to dance with a lot of new folks, some of whom are teachers or DJs in their local tango communities. So that was a real treat. But around 2:30 pm, my body (suffering from not quite enough sleep) and my feet started to protest. So I left early because I needed a disco nap before the night’s milonga and my final volunteer shift.

New Year's Night milonga, Sunday, January: 6:00 pm to 1:00 am, includes light snacks. The milonga was more lightly attended, but still a lot of fun. Many of us were more familiar with each other since we had seen each other or danced together at the prior two milongas. I got a chance to dance with an old Luciana Valle Intensivo alumni, so that was kind of funny, actually, since his own community is quite small and not as technically skilled. To give an idea about the draw, he came all the way from South Carolina just to attend this event. It was a good night.

Overall thoughts: Homer was right. It was well worth the trip to go to this event. The dancer quality was high; the food was amazing, ample, and gourmet. Some folks from New York defrayed their costs by rooming together. Others, like me, volunteered. Housingwise, I found accommodations through airbnb.com. I won’t say exactly where I stayed because I loved it so much and I want it to be available when I am next in the area. Suffice it to say my experiences with airbnb.com thus far have been overwhelmingly positive; it truly has been a game changer with respect to how I travel.

Saturday, January 7, 2012
Mariela Franganillo’s La Practica at Dance Manhattan. The practica, as usual, was a blast. The quality of dancers in New York at this milonga is truly amazing, and it is quite a pity that these dancers are not found at the night milongas. It was nice to welcome the new year with friends old and new. It was an oddly balmy day in NYC, and the milonga was warm and humid. Afterwards, I walked around in just my thin dance shirt (no jacket or coat) and a floaty skirt. I looked very spring, and some folks walking down the street commented on it. I was trying to kill time before the Triangulo afternoon milonga, but the though the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak. So I started to bonk after lunch (at this good Korean place), so just went home instead.

Monday, January 9, 2012
Game Dinner at T&J Villaggio Trattoria in Port Chester, NY. Apparently, game dinners are way more common out here than on the West Coast. What is a game dinner, you ask? Do we play Scrabble/Monopoly/Charades all night? Why no, silly! We dine on venison, pheasant, rabbit and the like. Think shoot and kill. That kind of game. Apparently, game dinners are quite common in places where people hunt. This particular one had an Italian spin on things. There were 235 people, 96% male, 90% Italian, many local celebs or politicos.

So what does all this have to do with tango, you might ask? Not a whole heck of a lot, but the tie-in is that our attendance at this particular dinner was organized/coordinated by none other than the cousin of the San Francisco Bay Area’s (and Buenos Aires’s) Jeff Schneider! Which was a funny coincidence, revealed after the usual dinner chitchat among strangers (it was a Meetup gourmet foodie dinner). Since the organizer had Jeff on his cellphone, we were texting throughout the night. So though Jeff was not there physically, he was there electronically every now and then.

Dinner began with a huge platter of antipasti, and I had the pleasure of sitting next to Mr. Coldcuts himself, the provider of the salumi. (He was not part of our Meetup group; the table was set for 12 diners, and our group was only 7 people, so we had the pleasure of Mr. Coldcuts’ company along with his son and his son’s buddy.) There was salami, sopressata, capicola, mortadella, cubes of provolone, olives and pickled peppers galore. This was followed by a nice green salad that was not overly dressed. The unlimited red wine was Zonin Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, 2010. There was a white and a rose wine offered as well, but no one at our table partook of them.

Mr. Coldcuts and I had a very interesting conversation about the Bronx Italian linguistic tendencies versus other parts of the country (like North Beach in San Francisco), because I had trouble understanding what he meant by my having to try the “gabagol” (which is what I know as capicola). Apparently, they do often drop the last vowel (mortadell for mortadella, for example), and the verbiage is a lot more casual (cold cuts for salumi, cutlet for milanesa or Milanese, or gravy for pasta sauce, macaroni for almost any type of pasta including but not limited to the small hollow curled pasta).

The first of the game courses was a Venison cannoli. Here, the Venison was ground and the pasta freshly made. It was delicious, and I finished the whole thing. It was not a mini portion, and I know that I should have paced myself, but it was just too darn good to not finish.

Next came the rest of the venison dishes: Venison meatloaf with mashed potatoes (divine!), Venison Stew (OK), and Venison cutlet (what I would consider milanesa, so of course I loved that too). There was ample food to go around, all served family style, and everyone took as much as they wanted with plenty left over.

Next was the raffle portion of the evening, where the prizes were a cross bow, an air gun, and some other weapon to hunt down dinner with (which I didn’t quite catch). Our table had 4 of the 6 ladies in total attendance, and 1 was chosen to be the picker of the raffle ticket winners. She was gorgeous, bubbly and vivacious, and certainly up to the task of hamming it up on stage. And so it was good to see that the men appreciated our presence.

After the raffle, they brought out the Pheasant, which was prepared in their famous pimiento scarpariello sauce, and the Rabbit (I can’t remember any special sauce; it seemed like it was just baked or braised). Both these dishes were good, but I liked the Venison much better. I guess I am just a red-meat loving kind of gal. Just like they say, the rabbit tastes like white meat chicken (it is extremely low fat) only with a lot more small, splintery bones, so given the choice, I would just eat chicken (and reach for the dark pieces).

OMG, I totally forgot, and actually posted this and had to amend. They also served quail, which looked good in all its roasted glistening glory, but which I left untouched. I have a hard time eating any fowl smaller than a chicken due to an unfortunate childhood incident. So I just passed. Other diners snaffled the little things up like there was no tomorrow. I was not even tempted. But that's just me.

Dessert was a plate of delicious Italian confections, followed by coffee or espresso, with or without white Sambuca. I had Sambuca neat, which raised an eyebrow or two. But hey, what can I say? I never touch coffee.

It was an amazing event, a totally new foodie experience for me. This is the kind of thing that really should be put on FoodTV.

November 24-December 7

2011-12-08T03:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 27, 2011
Milonga Roko @ Manhattan Ballroom Dance. I went to the lesson beforehand, taught by Brigitta Winkler. The lesson was good, focusing on Milonga. We began with a musicality exercise, first individually, and then partnered.

The meat of our lesson focused on the traspie movement, and disassociating.

The milonga was fun. It was my first night out dancing since I got back from Buenos Aires, and before that I was away on the weekends with Homer and Cristina. So in actuality, I had been gone from the community for about a month. Surprisingly, I was missed. So it was a very full night of dancing for me, as I caught up with my usual favorite leaders. I also got a chance to dance with several new people (very skilled dancers), so that was a nice treat, too. I danced nearly every tanda, and during my last one, my feet really started to hurt (I was starting to wonder if I had a hairline fracture at the sole of my left foot), so much so that I heard the coaching voice inside my head insist that I stop dancing (because it was silly and unwise to dance while I was in that much pain, being no stranger to turning minor injuries into major ones by overstressing, kicking myself afterwards that if I had just rested, I would have healed quickly).

After I had changed my shoes, a performance was announced. A visiting couple from Poland, Katarzyna Czech and Tymoteusz Ley, did a nice two-song Nuevo performance demo. They were good, and are in town for a while. Video is at http://www.youtube.com/user/Tangobro#p/a/u/0/2Rho6Zfzruo

Saturday, December 3, 2011
Mariela Franganillo’s La Practica at Dance Manhattan. I got there on the early side, as this is my favorite tango event in NYC, so I wanted to pack in as much dancing as possible in the event’s three hours. That being said, it was reasonably full but not overly crowded, with more Followers than Leaders. So the Leaders had a full plate, and most Followers sat out at least some of the time. I danced with several new people, so that was great. One of them was very good, and I asked him why I had never seen him at any of the NYC milongas. He said he didn’t have time to go (and he also whispered to me that he was not happy with the night milonga experience, which seems like not a unique experience among the folks who go to La Practica). I danced a Pugliese tanda with someone new to me, and I blew his mind (and mine, too). I feel like I had a Pugliese breakthrough.

My buddies from NJ were also there, and they greeted me warmly. We made plans to go to Boqueria afterwards for brunch. And that’s what we did after the practica was over, all of us getting the burger (we were hungry). I had mine with egg and bacon; the bacon was excellent but the egg not done quite enough. Next time I will skip the egg and ask for the burger medium instead of medium rare. As usual, we had a blast at brunch.

Though I was planning on going to Triangulo afterwards, I had forgotten that this was the first Saturday, and last month I had promised to go to Michael and Angeles’s Fernet Milonga in NJ. So after brunch we went our separate ways, with plans to meet up later that night.

Milonga Fernet at Alluring Ballroom in New Jersey. My NJ buddies said that this milonga would be where a lot of NJ’s dancers would be, as it’s an event that draws all of the NJ tango communities. When I arrived, my buddies greeted me warmly and made it a point to introduce me to all their friends, which was super nice. I got there early enough for the lesson because I have been curious about Maestros’ teaching since I had arrived on the East Coast, but hadn’t had time to make my way to any of their NYC lessons.

The intermediate lesson was a very simple sequence focused on the male lead in getting in out of walking in cross system to parallel system and vice versa, and leading the Follower to pass in front of him from side to side, inside and outside so that he could walk in parallel or cross. It was a good lesson, very detailed in its technical explanation, and ample time for drilling, with Michael and Angeles going around to offer corrections and technical pointers to individual couples. The ending of the sequence involved a forward step and then a side step (a half molinete) for the Follower, one direction and then the other, so our work involved collecting completely and prettily at the left foot front cross tuck, then taking long reaching steps around the Leader, and also have spiral energy going from top down on the last left foot front cross step to right foot side, pivoting well, and then taking a good side open step. Maestra emphasized being musical in every step we take, at every inch of the milonga dance floor. There was also a beginner lesson taught by Marcelo “Chulo” Manfredi.

The milonga itself was OK. Though Maestro emphasized that we should dance with many people, not just the ones we came with, most people did just that, unfortunately. There were many couples who did not change partners at all during the night, lots of folks who only danced with 2 or 3 different people, and a minority who danced with lots of different people.

I only danced with one other person besides my buddy. This person was a skilled dancer, and I enjoyed dancing with him, though he shook the entire first tanda. And no, I did not believe he was shaking because he thought I was super scorching hot and he was excited (in more than a tango way) to be dancing with me. If anything, I thought maybe had too much caffeine, or that had early stage Parkinson’s, or needed a change to his meds, or that he had a massively demanding upper body weights workout at the gym earlier. During our second tanda there was substantially less shaking (though still a little bit).

Tonight was a special night with live music with Octavio Brunetti on keys and Machiko Ozawa on violin. They were brilliant together, playing off yet complementing each other well the way very skilled (usually jazz) musicians do. I think she was a part of his orchestra at Tango Factory’s Drom a few months. Watching them at their craft up close and in person was wonderful, seeing them make music with such passion and with their entire beings, and mesmerizing to watch their fingers and hands flow so beautifully, expressively, quickly, and agily over the keys and strings, and with Machiko’s masterful command and strength with the bow. They are also very good tango dancers, and it was fun seeing them dance during the DJ’d portion of the milonga.

Alluring Ballroom is a ballroom in a strip mall, with a pergo floor, which I found OK for the lesson, but a little to slick for social dancing. Food was Doritos and salsa, bite-size black velvet cupcakes, olives, and maybe some other items that I didn’t see since I didn’t wander over to the food table until late. There was also bottled water and apple/cranberry juice and ice. Many folks brought bottles of wine and shared. The hosts’ table had a bottle of Fernet-Branca and regular Coca Cola (not diet).

This milonga was a combination of live music and DJ’d sets, with the cortina being a very funny polka-esque song Fernet by the Sultanes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgtgBJbNrSI . Fernet (usually con cola) is extremely popular in Buenos Aires, and there you can get many different brands and flavors of Fernet (1882 is another famous one), some extremely cheap. In SF, you don’t really see any Fernets beyond Fernet Branca and Fernet Menta, and it’s usually drunk by the bartending crowd in shots. But good luck finding it in CT (I haven’t looked, but overall the spirits options are pretty basic and mainstream here, and only sold at specialty retail stores, not supermarkets, which only sell beer. And on Sundays you can’t buy booze at all at supermarkets or specialty retailers, only bars and restaurants). So what does Fernet taste like? Well, it’s a very high alcohol herbaceous bitter, like Jagermeister only not as sweet and more licoricey. It’s an acquired taste, that’s for sure.

The drive to and from Allure was 3 hours round trip (150 miles = 6 gallons of gas=$22), with total tolls coming to about $24 ($4.95 + $0.60 + $4.85 + $12 + 1.75), which I hadn’t factored into my budget. On this, my first time driving to NJ, I found the whole toll thing/process very strange and irritating (there were places where you take a ticket, then drive many miles on the road, and pay for the toll based on mileage later when you gave them your ticket). After getting all tapped out of cash and feeling tolled to death, I had to pull off at the Vince Lombardi service area in NJ for their ATM. When I got there, there were big signs on the front door noting that they sold EZ Passes. So obviously, there was significant enough demand from EZ Pass-less folks like me to make this a strategic sales outpost. I went ahead and got one so that I wouldn’t worry about not having enough cash for all these tolls that seem to pop up everywhere on the roads in NY and NJ, and for totally random amounts.

Sunday, December 4, 2011
Carlyn Afternoon Milonga at Smith’s Dancing School in Hawthorne, NY. I went because I wanted to experience the growing community in Westchester County. The facility is easy to get to with ample parking (and thankfully no toll roads along the way), and the Hawthorne train station is right by the school. The building itself is quality new construction, with a nice hardwood floor. There were ample sodas (9 different two-liter bottles, with back-ups!), juices, and water, but nothing alcoholic. The snacks were varied (carrots, sugar snap peas, ginger snaps, Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies, triscuits, crackers, cheese, pretzels, pfeffernusse cookies, and candy). It was striking that people kept talking about the flan (or more accurately, expressing disappointment that it wasn’t there), suggesting it must be pretty amazing.

Carlos, one of the hosts, was very gracious and danced with everyone. Many of the other folks came as couples and danced with just their usual partner. The space is very large relative to the size of the community (there were about 30 people at the milonga). There were no cortinas, and it seemed the custom to change partners after every song or two, likely reflecting the strong ballroom background of the dancers/organizers. It was fun watching the dancers, although I did get a chance to dance with three different leaders.

November 10-23 (from Buenos Aires)

2011-11-24T12:07:00.000-08:00

Viernes, 11 Noviembre 2011
The first leg of the flight to Santiago, Chile, was nice: the plane boarded and left on time, the movies (52!) were great, the food was well proportioned and tasty. I was annoyed at myself for not checking my flight kit beforehand, so I didn't notice I had forgotten my eye patch and earplugs. Thankfully, Lan passed out some, and I was thrilled, as I would not have managed well without them.

I watched Angels and Demons, a fast paced, entertaining flick. Then I slept somewhat uncomfortably, but reasonably well. I didn't even notice when the person next to me switched seats with another passenger. As far as 10-hour flights go, this one was pretty good.

Then I got to the Santiago, Chile, airport. What should have just been an hour wait for the connecting flight turned into five, which was a total bummer. But at least I got to knock back a couple of Pisco Sours at a place called "The Last Pisco Sour", which was a part of the La Sabastiana Restaurant there at the airport. Pisco Sours are tasty, but a little too much on the sweet side for my taste (I tried not to cringe when I saw the bartender put two heaping teaspoons of powdered sugar into the mix). Since it was a shockingly early hour to be drinking (OK, not that shocking, but still early by most standards), I had an empanada de carne to accompany the libations. The carne was heavy on the cebolla, studded by a large black half-olive, and one 1/8thish chunk of hard-boiled egg. The dough was on the dense, pasty side, which wasn't exactly my cup of tea, though I ate the whole dang thing.

I still had four hours to kill, and needed to contact everyone waiting for me in Buenos Aires (my driver from Eziza, my hostess, and JSE) to tell them I would be very late. I had my laptop, but getting Internet access from the airport was a confusing chore. I made my way to the VIP lounge, and thankfully the receptionist had mercy on me and let me use their computer for 5 minutes. This being South America, I went along with the usual custom and 5 minutes turned into 2 hours (it was a sumptuous lounge, one of the best I've ever been in, and I was in no hurry to leave, and no one asked me to).

Finally, it was time to catch the flight to Buenos Aires. Boarding was late, and after we left the airport, we had to get on to those shuttle buses to the airplane itself. When I got to the top of the stairs and onto the plane, I looked for my seat in row 25. The last row on the plane was 24. D'oh!!! And passengers after me had rows 26-30! Needless to say, confusion ensued and people were stressed out and angry. Fortunately, it all worked out and there turned out to be exactly enough seats. If y'all can envision Southwest Airline style seating when we've paid Lan prices, you can see why people were very hot under the collar about the whole situation. Someone even wrote a complaint letter by hand on the back of a large envelope, ripped it open and sent it around for everyone to sign, and by the time it got to me in the very last row, it seemed the majority of passengers signed it.

Getting through Eziza was relatively easy, but getting a cab to Buenos Aires was kind of a hassle. Dante and I agreed that I should just take Taxi Eziza (cost: $180 pesos), but it was a 25-minute wait. I asked at other remise desks about the wait, and they all said 25 minutes. So I did as Dante said and took Taxi Eziza. We had to queue up, and there were a bunch of flakey people in front of me who missed their call as they wandered off to shop or going to the restroom, etc., and then they would come back and then get first priority in line again. I was told several times that mine would be the “next car”, only to be bumped by some flakey airheads.

THE EXCHANGE RATE IS ABOUT 4.3 ARGENTINE PESOS TO US$1.

The drive to Buenos Aires was smooth and quick, but the Taxi Eziza driver got a little lost in the neighborhood, so we had to circle. When I finally arrived to the place where I would be staying, it was already 8:00 p.m. (which was amazing to me since my plane landed at 4:30 p.m.).

I was pretty bummed that my flight was so delayed since I had a burning desire to go to P.H. today, Friday, since I missed it the last several times I was here, and this the only free day I could get there easily since they're closed Saturdays. I'm curious to see what Lilliana has done fasionwise, as the last time I went it seemed the styles were becoming more on-trend. With my move to the east coast, I only brought the shoes I wear and am comfortable in, and the majority were P.H. and Lolo Gerard.

After arriving home, I tried to make it over to the Ferreteria to get an adaptor for my laptop electrical cord. I got confused about the time because no Ferreteria is open at 8:00 p.m. on a Friday night, so I went over to the Abasto Coto instead to pick up food (where I was a little disappointed with the selection). Afterwards, I stopped off at Maossage (Aguero 616) to get a full body massage (60 pesos for 30 minutes). It was great. Very firm, very relaxing afterwards though painful while getting it. My masseur, one of the owners, was very nice. He spoke in Mandarin primarily, then in Cantonese to me, and after he figured out that that would be an epic fail, plain old English. Turns out he learned his craft in Los Angeles!

After that, I made my way home, arriving around 11:00 p.m. I marveled at how long it took just to get around to do things in Buenos Aires (granted, I did walk everywhere and take the Subte instead of cabbing it as I wanted to move my body after being on planes for so long). Anyway, sitting down to eat, I checked my email, read one from JSE but didn't respond because I was distracted, and then my laptop battery ran out (which was why it was so urgent to get to the ferreteria in the first place). By then I was truly exhausted, so I took a shower and went to bed.

Sabado, 12 Noviembre 2011
There were a million things I wanted to do today, so I was out the door by 10:15 a.m.

My first stop was the Ferreteria (Sarmiento 4380). I probably could have gone to any one much closer, but this one I knew...so I made my way over to it, where I pulled out my laptop cord, showed it to the guy, and he gave me a universal adaptor ($10 pesos). I asked for two, just in case (which now seems silly, in retrospect).

Still in search of a replacement of my beloved pair of Negra y Portena shoes that were mortally victimized, I tried to go to Asignatura Pendiente (Corrientes 2176), but when I got there, another store was in its spot, so it must have moved. Since I was so close, I walked over to Tango Leike (hoping to pick up some free tango magazines and a tango map) and NeoTango (both on Sarmiento 1947 and 1938). Both stores have been remodeled and look more boutique-y and upscale. NeoTango is much more efficiently laid out to try on shoes; stylewise, the shoes are much the same and remain as pretty as ever. The styles at Tango Leike were surprisingly more edgy and fashion-forward. I only managed to pick up a copy of Diostango and was surprised at how slim and light it was.

Saturday afternoons in Buenos Aires usually mean for me Marta y Manolo's Canyengue class at EAT, and this was no different. Since I had an hour to spare, I went via Suipacha (200 block), hitting all the shoe stores beforehand (Flabella, Darcos, Scarpe Mahara, etc.). On the train ride over, I browsed through Diostango and saw that Asignatura Pendiente was now located on Suipacha as well. Just doing some window shopping on Suipacha, shoes started around 380 pesos and went up (how high I don't know because I didn't try on or ask about any specific shoes). Some of the stores have moved around and consolidated a bit. The place next to Darcos seems to sell a mish-mash of all different stores (including Asignatura Pendiente, but they only sold their clothes, no Negra y Portena shoes), and the awning is that of Todo Tango, which used to be down the block. Lucky for me, EAT had a coupon there for 25% off one class.

Making my way over to EAT, it occurred to me that Buenos Aires is really coming together for me geographically, as I can navigate better and more confidently, even though I didn't have a map as insurance. I was happy to see the classes were the same price as the last time I was here (45 pesos), and with my discount coupon, the Canyengue class came to 35 pesos.

Happily, the class was pretty full. Marta y Manolo look strong and healthy. As usual, the class was split into two groups: those with Canyengue experience and those without. Marta worked with the newbies while Manolo led the guided practica for the rest of us. The gender balance for both groups was perfect, so no one switched (and we weren't asked to). I partnered with a porteno who as also in class last time I was here, so it was nice to see a familiar face (actually, several). As usual, I struggled with the posture and connection, and keeping my steps small. The Canyengue work is basically the exact opposite of the Luciana Valle work, although in my mind Canyengue can be viewed as the original off-axis form of tango since there is such extreme lean.

In the starting embrace, I need to remember to bend the knees and keep the heels off the ground in order to connect with the Leader from chest to belly. The Follower's right hand in the Leader's left hand enables the Leader to open and close the embrace depending on how much pivot he wants the Follower to do based on where he wants the Follower to step.

After class, I was famished, so I went over to Galauno. Unfortunately, a choripan is now 9.99 pesos (gotta love the .99 bit as an attempt to keep things in the single digits), which I thought was steep. So I went a few storefronts down to the Arabic place and had a cordero shwerma instead (very tasty).

Originally, I had planned on going to the afternoon milonga at Confiteria Ideal but I was just too pooped. So I went over to Anchorena instead, to hit Artesanal (Anchorena 537) and Lolo Gerard (Anchorena 607). At Artesanal, I was shocked to see that they had a shoe in the window that was 650 pesos! Going in, I browsed a bit and then went upstairs to see their sale shoes. I didn't find anything compelling. As I was heading down to leave, who would I find coming up the stairs but Linda from Idaho! I knew she might be here as she emailed me a few weeks ago telling me this would be viaje numero ocho (I am only on siete), but what a kick that we'd bump into each other at Artesanal on a Saturday afternoon. I met her beau, who is a charmer. After catching up and confirming contact info with a promise to get together at some point while we are both here, I made my way over to Lolo Gerard.

At Lolo Gerard, I found 4 pairs of sale shoes in my size, and bought all 4 (290-360 pesos). I hadn't planned on buying so many, and only had enough pesos for part of the purchase. Thankfully, she accepted US dollars as well (which many stores seem more open to doing this time around as the Argentine peso continues to sink versus the US dollar). Before coming on this trip, I decided to bring only one pair of dance shoes (besides my 2 pairs of dance sneakers for the Intensivo), and the ones I picked were Lolo Gerard. And that got me to thinking that of all the shoes I reach for, the bullet-proof, most reliable, most long-lived ones for me have been Lolo Gerard. So I kind of wondered why I even bother going to any other shoe store when I've found the brand that works for me.

After my purchase, which took all of 5 minutes, I was really exhausted and made my way home. I plugged in the laptop using the new adaptor and was pleased it worked (although plugging it in the first time it kind of sparked, so i did say a little prayer as I plugged in the other part into the computer itself). There I found an email from JSE suggesting she was worried that she hadn't heard from me, which sparked a flurry of emails from my end, apologetic, etc., about my flakey silence. Anyway, we made plans later on that night to dine at Cafe Vinilio.

Cafe Vinilio (Gorriti 3780) is only about 1.5 miles away from where I am staying, and it was reasonably easy to catch a cab. There JSE was already waiting for me. It's a very nice space, with jazz influences all around, and an authentic 1960s hi-fi console with lots of vinyl to choose from. JSE asked the waitress to put on tango, she happily complied since at that early hour of 8:30 p.m., we were the only ones in the place. We both had the beef stew in chocolate sauce, which came with some french-fry like things (I think it was made from a tuber other than the usual potato as it had a slightly sweeter taste and a stringier but firmer texture). We spent much time just being chatty Cathy's and catching up.

JSE must have read my mind because she brought a bunch of tango magazines for me (now isn't that thoughtful?). I think the economy has taken its toll all around, even at the tango-related businesses since it seems some shoe stores, milongas and practicas have either closed or are just not advertising as much.

Domingo, 13 Noviembre 2011
On Sundays, there's not a whole lot to do in BsAs as most of the shops are closed. So I spent the morning writing. Then I ate breakfast, and went grocery shopping. I went to the Coto on Corrientes closest to home, rather than Abasto. It was OK, smaller but well stocked. The rotisseria (prepared food) section was smaller but serviceable enough.

Something weird happened at the checkout, which made me feel a little ookie. Basically, the checkout gal didn't give me all of my groceries, holding back a bag that was filled with my most expensive items. Fortunately, I realized I was a bag short just after leaving the store, so I immediately went back in. She gave me my items straightaway, but I thought it was weird that she knew exactly why I came in and hesitated a little in giving me that bag, which if I recall correctly was not the last bag she packed.

It was just a very weird experience overall, and I was reminded by something someone once said to me about trips to Buenos Aires: It's very easy to be happy and relaxed, because here we are working on something we (supposedly) love (tango), but some event usually happens that mars the vacation from being perfect, whether it is getting ripped off by a cabbie, losing something at the outdoor milonga, being "mischarged" for shoes or other items, or whatever... something almost always happens. Fortunately, I've been pretty lucky overall, since I don't think anything bad has personally happened to me since the first trip and my unfortunate incident as a sole passenger in a shifty driver's cab (where he accused me of giving him fake money and then proceeded to turn several of my 100 peso bills into 10 peso bills because I foolishly let him get his hands on them...).

Lunes, 14 Noviembre 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo Al Cuadrado Day 1

We began with a 1/2 hour warm-up, dancing 2 songs each with 3-4 different Leader assistants. During the warm-up, we as a group were instructed:

Followers: keep the heels on the floor; slow down; take each step; take the time to take each step.

Leaders: wait for the Follower; wait for the Follower to give feedback in her dancing; be careful of the arms taking the space of the body. Arms should come from the back, Our connection is body to body, and the arms are a continuation of our bodies. Lead the motion from the push of the standing leg.

Our work today focused on:
(1) Ganchos and Leg Wraps
(2) Shared-Axis Turns
(3) Sacadas

We began with Follower's back cross gancho, open step gancho and front cross ganchos from the point of view that the Leader is the center and the Follower is the circle.

For the Leader, the gancho leg is free of weight and there is no axis of the Leader involved. The lead for the gancho is the lead for the turn. Just as the Follower goes, it is an interruption of her step. It is the step that never happens. Follower needs to arrive to axis first, and then move her feet. The gancho comes from the standing leg pushing off, not the free leg. It is the Follower trying to step, but not being able to step.

The Leader goes down with his standing, supporting leg when he asks for the gancho. The Leader's gancho/sacada leg is straight; the standing, supporting leg bends and thus so does the gancho/sacada leg too as the Leader leads/receives the Follower's ganchoing leg, with his weight always on the back foot on axis. With the Leader's leg straight, he can always Lead the Follower to do either a gancho or a sacada.

For these back cross ganchos, the Follower should keep her top with the Leader, but activate the gancho from the bottom. The Leader should keep his chest with the Follower, until the point of the gancho, where he rotates his chest to lead the Follower's gancho. The Follower has to feel no invasion into her space.

It is important for the Follower to have good turn/hiro/molinete technique, as the back cross step is overturned to keep equidistant from the Leader as she goes around the Leader, same as the previous step. She should also activate the standing leg, and not fall after she does the gancho.

We drilled with four options the Leader receiving the Follower's back cross gancho on his inside leg or outside leg, noticing the direction of their hips: away from each other or toward each other.

Follower should not anticipate the gancho or make it wide (have air between her legs). She should just step normally. We do lots of things from the gancho, not just the gancho, but sending it out in a boleo afterwards, for example. Follower should keep foot on the floor, striking it like a match.

Gancho Leader Options:
(1) Gancho only
(2) Let the Follower drive you
(3) Receiving the gancho, then sending it back out.

For option (3), the Follower gets the dynamics of the free leg and her body gets the spiral.

We drilled all these possibilities to improve our gancho technique (both Leaders and Followers). It is important that the Follower leg her left arm/hand slide so that she does not jam the Leader when he tries to lead a gancho on the close side of the embrace. Connection is the Follower's responsibility.

Next we worked on Follower front ganchos of the Leader's front leg. All of these possibilities are with the Follower spiral from the top down.

The lead is like that of a parada, but the Leader moves the axis by stepping around the Follower, and as she comes in, he moves opposite to lead the gancho/leg wrap. The Leader does not lead a pivot, but leads a spiral, going from top down.

We drilled Follower front wraps to the Leader's outside leg (front/forward).

The Leader walking around he Follower is what leads her to spiral from the top down. His contra motion is what leads the Follower to do the wrap (front to front).

In the front-to-front wrap, the Leader changes from being the center of the circle to the Follower being the center of the circle and the Leader walking around her, so the lead is more like for a boleo interrupted, as it starts from the Follower spiral on down. The Leader needs to think circularly and step around the Follower, but don't transfer weight fully, as the lead for the wrap is in the contra energy.

We drilled this on the close and open sides. The open side is more difficult.

The Follower needs to know when she needs to pivot, and when she needs to spiral. She should not dance by memory because the Leader might lead many different things:
(1) barrida
(2) wrap/gancho
(3) sacada

Next, we worked on Front Wraps to the Inside of the Leader's legs (still front-to-front):
Leader left leg receives, Follower left leg ganchos
Leader right leg receives, Follower right leg ganchos

The Leader's timing is important; he should not enter her space too early and lead the wrap, otherwise, the Leader and Follower are fighting for the leg space. Follower needs the time to arrive and spiral.

For the Follower, the gancho is in the "out" motion, not the "in" motion. The "out" motion is led by the Leader's contra energy.

Then we did a quick review of the similarities of the communalities and differences among:
(1) sacadas
(2) ganchos
(3) shared-axis turns

Sacadas & Ganchos: Leader's footwork of reaching with a weightless free leg is the same for both, but his target is different:
Sacada: Follower's free leg
Gancho: Follower's weight leg

Ganchos & Shared-Axis Turns:
Shared-Axis Turn: Leader goes around the Follower with his own body, his whole self (Follower is the center of the circle, while Leader is the circle). Leader is already turning as he goes in.
Gancho: Follower is circle, while Leader is the center of the circle.

We drilled these options, trying to be clear in the lead and maintaining control, with the Leader doing the take (footwork) for a sacada, and then changing the direction to make it a gancho.

Follower: on the close side, she needs to come in at the point of gancho instead of keeping the Leader away. There needs to be distance for the sacada, but not for ganchos.

We drilled the control aspect with the Leader leading a back cross step and then stopping the Follower to change the direction but NOT lead the gancho.

END OF DAY 1

I wanted to go across the street to Don Niceto Parrilla for lunch, but sadly it wasn’t open. Instead, I walked down to Serrano y Niceto Vega to Shwerma King and had one of their Shwermas (+ gaseosa = 19 pesos). It was yummy, and I snarffled it up right quick. With the extra time on my hands, I walked up to Cordoba and went to Dia, a local grocery store. Sadly, that one was disappointing, but i did marvel at how close we were to Villa Malcolm, just across the street.

After class, I made my way over to Negra y Portena (Lavalle 820, #C9), which, thanks to JSE's thoughtfulness at giving me her La Milonga magazine, I was able to see their ad with current address, basically in the heart of the Florida shopping area. Negra y Prortena's shoe selection was small, though they had shoes for men and women. One silver pair caught my eye, and luckily they had my size. So I tried it on and it fit, so I set it aside. Then I asked the shop gal for all the shoes in my size, and she showed them to me. Amazingly, they all felt really good, so I ended up buying all of them (only 3 total). The shoes are normally about 350 pesos each, but since I was buying 3 (in about 3 minutes), I bargained her down to 1,000 pesos. We were both happy with the transaction.

By then I was starved, so I went to the Pizza place on Lavalle right next to Galauno, and had a calzone (18 pesos, and a tad salty) and copa de vino (8 pesos, gigantic: 8-9 ounces). Then I made my way home as I wanted to rest before heading out to El Motivo @ Villa Malcolm that night.

But as usual during these Intensivos, the sprit was willing, but the flesh was weak. So after showering and laying down to rest, I became one with my bed and that was pretty much it. Although feeling guilty, I did type out my notes, with my feet slathered in Ben Gay and toes being stretched out in my pink yoga toes.

Martes, 15 de Noviembre 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo Al Cuadrado Day 2

We began the day with a review of all of the ganchos/wraps we learned yesterday, with the goals:
Leader: Make a decision from the same place
Follower: With for the real lead from the Leader (do not guess or go on your own)

From the Followers back cross with the options:
(1) gancho
(2) gancho with send out dynamization in the opposite direction
(3) driving the Leader's leg around
(4) change of direction
(5) shared-axis turn
We drilled this with each leg and in both directions

From the Follower's open step:
(1) gancho
(2) sacada
(3) sacada converted to gancho
(4) gancho with send out to other side (dynamicized by walking around Follower)
(5) sacada with change of direction into gancho
(6) shared-axis turn
We drilled this with each leg and in both directions

In the dynamization, the Leader's knee flexes so that he can play with the options in terms of how much energy he gives.

From the Follower's front cross step:
(1) sacada
(2) sacada into gancho
(3) gancho
(4) gancho with send out to other side (dynamicized)
(5) shared-axis turn

For this gancho, the Leader's foot goes in front of the Follower's front cross step as she is moving as a boleo. This gancho happens on the pivot, not on the step, on the way to the front cross, so the movement is like that of a boleo, interrupted.

We drilled this with each leg and in both directions.

The Follower should not guess what the Leader is going to lead. The Follower should keep her top with the Leader and go around the Leader in a molinete/hiro/turn.

We then drilled managing the difference between gancho and shared-axis turns on the Follower's open step by doing ganchos only or shared-axis turns only, or doing ganchos and then converting them into shared-axis turns.

Then we moved on to rebotes/changes of direction, combining the take (tomar) of the sacada plus a change of direction.

First, we reviewed the fundamental techniques of changes of direction:
Leader: receives the back cross of the Follower, changes it into a front cross in the other direction while he does open steps.
Follower: keeps bra line to Leader, even though her hips face elsewhere.
Leader: should be behind Follower's axis (foot placement is key) so he is not in the Follower's way when she changes direction so she can really turn, pivot, and reach for a new place. The Leader does this by overturning the Follower so she can step close to the Leader, towards the Leader.
Follower: Needs to maintain connection in her arms and hands.
Follower: At the overturned back ocho, she should not go down low, but keep knees soft, remaining upright. This is so she has speed on her pivot. If she goes down, it slows down her pivot. She should use the floor, push into it, but not push into her knees. She should not use her knees if it is not necessary. She should push with the foot on the floor to get a deeper pivot. The sensation is more up than down energy, as if emerging, not submerging. She should use the down to up energy, using the floor to give speed to her hips.

With the Leader's open-to-open footwork, the Follower did:
back cross to front cross
front cross to back cross
front cross to back cross to front cross
open to open step
open to open to open step

All of these options should be circular in how the Follower steps, and she should really step around the Leader.

In the Follower open to open step to the Leader's open to open step, the Leader and Follower are doing opposite circles, concentric circles going in opposite directions, which creates linearity.

We specifically worked on the musical timing, with the Leader's footwork being 1-2-4-1, and the Follower's footwork being 1-3-1, so all the beats of the tango rhythm were hit (1-2-3-4-1).

Leader does not do full weight transfers to get to another place as he leads the rebound.
Follower connection is key. What brings her back in the rebound is the Leader's motion. Thus, she has to have ton in the embrace so she can feel the send and the receive. Follower's steps are circular and with torsion. She should not be flat, otherwise she will go out too far and will be too slow in coming back.

We spent a lot of time working on the feeling of elasticity doing an exercise of Leader sending the Follower out to do a big side step with their arms extending away from each other as their bodies move away, and then coming back in to understanding the stretchy, elastic, but connected feelings in the Follower's arms/embrace.

Note that the change of direction is not a rock step with each dancer going in the same direction. The difference is the elasticity in separate directions: the motion is "counter" -- not together at all, going the opposite paths, not the same path at all.

Leaders need to work on separation of:
-torsion
-reach
-transfer of weight

END OF DAY 2

Miercoles, 16 Noviembre 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo Al Cuadrado Day 3

We worked on the three changes of direction for the Follower:
Front cross to back cross to front cross
Back cross to front cross to back cross
Open step to open step to open step
both on the left side and right side, with different Leader footwork of front cross to open or back cross to open.

Follower needs to take good, long steps around the Leader.

Again, we reviewed the elastic sensation exercise focusing on Follower's arm work and connection and also how much she uses her legs. Follower should face the Leader and not disconnect her arms. The Leader's foot placement next to the Follower's is also a point of connection. We did a lot of work with this exercise to get the feeling of elasticity in the move to make it tasty/juicy (not dry). The Follower does all of the work to give the feeling of elasticity.

From here, we added the Leader's back sacada. Note that the Leader's back sacada leg is unweighted because there is a change of direction immediately following. The Follower needs to have good, open, elastic steps on her front cross and open steps. The Leader needs to have a good setup for his overturned back cross step (back sacada step).

We worked on various Leader footwork options:
(1) open step
(2) front cross
(3) back cross (on the left side only)
(4) back open step (4th sacada)
in the Follower's open step and the Follower's front cross step

Note that for some of these options the Follower does not collect in between her steps. She should also use flex in her knees to give energy to the steps.

We drilled the mechanics and dynamics of Leader back sacadas with his various footwork options on her front and open steps.

One exercise we worked on:
Leader's back cross step to Follower's front cross step, with Leader counterclockwise pivot (down to up) to do a left foot back sacada of the Follower's open step, to an immediate Follower back cross step.

Again, it was reiterated that the Follower go around the Leader in an active way and not fall on her side step.

END OF DAY 3

For lunch, El Italiano and I went across the street to Don Niceto Parrilla (Niceto Vega 5255). It was good and inexpensive. Since he is fluent in Spanish, he had no problem asking questions and specifically ordering whatever would come out fast. I had a choripan con lechuga y tomate. Since the bill was combined I am not sure how much it was. But I think 10-12 pesos. We had a nice time catching up. Lucky for me, he is going to Nueva York after Al Cuadrado, so we will be able to do some homework. It will be really nice to have someone familiar to dance with that the NYC milongas and practicas.

Jueves, 17 Noviembre 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo Al Cuadrado Day 4

We reviewed the Leader's back sacadas that we did yesterday: to the Follower's trailing foot of her front cross step and to her trailing foot of her back cross step, on both sides and with each foot of the Leader (left and right).

As a reminder, the Follower needs to have good generous steps with energy on her front cross step and open step. We should keep our tops quiet (Zen), as all the movement/energy happens in our legs.

We explored different applications of the same technique.

We focused on the Leader's back sacada into the trailing foot of the Follower's back cross step. The Follower needs to give the Leader time to decide how he wants to do the back sacada, with energy or without, walking around, or into a boleo, etc.

The Leader needs to send the Follower to step, then change his feet to do the back sacada. He should not disconnect his arms from his torso, which would cause the Follower to be behind the Leader. He needs to keep her in front of him.

For the Leader, he needs to be careful with the take and not enter with his heel.

Next, our worked moved to Follower back sacadas.

We defined:
Actor of the sacada: always the center
Receptor of the sacada: always the circle

The Leader has to position the Follower so that she is the actor of the sacada, the center of the circle. The Follower takes an overturned position, led there by the Leader by using the Leader's preparation step:
Leader front cross step simultaneous with the Follower's back cross step, into a fierce Follower pivot clockwise with more rotation and energy in the Leader's chest/torsion. For the Follower's fierce pivot, she should use the floor with down to up energy and not go down with her knees.

The Follower uses the Leader's step around to adjust to accommodate for the position of the sacada. She pivots first (from the floor up) then spirals (from the top down).

The step of the Receptor needs to have a larger radius from the center than where you are coming from.

The Leader needs to use his torso.

Follower: energy of the pivot is strong, but the energy of the back step is quiet and smooth. It's a regular back step, so push off the standing leg and do not fall back.

The Leader needs to make space for the Follower to step back, so his sacadaing leg is unweighted and his body is out of the way.

Follower: Do not absorb the Leader's energy in her right hand. He is using more torsion and energy there, so there needs to be a solid, strong connection (not a loosey goosey one). It's a very dynamic move. She should release the left hand connection at the sacada.

We also worked on Follower back sacada combinations to the trailing foot of the Leader's open step, back cross step, and front cross step. We also worked on the Follower's 4th sacada (the open back sacada).

The Follower does a back cross step, pivots clockwise, to do a right foot back step. Instead of a Leader's front cross step, he does an open step (side step). The Leader needs to go around the Follower and follower her with his body.

We tried a combination of the Follower back cross step, to clockwise pivot, to a right leg back sacada, immediately into a counterclockwise spiral.

We drilled endlessly.

END OF DAY 4

I know y'all are wondering about the prices of Comme Il Faut shoes. I asked one of the Intensivo students, who said she got 4 pairs for 2100 pesos (you can do the math @ 4.3 pesos = US$1, and I think that was the cash price, not credit card). I personally can't be bothered to go to the store since their shoes just don't work for me, and it would require a cab ride a ways away.

Viernes, 18 Noviembre 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo Al Cuadrado Day 5

We reviewed Follower back sacadas (with left and right leg, going clockwise and counterclockwise), with the Leader receiving them on his open step, his front cross step, and his back cross steps.

We especially drilled the ones with change of embrace adjustments as those were our weakest.

We then focused on the 4th sacada (open back sacada), with a Leader change of direction of the turn, meaning that instead of doing a front cross step, he does an open step (side step) to the opposite direction of where he normally would have gone if he took his front cross step. This Leader side step is still circular around the Follower, but not too close because she does need room to step back in her sacada. We practiced the Follower's 4th sacada with soltada arm work. The Follower's hips get fast if they are light with good connection to what the Leader's chest is doing.

The Follower's forth sacada with soltada option involved pivoting from bottom up, and then spiraling from top down. Since it looked like we weren't great at this, we backed up and just really disassociating doing first pivoting from the ground up, and then spiraling from the top down (which all Followers needed to work on more), directly into pivoting from the ground up.

For the Follower 4th sacada, we drilled the following arm options, led by the leader:
(1) connected
(2) half soltada
(3) full soltada

We continued drilling all the 4th sacada options for both Leader and Follower.

CONTRA BOLEOS - circular
Our focus after lunch was contra boleos, exploring the difference between linear and circular ones.

Maestra chose this topic because it seemed like Followers seem to do either linear or circular boleos depending on which ones they like rather than which ones the Leaders lead. This is incorrect, because the Leader must lead everything.

So our worked focused on cleaning things up so that the Leader is able to lead ever piece of the contra boleo, which is based on his step around the Follower.

The Leader tends to replace all the work in the torso/body/legs by asking for a boleo with his arms. This is the wrong technique (and very poor technique). The Leader should be able to lead contra boleos from the push of his standing leg (and assuming his legs are attached to his body and torso).

Our work focused on circular contra boleos, which start from the Follower's top, spiraling down. It is important that the Follower not compensate with pivoting and doing a linear boleo when the Leader asks for a circular boleo.

For the Leader, in circular boleos he needs to change the front, turning 90 degrees.

END OF DAY 5

Summary Thoughts on Al Cuadrado 2011
Now some of y'all may have wondered why I was in BsAs again, so abruptly, without an advance word to anybody (except JSE) and for such a short amount of time. Part of it is that I haven't had a day off in 5 months and definitely needed it, and another part of it is that my Al Cuadrado 2010 experience was so horrible that I really needed to have a "do over." On Monday I decided to come, and on Thursday I was on a plane.

Al Cuadrado 2010 was not horrible because of anything Luciana or her assistants did. On the contrary, they were all wonderful, as always. But there was an extreme amount of discord going on in the background that made learning impossible. Some people are just needy and narcissistic train wrecks compulsively addicted to creating drama in their own lives and those of others with very destructive consequences. Thankfully and joyfully, none of that noise and horrendous drama ("tawdry tango tale") are part of Al Cuadrado 2011. So this time around I felt happy and light, mentally and physically ready for the intense, rigorous training.

I cannot say enough good things about the Al Cuadrado assistants. They are all superb dancers, and their English continually improves, so their corrections get more accurate and eloquent. Plus they are all so patient, and just very nice people, I could not ask for a better group of people to work the material with. While all of Luciana's assistants are fantastic, the Al Cuadrado ones are the crème de la crème, which somehow escaped me last year.

It struck me many times throughout the week what an amazing teacher of the Leader's side of the equation Maestra is. I heard and understood her more clearly than I ever have. I am not sure if it is because I am happy and relaxed and can absorb it all, or if it's because I tried to focus more on the Leader side of things (even though I don't lead), or if she communicates it better, or if it is because I was not so overwhelmed by her rapid-fire delivery. Funny though, one of the Leader assistants was out ill one day, and so Maestra herself took on the role of assisting with us. Now that was pretty nerve-wracking, dancing with the teacher! She had good pointers for me, as usual, and I feel like such a tool, because there I was, in this program for something like three years, and still getting the same dang corrections as I did the first time around!

San Francisco was well represented, comprising more than half the students.

* * * * *

Madero Tango Dinner Show (240 pesos, plus credit card fee and tip).
JSE and I snagged some tickets, after we made sure Jose was performing. It was a great show, improved from last time with Jose y Selena more prominently featured. They were the dancers for the ribbon segment, which highlighted how amazingly strong (muscular) both dancers are. It was a wonderful way to spend a 4-hour dinner.

Salon Canning Milonga (30 pesos)
Afterwards, we went to Salon Canning because one of JSE's buddies was performing. I had a good time there. I got many dances with portenos, and it was easy to cabaceo them. Interesting, I've gone to Canning many times in the afternoon and would try to cabaceo the portenos, only to be asked to dance by the many international folks there. So there must be something about a Friday night that makes portenos more open to dancing with international folks (at least more so than the afternoon portenos at Canning.

La Viruta Milonga (free because it was 3:00 a.m.)
Afterwards, we walked over to La Viruta, and because of the late hour (3:00 a.m.) entry was free. I had some good dances with several portenos and several international folks. JSE said I was lucky to get asked since I am not a regular there. We stayed until the very end.

Super delicious panaderia/confiteria with secret door (closed because it was 6:00 a.m.)
Afterwards, as the sun was rising, JSE brought me to a lovely little panaderia/confiteria that looked closed, but which had a secret side door. She rang the bell, and it was opened pretty quickly, after which she ordered some facturas con dulce de leche y medialunas con jam. He appeared later with her order, all wrapped up. We opened the package right there on the doorstep of the shop, sat down and gingerly snarffled them all up, taking care to not get too covered with the ample powdered sugar. I normally do not eat facturas (it's the whole white flour/white sugar thing), but I did have one with dulce de leche, and it was delicious, still slightly warm from the oven. So there we sat, happily eating facturas y medialunas, on a quiet Saturday morning on a Buenos Aires street.

Sabado, 19 Noviembre 2011
After getting 3 hours of deep sleep (it's amazing how total exhaustion can be an effective cure for insomnia), I headed out for my last shopping day before I left. Earlier in the week I had mapped out my strategy of which shoe stores I wanted to go to, and they all had to be open on Saturday morning/afternoon (which many aren't).

La Vikinga (Entre Rios 469, 2*)
Owned by Helen, a Viking who speaks fluent English. She has women's and men's shoes, and most women's shoes were 450 pesos. I really liked the foam cushioning, and the fit was on the average/medium side of the equation (i.e., not narrow). In her shoes I am a 35 (usually I am 36 or 35 everywhere else). I found her shoes very comfortable, nicely but sensibly designed, and well made. I would have purchased a pair had she had a specific style I had my eye on in my size. Unfortunately, she didn't. She said she could do custom orders in about a week. This is a good place to shop for those with average or wide feet and who would be more comfortable doing the transaction in English. I will definitely stop by on a future trip. There is no signage on the building, so it's important to know the address. She also gives classes at her shop.

Raquel (Bolivar 554)
Very beautiful, very well made, but very expensive (590-690 pesos) shoes. Sizing was very inconsistent, but generally ran on the narrow side. I tried on about 10 pairs of shoes in 35 and 36, and I found the 35s to be narrow (although one fit perfectly and I was sorely tempted to get it but the 590 peso price tag stopped me), and in all the 36s I slid forward. The shopping experience is reminiscent of Comme Il Faut, their obvious direct competitor.

VB (Independencia 389)
These are the same folks who used to make Tango Brujo shoes. Very nice cushioning, interesting styles, 100% flexible all chromo soles. This style of shoe is not my cup of tea, but I know lots of folks loved Tango Brujo shoes. Their shoes are similar to Alanis's in terms of feel and how they perform. Viviana, the shop owner, was incredibly nice. She loaded me down with very useful literature on San Telmo and Buenos Aires, which I appreciated. Pricing was also very clearly marked: Women's shoes were 400 pesos/470 credit card/US$95/70 euro, and men's shoes were slightly more than that.

Delie (Piedras 843)
The store is closed on Saturday.

Naranjo en Flor (Anchorena 430).
The shoe selection was smaller than last time, and relegated to the back of the store. It seems the focus of the store is now more on clothes. The window signs said sale shoes were 250/300/350, but in reality, most were up to 390 pesos, and they looked like everyone and their cousin had already tried them on. Most of the non-sale shoes were 550 pesos, with one interesting model 600 pesos.

Lolo Gerard (Anchorenta 607).
A trip usually begins here and ends here, and this one was no different. I managed to pick up one more of their sale shoes for 360 pesos. The regular-priced shoes were around 490 pesos.

At all of these shoe stores, it is wise to ask about a cash price versus credit card price since they can be different by a large amount.

After that, the lack of sleep from the night prior and the heat was starting to get to me (it was in the upper 80s), so I booked it home. Then crashed for a few hours, waking up with terrible allergies. Then it started to storm heavily, so I stayed in, looking through the pamphlets Viviana gave me. Interestingly, an art/design brochure on San Telmo featured a shoe store called LiberTango, which I had not heard of before or seen any ads for. A quick google turned up Judy's posting that the store was open on Sundays (from 10:00 a.m.)! -- a true rarity among tango shoe stores in Buenos Aires. Since it was right by the Plaza Dorrego, it made perfect sense to swing by on my last day in Buenos Aires.

Domingo, 20 Noviembre 2011

I got up, ate breakfast and made my way over to the Plaza Dorrego. When I got to the place where LiberTango was (Bolivia 1111), it was obviously closed. So I spent a while walking around the Plaza Dorrego antiques open air market, admiring all the silver wares and vintage (or vintage looking) jewelry. As it neared 1:00 p.m., I decided to go as I wanted to get to the Abasto Coto for a foot massage. So I passed by LiberTango again, and it was still closed. So that was disappointing, but understandable since the clientele for the antiques open air market isn't exactly the same one as for tango shoes. Still, they are a new store, opened just last year, and it seems like the store hours are still very flexible.`

Maossage at the Abasto Coto (Aguero 616). I got a 45-minute foot massage that was divine (85 pesos + 10 peso tip). My feet didn't seem as battered, ripped, and stiff as last time, which is amazing considering the rigors of the 20-hours of training on Chalmer's cement floor.

After that, I made my way home, stopping at La Catalana Panaderia y Confiteria (Corrientes 5466) to pick up a milanesa sandwich, chock full of lettuce just the way I like, and a bunch of facturas and medialunas. For my hostess and her daughter, I picked up a batch of mini alfajores. Total cost of all the goodies was a mere 45 pesos.

Checking my email at home, LiberTango responded to my email from the night before and confirmed they were open on Sunday, but from 1:30 p.m.! D'oh!!! Next time...

After a quick shower and eating the last of my food in the fridge, Dante (http://www.dantesairporttransfers.com/) picked me up promptly as usual (actually, he is always 5 minutes early, but I know that and expect it). It was very nice catching up with him, and he says "Hello!" to all of his SF Bay Area clients. The drive to Eziza was easy on a Sunday night, as it always is, and I had ample time to cool my heels and burn my keyboard at the airport.

Random comments about this trip:

So what happened to all those privates I was going to book with Chino? Conejita had him booked solid the entire time I was there, so that nixed my plans. Oh well...next time...

Why didn’t I go to more milongas? I wanted to save myself for the Intensivo. I know, boring, huh? I wanted to give my best to every dance I danced with the assistants, as they are professionals in Buenos Aires, so in short, the best dancers in the world: way better than any professionals in any place other than Buenos Aires (that includes all the places with reputations of having very highly skilled dancers; you can fill in the blank on that one).

What was I drinking? Bonardo wines. A varietal you haven't heard of, you say? Me, neither. Which is why I picked up a bottle. And then another.

I get a lot of questions about Buenos Aires, where to stay, etc. And after seven trips, my answer is this:
If you are coming here for an Intensivo or Festival, stay in the neighborhood where it is at. Those coming for CITA 2012 should stay in San Telmo, preferably at the Dandi or close to it. Those coming for LV Intensivos should stay in Palermo, either near Malcolm or Chalmers. After a full day of tango training, it really is physically exhausting just getting around, hoofing it on the concrete/granite floors, or taking a cab in traffic. Really, do yourself a favor and stay in the neighborhood where the festival/intensivo is. Staying anywhere else is a huge time and energy suck. Second option is to stay somewhere along the red (B) subte line.

Where is the best place for steak? "They" all say Don Julio (Guatemala 4699) or La Cabrera (JA Cabrera 5099). I haven't been to either as, to me, all steak in Buenos Aires tastes pretty dang good, head and shoulders above the agribusiness meat that most of us eat in the US.

Where to get the best shoes? That's a tricky one. It's whichever one fits your foot best. Which means it's a trial and error thing. To optimize your time here, many shoe places are located either on Suipacha 200-400 or Anchorena (near the Abasto mall). Visit both streets and you can probably hit a dozen shoe stores in a short amount of time to get an idea of style, price, fit, etc. I recommend you start from there to get a general idea of things and then visit the other more out-of-the-way places (like Comme Il Faut, where the only other shoe store close by is Taconeando...so maybe visit Taconeando first...?)

Here are some items that I would include in my Buenos Aires survival kit for those coming for festivals (like CITA) or Luciana Valle's Intensivos:
Ben Gay or blue ice or both
Yoga Toes (this goes for men and women)
Ibuprofen or your pain killer of choice
Band-Aids
Water bottle
Electrolyte powder
Dance sneakers with suede soles (suede soles are key, and not just on the ball of foot like some Sansha models have, but on the entire sole)
socks to wear with your dance sneakers
2 ATM cards (in case one is a fail, and do notify both banks so they can put a travel alert on your card, don't have more than several thousand dollars in each account)
2 credit cards (in case one is a fail, and do notify both banks so they can put a travel alert on your card)
Laptop is optional. I personally love having mine with me as it can be kind of a pain trying to find a locutorio with a non-ancient computer open whenever you want to check your email. On the other hand, you have to be sure where you are staying is secure (if I were staying at a hostel, I wouldn't bring my laptop), and several (not just one) of my friends have had their laptops stolen while in Buenos Aires. So beware.
If this is your first trip, fill only one suitcase with all your clothes, toiletries, etc. Pack it into the other one, which will be effectively empty. You will fill it with all the shoes, CDs, and clothes you buy here. Pack fewer clothes than you think you will need. You can always have your clothes washed here, cheaply and same-day or next-day service.

November 3-9

2011-11-10T03:33:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 5, 2011
Mariela Franganillo’s La Práctica @ Dance Manhattan
I got there a little late, but so did everyone else. It must have been one of those days. I only danced with two people, but that was OK since one was a truly amazing tanda, and the other one was with a beginner who has only been dancing a year, but who I think has excellent potential. I chatted away with this budding tanguero about his tango development, and it was striking that there are vast differences in how Leaders and how Followers learn to tango.

Maestra stopped the practica twice to do her 5-10 minute thing (she does not call it a “mini lesson”, she calls it exposing us to “ideas that we can work on”). The first time she stopped the practica, it was early on and just for a 5-minute review of last week’s idea (which few people seemed to remember).

Maestra is an excellent teacher of the Leader’s part, but since this is an intermediate/advanced practica, and she only dedicates 10 minutes to the idea, it is taught at a very brisk pace in a typical heavily BsAs style where she demonstrates it, and the students are expected to do it (although she does verbally walk us through it in more detail than the typical BsAs teacher). And they are fun, fluid, interesting steps that I haven’t seen before. The 10 minutes she dedicates to the idea are extremely challenging, even to my learning abilities and I have to make a real concerted effort to put to words what I see. Her 10-minute ideas for us to work on really stretch us all as students, no matter what our learning abilities. It takes all of my concentration to get the step she is teaching.

For the main 10-minute idea, I wanted to really focus on the Leader’s part since I realize that most of the value of my H&C work is how well I can convey the Lead (which is a challenge for me since I am a Follower). And actually, for this particular step, it worked (I was able to verbalize accurately what she did), but I was so focused on the Leader’s part that when someone pulled me up to practice it during the 10 minutes, I totally blew the Follower’s part. So basically, I got the Leader’s footwork down, but not the torso lead, and I couldn’t compensate for it because I wasn’t focused on what the Follower was doing, or what the Leader’s chest was doing.

After the practica, I made my way over to Boqueria again. Gosh, I really love this place. I took a seat perched at the bar, and ordered two of the special tapas dishes and a glass of wine. Soon afterwards, a few people from practicalonga came in, one couple for just drinks, and the other for some nibblies, too. The couple who came in for nibblies sat next to me, and we had a blast chatting away about his wife (the couple was a married man and a friend of his wife’s who is a great wing woman/c*** b****** [who laughed when I christened her with the moniker]), tango royalty and tango rogues (some of whom are one and the same person), and various milongas in NY and NJ, where they are from.

They asked what my evening plans were, and I told them I was heading over to Triangulo for the afternoon/early evening milonga, just a couple of blocks away. Since they are at the early stages of tango addiction, they were up for it and decided to join me, all the while trying to get me to go to the NJ milonga that night, hosted by Angeles Chanaha and Michael Nadtochi. (I bumped into Michael several years ago in BsAs at NeoTango, not knowing who he was, but knowing he was somebody by the way he moved with such natural elegance and ease. After chatting with me, he gave me a business card, which made my eyes grow wide. I’ve never met Angeles, but always though she was incredibly beautiful). Despite their persuasive efforts, I declined since I wasn’t in the mental frame of mind to go all the way to NJ, but I promised I’d go next month.

My meal at Boqueria was delicious. I even had dessert, which I usually don’t, and it was A-MA-ZING. I told my dining companions that had we come at any other time (instead of the culinarily whacky slot of 2-4 p.m.), the place would be packed and we’d have a long wait to get seated (the bartender confirmed this). This will probably be my usual stop after Mariela’s since the food is sublime (yet reasonably priced).

The Afternoon Milonga @ Triangulo was fun. I danced with several new people, all excellent dancers. There was one Leader who had such an extraordinarily sweet, sensitive and gentle but clearly articulate musicality, that I just HAD to dance with him. Fortunately, he must have picked up on my vibes without my having to resort to a forceful, insistent, laser-beam cabaceo (did I mention he was sensitive?), because he asked me to dance (woo hoo!). The dance was very nice. I’ve never encountered such a sweet way of hearing the music through a Leader’s interpretation. It was a real treat. It would be really interesting to dance with him again, especially for a D’Arienzo, Biagi, or Pugliese(!) tanda for a total musical head trip. :o)

I decided to go after that since I was very tired and seemed to hit a brick wall energywise.

SO WHAT AM I EXCITED ABOUT?
My spur-of-the-moment trip to see JSE, where I will pack in as many privates with Chino as possible (now there I’ve done it. I bet she is going to hold me to it if she’s read this far, which she probably has). :o)

October 27-November 2

2011-11-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

The Providence Tango Tricks and Treats Weekend with Homer & Cristina Ladas:

Friday, October 28, 2011
"Something Scary Spins This Way"I (Int)
For class notes and video, go to www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

The drive to Providence was much easier and smoother than the drive to Northampton the week before, so I managed to make it to the place where I was staying right on time.

Thanks to airbnb.com, I snagged a room (in the home built by the Gorham Silver Company president back in the day) for a very modest sum, with just a week’s notice. Located in downtown off the main street and now nestled among very modest track homes, it served as an ideal location. On-site parking was provided, which is important in Providence since you get ticketed when parked on the street after midnight.

The home, in short, was love at first sight. It has a wonderful presence, patina and proportion (though slightly out of context for the current surrounding neighborhood). It reminded me of my former home in San Francisco, though mine was far more modest and 50 years younger. Still, there is something about homes with creaky old bones that I find extremely charming and comforting. It just really resonates with me and makes me feel as though I have arrived *home*.

The owner of this Victorian mini-manse is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, has a wonderful eye and sensitivity toward furnishing and remodeling it with period-appropriate details with a few dashes of spunk to keep things lively and interesting. And what a treat to be shown to my room with a welcoming afternoon snack laid out (cookies, sliced seedless orange, poppy seed cake, carafe of whiskey with period shot glass, Perrier, ice bucket filled with ice).

Though the bathroom was shared, I never noticed anyone else’s presence, and there was also a small kitchen area with minifridge, coffee pot, microwave and sink, which was perfect since I prefer to take my meals at home if I can while on the road.

The room itself is clean, slightly on the feminine side as it is sweetly decorated (but not overly so), and the bed extremely comfortable. And though the house is quite old, modern technological amenities were provided: wifi, cable TV with remote control, Bose sound system. It was the kind of room where I could stay for a very long time and be extremely happy, extremely alone.

In the morning I was greeted with the smell of freshly brewed coffee, and there it was all prepared for me, seemingly by an invisible elf who knew exactly when I woke up to have it at the perfect temperature and state of readiness to be consumed. Sadly, since I don’t drink coffee, it went untouched. Still, I was floored that the effort was made.

Going downstairs for breakfast, I separated the very heavy Eastlake pocket doors to the Morris-papered dining room, where I found the Federal dining table already formally set for just me, with a small jug of cranberry juice, French pressed coffee, butter, toasted bagel underneath a cozy, softened cream cheese, and a bowl of sliced fresh honeydew melon and strawberries. It was cold that morning with snow in the forecast, but a fire in the wood stove was already at full blaze, making things cozy and bathed in a warm amber glow.

Having a fetish for all things tabletop, I could not resist turning over the plates. Needless to say, I was extremely impressed by the Limoges and Rosenthal pedigrees I saw, which complemented the Community silver flatware perfectly. It was just one of the many, many lovely meticulous details that made my stay here so wonderful.

It was one of those magical experiences where if you could write your own story about how you wanted to live and the kind of environment where you wanted to live, and actually do it, well, for me, this would come very close. That’s the thing about people in design: they are masterful at creating vignettes for people to actually live in, albeit sometimes just temporarily.

And what, exactly did all that have to do with tango? Well, not a whole heck of a lot, actually. But it was a wonderful, beautiful refuge, sanctuary that I called home for the weekend.

* * *

The Friday night milonga was fun. The food was all provided via community potluck, so it had a wonderful family feeling to it. The food was very gluten-free/vegan/vegetarian oriented, so it was an extremely progressive crowded. The water was filtered, and mate, along with gourd cups and metal straws, as well as an assortment of coffees, teas, and hot chocolate were provided.

Saturday, October 29, 2011
"The Art of Surprise - Part I" (Int)
"The Art of Surprise - Part II" (Int/Adv)
For class notes and video, go to www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

All during the workshops food was provided: breads and quick breads (pumpkin, banana with and without chocolate chips), along with spreads (peanut butter, nutella, almond butter), chocolate-dipped anisette biscotti, chips and cheese cubes, and my personal favorite: hard-boiled eggs.

The workshops were excellent, as usual. But afterwards, I decided to go back to the house since it was a few hours before the milonga.

After resting for a bit, I made the way back to the facility for the milonga later on that night, driving in snowy weather. On the way over, I thought I was truly out of my mind. But when I got there, it was kismet that I snagged the last spot in the parking lot, trudging gingerly through the snow in flip-flips.

The food provided at this milonga was mostly made by Ellen, although some folks provided potluck items, and it was all divine. Lots of salads (loved the green bean with wild rice one—so New England!), and quite a few quick breads (pumpkin, banana with and without chocolate chips). Someone even made whoopie pies, which of course were a hit!

Sunday, October 30, 2011
"Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts I" (Advanced)
"Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts II" (Master)
For class notes and video, go to www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

Again, before and during the workshop, ample food was provided, more breakfast-oriented in nature with toast and a toaster appearing, along with items similar to yesterday.

I did not stay for the practica after the workshops as I wanted to get home to catch up on chores that went undone while I was on the road the last two weekends.

SO WHAT AM I EXCITED ABOUT?
Dancing in NYC this weekend.

October 21-26

2011-10-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

Friday, October 21, 2011
Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in Northampton, MA: The Tango Body
The Feet (All Levels)
Class notes and linked videos can be found at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

The drive from Connecticut to Northampton took slightly less than 3 hours, but I managed to get there an hour before the lesson, which took place at Thornes Marketplace mall. This mall is an excellent one, with lots of artsy, artisanal, crunchy and funky purveyors of lots of fun things, needed or not. And it was fortuitous that left-click (http://www.left-click.us/) was there, so I could pop to quickly check my email on one of their Macs, since I am still one of the last Luddites on the planet with a dumbphone.

The lesson was very well attended. The workshops were structured such that participants needed to register with a partner, although for this one all-levels class, we rotated.

Jackie, the organizer, did a superb job. I’ve been to plenty of tango events near and far, and none of them come close to how organized and thoughtful these were. It was also very clear that this was a highly trained group in that after our drills, every leader returned to their exact same spot on the dance floor, follower in tow, so that the rotation went very smoothly, with no skipping or cutting (of course this was such a tight-knit, highly skilled community, I didn’t sense any exclusionary behavior).

When the class got a bit noisy, many students in unison did the DNI clap to get us all in line again. I’ve only taken a few classes at DNI in BsAs, but don’t remember the clap. The organizer told me that that is what it was and where she got it, and how it was very effective at the DNI lessons also. So what does the DNI clap sound like? Well, it sounds like “Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits” with one person starting with clapping the “Shave and a Haircut” part, and everyone else responding with clapping the “Two Bits”.

The food provided during the lesson and practica was green and red grapes, apples, bananas, trail mix with M&M’s, and right in front of the door as you entered the ballroom were mints (individually wrapped Life Savers) and chocolates (mini Reese’s PB cups, Hershey’s kisses, York Peppermint Patties). Even the water, in a large spouted cooler, was nicely flavored with fresh lemon slices.

I also got the impression that this was an extremely intellectual, studious group, as many of the students had seen the tangostudent notes, and during the Q&A period concluding the lesson, they answered enthusiastically and correctly. And many folks came up after class and thanked me for my efforts, that night and in the past. So that was nice.

The practica afterwards was fun. The dance level here is surprisingly high, very high as a group overall. The community seems very tight-knit. I had a blast, as I had several tandas with some truly amazing dancers, current and future.

I also got to meet my host couple who I would be staying with: a very nice, loving couple (married 30+ years to each other!), who kindly opened their home to me as I was a total flake and way behind the 8 ball in terms of getting rooming accommodations in advance. Who’d have thought that getting an inexpensive hotel/motel room in Northampton would require a fair bit of advance planning. Totally my bad, but Jackie the organizer came to the rescue and connected me with this wonderful couple.

Saturday, October 22, 2011
Workshop 1 – Int/Adv – The Legs
Workshop 2 – Int/Adv – The Hips
Premilonga Class on Floor Craft, Navigation and Etiquette
Class notes and linked videos can be found at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

It was a very full workshop, and I was extremely lucky in that the organizer partnered me up with a very skilled dancer from Ithaca, NY. So I had an excellent time working the class material with him.

Again, the organizer provided ample healthy snacks and water available the entire day, so no one bonked or starved.

The costume milonga at night was fun. Most people did an excellent job of getting dressed up/made up for the event. I missed the boat on that one, which was kind of a bummer since I like dressing up for Halloween. I didn’t dance a huge number of tandas, but the ones that I did were great.

Sunday, October 23, 2011
Workshop 3 – Int/Adv – The Upper Body
Workshop 4 – Int/Adv – The Embrace
Class notes and linked videos can be found at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

I had a different workshop partner for this day, but again, he was excellent, one of Northampton’s finest, in my opinion. And again, these workshops were also packed. Like yesterday, people came from all over, some from several states away or the other side of the country. I was pretty amazed by that.

Overall, I had an excellent time at these workshops. Jackie the organizer did a superb job all around, making the experience fun and extremely welcoming. It is a wonderful community they have in Northampton, and the dance level as a community among the highest I’ve ever experienced. Though I only came to Northampton by chance since Homer and Cristina were teaching there, I will certainly be back again to take in some more workshops taught by others or just to dance at the milongas. Northampton was just the shot in my tango arm that I needed to get reinspired and enthusiastic.

The practica afterwards was fun, with pizza for all. I stayed a little while, but left early enough to go to the Yale Practica. Not sure why there would be a traffic jam on a Sunday night at 8:00 p.m., but 95 being what it is…well, there it was.

Yale Practica in New Haven, CT (Free Event)
When I finally got to the Practica place, I was glad there was easy parking. The facility itself tricky to find, as it’s down a long walkway between two buildings. The “doorbell” is a real bell attached to a cord hung from an open window. I rang it gently, and was soon let in. The building is a charming old-world building with patina and presence. I got to the Practica pretty soon after it began, so there were just a handful of people, and more Followers than Leaders. I put on my stiletto tango shoes, much to the protest of my aching feet (I thought I actually heard them scream). Soon a steady trickle of people came in, so that it became reasonably full. Still, there were more Followers than Leaders, and perhaps two or three Leaders that I would have liked to dance with. So after only getting one tanda with a beginner in the hour or so I was there, I left, as I still had another hour’s drive home and my body and brain were starting to feel the effects of the full weekend.

SO WHAT AM I EXCITED ABOUT?
On the road with H&C:
Halloween weekend, Providence, RI, with totally fun costume-themed milongas to get us all in touch with our inner drag queens (or kings).
Be

October 14-20

2011-10-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

Friday, October 15, 2011
Homer & Cristina Ladas premilonga lesson at Dancesport
Class notes and linked videos can be found at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

Getting there to the dance studio early enough for the lesson, it was surprising that there were lessons still happening in the other ballrooms. Still, it was great to see the lesson so well attended, especially by some folks who came from a state or two or three away.

The milonga was fun. I had a chance to dance with some students who took the lesson, as well as several new people.

Maestros did a nice performance, which left the milonga goers wanting to see more.

Saturday, October 15, 2011
Weekend Theme: "The Body-Spiral and Body-Axis with Homer & Cristina"
Saturday Theme: "Exploring the Body-Spiral"
SAT 2.30pm: The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Experience Made Easy (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)
SAT 4.30pm: The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Odyssey (Advanced "Exploration" Class)
Class notes and linked videos can be found at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

I had a good time, although it was a little tough to work on the class concepts since the floor (spanked-down Pergo) was a bit sticky. I had to take off my shoes early on and just work the material in socks. Others soon did the same. Some of the impromptu class assistants were amazing tango royalty (the folks with their own videos, or who are invited to DJ/perform at festivals all over the country). It was downright humbling.

Nocturne Milonga @ Dancesport, with premilonga lesson taught by Homer & Cristina Ladas.
Class notes and linked videos can be found at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

This was an extremely well-attended lesson with nearly twice as many Leaders as Followers. Still, I think most everyone had a good time.

Funnily, as I was warming up with a local tanguero buddy, who didn’t know of my note-taking online identity, he started chatting away. He had wondered whether or not he knew the teachers or had taken lessons with them. But when he saw Maestros, he commented about how they are real U.S. tango royalty and how they were really good at leveraging the Internet and how they must have a marketing team employed on to promote them. I just let my buddy talk and talk and talk while I smiled silently. Of course after Homer introduced me and touted the blog so that the students could refer to the notes, my buddy and I got back together in the rotation and we laughed about how he was going on and on and I just smiled and said nothing. He took it all in good stride.

The milonga was crazy-super crowded, and I ended up spending a good bit of time in the back, less-crowded room, just perched on the overstuffed arm chair with my legs curled up underneath me. I was happy just watching the dancers, as I was dog tired from a very full day.

Maestros did a fantastic demo that left the audience wanting more.
Videos can be seen at Luis’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/lafabricadeljazz#p/u/3/K9hcUuTeHFo

Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sunday Theme: "Use of The Body-Axis"
SUN 2.30pm: Building One Social Dance Step-Over Colgada (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)
SUN 4.30pm: Exploring Stylistic and Functional Use of Colgadas (Advanced "Exploration" Class)
Class notes and linked videos can be found at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

The workshops were great, with many of students from the day prior in attendance, as well as lots of folks I had never seen before. Tine Herreman, the organizer, did a wonderful job trying to make the workshop experience as fun, productive, and fulfilling as possible by calling in some local tangueros/tangueras (who could all both lead and follow) to work the material with the workshop students.

Having the half-hour practica during the break, which Maestros generously supervised, was a real bonus.

After all our work was done, I was too pooped to go to Roko, though lots of the workshop students went.

SO WHAT AM I EXCITED ABOUT?
On the road with H&C:
This weekend, Northampton, MA, with interesting new content.
Halloween weekend, Providence, RI, with totally fun costume-themed milongas to get us all in touch with our inner drag queens (or kings).
Be there or be square.

October 7-13

2011-10-13T01:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Mariella Franganillo’s La Practica at Dance Manhattan. I got there right when the practica started as I had such a great time last week that I wanted to pack in as much dancing as possible in the 3-hour event. This practica was not as full, but that was fine with me. After I put my shoes on, someone new asked me to dance. He was a very good dancer, and after that, I was able to dance with several other new people, also very good dancers. So I was very happy and the practica got off to a great start for me.

Then one Leader I cabaceo’d for weeks but gave up on surprisingly came over and asked me to dance. Needless to say, I was floored and thrilled. He was great, as I thought he would be. In watching him dance, I could glimpse suggestions of his skill, but he often danced with lesser-skilled Followers, so I wasn’t certain of how well he could dance. Anyway, it was a great dance, and afterwards he told me I was a good dancer and that he really enjoyed the tanda. So that made me happy (dare I say triumphant?!).

The blind leader was there, and we chatted a bit. He asked me how the Oliver Kolker workshop was, and I told him fantastic, of course. Then I told him about my dilemma of whether I should take a private, even though it wouldn’t be because I actually want my dance to improve, but because I know I’d get an amazing one-hour dance massage (he laughed at that description). He said I should go ahead and do it since Maestro would probably be happy to have another private student, and if I had the money to do it, it’s good for the economy (and Maestro’s finances specifically). He saw it as strictly an economic event: Maestro is supplying something and I could afford to do it. He said it doesn’t matter what my motives are or how pure my heart/dance intentions are. It’s just good business.

The rest of the practica flew by, and I danced nearly every tanda. People were friendly and relaxed. It is a great event, much better than a lot of evening milongas. I danced so much my feet were sore afterwards, which honestly hasn’t happened in a while.

After the practica, as I walked to the subway station, I passed a restaurant (Boqueria, 53 W19th St., boquerianyc.com) with hanging jamon in the window, just like in Spain, and I could not resist the aromas wafting from the restaurant within. Looking in the window, I saw a sign “Michelin recommended”, and my curiosity got the better of me so I stopped in for a late brunch.

Since it was a weird hour to be eating (2:15 p.m.) I was able to be seated easily. I chose to sit at the bar so I could watch the charcuterie guy cut all the tasty salumis, gourmet cheeses, and artisanal breads. I ordered the Bocato Boqueria ($12), an egg sandwich with the soft scrambled eggs cooked with Spanish chorizo and mushrooms, which came on a thick slice of airy, crusty bread, with a side of salad and elegant, thin fries, flavored with pimienta, I believe. It was delicious, and I had it all washed down with a nice glass of wine (the wines by the glass were $10-15 each). I will certainly be back, but I think a more fun experience would be to share several tapas dishes.

There was a store I wanted to go to after that, but it was closed for Yom Kippur.

After my rest at home, I made the hour-long drive to New Haven. The C.A.T.S. (Connecticut Argentine Tango Society) was having its 10th Anniversary milonga, moved from the prior weekend so that it could coincide with the Fernanda Ghi and Guillermo Merlo weekend workshops. I thought about going to the workshops too, as I have always enjoyed Maestros’ workshops when I took them at Fandango de Tango, but as a single follower I didn’t want to show up and possibly be left standing a lot without a partner, even though the organizer assured me that she and a number of her female students who also lead could step in to fix any gender imbalance.

I arrived on the early side to the Whitney Arts Center, which is a nice old historical building with lovely hardwood floor. Upon paying my entrance, I chatted a little with the organizer since she was happy I was new to the state so she added me to her mailing list. Since this was their 10-year anniversary, they also gave me (as well as all the guests) a 22-song CD, which I thought was a very nice, festive touch.

During the milonga, a couple of leaders were kind enough to give me a whirl early on. Afterwards, I decided to check out the rest of the space. In a separate adjoining room, the food was laid out. On a low table at the front of the room was a nice box of pepperoni and sausage pizza (maybe that was for the set-up crew as it looked a few hours old, just the way I like :o) so I helped myself to a slice), while the main table had an assortment of cheeses and crackers, olive spread, water, sodas, a plate of M&Ms and pirouettes, and a bowl of crinkle-cut potato chips.

The other room had the masseuse and his chair, and clothing set out for purchase. I was impressed with how beautiful and well made the clothing was, and the designer was there herself, Eloise de Gardel (also a fantastic dancer). There was a super-bargain table of clothes $10, $20, or $30, while the racks of dresses were around $100. I am no clothing shopaholic, but her designs were compelling enough for me to try on several frocks (that is really saying something). Interestingly, it was mentioned later on that all profits from clothing sales go to the designer’s efforts to build a school in Colombia, where she is from.

After that, I made my way back to the milonga, but sat out the rest of the time. That was OK though as my feet were still a little sore from the afternoon and there was no one I had a burning desire to dance with, and it was great fun just watching the group. There was a joyful exuberance and a relaxed happiness on the pista, and it seemed like the community just really likes each other. It was kind of weird in a good way. One couple danced Canyengue, so obviously there are some extremely serious, deep tango students in the midst. Several followers, including the organizer and her volunteers, were indeed strong leaders. And still other leaders were among the most creative I had ever seen (not in a technically perfect way, but in a fun musical way).

Before the performance, the organizer said some words of thanks to her volunteers an the community, along with a little history of tango in the New Haven area (basically, she started it, along with lots of help along the way from her volunteers, who are all women, and Fernanda and Guillermo, who now reside in Boston), which ended with a birthday-like dance of the organizer and core group of volunteers, followed by the October babies birthday dance.

Finally after that, Fernanda and Guillermo did a 3-song performance (one of their performance rain coat tango, a tango, and a milonga), which was fantastic. Afterwards, Fernanda spoke about what a nice, growing community it was. After that, they did a mixer dance starting with the core folks who were around 10 years ago, who would dance a while, and then each partner would go get new partners, etc., until everyone was dancing on the dance floor (a la Clay Nelson’s festivals).

Then the milonga started up again, although as usual everyone rushed out to get some refreshments. Foodwise, a huge bowl of fruit salad was whisked in a little earlier, and after the announcements and fantastic performance, three cakes to celebrate the decade of milongas were brought out: a Costco chocolate cake, a grocery store cheesecake, and a humongous (4-5 inches tall, 15-18 inch diameter), divine chocolate mouse hazelnut cake made by a local artisanal bakery. I normally don’t eat much more than a forkful or two of any cake, but this one was so good that I ate the whole slice, it was THAT delicious. I am sure it cost a pretty penny, too.

After I had my fill, I made the drive back home, listening to the party-favor CD part of the way. I found it to be very good, having lots of songs I don’t have in my collection.

Sunday, October 9, 2011
RoKo Milonga at Manhattan Ballroom Dance with lesson beforehand by Cesar Velasquez and Jenny Nolan. Of course, since Maestra was teaching, I had to go. The focus of our class was turns, and we began with a warm-up dance. Then we did an exercise to work on the technique of the turn, specifically, the Leader’s torsion and how he produces circular energy from his chest/scapula/shoulder blades so that the Follower does the back cross step, side step, and forward cross step footwork. The goal for the Follower was to be more sensitive so she could stop. The goal for the Leader was to transfer the energy in his arms, from his right to his left, and his left to his right, as the Follower went from one side of him to the other during the cross. He could also experiment with leading her to do a back cross step first or forward cross step first, depending on how much he rotated his upper body and allowed space for the Follower to move.

Then we moved on to the simple sequence:
Follower’s part:
Right side step
Left back step
Right side step
Left foot front cross (forward ocho) step
Right foot front cross (forward ocho) step, diagonally away from the Leader so that it opens up room for him to do a left foot sacada of her trailing left foot
To pivot a lot to do a left foot forward step in the Americana position to the Leader’s right foot forward step
Out to resolution

It was a good class, with lots of technical detail and individual attention given to all the dancers. Maestra is very good in that no matter what your skill level, she gives individual feedback specific to where you are in your dance.

The milonga was fun. It wasn’t as packed, but it was still nicely crowded enough to get plenty of good tandas in. Since it was a Sunday before a Monday holiday, the boys downstairs were again having their usual heavy-on-the-bass thumpin’ rave party. Thank goodness it was not as loud and distracting as the last time.

Maestra and Cesar Velasquez did a nice three-song performance, which can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/Tangobro#p/a/u/0/uggMsCB0uoI
Apparently, Cesar is Maestra’s dance partner in England.

September 29-October 5

2011-10-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Today was the best tango day of my East Coast life.

I signed up earlier this week for Oliver Kolker’s workshops at Dardo Galleto. The first workshop was on Saturday, 3-5 p.m. With that in mind, it gave me the impetus to get up early enough to go to Mariella Franganillo’s La Practica at Dance Manhattan, which I had been curious about since meeting her in San Francisco a few years ago. Though I had made several trips to New York since then, I could never fit it in schedulewise (impetuswise?) to go. Since I had to be in NY early anyway, I figured it was finally time.

I didn’t want to get to the practica the minute the doors opened in case it was going to be sparsely attended. Instead, I had planned to arrive around noon. I picked up a footlong at Subway, and had the gal cut my sammie into three so that I could have lunch (in case the practica food was nonexistent or sucked) and something to eat before and after my workshop.

Emerging from the 23rd Street subway station, I marveled at all the wonderful stores that were open on the walk to the dance studio, and it occurred to me that when I come into NYC for tango, it’s usually at night, and the only stores open at that time are places like Duane Reade, tourist t-shirt shops, or places found in most any mall. Here on a Saturday afternoon it was different and amazing: all the local, artisanal, unique non-chain places were open. NYC sure is a super-fun shopping town (like duh?!).

On Broadway, there was a street fair with wonderful purveyors of food, scarves, computer and phone cases and skins, artisan crafts, jewelry, etc. Walking along further, I was very excited when I saw Muji, and made a mental note to stop in after the practica.

When I finally arrived at Dance Manhattan, I was surprised the practica was so crowded. When the gal at the door took my entrance fee, she wrote down my name, and I saw that I was guest no. 68.

The room is spacious and the floor is oak, even and nicely finished. There is air conditioning (although not the greatest/most powerful or even), supplemented by fans all around. However, since it was quite crowded, it was still on the warm and humid side. Since this is an early Saturday practica, the food provided was quintessentially New York: bagels, cream cheese, and jam and coffee. I noticed that a lot of folks brought their own water or non-alcoholic beverage, and I made a mental note that I need to do that too since there was no water provided in the practica room, and I didn’t notice a fountain outside in the lobby either (though I just might not have seen it).

I danced with many new people, nearly all of them very good or excellent dancers. One in particular was among the best dancers I have danced with yet in NYC. When I asked him why I haven’t seen him at any milongas, even though he lives in NYC, he said he never goes to them because they are a mess. So I guess I am not the only one who thinks the floorcrafting could and should be better here, considering NYC’s reputation of having high-level dancers. I was happy that the floorcrafting at La Practica was far better than I experienced at most NYC milongas. And it was also much friendlier, with lots of folks happy to dance with strangers. The tandas were on the short side (3-4 songs), and divided by cortinas.

Interestingly, around 1:00 p.m., Maestra gave a mini-lesson that lasted about 10-15 minutes. It was a simple step, done in the line of dance (that was emphasized so that we could gauge where we started and where we should end). I sat out the lesson, even though I could have just grabbed the nearest available leader, and didn’t take any notes as it totally caught me off guard and I didn’t have my student hat on or mind frame. I was happy to just sit it out and watch. Maestra is an excellent teacher of the Leader side of things with clear instruction on torsion rotation, foot placement, etc. She did the leader’s part, perfectly strong, stable and balanced in her sky-high platform stilettos.

After the short lesson, we all got back to dancing. Much too soon, the 2:00 p.m. hour rolled around and it was time for the practica to end, marked with the traditional concluding song La Cumparsita. I had a fantastic time, and will be sure to work this into my schedule of events. It’s a bargain afternoon, only $10 for 3 hours of quality dancing, a 15-minute mini lesson taught by the amazing Mariella Franganillo, and bagels to nosh on. Who could ask for anything more? La Practica has inspired me to add more practicas to my NYC scouting tour.

Since I had an hour before the Oliver Kolker workshop, I was able to drop by Muji. I was not disappointed. It’s a beautiful store, and the items sold are wonderfully, minimally but effectively designed, and the space fiercely curated. Interestingly, there was even a book about Muji, published by Rizzoli (high-end art/design publisher). http://www.amazon.com/Muji-Jasper-Morrison/dp/0847834875

The street fair was also fun, but the only thing I got was a very sensible, very cheap $5 black umbrella because it suddenly started to rain really hard. After that, I booked it to the subway station and made it just in time for the workshop.

Oliver Kolker Workshop on The Basics – Structure of Milonga (open level). This workshop covered much of the same material as his workshop I attended last month. However, it was 2 hours instead of 90 minutes, and we spent a lot more time on musicality, specifically working on defining all the notes/beats, working with a single beat, then half, then quarter, and then the habanera rhythm of milonga. The musicality portion was excellent.

As usual, the orchestra for our workshop was Canaro.

Then he went on to teach the basic six-step milonga box, breaking it down so that we could play with the 1 and the 3 (cutting out the 1-2 altogether and just doing 3-4-5-6 followed by another 3-4-5-6), and also playing with the QQS in various places in the six-step milonga box (at the 1-2-3, 2-3-4, 3-4-5, 4-5-6, 5-6-1, or 6-1-2). One interesting thing Maestro taught, also congruent with his goal to get us to think beyond just doing the step, with an interesting variation on the step, was that on the 1 to the 2, the Leader can actually change his footwork to do a forward cross (forward ocho) or back cross (back ocho step) (I think he needs to sneak in some quick weight changes for him only, so that he uses the correct foot/leg on the 3 while keeping her on her usual footwork).

We also added the Follower's forced connected cross on the open side of the embrace (the Follower’s left leg/foot crossing against her supporting, standing leg). The prior workshop taught the Follower’s forced connected cross on the close side of the embrace. The foundational concept of these forced crosses is that two parallel lines never meet, never intersect. When we dance in parallel, which we often do in tango, the two lines will never meet. So in the forced cross, the Leader changes the angle of the Follower by rotating her, so that she pivots, setting it up so that his line and her line will intersect, forcing her to cross as he walks toward her.

Maestro also taught a Follower embellishment of the beat back on the 6 of the basic milonga box, which I found a little weird timingwise and wasn’t able to do well or prettily. Then he switched it so that the beat back happens after the 3, which was a lot easier.

Maestro concluded with a very good, thorough summary that he allowed to be videoed.

It was a fantastic class as usual, although I was pretty exhausted afterwards (and I was a little mad at myself for getting overtired as I really wanted to give this workshop all my best). There were twice as many Leaders as Followers, so all Followers worked with two leaders and danced 100% of the time. I also wore heels during the entire class, and they were on the high side as they were the same ones I wore to the practica earlier. I wanted to travel very lightly as I had planned to go shopping after the workshop, and then onto another milonga.

But though the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak. After the workshop, I was way too pooped to do much more than grab a soda from Mickey D’s (and a large one at that!, which I don’t think I’ve ever done in my entire life!), and catch the next train home. It was such a wonderful afternoon that I didn’t want to press my luck. I thought it would be better to just end things there, dancewise, on a nice, happy positive note.

Sunday, October 2, 2011
I arrived early to Dardo Galletto for the practica. It was an open house day, so it was free to get in. When I got there for the last hour, there were about 30 people there, apparently mostly improvers. I helped myself to some wine and peanuts (in shells) and popcorn, as I was starving. After I had my fill, I danced a few tandas.

One Leader asked me to dance, and I swear I had no idea if he was asking me to dance, or the gal next to us, since he never looked at me directly in the eyes when he asked. When they both made it clear that it was ME he wanted to dance with, I accepted. (I admit I am miffed about the whole NYC eye contact aversion thing, which isn’t just limited to uncabaceoing, it also happens in floor crafting, that is, not only do folks not apologize when bumping into each other, they also don’t even LOOK at each other or acknowledge that a bump occurred.)

As we made our way to the dance floor, I said that if he wanted to ask me to dance properly, he needed to look me in the eye and not away and around. Then he apologized and told me he was blind.

Of course at that point, I just about died from embarrassment and my own idiotic rudeness. The Leader, however, was the epitome of charity and kindness. He said he asked me to dance because I was a good dancer. I asked how did he know, if he were blind? Then he explained that he was legally blind with macular degeneration. (For those of you who don’t know what that is, or what a person who has it “sees”, go here: http://www.ohiolionseyeresearch.com/simulati.htm#Age-related%20Macular%20Degeneration) So I guess my blurry whirly figure looked good whirling. I guess the bright colors I was wearing prevented me from fading into the walls. Anyway, we were probably way too chatty during the tanda, but I was fascinated about how he learned to dance with the condition (challenging, of course, but the teachers have all been wonderful). Honestly, in dancing with him, I could not tell at all that he was legally blind.

During the rest of the practica I had a couple of really amazing tandas, which was totally unexpected and delightful.

Oliver Kolker Workshop: A Step Beyond – Musicality & Enhanced Skills (Beg/Int)

In this class, which built on yesterday’s class, we would see more complicated stuff.

We began with a review of the Traspie Rhythm. The music of milonga is based on the Habanera pattern. When we dance to it, we do QQS because it fits perfectly within the Habanera rhythm, always in sync.

Another way to dance milonga, instead of QQS, is with quarter notes, that is, combining a counterbeat with two quarter notes, or 1+ QQS.

What is QQS? Picking three quarter notes from the 4. QQS (2, 3, 4).

We then worked on an exercise of the Leader shifting the Follower’s weight such that she steps with her left foot forward or back. This is so that the Leader can plan if he leads it correctly. The Leader can change weight, but not the Follower. It’s like playing the drums. The Leader has to shift the Follower’s weight all the time.

If the Leader lifts the Follower and keeps her up, it means side steps. We practiced this, with the Leader letting the Follower go just before 4, to do 3, 4, 5, 6 of the milonga box. The Leader needs to be sure to drop her back down to get out of the side steps.

The next thing we worked on was the Follower back steps while the Leader weaves in and out, so her footwork is a series of 4, 5, 4, 5, etc.

Then we changed this to a connected forced cross by the Leader pivoting her and then walks inside of her and keeps going. His leg needs to make contact with hers to make her cross.

Next, we did a free leg exercise of the Follower’s right leg, to send it out to it’s maximum, then pivoting the Follower so that it lands in a tight back cross against her left foot. Then we added to this with the Leader stepping backwards so that the Follower’s left foot steps forward and the right foot steps forward to another back cross against the left foot. To lead this correctly, the Leader needs to keep the angle the same, he needs to manage it so that he keeps her hips behind so he will lead her to do sequential back crosses to the side. Timingwise, we were to do it in QQS, and then pivot her out of it. To make this into an interesting sequence, we added the connected forced crosses on the close side.

The Follower’s embellishment on the 6-count milonga box was introduced whereby on the 6, the Follower does either a tight right foot back cross or a tight right foot front cross.

Then we worked on another Follower’s embellishment of the right foot tight back cross, with her left leg opening up, foot pivoting away counterclockwise (60 degrees maybe?). The Leader also had some interesting footwork that involved a pivot. For the Follower, it is important that the cost of the embellishment shouldn’t be a loss of axis (wow, is that profound and eloquently stated, or what?!).

Our main takeaways:
1. The Follower doesn’t change her weight unless he Leader shifts it.

2. Just because the Leader shifts weight, doesn’t mean the Follower shifts her weight.

3. The Leader makes the Follower move her left foot/leg all the time.

Maestro concluded with a very good, thorough summary that he allowed to be videoed.

After class, the usual chatter ensued, and Maestro mentioned that he was now living in Chicago and that they have a nice community there. I was a little disappointed by the news, but I guess I will have to just be happy with his regular visits to NYC.

One gal who was able to take a private with him this trip strongly encouraged me to do so as well. (We had spoken about it at the last Oliver Kolker workshop where we were both students.) She said it was wonderful and amazing and left her newly inspired about tango, at a point in time when she was strongly considering giving it up.

I really do want to take a private with him, but I fear that it will just leave me even more spoiled than I already am. There is this concept of diminishing returns in tango, where the better you get, the less satisfaction you get from dancing with average dancers (and let’s face it, most dancers are “average”). I’ve been very, very blessed to be able to dance with as many great dancers that I’ve danced with, and if I add Oliver Kolker to that stable, well, geeze, maybe after that, I might as well just stop dancing tango forever because it would probably be the best hour of dancing of my life, which would render everything else after that, comparatively a letdown. Gosh, don’t I sound like a silly schoolgirl? And shame on me for not just living in the moment in each and every tanda.

My problem with my taking privates with male teachers is that I just don’t feel that I’d be taking them for the right reasons. I just feel as though if I really wanted to improve my tango from here, I would take instruction from women Follower teachers (and even then, my desire at this point is limited to those named Luna, Alejandra, Veronica, or Carolina), not men Leader teachers who dance divinely and with whom I would love an hour-long dance massage. So I guess I would feel like a fake. It’s one of those things I am mentally wrestling with, and I guess I have another month or so to figure it out (or not) before Maestro visits again.

September 21-28

2011-09-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday, September 24, 2011
Otra Milonga @ Basic Ballroom with lesson beforehand by Claudio Villagra & Romina Levin. I was looking forward to this lesson and got ready and out the door in ample time to make it. However, the Metro-North did not get that memo and so was not cooperating. The express train was 13 minutes late, which is an entire lifetime when it comes to express train schedules. Thankfully though, they didn’t bother collecting fares from any of us to compensate. With a hot extra $7.85 in my pocket, I decided to take a cab, and the fare turned out to be $6 and change, so I gave him $8. So it all worked out that I got to the lesson on time.

Maestros taught in BsAs style with showing us a bit of a sequence and then us trying to do it, with them going around to provide individual feedback.

The sequence was a side step (Leader’s left, Follower’s right) to a Follower left foot forward step, then immediately back in a rock step to a Follower right foot side step while Leader does a right foot front cross weight change into a Leader left foot side step on the Follower’s left foot back step (back ocho), to a right foot back ocho, to left foot side step while Leader does lapice, to do a right foot parada after the Follower’s right forward step to pivot. For the Follower’s rock step to right foot side step, she needs to make each of the steps elegant and not clunky or floppy.

Next, maestros changed the sequence. Side steps (Leader’s left, Follower’s right), into a Leader’s left foot sacada of the Follower’s right foot trailing foot during her left foot forward step during her counterclockwise molinete.

Next, they gave us another little big with an Americana promenade with both Leader and Follower having left foot forward steps.

Maestra's philosophy on ocho is that they don’t need to militaristically collect at the ankles during each leg passing. Instead, they should be more rounded and open-ended a little.

It was a good class, and we got attention from both Maestro and Maestra, even though the class was packed (more Leaders than Followers later on).

It seems that everyone and their cousin got the memo that this was THE milonga to be at on this night, because it became even more packed. The room is spacious. Interestingly, the floor is Pergo, but it was roughed up and the slick finish spanked down, which made for a very nice surface to dance on (in my opinion, the regular out-of-the-box Pergo is a little too slick for social dancing, but OK for classes). Though there were window air conditioners and ceiling fans, the room got quite humid and warm, and that was in the early part of the evening during class. After dancing just a few tandas, it got extremely humid and hot, too much for my liking.

Then it was announced that the upstairs alt room was open. So I ventured up and stayed most of the night. Though it was a smaller room, both window air conditioners work well and were set at a perfect 60 degrees. It was also only sparsely attended, so there was ample room to dance and very amusing to people watch. Later on, they announced that the performance would start soon, which effectively shepherded us all downstairs to the main room again.

After coming from the comfortable confines of the adequately AC’d Alt room, when we got to the door, the heat and moisture hit us like a wall and we were entering a steam room. The milonga was just finishing up the milonga tanda, and after that a mini salsa tanda. So basically, the room was sweltering. Thankfully, since the Alt room dancers were tipped off about the performance, we were able to get seats to cool our heels and comfortably watch the 3-song performance, which was great.

After that, the person I danced with in the Alt room had to go, and so I stayed in the main sweltering room. I danced a few tandas, and soon it was 1:00 a.m., time for me to go to grab a bite (I started to bonk, but didn’t want to eat any of the snacks there since by the time I got to the table, the only things left were white-flour derivatives: pretzels, cookies, cakes, sugar wafers, oreos, etc.) and make the walk back to Grand Central in time for the last train home.

I didn’t realize this since I cabbed it there, but Basic Ballroom is quite close to Penn Station, so there were lots of food places open 24 hours in the area. I passed by White Castle, which I had always been curious about, but it was packed with a lot of people waiting for their orders, and I didn’t want to risk missing my train, so I just kept walking. Thankfully, I found a Halal cart still open. So I had my usual Lamb Salad (basically, it’s a lamb plate only without the rice). It was a longish way back to Grand Central, but the weather was comfortable and balmy, and since I had ample time to get there, I was able to stroll without pressure.

It was a very nice night, one of the best times I’ve had thus far at a NYC milonga, despite the sweltering conditions in the main room (which is shocking and a miracle that I can write that).

Sunday, September 25, 2011
RoKo milonga with lesson beforehand by Robin Thomas and Jenna Rohrbacher. I got there a little late, and the lesson was already in progress with work on forward ocho technique with a focus on disassociation (keep your nose to the mirror). They also worked on side steps, taking big ones, and making smooth and complete weight transfers. Then we went into the sequence. We began with a basic side step (Leader’s left, Follower’s right), with Follower matching Leader’s size of step. Then we changed it whereby the Leader pivots the Follower such that instead of a regular right foot side step, her leg/foot actually turns so that it is more like a right foot forward step. Here, she practices disassociation, so while her lower body is at a forward orientation, her nose is still toward the Leader to maintain connection. Then the Leader leads the Follower to do a left foot forward step around him, and then a right foot forward ocho in front of him. There was much discussion on the detail of Leader torso rotation/torsion and footwork. The Follower should not do any of these steps automatically, but should wait for the lead to make the turn, make the forward step, etc. Follower should not step forward without the lead. And in her steps, she should extend the leg before transferring the weight, and not be clunky and uncoordinated. Jenna reiterated that the motion is reaching, then extending, then transferring the weight by pushing off the standing, supporting leg, and being slow and deliberate, trying to remain on the standing leg as long as possible. Follower needs to stay connected to the Leader, and her right arm needs to collapse when she does her forward ochos. She needs to really turn her hips perpendicular to the Leader. Here is where my notes end, which just goes to show I got lazy as the rest of the sequence and lesson really focused a lot on what the Leader needs to do with respect to his chest rotation, torsion and footwork. The sequence had a nice little Leader colgada-like ending to it, but sadly my brain turned off by then, although I do recall that the Follower had to be able to be in balance, pivoting on one foot as the Leader went around her in his colgada-like movement. It was a good lesson. Too bad I wasn’t particularly mentally focused.

The milonga was not the greatest, on account of the extreme humidity. Basically, after the first few tandas, we were all hot sweaty messes, despite the air conditioning. I left pretty early, as I just wasn’t fun to dance with extremely wet, sweaty people while being sweaty myself.

So what am I excited about these days?
Oliver Kolker workshops October 1-2. OMG, I feel so lucky to be able to take his workshops ($35 for each 2-hour workshop).
Homer and Cristina Ladas in NYC October 14, 15, 16; Northampton October 21, 22, 23; and Providence October 28, 29, 30 with costume-themed milongas. I am SO there!

L'shanah tovah to all who celebrate it!

September 7-20

2011-09-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday, September 10, 2011
Practilonga-939 @ RG Studios. The walk to this practilonga from Grand Central, though a bit long, is very eye-candy rich, going through the Diamond District (thank God all the stores were closed, otherwise it might have taken me hours to get to the studio, if I ever made it at all), Times Square and the half-price ticket booth, up Broadway through the theatre and music district, all the while passing by many historic buildings (or buildings that housed historic companies).

I got there early enough to take the special premilonga lesson, taught by Juan Marchetti y Natalia Manca from Buenos Aires on turns with sacadas and ganchos ($20). The lesson prior to that was on close embrace volcadas ($35 if you took both lessons). Since I am comfortable with where I am with volcadas, I decided to take just the lesson on sacadas, figuring it would (should!) have more Leaders than Followers, and since I wanted to keep working on my turns, lest they go to pot. When I got to class (a little late as the walk took longer than expected), there was only one other couple and one single leader, happily one of my favorites.

I don't believe Maestros spoke any English, so if you did not speak Spanish, it probably wouldn't have been the most enlightening of lessons. They taught in BsAs style, where they demonstrated a step, and then expected the students to do it. They then added to the step, turning it into an interesting, challenging sequence. Our sequence involved many technically difficult things for the Leader: his lapice while still leading the Follower molinete, to a weight change, to a right foot gancho the Follower on her open step, a front cross for him into a quick weight change to a left foot sacada of the Follower’s trailing leg, a right foot gancho into his own right foot bolero, to lead Follower to do a back ocho, and then left foot back boleo to a left foot forward boleo, out to close. So there was a lot for our bodies and brains to work on.

It was an OK, but not great class. I had an OK time because I was able to partner with a Leader I know and like to dance with, so we got along well (still politely). But the room was on the warm side, and quite humid, despite the fans and window air conditioning unit. Plus I wore a dress so had to go back and forth to get my notebook to take notes (that was my fault, certainly not the Maestros’ or organizer's). Since the class was so small, it was more like a group private. Maestros had lots of instruction and tips for my leader, whereas I got no commentary or instruction (basically for the sequence, the Follower’s part was molinetes, back ochos, and back steps). That was OK though, I just really wanted to work on my molinete technique, and I was really focusing on how Luciana Valle taught me to do them.

The milonga started out pretty slowly after that, and I had my doubts on whether I should stay or go to the Manhattan Ballroom Dance party ballroom dance party instead. I decided to stay for a while to see how things worked out, and luckily for me I was able to dance with an amazing leader – the best one I’ve experienced yet in NYC! Though I didn’t quite catch all that he threw at me, I think we danced well together overall. Because of the humidity, we had to stop and dry off after our first tanda. Then we danced again, and again it was amazing. Then he had to go. :o(

After that, more people arrived for the milonga. While the overall technical skill level turned out to be mostly high, the friendly warm and fuzzy quotient was lacking. Maybe that comes with the territory…when you get better and better, you want to dance with fewer and fewer people. I never noticed that in San Francisco since I had been part of that community for years, but being the new girl in town, I can see how NYC is not the warmest, most open place for newcomers (maybe I should qualify that with newcomer Followers since newcomer Leaders, as long as they don’t truly suck, are usually welcomed with open arms everywhere). Or maybe it's a NY cultural thing, where folks are a little more reserved and suspicious and avoid eye contact with strangers.

And oddly, even though the overall technical skill level was high, the floor crafting was lacking. It’s not that there were huge crashes, but there were many times when couples would get backed up and bunched up on one side of the room when there was ample space to utilize all four sides of the room. It was surprising and bizarre how often this happened and extremely unexpected from a group with high technical skills.

Tete had a very interesting comment about which communities he thought were the best in the U.S. when I asked him a few years ago. He did not mention New York City or San Francisco, and I got the impression that both places were far down on his list (though I think San Francisco has improved a lot since then). He mentioned several cities, and he considered them “best” based on their musicality and floor crafting (basically how well they connected to the music and to each other), not the level of their technical skills. Very specifically, he mentioned the "lack of maturity” of several communities that lots of folks (but not him) considered “the best”. He did not mean the relative age of the dancers or how long the community had been around, but of the overall mindset of the dancers (me versus us, performing and doing showy things on the milonga dance floor versus dancing elegantly and simply so that everyone on the pista had a good time and so that the tracks would flow evenly and rhythmically). I am finding that he is right. After all, isn’t the whole point of community to be able to dance with everyone and get along on the dance floor?

I danced a reasonable amount, but the room was very humid, despite the window air conditioner. After the three-song performance by Maestros, which was fantastic (but which left them dripping as well), I had my last tanda. During that dance, I found the floor to be very difficult to pivot on compared to my earlier dances, and I speculate it was because of the humidity (environmental and maybe because we were all hot sweaty messes and dripped on the floor).

Foodwise, it seemed to be a potluck of sorts with folks contributing bottles of wine (with price stickers still on), and random food (cherry tomatoes, butter-flavored corn puffs, apples, and home-made cookies (oatmeal walnut? They were delicious.).

Sunday, September 11, 2011
Milonga RoKo @ Dance Manhattan Ballroom. I got there early as I was looking forward to taking the lesson. Unfortunately, the sign on the door said the lesson was cancelled. So instead, I scoped out the neighborhood a little, wandering into H&M and Duane Reade to pass the time.

The milonga started out a bit slowly, and a friend speculated that maybe people were spooked by all the September 11 warnings and decided to stay home. The milonga soon filled up though, so it became quite packed. I was able to dance several fun tandas, but after things got too close for comfort, I decided to go.

Friday, September 16, 2011
Tango Lounge @ Dancesport. I got there too late to take the lesson, taught by Tamara Bisceglia & Federico Paleo. The milonga for me was just OK, not great. I didn’t get any tandas that knocked my socks off and there were ample followers there. So I left on the early side, just after the performance, which was great. And I am glad I stayed for it, since I missed it at RoKo the Sunday prior (but thankfully YouTube captured the RoKo performance):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6w60cfha-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkvHPRwOH1M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC53sqxkmZk

Saturday, September 17, 2011
Robin Thomas’s Nocturne @ Dancesport with lesson beforehand by Jaimes Fridgen and Christa Rodriguez. The purpose of the class was to challenge us. We began with a warm-up dance. Then we were given the salida basica (8CB) to work on, doing it together without arms. We were to step in any way we want, timingwise, but we were to do only those steps of the 8CB in the line of dance. For both dancers, this would be an exercise in concentration and balance. This step would require many weight changes, and working the pattern without arms would illustrate our own default habits (sometimes bad). Our goal was to make our 8CB smoother, and keep the line of dance flowing and not pass each other. We were also to stand up straight and the leader should not lean/crouch over their partner, and neither dancer should curve their bodies weirdly. We drilled this some more, just working the 8CB with no arms, because apparently we looked pretty bad. Our goals were to have better posture (stand up straight), and make every step in sync together. There could be a slight favoring toward the of the open side of the embrace to make us more connected. We drilled this some more.

Then we added the embrace and drilled some more, just the 8CB.

Then, while in the embrace, at 2 we were to let our arms open up as if they were wings, and then after a few steps fold the arms back down and into the embrace. This was to help us dance with our entire bodies, having the whole dance in our bodies, all the way out to our fingertips.

Our next challenge was to focus on the musicality of the 8CB. Tango music is in quarter notes. We all counted out together to 8 over and over again so that we could all be on the same page, musically speaking. Then we added the break on 5, with 6, 7, and 8 being quiet or silent. For our exercise, we would do the 8CB with each beat, specifically not rushing to or out of the cross. We drilled this.

Then we were to dance the 8CB with the specific phrasing of the leader stepping back on 7, which would cause the Follower to land the cross on 7 as well if we were doing our crosses correctly for this exercise (i.e., in a controlled manner and not rushing to or out of it). The point of this was because lots of orchestras end their songs on the 7, so we were hoping to get that pretty ending with the leader’s back step (almost like a rock corte).

We had various orchestras for the evening. Among them, D’Agostino and Calo.

The lesson was good. I did not switch from my partner, a buddy of mine, even though there were more leaders in class. The reason was that, due to the subject matter, I just was not that comfortable dancing chest to chest with no arms with a couple of the leaders there, and several of the other leaders… well, honestly, they are not leaders who make newcomers (me!) feel welcome and accepted (meaning they have never asked me specifically to dance in any of the milongas I’ve been to, even though I’ve been around for weeks and have tried to make eye contact with them – many of the leaders here are excellent at uncabaceoing, and many just dance with the same few followers all night)… so, why would I want to work the class material with them? Granted, maybe I am reading them all wrong, maybe it’s just the culture here… but I was happy to leave them to work the class material with their “usual” follower partners, who were nowhere to be found at this class (guess they were just way too cool for school).

The milonga itself was very fun, the most fun I’ve had in a while. My buddy told me I HAD to go to it, because all the GOOD dancers went to it. I was skeptical in the beginning, but came around to agree that, technically speaking, as a whole the dancers were generally above average. I danced with several people I had never danced with before (turns out, all visitors from Europe, all excellent dancers) and the usual people I dance with (so no new locals).

I started to bonk around midnight, so planned to leave after Jaimes & Christa’s performance. But then Robin Thomas announced that there would be another special performance around 1:00 a.m., and another buddy of mine and I figured out it would be Veronica Palacios and Omar Quiroga. So of course I had to stay for that, and of course it was outstandingly brilliant.

Happily, Robin Thomas announced that next month’s Nocturne teachers will be Homer and Cristina Ladas. So any SF Bay Area folks needing an H&C fix should come on out for that. H&C mentioned that they are going to do a series of workshops in NYC (as part of their East Coast tour which will also include Northampton and Providence). I don’t have the exact details, but they mentioned the idea of two workshops each on both days the weekend of October 15. :o) I’m looking forward to the NYC, Providence, and Northampton classes, as it will be nice to get some more lessons into the tangostudent notebook.

But then I really, really had to go after that, as I didn’t want to miss the last train out of Dodge. It turned out to be an excellent bargain night: for $12, I got a quality lesson, several hours of good milonga dancing, and two top-notch performances.

Sunday, September 18, 2011
Milonga RoKo @ Dance Manhattan Ballroom. I got there too late for the lesson so can't comment on it. The milonga itself was fun, the most fun I've had at a NYC milonga in a while. It was crowded, but not excessively so. Floorcrafting was reasonably OK, with at least the outer track somewhat mostly in line with no speeders/passers. (One of the things that bugs me about NYC floor crafting is that when there are bumps [even though they are gentle and small], no one ever apologizes, which just seem downright rude to me.) Anyway, back to the good parts... I danced with several new people (half visitors, half local), excellent dancers. Someone complimented me, and my "sensible" dancing. Not sure what that meant, but I accepted graciously.

August 22 - September 6

2011-09-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tango In Colors Milonga @ Colors Restaurant. I wanted to go to this milonga the week before, when it first opened, but I got swamped at work and was just too tired afterwards. And after being underemployed for the last three years, it thrills me that I can write something like that.

I checked out the web site for Colors restaurant earlier that afternoon. It's run by a bunch of folks displaced by the September 11 World Trade Center bombing. Their menu is local, sustainable, made by folks making a decent life wage with ownership stakes in the restaurant, etc. In short, this is an ideal-values restaurant, a feel-good kind of place, kind of like Delancy Street meets Chez Panisse. Prices are reasonable, and so I wanted to have a meal there.

Amazingly just two days after Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, the trains were all up and running on normal schedule. Arriving at Grand Central at 6:30 p.m. was again harrowing and stressful, and I was thankful to reach the relatively safe confines of the subway to catch the 6 to Astor place. Emerging from the subway station, I spied a very interesting food truck: that of GoBurger. My God, it was the biggest food truck I had ever seen. And sleekest. And most gorgeous. If Cadillac made food trucks, it would look like the Go Burger truck. The smells emanating from the truck tickled my nostrils. Curious, I had to have a peek at the menu. Burgers started at $5, and the sides were around $5 as well. One intriguing side was their Vidalia Onion Rings. I thought really hard about buying a burger and rings instead of having a meal at Colors, but I resisted temptation and crossed the street instead, onto my destination.

The Tango in Colors milonga happens 6-11 p.m., with a lesson from 6-7. On this night, Ana Padron and a man whose name I didn't catch were the teachers. Since most of the folks in the lesson were beginners, they did very simple things like walking together, connection, and working on the line of dance with instructions not to pass any other couple, but to stay in place and do simple things if the couple in front of them was not moving. So I think it was a good lesson, though I did not participate in it since there were several extra beginner followers.

The restaurant's happy hour is 5-8 p.m., which gave me time to sample some of their bar nibblies as I knocked back my free glass of sangria included in the milonga entrance fee. There were four $5 appetizers at the bar available: Argentine meatballs with chimichurri sauce, chicken lollipops, fried calamari, and sweet fried tofu. I chose the meatballs (since I was curious about how well they might do Argentine meat and chimichurri) and calamari (because it's a bar staple and I am sure I am an excellent judge having had this dish in more place than I care to count). The 6 melon-ball size Argentine meatballs were decent, likely made with full-fat beef (and not the lower fat ground meat that I am used to), and served on a bed of "fresh herb" chimichurri, which was more like a very finely processed pesto (very different from the chunky, leafy chimichurri sauces I've had in BsAs). Though the chimichurri was unconventional, it was delicious. The calamari was good too, with the coating nicely covering all the pieces with no wet or excessively doughy clumps. Seasoning was fine, and the dish came sprinkled with a fresh tomato relish, which I thought was a nice touch. Instead of a little bowl of tartar sauce, the calamari was served atop a bed of it. I ended up finishing the meatballs first, and then finished off the rest of the calamari, dipping it in the chimichurri sauce. I also partook in a happy hour glass of wine, also $5. When the bill came, I was pleasantly surprised that each dish and the glass of wine were $4.59 each, so with tax, it all came to $14.99. I thought that was a nice touch for $5 to really mean $5, and not $5 means $5.50 with tax.

At the bar, I got to chat away with some other patrons. Apparently, at the opening milonga the week prior, the place was packed. So regretfully, I missed another packed opening day (same as the Purple Orchid milonga). Folks slowly streamed in for the milonga, many of them women, and many of them content to have a meal there as well. Tango royalty showed up, and it was super fun watching Facundo Posadas and his wife social dance the night away. Dancing for me was just OK. The crowd was on the light side, there were a lot more followers than leaders, and many couples did not switch partners. So I ended up dancing with two people the entire night, putting in several tandas. The highlight of the evening for me was meeting a super-fun Brazilian tanguera who is fluent in Spanish, so she could sing a lot of the song lyrics. She has a beautiful voice, knew all the words, and could translate their meaning into English for me. I told her she should join a tango band, as I am sure they could use her as a singer, and recommended she start with Malena. She sat next to the DJ, and I sat next to her, and we spent a good part of the night playing Name That Tune, impressing each other with our respective knowledge/guesses of songs and orchestras.

After I left the milonga, I saw the Go Burger truck was still there, so I succumbed to the call of Vidalia Onion Rings. I asked the gal if they were TRULY vidalia onions, and she said that that's what they were labeled. I am no stranger to Vidalia onions, having first eaten them in the early 1990s, shipped directly from Vidalia, Georgia in the summer, so I would know if they weren't. As I waited for my order to cook, other folks came up and ordered, so it seemed the truck did a very brisk business. Finally, my rings were ready. I bit into one of them, and they were good, but not great (as I was hoping because I love Vidalias). I don't think Vidalias are actually the best onion to use for onion rings, as their texture is a little softer, and their taste is sweeter. That being said, it was an excellent execution of an onion ring with the coating nicely adhered to the onion (doncha just hate it when you bite into an onion ring and you get a mouthful of coating with attached onion, as the onion pulls away from the coating and out of the center of the ring because of its tough membrane?). I only ate a few, and threw the rest in my bag to save for later on. The next morning I snarffled the rest of them up without reheating. Overall, I think they are a tad too sweet for onion rings. But it does cause one to pause and consider other possibilities like Walla Walla sweets or Maui sweets, but they don't carry quite the same recognition as Vidalias.

Saturday, September 3, 2011
Mala Leche milonga @ Club 412. Unfortunately, time got away from me and I missed the lesson. I hoofed it over here, near Penn Station, from Grand Central, and I marveled at all the 24-hour restaurants I passed by.

The milonga itself is both traditional and nuevo, as there are two mid-size rooms, one for each, separated by the entrance area where they take the fees and serve the food and drinks (water and wine). They also have access to the swing room across the hall, although on this night there was no swing party, unfortunately. I was looking forward to it.

I got there on the early side, so saw the tail end of the lesson. Then I made my way over to the Nuevo room. Adam Hoopengardner was the DJ, and lucky me, he asked me to dance straight away, and for a milonga tanda! Since it was early, we had plenty of floorspace. This was not the first time I had danced with him (the other time was at Cafe Cocomo when he was in SF teaching with Luiza Paes), and I feel I did better this time around. They had not yet turned on the air conditioning in that room, so after our tanda, I was sweating and needed to rest. Interestingly, the air conditioning units were just like the ones in BsAs -- those ones mounted on the top of the walls that are about 4 feet long.

So I moseyed on over to the traditional room, where the dancers seemed to have a good time. I danced with a couple of my local favorites. After that though, my dances were few and far between. So sadly, what had started out as a brilliant milonga for me soon fizzled out to kind of boring. I left on the early side (at least for this milonga, which goes until "last man standing"), though I had warned my roommates earlier in the night that I might not get back until morning, as I might miss the last train and have to take the first one out instead. My hopes were THAT high for this milonga. Too bad it didn't work out. But I was thankful that the Halal food cart out front did not close until 2:00 am, and it served a delicious lamb salad (same as lamb over rice, only no rice) dish, and I believe the chef gave me a lot more lamb than normal. So I am glad I didn't get completely dolled up for nothing.

Sunday, September 4, 2011
Milonga RoKo @ Manhattan Ballroom Dance. I missed the lesson, unfortunately, as it was taught by visiting maestros Alberto Catala & Belen Montell, who teach at Salon Canning on Monday nights. I do wish the local tango calendar had better details regarding the special visiting teachers of the premilonga lessons.

The milonga was very crowded, as it seemed everyone was happy to be dancing on this Sunday of a holiday weekend, especially after last Sunday post Irene. I danced with the usual folks I like to dance with, but no one new, unfortunately. I had intended to leave, as it got too crowded for me, and the floorcraft was lacking. To top it off, there was a raver party going on one floor below, so not only could we hear the monotonous music blaring, but we could feel the pulsating bass thumping up through the floor. So it made for a very jarring, annoying milonga experience, and a major distraction in connecting with the tango music.

But surprisingly, maestros did a performance (RoKo doesn't usually have performances). It was excellent, one of the best I had seen in a long time. So I am glad I stayed the extra 10 minutes to watch their three-song performance.

August 15-21

2011-08-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Monday, August 15, 2011
Casa de Tango @ Central Bar. This is a milonga that is on the early side, 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and takes place in what must be among the cleanest bars in NYC. Literally, the bathroom was spotless and smelled mildly of bleach, so even if you were blind, you would get the impression that it was squeaky clean. The milonga happens upstairs away from the main bar, but you can still order from the food menu (typical bar fare) and drinks menu. The floor is wide-plank oak, is comfortable and smooth with none of the usual bar-floor stickiness, scrapes and gouges. I was encouraged to go to this milonga by a local NY tanguero. Still channeling JSE, I decided that this was the night to come, since I had to be in midtown later for a milonga workshop. I got there around 7:00 p.m. and danced pretty much nonstop, having a great time, until about 9:00 p.m., the absolute latest before I had to leave for the Oliver Kolker workshop.

Oliver Kolker Milonga Workshop at Dardo Galletto Studios ($35 for 1.5 hour workshop). I got there just in time for the workshop at 9:30 p.m. The room was full with about 25 people, 10 couples (half of which did not switch) and 5 extra followers. I had wanted to take lessons with Maestro for years, but just could never work it out schedulewise to make it to Seattle or Portland when he taught at Clay's festivals. When I saw this workshop pop up a couple of weeks ago, I signed up right away and looked forward to it since.

Maestro said we would work a lot, and his teaching style, though simple, is a way to make his students think.

Maestro's dance rule, his method, is that he picks one leg of the Follower and is focused on that one leg, so he always knows what happens next. In his case, he always focuses on what the Follower's right leg is doing. He is always thinking of it, always obsessed with her right leg. Maestro picks the Follower's right leg, so that he knows when it's busy (has weight on it) or when it's free (doesn't have weight on it). He doesn't see what her right leg is doing, he feels it. Bottom line: The Leader always has to know where the Follower's weight is.

Most of the time, the Follower shifts her weight because she feels the Leader shift his weight. This is a mistake. The Follower should never shift her weight on her own. She should wait for the Leader to shift her weight. And the Leader always has to know where the Follower's weight is so that he knows where and when to shift it.

The Leader mastering the Follower's weight change is the base of what we do in tango, milonga and vals.

We began with trying to understand and implement this concept with a simple weight shift exercise:
We did side steps, either
(1) transferring the weight (stepping)
(2) changing the weight (in place)
(3) rebounding (an incomplete transfer or shift of weight)
Whichever one the Leader picked, he needed to be clear, 1, 2, or 3, in how the Leader shifted the Follower's weight, depending on what he wanted her to do.

The Leader needs to know how to do the above three things and be able to do them in three directions:
forward, back, and side.
He needs to manage it like oil, "be greasy"

Maestro did a demo where he took a Follower and led her to shift her weight, make her rebound (extend leg out and back), or transfer the weight (step)

The Leader needs to always know where the weight of the Follower is.
With respect to the rebound/tap, the Leader can shift the Follower's weight in two ways:
Milonguero style: Try to put the Follower on her other leg without moving her.
Kolker style: Bring her system up and then let her go where he wants her to be.

We worked on this concept of doing these weight changes/transfers with the Leader just leading them while staying in place footwise and the Follower doing the movements (so her feet would move, but his would not).

Our music for the evening were Canaro milongas (mostly the slow ones).

Next, we worked on traspie, or QQS, using Oliver's Method.
"traspie" means to stumble, or missed step, in Spanish, and Maestro demonstrated it.

Milonga always has a four-count beat pattern. The QQS fits inside the milonga music.

We began with the six-count milonga basic box step.
Follower:
1: Left Foot forward
2: Right foot side
3: Left foot back
4: Right foot back
5: Left foot side
6: Right foot close

Leader does opposite.

From the six-count milonga basic box, we played with different weight shifts to cut out some of the counts, like going from 5 directly to 2 with no weight shift, or doing 1 and with a weight shift, or 2 and 4 with no weight shift.

Then we added the QQS rhythm on the 4, 5, and 6.
Then we did the QQS on the 5, 6, 1
Then we did the QQS on the 5, 6, 3 (cutting out the 1, 2, and only going forward)
Then we did the QQS on the 2, 3, 4
Then we did the QQS on the 5, 6, 3.

From the QQS on the 5, 6, 3 timing, we added the Leader's bump to the Follower's cross. Here, he pivots her on her right foot, then bumps her with his right leg as she steps back with her left foot, so that her right leg and foot is sent into a cross in front of her left foot. For the Leader, his back left knee is lands directly behind the knee of his right leg after he sends his right leg to bump the Follower's right leg. For the Follower, her cross should clean and small, with toes together. During this bump, the Leader should try to maintain the contact in their legs with the Leader's crossed footwork of his left knee behind his right knee as he bumps the Follower into the cross. He can do sequential successive bumps.

The Leader pivots her on 5, sifts the weight, and then steps in with his right leg. Pivoting her first makes her not perfectly square with him, but at a slight angle, so he can walk directly forward into her leg and make it cross as his right leg makes contact with her right leg.

The Follower's ankles should always caress each other.

The Follower can collect with her right foot behind or in front of her left foot, it's her choice, in the 5 to 6 step of the box.

There is no lean of the Follower or Leader. Each dancer should be on their own axis.

I rotated out most of the time as there were 5 extra followers, and half the couples did not rotate. So rather than hash out the material with folks who were not too familiar with milonga, I just waited for Maestro to rotate among us out Followers. It was an absolute joy to work this material with Maestro. What I did not get in terms of quantity in time and repetition with the student leaders, I got in spades in terms of quality with working directly with Maestro.

During class, I actually got to do the Follower's assistant part in demonstrating some of the concepts, so that was fun.

But the kicker was, after class, some students were quite insistent on a demo that they could film. So Maestro took me by the hand, and we gave it a whirl. My goodness, it was an amazing dance. I don't remember which Canaro milonga it was, but it seemed to be a longer one. And we just didn't do the class material, but Maestro really got inspired and did all sorts of fancy, wonderful, amazing things. After it was over, I was breathless with joy.

Some students came up to me after class and told me how good we looked, and I said it was all him, Maestro. But then they said, really, I looked good, too. So that made my evening. I think I floated out the door, all the way down the streets of NYC, and into Grand Central, on the train to the town where I live, to my apartment, and well, even at work the next day, I had a grin on my face all day long...

It was truly an amazing experience.

Classwise, Maestro is a brilliant teacher, with a very clear, methodical teaching style that transmits well to students and really does inspire them to think on their own, and to understand the concept more deeply than the usual sequence-of-the-day classes.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The Tango Factory at DROM. You know, there are just days when you don't want to go out, but you just HAVE to go out because an infrequent event seems so wonderful on paper. This event was one of those. Not only did Tango Factory occur at an uber hip bar in the East Village, it was also going to feature a band, a lesson, and a performance, and had an optional prix fix dinner. All for $15, or $12 if you RSVP'd in advance like I did (or $25 for the whole shebang including dinner). What a bargain! (at least on paper, so it seemed). So even though I was dog tired and lukewarm about going, I went anyway.

I had plenty of time to get there for the 8:00 p.m. lesson, and had a great time strolling from the Astor Place subway station, down along St. Mark's Place (8th Avenue), to Avenue A, peeking in to the many wonderful unique shops and artisan food purveyors. As I pondered whether or not I should have the DROM prix fix dinner of mostly Mediterranean fare for an additional $13 (which was a bargain), I stopped instead at the falafel place next door, and had a lamb pita sandwich for $5. It was good and right sized and more of a bargain.

DROM is a subterranean bar underneath a Japanese Restaurant. The space is clean and modern, and the floor was a black concrete (I believe). It was a bit sticky from the humidity, so Meastro asked if anyone had powder. Since this was one of those nights where I had my tango emergency kit, I had a small bottle. So after we sprinkled a little all over the floor, we began with our lesson.

The lesson was taught by Diego Blanco.

We began with a connection exercise, where the Leader closed his eyes, and the Follower took the Leader, and walked along side them, leading them. The Leader allows himself to be walked. She could walk, change directions, walk around in a circle, do rock steps, etc. This allowed the Follower to connect in a different way and to feel what it feels like to lead and the Leader to feel what it feels like to have no support.

Next, we did a role switching exercise where the Follower does the Leader's part in the embrace.

Then we switched back to the male leader being the Leader again. When this happened, we found that the Leaders ended up just doing the steps again, whereas Maestro was hoping to have us just connect.

Next, we worked on dancing the movement. Movement can be more pronounced, as in doing the side step. Here, we were to dance with a side step, and then staying in that spot. What can the Leader do to give the Follower a different feeling? He can pivot her, play with her weight change (not through), lower his body into the step, just play as she is on one foot.

Next, we tried this same concept doing the Leader's forward step. Here he can push, pull, rotate, change levels on purpose (not as a reflection of poor technique), and use these different things to create something.

There are many places where we connect with each other, and with the music. With respect to connecting with the music with each other, we need to move at the same time. Thus, we should keep thing simple in our dance.

We tried this to a song, just walking, and slowing down the whole thing, and then pick up the beat again. When the beat escapes, the Follower has to listen to the Leader's body to connect with his musicality. The Leader has to be clear in his musical interpretation so that the Follower doesn't move like she's having a seizure. We were just to move to the music slowly, with no particular need to step.

Then he changed the music complete and we tried to apply these concepts while dancing to Pugliese's La Yumba. The goal was to show that we were connected.

Next, Maestro allowed us to do our own favorite step, to do it repeatedly, but then to change the dynamics so that the Follower does not know or anticipate the movement. Maestro showed us one of his favorite steps, Leader left side step (Follower right) to Follower left foot back ocho. The goal of this exercise was so that the Follower would surrender her knowledge.

Next we worked on a sensitivity exercise to slow our dance. Here, the Leader does a parada on the close side of the embrace. Then he lets go. However, if the Follower is off balance at all, he should not let go. This exercise is to help Leader's know if the Follower is off balance, and for the Follower to be responsible for herself being on balance.

In response to the posture of one Leader, Maestro asked, "What happens when we are afraid?" A: We tense up. To not look afraid, we need to be relaxed, and be down to the feet, to feel the heaviness and be relaxed.

One thing Maestro does at the end of the song or tanda is he let's go, and then re-embraces the Follower. It is as if you are making your bed again. Do it fresh, with new energy. The Leader relaxes his right arm down, so the Follower does the same, and then he brings it back up to embrace her again.

The lesson was good.

Later on, Maestro remarked positively on my note-taking, saying that he used to take notes as well, and that it had been a long time since he saw anyone else take notes. I smiled.

The milonga then started, and about 5,000 Followers showed up to the 20 Leaders. Needless, to say, I decided to cool my heels at the bar rather than frantically cabaceo. It was fun reflection people-watching via the mirror above the bar. I could see everything that was going on behind me, and it seemed like the folks who came as couples danced with themselves, and all the Leaders, no matter their skill level, were in demand.

Prices at the full bar were a bit steep. It seemed nearly everything was $11 no matter what you ordered. I had a specialty vodka (cucumber flavored) and soda, and the folks near me had glasses of wine. We were all charged the same $11, which I thought was strange. Still, the bartenders were nice enough, and service was quick.

One interesting thing that some of the DJs here in NYC have, which I didn't mention before, is they have a spiral bound large book of tango tandas, so you always knew what orchestra and singer you were dancing to. I thought it was a very clever milonga tool, and said so to a NY milonguero. He remarked that the DJs go them from somewhere in the Pacific Northwest!

Throughout the first part of the milonga, it got very crowded, with people steadily streaming in.

Then the band, Octavio Brunetti's Orchestra, came on. Boy, where they good! Great, really! The band leader, Octavio Brunetti, was the pianist, and he had a special guest Cellist that night, whose name I didn't catch. There were 3 musicians on violin, 2 on viola, and 1 on bass and 1 on bandoneon to round out the 9-person band. The whole band, but especially the strings sounded wonderful, as NYC must have the most gifted musicians per capita since folks come here from all around just to study at the famous schools. The strings did a lot of pizzicato, which I never noticed tango had much of, but perhaps the were playing Brunetti compositions, rather than trying to be a Pugliese or Canaro cover band.

I danced only three tandas, as it was much too crowded for my liking (and floor crafting was challenging and not the greatest), and though the restaurant has AC, it was not enough to counteract the heat that all the dancers generated. So after the live band was done with their first set, I left, not staying for the dance performance by Maestro and Ana Padron, which was kind of a shame because he seemed to be a really nice guy and a good teacher.

So overall, for me the band was the best part of the evening by a long shot. The other parts weren't really my cuppa.

Sunday, August 21, 2011
Milonga Roko @ Manhattan Dance. I got there late, and the lesson was already in progress. As I handed over my $12 admission, the gal at the counter was kind enough to ask if I REALLY wanted to take the lesson. Looking around, I saw the extra followers and late hour on the clock and said no. Then she only charged me $10. So that was nice of her to save me my $2 (amazing bargain, really, for a quality lesson wit Robin Thomas).

I had a nice time at the milonga, which I had skipped for the least week or two. It was crowded, but not obnoxiously so. It seems lots of folks were content to just sit things out or wait for the right music to come on before dancing. No desperation at trying to rack up mileage on the dance floor, no whack-a-moles, and no sulking because a person wasn't able to successfully cabaceo one of the *good* dancers.

I stayed longer than I intended.

LV Intensivo C Notes May-June 2011

2011-08-16T16:18:00.001-07:00

I finally had a few spare hours to transcribe my Luciana Valle Intensivo C notes from May/June 2011. Sorry for the lateness. It was a crazy trip, where I flew in just for the Intensivo, then tacked on an interview on the East Coast, then got the job and had to put my affairs in order in SF, say goodbye to everyone, etc. The move to the East Coast, start my new (old) job, which I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE, get settled in, etc. Whew. I am tired just thinking about it. So that's why my notes are two months late. Here they are, and yes, whoever you are, you should definitely go to any of the Luciana Valle intensivos, and take them multiple times if you can.

Luciana Valle Intensivo C
DAY 1

Our focus of Intensivo C was on the quality of the movement and to clean up the
details of our dance.
Our exercises focused on power, presence, and dynamics, with the goal
of being clear in our feedback.
Be more powerful.
Be more elegant.
Have more presence.
Intention means to be clear, and to understand the difference between moving the leg versus moving the axis.

Our first topic was intention, with respect to trying to be clear with our understanding of moving our leg and moving our axis.

Our axis is neutral to start. The motion of our axis is the direction you want to go, using a down and forward motion. We were to give heaviness to our legs and move our weight to our metatarsals (NOT our tip toes), stop it, and then come back up to neutral.

Inside of the embrace, the Follower goes opposite to the Leader, so as she goes towards to Leader, she has a standing leg and a free leg, anchoring and then going. The Follower feedback is from anchoring the legs.

Next, we did a Feedback exercise with Leader and Follower dancing with just walking chest-to-chest with no arms, with the Follower giving the Leader feedback. The Follower was to try to prevent the Leader from moving by using power in her legs. So we began dancing in neutral and playing with the resistance, sometimes being heavy and nearly stopping him by the Follower anchoring in to the ground, being very light and almost non-existent in the touch, and regular/normal.

Next, we worked on an intention exercise, with Leader and Follower dancing with just walking, but the Leader playing with the size of step using big steps, or small steps, or side steps, and the Follower following appropriately. The Leader was also supposed to alternate/mix things up so the Follower could not anticipate or predict what the next step was, so he was to try to lead big steps, small steps, and tiny steps in the same song. If the Leader takes a big step, the Follower needs to anchor more.

Next, we worked on changing the energy, large versus small and fast versus slow. We drilled this to many songs with lots of rhythmic variations. We were to step on the edge of the beat, so that it's almost like you won't make it timingwise.

Finally, we added the QQS to the walk, again drilling to lots of songs with rhythmic variations.

After the lunch break we continued to drill, taking big and small steps, and then went on to focus on the turn (molinete, hiro).

Working from the Follower's back ocho, we worked on doing overturned back ochos, as for the back cross step of the turn, the back cross step is really an overturned back ocho step. The Follower should take the same size steps as she moves around the Leader and her axis should not be forward.

The Follower needs to pivot in two places: (1) on the forward (front cross) step to the open step. (2) Immediately after the open step into the back cross (overturned back ocho) step. The energy of both these steps should be of going and pushing off. It is very important that the Follower keep her axis back.

We worked a lot on playing with the rhythm and timing of the turn.

The Follower needs to pivot on her metatarsal, but lift the heel and stay grounded, When the Follower is in the right sensation, it is when she is back, even though visually it doesn't look like it. Basically, she needs to think and be back to be visually straight.

The Leader determines the speed of the turn, and he can lead a slow turn or fast one or anything in between.

The Follower needs to push off, propel, and pivot in the turn, and be on axis while she is doing it.

Next, we worked on rhythmic variations, first working on the double time in the turn dancing to regular tango, and then to vals, working on the 1-2 rhythm. Here the QQ needs to be faster and shorter.

The Leader keeps the Follower in front of him with his right hand on the back of her sternum.

Next, we went back to the regular tango musicality, but added the Leader optional footwork of the pencil (lapice). The Leader does a front cross of his left foot before his right foot weighted leg, and then mirrors the footwork with the Follower, going in front as the Follower does her back step, to open, and then back out, all the while pivoting on his right foot.

The Follower has to wait for the Leader to do his front cross and not step until he unwinds with his front step.

Then we added the optional ending of the Leader parada on either side, depending on the direction of the turn.

DAY 2

Milonga

We began our day with a review of what we learned yesterday.

In the turn, the Follower does a really big pivot on the back cross step (overturned back ocho), with her legs together at all points of the pivot before stepping back. She should keep her belly back in the turn.

We also drilled the Leader's parada some more. We also focused on the Follower pivoting a lot at the point before the back cross step. In the Follower's clockwise molinete, she becomes the motor and the Leader can do whatever he wants with respect to footwork. Thus, we drilled the Leader's parada, doing multiples of them on the left side and right side. We also practiced the Leader doing weight changes to do sacadas, on the left and right sides. The Follower should continue to do her full turn, forward, side, back, side, forward, etc., while the Leader does sacadas to her various trailing feet.

Maestra said regarding body tilt in the open embrace versus close embrace is BS. The difference between open and close embrace just depends on how close or far the axis are to each other. But the axis of the upper bodies themselves is upright and is the same. The goal is to have a comfortable, natural, and organic feel to the embrace

Break

Next, we drilled a simple sequence with a focus on pivoting a lot, and keeping our axis (our bellies back during the turn, not tilting in or heads and shoulders tilting away). The sequence included a parada, and also a Follower planeo of her left leg as the weight is on her right and the Leader walks around her. He can conclude with a parada.

Next, we worked on changes of direction. Maestra noted that every ocho is a change of a direction.

So we worked on changes of direction in the turn and in the walk and the ocho, and the molinete: back cross to front cross, front cross to back cross, with the Leader changing the front where he does it. The Follower needs to have lots of torsion and she needs to pivot more (much more than she thinks she should).

DAY 3

We began the day of a review.
Parada with Leader's lapice, into sacada, into turns, with different options for the Leader and Follower. In all that we do, we should remain connected in the bra line. We also worked on changes of direction from the ocho, back cross to front cross. In changes of direction, the Follower needs to take big steps with push-off because the change of direction has a lot of momentum.

For the Leader, the footwork is open step to open step, while the Follower does back cross to front cross (big steps). The Follower needs to focus on the pivot and complete it all the way before stepping back. For the Follower, in vals and milonga, she should be more grounded as if you want to slow the Leader down.

Working some more on changes of direction, we worked on combining the Follower's cross footwork:
Back cross to front cross
Front cross to back cross
and moving her center through space.
Next, we added the open to open on the slow step.
Here, both Leader and Follower need to step circularly. The Follower has to really go on the side step, with a full weight transfer. The Follower needs to invest more in the standing leg, and the free leg will be free to do ________ (anything, fill in the blank).

Break

The Follower should work hard to go, to move.

For the afternoon, which was much harder on the Leaders, we worked on combination of changes of direction with different Leader footwork options:

Follower does open to open step while Leader does:
back cross to front cross
front cross to back cross
front cross to pivot to front cross
back cross to pivot to back cross
as the dancers are perpendicular to each other

end of day 3 (which was good as I think the Leader's brains were going
to explode if we didn't stop).

DAY 4

We began with a review of the changes of direction.

Follower's back cross to front cross, in double time.
Leader's back cross to front cross, with Follower's open to open, which was interesting, but not the most beautiful thing you can do in tango.

Next we worked on close embrace, with the Follower collecting as each leg passes to adjust her standing foot to be with the Leader. The Follower should not be split weight, otherwise she doesn't commit. The Follower should always aim to collect, always have the intention to collect. This is what will enable her to push off at each step.

For the changes in direction, our first level of difficulty is for the
Follower do to:
Front to back
Back to front
Open to open
all in each direction, and the step is based on what the Follower is doing.

The next level of difficulty is where the the Leader changes his
footwork in any of the above, with his footwork being
Back to front
front to back
(in the first level of difficulty his footwork was open to open)

The Follower needs to stay with the Leader, as the change of direction is a suspended motion. She should not fall in between the steps and she should not be flat.

Again, we drilled this material for a long time, as repetitive tasks are a good way to drill the material.

We also reviewed the Leader's lapice, parada, and change of direction.

Break

We began the afternoon with Circular Ganchos (ed note: NOT those icky and sophomoric stop-and-park ganchos)
Ganchos are something we usually learn too early, so it usually looks horrible (ed note: so tru dat)
For the Follower, the gancho is a step that never happens. You rebound and come back. It's like a change of direction, back cross to front cross.
We need to break lots of bad gancho habits from before (ed note: tru dat!)

The circular gancho we drilled was:
On the Follower's right foot back cross step, the Leader does a right foot sacada in front of the Follower's right foot, as she steps back, and her left foot does a back gancho of the Leader's right leg.
To this we added the Leader stepping around the Follower afterwards, to send her free leg to the other side.
The Follower was to gancho hard, not cut or truncate the movement because she is anticipating a gancho. It is supposed to be organic, and a she should step as if she will step (but the step never happens).
Again, she should pivot/rotate a lot, and keep her legs collected at the point of pivot, and step big after the pivot.

We tried this both on the left side and the right side.
The Leader receives the gancho on the back part of his leg:
Left turn with Leader's right leg
Right turn with Leader's left leg.

DAY 5

Review of Ganchos
We reviewed several types of ganchos:
On the Follower's back cross:
Leader's left leg to Followers' left leg
Leader's right leg to Follower's right leg
to receive the gancho at the front of the Leader's leg
to receive the gancho at the back of the Leader's leg

Our drilling was to give us tools to give our ganchos more dynamics (circularity).
The Follower should not anticipate the gancho, and she should not lose the quality of her front cross step.
For the Follower's leg to be free to gancho, she needs to bend her standing leg. With respect to quality of the step, she needs to bend from the standing leg to push off.

We left ganchos for now, and worked on musicality and timing in vals versus tango.
So we worked on dancing on the 1-3-1 and the 1-2-1, doing the various things we learned all week to those rhythms.
We also added the contra boleo for the 1-3-1 timing.
We also worked a little on milonga musicality.

---------------------

It was a very good, productive week.

Personally, I felt very happy and relaxed throughout, as none of this information was new to me as I had heard it all in Intensivo A, B, and Al Cuadrado, but it was really great to be able to drill it as much as we did, and with maestra's fantastic assistants, many with whom I have worked on this material for years.

I cannot say enough good things about the Luciana Valle Intensivo experience. Though I have never really considered LV to be one of my teachers of Follower's technique, in fact, she really has been. Though she does not teach pretty adornos, her emphasis on the free leg versus the standing leg and her instructions on posture, bra line, and pivoting a lot have really been significant keys for me to become a better dancer. And in transcribing my notes, I get a kick out of seeing that she is one of those teachers who teach Followers to be "more heavy" (which I read to be more stable and present).

August 9-14

2011-08-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 12, 2011
Afternoon milonga @ Triangulo (4:30-8:30 p.m.). When I arrived @7:00 p.m., I was warmly greeted by the door volunteer. Actually, not just warmly. She gushed. She was extremely enthusiastic and effervescent. She made me feel like I was the milongas long-lost favorite tanguera, even though I had never been there in my life. In short, she was the perfect door volunteer. Or maybe she was the organizer. I don't know. But man, I was just complete shocked at the positive good vibes she threw off.

Triangulo is an older space with nice hardwood floors, and two huge window air conditioners mounted high, supplemented by large area fans (not the gigantic professional/institutional ones). There is a full-length trompe l'oeil mural at the opposite end of the room that has a wonderful milonga scene of New York. How d I know it's of New York? Well, looking closely at the faces of the dancers portrayed, it is obvious that the most clearly animated ones are of folks from the local New York dance community. So it was quite a kick to see it. In the mural, the curtains to the milonga are parted back by Carlos Gardel on right side, and a famous bandoneon player on the left.

For libations and snacks, there was wine and water, chip mix (cheese puffs, corn chips, pretzels, that type of thing), pineapple, cake, and candy.

The milonga was already crowded when I got there, and folks looked very happy. Dancewise, I had a few not-so-great tandas, and one absolutely fantastic tanda that knocked my socks off. It was the best one I have had in NYC so far. In speaking with the dancer, I was a little disappointed to learn that he was only a recent NYC resident, and that he had learned his craft in Chicago. Not that I am dissing Chicago, but I have yet to experience New York's finest on the dance floor. But maybe that is just me still working my way up the ranks...

I specifically wanted to go to this milonga since I was channeling JSE (who continues to live la vida portena) and planned to go to another milonga afterwards, Milonga Rosa at the Ukranian East Village Restaurant. So when the afternoon milonga ended at 8:30 p.m., I changed back into my street shoes and hoofed it down 6th Ave, with my destination the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, about 12 short blocks away.

I passed by many of those $1 per slice pizza places that NY is famous for. I admit, in all the 20 years I've visited NY, I have never had one. And so, even though I was going to have dinner at Ukrainian, I succumbed to curiosity and popped into one for a slice. And what did I think? Well, it tasted exactly as a $1 slice of pizza should: not magic, not tragic. OK for when you are starving, and lean on cash and time. Would I buy one again? Probably not. I'd splurge and get a $3 slice of pizza, which isn't as good as Blondies, but serviceable enough.

As I walked down 6th Ave, chomping away on my $1 pizza, I started to feel guilty because I had been looking forward to the Lamb Shank and Kasha at Ukrainian. Oh what to do? Eat the whole thing and be too stuffed to really enjoy the lamb shank? Or throw away the half-eaten pizza with grandma's voice ringing in my head saying "the most expensive food you will ever buy is what you throw away"?

I felt a bit of anxiety over my predicament, but the dilemma was nearly instantly solved, as magically, the Angel of the Guiltily Half-Eaten Slice of Pizza suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, asking for the rest of my pizza. Naturally, I happily complied and even gave him my unused napkins. He actually looked a little surprised that I did it so easily and cheerfully. Problem solved. :o)

When I got to the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, it was the same as when I was here a few years ago. Even the menu (and their prices) had not changed. So I got the lamb shank with kasha, and it set me back all of $10.95, which is a huge bargain as it came with salad and table service. It was delicious.

I got to watch the tail end of the lesson, taught I believe by Dani Carpi, the organizer of Milonga Rosa, and it seemed like he gave some good technical pointers related to the step the were working on, which was the ocho to the sandwich and the concepts of suspension and settling. Though I didn't take it, it looked like a pretty good lesson.

The milonga itself was fun. The lesson was full, and it got even fuller throughout the night for the milonga. The same guy from earlier with whom I had the fantastic tanda showed up, so we got to dance two more tandas, which were sublime. Dallas showed up later on, and I delightedly went over to him and greeted him. I hadn't seen him since he taught in San Francisco with Chelsea since I missed Austin for Thanksgiving last year. Happily, he too has relocated to NYC to work on his non-tango career, so he'll be around at the local milongas. His dancing is as great as ever.

Junior Cervilia and Natalia Royo did a great three-song performance: a traditional tango, a performance tango, and a milonga.

After that, I was pretty much tuckered out, so I made my way to Grand Central to catch the train home.

Saturday, August 13, 2011
Still channeling JSE, I had planned to go to two milongas this evening, Pa'milonguear@Dardo Galleto Studios and the All Night Milonga@Stepping Out.

I was curious about Pa'milonguear since Carolina Zokalski and Diego Di Falco were the hosts of this practicalonga. I took lessons from them in Austin and found them to be excellent teachers. When I got there, there were only a few people in the room, and the volunteer door person told me that Carolina and Diego were travelling and would not be at the practicalonga that night. So he said I was welcome to join, but that there would be no practica feedback. I peeked inside the space and saw only a few dancers, with several followers just sitting and one leader standing, and one or two couples dancing. So I thanked the volunteer for being frank about the situation, and decided to save my $10 for the next time Carolina and Diego were in town and the place was a little more full (he said there are usually 20-30 people).

I tried to decide if I should walk the 20 short blocks to Stepping Out or if I should take the subway. Since I had a lot of time, I decided to walk, thinking that it might be nice to just walk straight down from Broadway. That lasted all of one block since the throngs of people made it feel like I was a salmon trying to swim upstream, and I quickly decided it would be better for me to walk down 6th Ave.

Things really quieted down in the 20's, and I made my way with enough time to pop in to another pizza place for a slice. This one was $4.25, which I thought was kind of high, but there was a large selection of gourmet toppings (eggplant, spinach, broccoli, fried chicken). My sliced was OK.

Stepping Out is a large dance studio, with one large center room, and two other big rooms on either side. On this night, one of the rooms was the alt/nuevo room, and the other one was a practice space or space for dancers to dance big and not disturb all the other dancers at the main milonga. The floors are a nice hardwood, and though the place has central AC, there were also fans around to help with the air circulation.

The lesson was taught by Veronica Palacios and Omar Quiroga, and began as usual with one warm-up danced so they could assess where we were in our education. We began with the basics, walking and connection, as these are the cornerstones of tango. The concept of punto zero (point zero) is very important. Maestros illustrated the concept by showing us the wrong way, where their legs would pass quickly against each other with no pause, seemingly through and oblivious to the music, versus the right way, where the movement is very clean, very elegant, and always collecting with one weighted foot and one free foot with a nanopause at the point where the ankles are next to each other and the feet are together, before they pass each other--that is point zero.

So we tried to walk with this concept in our heads and bodies, and for the Leader and Follower to have the same timing. So we walked to one song in close embrace. Maestra noted that men needed to have intention when they walk. In partnership, men always walk forward using their whole body. And Followers need to be connected to the Leaders in their walk, and not transmit the energy backward (like pinball bouncing away). The Follower needs to make the Leader feel her presence in the embrace.

Connection is not just in the chest, it's in the whole body. For dancers of substantially different heights, they need to find their point of connection. The Follower has to find out how to connect her body with his. If you are a tall Leader,
you do not need to take big steps, but can walk normally.

Next, we worked on a simple, fun pattern. Side step Leader's left, Follower right, to a Leader's walk forward 3 steps (Follower back 3 steps), to Leader's weight change to lead Follower to do 2 milonguero back ochos (not much pivot). Leader should always keep the Follower straight, because if he turns his body in any way, the Follower is going to cross. The weight change of the Leader does not mean to change the walk of the Follower. After we worked on cleaning up the technique of this and drilling it in our muscle memories, the step was changed.

We did a side step Leader's left, Follower's right, to a Leader's walk forward (Follower back), inside and outside to Follower's back ocho, leading her to cross. Then a Follower right side step to sandwich Leader's right foot. Here, they connect at the feet and the Leader lifts the Follower's left foot with his connected right foot, to bring it up and over to the right side of her right foot in a cross. With his weight still back, he then does a small barrida of her left foot, moving it farther away (opens the cross more), then pivots around it to sandwich it again, pivots her around so that she pasadas with her right foot out to resolution. It was a fun little step.

The milonga got very crowded, and I sat out a lot. I declined a dance with someone. He's a nice enough guy, and looks OK when he dances simply with other Followers, but when we dance, I feel very pole to his pole dancing, where he tries a lot of new things but doesn't execute them well, and does a lot of stop-and-park ganchos (which I absolutely loathe on top of being very cool to ganchos to begin with). And I hate to be so prima donnaesque about this, but at some point, I'd just prefer to sit out rather than suffer through a tanda.

And yet I do recognize for him to actually be able to execute whatever it is he is working on, he needs to try it out on Followers. So there I was, having this existential conversation in my head, on the one hand not wanting a bad tanda, and yet on the other hand knowing that in a way it is the Follower's responsibility to help Leaders improve and aid in their development, even if we suffer in the meantime.

I spent a lot of time watching at this milonga (as I was not inspired to dance much), and I watched a lot of skilled Leaders dance with much lesser Followers and seem happy to do it (and happy to teach on the milonga dance floor...but that would mean I would go off on another tangential rant). So there seems to be a huge difference in how Leaders and Followers (or me!) accept the situation of dancing with beginners or improvers. Leaders seem to do it cheerfully, most Followers less so.

Before I left SF, I asked a Leader bluntly about this, about how he is a truly excellent dancer, and yet he dances with a lot of beginners and looks extremely happy and joyful when he does (the same as when he dances with the skilled Followers). He said that he is basically dancing the same dance with all the Followers, but that every Follower is different in how she responds to his lead, and the Followers respond in unique, sometimes delightful and often unexpected ways, even if they are beginner. To him, that's fun, and every Follower is a blessing to dance with. Sure, he recognizes that the beginner follower's technique is not there, but for him the point of tango is not just to dance with technically perfect dancers, nor is it to develop Followers and teach them how to improve their technique or work improved technique into the beginner Followers' bodies. For him it's a communication thing, and a getting along and having a good time thing. Which gave my brain an interesting nugget to chew on. As a Follower, I wish I had the same type of positive, happy, joyful, compassionate and understanding disposition at being a pole to his pole dancing, but I am afraid I just don't.

I also heard a bit of griping on the parts of Followers in the SF Bay Area about not liking to go to lessons because they are targeted at Leaders and they feel as though they are just tango props as the Leaders hack away at their stuff, which kind of surprised me as each lesson gives every Follower an opportunity to perfect her craft, to perfect her technique. She can work on making every step she takes as beautiful, as clean, and as precise as she can, which let's face it...that's hard work! But it's also something that all Followers can work on. Even if it's just a side step (and being precise, accurate, smooth and complete with her weight change), or walking backwards or forwards, or working on pivoting well and remaining in balance on one foot, or reaching well as she does ochos, etc. And of course everything needs to be done with good posture (most of us have room to improve there too) and respecting point zero (and not cutting it short with flailing feet).

August 1-8

2011-08-09T15:49:00.001-07:00

Thursday, August 4, 2011
Corazon Milonga at Pierre DuLaine. One of the nice things about tango in NYC is that there are lots of milongas during the week that start very early, around 7:00 p.m. This one intrigued me because it was at the Pierre DuLaine studio, made famous by the Antonio Banderas movie Take the Lead.

It was easy enough to hop on a train to Grand Central, but I nearly got run over when I arrived in NYC by all the people rushing around, intent to catch their trains. It reminded me of when I first visited NYC and was told to "look mean, walk fast", because those folks at Grand Central at 6:30 p.m. on a weekday sure did look mean and walk fast, and with lots of intention.

The Pierre DuLaine studio is at the south part of Koreatown, so I got a chance to walk along 32nd St. (the heart of it) and check out the purveyors of all things Korean. I was not disappointed on the food end of things, as there were Korean restaurants galore, filled with folks of the Asian persuasion, having dinner at an earliesh hour. There was also a Korean market that looked pretty good, not as good as Kukje in Daly City, but good enough for Korean food fixin's, and open until midnight every night of the week.

The milonga itself is in a very nicely air conditioned studio, and there were ample snacks (chips, pretzels, the saltiest peanuts I had ever eaten in my life, sugar wafers, chocolate chip cookies, scones, water and ample wine). Since this was an early evening milonga that was from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., it never got super crowded, but was reasonably full. Dancers were mostly improvers and those seriously addicted. I had an OK time. Left around 9:30 p.m. since it was a school night.

They had two raffles and prizes were (1) free entry into the next Corazon milonga on Tuesday, and (2) free entry into the Saturday milonga hosted by the same organizer, which should be great since Veronica Palacios (Luna's sister) is teaching. I was hoping to win, but didn't. That won't stop me from going to the Saturday milonga though since I adore all things Luna.

Friday, August 5, 2011
Purple Orchid Milonga at Dance Times Square. I wanted to go to this milonga the week before, when it was the opening night but I missed it. So I tried this week since it was so close to Grand Central. It also started early (8:30 p.m.) with a lesson beforehand (7:30 p.m.), so it was easy to just take the train in directly after work.

When I got there, I saw that there were only a few beginner-looking students for the lesson, so I decided to sit it out and just observe and take notes. Host Marco Leal taught the lesson, and since the class was so small, he decided to focus on the basics. So they worked a bit on walking with connection, and Marco talked about how the Leader takes the Follower in the embrace, and a little bit about the technique of Leading. He emphasized for the ladies that they needed to work on their molinetes, and he demonstrated the technique by going around one of the very small stool/chairs in four steps. He emphasized that the Leaders needed to be upright, straight and tall in their dance, not hunched over the Follower at all. He also said that the Leaders had to work on being able to pivot on one foot also so they could do interesting elegant things like enrosques. He also spoke a little bit about dance party etiquette, and that people should not interrupt other people in conversation to ask them to dance, but to use eye contact instead. He did not use the word cabaceo. He also demonstrated the different types of tango dance music, including canyengue, milonga, and vals, to captivate these beginner students' imaginations for what their dance possibilities are. So the lesson was heavy on the verbiage, but a little light on the student physicality.

The milonga itself started out a little slow, with just the students, me, and the organizer and his two volunteers for about the first hour. We often amused ourselves by going over to the snack table, which was absolutely the most gorgeous one I had ever seen. I thought certainly this was either composed by a professional caterer or a socialite wife, and I was not wrong. It turns out one of the volunteers was indeed a professional caterer. The food was fruits (blueberrie$, strawberries, red and green seedless grapes), baby carrots, blue potato chips, flax seed chips, pretzel bites, pesto dip, green and black olives, and three different types of cubed gourmet cheeses. Instead of plates, there were small sheets of brown butcher paper rolled up into cones with the bottoms folded over to secure them, similar to how street vendors sell roasted nuts. These brown cones were stacked inside each other and laid on the side, and were a very simple, elegant, earth-friendly alternative to cocktail plates or napkins.

The room itself is gorgeous, with a wonderful ceiling, and mirrors on some sides/sections of the room (one where you can see into infinity, which is a trip). The atmosphere was made warm and elegant by the purple orchids all around, including in the luminaries and in the color of dress of the hostess volunteers. The vibe reminded me of MUSE, only prewar and with a lot more patina, but still the same careful attention to detail and desire for excellence and elegance. The floor is a very nice hardwood. The bathroom, along with the usual vessels, had a shower in it. So it was typical of what you'd find in someone's apartment. Thankfully, this night was sparse enough so there was never a line.

Dancewise, I had a good time. The milonga became fuller and fuller, so we eventually gained enough mass with many good Leaders in attendance to make things fun for the Followers. I had many good tandas, and everyone was very nice and friendly. I found the host and his volunteer hostesses to be incredibly warm, charming people. They were all super-friendly to me throughout the night, and one gal gave me some purple orchids to take home as I was leaving.

It was a very nice night.

Saturday, August 6, 2011
Amarras Milonga @ Dancesport with lesson beforehand by Veronica Palacios and Omar Quiroga. The lesson was one that started with a simple three-step walk forward, and three quick weight changes in place. Our goal here was to do this to the music (our orchestra for the lesson was DiSarli). Then, the step was changed where instead of three small quick weight changes in place, the Leader would lead three slight small steps back and bring the Follower toward him, but not too much (it's a very small movement). The Leader transmits the lead with his embrace. Then the movement was changed, curving it, so that when the Follower does her three quick weight changes, she does left foot back ocho (back cross) step, right foot side step, left foot tight front cross, led by the Leader turning his body, and pivoting on both his feet with his weight on his left foot, and then he steps with his right foot to unwind as the Follower does her left foot tight front cross step as she goes around in a counterclockwise molinete. This movement has to be small to dance in the often crowded social dance floor.

To this, the Follower adorno was added as the Leader leads her to do another forward ocho (front cross) step with her right foot. Before she steps, the Leader can lead Follower to add an accent to her pivot. The adorno on the pivot showed was the air tap and also the quick sharp pivot (dynamic forward ocho). Someone asked if adornos were led and if the Leader should wait for the Follower to do them. Maestra said that Follower adornos are the musical interpretation of the music. In our simple step, the Leader leads the accent as the Follower comes back around in her right foot forward ocho (front cross) step, but whether the adorno is an air tap or a dynamic sharp pivot depends on what the music dictates and how the Follower interprets it.

It was a good lesson, but Follower heavy, so I sat it out a good bit of time as I found I got more out of it by taking detailed notes and watching Maestra's footwork. Regarding Maestra's footwork, it is truly amazing, a sight to behold. It's incredibly precise and expressive, extremely articulate, with beautifully flowy undulation. Her feet have an extraordinarily clear, commanding voice, and they have such presence and so much to say about the music. I got so much out of the class, not just from her verbal instruction or working through the physicality of the step, but by watching her footwork and body movement. There was a point in class where she did the forward, side, and back steps of the molinete, and she did it with such effortless balance and precision. She made it look so easy and like it is the most natural thing in the world, even though it's not.

The milonga itself got even more crowded with Followers, so it began a bit slow for me. That was OK though since I got to watch Maestra social dance. Eventually, though, I got bored, and rather than stare down the Leaders for a tanda, I decided to have a drink at the bar. There, I saw that this milonga had some freebie snacks (Pringles, pretzels, and cookies-- chocolate chip cookies, chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookies. There were empanadas for sale ($7 for three, with choices of beef, chicken, and spinach); I tried them, and they were pretty good. The dough was on the dense, chewy, bready side (not light, airy, flaky, pastry side). Sizewise they were comparable to those in BsAs, and flavorwise they were fine. The beef had no egg in it, but had olives. For libations, there is a full bar in addition to beer and wine, so I had a Manhattan, which was made just right, a bit pricey at $10, but relatively cheap compared to the wine ($6-8) or beer ($7).

The midnight hour soon rolled around, and Maestros did a three-song performance, which was fantastic. They really went all out, with Omar in a tux and Veronica in a lovely formal dress. Afterwards, they came by the bar for a post-performance celebratory drink. There, we got to chat a little, and I told Maestra that she, Luna, and Alejandra were the absolute best and that no other Followers came even close to their level. She smiled and accepted my compliment graciously. We talked about their schedule, and lucky for me and NYC, they are going to be around for another six weeks. So I will be sure to catch as many of their premilonga lessons as I can, as I get a huge amount out of time just watching her dance (so different from YouTube, where in real life I can truly experience first hand all the subtle nuances).

After their performance, the floor thinned out, and I decided I had warmed the bar stool long enough. I had several good tandas, and one excellent milonga tanda. So even though I didn't put in much floortime, I still had a great evening.

Sunday, August 7, 2011
Milonga RoKo@Manhattan Ballroom Dance. The lesson was a good one, that focused on cleaning up the technique for some simple moves. Robin Thomas was the teacher, and he had a Follower assistant teacher whose name I did not get. I got there a little late, and the class had already begun.

The question in the Leader leading the 8CB to 5 (cross), why does the Follower not cross sometimes? It's because she feels disconnected from the Leader's chest. The Leader turns his chest toward the Follower. After the 5 (cross), the Leader steps left foot forward straight toward the Follower, matching the Follower's left foot. Before the cross, the Follower should take a big right foot step back so that the cross feels natural. After the Follower cross, the Leader does a rick step on his left foot straight toward the Follower. The Leader should keep his back back on the heel that's behind him so it's a true rock step. Follower does a right foot back step to a side step. She should always keep her distance from the Leader the same and from hips to shoulders the same. Sometimes the Leader leads the cross so that the Follower changes direction (which is wrong). The Leader should turn his chest into the line of dance in a straight line, turning towards the Follower first and then into the line of dance straight (not a "J" movement).

Next, we switched things up some more with the Leader turning counterclockwise, stepping around the Follower while she does back ocho steps. His steps are such that left foot steps front cross a little bit under himself (so his feet are in an "L" position to each other with left heel perpendicular to right big toe), and then pivoting out to a right foot side step. During this step, his right foot steps with her right foot back ocho and his left foot steps with her left foot back ocho. She pivots a lot on her left foot back ocho (more like 180 degrees versus 90 degrees for her right foot back ocho). The Follower waits for the Leader's upper body to turn and that's how she knows how much to pivot. She does not do the pivot from her hips on her own. Since the Follower's ochos are uneven, the Leader needs to give her more time on one side. Follower should not have a stiff embrace; she should keep it soft so that she can pivot. Leader should not use his right hand on the Follower's spine to move her around; it's manipulative and uncomfortable.

In tango, we are always bending and straightening our legs, one or the other. In the Follower's big pivot, both knees need to be bent. The Follower should pivot a lot to get clean back steps, and always collect in between. The Leaders goal is to make a tight circle with his right foot side step and left foot front cross step.

Follower should not be too easy to move. She should try to corkscrew into the ground to make the pivot, and then step. The Follower's hips are perpendicular to the Leader as she makes her back step.

Then we linked all the steps together, fitting it into the line of dance: 8CB to 5 (cross), rock step, side step, 180 degree turn of Follower back ochos while Leader steps around her, etc. In practicing this in the line of dance, the Leader needs to always be in control of where he's going and what they're doing, and always do it in the line of dance. It was a very good class.

Afterwards at the milonga while we were dancing, someone remarked about my note taking, asking about how long I've been dancing, and surprised that after all this time I still take notes. He also asked if I take the notes from the Leader or Follower perspective, and I told him both, although my emphasis has typically been on the Follower side of thing. He wondered out loud what things I wrote down about Followers' technique. And I got to thinking about it, a lot of times I write down what I've already heard before about FT, but for some reason haven't incorporated it into how I dance. Other times, like when I see someone truly brilliant dance, I write down some nugget that I got just by watching them. Or in the case of lessons, sometimes I do get pointers that are real doozies and that change the way I dance *forever*. Right now I keep taking notes because it keeps me mentally focused and alert, and in shape for when Homer & Cristina visit the East Coast later this year and we throw a few chapters down on the tangostudent.blogspot.

The milonga was OK. It was crowded, but not obnoxiously so. Same crowd as the previous weeks. For some reason, I got really tired after the first few tandas, and then it occurred to me that the Leaders in NYC are a bit taller as a group than what I am used to in San Francisco. So my teres majors started to hurt, which they never had before. I try to keep my shoulders level and shoulder blades down, but there is still an element of lift when dancing with someone significantly taller. Multiply that by many tandas, several days in a row, and well, it starts to make itself known. After I danced with one of my favorite leaders, I called it a night.

July 24-31

2011-08-01T14:52:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 29, 2011I really wanted to go dancing, but when I was getting ready, it began to pour—one of those flash East Coast storms with booming thunder that set off many car alarms and downpours of buckets of water in a very short time while folks are still out and about in wife beaters and shorts and no umbrellas since it’s still 85 degrees out. Though I am not made of sugar nor am I the Wicked Witch of the West (though some might have their doubts on both sides of the equation), I decided to stay in rather than fight Mother Nature. That was OK though, as I got to help my roommate pack up his room and send him off on his jaunt. It was a little bittersweet as we’ve become good friends the last three weeks of living together.

Saturday, July 30, 2011I really wanted to go dancing, but earlier in the day I moved to my new apartment (and so spent the morning packing up my stuff and buying “furniture” for my new place). So when the hour came when I needed to get ready, I was already exhausted and ached from lifting, moving, and unpacking, and famished from working through the momentum of wanting to get everything unpacked. And unbeknownst to me, I made the AC freeze up and stop working because I turned it too low. Thus, the pipes needed to thaw and the unit drained, which only one other person (who happened to be on vacation this weekend, just like the landlord) knew how to do. So you can imagine that I certainly was a very popular new roommate on this sweltering day. (Not!!) But it was very satisfying to unpack all of my tango shoes and all of my tango clothes so that I finally feel “completely home” in that respect.

Sunday, July 31, 2011
Milonga RoKo @ Manhattan Ballroom Dance with lesson beforehand by Robin Thomas. I wanted to take the lesson as I had been curious about Maestro since he was Jennifer Bratt’s teaching partner from way back, and I had heard his name mentioned through the years as being a pretty good teacher.

The lesson started at 7:15 p.m., which means I had to catch the ~6:00 p.m. train from where I live, which meant I had to get ready at 5:15 p.m., which meant I had to skip dinner at the apartment. That was not a bad thing since it enabled me to stop at one NYC’s ubiquitous Halal food carts. Though I didn’t make it all the way up to the famous 53rd & 6th Halal Gyro Platter Cart (which I’ve been eyeing for a decade but STILL haven’t gotten to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/53rd_and_6th), conveniently, there was one right outside Grand Central. I got the Lamb & Rice platter with iceberg lettuce and tomato, all smothered in white sauce for $6. Since I didn’t want to sit inside Grand Central to eat, I made my way over to the New York Public Library and sat on the steps. It was great fun to pleasantly people watch as the day faded on a late, breezy Sunday afternoon, snarffling up the feast in the Styrofoam container perched on my lap. It is lucky that I don’t live in NYC, otherwise I’d eat a lamb platter every night, it is THAT delicious. I wanted to savor every bite, so after I was full, but had eaten only half my meal, I put the rest of it away to eat later on the train back home. So I tucked the rest of it away, and made my way over to the Manhattan Ballroom.

Upon arriving outside, I noticed that there were several parking spaces on the street. I looked around at the signs, and walked over to the communal meter spot to read the regulations and requirements. Then the building security guy came out and we chatted a bit. He recommended that I do drive in instead of pay the $18.50 train ride (or $15 with the discounted 10-ride ticket), as he said there were usually a few spots that time of night on Sundays. I was struck by how friendly the security guard was, but weary of his recommendation that I drive in since we’ve all heard car-break-in stories of decades past, pre-Bloomberg.

I got there a minute before the lesson started, so quickly changed my shoes. The lesson was a simple with one, with various simple sequences including side steps, forward and back steps for both Leader and Follower, and rock steps, the goal of which was to fit them into the music, especially milonga. The lesson was rich in technical detail for both the Leaders and Followers, and I found the content interesting and valuable. Normally, I am rather cool toward male teachers of Followers’ technique, but I could find no fault with what Maestro was teaching on the Follower (or Leader) side of the equation. What a treat in that milonga + lesson was only $12 (milonga only is $10). This has got to be the among the most bargain of quality lessons in NYC, and I was very pleased that a number of excellent leaders and followers were in the class.

The milonga itself was fun, more fun than last time for me. It was less crowded, though still full, and I got to dance with a number of very high level, high quality dancers (thanks to being introduced to them and working on the class content beforehand). I also sat at the table where an elderly gentleman who must be local tango royalty since everyone and their cousin seemed to come up to greet/kiss him, and since I was sitting there with him, they greeted me too, thinking I was part of his group. How bizarre is that?! And no, I did not crash his table; the host actually sat them next to me since it was the only table with space in it at the moment.

I danced up a storm early on, and things lulled a bit around 11:30 p.m., so I decided I had had my fill and it was time to go. I got to Grand Central in time for the express train back to my town, but the AC was broken. There was another train a mere 3 minutes later, though not an express. I decided to take that instead, as I was in no particular rush to get home and would certainly welcome the AC rather than skip it.

I don't know if I mentioned the floor and AC, but the floor is a nice wooden one, and the AC works beautifully, which is very important since it's been sweltering.

July 16-23

2011-07-24T07:12:00.001-07:00

Sunday, July 17, 2011
Milonga RoKo @ Manhattan Ballroom Dance. I missed the class beforehand, from 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., because to get there on time, I would have had to leave my apartment by about 6:00 p.m., which meant I would have had to start getting ready by 5:30 p.m. So timingwise, it was a bit of a stretch for a milonga that started at 8:15 p.m. I was a little confused when I got there and the door gal said the admission was $10. The NY tango page writeup said $12, but I suppose that was the price that included the lesson. When I got there, there was already a nice crowd, not packed, but a good number to make things interesting and fun. I spied a food table in the corner, and I was relieved. When I strolled by later on, I saw that it had a nice selection of nibbles: whole wheat ham, cucumber and mayonnaise finger sandwiches (bread cut into sixths, with crust and ends on unpretentiously and frugally), veggie platter, red and green grapes, and potato chips. There was also water from a filter machine, coffee and tea. In short, it was a nice little spread, enough to nourish us to dance the night away with food that should have pleased the vegans and the carnivores and everyone in between.

The milonga itself was super fun. Lots of folks came in throughout the night, and I had many quality tandas. The leaders were all gracious and charming. Floorcrafting became difficult throughout the night because of the increasingly dense crowd. Some dancers were clearly very technically skilled performance dancers, which was good for them, but which made for some unanticipated obstacles for the social dancers who made up 90% of the rest of the crowd. It became too crowded and the dancing became less fun, so I left around 11:30 p.m., an hour before the official end. And even then, I was told that it was a lighter-than-usual night. I'll be back, but definitely on the earlier side.

Saturday, July 23, 2011
New York Milonga @ Lafayette Grill. I tried to get there early enough for the free beginners' lesson, but wasn't able to since I got lost. It had been 20 or so years since I had taken the subway, so when I got out of the station and onto the street, I got turned around wrong so ended up walking four blocks north and then four blocks west when I needed to walk south. No biggie though, as it gave me a chance to scout out the lay of the land around the Canal Street exit. Chinatown is right there, so I will definitely be back since the city where I live does not have an Asian grocery store (Chinese or otherwise).

When I finally got going in the right direction, as I walked on Franklin Street, I noticed with surprise that there were quite a few parking spots. (The next day, my roommate confirmed that parking was free after 7:00 p.m. on Saturday and all day Sunday, so those might be the days to drive into the city, rather than foot the $18.50 round trip train fare + $4.50 round trip subway fare, as well as shave off an hour from the total commute time.)

When I got to the restaurant, the guy who organizes the milonga, Mega Martinez, was telling another tanguera who got there just ahead of me that there was no beginners' lesson that night because no one showed up for it. So that gave me a chance to cool off a bit at the bar with a club soda with lime, which was very refreshing on this second-to-the-hottest day I've experienced yet on the East Coast, but a little steep at $4 ($5 with tip).

While I was sitting at the bar, I asked the bartender if I could look at the menu, telling her I wasn't going to order anything at that moment. The restaurant touts itself as Mediterranean, and most of the dishes were Grecian in nature. Starters on the menu were generally $10-15, and the main courses were $15-30. They had calamari and octopus on the menu, so that really piqued my curiosity. The gal sitting next to me was having the mussels ($15) and the very ample portion looked delicious next to the freebie bread and butter and bowl of olives. When she was done, I overheard her tell the bartender that they were the best mussels she had ever had in NYC.

The intermediate lesson was taught by Jon Tariq, and it was an interesting sequence. Follower side step right (Leaders left), Follower left foot back (Leader right foot forward), Follower side step right (Leader left foot weight change), Leader does right foot barrida of Follower's left foot, Follower pivots counterclockwise on left foot as the Leader changes his feet to offer his left foot in parada. After Follower completes her pivot with feet collected, she pasadas over the Leader's left foot with her right foot, to a side step. Leader then offers his right thigh for Follower to gancho with her right leg. For Follower's technique on the gancho, Maestro recommend that the leg go up and tightly around after the gancho, not out. After the gancho, Follower pivots a lot and collects, after which she does a right foot back sacada of Leader's trailing left on his forward right foot step as he leads her in a clockwise molinete. He can also add a shared-axis turn (mini colgada) at this point.

So it was a very interesting lesson chock full of fun things though light on the technical minutia, well worth the $5 fee on top of the $12 milonga entrance.

The milonga was pretty good. It was the same night as the New York Tango Festival's black and white milonga (a pricey $35), so I imagine that it was slightly less crowded than usual. That being said, it was plenty but not overly crowded. I had many very nice tandas.

At 10:00 p.m., about an hour into it, I got really hungry (having had dinner at 6:00 p.m. before I got ready). I saw a fellow classmate having dinner alone, so I joined him at his table. He had the moussaka with salad, and it was a very ample portion. I had the octopus starter ($15), and it was ample and glorious-- the best octopus I had ever had in this country -- char grilled and served on a bed of lettuce. Curiously, when we finally got the bill, there was a charge for "service charge" that roughly amounted to about 15%. Neither I nor my dining companion knew if that meant "tip" so we might have ended up undertipping. I'll have to look up NY Service Charge on google to make sure.

After that I danced some more, and at 11:00 p.m., a portena singer in town who performed at the Festival, Geraldine (last name I didn't quite catch), sang 5 songs, (Milena, Mi Buenos Aires Querido, two other songs, concluding with Don't Cry for Me Argentina). She has a very nice voice and very modern, jazzy interpretations of these classics.

Maestro Jon Tariq and his performance partner for the evening, Maestra Carolina Juarena (who teaches a Followers' technique class on Wednesdays at Triangulo) did a very nice three-song performance. I was surprised at just how good of a dancer he is, especially in milonga, as he and Carolina looked great (she has fantastic technique, though you could see she hesitated a bit when he led her in an aerial). Afterwards, two raffle prizes were given away: a nice bottle of wine and entry into a future Saturday Lafayette Grill milonga.

By the midnight hour, it was really crowded, so I ended up sitting a lot after that, which was fine with me because even though the facility has air conditioning and fans to help circulation, it was still very warm (to me, uncomfortably warm to dance). So I checked the clock and I figured I had just enough time to catch the second-to-last express train back to my town.

So back to the Canal subway station I went, just missing the 6 to Grand Central. So I had to wait 10 minutes for the next one. Even though I was sitting down and it was nearly 1:00 a.m., I was dripping with sweat, it was so hot down there. Thankfully the train came on time, and it was air conditioned. There were plenty of passengers so it was a lively, safe ride. Unfortunately, we pulled in to Grand Central right as my train was pulling out, so I had to wait other 40 minutes for the next one.

I started to get hungry again, so ended up getting a pretzel and soda ($6), which I snarffled up right quick. The train soon came, and the ride home was uneventful. I again took another cab home, because even though it seems safe enough to walk, I didn't want to push my luck at 2:30 a.m. to save $6.

June 30 to July 15 - tour moves from SF to NYC

2011-07-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 1, 2011
VHS viewing: Bridge to the Tango: Followers' Technique by Carolina Zokalski. I watched this VHS after I went through my entire bookcase to get rid of books, DVDs, and video tapes to donate instead of pay the shipping cost to move. I have many Bridge to the Tango VHS tapes from one of the Tango Con*Fusion fundraisers, and this was one of them. I admit, most of the other videos have remained unviewed, even though I've had them for more than a year. This particular Followers' Technique video is a good one, with Maestra teaching in Castellano and Daniel Trenner translating to English, packed with lots of tips and specifics about Followers' Technique. That being said, at times, I had trouble keeping my eyes from drooping during the entire 75+ minutes of the tape. So excellent bang for your buck, if you are one of those students who is able to stay awake while watching videos (and this, for me, is a challenge, even for the 30-minute videos).

Saturday, July 2, 2011
Tango Universe at Lake Merritt Dance Center. I had such a good time at this event the week prior that I decided to go again. I was not disappointed. I had a lot of very nice dances, and nice goodbye conversations, too.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Pampa Cortes at Villa Del Sol. Ditto for this event (had such a good time last week that I went this week as well). The lesson built on last week's topic, and we did a few interesting variations on it, including the Follower's boleo, and also the Follower gancho after the Leader sacada. It was nice. Dinner this time was steaks all around. It was very yummy. One of the really nice things about this event is having dinner with everyone afterwards and conversing bilingually. Such a pity that I didn't attend this event more often. It is super fun and I would definitely make a point of going to it when I visit. I am very sad that I will miss Pampa's Pena on the 16th. :o(

Thursday, July 7, 2011
I had a few local tangueros over for some wine and nibblies on this night, what was supposed to be my last in SF. It was all very casually thrown together at the last minute, but everything came together nicely. The six of us were a perfectly gender-balanced group, and the conversation was lively. The potluck was mostly Mediterranean, with a sprinkling of dim sum, gourmet French cheeses and locally baked artisanal breads, rounded out with little bits of mint Its-Its for all, all well lubricated with some fancy California and Argentine wines.

Friday, July 8, 2011
There I was, miraculously packed and ready to go, when I got the call that the red-eye had been cancelled. What to do, what to do? Well, fish out a dress and a pair of tango shoes from my carry-on luggage and go dancing, of course! My options were the Nora Tango Week milonga or Elaine's Palo Alto milonga. I chose the latter, using it as an opportunity to return a few items at a certain local tanguera's home since it was on the way. And lucky for me, I also got a chance to bid adieu to her regal feline.

My errand caused us to be late for the lesson, which was unfortunate because I wanted to take it since I had heard good things about the teacher, Eric Lindgren. Since we were early for the milonga, we were able to go next door to Mango Caribbean to have dinner. They have the most delicious Ginger Beer I have ever tasted (it's homemade). I am no expert on Jamaican food, but what I ordered (a goat burrito-like thing, bone on), was delicious, albeit on the hot side (I asked for "medium" spicy; maybe I am a lightweight).

The milonga was nicely attended, but not excessively crowded. I had a good time dancing there. Sheri was also there, so it was super-fun to see her again before I left.

Friday, July 15, 2011
I thought about going dancing earlier in the week, but it was just too freakin' hot and humid for me to be bothered with putting forth the effort to go dancing. I don't live in a city where there is tango every night of the week (think once a month), so getting out requires a little more effort, expense, and planning.

Tango Lounge Milonga at Dancesport in NYC. There were several milongas on this night; I chose this one because it was within walking distance to Grand Central and because Ney Melo, based in New York again, was going to perform.

When I got to the train station to buy my ticket, I was a little surprised that the round trip to Grand Central was $18.50! I guess there will be no dancing 5 nights a week in these parts for me, even after my car arrives, since gas prices seem a little higher out here, and parking rates in NYC are astronomical (more than the train ticket!). Really wanting to go dancing, I just sucked it up and bought the ticket with my credit card.

Since I was early, I took the non-Express train, which took a little over an hour. The ride was pleasant and extremely air-conditioned. So i was thankful that I had the sense to bring a shrug so that my shoulders and arms weren't bare.

The walk to Dancesport from Grand Central was an easy 10 blocks. I walked mostly on Park Avenue, so it was safe both going and coming, very busy and bustling on this warm night. Before going to Dancesport, I spotted a Duane Reade that was open 24 hours. Remembering that there was a drugstore cosmetic touted by HollyAnn that I wanted to buy that I could never find in the SF Bay Area, I decided to pop in. I was not disappointed, as they had the exact item just where it was supposed to be, for the whopping $2.99. I was thrilled. I was also delighted that Duane Reade had a selection of gourmet to-go food items (sushi, sandwiches, salads) that could be purchased.

The facility has a very lovely hardwood floor, and is wonderfully air-conditioned, which I appreciated on this warm, humid night. The bathrooms had ample clean stalls, and extremely powerful commodes.The milonga cost was only $12, which I thought was reasonable. But then I figured out that they did not provide any nibbles or libations; those had to be purchased at the bar/cafe, which had wines, beer, coffee, teas, Italian and American sodas, and baked sweet carbs--cookies, brownies, biscotti, that type of thing. So foodwise, it wasn't my cup of tea.

When I got there, it seemed to me that the dancers were of pretty good skill. There were lots of folks content to just sit and watch from the cafe area, and others on the perimeter of the dance floor who didn't dance at all the entire night. There were more followers than leaders, and plenty of couples who did not switch partners, so I was worried that I would not get much floor time in. Thankfully, one of the locals gave me a whirl, and then others followed. I ended up dancing a good bit, and the Leaders were very kind, charming, and appreciative. It never got excessively crowded, and people seemed to come and go throughout the night. Floorcrafting was generally OKish, but at times not the greatest, as there were some couples a little more performance oriented, or a little more speed oriented than everyone else, and some leaders who liked to step backwards or stop traffic, or who thought the line of dance was more of a suggestion rather than rule. Or maybe everyone was just thrilled to have an open floor try try new things.

When Ney came later on, he recognized me and called out my name, which caused me to wave and smile at him from the dance floor. Alex P (who I had met in San Francisco during his lesson as Aneta's teaching partner) was also there, and he recognized me, too. We were able to give it a whirl later on (after he had danced his fill with taller dancers), so it was a nice treat to see a couple of familiar faces. Ney and performance partner for the evening, Elinor Westrup of Sweden, did a great two-song performance. She is very technically skilled. I tried to focus more on what Ney did, and it's clear that he is an extremely gifted leader with wonderful musicality.

The milonga went until 3:00 a.m., but I couldn't stay that late. I kept an eye on the clock since I didn't want to miss the last train (a few minutes before 2:00 a.m.). Factoring in the 15-minute walk to Grand Central, I decided to leave at around 1:00 a.m. I was starting to bonk since I hadn't eaten or drunk anything at the milonga and had been dancing through most of it.

So it was definitely time for me to go, and I was hoping at least one of the food carts that I had passed by on the way to the milonga was still open. Unfortunately, all of them except the pretzel guys, were closed. There was a McDonald's that was open 24 hours though, and spotting the drink machine with Dr. Pepper in it, I decided to give it a go. Either I hadn't been to a McDonald's in a long time, or their menu in NYC is different from the SF Bay Area, because they have Angus burgers out here. That's what I got. It was only OK, not as good as Carl's Jr's six-dollar burgers with Angus beef. Still, I was appreciative because it was going to be an hour or more before I got home and able to eat something there if I had waited.

Arriving at Grand Central, it was full of people and really bustling. The gals all looked very stylish and the guys all looked very appreciative of the gals' stylishness, There was a visible police presence to keep us all in order, so everything felt very safe. I managed to arrive a half hour early before the next train, which was an express. So I plopped down on the floor to eat my bagged meal from Mickey D's (my other choice was the stairs but that was quite far away from my track), next to a stylish young woman who had her head in her hands and was speaking into her cell phone, telling whoever it was that her head hurt.

The train ride was just OK. Unlike the first ride, which was quiet, this one had a couple of guys on it trying to pick up a couple of girls, who were having an amusing time of it, but from my view it was obvious they had already decided "no, thanks." They were all speaking obnoxiously loudly, and the the gals said something like they were not into sandwiches -- no baloney and no cheese. Still, the guy were doing their best to convince them to give them the time of day, which just irritated the other passengers around them and caused a few to move to another car and/or complain to the conductor (with a comment of "Thank God this was not a game night" with the implication that it would be even worse). Other folks just put on their headphones, turned up the volume to whatever they were listening to, and pulled their caps over their eyes.

It was a zippy 40-minute train ride home. Since it was so late, afterwards, I decided to take a cab since I wasn't sure about the walk back home and didn't want to risk it. I probably would have been fine, but was only a $5 fare, and I was grateful that it took a mere 3 minutes instead of 15 to get home.

June 23-29

2011-06-30T00:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 23, 2011
Late Shift Milonga. I didn't take the lesson beforehand, taught by Christy and Adolfo. The milonga was reasonably well attended, and got quite crowded toward the end. There were more Leaders than Followers, but those who were out seemed happy enough to socialize near the bar. Rina Gendelman did an exceptionally fine job spinning the tunes, keeping the energy safe, sane and mellow. I thought we all looked pretty elegant as a group. :o) I wore the Holy Grail shoes and they performed well.

Friday, June 24, 2011
MUSE Milonga with lesson beforehand by Jaimes Fridgen and Christa Rodriguez. I just caught the tail end of the lesson, and the focus was a simple sequence, but doing it musically and then playing with musical variations to add flavor and texture. It was a good lesson. The milonga was fun, with a nice crowd flowing through the entire evening. Mariana Andrly was supposed to be DJ, but the turntable (OK, mac) was hijacked without complaint by Jaimes Fridgen, who, unbeknownst to me and a lot of other folks, is famous for his DJing. So that was an unexpected musical treat. Maestros did a 2-song performance, which the crowd enjoyed. We also celebrated the day after the day after the birthday of Loren with a very nice birthday dance, with Jaimes taking Loren for the first spin. Walter and Raquel made it down from Mendocino, so it was a nice treat to dance and catch up with them. Though the lovely Rochelle was not in attendance, since this was the last MUSE before a 2-month summer break, she sent along two delicious treats: Bruschetta with mascarpone, fig jam, and pancetta (SUPER YUMMY!!!!), and some apricot bars, which rounded out the rest of the food offerings of veggies, fruit, and bunelos de acelga y champiniones (Swiss chard and mushroom balls) from Pablo (which the veggies loved), and my usual phyllo thingies (beef, egg and olive), cheesy potato chips and chocolate chip cookies and Sheri's delicious fruit-infused iced tea, which was very refreshing on this warm night. I wore the Holy Grail shoes and they performed well, though I felt a slight bit of play. Uh-oh. I hope this does not mean I am blowing out of them.

Saturday, June 25, 2011
TangoUniverse Milonga at Lake Merrit Dance Center. This was a fun milonga in the upstairs hall with pergo floor. The food was diced watermelon and cantaloupe, sliced cheese, sliced cold cuts, and some homemade Indian food of a rice dish and shredded green beans. The flavor of the Indian food was delicious in its depth and complexity, and the heat was spanked down to more westernized palettes. There was also a selection of wines for those who wanted to imbibe. The milonga was nicely crowded, but not obnoxiously so, and Ashvin did a very good job with the DJing so it turned out to be a very elegant, sweet evening. There was no crazed dancing, and floorcraft was reasonable (most people apologized when they bumped into someone). Interestingly, folks came from all around -- the South Bay, Marin, the East Bay and San Francisco, and it was interesting to hear their reasons for not going to more local-to-them milongas (or the ever-popular All Nighter). The volunteers at this event were especially great, as I was again amazed at how the two magical water pitchers never ran dry, despite the large, thirsty crowd and warm conditions. I didn't wear the Holy Grail shoes since I wanted to give them a rest in case I am starting to blow out of them. Still, I wore them for 7-8 milongas in a row (24 hours total) and they performed well throughout that time. But now I think I should give the shoes and my feet a rest and not test them so fervently.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Pampa Cortes lesson at Villa Del Sol. It had been many years since I first and last ate at this restaurant, in 2005 with the Chowhounds. Back then, I knew absolutely nothing about Argentine food, and from what I recall, the experience at the time was just OK, not great. Of course they were probably overwhelmed by all of us rather demanding diners (what do you expect from Chowhounds?). So it was with great interest when I saw this event pop up on tangomango.org since I had wanted to return to this restaurant after my BsAs experiences and knowing a little more about Argentine food, but I never got around to it. This time, I was determined. A quick search on the internet uncovered a restaurant.com coupon deal (buy a $25 coupon for $10), which I snapped up that afternoon. I had decided I wanted to have dinner before the lesson and practica, since that is generally how I roll to stave off bonking. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the restaurant around 6:30 p.m., we found it closed and no sign with the business hours. There was, however, a sign in the window that Pampa Cortes teaches there every Tuesday, with a beginners lesson and an intermediate lesson (which was not what was posted on tangomango.org). A later inspection of their web site http://villadelsol-argentine.com/index-main.htm showed that they are actually closed on Tuesdays, so obviously they open the restaurant just for Pampa's lesson and to feed hungry dancers afterwards, should they wish.

So instead, we went to the Peruvian restaurant down the street, Golden Inca Peruvian Restaurant http://goldeninca.webs.com/menu.htm. We had ceviche (a little too heavy on the acid, in my opinion, and the fish left a little too long in it), and their mixed grill, which was about a third offal. There was intestine, which I didn't like, but also ample tasty chicken gizzards and beef heart. There was also the usual grilled chicken, steak, and beef with little mounds of ginormous corn kernels, fresh and roasted a la corn nuts (only without the heavy-handed salt/MSG and spices found in commercial corn nuts that we ate as snacks as children). They also gave us some extremely tasty rice, gratis (and I normally don't even like white rice, but this rice was absolutely delicious). The owner was super nice and served as our waiter, host and chef. It was a very satisfying meal, and throughout it, I could not stop studying the menu and the pictures of the dishes on the wall as it was all very fascinating to see so many interesting dishes on the menu.

After dinner, we made our way back to Villa Del Sol to find the lesson already in progress. It was a simple sequence of going to the Follower's cross, and then doing forward ocho steps. We also worked a bit on the ocho cortado, followed by a rock step with Leader right leg stop to cause Follower to sandwich his foot, out to resolution. It was a nice lesson, and I got to demo a lot with Maestro. I also rotated among the beginner Leader students, who were very appreciative of my partnering with them. Maestro teaches in Buenos Aires style with demonstrating the step, commanding the students to watch and pay attention, and also splitting us into two groups so he could show the Leaders what to do as they watched behind him trying to copy is footwork and upper body torsion and lead, while the demo follower (this would be me for this class) did her part in front of him with all the follower students watching behind her and trying to copy what she does. For some parts of the class, he also took out every single follower and demonstrated with her so she could work the correct sequence into her muscle memory, like what Nito does.

Afterwards, a very generous student bought the entire group dinner at the restaurant (yes, you read that right!). So there we were, the dozen or so of us all sitting around with a delicious and simple meal of a couple of orders of Argentine parrillada (beef, chicken, pork, morcilla, chorizo), green salad, perfectly crispy French fries, and a couple of bottles of wine. The conversation flowed fast and fierce in Castellano, so it was a very entertaining evening and a great place for some folks to practice their Spanish (or English). My gringo companion (who is no stranger to BsAs) said it was the most authentic Argentine experience he's ever had in the San Francisco Bay Area. I would agree. It was a super fun, extremely culturally rich evening. Regretfully, I will only be able to attend this once more before I leave.

Sadly, I will also miss La Pena de Pampa Cortes on July 16 at Villa Del Sol. I was excited to receive the flyer, as Penas (dance parties, not specifically tango although some will be played, but more just general dancing, Argentine [chacarera and other folkloric dances], salsa, rock n roll, etc.) are popular in BsAs, but nonexistent in the SF Bay Area. The San Francisco Bay Area is very lucky to have such an amazing Argentine dance icon in its midst in Pampa Cortes, who is exposing a lot of us Gringo tango heads to Argentine culture beyond tango.

------------------

Last week's blog posting about the conversation I had with the Three Anonymous Leaders I had lunch with after a Sunday afternoon at Bollyhood piqued some folks' curiosity.

JSE and I got to emailing about parts of the conversation:

Ana:

I gotta tell ya, it's all preference. Like XY (not one of the three Leaders present that afternoon), he thinks I am a tad too heavy and too forward leaning and should be lighter, because that's how "the good dancers in SF are" and he likes superlight. He thinks that's how the "good" dancers in the Bay Area dance. But guess what? That is NOT how the good Leaders like it in Buenos Aires, and some excellent Leaders like it in SF, so you have to take all Leaders' opinions with a grain of salt. Try to tell XY that there is a different opinion and he is not the best dancer in the world (and just might be dissed as not dancing "real tango" if he ever bothered to go to Buenos Aires), and well... you see what I mean? Life is truly different, and your tango perspective is truly different, when you dance in BsAs (XX also confirmed this). XY has never been to BsAs, and neither have two of the three anonymous Leaders. However, all three of those Leaders I had lunch with have a good perspective, respectful of how tango is in BsAs, much more so than XY and a lot of SF leaders.

I was thinking of writing something about the whole lightness versus heavyness/groundedness, because some Leaders are completely clueless!!! Of course, it's just a preference...but still... It depends on what you want... to be a "good dancer" in the eyes of a certain select population of the SF tango community, or in the eyes of the Portenos.

JSE:

In Buenos Aires, I hear locals that dance close say North Americans dance too light, and I hear traveling international tangueros say San Francisco has a very upright style that runs up and down the West Coast. In open embrace it can be that a Follower is mostly on her/his own axis except when the Leader changes it. But, there is an energetic exchange at times with the leader that brings a dialog, a push and pull, that exchange of energy we seek. Leaders don't want to move a us around like a refrigerator, but they need to feel us, feel our connection to the earth and ground. So, there is something important in saying a good Follower maintains axis, but it's missing something at the same time. We need that exchange of energy, it's why we dance, we need to feel the other person's presence but not because we are speaking for them. If you are too self-sufficient and too self-contained on your own axis, you are not really "showing up" and you can't be felt.

A Russian leader told me tonight that if I do exactly what he expects (I was getting tense thinking I was making a lot of mistakes), he only knows himself, but if I do something unexpected, he gets to know who I am. I asked him, didn't he want to get to know himself better, and he said something like, "Well, I've seen that (meaning himself) several times already", and it was more interesting to him to learn about another person through dance. It seemed extraordinarily profound at the time; it was respectful not sleazy. Just dance.

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June 9-22

2011-06-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 11, 2011
The Late Shift milonga. This milonga was reasonably attended, but with a lot of couples who didn't switch partners much. So I ended up sitting out a good bit, but at least getting a few dances in with some favorite Leaders and a few that I haven't danced with in a long time. I felt my dancing was a bit off and wonky, for some strange reason. Since it was my first time dancing since returning from BsAs, maybe it was the famous BsAs hangover. I wore one of the new pairs of shoes I got in BsAs -- the PERFECT fitting show in the PERFECT non-blowout material from Lolo Gerard. And they performed like a dream. I could not stop smiling (wonky dancing and all), as it felt that I had finally gotten the Holy Grail shoe -- perfect in every way.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
CellSpace Alt Milonga. I got there too late to attend any lessons. The milonga was OK. I sat out a lot as I was manning the door and they were a little short-staffed on this night. That was OK though. I wore the same Holy Grail shoe again to see if it was a fluke, or to see if it actually felt as good as the first time, on a different surface. They performed great. I could not stop smiling. Cecilia Gonzalez and Somer Surgit did a fine performance of two songs, which was an unexpected treat.

Thursday, June 16, 2011
Verdi Club milonga. There was a weird mix-up in the tangomango posting, with one posting saying that Diego Lanau was teaching the lesson, and another one saying Cecilia Gonzalez was teaching. The lesson was packed, and it turned out to be taught by Diego Lanau. Personally, I did not take the lesson myself. Afterwards, I heard more than one gripe that they were expecting Cecilia Gonzalez. The milonga was pretty good. DJ Emilio and the band Tangonero did a fine job keeping the energy reasonable so floor craft wasn't too obnoxious despite the crowded conditions. Surprisingly, there were more leaders than followers on this night, so of course I had a good time. :o) Cecilia Gonzalez and Somer Surgit did a fine performance of two songs.

Sunday, June 19, 2011
Bollyhood Free Practica. On a whim, I decided to go to this, even though I had spent the morning hiking and flea marketing and hadn't made my way home in between to change. Needless to say, I wasn't dressed for the occasion, and thought twice about arriving in my hiking shirt and shorts. But I decided to give it a go anyway. Walking past the Goodwill store on Mission, a serviceable enough dress in the front window caught my eye, so I made my way in, stripped the mannequin, and made my way to the dressing room. Luckily for me, the dress fit. So I just wore it out of the dressing room, had the cashier cut off the tag, and I bought a plastic bag for $0.05 to put my hiking clothes in. Arriving at Bollyhood a couple of minutes later, some Leaders remarked at my dress (more of a night time dress than a daytime Bollyhood dress), and so I told them of the Goodwill escapade and showed them my hiking clothes. They all agreed that the dress was better. I had a good time at this Practica. It had been quite a while since I had been to it. I danced with many of my favorite leaders and quite a few new-to-me leaders. It was a sweltering afternoon, but I spent most of the time dancing anyway.

Afterwards, I had drinks and snacks with three local leaders at Frjtz http://www.frjtzfries.com/ . We had various drinks and split the sweet potato fries since none of us were particularly starving. And so I was privy to a plethora of ... uh ... gripes from the leaders. One of these leaders has a habit of suggesting what I should write in my blog, and I always encourage him to start one of his own. And so our banter goes back and forth every time the topic comes up of what I should write versus him starting his own blog...

Back to Frjtz, it was a rather eye-opening afternoon as they spoke about who is a good dancer and who isn't, and why...which was strange to me because the gals that I think are good followers (or who look like they are good followers to me), often weren't the same ones they think are good followers. Just goes to show...appearances can be deceiving. One gal who I think is one of the best dancers in the Bay Area, was roundly criticized across the board for hurting Leader's backs, and doing the "Enter The Dragon" embellishments (hilarious terminology!) whenever any leader paused, even if for just a split second. Others were nice enough, but had balance problems which caused them to hang on or nearly topple over the leaders (depending on their physique).

They also spoke about how unpopular they become once they make the decision to not dance with a follower (being "defaced" -- the vernacular for unfriending on facebook, or getting hostile looks at the milonga from said follower, enough for other leaders to notice and comment about).

I suggested to the leader that he draft something up to include in my blog, since he obviously felt very passionately about the subject, and in the interest of adding some guest editorial content, here you go:

Anne,

This is what so many leaders would say to followers in Tango, if they only could:

Dear Tangueras,

Very often at milongas, we see many ladies sitting a very long time. Clearly, they did not bring that fabulous Betsy Johnson dress with the sexy Comme il Faut shoes to just look pretty. So, why then, are they sitting so much? The answers might disturb you, but we shall try and explain from the leader's side. But before we do this, let's for the moment put aside any physical beauty and youth of age as a factor in getting men to ask them to dance. For, if we do not, this will cloud our ability to see the challenge clearly.

With that said, here goes:

Take classes! Repeat: take classes! If you once took classes, go back to class. Yes, you heard us correctly. If you really want to accelerate the process, start taking ladies' technique workshops. This is the stuff you often don't get in regular class. Here, they teach proper technique, posture and exercises you can do at home, alone, to perfect your following. You will probably be amazed at what you will find there. More than likely, you will probably realize just how much you are doing incorrectly at milongas.

You may realize you are leaning on us guys. Or pushing or pulling on us. You may see, in a painful way, how you are not on your axis so much of the time, thus making it very difficult to lead you. It may sound cruel, but many leaders refer to various followers as 'she is like a refrigerator. Impossible to move'. This is clearly not a compliment. And I am sure you not happy to hear it. Guess what, we aren't happy, either, to move you around like we are in a weight lifting class! But you can stay in denial about what we are telling you, or you can take steps to become a better follower and get many more dances. Your choice.

But back to the business at hand. Us leaders truly want to dance with you, but not if you are a bad dancer. You have to do the work! If you see someone sitting all the time, you can almost guarantee she is not a good dancer. Contrary to what you may believe, a good leader really doesn’t care much how she looks. He only really cares if she can dance. That may be a hard pill to swallow, but if you could be a leader for a night, you would hear our comments about who can dance and who cannot. And decisions are often made by speaking to other leaders we trust, too. Really, they are. If they give you the good word, we will go on faith that you are good and ask you to dance. Chances are, you are good indeed. So, believe us when we tell you we talk about your dancing all the time. And we do.

We talk about who is promising. Who is getting good. Who is bitchy. Who is not good. Who is arrogant. And everything else you could possibly imagine. Here's one you won't believe. We virtually never talk about 'how fine' you are or 'how gorgeous' you are. That basically doesn’t come into play. Dancing with a beautiful woman who can't dance is not a day at the beach for us. It gets real old, real fast. We may do it as a favor to the guys we respect, if they introduce us, but we won't do it on our own. At least not for long

We are very disappointed that teachers won't tell you what we are saying here. But they cannot. Not if they want to keep you as students and continue to pay their rent.

So, what is the message in all this? Easy. Practice. Get better. And we will hunt you down faster than you give us the cold shoulder when WE are bad dancers asking you for a tanda. Try it and see what happens. Chances are, you won't get much rest sitting in a chair. Trust me.

Sincerely,

Anonymous Tango Leaders

Monday, June 20, 2011
Orange Practica with lesson beforehand by Shorey Myers and Mark Harris. The lesson was good, very thought provoking, with the Leaders and Followers doing a rock step to a Follower front cross step, and the Leader playing with a change in direction. The thought-provoking part was for the Leader to use either foot on the rock step, and to lead the Follower on either of her feet on the rock step, which would of course which way the forward front cross step went, and the subsequent change in direction. The practica was fun too. I rarely go to the Orange Practica on a non-Homer night, so in a way it was nearly a first for me. I got to dance with a lot of people I hadn't danced with in a while, so it was a fun night.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
CellSpace milonga. I did not go to either the beginner or intermediate lesson since I was on door duty, which actually went very swiftly. The gals from Tang-O-Rama (the opening show for the Queer Tango Festival next week) did a dress rehearsal performance dance to Poema, which was nice. Later on, Jaimes Friedgen & Christa Rodriguez did a two-song performance highlighting their sacada and boleo skills. The milonga was quite crowded, and it was a warm night. There was a strong crew from Sacramento in attendance, and it was super fun to dance with them.

Scouting Tour (June 2-8) from BsAs, NY and SF

2011-06-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 2, 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo C - Day 4. Notes to follow later.

Madero Tango Show (US$60 per person for dinner and show). http://www.maderotango.com/en/ JSE and I decided to go to this because Intensivo assistants Jose and Selena were in it. Since we booked quite late (a couple of hours before the show began), we got the not-so-great seats in the $60 dinner section, which was the least expensive dinner section. There were 2 other dinner sections (US$140 or US$230), and they also had show-only options for $35 and $75. The meal was good, with an appetizer (we had soup and a beef empanada, and shared both), a bottle of white or red wine, or champagne (being girls, we chose Champagne), entree (choices of beef, chicken, fish, or vegetarian pasta; we both chose beef because it is so good in Argentina), and dessert (we shared the chocolate flan/mousse thing which was OK, but not as good as the poached pear). The show was fantastic, with Jose and Selena as our favorite dancers, of course. Our table fit 6 people, but we shared it with only one other couple, honeymooners from Brazil. Jose and Selena came by afterwards, which was nice of them.

Friday, June 3, 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo C - Day 5. Notes to follow later.

My overall thoughts on the Intensivo: It was great. We basically worked on fine tuning the technique to execute the concepts taught in Intensivo A and a little bit of B, and Al Cuadrado. It was what we really needed to get the concepts into the muscle memory in our bodies. Seeing some of the shows that the assistants were in was truly astounding. I always knew they were good/great, but I never understood how great until I saw them dance to the maximum of their ability. Maestra instructed them to work me hard, really pushing me to the edge of what I am capable of doing. It's funny though. Maestra often accuses me of being lazy, and well, she is right. When I actually really focused and put my mind to my body to do exactly what she instructed, I was able to carry out whatever it was we were working on exactly as I was supposed to. It was also interesting and amazing in that Maestra taught things that I haven't experienced from her: musicality (mostly vals but some milonga) and a little bit on the ocho cortado (shocking!). As usual, she was enthusiastic and encouraging, firm and funny.

I cannot say enough good things about the assistants. All the other students usually take privates with them (around $50 per hour), but I haven't yet had the courage to do so. At JSE's rather forceful urging, I asked Chino for a private, but he declined because he needed to prepare for his trip to Europe to teach! Ah well, maybe next time. Chino has been my favorite for a while, mostly because of his astoundingly creative musicality. It just feels so amazing to dance with him. To me, it feels dreamy and ethereal as we float across the dance floor.

Jose is so kind and patient, and of course a powerful dancer. I get the feeling he will never let me fall. I try not to gape at his painfully beautiful face.

Gaston is much like Jose in terms of power and performance (sounds like a car, eh?), although more happy and joyful.

Nicholas strikes me as the philosopher, who pretty much does things by the book. Whatever Maestra teaches, he works on with us. No wavering of topic, no just dancing because he's tired of working on the material with everyone else and his mind and body need a break. We stick to the topic.

Herman (the handsome one) and Herman (the handsome one with the bigger ego), are both great. Herman the handsome is so encouraging. Herman with the slightly larger ego is super fun and his corrections are spot on, and he always comes up with some nugget for our brains and bodies to chew on so we can become better dancers.

Mati was new, but I liked dancing with him a lot.

Sergio is as he always is, as the most visible, among the favorites of the assistants. Corrections always spot on. Sometimes veers from the subject matter to do more creative things he is working on as a dancer.

Our group was very lucky in that it wasn't super huge, so we had ample dance floor space to practice some of the more real estate demanding moves. While I think Intensivos A and B are great alone on their own, having C to work on solidifying the concepts, refining the technique, and drill even more muscle memory into our bodies, and be in a mental place where the information isn't new, but reiterations and refinements of instruction that we had already been exposed to, was priceless. And there are no better people to work on this with than Maestra's hand-picked assistants, who I've already raved about seemingly ad nauseum.

Guillermina Quiroga workshop at Carlos Copello School on Anchorena (40 pesos). JSE and I looked forward to this all week, and we called before making our way over to make sure it was happening. Sure enough, it was. So we got there to find Maestra already there. We were concerned that the workshop would be filled with couples or people who did not know how to dance and maybe we'd be stuck working on a sequence. We waited for a while, but lucky for JSE and me, no one else showed up. So we effectively got a 1 hour private women's technique lesson for 80 pesos (a screaming bargain since Maestra gives privates at astronomical rates for Buenos Aires). We worked on walking backward and forward, adding the rulo adorno, and on ochos with the leg delayed back, not immediately collected. After our lesson was over, Maestra mentioned that she also has her own shoe line and tango studio. The mention of "shoes" made our ears perk up, and Maestra suggested we see them at some point, but to call for an appointment beforehand. Since we only had tentative plans to see a show later that night, but had not yet bought the tickets, we suggested to Maestra that we see her shoes right away, after class. She agreed. And just as we were leaving, Carlos Copello himself was at the school, kissed us all hello/goodbye, and JSE and I both made dreamy comments about never washing our right cheeks again after that. He smiled and winked.

So a quick stroll 4 blocks away on Aguero brought us to the lovely little place (palace?) that is Guillermina's and which houses her newly remodeled shoe boutique and dance studio-- a long, large room with mirrors on two sides (1 length and 1 width). The shoes were 500 pesos; neither of us found anything that screamed out to us to take it home. But it was a nice kick to see the newly remodeled building and to see the pride and excitement that Maestra has for the place and her shoes.

Saturday, June 4, 2011
EAT Class on Women's Technique by Aurora Lubiz. I was surprised when I purchased this class along with Marta y Manolo's Canyengue class, that after I gave the gal a 100-peso bill and she only gave me a 10-peso bill as change, that the prices had gone up since I bought one 5 days earlier.

The new EAT prices, which I believe border on the absurd since I have never had regular classes there cost more than US$10 (and mostly around $7-8), are now:
1 class 45 pesos (this is roughly US$11)
4 class card 166 pesos
8 class card 315 pesos
12 class card 450 pesos

When I expressed my shock at the prices, the gal said Argentina experienced inflation of 25% in May. Either she said it wrong or I understood it wrong, because that would be impossible. But still...its nuts.

I had always been curious about the Women's Technique class since it was always packed with people, and I know this because I always take the class after -- Marta y Manolo's Canyengue. I never took the Women's Technique class since mentally I wasn't in a place where I wanted to work on Women's Technique with anyone other than my usual Women's Technique teachers in San Francisco. In Aurora Lubiz's Women's Technique class, we worked on walking forward and walking backward with the adorno of the rulo and front cross tuck and back cross tuck, and reverse caracia after the reverse rulo. We also worked linearly on our molinete technique, doing in partnership a side step to big pivot, and then a back cross step to big pivot, to side step, etc., with emphasis on being on balance, having good full pivots, and not moving the body while extending the leg (we were supposed to extend the leg first). It was a good class. Maestra is fun and nice, very cheerful and chipper, and another women's technique Maestra at EAT, Patricia Gomez, was in the class to provide additional guidance as needed. I felt a bit rusty on some of the things we worked on, so I may have to revisit signing up for Chelsea Eng's CCSF Wednesday Women's Technique class again, which I found to be excellent.

In Marta y Manolo's Canyengue class at EAT, things worked out in such a way that I got to work with a local porteno who regularly goes to this class, and JSE got to work with Maestra's son. Needless to say, I was pea-green with envy. They looked great, and he certainly is a gifted Canyengue dancer. I am glad JSE's first Canyengue class was a fun experience for her (because depending on who your partner is, it could be a less than stellar experience). I picked up one of Marta y Manolo's DVDs for US$40 (160 pesos). Somehow on the Tuesday prior, I had misunderstood Manolo's communication and thought he meant the DVDs were 40 pesos each (not US$40, which they actually were). Unfortunately, I could not afford the US$200 for all their Canyengue and Milonga (with Al Reves moves) DVDs, so I had to pick just one DVD to purchase, which I did--the Canyengue 1 (there is also Canyengue 2, Milonga 1&2, and Milonga En Scenario (with the Al Reves moves).

After class, since it was Saturday, some shoe stores were open.

We decided to go to what unbeknownst to us would become our new favorite shoe store - Camina at Defensa 682. Since the store is so new, there is no signage yet, so you need to know the address and ring the doorbell for someone to open the door to you. When you go upstairs and into the space, you will find that it's a dance studio with two rooms on either side and and the shoe boutique itself is along the hallway between the two rooms. So it makes for a tight fit from a shoe purchasing standpoint, but it is well worth it. Their shoes are beautiful, well made, and have a more forgiving fit than Comme Il Faut and NeoTango. In CIF and NT I am a size 6, whereas in Camina I am a 5. They also ask you if you want suede on the bottom. We both opted not, since I had to leave the next day and didn't have time for them to put it on for me, and JSE didn't need or want them. But when I thought of the two outrageously impractical but stylish shoes I had back home in the US that I wanted to turn into dance shoes, I asked for the suede pads on second thought, and she happily gave them to me, gratis. This is on top of the 10% off coupon we had for the shoes and another modest discount we got because we were bailarines especiales. :o) Shoes there were normally 420 pesos, with one pair only 400 pesos, and with our discounts, they were even more reasonable. So we happily stocked up.

I really wanted to go to NeoTango as well (the store closes at 4 p.m. and JSE was ambivalent, but there is one shoe that I REALLY want from there that they didn't have in my size the last time), but after Camina, the desire totally disappeared. So we mutually decided and agreed to skip NeoTango.

The clock was still ticking fast, so after our purchase at Camina, we grabbed a cab over to Lolo Gerard. Sure enough, they had more shoes on clearance, so I got an excellent, what I hope to be bullet-proof shoe that I can wear to classes. The heel is lower and it is very sturdy and solid, but still pretty, not frumpy. And I got another basic black shoe that is very similar to one I already own. I bought a dupe since I love the Lolo Gerard durability, which I don't find in other "prettier" more delicate shoes. I dance hard (it's all those maestros' voices ringing in my head telling me I need to connect to the floor below, to propel myself, and to pivot a lot) and my Lolo Gerards really hold together well.

In our cab to Lolo Gerard, we passed by Naranjo de Flor on Anchorena 430, which I had wanted to go to since they have Bertie shoes. Thankfully, this store doesn't close until 7 p.m. on Saturdays (everyday, actually), so we backtracked for a visit. I tried on one pair of silver lame shoes. Though I loved the fit, feel and look, the 550 peso price was too steep for me after an afternoon of buying 4 pairs of shoes elsewhere at substantially lower prices (all shoes were at least 160 pesos less than that). When I remarked about the somewhat high price, she told me that I had chosen the most expensive shoe in the store, and that most of the other ones were 500 pesos (which I still thought was a bit high).

In addition to Bertie shoes, Naranjo de Flor had lots of clothes from designers like Stella Baez (partner of Ernesto Balmeceda), Mara Mansur, and the house brand Naranjo En Flor , so we spent a bit of time trying things on, etc., with the styling help of the shop owner, who happily obliged with excellent suggestions. It was a very girly-girl afternoon.

After an afternoon of two classes and three shoe stores, we decided it was time to eat. We decided to head back home since we had lots of food in the fridge, but stop by the local wine shop for a couple of bottles of champagne. We scored with two bottles for 70 pesos (less than US$20), one from Mumm (from Mendoza, Argentina), and one from Norton (obviously from Argentina also). Both bottles were great, as we shared them with everyone else who floated through the kitchen during my last dinner at the house. We also concluded with Havanna Alfajores all around (52 pesos for a box of 12 mixed), which I had originally planned to give to the Intensivo assistants, but Sheri (who is far more generous than I am) beat me to the punch with Havanna Alfajores for all (100 pesos for a box of 24 mixed).

After dinner, we made our way over to the Borges Cultural Center to watch another tango show (60 pesos). I forget the name of it, but it was slick and fast, a little loud (both JSE and I had to stick some wadded bits of tissue in our ears to spank down the sound), and a little less soulful and interesting than the Wednesday show. Though the dancers were technically excellent, something fell a little flat. We both found the makeup of one dancer, which went overboard on the glitter and cat eye, to be distracting. The singer also had every other number, and we were hoping for more dance. Normally, I would have been disappointed at the short length of the show, coming in at a little over an hour. But in this case, I was not.

Sunday, June 5, 2011
Didn't do much except sleep in, eat breakfast around noon, pack, and then take a stroll. Got back home, took a shower, ate and then Dante picked me up exactly at 5:00 p.m. as he was supposed to. Traffic to EZE was light on this Sunday night, so I got there in plenty of time for my flight to NYC.

Random comments about my stay in BsAs:

There seems to be a tangible change in the air toward milonguero style and away from nuevo at the moment (though of course everything is cyclical).
Tango Brujo (the store and school) closed a few months ago.
Susannah Miller now teaches at La Viruta (!!!) -- which totally knocked my socks off when I saw that!
Maestra teaching musicality and the ocho cortado (!!!) at the intensivos.
It is strange and wonderful at the same time. Of course when I reveal the note-taking tangostudent side of my identity, people are very appreciative and gushing about what I do, and yet they are surprised that they run in to me at a Canyengue class (which I've taken for years), and I often hear the comment "You don't dance at all the way I imagined you to dance."

Prices are going up.

Cabs are not as cheap as they used to be. Right now, they are 5.8 pesos initially and 58 centavos every 1/8 mile, and more when you take them late night (which going to/from the milongas, we all do). Used to be 4.1/41, then 4.6/46.
You saw my comments about the EAT prices. Yikes! Strategically, I think the price increases are a mistake, especially when they exceed visiting maestro pre-milonga prices in the US. That's just my $0.02, worth all that you paid for it.
Even empandas are edging up in price.

I didn't go there, but I imagine some folks scan this blog for mentions of Comme Il Faut. While they continue to turn out shoes that are considered by many to be the most beautiful tango shoes that ever graced the planet, I cannot stomach the 550-600 peso price per pair of shoes, especially when I blow out of them so fast. The fit is also for skinny socialite feet, which mine, unfortunately, are not. So I now find myself regularly forgoing the vaguely Sex In The City meets Sephora shopping experience in favor of places I've never been to before (oh the thrill of the hunt!), or some reliable favorites, old and new, especially on a trip as short as this one.

I am not quite sure what day I went to Tango 8 (probably the same day I went first to Lolo Gerard), but the space on Anchorena seems a little less friendly/welcoming than the last time. The space is smaller, with just the front half fully dedicated to retail, and the back half now closed to consumers and just used for storage of inventory. The shoe inventory seems lesser and a little bit more forbidding being behind the glass of enclosed cases. The fashion/clothing items are even more ample, so maybe that is where most of the profit margin is, which is kind of a pity because I liked their shoes (although I do also like the one dress I have from there as well).

Veggie lovers should not be afraid to come. There are lots of veggie/vegan stores and items available. It is not all about the beef here. Same goes for the Kosher folks (though it does require a bit more homework/legwork...but heck, there is an underground/closed door kosher restaurant that is one of Buenos Aires's most famous and oldest).

The Subte (underground train) and Collectivo (bus) continue to be the same, and are a great bargain. They have a new card called the "Sube" which is good on the Subte and a lot of the Collectivos. Get one if you have the patience to. Or get a Monedero card (second choice). The red line continues to be built out to Villa Urquiza. Can't wait for them to be done so it will make going to Sunderland easier and cheaper.

Back in the day, you could take a trip to Buenos Aires, and buy a dozen pair of shoes and take lessons galore and pretty much break even with vacationing in the states. Now, I am not so sure that value proposition exists.

I didn't bother to do any laundry on this short trip. I wore some shirts/pants for two or more days, just like the locals. I was OK and didn't stink or anything (at least I don't think I did). I think we get overly OCD about wearing clothes for more than one wear without washing (good Lord! It's not as if we spend our work days in the coal mine or digging ditches!), though the rest of the world sometimes spends a week or more in the same shirt/pants without washing. Sorry if that skeeves you out, dear reader, but consider it something that brings us all closer to the rest of humanity, most of whom do not wear freshly laundered clothes every single day of the week.

The best compliments I received this trip were a couple of people asking if I lived there because I felt so portena and the statement that I was a good, budding, young milonguera.

Monday, June 6, 2011
NY. After the bus ride into Manhattan, I stopped by a little deli and into the line. Lots of folks were ordering breakfast sandwich bagels, with ketchup, which I thought was bizarre. I did not get to do any tango because I was having too much fun in my non-tango life. After all my work was done, I was exhausted and fell asleep easily and quickly.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011
CT & NY. I did not get to do any tango because I was working on the serious parts of my non-tango life. The flight back home from JFK to SFO that night was OK. I had a hard time sleeping. After business and first class, the coach seats seemed really upright, even when fully reclined. Gosh, I guess it just took one trip to be hopelessly spoiled forever.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I glued the suede bottoms that I got from Camina onto the two pairs of fashion shoes I had at home with Klebfest Shoe Repair Glue. We shall see how it holds up, although I used the glue wrong. I didn't leave it to set for 5 minutes and get tacky before sticking the pieces together.

May 26 - June 1

2011-06-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 26, 2011
A text message woke me up from my not-so-sound sleep around 1 a.m. It was American telling me that the flight I booked months ago to Buenos Aires using 80,000 frequent flyer miles was cancelled. Yikes!!! I got on the phone, dialing their number ASAP. While on hold on my land line, they called me on my cell, stating that the flight had been rescheduled to the next day, and instead of going through NYC as originally planned, they routed me through Dallas. I went ahead and accepted their change, as it seemed easier than to wait on hold for hours on end. The day before Jr. Scout Extraordinaire asked about my flight and if it was OK since hers was cancelled and rescheduled for the following day (American cancelled 600+ flights from Dallas on Wednesday due to storm damage to the planes, and seemingly pushed everyone else's flights out a day, even if we weren't flying through Dallas). As I checked out the computer to see what they had on my record, I was annoyed to see that my new flights were all in coach, whereas my original flights were booked on business class on the outbound, and coach on the inbound. Too tired to be strung out about it, I just went to bed instead, already mentally composing my note to American customer service requesting a mileage credit for the change in classes.
When I got up, I was pleased to see my new seat assignments were on first class on the leg to Dallas and on Business Class to Buenos Aires, but with a very high (4) row number. So everything turned out all good.

With a free day, I did what all good daughters should when they have a free day to kill... I went to see my parents. My mother must have been on some weird cosmic connection with me, because believe it or not, she had a couple of slabs of Liguria Bakery foccacia -- my favorite onion and the merely OK to me pizza, though she hasn't bought and given it to me in at least a couple of decades and I certainly didn't ask for it, and she surely did not read my blog last week and how I had some at the Italian American Club milonga. So go figure.

Friday, May 27, 2011
The flight to Dallas on American Airlines first class was OK. It was nice that American also allowed me to use their Admirals' clubs before my flights to Dallas and to Buenos Aires. They are both clean, luxurious facilities with bar service (very generous in Dallas, not so much in San Francisco), with free sodas, coffee/tea, Internet access, snacks, shower facilities, and magazines that have to do with golf or other luxury interests. One small area for improvement was that I wish the bathrooms had hands-free faucets. While I totally understand the bling appeal of Grohe, it is spanked down by me being skeeved out by thinking how many folks' hands have touched those faucets before me, executive or not.

The flight to Buenos Aires was great. The Admirals Club in Dallas greeted me with two premium drink tickets. The chairs on that flight were the fully reclinable barcalounger luxury types. The entertainment system top-notch once it got going. (I watched the new Karate Kid with Jayden Smith and Jackie Chan, which was excellent. I am sure Jayden Smith will be a future movie action hero in the near future with his amazing physical capabilities. I also watched the first bit of Country Strong, and I am amazed at how talented Gwenyth Paltrow is. It makes me want to run out and buy her cook book, even though it was a movie that featured her real singing.)

But even with the barcalounger chairs and nifty amenity goody bag (filled with eye patch, ear plugs, pen, socks, small pack of kleenex, Burt's Bee's lip balm and Burt's Bee's lotion, toothbrush, toothpaste, and tooth flosser a la Plackers but not specifically Plackers branded), I had a very hard time falling asleep and remaining asleep. If anything, I had a horrible nightmare with me having some weird bug and worm like growth things coming out of my arm, which totally made me wake up because it was so upsetting.

The food on both flights was excellent, but more so on the Buenos Aires flight. It was all delicious and ample. In fact, I ended up on that flight just not being able to eat another bite, I was so stuffed.

Saturday, May 28, 2011
The flight arrived in Buenos Aires right on time, and I waited for Dante to pick me up at the usual spot. Only the usual spot had changed because of all the construction they are doing at that terminal. Dante saw me though, so he got me straightaway as I stared around cluelessly looking for the coffee shop that used to be where new ticket counters are going in. I've thought about taking the regular remise services from EZE to BsAs, but decided to pay the few extra dollars and have Dante pick me up as usual. There is something comforting about him meeting me as usual, and telling me all the goings on in BsAs at that particular moment. We catch up on our respective lives, and he tells me what he knows about the current places that I stay at.

Arriving at a Very Nice Tango Residence that will go unnamed since I don't want it to be overrun was a breeze since Dante knows the area so well, and it's not in any weird or obscure area. The kitchen was clean and orderly, so based on my experience at another BsAS tango residence, it was obvious to me that either the guests were considerate and conscientious and/or there is regular maid service that is active and enthusiastic, both of which made me let out a huge sigh of relief. The owner/manager was here to meet me exactly when I arrived, gave me a quick but thorough tour of the facility and overview of the house rules, handed me the keys, and left me on my own. In short... it was perfect. I certainly could not ask for more as a short-term boarder.

The bathrooms are clean and modern, and downright luxurious (albeit small since they had no bidet) by BsAs standards, and pretty nice by U.S. standards as well. The showers, in particular, thankfully do what they are supposed to do without making the entire bathroom all wet (which is what happens in many other BsAs bathrooms I've been in, some at some very "luxurious" places).

I was still pretty wired, so I did not bother to take a nap or shower before I headed out to explore.

My first stop was to Asignatura Pendiente on Corrientes to see if I could replace a pair of Negra y Portena tango shoes that I completely adored but which had suffered a horrible fate at the hands of a dastardly scoundrel. No such luck. Not only did they not have any Negra y Portena tango shoes in my size, but they also conveyed to me that their shoes are very exclusive in that they only make one size in any one model they make. So a shoe design will only have 1 in size 35, 1 in size 36, 1 in size 37, etc. So I was totally out of luck. Being a little disheartened, I headed out the door. But the sale rack of dresses caught my eye, and I got one that fit perfectly for $150 pesos (about US $39, based on the rounded exchange rate of 4 Argentine Pesos = US$1). I tried to pay with my credit card, but was told it would be 10% more. I thought this was way too steep as I was used to hearing percentages in the 3% range in the US, and though they exist, extremely few US merchants charge additional fees to use credit cards.

Then I made my way to Lolo Gerard on Anchorena since I was getting a little hungry and had to buy my food for the next few days. I figured I could swing by there first before I made my way to the Abasto Coto hipermercado. I was not disappointed. I was able to find literally, THE PERFECT fitting shoe in the PERFECT non-blowout material. SCORE!!!! Normally, I don't buy shoes on my first day in BsAS and strongly encourage everyone else not to as well since our feet are usually quite swollen from the flight. However, since my feet weren't swollen at all thanks to the barcalounger chairs, I threw caution in the wind. This sale shoe was $290 pesos (about US$72), but the thing about their sale items is that they demand payment in cash (effectivo), and will not accept tarjeta (credit cards). More about the rationale behind this later... Yikes!!! I was pretty sure I didn't have $290 since I went out with very little pesos since the residence manager warned against pick pockets pretty forcefully, and again reiterated what I have heard from many other group leaders I've come to BsAs with, and that is DO NOT GO OUT WITH A HUGE AMOUNT OF CASH, ONLY BRING OUT WHAT YOU NEED. I've personally never had a problem with pickpockets, but having heard this same warning over and over, and quite forcefully, does make one pretty cautious and weary. I also didn't want to walk around with any more than I had to, and I thought I had enough pesos to last one afternoon, so only had my credit card and photocopy of my passport with me (i.e., no ATM card, no California ID)...more on the problem that would arise because of this later.

Anyway, so I dug around all the many pockets of my bag and managed to scrounge together $267 pesos. The shop woman was very kind and understanding, and she said that was fine. I was relieved. My Spanish isn't good enough to have explained to her that I would have returned with all the pesos if she could hold my shoes, but I am glad that wasn't necessary. She was such a sweetie. Lolo Gerard's nonsale shoes are around $450 pesos (around US$114). I am sure it will be one of the last stops I make in another week or so before I leave BsAs.

A trip to BsAs would not begin without a trip to the Abasto Coto. I bought lots of my usual favorites (grilled red peppers, fried calamari, milenesa de terna, torta de acelga, and they had a huge vat of mondongo on sale -- a real bargain, and all the locals were lined up to buy some). When I got in line and finally at the register to pay for it, the cashier told me she could not take my credit card since I did not have an ORIGINAL ID document (just a photocopy of my passport). She called over a manager, who looked over at what I bought -- none of which was easily "returnable" to the buffet table without wasting all the containers and plastic wrap and just being a huge pain to do, who eventually OK'd the purchase with a warning that next time I paid with a credit card, I needed to have an original ID document. I was hugely grateful and relieved as by then I had no more pesos on me and my stomach was growling and my head getting light headed. So when I finally got the bill, I was surprised that it was for $109 pesos instead of the $120 that showed on the register screen. To me, that was all very bizarre, although I assumed the cashier knew what she was doing as I wasn't one of their routine transactions. Later as I looked in detail at the receipt, I saw that there was a 10% DISCOUNT for using a credit card. Now I was totally confused by BsAs credit card policies, after Asignatura Pendiente told me it would be 10% EXTRA to use my credit card, while Coto was giving me a 10% discount for using a credit card.

I got back home and put away my food after I had taken a lunch size portion of each item. It was all very delicious, just as I remembered. Then I went to lie down for a bit as the plane travel and morning events had begun to make fatigue seep into my bones.

After a short nap, I decided to hoof it down Corrientes, and made it all the way to the Subte station 5 stations away before heading back home. I had to pick up a bar of soap ($6 pesos for cucumber Dove) since none was provided in my private bathroom, and also some fresh veggies ($16 pesos, about US$4 for 3 red bell peppers, 3 kiwi, and 3 bananas), since there are many veggie markets near where I live and they are much cheaper than veggies at Coto or Disco.

Finally, I took a shower to wash all the travel grime and running around BsAs grime from my body before my dinner engagement, which was at an closed-door/underground restaurant called Casa Saltshaker.

It was US$50, which is very steep by BsAs standards for a meal for one person. I thought it was a decent value as the food was excellent-- very gourmet, and the company and conversation excellent (all English speakers, mostly from the US, although the Queen-loving countries were also represented).

The menu theme for the evening was "Vincentennial" -- Vincent Price, since the day prior was what would have been his 100th birthday if he had still been alive. I am a big fan of the Vincent Price Treasury of Great Recipe book, having had three copies and still possessing two after giving one away to a friend in the SF Bay Area, who has his own supper club (underground restaurant). The dishes were not from any of Vincent or Mary Price's recipe books, but were done in modern style, interpreting dishes they made or would have liked based on their historical written word.

We had:
Salted Cucumber Caesar Salad with Green Tomato Croutons
Red Bean, Rocoto & Swiss Chard Soup
Smoked Herring & Onion Trio Risotto
Crispy Skin Salmon, Prawn, & Miso Sabayon
Chocolate, Berry and Meringue Tower (like his famous Boccone Dolce)

I was not going to have the wine pairing, opting instead for the cheaper US$35 option of the meal and welcome drink and water/coffee/tea. But after seeing the menu, I changed my mind. The wine pairings were good, and I loved how each pairing was served in its own proper glass.

Dan, the chef/owner had many suggestions about which other underground restaurants in BsAs we might like to try, as well as the conventional, mainstream restaurants. He also was a fountain of information about what it is like to buy property in BsAs, and he explained the whole upcharge/discount thing with credit card use, the best way for us newbie gringo visitors to get to the Mataderos fair on Sunday, and the Murillo street versus other areas of BsAs to get leather.

Sunday, May 29, 2011
I got up around 9:00 a.m. thinking that Jr. Scout Extraordinaire would arrive soon, as I did at the same time since I was on the same flight the day prior and picked up by reliable and trustworthy Dante, who does airport transfers (http://www.dantesairporttransfers.com/), and who I and JSE ALWAYS use the services of when we are here. And so I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally I checked the airline web site and saw that her flight was delayed by an hour. Still, it had been two hours since the plane had landed, which I think is more than enough time to pick up baggage, go through customs, and into BsAs centro from EZE. Finally, around 11:00 a.m., they arrived.

It was a very nice reuniting, and I was glad that the flight and everything else was OK despite the delay. So having a very light brunch snack and after being chatty Cathys for a while, we decided to go out to the ATM to get local pesos and other errands. I only get pesos from machines marked "banelco" (no need to search for star, link, plus or any other names that really mean nothing to me in the US). So we went to one a block or two away from home, and got our pesos. We then made our way to Farmacity (as ubiquitous as CVS in the US) to pick up a few items for her and me (call me the panuellos queen-- big boxes, little boxes, purse-size packets by the half dozen, I had to have them all).

We had talked about going to the Mataderos Fair by bus and JSE was game, but the clock was quickly moving fast and it was already 2:30 p.m. The bus out was at least another hour, and despite our looking on the Internet, we could not get a good answer on which bus to take. So we decided to just suck it up and take a cab out. The fare came to 40 pesos (US$10) from where we were, but we split it, so it wasn't that bad. I was glad that the cab driver didn't blink twice or give any push back about our destination as I had heard some cab drivers do.

I had heard and read about Mataderos for years, but this is the first time I had the opportunity to experience it firsthand. It was a typical street fair, the emphasis of which was the local gaucho culture. So there were lots of folkloric dancing going on, mostly Chacarera with vastly superior dancers than I had seen in my life since this really was a way of life for them. So their arm styling, costuming, etc., was superb. It was the real deal, as were the musicians.

There were lots of artisan craft stalls with knives, woodwork, knitwork and other handcraft items made from all sorts of different materials, made into clothes and decorative housewares. There was also food, lots of food. This was the first choripan I had experienced on this trip in Buenos Aires, so I was a little surprised at the 10 peso price. But it was delicious, and there were ample condiments of ketchup, mustard, chimmichurri sauce, and a salsa-like sauce that was heavy on the onions, and shredded potato chips. JSE had the brilliant idea of splitting it, and I was happy that my castellano did not fail me and I could verbally request that it be cut in two without the visual aids of chopping hand motions and holding up two fingers.

We spent an enjoyable afternoon strolling among the artisan stalls and noshing on a few more things, and I just kind of looked at everything (humitas, empanadas of course, chorizo, morcilla, a ton of different types of pastries that made me want to check my blood sugar after just looking at them, and even some more unusual things like pickled meats (among lots of other pickled items). One food stand had this interesting thing called Locro, which I had never heard of before. A quick search on the internet afterwords said it was a corn stew.

After a while, JSE started to fade a little since she had not had a nap yet after her long flight from the US so we decided to call it a day. Somehow we had a crazy burst of ambition and decided to take the bus. But the buses are a bit bizarre here, and after a few people in front of us pushed in and got on, the bus started to leave as we approached the door, even though it was still open and people were on the stairs. We also weren't quite sure which bus to take, but figured all of them would get us closer to home than where we currently were. We also had our trusty free tango maps with us, and had just each just purchased Guias that afternoon (8 pesos each), so we figured that between the both of us, we could figure out how to get home reasonably well.

We took the no. 80 bus because it said "Sarmiento" on the front, thinking that it would take us to Sarmiento street (near where we are staying) at some point on the route. Halfway through the ride I decided to cross check the route against the big tango map. Uh oh. It was going to take us to Barrio Sarmiento, which is nowhere near where we were staying. So I quickly did some more analyzing of the map and cross checking it with the Guia and decided that we should get off at Las Incas and just take the Subte directly from there. We moved to the very front seats of the bus so we could see where we were going better. Since when we got on the bus initially, we never told the driver where we were going, and no one else was getting off at the Los Incas subte stop on Corrientes, he drove on by. Ugh! So that's when I piped up. Thankfully, we were only a half block past where we were supposed to get off, and the traffic was cooperative enough so that the driver let us off right there.

After that, we got to the Los Incas subte stop and took it to where we needed to get off, which is still a 3-4 blocks away from home. It was clear at that point that JSE needed a shot of sugar or caffeine, or preferably both. So we went to the heladoria and café to fuel up, where I got a Fernet y soda (total was 25 pesos, a bargain by US standards).

As we finally made our way the last block to home, I was disappointed that the Peruvian veggie store next door was closed for the evening and I just HAD to have sliced veggies for my lunch the next day. So she went up to shower, rest, etc., before a night out at the milongas, and I went around the corner to another veggie market. Thank goodness there are so many of these wonderful shops around so that it is super easy to always have access to fresh veggies. So I had my veggie store adventure, asking for some cherry tomatoes, but wondering out loud why they are called "Cherry" and not "Tomate Cereza" and asking for "Lechuga mas bonita" and being told that Lechugas are not bonitas, but Chicas are. It was a fun little conversation, so after my purchases (sliced veggies, cherry tomatoes, and two heads of lettuce, all for 13 pesos), I made my way back home.

Having more than my fair share of travel with another partner or in groups, I know the luxury of being able to be by one's self occasionally, so I decided to let her have the room all to herself for a few hours while I went down to the living room to blog blog blog. I gotta tell you, I am totally appreciating all the thoughtful touches here at the Place That Shall Go Unnamed including and especially the free Internet access on a decent computer with a decent keyboard (albiet South American with its different key locations and extra alt options, and a very difficult to access "at" symbol), and that the owner/manager is very responsive and quick about things that go wrong (and believe me, this is Buenos Aires, so infrastructural things DO go wrong, no matter how upscale and expensive the lodgings). In short, it's only day 2, but I am finding that I really love this place that I am staying at.
We got ready to go to the milonga, and I wanted to go to on Loca at Club Chalmers on Niceto Vega. But we got there at the absurdly early hour of 10:30 p.m., and saw that it was completely dark. Closed. Shoot.

We decided to go to La Viruta since it was only a few blocks away and we could walk there, but when we got there, they were doing Rock & Roll (Swing). Apparently, though this is listed as a milonga that starts at 11:00 p.m., tango dancing actually doesn't start until 1:00 a.m. and lasts until 6:00 a.m. Go figure.

We didn't want to wait that long, so we went to El Beso instead. We had a nice time there, with JSE dancing with some folks she already knew, and me being effective with my laser beam cabaceoing and getting my fair share of dances with no one I knew. One porteno said he would not normally have asked me to dance, but I was so insistent with my cabaceo that he felt he HAD to. I wasn't really sure how to take that. But he was happy with my dancing, and he told me I would do well at milongas and that that was not the case with shyer gals, no matter how skilled dancewise.

Monday, May 30,2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo C - Day 1. The topic of the day was the quality of movement, and consisted of a lot of exercises focused on power, presence, and dynamics, and the Follower feedback being clear to the Leader. In short, we were trying to clean up the details of our dance and try to be more powerful, more elegant, and have more presence in our dance.

I'll write my detailed notes after I get back home since it would make this crazy long post even longer.

I don't know why but I was inspired to walk home afterwards, which took me an hour. Big mistake. But oh well. At least I got to explore the lay of the land.
I stopped by at Noble & Natural, on Corrientes right out side the Angel Gallardo Subte station, a local vegetarian takeout store with lots of hot steam-table items, prepacked and priced, mostly around 12 pesos. I picked up a bunch of vegetarian items (noodles, rice, mixed veggies, a mixed veggie thing with tofu, pot stickers, and interestingly, seitan, olive, and red bell pepper whole wheat empanadas). It was all very yummy, and really hit the spot since the local Disco near home doesn't have as many steam table items and prepared foods as the Abasto Coto.

JSE and I had planned to go to the Women's Technique class taught by Virginia Pandolfi at the Carlos Copello school on Anchorena by Artesanal, Lolo Gerard, et al, and she was still game since she was fresh and enthusiastic since she had not taken the Intensivo C. I was really dog tired, but went anyway as curiosity got the better of me. Generously, the school allowed me to watch, as JSE paid the 30 pesos (about US$7.50 to attend).

They began with stretching exercises, starting with the head and going all the way down to include the feet. Then they worked on the front crosses and back crosses, making them pretty and rounded, and then adding the side step.

Then they worked on molinetes, first starting out doing the footwork in a linear fashion of doing forward (front cross), side (open), back (back cross), side step. Their goal was to make a smoother pass of feet by each other, and not a hard, abrupt, militaristic collection because it stops the fluidity of the turn.

Then they worked on the molinete footwork, all in a circle, arm in arm, clockwise and counterclockwise, and changing back and forth. The Follower needs to have tone in her embrace and and push against the Leader to be able to pivot a lot. She can also practice this against a wall.

The adorno they worked on was a big lapice of the free leg to cross in back to pivoted change of direction of the turn.

It was an excellent lesson.

After that, I went home and to bed while JSE danced the night away at a milonga.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo C - Day 2. Notes to follow later.

After class, I made it over to EAT (Escuela Argentina de Tango) at the Galerias Pacifico to take Marta y Manolo's Canyengue class. I had stopped beforehand to pick up some flowers (15 pesos) since it was Marta's birthday.

When I got to the school, I was shocked at the new prices:
1 class 39 pesos
4 class card 144 pesos
8 class card 273 pesos
12 class card 390 pesos
I was going to buy a 4 class card, but since it was so expensive, I just decided to pay for the Canyengue class.

The class was good, as usual, as I got to partner with a nice man from Uruguay who now lives in BsAs and has a bed and breakfast in San Telmo. His Canyengue was already good, so it was nice to be able to work the material with someone who knew what he was doing.

Marta did not arrive to teach as she was having health issues. So I gave my flowers to Manolo to give to her. He was very touched and said she would be too.

The other couple in the class were brand spakin' newbies, portenos who now live in Idaho Falls. In our small talk chit chat after class, they asked where I was from, and when I mentioned the San Francisco Bay Area, they mentioned Homer and Cristina and how they loved their videos and notes. I told them who I was, and they absolutely gushed with appreciation for the notes, which made me blush as Manolo looked at us curiously seeing our exchange.

After class, I went over to Galauno, where I got a choripan (8 pesos) con lachuga y tomate (an extra 3 pesos). It was as delicious as ever, although I was slightly disappointed by the higher price and the lack of Carlos at the restaurant on this particular night.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Luciana Valle Intensivo - Day 3. Notes to follow later.
I took a cab all the way home after class, since JSE and I had planned to take the 6:00 pm Josefina Avila/Bermudez's Women's Technique class at the Carlos Copello tango school on Anchorena. This being Buenos Aires, we got to the school on time, only to find out the class was cancelled because maestra was travelling. Since we were skunked in this endeavor, we had no choice but to go shoe shopping instead as the stores would be open one more hour until 7:00 pm.

Since we were just a block away from Lolo Gerard, of course that was our first stop. JSE found a great pair of shoes, but didn't have enough cash or her credit card on her, so she paid a 100 peso deposit and will return with the rest the next day or two.

Then we made our way to Artesanal since we remembered their advertisement of their sale of buy one pair and get the second at half off, which they were having in JSE's size (but not mine). The cats were all still there, and inventory seemed a little leaner. We didn't find any shoes that we liked, and with a half hour until 7 pm, we decided to take the Subte to NeoTango on Sarmiento.

When we approached NeoTango, I saw that the sign was not lit, and made a comment to JSE that that was not a good sign. Sure enough, when we got there at 6:45 pm, the gate was down, and the shop looked under construction. Then we saw the sign out front that said they were remodelling, and would open on June 2, 2011, the next day. Being no stranger to construction, I had serious doubts about that, and pointed out to JSE how the opening date kept getting crossed off and pushed out later. Then a man came out and spoke to us, assuring us they would be open tomorrow afternoon. We thanked him and told him we'd be back, although realistically, we won't return until the weekend, and hopefully by then the store will be open for sure.

We then made our way over to the Galerias Pacifico and the Borges Cultural Center to take in one of the 3 tango shows they are currently running (all shows are 60, 80, or 100 pesos, though as I told JSE, it doesn't really make sense to pay for the 100 peso seats since they are not appreciably better than the 60 peso seats since the theatre is so small).

We ended up watching "Bien de Tango" and as JSE was reading through the program, we discovered that two of our friends who we know as Luciana Valle's Intensivo assistants were two stars of the show. So that was exciting!

The show was traditional in nature with lots of dance scenes, orchestra scenes, and singers both male and female doing their respective solos and duets. It was super fun seeing Quique y Jime performing; we both thought they were the best dancers, though of course we are both quite biased. :o)

The male singer in the show, Maximiliano Bayo, did a wonderful rendition of Remembranzas that brought tears to JSE's eyes and chills down my spine, it was THAT good.

Seeing our friends perform, and talking to a lot of the assistants in Intensivo C and hearing about the shows they perform in, and bumping into another of them (Nicolas) at EAT since he was subbing for one of the regular teachers, makes me realize just how HIGH quality, amazingly skilled dancers/performers/teachers the "assistants" are. I used to understand that on an intellectual level, but actually seeing them perform is truly a humbling experience to know how fantastic they are, and how they are...ummmm... kind of slumming it dancing with us tango hacks from around the world.

JSE had a very good time watching the tango show at the Borges Cultural Center, so much so that we are planning on seeing their other tango show, "Con Alma de Tango".
When we got back home, there were a bunch of people in the kitchen, as there often is at that time of night. It is such a nice, fun atmosphere to be in, where everyone is cooking or preparing food to eat, talking about tango, and sharing life experiences cross culturally trying to communicate with each other when often times English/Spanish is our second (or third or fourth) language. It's a wonderful experience.

May 19-25

2011-05-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 19, 2011
Free Talk at Stanford: "History and Insight into the World of Argentine Tango" by dancer, choreographer, tango historian and author Anton Gazenbeek. I had heard of Anton Gazenbeek for years, but never got to see him live in person except maybe once years ago, as he left the area long before I ever was active in the San Francisco Tango Community. So I've admired his work from afar, like his instructional video with Cecilia Gonzalez (la otra, no la famosa), and read about his school in NYC. For the lecture, I was expecting more of a general talk about Argentine Tango, but it was a history of the show "Tango Argentino", with many video clips. The show "Tango Argentino" was THE precursor show to Forever Tango, and which toured the world from 1983 to 1992, featuring such legends as Los Dinzel, Los Rivarola, Juan Carlos Copes & Maria Nieves, etc. I had read about this show, and all the drama that went on behind the scenes, but had never actually seen the show or any clips (at least not that I know of). The lecture and video presentation consisted of various clips of the dancers throughout the show's history, private film clips, news footage, rehearsals, snippets from the Merv Griffin show, and illegally filmed snippets from the audience. The clips were from productions all over the world-- Broadway and the US, Osaka, Paris, Italy, and France, to name a few, and covered the entire run of the show. There were examples of the early goal of showing elegant tango dancing, with the goal of being stylized and yet with natural movement, as well as dancing for applause (which happened later during the Show's run). There were clips of milonga, men dancing with each other or women dancing with each other with lead-follow exchange, Monica and Luciano dancing to El Choclo with the Spanish woman doing a more Flamenco style dance to the Campadrito's (native Argentine male) gaucho style dance, Los Rivarola in their 30's dancing to La Cumparsita choreographed by Juan Carlos Copes, a crazy fast milonga, and the Clase Elvira, one of the first tango classes ever taught in the U.S. It was a very interesting video presentation and talk, and the audience, largely made up of Stanford music students (though there were about a dozen tangueros in the mix, along with the tango band Quin Tango), asked Anton and his partner to do a little demo at the end, which he obliged. He is an amazing dancer, truly wonderful to watch, and someone speculated that he must be entirely physically double jointed since he had so much flexibility and range of motion in his core, legs and hips. I don't know about that, but it sure made me smile to watch him dance. Much of what he presented (sans the video clips), is in his book, "Inside Tango Argentino": http://www.sergioseguraproductions.com/insidetangoargentino.htm

Friday, May 20, 2011
MUSE Milonga. I missed the lesson beforehand, taught by Amy Lincoln and Santiago Croce. I listened to part of it as I set up the noshables. The milonga was a little less attended than the two weeks prior, but it was still a nice, friendly crowd. The lovely Rochelle made some amazing desserts of white and dark chocolate covered cheesecakes on a stick, which were truly a striking sight to behold, and some mini bundt cakes (chocolate and vanilla), which resembled mini frosted doughnuts, appropriately presented on a tiered platter. Those luscious treats definitely rounded out the rest of the menu, which included the usual fresh fruit and veggies, chips, and my phyllo thingies (chicken and cheese flavored on this particular night). Neeraj was the DJ, and his selection of music seemed particularly inspired and yet crowd-pleasing at the same time. As far as I could tell, those who were there had a good time (though of course my opinion is biased since I adore this milonga).

Saturday, May 21, 2011
La Gran Milonga de Los Mendoza with Trio Garufa at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club. I couldn't resist going to this milonga, despite its higher price tag ($20), since it was in my old 'hood. The fact that they had accommodated for 50 cars to park at the St. Peter's and Paul's church Salesian lot was great, and I thought I could snag a spot by getting there at the reasonably early hour of 9:15 p.m. Boy was I wrong. Apparently, all of those spots were snapped up by 8:05 p.m., which left most of us taking an impromptu car tour of the 'hood. No worries for me though, since I know it like the back of my hand. So I drove by North Beach Playground, down Columbus, and by my parents home off of Lombard. I was tempted to ask if I could park in their 4-car garage (a gold mine in North Beach), but decided against it as I had flashbacks of my teen years and my parents' hide getting chapped as I rolled in sometimes obscenely after midnight from dancing at the clubs. I did NOT want to relive that again, especially in my 5th decade! So I just drove on by, back up Columbus, and lo and behold, the Parking Gods must have been smiling on me because I got a primo spot, just around the corner from the club. Ah! It was meant to be! The parking situation was not going to kick my butt, though I knew I could always park at the police station (or what is now the lot across the street from the police station) if I got truly desperate, but I really didn't want to shell out any more dollars than I had to.

Apparently, everyone and their cousin knew that this was the milonga to be at on this night. There were also lots of folks from the local Italian-American community, new or non-tango dancers, who attended to check things out. The space is beautiful and spacious, but it was very crowded and warm, with lots of spectators and newbies. Trio Garufa played well. The food was excellent with foccacia from Liguria Bakery, of course, the onion of which was a childhood staple and still tasted as divine and exactly the same as I remembered, even the tomato and the raisin ones. (Liguria Bakery has been on the corner of Filbert and Stockton since forever, and it really does have the BEST foccacia in all of San Francisco.) A cheese platter with a very nice selection of semi-hard and soft cow and goat cheeses, an extremely UK-influenced cracker selection that included digestive biscuits and cream crackers a la Jacobs (but not specifically Jacobs branded), and a lovely fruit platter with assorted sliced melon, grapes, and strawberries, along with a strawberry yogurt sauce. There was a full bar and ample pitchers of water and stemmed glasses.

Los Mendoza honored Amy and Jenkin, one of the Bay Area's golden couples of tango, since they were one of Los Mendoza's first students and they have been supportive of most or all of Los Mendoza's events over the last 10 years. Amy and Jenkin were totally surprised, of course, which just made the moment all the more touching.

Despite the overall loveliness and elegance of the space and tasty food selection, I only had an OK time dancing. It was too hot for me, so I was glad to sit out quite a bit and just watch other people dance. I don't believe I was alone in thinking it was too warm since even those who are never warm were fanning themselves quite ferociously at times. So for me, it was an OK, reasonably nice, but not great, evening. Loved the nostalgia of being back in the 'hood, but disliked how trendy and hip it has become, especially with the Saturday night crowds spilling out from the restaurants, bars, cafes and gelato places. It seems the recession is over, at least on Saturday nights in North Beach.

Coming up next week...

Ana y Jr. Scout Extraordinaire's Excellent Adventure in ...

www.scoutingtour.blogspot.com

May 5-18

2011-05-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 6, 2011
MUSE milonga with lesson beforehand by Glenn Corteza. I got there late for the lesson. When I got there, they were working on walking in partnership, and were instructed to walk together as if pushing a heavy object, to add more color to the walk. Then the lesson progressed to working on just leading Follower ochos or just doing turns. It was a very good, fundamental lesson.

The milonga was fun. There was a very nice crowd of both regulars and newbies, so it was very pleasing to see the momentum building. There were more Leaders than Followers, so this made for a very busy night for me as I made the rounds. La Russa, who has been a constant, consistent fan of this milonga, had a great time (she told me so several times), as the Leader quality was ample and high. It was very interesting to get out of myself and focused on others' enjoyment: my thinking of "Am I going to have a good time at the milonga tonight? I hope I some good dances." switched to "Wow, look at all these new Leaders here tonight. I'll do my best to see that they have a good time so that they come back again. I hope they enjoy dancing with me."

I made my usual phyllo thingies (beef, egg and olive on this night), and I felt the dough (Safeway brand) was thinner than usual, which made for a visually wrinkled end product, as well as a very high filling to dough ratio. Though not a complete FAIL since they were still snarffled up, it frustrates me that there could be such a drastic variation in thickness (I so dislike such batch-to-batch variability, especially when I only use one sheet instead of layering multiple sheets).

Saturday, May 7, 2011
Nora's milonga in Palo Alto. There was no lesson beforehand, which was just as well since I would have missed it. This was the celebration/graduation milonga for the students who took the 4-day Gustavo & Giselle workshops. I figured that everyone and their cousin would be at this milonga, so I made the 75-mile-round trip drive to attend. I was not mistaken, as it got quite crowded during the milonga, and floorcraft was a little hairy at times. Since my feet were still quite tired and sore from the night before, I was perfectly fine with sitting out half the time, and was very pleased that the other half of the time when I did dance, I danced with very high quality leaders (including some who did well at the recent competition). Food was the usual fresh fruit (grapes, strawberries), and veggies (sugar snap peas, baby carrots, broccoli in manageable-size pieces, and baby tomatoes, and thankfully no cauliflower--gigantic or otherwise sized--for anyone to break apart with their bare hands and no hand sanitizer in sight and leave for others), with the periodic appearance later on on spanikopita-like empanada thingies, and meat taquitos. The much-awaited and anticipated performance of Gustavo and Giselle was nice.

The only damper on the evening was that there was at least one couple who was unusually aggressive, possessive, and territorial about "their" seats all night up until the performance, which made for a weirdly hostile vibe. As you might have guessed, this was at the table I was originally at, but after their behavior (first telling me to move one seat over, even though the seat I was sitting on to change into my dance shoes was supposedly the gal's husband, and he was at that time nowhere to be seen, and then later on telling TWO different male friends of mine very pointedly that THAT seat was taken and could they please move over somewhere else, even though they had just sat down to CHANGE THEIR SHOES), I made sure to stay clear of them and "their" table as much as possible. It was shocking to me since this couple dances well, and so I figured they have been around the community for quite some time. Also, the milonga was crowded with lots of folks streaming in throughout the night. Obviously, folks would need a place to sit, even if just temporarily, to change their shoes. So for this couple to to behave as rudely they did...well, by golly, it's just as well that they are married, because they likely would not have done well in the dating scene as they BOTH surely must have been charm school flunkies! Or maybe they have just cornered the entire market on milonga real estate, and somehow I and everyone else DID NOT get that particular memo. It was truly flabbergasting to me how excessively territorial and rude this couple was.

Sunday, May 9, 2011
Studio Gracia Milonga with lesson beforehand by Eduardo Saucedo and Marisa Quiroga on Milonga. I missed the lesson, but watched the tail end of it. It was a packed lesson with a few extra followers. Still, it appeared that everyone had a good time learning a few new milonga steps, and this was confirmed verbally to me by many students later on. The milonga was very full, and though floorcrafting was difficult at times, it never got atrociously bad. Like the lesson, the milonga had more Followers than Leaders, but I think more than a few people, myself included, were happy to sit out a good bit of the time rather than join the crowded conditions on the dancefloor. It was just one of those nights, I suppose, where you want to be social and at a milonga, but there is no desperation to rack up floor time during every single tanda (especially when our feet were already tired and sore from dancing in the days before). Maestros did a nice several song performance, and a birthday vals for Keiko, which culminated in Maestro cutting in and concluding the dance with a dip, which caused peals of delighted laughter, along with a wave of innocent vicarious jealousy among the Followers.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
CellSpace Alt Milonga. I got there late, just in time for my take-down shift (10:00 p.m.). The milonga was nicely attended, but not excessively crowded. By CellSpace standards, it was a light evening. I had a good time though. I danced pretty much every tanda while I was there and before it was time to break everything down for the night. The DJ's Leslie and Thomas were really good, and the alt tandas had a very bluesy, mellow vibe to them, matching the crowd and the evening.

After this, I did not dance again until the following Wednesday. Why, you might ask? My body was truly aching from my day job of two days (Thursday and Friday) of clearing out a house of several decades worth of accumulations to get the house ready to sell. And then having my own Totally Free Garage Sale on Saturday to get rid of hundreds of pounds of my own accumulations over the decades. It was very liberating emotionally, but very taxing physically.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011
CellSpace Alt Milonga. I got there late, enjoyed a few tandas before sitting out one for door duty, and then danced the rest of the night away. It was pretty crowded on this particular night, which was strange since the prior week was so much lighter. Ben was the DJ and birthday boy, so we had a non-vals dance for him, and his lovely wife provided the extremely yummy and insanely generous coffee ice cream cake with chocolate cake base. Cleanup was smooth and easy. CellSpace needs more volunteers, so anyone wanting to save a five-spot on their Wednesday night dancing should definitely get on the roster. It's very nice to be a part of such a friendly group of dancin' fools.

COME JOIN ME!
Friday, May 20, 2011. MUSE Milonga with lesson beforehand by Santiago and Amy. Should be a great night. Be there or be square.

April 28 - May 4

2011-05-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 28, 2011
The Verdi Club Milonga. I arrived in the middle of the lesson, taught by Marcela Duran and Gaspar Godoy of Forever Tango, and since there were more Followers than Leaders in the packed class, I skipped participating in it, though I was able to watch it. Gaspar taught in Spanish, and Marcela translated to English. I found his instruction and her translation and additional instructions to be very clear and precise. They also struck me as being very enthusiastic, caring teachers. They did a two-song performance later on during the milonga.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT7f0WtlEhg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuIFbJMvrls

The milonga was fun. The Ben Bogart Sexteto / Los Gatos Azules were the same musicians as the night prior at CellSpace, with the exception of Adrian Jost of Trio Garufa sitting in for Korey Ireland. They played well to a full house. The milonga was reasonably fun on account of the good crowd, the live music, and the buzz and excitement of having tango royalty (Marcela and Gaspar) in the house. Unfortunately, floorcrafting was a little hairy, aggressive, and careless at times, though I suppose it could have been a lot worse (but thankfully wasn't).

Some of the the San Francisco Bay Area competitors from the Argentine Tango USA Festival and USA Championship were there at a reserved table, and it was fun seeing them all together. Although we've seen them dance (or danced with them personally) for years, I think there is a keener eye on them and appreciation of their dancing after the competition. It seems the Bay Area is still buzzing and basking in the afterglow of all the excitement, and lucky for us some of the maestros have extended their stay for another week or so (Pulpo!). Christy mentioned that Ramada and Yumiko came in second place in Salon, and just bopping into the Festival web site, here are the official results:

Argentine Tango USA Champions
Salon Tango (Official Category)
1st Place: Brian Nguyen and Yuliana Basmajyan from Los Angeles.
2nd Place: Jesse Ramada Salieri and Yumiko Krupenina from San Francisco.
3rd Place: Gustavo Hornos and Jessica Salomón from San Francisco.

Stage Tango
1st Place: Marcelo Molina and Carolina Vasquez from Fresno.
2nd Place: Gustavo Hornos and Jessica Salomon from San Francisco.

Congrats to all who participated, even those who didn't place. It's not easy going through the daunting task of competing, with the hundreds of hours of practicing, the expense both time and moneywise of costuming, and just the sheer pressure and emotional stress of being judged publicly.

COME JOIN ME!

MUSE Milonga tomorrow night!

April 21-27

2011-04-28T13:04:00.001-07:00

Thursday - Sunday April 21-24, 2011
Argentine Tango USA Festival and USA Championship. I did not have a chance to go to the festival at all (too busy with my non-tango life), but I heard that the competitors from San Francisco had a nice showing. Mamborich posted a bunch of YouTube videos of the competition and winners.

Here are the official results:

Argentine Tango USA Champions
Salon Tango (Official Category)
1st Place: Brian Nguyen and Yuliana Basmajyan from Los Angeles.
2nd Place: Jesse Ramada Salieri and Yumiko Krupenina from San Francisco.
3rd Place: Gustavo Hornos and Jessica Salomón from San Francisco.

Stage Tango
1st Place: Marcelo Molina and Carolina Vasquez from Fresno.
2nd Place: Gustavo Hornos and Jessica Salomon from San Francisco.

Congrats to all who participated, even those who didn't place. It's not easy going through the daunting task of competing, with the hundreds of hours of practicing, the expense both time and moneywise of costuming, and just the sheer pressure and emotional stress of being judged publicly.

Congrats especially to Brian and Yuliana, who won the Argentine Tango USA Festival & USA Championship in Salon. I met Brian and Yuliana on my trip last year to Buenos Aires, as they were my housemates at Becka's Tango House. So the three of us spent some time together, eating, chatting, laughing, and going to several milongas together. They are both super nice people, and totally focused on their tango goals. At the time, they were in BsAs for the world championships, having won the 2010 competition in New York. So it was fun listening to their tales of clothes and shoe shopping, and their schedule of lessons with some of the best teachers in Buenos Aires. We had all planned on taking Alejandra Mantinan's workshop together, and I had secured the ideal partner of Chino, one of Luciana Valle's Intensivo assistants. But darn it, the workshop was cancelled and we didn't go. :o( Still, I was very blessed and appreciative to have such nice folks to share the positive, happy parts of the trip with.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011
CellSpace ALT Milonga. I did not make any of the lessons, except the tail end of the beginner lesson taught by Kate, since I was volunteering at the front desk. I actually had a great time volunteering, chatting away with El Arquitecto. We discussed how drafting by hand and perspective drawing with rolling pencils is a lost art nowadays in the age of AutoCAD and beyond, as well as the merits of Pink Pearls v Staedtlers. Toward the end of my shift, I jumped in on the beginners lesson since it was Leader-heavy. I had a good time.

The milonga was super fun. The band, Los Gatos Azules, were wonderful. There were two bandoneonists (Ben Bogart and Korey Ireland), two violinists, a bass player and a keyboardist. They had an especially great fast milonga tanda. Lucky for us in the SF Bay Area, they are also playing tonight, Thursday, April 28, at The Verdi Club. So they are definitely worth checking out! Hope to see you there!

DJ Homer was excellent too, with very crowd-pleasing traditional and alt tandas that kept the energy light, happy, and flowing. It was very crowded because of the large number of people in a smaller dance floor space to accommodate the stage for the band, and a double row of seating on the other side of the room. Still, I think the Leaders did a reasonably good job with floorcrafting and keeping things safe and sane for all.

The Match4Mihaela - Bone Marrow Registration Drive seemed to be reasonably successful, judging from all the folks who wore the stickers. It was heavily manned by enthusiastic volunteers. No need for me to register, since I've been on for the last couple of decades. Still, as I was leaving the Be The Match person made sure I was still on their list by asking me if I had updated my contact info recently, which I did.

April 14-20

2011-04-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 15, 2011
MUSE Milonga with lesson beforehand by Neeraj Korde. I got there early enough to take the lesson beforehand, on connection. It was an excellent lesson. We began with walking and dancing with each other with just chest-to-chest connection with no arms/embrace at all. Then we added simple turns to the left and the right. In our chest-only connection exercise, for the counterclockwise turn, the Follower's forward step in the molinete should be a tight front cross, rather than a long forward front cross step. Our goal in dancing with only chest-to-chest connection and no arms at all was to maintain connected at all times. We were not to separate away from each other, or to slide against each other. In maintaining our chest-to-chest connection, both dancers need to be upright and straight (not curled into each other at the shoulders, or tilted one way or the other), with chest up and pushing into each other. Arms were not used at all as the Leaders have a tendency to overuse their right hand, sometimes making it very evil as it pushes the Follower around or clamps her into him as he struggles for balance and support. This was a very challenging, excellent lesson. When the Leader is the center of the circle and the Follower does her molinete around him, the Leader's footwork needs to be small and tight as he is the center of the circle. If he takes big steps and shifts weight to and fro while the Follower tries to do the molinete around him, she will not have a good gauge of where the center of the circle, and thus her footwork will be off as well. There were lots of good technical tips given out during the lesson, and ample individual attention. We concluded the lesson with some drills of doing forward ocho and back ocho footwork. A more challenging level to this is to the the ochos in a straight line, not traveling, so that we increase our disassociation. It will be interesting to see and experience more lessons from Neeraj, as he seems to be a very good teacher.

The milonga was super fun. The momentum built throughout the night as a steady stream of very skilled dancers came in, both regulars and first-time to MUSE-ers, some from the South Bay and outer East Bay. This was the first time I had experienced DJ Marianna Andrly spin the tunes, and I was happily impressed. She is an excellent DJ, and a great addition to the San Francisco tango community stable of DJs. She also leads and follows, and is open to dancing with everyone, so she's a fun person to have at milongas. It was also great that we had a nice crowd of skilled social dancers.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011
CellSpace ALT Milonga. I did not make any of the lessons since I had a dinner engagement beforehand with a couple of tango cohorts. We went to the Universal Cafe, just around the corner. It had been many years since I last ate dinner here, and it was still quite good. I actually wasn't planning on dancing afterwards, and hadn't dressed for it at all. Still, my cohorts were able to twist my rubber arm, so I went anyway, jeans and velour top and all. Needless to say, after the first tanda I was sweating like a ... human (pigs don't sweat much except through their snout, which is why they wallow in mud to cool off, and dogs don't sweat at all, they just pant). I was horribly self-conscious about dripping with sweat the entire night and being hot and uncomfortable. But amazingly, it was probably the best night I've ever had dancing there. I stayed for about 8 tandas, and 6 of those were with absolutely amazing, fantastic dancers. So go figure. (You can't see me, but I am shaking my head.)

March 24-April 13

2011-04-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 25, 2011

Palo Alto Milonga. I missed the lesson beforehand, taught by Adolfo Caszarry. I got there on the early side, and really hesitated before going in. I decided to give it a go since a few of my favorite dancers were there. After dancing with them though, it was a very slow night for me. The milonga was lightly attended, and on this night there were quite a few couples who only danced with each other there. I have a personal rule that if I sit out for three tandas in a row, then it's not worth my time to stay and stew in my own juices, so I just leave. On this night, I extended the rule to five tandas. But after sitting out for five tandas in a row, enough was enough for me, so I left. Some nights are just that way... which is totally fine. It's a balance thing, and we've all been there. To make it less of a financial bust for me, I did take a to-go plate of a couple of slices of pizza. :o)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Lessons with Alex Plakantonakis and Aneta Key.

Workshop 1: "Play with Lady Milonga" (mix level) Milonga lesson. We played with a very simple step, applying different rhythms to it get a different flavor. First drilling the step with S-S-S-S, and then drilling with adding QQ at various different places.

Workshop 2: "Meet Señor Tango" (beg level). This was a good lesson. We began with walking, just walking on the beat. Then different types of walking—fast, slow, big steps, small steps, and with attitude like we were models walking down a catwalk. Then we tried doing these different types of walk in connection.

These were both very good lessons. My notes are lame because somehow I misplaced the notebook in which I took notes for the class (which is what happens when you have multiple notebooks floating around).

At Night:

Empanada Experiments using Won Ton wrappers. I was intrigued by the concept of using won ton wrappers as empanada skins, which I had read about on the Internet, so went to my local Asian grocery store and bought the “medium thickness” square skins, the package of which said I should get 80 skins out of it. So accounting for the 80 little empanadas I envisioned, I bought 2 lbs of ground beef. In retrospect, I should have bought the round skins to be more "emapanda"-like.

So I started with the filling, figuring that three eggs would be a good amount for the 2 lbs of ground beef. I hard boiled them for 8 minutes, then cooled in cold water (not iced). One yellow onion and 6 cloves of garlic were sautéed until translucent, and then the 2 lbs of ground beef added, along with 2 tsp cumin and 2 tsp oregano. After it was all cooked so there was no pink, the meat mixture was drained. While it was draining and cooling, I added some cocktail olives I had (stuffed with pimento, cheese, and mushrooms), rough chopped since I was after chunks and not delicate slices into the sauté pan, and I sliced the hard boiled egg using an egg slicer, lengthwise and widthwise. The eggs were also added to the pan, and so was the drained ground beef, then it was all mixed and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Then the process of filling the won ton skins with the ground beef, folding over to a wet corner, and then sealing and crimping with a fork was done. Then into a 425 degree oven they went, after half of them were amply brushed with butter, and the other half of them amply brushed with olive oil to see if there was a difference between butter and olive oil. I started out at 10 minutes, but since they weren’t browned by then, I added two sets of 3 minutes until I got the correct shade of brown. Then they were done, and onto a wire rack to cool and drained of the oil.

I also had a pan on the stove top to steam a set, and also a saucepan filled with olive oil to deep fry a few.

In the deep fry attempt, I used olive oil since that was all I had (though I could see my grandma shaking her head from heaven, and I could hear her instructing me that I should have been using peanut oil, but I was much too lazy and frugal to schlep my way over to the grocery store to get peanut oil just for this one thing), which did not work very well in terms of speed and browning. I nixed this idea after deep frying 4 empanadas since they just looked sad and pathetic, took forever to brown, and were very greasy to eat.

The steamed ones were OK. They were kind of like dim sum, only not very cohesive since I didn’t add any egg or cornstarch to the meat mixture, and the meat mixture was already cooked when I began to steam them. They were good with soy sauce, but obviously more dim sum than empanada.

The baked ones were…OKish if you don’t know empanadas. If you do know empanadas, then you might find the ones made with won ton skins a bit bizarre. They were extremely crunchy and would score high with those on low carb diets. But if you were a porteno or someone who has eaten a lot of empanadas in your day, these babies would just be plain weird. Taste wise they were fine, but the sensual feel of the extremely thin dough, and sound of the extreme crunch would be too far away from what most people know as “empanadas”. So, don’t try to serve these in South America or to any gathering where lots of South Americans are present. However, if you have lots of friends who have never set foot in South America (or if they did, only went to eat at McDonalds), then by all means go ahead and use won ton wrappers. As for me, I will just chalk this up to another interesting culinary experiment. Not exactly a crash and burn failure, but certainly not a culinary success (though a very educational one). I did learn that there was no difference in browning between the butter brushed ones versus the olive oil ones. So I might as well just brush with olive oil or an olive oil/butter combination since it would be less expensive and have less saturated fat.

And as a side note, I was VERY disappointed that the labeling on the won ton package was wrong. It said that I should expect to have 80 wrappers from this 1 pound package. The reality was that I got around 50. So there was a huge numbering error in terms of how many skins there were supposed to be, which made me end up with a lot of leftover filling, since by the time I was done, the Asian grocery store was already closed for the evening. So, BIG FAIL on the won ton wrapper labeling. Shame on them for screwing up my math!

Friday, April 1, 2011

MUSE Milonga. I did not go to the lesson beforehand, taught by Neeraj Korde, a desciple of James Fridgen. I had a good time at the milonga. Dancer quality was reasonably high, so despite the light crowd, it was fun. Alex Plakantonakis and Aneta Key came by a did a very nice two-song demo. Then they stayed and social danced with us all. It was nice. The lovely Rochelle made some amazing desserts: a layered, carmel, cake and chocolate trifle dessert in elegantly slim shot glasses, with corresponding perfectly sized skinny spoons, and some very on-trend red velvet cupcakes with an excellent top and frosting ratio to body. Those glorious treats were snarffled up right quick.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Late Shift Milonga with lesson beforehand by Luis Bianchi and Daniela Pucci. The lesson was a good one and focused on some interesting material. We began with side steps, both for Leader and Follower, but each going to opposite way: Leader steps to his left, and Follower steps to her left, so they step away from each other as they face each other. Then we tried it with both dancers stepping to their respective rights as they face each other. The goal was to feel the rebound energy. Next, we added the Follower forward ocho, with opposition footwork for the Leader. So Leader does left foot side as Follower does right foot forward front cross step, and Leader does right foot side as Follower does left foot forward front cross step. The Follower should not resist in her right arm. Next, we tried this same opposition footwork doing "weird" back ochos (and indeed, they felt really weird to do). To this we added the Follower clockwise molinete and the Leader left foot side step around the Follower, right his right foot hook around. The opposite energy makes it feel soft first, and then fast. To this we added the Leader left foot sacada on the Follower's left foot on her right foot back cross step. The Follower's left foot collects on the outside right side of her standing right foot after the sacada. Next, we added some more sacadas as we explored different ways of playing with each others' legs in the context of this opposition footwork and energy. We could use things like little catches, little sacadas, little steps. Our goal was to be playful, and yet be very economical in our way of movement. It was a very good lesson.

I had a good time at the milonga. It was full but not excessively crowded. I danced every tanda until midnight, and then I totally bonked. I stayed a little while longer since I promised to drive a friend home and she hadn't yet gotten her fill of tango endorphins. So it was nice just watching everyone for a while (totally barefoot and cross legged Indian style in case anyone didn't get the message that I was done dancing).

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

CellSpace Alt Milonga with lesson beforehand by Homer and Cristina Ladas: Rock Step: Concept and Variations. You can see the demo video and detailed notes at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com.

I had an OK time. I was corralled into volunteering at the door that night, even though I wasn't on schedule to, and had put in plenty of time because of the tangostudent.blogspot.com project. But, whatever. I had a good time volunteering, and was sure to plan it property so I sat out the second and forth tandas (the first two alt ones). I didn't stay super late since I was really tired, and I had ample opportunity to dance until satisfied (which came easily and early).

Friday, April 8, 2011

Monte Cristo Club Milonga. This was the first time I had been back to the Monte Cristo in a while, and I had my doubts. So when I got up to pay my entry fee, I was sure to look inside carefully before committing. Dancer quality looked pretty good, as did gender balance, so I gave it a go. I am glad I did, because I had a very nice time, the best I've had here in a while. I missed the lesson, taught by Lucas Di Giorgio y Jorgelina Guzzi. They did a two-song performance (tango and milonga) later on, which was great. Handsome was ... as handsome as ever. And shame on me for giving him a hello smooch before giving one to Deirdre, who was sitting next to him. He gave me the lowdown on the dinners. The Friday dinners are men only. The Friday lunches, however, are open to everyone. I forgot to ask if the same meal was served, which would be a bit odd. They serve things like tripe with sausage, or bacalao. I am waiting for the Osso Bucco to come around on the menu again. The dancing at the milonga was good. It wasn't super crowded, but had a decent enough attendance of skilled dancers who circulated and graciously danced with everyone, which made for a pleasant, but not overtiring evening.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

The Late Shift Milonga. On this particular night there was no lesson. I got there after 10 p.m., and circled and sat outside in my car, really trying to evaluate whether or not it was worth my $12 to go in. Looking inside, the milonga appeared sparsely attended. But the few dancers that I saw looked pretty good, so I decided to give it a go. I am glad I did. My first dance out was with good sport David (the organizer and local Maestro). We've danced maybe two or three times before, and it's a nerve-wracking experience "dancing with the teacher". This time was no different since we were the only ones on the dance floor at the time. (For whatever reason, everyone else decided to sit out that particular tanda.) Since we had so much room I could appreciate his musicality and technique more. He did a lot of unexpected changes of directions to lead me to do some interesting boleos (I felt so Mariana!), and he has a lot of disassociation so he could do back sacadas smoothly and perfectly without yanking me over or kicking me in the ankle. It was a super fun experience, even though I felt very distracted and self-conscious about my hair, as it kept getting in my face because I forgot my hair band. I haven't spoken about the food here in a while, because for the most part it is the same (veggie platter with dip, cookies, small rolled sandwiches). Recently, they've consistently had flavored Wheat Thins (tonight: sun dried tomato and basil) or other crackers and Pub Cheese, which I admit is sinfully addictive in a gourmet nostalgic Handi-Snacks/Eddie Rickenbacker's or Gold Mirror happy hour kind of way. Sadly, on this night, the Pub Cheese and flavored Wheat Thins could only hold my attention so long, and I had already danced with everyone at the milonga I wanted to dance with. And so quite a bit before the midnight hour, I called it a night.

It seemed everyone and their cousin was at Nora's Milonga at Allegro for Ariadna Naveira and Fernando Sanchez. I saw the YouTube videos, and the performances looked good, and the milonga very crowded.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

CellSpace Alt Milonga with lesson beforehand by Jenny and Tatum Nolan. I got there late for the lesson, but jumped right in. It was a lesson on boleos. The step taught was a Leader left foot back hook, to right foot sacada of Follower's left leg to a Follower left leg back boleo, to pivot to a Follower left foot front cross step, to pivot to Follower right foot forward boleo, to pivot Follower, to Leader right foot sacada of Follower's left foot causing a left foot forward boleo on her right foot back cross step (in clockwise molinete), to pivot out to walking resolution. There were a lot of technical tips given with respect to how do do boleos: don't let your foot remain up as it comes around on the pivot. It should collect to the other ankle before pivoting around, otherwise you might take out all the dancers around you and get the hairy eyeball. If there's someone near you, don't do high back boleos. Followers always have the option to keep back boleos on the floor, small and tight, especially at crowded milonga conditions. Forward boleos are OK to do in more crowded conditions though, as long as there is room for it and it fits the music. The Follower's body should employ the top down spiral when doing boleos, with the movement starting and the torso and then moving down to the hips, legs, ankles, and feet. It was a good lesson.

Since it was my night to volunteer, I manned the desk during the second and forth tandas (the first two alt ones). The alt music on this night was a bit more "alt" than usual. Some people really got into it, while others sat out or shook their heads. It seemed to be the Black Jelly Bean night of alt tandas. I had to stay until the end of the milonga since I was on Take-Down duty, and even though I sat out a lot of tandas, I was also more tired than usual.

March 17-23

2011-03-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 18, 2011
MUSE Milonga with lesson beforehand by Glenn Corteza. I got there late, and with my volunteering duties keeping me occupied, I missed the lesson. But I was told later on that the lesson was a good one, and covered interesting topics like Leader subtle and quick weight changes to do interesting things while not disturbing the Follower. The sequence involved the Follower counterclockwise molinete with Leader sacadas with his left and right foot, then he allows the Follower to complete the quick quick back cross and side step step and do a final sacada to the exit. As I watched the lesson, it seemed that the students were happy to be so blessed to have such attentive individual instruction. Howard's Like-A-Virgin series continues to be popular with the newbies, and even went over the alloted 90 minutes, as they seemed to be having a good time in an extremely supportive, encouraging environment. This milonga was also a benefit for the Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami, and we were able to raise a nice chunk og change for the effort, with an extremely generous donation from Glenn Corteza. So a big thanks to all who came out to have fun for a good cause. DJ Neeraj spun the tunes for the evening, and did a fine job. We'll be seeing much more of him at local milongas behind and in front of the turntables (er...computer). Sheri helped with the food, bringing in the notorious Costco veggie platter with cauliflower. I tried not to tremble with fear and anxiety as I got near it, looking around to see if anyone had touched those child fist-size chunks, break off a piece and put the rest back for others to "enjoy." Thankfully, that didn't happen. Actually, best case is that those huge chunks weren't touched. Anyone who wanted the cauliflower wisely chose the smaller, more manageable pieces. Or they skipped it altogether and just went for the broccoli florets, which were all small and delicately sized, and packed a much better nutritional punch per calorie.

March 10-16

2011-03-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Verdi Club Milonga. I watched the tail end of the lesson by Andrea Monti and Gato Valdez, and it was a good one. The milonga was nice. It was crowded, but not obnoxiously so. There were also more Leaders than Followers, so I imagine that most Followers had an excellent time. Astrid Weiske was in the house, and did a two-song demo with Pier Voulkos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzqCcygYTts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY-n5RiFGkk

Afterwards, Gato y Andrea did a two-song demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKq4gQAz7tA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjMMQJtFB0Q

Then Christy made the floorcrafting announcement I had heard so much about. Apparently, people keep requesting that she repeat this, so she does at her milongas (not every week, since this is the first time I heard it, but reasonably regularly). She said: Around the perimeter of the room are two rows of tables (or a row of tables and a row of chairs). You are supposed to walk in between the two rows (NOT along the edge of the dance floor). There is also space at the corners of the room to enter and exit the dance floor, as well as some in the middle that are purposefully wide and obviously meant for that. You should enter the dance floor at the beginning of the song, whether it is the first, second or third song, they are all fine. What is not so cool is when you enter into the line of dance in the middle of a song, so please try to refrain from doing this. There might have been some other floorcraft instructions, but those were the main ones off the top of my head. No one clapped or whooped afterwards. I'd be curious to hear what other floorcrafting comments she has, which I hope will be unveiled to me over time as I go to the Verdi Club milongas.

I danced with young Saint James of Argentina first tanda out. This was our first time dancing in a few months, not since a Tuesday Gustavo y Jesica lesson few months ago. Amazingly, he has improved vastly since then, and we were blessed with a reasonably open floor. I asked how he improved so much since the last time we danced (he's now been dancing a mere year and a half, and we first danced together when he was slugging away at tango for about 8 months). Apparently, it was through privates with Marcelo Solis and the practica at Vima. It is truly impressive how Saint James's dancing has improved under the tutelage of Marcelo. I asked if he had a Follower partner for those privates. He said no, he and Marcelo lead and follow each other as they work on improving his dancing. Sounds like an excellent plan to me, and I am very impressed by the results (young Saint James is quite gifted in tango, and that was apparent at 8 months, though he was a little wild back then...now he's a much more elegant, controlled dancer; he's always had excellent musicality). Now I am inspired to visit Vima one Wednesday as a stop on the Scouting Tour one day soon.

Friday, March 11, 2011
Palo Alto Milonga. I missed the lesson by Glenn Corteza because I was having way too much fun at dinner. I hesitated about going to this milonga since by the time I got there, it would be quite late (10:30 p.m.), but upon arriving and peeking in, I saw that leader quality was pretty good and the gender was reasonably balanced enough. So I gave it a go. By the time I had finished putting on my shoes, some people had already begun to leave. Still, I had a nice time since the only leaders left by then were all good to fantastic, and the floor was very open by then so we could dance as freely as we wanted without disturbing the other dancers or worrying too much about floorcrafting. Jaycee and I were a little disappointed that we missed dancing the milonga tanda, and by the time we requested it, it was too late. Ah well. Next time...

Saturday, March 12, 2011
The Late Shift with lesson beforehand by Santiago Croce and Amy Lincoln. I missed the lesson, which was too bad since it was Leader-heavy. The lesson focused on Spirals, which one Leader tried out with me during the milonga. It seemed to work OK as far as I could tell. Originally, I wanted to go to Gustavo y Jesica's Sausalito milonga since Los Ocampo were teaching Canyengue, and Monica Orozco was teaching Followers' Technique. Those two lessons plus the milonga was $40, which I viewed as reasonable. But 6:00 p.m., the time I needed to get on the road if I were to take Maestra's Followers' Technique class, came and went and I still had a load of laundry to do. So with my Sausalito plans shot down, my only options were the Late Shift or Nora's Allegro milonga. I was a little hesitant about going to the Late Shift, as when I went to it in the past on a Nora Allegro night, it would always be sparsely attended. But I am really not too keen on Nora's Allegro milonga anymore because of the exceedingly annoying to me Bucha Effect Light In The Corner. So I figured I could do a drive by to take a peek in at the Late Shift, and if the crowd was too thin, I could always jump on the bridge over to Nora's Allegro milonga in Emeryville easily enough. So that's what I did.

I got to the Late Shift just as the lesson was ending. At the lesson, there were many more leaders than followers, and the leaders who were there were ones I would have been happy to dance with. So I decided to give it a go, and I am glad I did. Though it was lightly attended in the beginning, a steady stream of people trickled in throughout the night so that we ended up with a nice crowd of skilled dancers. There were more Leaders than Followers, and the Leaders were generally good to great, so I imagine most Followers who were at the Late Shift that night were pretty happy. Floorcraft, even though somewhat crowded at times, was pretty good. I wanted to stay until the very end because I was having an excellent time, but I started to bonk and I embraced that I had danced all good or great tandas already that night, even with the one new person I danced with, and so I called it a night shortly after 1 a.m.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Just Milonga with Glenn Corteza. Since the pool is closed for a couple of weeks, I found myself with enough time to get back to the city early enough to attend this class, which has some rave reviews from Leaders I enjoy dancing milonga with. So I gave it a go. Since I was the new girl in class, teacher began with asking the other students to explain the Habanera rhythm, which they explained as the "1, and 3, 4" rhythm, noting that the "2" moves over next to the "3" and dropped so that it becomes "and" instead. The "and 3" is usually higher pitched than the notes around it. Habanera is the main rhythm in milonga. What does it mean for milonga? It defines it, but it's not always there. Can a milonga be a milonga without the Habanera rhythm? No. The composer uses this rhythm in milonga. The 1 beat is where the resolutin is, where it rests. The way to be good at milonga is to be good at dividing. The rhythm is like a pie: 1, and 3, 4. The were to try to eat just one slice of pie, such as the "1", or the "3". We were to try to find the three consecutive beats that are even, In this case it would be the 3, 4, 1, which is the same as QQS, or traspie movement. Then Glenn went on to explain the 8 rhythmic options we can dance to in milonga:
1
1, 3
1, 3, 4
1, and 3, 4
4, 1
and 3
and 4
tempo

Whatever rhythmic option you choose, the vocabulary needs to be understood by the Leader and Follower.

Then we practiced drilling a lot, mostly to Canaro's Milonga Criolla and Milonga Sentimental, various simple steps that we would try on different beats. We would keep the step the same, but fit it into different rhythmic options to add different flavor to how we danced milonga. We started out just walking on the 1, which was really slow and most people had the urge to walk on 1, 3. Then we tried walking on 3, 4, 1. Then 1, and 3, 4. Then 4, 1. Then and 3. Basically, we were to just try to walk at all of the different rhythmic variations.

We also tried doing these rhythmic variations using simple steps. Some of the simple steps were to the Follower's cross, a simple side step, or a series of side steps, or a side step, weight change, and then a Leader's forward/Follower's back rock step. We were to attempt these rhythmic variations with the Leader's eye toward understanding where to place the step. "Where can I put the 4, 1 so that it's cool?"

We also changed the rhythm, with a focus on the 1, and 3 rhythm, which is the Candombe rhythm. Here, we can do the Candombe rhythm to anything that has three steps, like "tan-go-close", or the ocho cortado, which is usually done on the 3, 4, 1, but which can be done on the 1, and 3.

The most fun part of the class was the practica afterwards, where Glenn played many fast, not commonly heard milongas, to really work our musicality and hone our hearing skills. Sadly, it ended pretty much around 9:30 p.m. as scheduled.

This class is small (3-5 couples usually, so I've been told), and the students who go to it seem to be fervent about it. "One of the best kept secrets for those really wanting to learn how to dance milonga well," is one comment I heard from a disciple. And since there are no other options for regular, consistent, prolonged milonga instruction, I would have to agree.

Since this class was in the upstairs ballroom at La Pista, it only made sense to go downstairs for the Practilonga. Santiago y Amy's class was still going on with a half hour more to go, so Jaycee and I decided to go to Mars http://www.marsbarsf.com/ instead to knock back a few before the party began. Mars is a lot more mellow than it was during the dot com heydays when seemingly everyone and their cousin would drop in for a Martian Martini or three. They have a nice selection of libations, and the food is good when the kitchen is open (but unfortunately for us, it was already closed by the time we got there). Still, it was a very convenient place for us to shoot the breeze as we cooled our heels. The Guinness, though on tap, was not served proper :o( -- but easygoing Jaycee isn't fussy about that kind of thing unlike me, and I was happy with my Hendricks. After we finished our drinks, we headed back to La Pista.

The folks who went to the practilonga were the students from Santiago y Amy's class, and Jaycee and I from Glenn's class. So it wasn't a huge crowd, but reasonably skilled. And lucky for me there were more Leaders than Followers (a reflection of the popularity of Santiago's teaching of the Leader side of the equation, I have noticed). I had a good time; it was certainly worth the $5 admission. I danced with a few dancers that I hadn't danced with in years or in class only and never at a milonga, so that was a very interesting experience. One dance, with Irlandes, was a bit set up by Jaycee. Earlier at Mars I was griping about how I had taken lots of the same classes with Irlandes, how we go to a lot of the same milongas, blah blah blah, but how he has never once asked me to dance at a milonga. So of course when Irlandes finally asked, and we danced, afterwards I had to ask Jaycee if he had set him up to do it. Jaycee confirmed that he put a little bug in Irlandes's ear. D'oh!!! The dance with Irlandes was nice. He is a lot better than I visually thought him to be, and vastly improved from our class days.

It was a nice night. I am looking forward to next week. But then after that, the pool will be open again...

March 3-9

2011-03-09T21:43:00.001-08:00

Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Late Shift milonga. I missed the lesson by Korey and Adeline Ireland, though I was told by some tangueros I admire that it was an excellent one. It was a fun night of dancing for me, and I hit the milonga tanda trifecta by being blessed with dancing with three of my favorite milonga Leaders. It was nicely crowded, but not overly so, and the gender balance was about even. The vibe was pretty mellow and relaxed, no stink of desperation or anger of some dancers who were sitting too often, and no frenzied speed dancing or boleo whacking, so obviously floorcrafting was pretty decent. The Leader quality was quite high overall, so I imagine most everyone had a good time. For some strange reason, people seemed to be in a very chatty, open mood with me, discussing things that went beyond what we usually talk about on the milonga dance floor.

Sunday, March 6, 2011
Free Bollyhood Practica. Since it was a rainy day, I thought I'd make my way over, assuming it would be less crowded because of the weather. Thankfully, I was right. (Though finding a parking spot was a little more difficult.) The lesson was just finishing up, and I was amazed and pleased to see that it had a very full attendance, with gender balance. Looked like a fun, productive class. The practica was OK. I was surprised to see so many people come in just for the practica, and I was also surprised by the high quality of dancers. I felt the floor was a little sticky, my shoes were a little sloshy, and my body was a little tired and achy from so much dancing the night before, so I didn't dance my best.

I had a chance to catch up a little with Jaime, as I've thought of her often, and I do worry about her if too much time has passed and I haven't seen her around. But that's another story. When we got back from Buenos Aires in August 2007 and started going to a lot of milongas, she told me about her philosophy of dancing with five new people at every milonga as a way to build community and as a way to experience new dancers. I've thought of that nice, friendly sentiment often since I now find myself not particularly cabaceoing much, and un-cabaceoing more, and not particularly wanting to dance with new people, and hearing comments about the San Francisco tango community having the image of not being particularly welcoming, and about the cliques. ::::sigh:::: And so I do try my best to "be out there more", but I admit that I am guilty of having a certain "list" of people I really adore dancing with (that I hope to catch their glance in a cabaceo), and others that I am open or OK dancing with, and yes, there's the list that there is no way in H-E-double-toothpicks that I would ever dance with. Ben of CellSpace once remarked that we all know that there are only 20 or so tandas in every milonga, but 40 people we really want to dance with, and that leaves the newbies or visitors out in the cold sometimes. And so here we are, the San Francisco Bay Area community, not having the most warm and fuzzy reputation in the tango universe, and with those who have been around for a while having the responsibility of either changing that, or living with it.

And so, whenever I am asked by someone unknown to me to dance, I think of ... Jaime. And I suck it up and dance. Sometimes the dances are brilliant. Other times they are agony. Often times they are surprising in their quality.

Back to the reality at Bollyhood, a newbie came up to ask me to dance (after hovering for a while, and asking a few people around me to dance [several of whom declined]), and it happened to be a milonga. So my heart sank a little, but I sucked it up. The dance was... mostly walking... and not always on the music. He had a good time though and wanted another song, so we gave it a go. Then we thanked each other and that was it. No, the experience did not make my heart soar with elation. But I did try my best to follow him (and it's always great to focus on what is essential in tango) and accept his musical interpretation as a Leader. And I could go on and on about dancing with new-to-me folks where my reaction is "Never again!", but what would the point of that be?

So what is my point here? Well, maybe there is none. Although one leader who was feeling chatty recently talked about the pressure of knowing that so many Followers want to dance with him, and wanting to be a nice guy, and concerned about his reputation as not being an easy person to get a dance with. He is really bothered by it... and I am not sure there is any solution. There is a balance between wanting to be open and inclusive and building the local community, versus dancing for ourselves with people who make the experience joyful (however each of us individually feels that). Most of our favorite dance partners have been folks who have been in the same classes with us over the years, people we've traveled with, or people we've seen after going to the same milongas for years. And yeah, that makes it tough on the newbies or visitors. But some of us have spent thousands of hours and hundreds of days walking and working on foot strength, weight changes, and balance exercises at cold, rainy bus stops or dance studios while no one is watching, or listening to lots of tango music and translating and analyzing the lyrics, so it should be understandable if we are frustrated with and don't spend a lot of time dancing with those folks who don't know what an ocho is, or think stop-and-park ganchos are the bomb, don't where the beat is, or who ask the DJ to play Por Una Cabeza because in their mind they think they are as macho as Arnold Schwarzenegger or as attractive and sensual as Tia Carrere http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It8IEGoLyKo when in reality they move as clumsily and clunkily as someone with really bad eyesight who has no musicality and no connection and who was always picked last for every sports team they ever tried out for since kindergarten and who moves with as much grace, precision and alacrity as a dented little red wagon with one missing wheel.

On the other hand, some of my best dances have been with people who I had never danced with before previously. And still other fantastic dances have been with Leaders who were vastly superior dancers than I could ever hope to be, but who showed great kindness and generosity in giving me a spin on the milonga dance floor. And so, to keep the cycle of goodwill going, because what goes around comes around, maybe we all need to bless others as we have been blessed. At least for a token tanda or three at every milonga (whack-a-mole tango ambushers/hogs excluded, of course; no need to reward them at all).

February 24 - March 2

2011-03-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

Sunday, February 27, 2011
Free Practica at Bollyhood. On a whim, I decided to go to this since I had heard that it was very popular -- "The place to be" on Sunday afternoon. So after a very full morning of hiking, getting a cut from my Toni and Guy trained stylist, delicious lunch surrounded by the gorgeous men of the Castro at Curry Boyzz (where the Rasamalai is divine), I decided to make my way over since it was only about a five-minute drive away. The parking gods must have been smiling on me, because I found an easy spot a mere half block away. When I got to Bollyhood, the "practica" was in full swing. It was packed, though rumor has it that it was less packed than in previous weeks. If that's the case, then Glenn has a nice little thing going on here. In fact, at one point he said "Hey, this is a practica but nobody is practicing. Everyone looks like they are dancing." Then Mayumi piped in "We are practicing dancing in the line of dance." Everyone cracked up. The mood was light, casual and relaxed. It was cold outside, but extremely warm and humid inside because of all the moving bodies. If you ask me, I think Glenn should charge admission ($5), rename the practica a milonga, and take it to 5:00 p.m., and that Bollyhood should strictly adhere to Business & Professions Code section 25665, lest run the risk of a visit/suspension/fines/or worse from ABC minions.

Cafe Cocomo Milonga with lesson beforehand by Santiago Croce and Amy Lincoln. I missed the class, though I should have made more of an effort to attend it since it was the same entry fee ($20) regardless of whether or not one took the lesson on this night. It looked like a fun lesson with walking, changing from inside to outside, a calesita with Follower foot forward adornment, to pivot around to stop in a Leader parada, for her to have time to do some type of adorno before her pasada. Word on the madera earlier in the day at Bollyhood was that Cafe Cocomo was the place to be later on that night, and they were certainly right. Cafe Cocomo was packed. Milonga floorcraft was difficult because of the crowded condition, but the Leaders did a reasonable job keeping things safe and not too bumpy or jostley, and the Followers were reasonably sane about not doing any high or crazy boleos. Santiago and Amy later did two demo dances, along with Gato y Andrea, and Facundo y Christy, the first with their usual partners, and the second with different partners. There was a tres leches cake for Fernando's birthday, and a birthday vals for all the February babies, which seemed a bit unruly with so many people walking on and off the dance floor, but very festive in its inclusivity. Seth Asarnow y Su Sexteto Tipoco played well, as usual. I only stayed for one set though, as I started to bonk and didn't feel like eating Tres Leche cake and artisanal cheese to alleviate it. Plus I had already had my fill of many excellent tandas, including a milonga one with "Who's Jay?", who, lucky for us San Francisco tangueras, decided to be at Cafe Cocomo instead of Alberto's, more in his neck of the woods on this particular Sunday night. Unfortunately, I had to miss the second Seth Sexteto set. The milonga was taken an hour later, so it ended at 1:00 a.m. instead of the usual midnight.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011
CellSpace ALT milonga with lesson beforehand by Jenny and Tatum Nolan. The lesson was a good one, and with more Leaders than Followers in both the Intermediate and Beginner classes, it was lucky that this intermediate lesson focused on the Leader side of things. We worked on going into and out of cross and parallel system walking, using either an extra step or one less step, going inside and outside partner. We did lots of drills. Then we turned it so that the Leader does a left foot front cross step, right foot side step, left foot front cross step, etc., while the Follower does a series of back ochos, the effect of which the Leader walks around the Follower. It concluded with the Leader freeing the right foot of the Follower, and then leading it to hook back cross against her left foot, and the left foot coming forward and out around to the left side to step back. It was a good lesson. The milonga was fun since it was well attended enough for most people to have a good time. Though it was full, it was not obnoxiously crowded. The Followers were happily kept busy by the ample Leaders. Floorcraft could have been better, but it wasn't horrible. Tolga and Mix Mistress Z did a fine job spinning with a focus on international alt tunes in between the traditional tandas.

February 17-23

2011-02-24T21:13:00.000-08:00

Friday, February 18, 2011

MUSE milonga with lesson beforehand by Homer and Cristina Ladas: "From Single Axis Turn to Hurricane Spin in Lomuto Valses”

I got there a little late, but saw that the room was packed with students for the H&C Intermediate lesson and brand spankin' newbies for Howard's "Like a Virgin" class.

EXERCISE: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HUGGING

We began with an exercise in partnership face to face, imagining that we were back in elementary school, giving the person a nice hug. We got into this by stepping to the side, and the hugging person (usually the Leader) doing waddle footwork around the hugged person (usually the Follower), slightly lifting while whirling the hugged person around.

What is the biggest problem that prevents the colgada from happening? The Fear Factor. This exercise is an attempt to help us get over our fear factor of the whirling feeling. Other things are that the belly button of Follower and Leader come in, or the Follower’s knees come in, or the Follower clamps down on the Leader.

We worked to refine things.

Leader tries to step into the Follower’s space.

Follower pivots on one foot.

Leader waddles around quickly.

Leader and Follower belly buttons should not touch.

Stepping to the Leader’s left is easier, with Follower on her right foot.

As the Leader starts to turn, have belly button go away from each other.

The Follower posture is the same as the Leader steps to the side. She should keep her regular posture. The Leader should find where he can do it, and have a graceful exit when he stops. In stopping, he should pause and then walk out of it backwards into the line of dance. He should not cause the Follower to fall. Follower needs to keep her knees soft but not overly bend them.

We did a lot of drilling of this exercise, with many different partner changes in class.

EXERCISE: KNOCKING THE FOLLOWER OFF AXIS

Next, we did a fundamental, static exercise.

The Leader walks into the Follower, knocking her body off axis, and she falls back into the Leader’s hands. Follower’s feet remain in the same spot. There are three levels to this exercise:

(1) Follower and Leader catch each other.

(2) Leader catches Follower (Follower’s arms and hands do nothing, they do not hang onto or catch the Leader).

(3) Follower catches Leader (Leader’s arms and hands do nothing, they do not hang onto or catch the Follower).

In this exercise, the Leader needs to physically knock the Follower off axis with his whole center, displacing the Follower’s space. She needs to wait for the Leader to do this, not anticipate and not go back too soon automatically with no initial contact from the Leader.

EXERCISE: HIP UNDER COLGADA POSTURE AND COUNTERBALACING EACH OTHER

In the Hip Under Colgada Posture:

Spine is straight.

Hips go back.

We were to engage our cores, and our hips were to be under our rib cages.

The Leader sandwiches (his feet are in a “V” shape) the Follower’s feet (which are in parallel).

Leader and Follower hang onto each other’s wrists, and then move their cores/centers back, counterbalancing each other, using the power of their back and core muscles (not their arm/shoulder muscles).

We worked on this by going out a little first, and then more farther out, working on the posture in an extreme position.

We drilled this for a while, practicing with many different partners (tall, short, fat, thin), to work on being able to counterbalance all sorts of body shapes, weights, and muscle compositions.

BUILDING TO THE COLGADA:

Next, we worked on a Magic Trick.

In the Leader’s parada position, he has his leg out and outturned, and pivots around by kicking his heel around (lifting it). This is the same position as the Colgada position, only instead of weight being on the back foot, it’s on the Leader’s forward foot.

Then we went back to the first exercise, only with the Leader sending the Follower out in colgada posture, and then spinning the Follower around. We drilled this for quite a while with many different partners.

COLGADA KILLERS:

Belly in.

Back arches and upper body goes back like a banana.

Follower bends knees too much.

Follower clamps onto the Leader’s leg, exerting tension. The free leg should be controlled, but free.

COLGADA:

Next, one simple pattern to pull all the exercises and concepts together:

Leader does rock step with his left foot. Right foot hooks behind, so feet are in a perpendicular angles to each other, Follower right foot forward step (front cross step) around Leader clockwise, pivoting and getting 180 degrees around.

Follower should step long and around Leader to make her step compact.

This is like the ocho cortado, except it’s more circular and doesn’t interfere with the people dancing behind you. This is our set-up step.

The Leader unweights his left foot, and starts to walk around the Follower clockwise, after her right foot forward (front cross) step.

Follower should keep her belly back.

Leader should be aware of how he is holding the Follower. He needs to figure out where the sweet spot is. It is usually under her shoulder blades, and since Followers are all different heights, with different shoulder blade levels, he needs to adjust accordingly depending on the Follower height.

Leader releases his right shoulder a little bit, while Follower maintains contact with her back against the Leader’s forearm during the Colgada.

The Hurricane aspect of the Colgada we learned involved going around really fast. To go around REALLY fast, as the Leader steps around the Follower, his left foot sickles, and his right foot turns out and collects to help the Follower spin in axis. So his feet look like /\ < , etc, as he steps around and around on axis.

Both dancers should keep their elbows in so that it doesn’t take a lot of space.

After a class question and answer review, Maestros demonstrated the class exercises and concepts to Lomuto’s Jugando Jugando vals.

The milonga was fun. Despite the extremely cold, extremely rainy weather, it was a packed house, with very experienced dancers and virgin dancers having a ball together. I had a chance to dance more than I usually do since we had more volunteers, and one very happy to man the front desk all night. It was the most crowded its ever been, which was great. Still, there was plenty of dance space with none of the crushing crowds, bumps and jostles. It was great to see everyone so supportive of this milonga, and I hope the momentum and good wishes continue. The food was ample. My chicken and phyllo thingies got snarffled up first thing. Rochelle made some lovely desserts. Fresh fruits, veggies, chips and pretzels rounded out the snacks.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Workshop Series Theme: "The Colgada/Volcada Experience: Foundation to the Limits!"

Saturday

11:30 - 1:00 Colgada Foundations with Carlos Di Sarli (beg/int)

2:00 - 3:30 Volcada Foundations with Miguel Calo (beg/int)

4:00 - 5:30 Functional vs Aesthetic Colgada Explorations with Mixed Music (int/adv)

Sunday
2:00 - 3:30 Melodic and Rhythmic Volcada Explorations with Enrique Rodriguez (int/adv)
4:00 - 6:00 The Colgada/Volcada Connection with Mixed Music (adv)

Please go to tangostudent.blogspot.com for detailed notes and dance demos.

Overall, I had an excellent time at this workshop series. It was the most well-attended Stanford weekend I had experienced, with about 50 people on both days. Past weekends typically had more people on one day than the other, but this time both days were about even, with a few extra leaders both days. Many folks came for all five workshops, and many stayed around for the Saturday Toyon Hall Milonga and Sunday Music Jam afterwards. Saturday's workshops were held at The Graduate Community Center, which was great since it's a little larger than the Black Center, our usual venue. Sunday's workshops were held at Koret Center, which is a little smaller than the Black Center.

The Toyon Hall Milonga on Saturday night was not as well attended as the one in January, but there were still plenty of people so that it was full but not overly so, and there was ample opportunity to get in some excellent tandas. The food, similar to what was served last time, was generous and well presented. There was enough for me to take a to-go plate of broccoli, tomatoes and cheese, which made for an excellent omlette that Jr. Scout and I shared the next morning. The talk of the milonga was the extremely excellent Tolga's Techie Tango Tanda program (it's unnamed, but how about "Tolgatron" ??) which he wrote over the course of a couple of nights. Basically, it’s a computer program that shows on a graphical display the name of band and singer, pictures of their orchestra leaders and singer, and the songs that are in the tanda, with the current one highlighted. Tolga's computer was hooked up to the large screen TV on the corner wall, so we could could clearly see what type of tanda was coming up next, as well as how many and which songs would be played in that tanda. That made for a more active, engaged course of planning who to dance with next, and also reaffirmed the song titles for our memory and musical education. It also had the unfortunate effect of causing us to be painfully aware of how excruciatingly long a tanda might be if we were stuck with someone we weren’t having a great time dancing with (not that there were many of those). Clever technology tricks were also used elsewhere to increase the enjoyment and ambiance: A computer hooked up to a projector projected the image of a fire burning in a fireplace onto the enormous fireplace in Toyon Hall. The normally empty fireplace’s massive screen was smartly and thoughtfully dressed and draped in a white sheet, which made for a very clever, easy, portable and well-fitting projection screen. Maestros did an excellent two-song performance. http://www.youtube.com/user/msirota84#p/a/u/0/mMyLpTntgho The second one was particularly fantastic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gDPkAI8QgA

I wasn't able to stay for the Sunday Music Jam, but Jr. Scout Extraordinaire wrote this:

The musician's jam at Stanford was fantastic! Homer on bandoneon, violin (forgot her name), Nicholas on cello, Mario on keyboard, Jay on keyboard. Don't forget all three singers: Sasha Alex, Bendrew, and Cristina. What a nice surprise to hear Cristina sing with her rich, deep, voice. Really beautiful. The musicians were all sight reading, they hadn't played together before, and most hadn't played tango music before, but had listened and/or danced to it. Homer led naturally and gracefully. There were about 16 dancers in a small room at Stanford, we loved dancing to this dynamic live music and hope it continues. Calling all musicians!

February 21, 2011
Monday Night Practica at The Beat with lesson beforehand by Homer and Cristina Ladas: "Phrasing to the Transitions & Fills"

Our class consisted of many games and exercises.

Game: Vals Chacarera.

We got into Chacarera formation of Leaders all in one line facing Followers all in one line, making eye contact with the person across from you, and keeping hands in the air, and turning our torso a little diagonally since the room was quite crowded. Then we took four steps forward and four steps back, similar to the Avanzado and Regreso initial steps of the Chacarera. The 4 forward steps were done in 4 beats, and the 4 back steps were done in 4 beats. We were to play in between the sentences of the song, doing pitter-patter or some fancy or playful footwork or bodywork. Our goal was to get back to our original spot at the end of the sentence.

During this game, maestro played a very regular vals, A Magaldi by Alfredo de Angelis, which has some very nice fills and some run-ons in the song.

Next, we tried to dance in partnership, dancing to the fill. Our constraints were that we were to just walk to the end of a sentence, to get ready to dance to the fill. During the fills we were to do playful things like taps, pitter-patters, or shimmies. Our song was still A Magaldi by Alfredo de Angelis. We were to be as creative or as simple as we want to be during the fill. We were to give ourselves room to play.

“Fills” are often transitions between sentences, but they can also be Run-Ons. We should pay attention to the lyrics because they can help us with timing and anticipating when the fills will come. The lyrics don’t come into a song until the entire song does its thing. Vocals are in poetry form, so it gives you an idea of how the sentences will come. The lyrics/song poetry falls directly on top of the sentence/musical structure of this particular vals, as is the case with many valses. Maestro demo’d this concept by dancing by himself, walking forward and back with the musical phrasing, showing that we could hear the sighs, and take a pause to start the next phrase (like a comma). At the comma or the end of a sentence (phrase) is where the Leader should start the turn in the other direction.

Exercise: Follower Musically Educating the Leader

Our next exercise focused on the Follower educating the Leader about what she hears musically. The Leader pretends that he doesn't hear anything (including the beat). We were to only walk. We were not to do any weight changes, rock steps, turns, ochos, double time steps, or traspie. The Follower needs to actively hear the music, as she tries to gently educate the Leader in a subtle way, conveying what she hears in the music. The Follower is not to back lead or take the lead away, but to use subtle things to suggest to the Leader what she hears. This is so that the Follower can empower herself and be in tune with the music. This is an exercise for the process of Leader education. The Follower can use other parts besides her legs to express the fills in the music: She can do these subtle things:
hand signal (slight squeezes)
move hips
move shoulders
soft taps with hand

She should keep her subtle suggestions and signals in her upper body, and not use her legs and feet. Otherwise, she will be back leading. Without back leading, the Follower can add accents to the music.

The secret agenda of this exercise is to empower the Follower. The Follower adds a lot to the Leader’s education if she is in tune with the music. When we really know the music, we will know it, we will own it and it will come easier.

What is the difference between this and back leading? Do the little things with other parts of the body so that they are under the radar. Follower can initiate something independent of the lead to enhance the dance. Be active in creating the dance with the Leader.

To develop our musical awareness, we did four different exercises.

FIRST LEVEL OF AWARENESS:

To Canaro’s Poema, we just listened to the song without dancing or doing anything (although at home we could do something mindless like wash dishes so that we can focus on the music). In listening, we were to sharpen our hearing and try to find and recognize the fills.

SECOND LEVEL OF AWARENESS

Here, we played a game. In partnership, with Leader and Follower face to face, fingertip to fingertip in mirror image to each other, our fingers and hands “danced” to Canaro’s Poema, with the Leader leading first, and then the Follower given the ability to impose herself if she chooses. This was a give-and-take exercise, with our hands and fingers mirroring and talking to each other. This exercise is to help the Leader to listen to the Follower better, and for the Follower to be more vocal in her body movement about what she hears.

THIRD LEVEL OF AWARENESS

To Canaro’s Poema, we danced simply, giving ourselves a set of constraints, which were to just walk during the song, but to catch the fills, during which we could do pitter patter or taps, but nothing much fancier than that.

FOURTH LEVEL OF AWARENESS

At this level we danced with no constraints, being able to do anything, but still dancing to the music and to try to interpret the fills.

Note that fills can be at the middle or the end of a phrase. Maestro asked if we wanted the same song or a different song. The class wanted a different song, so we danced to Rodriguez’s No Se Porque Razon.

In sum, our 4 Levels of Awareness are:

1. Listen to the song and do as little as possible other than listen.

2. Play with a partner to develop listening interaction skills without physically dancing.

3. Dance with a partner with constraints to try to interpret the music. Use simple movements.

4. Dance with no constraints, but dance to the music and try to interpret the fills.

Maestra shared her experience as a learning Leader. She said she is currently stuck at Level 3. She said she tries to interpret the fills, but by the time the fills arrive, she is late in her lead to them and has missed them. For her to get to the next level, she is trying to simplify everything else, but save the “special” movements for the fill. The “special” movements are simple ones like rock steps or weight changes.

After a short question and answer class summary, Maestros demo’d the class concepts to Rodriguez’s No Se Porque Razon.

I didn't stay much longer after the lesson as I wanted to get home to do the notes. Plus I was generally dog tired.

---------------

COMMUNAL EATING RANT

At one milonga I recently attended (unnamed, but it was NOT MUSE), I got completely skeeved out by one tanguera(!) who took a large piece of cauliflower from the vegetable tray, broke a piece off of it, and put the rest of it back for others to eat. Yuck!! Like who would want to eat that after someone else touched it?! Honestly, who the heck raised this person? Obviously not someone who knew anything about communal eating etiquette, germs, hygiene or disease prevention. It also did not help that the tanguera who did this is one who shoves her hand in leaders' hair when she dances with them (yes -- "them" -- MULTIPLE leaders). And who the heck taught her that the embrace is with her left hand in the Leader's hair? And let's face it, lots of men use some type of product(s) in their hair. Yeesh. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go hurl at thinking about this wretched experience. (Anne walks away, shaking her head in absolute disgust.)

WHAT AM I EXCITED ABOUT THESE DAYS?

A few days of rest, actually. :o)

February 10-16

2011-02-17T20:28:00.000-08:00

Friday, February 11, 2011
Trio Garufa's $5 donation milonga with Free Parking at the Harvey Milk Arts Center. I admit, the clincher for me going to this milonga was the free parking. Not that many miliongas have paid parking, but there are some milongas in more difficult to park areas that I generally don't go to specifically because of that. And I certainly appreciated the free parking for this milonga, because parking in the neighborhood is difficult. When I got there, Maria Volonte was finishing up her set, and it was packed. The room is large with very high ceilings, reminiscent of a middle school auditorium. Clearly, it is a dance space though, as there are mirrors on one side of the wall, and ballet barres on the other. The hardwood floor was comfortable to dance on, but the room got quite warm during the night, and the two portable fans did little to alleviate the humidity. Still, I had a good time dancing and then resting/cooling off during alternating tandas, both to live and recorded music. The wine for sale was Two Buck Chuck, each glass priced at a mere two bucks. I missed out on the empanadas, they were all snarffled and snapped up by the 23rd hour, as they were bargain priced at $3 for 2 (they were advertised as home made, though I suspect the dough was of the store-bought variety as they looked a little too "perfect", in my opinion...of course I am totally speaking out of school since I didn't have any). It was very crowded at times, as the place was filled with a lot of the local tango community, and lots of folks I had never seen before (newbies, I believe). The volunteers were all super friendly and attentive, giving out the parking vouchers immediately so no one had to stress out about it, and manning the bar and food table to satisfy the thirsty and hungry. Trio Garufa played well, as usual, and Maria Volonte is always divine. I had a nice time, and was glad my drive home was just over the hill.

Saturday, February 12, 2011
La Milonga de Nora at Allegro with lesson beforehand by Eduardo Saucedo y Marisa Quiroga. The lesson focused on the Ocho Cortado. Since there were more Followers than Leaders, I sat it out and just took notes for most of the class until I jumped in at the end to work the material with one of my favorite leaders from the South Bay. For the Followers technique in the Ocho Cortado, be elegant and caress the floor when going into the cross. Pivot on the right foot before going to the cross, but not too much; do not overturn away from the Leader. Followers should collect the feet at every opportunity, and make the pivots with the feet together. The Follower adorno of the right foot shoe show off before going to the cross was taught, as well as the Leader adorno of the left foot heel forward touch to left foot back step was taught. More interesting, more complicated Ocho Cortado variations were also taught: The double to the cross, where Leader does not let Follower completely change her weight. The Follower forward front cross step instead of just a plain tight front cross, whereby the Leader turns his torso in a circular manner, causing the Follower to rotate more on her open/side step so that she takes a forward front cross step around the Leader rather than going into a flat, tight front cross. Here, the Leader opens his right arm a little so the Follower can pivot more, then he rotates her counter clockwise. On the Follower's forward step, her hips should be perpendicular to the Leader. For the Leader's technique, he should not sway his torso up and down. He should just rotate his torso, but not tilt it from side to side. One final variation was a variation on the double where the Leader does a forward double step with the Follower's double back step. It was an excellent class with ample drilling and individual corrections. As usual, the class ended with the super-fun Eduardo Saucedo group circle body movement dance to Tango Negro by Caceres. I don't think I've ever experienced anyone in the entire worldwide tango community who oozes as much good vibes, positive karma, happy feelings, joy and tango love as Eduardo Saucedo. It is positively infectious!

The milonga was OK. For some reason the Bucha Effect/Flicker Vertigo/Photosensitive Epilepsy-inducing light in the corner (the bright spotlight behind the spinning fan blades) really bothered me a lot on this night MUCH more than usual. And rather than tempt fate, I left early, shortly after the very generous four-song performance by Maestros:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZMJ1M19g2E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6WKd2AE_ik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juQAjwW07Dk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqLmHg2TuFQ

Sunday, February 13, 2011
Studio Gracia Milonga with lesson beforehand by Negracha y Diego Lanau. I skipped all but the tail end of the lesson. The milonga started out a bit sparse, but filled up reasonably later on. After I had danced a tanda with nearly all of the Leaders I wanted to dance with, I left.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011
CellSpace ALT Milonga with lesson beforehand by Homer and Cristina Ladas: Get Your Lead/Follow Spiral On

This workshop was similar to the one held at Stanford in January 2011

Our focus was on the body spiral, connecting to our bodies and having more self-awareness.

WASHING MACHINE EXERCISE

We began with the Washing Machine Exercise.

Here, we turn our bodies to our left and then release the right foot, pivoting on our left foot. Our hips catch up with our chest.

The goal was to do a 90-degree (quarter) turn with our chest, with everything else following, and then do a 180-degree (half) turn with our chest, with everything else following. Then if we could master that, we could try doing a 360-degree (full) turn, with everything else following.

The motion is:
(1) Turn
(2) Release Hips
(3) Get all the way around.

We were to try this on both sides (turning to our left and turning to our right), engaging and then releasing.

We were also to try this on each foot, in each direction, so there were four possibilities:
(1) Pivoting on our left foot while turning to the left
(2) Pivoting on our left foot while turning to our right
(3) Pivoting on our right foot while turning to our right
(4) Pivoting on our right foot while turning to the left

The first level of this exercise is to have the hips catch up to the chest.
The second level of this exercise is to have the hips go past the chest.

This action is called the Washing Machine exercise because it mimics the spin cycle of a washing machine. It is a good oblique workout.

Next, we were to apply this exercise in a real tango move.

BODY SPIRAL IN CONTEXT OF FOLLOWER TURN/HIRO/MOLINETE

In teakettle embrace with Leader’s hands at the small of his back and elbows out so that Follower can hold onto his arms, the Leader steps around the Follower and leads her in a turn/hiro/molinete on either side. The Leader uses a bit of spiral, turning his chest first, and then his hips coming around.

The Follower also uses spiral while she does the turn/hiro/molinete around the Leader. The only point of contact is in her hands on his arms. Follower, be active in making this contact work. Hold on enough. Wake up that part of the embrace. Keep both sides (her left and right hands) awake. Her arms should be like spaghetti al dente, not too hard and stiff, but not too loose and soggy/absorbing. She should feel and be responsive to the Leader’s body so that the Leader doesn’t have to push her around.

The Leader should not overuse his hands. This is why we practiced the turn/hiro/molinete in teakettle embrace with the Leader not using his hands at all.

The Leader’s right foot outside forward step is where his first spiral is. The Follower spirals in her chest in response, to maintain connection with the Leader and to be in front of him. This is not a square move, it is a circular rotation.

We practiced doing this to a slow Di Sarli song on the strong beat.

With respect to Follower’s turn/hiro/molinete technique, she should keep her nose back on the side step, stay near the Leader, and do not float away at all on all steps of the turn/hiro/molinete: forward (front cross) step, side step, back (back cross) step, side step.

The “Rule of the Nose” was introduced. Since we were doing our work in Open Structure (as opposed to Close Structure), the Follower should try to keep the distance between her nose and the Leader’s nose the same at all time, and not get ahead or behind his nose, and not change the level of her nose up or down, or tilt her head forward or back.

More on Follower’s turn technique: Do not rush in the steps. The Leaders were instructed to lead it on the strong beat, so you should know how much time you have and what the pace of steps should be. Each step in the turn/hiro/molinete is worth $100. Do not rush through the side step and short change it. Step long and consistently around the Leader. Make the weight transfers smooth.

For Leader’s turn technique, the Leader opens his left shoulder to get the Follower to go around him in the clockwise turn/hiro/molinete. It is a pull energy. Leader needs to engage his core.

Here, Maestro demonstrated the wringing/torsion a la washing machine with his right foot forward step, and then his left shoulder opening, and as she goes around in the turn/hiro/molinete, his hips come around.

More on Follower’s turn technique: She should collect at the end of the movement where here feet pass each other, rather than throughout, which takes too much time and looks stiff and robotic.

Also, since we are working using the Open Structure, the axis of both dancers is straight.

Going back to the “Rule of the Nose” since there were questions about it, Maestra commented on how to use the nose. Having the nose and head up raises the eyes and head, which opens up the chest. It is a different way of presenting yourself. This is in contrast to looking at the Leader’s chest, which can cause the Follower’s head to tilt forward and break the line of the body and throw her off axis (make her lean in).

Next, onto the more challenging part of the evening.

The Leader’s back sacada.

ADDING THE LEADER’S BACK SACADA TO THE FOLLOWER TURN/HIRO/MOLINETE

Leader does a right foot back to big spiral, into a left foot back sacada while Follower does a counterclockwise turn/hiro/molinete around him. The Leader uses pull energy in his left arm so that the Follower continues to go around him in a turn/hiro/molinete.

There are two options taught in receiving the Leader back sacada:
(1) Follower raises her knees up, collects, and then steps back.
(2) Follower keeps her feet low and down toward the floor, fluidly receiving it with a little fan out, collects, and then steps back.
Either way, the Follower needs to have control of her receiving leg with either option and not let it flail around, our or away.

With the Leader back sacada option, there are three places of Leader spiral:
(1) Right foot forward step
(2) Left shoulder opening up to initiate the Follower turn/hiro/molinete
(3) Right foot back step to counterclockwise pivot

The class concluded with a review and class summary that included Maestra demonstrating the Follower homework of working on the turn/hiro/molinete footwork around a chair with her focus on keeping her spine vertical and using her arms up, like holding a beach ball over the center of the chair, to also work the spiral in her body.

Maestros demonstrated the class concepts to DiSarli’s Don Juan.

WHAT AM I EXCITED ABOUT?

What else?

MUSE...obviously. Hope to see you TOMORROW, this Friday, February 18, at the City Dance Annex on Harrison for the return of MUSE. Homer and Cristina teach a teaser workshop to kick-off the Stanford Weekend workshop series on Volcadas and Colgadas.

Homer & Cristina Volcada and Colgada workshop series at Stanford February 19-20, with Saturday night milonga at Toyon Hall.

Monday, Orange Practica at the Beat. H&C will teach, but most importantly (at least to self-aggrandizing l'il ol' me), we will be celebrating the 100,000 tangostudent.blogspot.com hits with a cake!! Whoo hoo!! Who would have ever thought that this project would evolve to what it is now?!