Tangodurians

Bahia Blanca-Di Sarli Danzarin-Troilo Vida Mia-Fresado El Panuelito-Pugliese A La Gran Muneca-Canaro El Choclo-Tango Libre To Tango Tis Nefelis-Haris Alexiou A Evaristo Carriego-Pugliese Tormenta-Di Sarli Malena-Lucio Demare Zitarrosa-Bajofondo Indio Manso-Di Sarli

Dang she floats!

"All of life is an act of letting go, but what hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye."  Apt words for everything I'm feeling today. 

Due to the fact that I stupidly booked myself to go to Bangkok on the same weekend as the Tangoexposed, I managed to miss just about all the classes there were that weekend. Would have loved to have taken the ladies technique with Milena Plebs, and I heard that Tani Herrara's folk dance workshop was good too, but oh well, no use crying over spilt milk! If anything that is seriously ANNOYING about dancing in S.E.Asia is this persistant idea of D.I's. WTF. Cannot stand it, this is the only country where I get less dances per night on average, not cool. It remains a serious issue though when girls outnumber guys along the ratio of 5:1. I'm lucky because most of my basics came from Michigan and I know what it's like to dance with a variety of guys, but for those girls starting out here, there just isn't an incentive to be sitting on your butt the whole time for 2 measly dances. Time to start leading! So much more fun. Anyhow, took a class with Delia Hou and Sebasti

Angustias  de sentirme abandonado  y sentir que otro a su lado  pronto, pronto le hablara de amor

¡Qué cosas que tiene la vida! ¡Qué cosas tener que llorar! ¡Qué cosas que tiene el destino! Varela~ Fueron Tres Anos

My Tango Diaries: Lesson with Alejandro Gée and his partner, Joujou : From Alejandro Gée's studio - more pictures and info from his website here: http://tangoalejandrogee.com/ The Lesson with Alejan... 1.) Sink into the standing knee first instead of stepping/falling straight back into the back step. (I've heard that before - not sure why I can't seem to remember to do that.) According to Alejandro, basically the sequence would be: 1. Sink the weight into the floor through the standing leg (here’s where the knee bends slightly in order to be able to push the weight of the body back in the next step), while straight,   free leg extends backwards   caressing the floor with no weight on it and torso reaches towards the partner.   The standing hip is strong and grounded, the free hip is relaxed and opening backwards as a natural continuation of the leg. The knee is straight. 2.   Weight transfer: heel of the leg extended backwards goes into the floor and the sam

Mmm, this song finally caught my attention and these particular performances are totally delightful. Main connecting threads include the beautiful disjoints between upper and lower torsos from Daniella and Michelle with quite a bit of colgadas in general. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxgrcxNtB8I&feature=plcp Totz forgot about Home and Cristina, man, to get a class with them someday!

Back to Tuesdays in Bangsar, listening to the strains of El Choclo and remember days doing Ochos in lifts of 721 South Forest. Chatting about favourite tango dancers to watch, considering workshops for TangoExposed, movies for the fringe film festival. Dancing in flipflops, admiring necklaces and divine milongas with a female lead. Even though the dances came few and far between, it was a haven, reminding me that Tango is about as much of the socializing as it is about the actual dancing. Tango querido, viejo tango que me embargas con la cadencia de tu musica sentida quiero morir bajo el arrullo de tus quejas, cantando mi querellas, llorando mi dolor recuerdo aquella epoca, tan linda que se fue. Tango dear, old tango that overwhelms me with the rhythm of your music felt I want to die under the cooing of your moaning, singing my complaints, crying my pain I remember that time, so nice that has gone.

There's a bit of bullshit going on with having to pay USD 100 to watch my own Tango DVD. wtf. Tangoexposed happening in a month and a half and I am not that hyped up for it. Probably because of all the areas I ever dance in I honestly get the least dances in my own country. Fact. Fingers crossed.

...a guy who will make me feel like a girl. No kidding :).

Bootcamp has killed my thighs so I can't dance! Ah well, needed a little break to recompose, and back to it soon!

Of hitting tennis balls out. Pulling back all the time. Of making the wrong step, of missing the beat of a molinete and trying to cut it short with an ocho. Argh. Fear, can you go away yet.

Como el sol hace mucho me alegraba de día hoy me alegra, en la noche, la caricia lunar. Mi bohemia se hunde en su melancolía, mi bohemia la busca misteriosa y fatal. Si estoy solo en mi pieza, en mi lúgubre pieza, soledad que matizan cigarrillo y café, abro bien la ventana y la luna me besa y me besa la luna con un beso de fe. Vieja luna que brindaste la fortuna de tu plata y tu bondad. Vieja luna te quiero como a ninguna, como nadie te querrá. Tú sabes que es un secreto la pena que en noches de luna llena suavemente te conté. Vieja luna te quiero como a ninguna, como a nadie más querré. Cuando ambulo en las noches por mi barrio lejano divagando de cosas que no son ni serán, me da el brazo la luna, cual si fuera mi hermano, y le cuento mis penas, mi desdicha, mi afán. Es la linda de siempre, mi poética amiga, blanca, suave, discreta, soñadora, cordial. Si me ve que estoy triste me acaricia, me besa y le enciende faroles a mi pobre arrabal. As the sun makes me happy day long I am

Really odd dream that I was dancing with you and I was lead...strange. Role reversals much?

Vagar… con el cansancio de mi eterno andar, tristeza amarga de la soledad ansias enormes de llegar. Sabrás… que por la vida fui buscándote, que mis ensueños sin querer vencí, que en algún cruce los dejé. Mi andar apresuré con la esperanza de encontrarte a ti, largos caminos hilvané leguas y leguas recorrí. Después que entre tus brazos pueda descansar, si lo prefieres volveré a marchar por mi camino de ayer… I havn't poured over tango blogs and critiques in sometime, but as I remember what it was like to discover the dance for the first time, so do I remember what it is like to be so thoroughly entertained by the observations of the people that dance this dance. Not the teachers or world renowned maestros, but the common people that I am more likely to get a dance with somewhere, sometime in the world. The ability to embellish, to express, to connect. A good embrace is like a warm hug, a bed after 18 hours of running around town, early morning gym, day of work

I tried on, again, my very first pair of proper dance shoes that I had bought early 2010 when Tango started becoming an activity that was very much a part of my life. Back then those shoes were so new, so fitted, and felt to me kinda high. I remember dancing 5 hours straight in them, 1.5 hours of lessons and another 1.5 hours of practica and sometimes Tios after which resulted in stabbing pains at the balls of my feet which I'd try to alleviate by soaking in hot water and propping my feet up. Now as I try on the discarded pair, I realize something. That rewearing them has pointed out how much more centered I am in my balance and how much more dependent I have become on swivelly 3 inch heels, and also just how big my bunions are. The CIF's are unsalvageable as my foot seems to have outgrown it, but this pair. Yes this pair that had gotten compliments from CIF owners is still wearable and danceable in. Albeit a lot lower this time which might actually make it easier for me to d

Brilliant lessons on connections last friday and volcadas yesterday. Got home after the Shanghai flight and dashed across to carne y vino to take the lesson. Hopefully can now do it without breaking my back. They made it seem so simple! In other news, way better balanced now, toes hurt less, weight is probably distributed between toward the middle rather than the inner side. Beautiful stuff!

A long long time ago, someone once said to me "she's like a feather". Last night someone told me I'd gotten lighter. As in, dancing. Grounding yourself makes you lighter, how paradoxical :)

Converted my 2 workshop sessions into a private with Catarina and Gustavo. Also destroyed more of the Central Market Annexe flooring in the process. Oops. Privates are amazing-total focus on you, spotlight on you, also spotlight on just about every flaw you have much like pimples on bad skin. eeps. The first thing that I had to adjust was the embrace. Now, thinking back to the various ways that I've been taught about embraces, I will recall two people instrumental to the beginnings of 'what to do with your left hand'-Jacob and Dennis. MTango open embrace taught us to place the hand on the person's bicep. When faced with Jacob-I remember him telling me to put it in a position that was most comfortable for me, Dennis said that my open embrace as it was, was good too. Being a beginner then, the challenging thing was and still is to some degree, to figure out  how to adapt an embrace to the person depending on height and stature. Then came the Polish guy whom I had

Split Cheongsams, Gossip times and of course, Tango :). Funny to think a year+ ago I sat in the same place not knowing anyone, reminiscing as I cast an eye over the landscape of the city that I had finally returned to, and now, was back to the warm embrace of friends and familiarity. What to say, slowly but surely feeling less challenged and more and more the need of a good, solid, embrace. I miss you. I miss moving as one, I miss you challenging me, I miss goddamn, miss. I miss the safety I feel when I was with you. And sometimes I wonder when I'm going to wake up from this dream and I realize that it isn't a dream, and that this, is now. Reality. So desperate to hear you say that you'd want to go with me, to somewhere, find a meeting ground on a dance floor somewhere in this world, because I've had enough of giving. But you don't care, not even a little.

"I am discovering what it feels like to dance with someone you are in love with.  Pixie is not the best dancer in town, but I would rather dance with him right now than with anyone else. His body in my arms feels familiar to me in a way that seems to send warm currents right through me. “I dance with you mainly because I just want to hold you,” he confesses to me. “Is that bad?” he asks. How can it be bad? Surely it is what tango was made for."~ Tangoaddiction Holy crap, this sums it up.

What is my style? Or better yet, if I could combine the styles of all the dancers I love watching much like they construct the features of all the gorgeous celebrities (i.e. Halle berry's body, Jlo's butt, Angelina Jolie's lips etc.) which often come out uglier...hmm, maybe the saying that suits this is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts...or you can't just construct people without their quirks and flaws without it looking...unnerving. Anyway, give me...Rojas adornments, Silvina's confidence, Ariadna's boleos. ooh, what a combo.. What IS my style? I have to stop striking the floor like I'm tap dancing, I have to stop anticipating, I have to let my leg go freer-and yet also be ready to not sprain my ankle at the next step, I need to stop fighting, I need to find a good weight balance for my right hand, I need to not hang on the left (omg stupid-ever since the May Madness been so self conscious about weighing it down..goddamnit). ARGH

Tango acts as an internal world, a tiny circle as such, of people connected worldwide. No less the pinnacle of the pyramid, the 'big' names of Tango, Zotto, Naveira, Rojas etc. It's the sentiment of, omg, did you dance with so-and-so, the airkissing and networking that occurs at SUCH a airy level especially in Asia which is hard to break into. At least the circles have larger radius' in other countries. You hear of a name even before you see the dance, but each have their own styles and guess what, it's the person who just asked you to dance, whoes name you didn't quite catch (or with short term memory loss like me-has forgotten) which will leave you begging for more. =)

I don’t feel satiated after only two tandas anymore, it’s true. And I don’t feel bashful when I’m asked to dance. But tango still thrills me, just as it always has; miraculously, it never seems to lose its freshness. In my heart, I am still a beginner. ~https://tangoaddiction.wordpress.com/page/3/ Ah, so true =), not happy anymore just being able to walk backward w/o tripping, not happy anymore to be able to do a simple ocho, parada, molinete. Not anymore.

...until I can no longer walk. For you, for me, for us. For the chance of one day being able to move around the floor with you again. One day.