Learning Tango

[gebandemuishond]

Is anyone still up for a Negrachas night? I'm heading down to London Town on the 15th, t'would be good to say hi to any fellow tango-ers

Dan

[Feelingpink]

Originally Posted by gebandemuishond

Is anyone still up for a Negrachas night? I'm heading down to London Town on the 15th, t'would be good to say hi to any fellow tango-ers

Dan

Perfect! You should find a few of us there, downstairs. Don't think we have anything organised like a meeting time ... How will we know you?

[David Bailey]

Originally Posted by gebandemuishond

Is anyone still up for a Negrachas night? I'm heading down to London Town on the 15th, t'would be good to say hi to any fellow tango-ers

Yep, I'll be there - we were planning a mini-get-together for that date anyway, so you've timed it well

[David Bailey]

Ah, before I forget:

Welsh Centre, London, 1st Feb 2008

The Welsh Centre is (I think) the oldest-running London Tango milonga - certainly it's been going for well over 10 years.

The venue is nice, with a good floor, a separate upstairs bar, and reasonable seating throughout. In some ways, it reminds me of Negracha, in terms of the hall - it's amazing how many of these places are dotted around London.

The people were very friendly, in my impression, there seemed to be a lot of mingling and smiling.

The music was strict 3-song tanda, followed by 45-second cortina. Unfortunately it was an extract of the same bloody song - "Volare" (Gypsy Kings) - played at every cortina, so after the 3rd play I got heartily sick of it...

The tangos were all traditional - vals and milongas were played, but none of this Nuevo stuff, unfortunately.

I missed the class alas but I had a good time - it was good to see FeelingPink and Clive again, and there was space to dance.

[Yliander]

Ok - hoping someone here can help me out - after the Tango workshops at Southport I'm determined to find time to start learning on a regular basis - I've been meaning to for about 5 years

anyway - of the 3 Tango schools I've found in my area - only one of them I can join at this point - start tomorrow night - as they all run their classes as courses....

anyway the help I'm looking for is if anyone can recommend any of the Tango schools in the Reading/surrounding area....


Oh and where is a good shop for Tango shoes in Edinburgh?

[gebandemuishond]

Originally Posted by Feelingpink

Perfect! You should find a few of us there, downstairs. Don't think we have anything organised like a meeting time ... How will we know you?

Originally Posted by DavidJames

Yep, I'll be there - we were planning a mini-get-together for that date anyway, so you've timed it well

Awesome! Downstairs was good last time, although the fact that the videos of dancers projected onto the wall wasn't related to the music was a little off-putting.

You'll easily recognise me, I'll be the incredibly handsome and fluid dancer with intense eyes and long black hair pulled into a ponytail, skating round the dancefloor with an easy grace. Or more likely, just say hi to the 20 year old guy sitting alone at the side, I'll post what I'll be wearing nearer the time.

Dan

[David Bailey]

Corrientes, Saturday 9th Feb

So, as part of my continuing tour of Tango venues, I went to Corrientes, in North London, on Saturday.

The venue itself is in the sports hall of a private school - the floor is very good, and it's a good big space.

The intermediate class was taught by the lovely Giraldo, who's a fantastic teacher - his English is a little weak compared to someone like Stefano, but he's still very clear. Mina taught the beginner's class

We spent a good amound of time (15 minutes) on technique, walking, and ocho-ing - that seems almost to be standard for some classes now.

The routine taught in the class was quite interesting, involving rotation and sacadas - also interesting, in that Giraldo demo'd it a couple of times, then said "Now try to work it out". It's a nice approach, in that we had to think about it a bit more. Obviously, we got it wrong, but he then covered it in more detail for the rest of the class, step-by-step.

The Milonga afterwards was.... mmm, not really that wonderful for me. There were loads of women over - probably twice as many women as men - but I felt a bit intimidated. The dance standard was very high, it was quite scary.

For atmosphere, I think I preferred the Welsh Centre. But the class was excellent - it's a shame the artsdepot in North Finchley has stopped offering AT classes

[JonD]

I did a fabulous workshop this weekend with Fernando & Tara. I'd rate it as one of the 5 or 6 best learning experiences I've had since I started AT 6 years ago; really brilliant.

It was a friendly small group and we stayed fixed partner throughout - I teamed up with a lovely follower I've danced with every now and then over the years but who I don't know well. It was wonderful how our partnership, connection and embrace developed over the weekend as we learnt and danced. It was a very different experience to changing partners, and would be horrid if you didn't "click" with the person you were working with, but I think staying with Janet really helped me to get the best out of the workshops as I didn't have to adjust to new partners all the time. It also meant that the difference in levels of expertise/experience between individual dancers didn't have any impact: Julie was there with her new man, who hasn't danced AT for very long, and he coped admirably. (Mind you, he has the right partner to progress quickly - Julie is brilliant). There was plenty of practice time during which we all danced with each other and tried out new skills and techniques, plus a milonga on Saturday night, which made sure we leaders were learning to do things properly.

I've never known boleos taught better (and I've been taught them in the past by some serious luminaries like Ezequiel Farfaro & Eugenia Parilla). The workshop on close-embrace was inspired and inspiring; for years I've wondered how Fernando managed to do such wonderful, delicate sacadas, baridas and such like while absolutely maintaining the embrace and now I know the secrets! Single axis turns were already in my vocabulary but they were well taught and I spent time polishing the way I do them clockwise. Colgadas were clarified, volcadas were polished (including a fab little trick to make the exit from the volcada really fluid) and we also got some great pointers on how to anticipate the way a particular tango will end (melodic fade out, "chung chung" etc.)

Fernando was my first "AT pusher" - he was walking alongside me in my very first workshop when I decided that this was a dance I had to learn, and so became addicted. It's great to see him teaching so well and it's brilliant to have him back in Devon on a permanent basis. Tara contributed great advice from a followers perspective and wasn't afraid to stress the followers responsibilities in the dance. They're a lovely couple and lovely dancers.

Julie and I are going to book a hall and spend some hours working out if we can do movements in close-embrace that we currently have to open the embrace to accommodate (it's great to still be able to dance with her). And I'm going to book some private lessons with Fernando for March. It was one of those brilliant, eye-opening, inspiring weekends. The only downside is that my feet, which hadn't fully recovered from Southport, keep reminding me that I've danced too much recently.

[Feelingpink]

Friday Feb 15 GTG - Negracha

It seems that Negracha has a tango quintet (Los Tauras) playing on Friday night from 10.30pm - two sets of tangos, milongas and vals. There's an open level class upstairs from 7.30pm, an introduction lesson in the basement at 7pm and an improvers lesson in the basement at 8pm. I was going to head along for the improvers and then stay in the basement, possibly going upstairs for the concert.

Dan & DJ, look forward to seeing you both, plus a bunch from South London Tango.

[David Bailey]

Tuesday, 12th Feb 2008
I ventured along to "Tango Inn" - a new venture at Barrio North, a small bar in Islington. The "dance floor" is tiny - about the size of a garage, basically - but nice. The bar itself is pretty cool, they have an opened-up caravan as a seating area - and some nice sofas to sit and gossip on

Interestingly, the event is clearly marketed more at the young trendy market rather than at tango dancers per se - not sure how that'll work, but it's a novel approach.

The class was taught by Eleonora Simoes of Tangology, and was fairly basic.

The music for the first hour was quite puzzling - standard traditional Tango fare. Quite nice, a good selection, but not what was advertised. We were scratching our collective heads wondering where this electro-tango stuff was...

Fortunately, around 10pm it got electric. A lovely couple of hours of neo-tango music, with a friendly crowd and a great atmosphere. Much much nicer than the Corrientes experience, I learnt a lot more and enjoyed it much more.

So, that's 2 neo-tango venues in London

Another interesting fact, Eleonora will be helping Ivan teach the main class at Negracha this Friday (i.e. Ivan's not doing the one in the basement), billed as:

Special Nuevo Class titled: New Elements in Tango Dance. Flexible embrace, elasticity, suspension, figures and variations.

Sounds good, I think I'll try that one.

[Lory]

Originally Posted by DavidJames

Another interesting fact, Eleonora will be helping Ivan teach the main class at Negracha this Friday (i.e. Ivan's not doing the one in the basement), billed as:

Sounds good, I think I'll try that one.

So basically, its AT, with a WCS flavor!

[David Bailey]

Originally Posted by Lory

So basically, its AT, with a WCS flavor!

Ah, you're just jealous.

(Heh, can you imagine the snoot level of an AT-WCS hybrid dance? )

Have a look at this:
YouTube - Tangomagia X: Workshop summary of Cortes y Quebradas

[Lory]

Originally Posted by DavidJames

YouTube - Tangomagia X: Workshop summary of Cortes y Quebradas

Interesting! I can remember learning a 'Polka' dance once, which had steps similar to some of those!

[gebandemuishond]

Originally Posted by DavidJames

Another interesting fact, Eleonora will be helping Ivan teach the main class at Negracha this Friday (i.e. Ivan's not doing the one in the basement)

Looks like I'll never get to have a lesson with this fabled Ivan then...

Oh well, I'm looking forward to seeing you guys there!

Dan

[gebandemuishond]

I shall probably be wearing a green t shirt with a black shirt over, do pop over to say hi!

Dan

[David Bailey]

Originally Posted by gebandemuishond

Looks like I'll never get to have a lesson with this fabled Ivan then...

No, Ivan's doing the teaching, I believe, with Eleonora. I'm looking forward to the class.

See you there

[Feelingpink]

Originally Posted by DavidJames

No, Ivan's doing the teaching, I believe, with Eleonora. I'm looking forward to the class.

See you there

I missed the class but Ghost used the moves he learned and they 'worked' first time, so must have been good. DJ, you were missed. Dan was there and is a lovely, lovely lead and really like the downstairs, sofa area (hadn't realised that Dan posted what he was wearing ... but it was dark anyway, so found him by asking the most likely random man if he was 'Dan'). Upstairs was stupidly busy, especially when the band was on. Had a great night, including one partner for about five dances (some were relatively short), which seemed a bit odd (in a nice way). Liked most of the downstairs music - it's a bit like the tango equivalent of a blues room with lots of 'play' tracks.

[philsmove]

A somewhat bizarre, but very enjoyable evening

Has any one tried to learn Ganchos to

TOM LEHRER’s Masochism Tango

I ache for the touch of your lips, dear,
But much more for the touch of your whips, dear.
You can raise welts
Like nobody else,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.

Let our love be a flame, not an ember,
Say it's me that you want to dismember.
Blacken my eye,
Set fire to my tie,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.

At your command
Before you here I stand,
My heart is in my hand...
Yeech!
It's here that I must be.

My heart entreats,
Just hear those savage beats,
And go put on your cleats
And come and trample me.

Your heart is hard as stone or mahogany,
That's why I'm in such exquisite agony.
My soul is on fire,
It's aflame with desire,
Which is why I perspire when we tango.

You caught my nose
In your left castanet, love,
I can feel the pain yet, love,
Ev'ry time I hear drums.

And I envy the rose
That you held in your teeth, love,
With the thorns underneath, love,
Sticking into your gums.

Your eyes cast a spell that bewitches.
The last time I needed twenty stitches
To sew up the gash
That you made with your lash,
As we danced to the Masochism Tango.

Bash in my brain,
And make me scream with pain,
Then kick me once again,
And say we'll never part.

I know too well
I'm underneath your spell,
So, darling, if you smell
Something burning, it's my heart... [hiccup]
'Scuse me!

Take your cigarette from its holder,
And burn your initials in my shoulder.
Fracture my spine,
And swear that you're mine,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.