Melina's two cents

Festivalitos & Encuentros for Milongueros 2012

2011-11-30T11:12:00.010+01:00

Although I did not plan to post anymore, I would like to update my list of Tango events for Milongueros who cherish the "Abrazo" to traditional music. Although some of these events also offer classes and short, improvised demos, the focus is on social dancing. The etiquette of invitation by Mirada & Cabeceo plays an important role as does the respectful interaction of all dancers on the dancefloor. These are traditional Milongas and no place for people who want to show off their newest Sentadas, Montadas and Ganchos. Please stay away, if you don't like dancing in a close embrace!
There might be some more Encuentros of that sort, but I only include events that I can recommend personally, because I have been there or because I know the organizers and participants well enough to guarantee for their "esprit milonguero".

So, these are the events that me and/or my friends visit in 2012:

Pasionara Milonguera, Côte D'Azur, France, January 27-29

Mirame, Montpellier, France, February 24-26

Rendez-vous Milonguero, Bologna, Italy, March 2-4

Montecatini Terme Tango Festivalito, Montecatini, Italy, March 30 - April 1 (read review)

Yo soy Milonguero, Crema, Italy, April 6-9 (read review)

Abrazos - Encuentro Milonguero UK, Devon, United Kingdom, May 4-6 (read review)

Les Cigales, Carpentras, France, May 17-20 (read review by Ms. Hedgehog)

Tango del Mar - Encuentro de Abrazos, Constanta, Rumania, June 8-10 (read review)

Raduno Rural, Slovenia, date still unknown (read review by Ms. Hedhehog)

Encuentro Milonguero, Kehl, Germany, September

Festivalito Rural, Celje, Slovenia, September 7-9 (read review)

Festivalito con Amigos, Saarbruecken, Germany, October 12-14

Raduno Milonguero, Impruneta, Italy, November 1-4

Abrazame, Barcelona, Spain, December, 6-9
Milongueando in Bari, Bari, Italy, December

Looking forward to meeting you there!

I‘m a blogger - not anymore!

2011-11-07T01:50:00.002+01:00

Exactly one year ago, I started blogging. I was planning to write about Tango, my studies and whatever is important to me. This turned out to be one of my most intensive Tango-years ever and the blog contributed to it. Writing about Tango so much kept me from doing other stuff. I even decided to give up my studies. I do not regret this step, but I would have wished to present a more diverse blog.

These were my most popular posts (by number of visits):

Good news. Really.

Let‘s talk about sex!

The eternal question: Salon or Milonguero?

We have to try harder!

Making choices: women‘s active participation in Tango.

My personal favourites are the posts in which I wrote about my European Milonguero friends and the great Encuentros for Milongueros. Not just, because it was fun to write them, but because I really want to promote the philosophy of Tango as an embrace. Tango is a social event, an intimate encounter with friends all over the world. And thus very, very dear to me!

All in all, I liked blogging a lot. Mostly I wrote down, what I‘ve been discussing with other dancers and phrasing my ideas helped me to substantiate them. And I just love analyzing situations and writing "manuals" (kleine Leitfäden") like this one.

I‘m also glad, that I stayed honest and spoke out about what really bothered or moved me. Even when it may have cost me some contracts. Many posts resulted in lively discussions and I got in contact with interesting new thoughts and people. I‘m proud to say, that my blog reached many dancers all over the world. In total, it was viewed over 44.000 times. Thank you all, my faithful readers!

But: the blog also attracted the usual crazies and trolls. I will never get over the fact, that someone who does not even know me personally, can hate me so much, that he (or she) will start attacking or insulting me publicly. Very often I was tempted to reply in a likewise rude manner but restrained myself. This nevertheless cost me a lot of energy and time, so they got what they wanted! Such people really can take the fun out of things. Maybe I‘m going to examine this peculiar online-behaviour one day... in case I ever return to Psychology.

But for now, I‘m done with blogging about Tango. I‘ve written about everything, that is relevant to me and that is not already covered by other bloggers. I don‘t want to start reviewing music or writing poetry... Others can do that much better.. Also, I will not visit any new interesting Milonguero events coming year - I‘ll just go to the same ones again. Never change a winning team!

So, there‘s nothing left to say at the moment. The blog is going to stay online, so that you can still ready my posts or link to them. And maybe I‘ll get new inspiration in the future. Or I‘m going to write about something completely different... I‘m already shifting my focus...

Just stay tuned. I might be back!

Goodbye.

What makes a traditional Milonga?

2011-11-03T19:53:00.005+01:00

Inspired by a comment on my last post, I decided to write down my definition of a traditional Milonga:

- The music is 100% traditional argentine Tango, Milonga and Vals, preferably of the late 20‘s to the late 50‘s. No non-Tango, no Electro-Tango, no non-argentine Tangos, no Tangos that were recorded for Tango shows or for listening. There may be a „Tanda“ of Rock, Chacarera or Salsa, although I would not put it as a DJ.

- The dancers actually know the music and connect to it. (There is no need in knowing EVERY Tango of an orchestra and being able to name it, but everyone should strive to know the important orchestras and listen to what they are doing.)
- The music is presented in Tandas & Cortinas with a logical order (e.g. TTVTTM).

- The dancers leave the dancefloor when the Cortina is played to sit down and choose another partner. Waiting alongside the wall or at the bar is acceptable, as long as you do not stand in front of seated dancers and disturb their Cabeceo.

- There is proper seating around the dancefloor.

- People invite by Cabeceo & Mirada and there is light enough to allow for it.

- The dancers do never break the embrace. Some might open a little for turns, as in Villa Urquiza style.

- People know how to navigate on the dancefloor. (Including all rules like keeping in one‘s line, not standing too long in one spot, not crowding the next couple...)

- People dance exclusively movements, that are appropriate for a social dancefloor: no ganchos, (high) voleos, or any other movement that breaks the embrace or could disturb/hurt the other dancers.

Did I forget anything? Do not hesitate to remind me! I'm sure, that there are other postings on the Net, who refer to that question. Links are welcome.

Later addition to the text:
Please note, that I do not define GOOD or BAD Milongas. A traditional Milonga can still be an unpleasant surprise. To make a traditional Milonga "good", it also needs good dancers (whatever your personal definition of a good dancer may be), danceable and interesting traditional music, friendly hosts, a good floor, a nice ambiance and much, much more... But that would be a totally different post!

European Milongueros and their Encuentros - a conclusion

2011-10-31T17:35:00.006+01:00

In the last few months, I‘ve presented some of my friends. All of them share a vision of Tango as a social encounter, to be danced in a close embrace in deep connection with partner, music and the other dancers in the Ronda. They may not be living in Buenos Aires and most of them are fairly young - but they are real Milongueros.

They are nevertheless not as lucky as a Milonguero in BA, who can find a traditional Milonga every evening in his barrio. All his friends will be close and he will never lack opportunities to dance with great partners. Plus: dancers from all over the world will come and visit. Buenos Aires is one big Encuentro Milonguero!

The European Milonguero‘s situation is totally different. He/she will find little opportunity to dance in his home town or region, because there are just not enough traditional Milongas - if at all. This is why most of them spend many hours in cars, trains and planes to travel to the next Milonga, Encuentro or Festivalito and meet friends who share their philosophy. This costs a lot of money, energy and time. At home, they try to build up Tango communities by teaching and organising Milongas or bigger events. But this is a work in progress - it takes years! Only few of them make a small income by teaching or DJing - most of them spend far more on Tango, than they could ever earn. And solely by their enthusiasm, traditional Tango has come that far outside of Argentina.

I only mentioned some of my closest friends, the ones that I know best and that I can tell authentic stories about. There are many more - some of them thousands of kilometres apart. But this lack of Milongas and friends nearby has been turned into an advantage: distances are crossed, international friendships are formed and great events for Milongueros have developed. Social Tango has become an European phenomenon of a very unique variety. And I‘m honoured to be a part of it!

European Milongueros - Alja Ferme & Saso Zivanovic

2011-10-30T19:02:00.005+01:00

And here I am again: Impruneta! This small town in the tuscan hills is the site of one of Italy‘s most respected events for Milongueros: The Raduno Milonguero organised by Tango Firenze. And it is the place where I am meeting two young dancers, who‘ve been crossing my path repeatedly in the last three years.

The first time I met Saso and Alja at a Milonga in Paris, it was Céline, who pointed them out to me. It was September 2008. Céline had danced with Saso and liked it very much. And indeed: my first Tanda with the young Slovenian was very, very nice. He would not do anything fancy, basically just walk - but he had a great musicality and a cuddly embrace. Since then, we‘ve been dancing often as we share a highly compatible musicality, especially when it comes to rhythmic music like Biagi or Canaro. When we dance, it is, as if the music was leading us. You can really not tell, who‘s giving the impulses. Sometimes, we start laughing in mid-Tango, because we just had another magical moment. People must think that we‘re totally nuts!

As for Alja: she developed in no time to one of the favourite dancers of my male friends and I can very well understand them. Her soft embrace and calm attention make it a pleasure to dance with her. (I know by own experience.) Also, what I like a lot: Alja is a very understated and serious young lady. She wears almost no make-up or fancy dresses, neither does she use an overdose of decorations. She does not need that to attract dancers!

What more can I tell you about my friends?

Saso studied mathematics and is now a professor for linguistics at the university of Ljubljana. Alja is a linguist and teaches at Nova Gorica University. Both are highly analytic and you can tell by the questions they ask during class!

They have discovered Tango in early 2004 and been taking classes with several teachers: Enrique & Judith, Maria Plazaola, Pascale Coquigny, Thierry Le Cocq, Pablo & Noelia, Jennifer Bratt & Ney Melo. But, like us, they developed most of their technique and ideas by starting to teach and trying to figure out what they do. When they first came to one of our workshops in Ferrara, Italy, they were very relieved to find that we had developed some similar principles concerning circular movements for the communication. This is why I love Tango: You can live in a totally different part of the world and still come to the same conclusions, if you try to analyse body-movements and interaction. Saso‘s and Alja‘s teaching principles are very comparable to ours: basic work on technique and musicality. They have been teaching in Slovenia, Hungary, Italy and Germany so far and I hope, they‘ll be invited to more places in the next years!

Apart from „normal“ work and teaching Tango, Saso and Alja travel all over Europe to meet their friends at the Encuentros Milongueros. A Festivalito without the "Slovenian gang" is just not complete! And they even organise one: The lovely and very international Festivalito Rural in Celje, Slovenia. The "embassadors of embrace" and their friends create an intimate event for Milongueros, that I have discussed in an earlier blog.

By the way, Saso and Alja come with a group of friends: Blaz Demsar, another young Milonguero, who organizes the "Raduno Rural" in Slovenia. Francesco Bruno, an Italian, who just finished his Banoneon studies in Rotterdam and who co-operates with his friends in musicality classes. And several others, who share their and our view of social Tango. It's always great to meet them!

I am very proud to say, that we‘ve influenced the recent development of these two as dancers and teachers. In 2010 and 2011, Alja and Saso have taken several workshops with us, just recently during a week of intensive studies in the south of France. That‘s always a nice opportunity to did deep into Tango and friendship. But no matter how much we work with Saso and Alja, they will never simply imitate our ideas without questioning them. Whatever they see and feel, they will surely convert it into something of their own. And this is why we learn from them as well!

And now, please have a look at two videos:

- Video 1 shows them dancing at a Festivalito in Freiburg.

- Video 2 shows impressions of their Festivalito Rural 2011. (As we've been invited to teach at this event, there are some short impressions of our demo as well. I cannot avoid that, sorry.)

Too old to be cool?

2011-10-27T13:33:00.003+02:00

My first article on this blog was about men‘s criteria for choosing a dance partner. I pointed out, that there seems to be a general tendency to select young, good looking women. But I also found, that there was a group young Milongueros, who go rather for dance experience and dance with women of all ages. The article caused strong negative reactions by some men and very affirmative reactions by women.

Now I made some more observations on the topic „Tango & Age“.

One of the great advantages of Tango is, that it does not depend on being athletic or young. Tango is a social dance and people of all age groups can dance it. That‘s great and in my first Tango years, I used to praise the unifying effect of Tango events: young and old people, dancers of different social backgrounds would dance to the same music, visit the same Milongas, be friends, learn from each other... at least in the more „traditional“ Tango communities or Milongas.

And even better: In Tango „old age“ seems to be connected to wisdom and dance skills. Maybe this is only a relic of an archaic model of society with all generations living together, but I like the idea.

It is nevertheless common knowledge, that young(er) dancers cluster in the big cities with universities and at Milongas that tend to be nuevo-ish. Also Tango Marathons do have a relatively young clientele. It is very understandable, that the „young and beautiful“ band together, sharing the same ideas about music, movement and interaction off the dancefloor. But so far, I only connected this phenomenon to the Nuevo environment.

Now I am surprised to find, that a similar process of differentiation seems to be happening in the „traditional“ setting as well.

A couple of months ago, a young Milonguera told me about her experiences at a Tango festival. She obviously did not like it a lot, because most of the dancers were using open embrace and focussing rather on big movements than on social dancing. Also Cabeceo and Mirada were difficult. She had heard about an off-festival Milonga organised by some visiting dancers and decided to check it out. But when she got there, she was disappointed: These people were obviously not very good dancers and they were so OLD! She said that last word with a tone of utter disgust that really shocked me.

I cannot blame her - she wants to be amongst people of her age. But what became of the unifying effect of Tango and respect of old age in Tango? Does that apply only to old Argentine Maestros and „old Milongueros“ in BA?

Since then, I‘ve been consciously watching the Milonguero/Salón scene and noticed, that „young and cool“ events develop all over Europe. Our „Festivalito con Amigos“ is no exception: the average age of this years event was definitely lower than in the last years. And most of the dancers came by personal invitation. Does that mean, that I also start choosing my Tango friends by age? Nah... I don‘t think so. There were still lots of dancers of all generations, embracing each other on the dancefloor. It's just that there were more people overall and the additional ones where younger. :-)

But there is a general tendency amongst the young people in the „traditional“ environment to cluster. You can clearly watch this phenomenon in Buenos Aires, where „young“ Milongas budded in the last years. There are so many dancers in their early 20‘s... They still meet the other generations at the „Sunderland“ or „Cachirulo“, but do many older dancers visit the new Milongas? And are they welcome? I haven‘t been to BA so often in the last years, that I could judge.

Maybe there‘s no reason to worry: A „rejuvenation“ of the Milongas does not have to be a result of the „not-so-young-ones“ being rejected. It might just be due to the fact, that more young people like to dance in close embrace and that‘s good. And if they form their own clubs, that‘s totally normal as well!

But then again, I think of that young woman and wonder: When will I be „too old“ for the young people? Currently, Detlef and I can be described as middle-aged. We are accepted by people of all generations and are invited to dance or teach at the „cool“ Milonguero events. But what about 15 years from now - provided that we still dance and teach Tango? Will we then be respected as „old Maestros“ or merely be „uncool“? Will I be still able to choose my partners amongst men of all ages or will I dance in a senior residence with people of my age group?

Do not misunderstand me: I‘m not fishing for compliments or self-affirmation. A more radical age discrimination may still work out for me: When all my Tango friends are too old to move, we‘ll simply stand and embrace to the music!

But it would be sad for Tango. Would it not?

European Milongueros - Francesca Bertelli & Antonio Martinez

2011-10-24T16:56:00.005+02:00

It‘s been some time now since I wrote my last entry in the „European Milongueros“ series. There‘s been so much work plus the organisation of our Festivalito con Amigos, that kept me from blogging. Well, the workload has not decreased, but now I write anyway, whilst the day is dawning in Montecatini Terme, where we are teaching and intensive Tango seminar of one week.

And it is here, that you can find two of the finest of Europe‘s Milongueros - although only one of them is Italian, the other... but let me tell you a story in it‘s chronological order. And please forgive, if it sounds like fairy tale or if it sounds like bragging - but this is just what happened.

Francesca Bertelli is an Italian, who moved to the USA many years ago to finish her studies in „History of science“. This intelligent lady, who even knew Umberto Eco personally (how I envy her!) ended up in New York, where she fell in love with Tango after the new Millennium had started. I don‘t think, that she had ever planned to become a teacher, but she started organising workshops for travelling Tango teachers, often assisting them in their classes.

In 2006, the first time we visited, New York was a great place to be and there where a lot of Milongas. But it was also a bit of a mess with too many cooks spoiling the broth. Each of the competing teachers (resident and visiting) pulled the dancers into another direction, very often not connected to social dancing. The result was quite some chaos on the dance floors!

Francesca decided to speak to the needs of social dancers and started organising classes with well-known Milongueros/as like Monica Paz, Gustavo Benzecry-Saba & Maria Olivera and Raul Cabral. And us. Actually, we‘ve been the first teachers, that she contacted actively. From that moment on, we never had to worry about work in New York - our new friend took care of everything. Francesca really is a talent when it comes to advertising and organising. And the New Yorkers soon appreciated her work. They knew: Any teacher who is organised by Francesca would give them valuable insight in the way how Tango is danced in a social and traditional setting. So the classes were always full and „her“ teachers invited to perform at all the important Milongas.

To us, Francesca became more than an organiser and student: she grew to be a friend, inviting us to stay with her or visiting us in Europe. We always wished, that she would live here, so that we could meet more often....

Change of scene: A traditional Milonga in Buenos Aires.

Antonio Martinez is a well known Milonguero at all the traditional places: Cachirulo and other organisers give him the best seats and he is appreciated as an excellent dancer by local Milongueras and those who visit from afar. As for example our friend Paule of Lyon. She spends half of the year in BA and this is where she met Antonio. When dancing with him, she was surprised: somehow he was different. His dance reminded her strongly of Detlef. The next time she met us in France, she told us about this Milonguero. This was in early 2009 and during this year, several other friends mentioned this guy. The last one was Francesca, who met Antonio and asked him, if he knew us. Indeed he did! He had spend hours and hours in front of the computer, watching our videos on Youtube, figuring out what we do. When he heard, that Francesca knew us personally, he was overjoyed and they started talking... and dancing... and fell in love... it was amazing and we could not believe it!
Francesca just told me: The fact, that he - an Argentine Milonguero - was interested in our dance, showed her, that he was an open minded person. It was one of the main factors, that made her think: "That's a real cool guy!"

And from this moment on, everything went really fast: They decided to marry and move to Italy. Originally, They had thought about Antonio moving to New York, but - alas - the American immigration laws! And staying in BA was no option because of the economical situation. So, Europe was lucky!

When we met Antonio for the first time in November 2009 in BA, he was already preparing to leave Argentina. Dancing with him, I felt, what all of these women had been talking about: he really danced a little like Detlef, particularly owing to some typical movements, that we use a lot. Apart from these small similarities, he of course has a very personal style with a great embrace, always taking care of his partners on the dancefloor. A real Milonguero!

In July 2010, the newlyweds moved to Montecatini Terme, a beautiful spa in the Tuscan mountains - Francesca‘s hometown. A week later they already visited our „Festivalito de los Angeles“ in Germany. This was the first occasion, that Antonio ever set foot into a non-argentine Milonga and we I even had the pleasure of performing a Tango with him.

Within the next months, Francesca‘s organising talents and connections proved to be priceless: in no time, the two set up classes in Montecatini and Florence, co-operating with the Italian Tango-clothes label Pepitango. Antonio started teaching and DJing in different Italian towns and even better: In April 2011, this year, they organised the first Montecatini Terme Tango Festivalito, that was visited by dancers from all over Europe. Since then, they‘ve been busy forming a community of Milongueros in their home region and travelling to Germany and the UK to teach workshops. Or just dancing at the Encuentros in Europe. They are really building up a reputation as excellent teachers, great dancers and reliable, warm-hearted people.

We are happy, because we get to meet our friends on a regular basis: A couple of weeks ago, Francesca organised our stay in Firenze, last week we met at our „Festivalito con Amigos“ and now we are staying in her hometown, working with a group of German, Austrian and American dancers. ...

... and this evening, we‘re going to meet Antonio & Francesca at a Milonga. I‘m really looking forward to it and to many more occasions!

But now, let me show you a couple of videos:
- Antonio & Francesca at Impruneta, Italy
- Antonio & Monica Paz at Salon Canning, Buenos Aires
- Final dance of the "Amigos" during the FCA 2011, just acouple of days ago. Including Antonio & Francesca.

Alternative Reality

2011-10-20T11:05:00.002+02:00

Whilst we've been dancing at our Festivalito con Amigos or discussing the outcome of it, the world kept on turning. Irish travellers are being repelled of their homes, Greece is in a state of total chaos, Serbia and Kosovo are on the verge of a new war, German government is using trojans to spy out people... and everywhere there's hunger, recession and suppression.
Tangueros tend to forget or ignore the reality around them. They get all revved up about a DJ, but walk past the beggar on the street. They fall in love with that magic last Tanda, but forget about their partner at home. Many Tangueros live in an alternative reality.
Unsually, I try to read the news online twice a day, but in the last week, I did not manage. That makes me feel weird. I know, that I cannot influence a lot, if at all, but at least, I don't want to be ignorant.
Tango is a very important part of our lives, it is a wonderful thing, but let's not forget, that it is only a dance. It is not salvation.

Festivalito Rural in Slovenia (review)

2011-09-28T11:17:00.015+02:00

An encounter with friends on September 16-18, 2011

The event was organised by Alja Ferme and Saso Zivanovic, two young dancers from Slovenia with the help of some good friends. Not all of them are of the same nationality, but we call them the „Slovenian gang“. I am going to write more about Alja and Saso soon, as they will be presented as „European Milongueros“.
The Festivalito took place for the second time, this time being far more international than last year, when most of the participants were Slovenian or Italians. Italians can be considered as „locals“, Trieste and Udine not being more than 2 or 2,5 hours of drive from Celje. So please note: Slovenia is NOT situated in the far east of Europe and easily accessible by car, train or plane!

Location:
Celje is a smallish town set in a beautiful countryside on the foothills of the Alps. There seems to be a nice city centre, but we did not have the time to visit - as usual. We stayed in walking distance of the Festival locations: a youth centre and hostel, where the Milonguitas and the classes took place and Club Terazza on the top of a commercial building. They were in 3 Minutes walking distance and both not more than 5 Minutes walk from our hotel. This was perfect!
The Margaritas in Club Terazza are notable as well: Do not drink more than one or your axis will suffer severely.

Milongas:
There were three main Milongas and two afternoon Milonguitas. The Friday and Saturday Milongas went quite late - we always had to go before the end because of our classes on the following day. But as I heard, they stopped around 5 in the morning. Some of the class participants were thus in rather bad shape. ;-) The Sunday Milonga was set in the afternoon until after 8 p.m..

DJs:
All DJs presented traditional music in Tandas and Cortinas. Why do I write that anyway? I will only review events, which sport the traditional musical setting. Unless it is a rant... ;-)
Ok, let‘s get to the DJ‘s: Alan Spotti (Italy), Theo Chatzipetros (Greece/Italy), Andreas Wichter (Germany/UK), Lampis Zalavras (Greece/USA) and Taskin Deniz (Turkey/Germany). The country before the slash refers to the country of origin, the one behind it to the place of residence. So, we‘ve had a quite international crew of DJs.
I have already described Theo‘s DJing in one of the last posts, and I cannot comment on Taskin‘s music, as I have never heard him DJ. This time, I did not either, as he was doing the welcome Milonguita on Friday. I did not visit it because I had to rest after travelling.
I did not visit the Saturday Milonguita, as we were teaching on Saturday afternoon, but I can tell, that Andreas prefers a rather energetic, rhythmical set of music. He will surely have played D‘Arienzo, Laurenz and Troilo, mixed with some lyrical elements like Di Sarli con Podesta or Rufino. But you‘ll have to ask someone else about his specific performance during the Festivalito Rural.
Alan Spotti! What can I say about him? He‘s one of the nicest guys and dancers in northern Italy and always a great pleasure to watch - especially when he‘s dancing in Flip-Flops! I‘ve heard him DJ several times and always liked his well balanced choice. But I cannot write so much about his job at the Rural, as I came very late and was super tired. I noticed, that people danced a lot and I remember Lynn telling me, that she liked the Friday Milonga most. So he‘s definitely done a very good job.
Lampis Zalavras DJed on the Despedida and played a calm, sweet selection of music - just the right choice for the last Milonga of a Festival. People were happy. We will have him for the Despedida on the FCA 2011 and I am very much looking forward to his music.

Classes:
Saso and Alja‘s focus is on bringing social Tango in a close embrace to their friends. This is why they decided to combine teaching and dancing on this event. Many people show up for the Milongas only, but the classes were fully booked with each 15 couples.
We (Detlef & I) were teaching a series of intensive classes - 4,5 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday, focussing on the basics: quality of embrace, harmonic movement and musicality.
On Friday, we hosted a discussion about interaction at a Milonga and the traditional „guidelines“, covering the topics „entering“, „seating“, „invitation“, „dancing“. We had hoped for a controversial discussion with people speaking out against the Cabeceo, but this did not happen. (So were were a little naive imagining that there would be people who do NOT agree with our general philosophy.) The discussion was nevertheless lively, brought up a lot of interesting details and everyone agreed on the fact, that most of the „rules“ makes sense, if you adapt them sensibly to our modern European setting and do not just try to imitate the Argentines. And I will be very conscious about washing my hands after changing the shoes from now on...

Demo:
We did a short demo on the Saturday Milonga and Detlef got a very special parting gift: a vintage iron! He will hold it in honour and was pleased, that they did not choose the other option: a vacuum cleaner. (Facebook friends will understand the meaning of these gifts.) But I have to scold our friends: Why did Detlef receive a gift and me not? He? (OMG what have I done, now I will receive dumb-bells or running gear next year...) As for out demo itself: Most of you will know, that Detlef does never know the music in advance and I choose it for us. This time, I asked my friends on Facebook and Andreas came up with „El Morochito“ by Rodriguez. So Detlef was lucky, because he‘s a big fan of Rodriguez. He was not so lucky with my choice for the second Tango, as I picked „Pampero“ by Fresedo. Normally, we do not dance Fresedo together, as we‘ve got different ideas about the interpretation of this orchestra. But this Tango was quite non-ambiguous, so we did not embarrass ourselves. The last dance was „Lirio Blanco“ by Canaro. I just love those slow Valses!

Extra activities:
Well... you could of course have visited the countryside or Celje.... but I do not think, that anyone spend time outside of the Festival venues. This was purely dancing. So, extra activities: recovering from dancing!
But I should not forget the art exhibition in the youth centre: Giancarlo Pastonchi, an Italian dancer and professional photographer presented a choice of his Tango works. He was also participating in the Festival and made a very nice movie with impressions from the Festivalito. (See below.)

Crowd:
I already mentioned the fact, that the crowd was much more international than last year. Apart from the Slovenian and Italian dancers, there were visitors from Austria, Australia, Germany, the UK and the USA. Age-wise this is a younger event, mostly people from 30 to their early 40‘s, but you could find all age groups. The level of social dancing was quite high and everyone enjoyed the close embrace.
For me, this was one of the few events in the year, where I am invited to teach and dance amongst close friends. Some of my favourite dancers were there as well. I am sorry, that I could not dance with them more - being too exhausted from teaching. But I will surely not forget sitting on the roof terrace on a sunny Sunday after class, looking onto the hills and mountains that surround Celje, drinking a Margarita or two and chatting with Theo, Philippe, Francesco, Deborah and other friends. It felt like home!

Preview:
There will be a 2012 edition with the same concept, teachers (us) and locations in 2012. Do already note the date: September 7-9, next year.
I have to add, that this is a small event, and will stay one. In order to guarantee the quality, Saso and Alja want to keep it intimate with no more than 100 visitors on the Saturday Milonga. Most vistors are planning to participate in 2012, so you‘ll have to book very early to get one of the last free spots. We are looking forward to another great event with friends!

And now: enjoy Giancarlo's video of the Festivalito Rural 2011:

Sentadas, Montadas and Ganchos for Beginners

2011-09-26T12:46:00.005+02:00

This is one of the posts, with which I will attract the enmity of colleagues and consumers alike, as I am about to break an „unwritten law“ of the Tango community: Do not criticise a a fellow teacher! A couple of moths ago, I complained about the lamentable dance-quality on dancefloors as a result of the teaching of „non-social elements“. I then just spoke in general terms, not mentioning any teacher in particular. (Have a look at my earlier post.) But now, an event of Facebook made my hair stand up and my blood boil.

A few days ago, a friend drew my attention to this announcement of workshops in Florence. They are being held by one of the most famous Tango-couples, now living and teaching in Italy. She is believed to be the best female Tango dancer in the world. I will not comment on that, but please judge for yourself, if these class contents are fit for beginning and intermediate Tango dancers or social Tango of all levels:

a) Sentadas con salida en catena

b) Montadas y ganchos

c) Sacadas en el giro (see comment below)

d) Movimientos de calidad en el Vals, Tango y Milonga (see comment below)

e) Sacada doble con ganchos

Are they making fun of the clients? Do they really believe, that a random bunch of Florentine dancers - some of them surely over 50 and the majority of the group in mediocre physical shape - will be able to execute such movements correctly and nicely? Or is this a mistake in labelling and the classes are really meant for very advanced young dancers wanting to perform professionally?

Pleeeease!

Seriously, I am convinced that all teachers, especially those who are believed to be the „ambassadors“ of Tango, bear responsibility for how Tango is danced in the Milongas. Over the last years, a broad understanding was formed within the Tango communities, no matter which style they prefer: Most people will nowadays agree on the assertion, that stage Tango elements should be no part of the teaching for social dancers and that an excellent technical basis is required to attempt more complex or even athletic movements. If kicking and jumping is to have a comeback in beginners and intermediate classes - then we are really doomed!

Additional comment after discussion:
I did not want to critisise ALL classes - I just wrote down the whole list of contents as they were presented in the announcement. Quality Movements may be a nice class - if they do not just show steps. And Sacadas in turns are an appropriate content for advanced dancers. So, 2 out of 5 might be ok. But is this good enough?

Tango del Mar in Romania (review with a short digression)

2011-09-01T11:27:00.011+02:00

Those who read my blog on a regular basis, may imagine, that I was looking very much forward to this event. And although we almost never combine work with sightseeing, in this special case we arrived a couple of days earlier to enjoy the magnificent and variable landscape or Romania. This is why I cannot stop myself and must give you a short report of our crazy tour from the Walachian plains, over the Transsilvanian mountains to the seaside of the Dobrudscha.

A journey into a new and very old land:
We arrived on Sunday evening after a whole month of non-stop-intensive-seminars and spend two days visiting Bucharest, a city of immense contrasts: the imposing monuments of communism and newly build or renovated palaces of commerce amongst ruins or desolate apartment houses. I cannot say that we liked it very much, but I will not forget the impressions either. On our third day, we drove over Curtea de Arges to climb the 1480 steps to the castle Poenaru in the Carpathian mountains. I have never been so sweaty and exhausted in my whole life! But it was worth seeing the dark foresty mountains tower over the Arges valley. And to imagine... but well, that is another story....

Next stage went over the Transfagaras road to Sibiu in Transsilvania. Although I was rather worried to break our rented car on that never ending winded path with enormous holes in the ground, I was so much impressed by the view, that I do not regret our choice. I have surely never been so high up a mountain and the views were perfectly stunning.

We got late to Sibiu (Hermannstadt) a nicely renovated city with beautiful renaissance and baroque architecture. The epitome of picturesque. Had it not been so immensely hot! And we only had a few hours on the next day before we had to drive back to Bucharest, where our lovely new friend Oana would pick us up and drive us to the Black Sea. All these places went by so fast. I cannot believe, that we‘ve actually done this...

We finally arrived at the hotel, tired and hungry as a traveller in earlier times may have been but all of this was so amazing. I have to come back with much, much more time!

In the meanwhile, let me talk some Tango and finally review the:

Tango del Mar - Encuentro de Abrazos (August 26-28, 2011)

The event was organised by Ionut Fiscu and Ramona Budui, two young dancers from Constanta in Romania. Both have started teaching quite early in their Tango life and seem to have a very methodical approach. Which is why they have chosen us after having „tested“ our classes in Italy this January. We were at first a bit reluctant to accept the offer as we had planned our holiday for 2011 during that period - but then finally accepted. Ionut managed to convince us to be „ambassadors“ of close embrace in a country where Tango Nuevo and open Tango de Salon seems to be pre-dominant. We did not regret our decision! :-)

Location:

The Encuentro took place in the Hotel Central in Mamaia, the seaside resort near Constanta at the Black Sea. You could actually see the sea from the open-air dancefloor and a steady breeze was keeping us cool during hot dances.

The dancefloor was set at the pool and outside restaurant, so you could have even taken a short swim during Milongas. We restrained ourselves, but had lovely meals with grilled meat, fish and salad at the beginning of the Milongas.

The hotel itself was simple but perfectly functional - and what more can you ask, then to jump out of bed directly into the sea or to the Milonga! Ideal!

Milongas:

There were three Milongas, two late Milongas from 22.00 until dawn on Friday and Saturday and the Despedida on Sunday, that started earlier and went until 0.30. People showed up rather late and our hosts explained, that this was the custom in Romania.

DJs:

All DJs presented traditional music in Tandas and Cortinas.

The opening Milonga was DJ‘d by Ramona Budui. I was still suffering from sore muscles (the 1480 steps!), so I chatted most of the time and left the Milonga early - unfortunately during a Tanda of beautiful Di Sarli with Pomar... Maybe I should have stayed longer. Ramona definitely made a choice of perfectly danceable music - apart from one Fresedo Tanda, that started rather hollywoodesk-dramatic and ended up being very sweet - too late as I had already refused an invitation. Oh... and then I forgot to mention, that Ramona of course played her signature Vals: "Ramona" by Biagi. Almost nobody does this nowadays - but I love that song!

On Saturday evening, Theo "El Greco" Chatzipetros was DJing. He is residing in Italy and a well known DJ at the traditional Milongas or Encuentros all over southern Europe. He DJs regularly at the Milonga in Impruneta near Florence - a must-go for all Milongueros. Theo is one of my favourite DJs and confirmed his reputation by playing the most beautiful choice of Tangos - lyrical and rhythmic music in a harmonic balance. I stayed until 4 in the morning and heard the rest of the music (until 7 a.m.) from my bed. Which actually annoyed me in the end, as I wanted to sleep very badly, but this was not Theo‘s fault. Next time, I‘ll get a room facing to the other side. Detlef stayed until the end and we both were pretty knackered the next day!

The Despedida was DJ‘d by Philippe Gonella, whom I have already mentioned repeatedly, both as a dancer and DJ. I was very much surprised by his unusual choice of highly dramatic music, sporting Tandas by very late D‘Arienzo (Este es el rey - a no-go!) and Varela. He usually plays much older stuff.... I will ask him about it!

Classes:

We (Detlef & I) were teaching only 4 classes, as we had decided to not work so much as usual - wanting to make up for our „lost“ holiday. I additionally did a class on „music and musical design“ for DJs and dancers. All classes were fully booked by a young and very active crowd. It was fun working with such spirited dancers!

The workshops took place in a Salsa studio downtown Constanta, which was quite a drive. Next year they plan to have the classes on-site as well.

Demos:

We did a demo on the Saturday Milonga which was very well received. It found it nevertheless a challenge to built a good connection to partner and audience with the strong wind distracting me. I actually felt leading impulses by the wind, but then I am most-likely crazy...

Extra activities:

That‘s obvious, insn‘t it? Beach time! You may also visit Constanta but most people spent the days sunbathing, swimming and resting.

Crowd:

Although the majority of the dancers were young people from Romania, there were some „travellers“ as well: Germans, Italians, Swiss and I think also some Turkish dancers. The attendance was a little lower than expected, but the ambiance made up for that. All people were very friendly, open and eager to embrace Tango and the world. Just as it should be! People were actually enthusiastic and one dancer from Italy remarked: Tango, the sea, the lights... this must be heaven!

I was personally pleased to meet Philippe, his partner Renata, Theo and a another nice dancer from Italy, Massimiliano. We also made some great new acquaintances, not to forget our hosts Ramona and Ionut. So we were lucky to work and dance amongst friends!

Preview:

There will be a second edition next year in June, 8-10. Most likely, it will take place in the same hotel, but they will change the location of the dancefloor slightly - nearer to the covered area of the restaurant in order to get out of the windy zone and create a more intimate ambiance.

We have already been invited to teach again and will do some more hours, probably with a fixed group of dancers. So there will be no option to book single classes - this assures an intensified learning and working experience.

I am confident that the number of participants for the Milongas will increase as the word spreads about this lovely first Encuentro de Abrazos in Romania!

European Milongueros - Philippe Gonella

2011-08-02T19:22:00.004+02:00

Now there‘s a guy with whom I bonded instantly. Why? Because he‘s got an opinion and he‘s not afraid to show it.

The first time I met Philippe Gonella was when he was taking one of our classes in 2007 with his former partner Céline (see last post). And although he seemed to share the same idea of Tango, he was really suspicious, when we introduced some of our basic principles. You could not tell, if he liked them or not. He was kinda grumpy and I somehow appreciate it, when people have got a critical approach to what teachers tell them. Also the fact that he left the room, when we were doing our demo. He later told me, that this was not meant to criticise us, but he just did not like performances. Ok, I don‘t like them either, so I can accept that.

And then we danced... and he was not sulky at all. Although he had - by then - a somewhat firm abrazo that literally made me loose my breath, I could tell, that for him, Tango is all about feeling. Being near to a woman, letting two bodies interact in a very intimate way, letting the music go from the top of your head to your toes. The moment, Philippe takes you into his arms, there will be no more boundaries - definitely not someone to dance with, if you‘ve got closeness-issues and a fan of high boleos. ;-)

So who‘s the guy, who changed from Mr. Grumpy to Señor Abrazo in an instant?

Philippe Gonella originates from Grasse, France, where he met Tango more than 11 years ago. He co-founded Cariño Tango with Céline Devèze and took up teaching and DJing. And very early, it it became clear to him, that Tango was neither the acrobatics of Tango Escenario, nor the moves of Tango Nuevo - Tango was what was danced in the traditional Milongas in Buenos Aires. His first visit of Buenos Aires confirmed him in his beliefs and he came back with the aim to establish a real Milonga with all the „reglas“ in his home region. And so the „Milonga Linda“ became one of the first traditional Milongas in the south of France: women seated separately from men, traditional music with Tandas & Cortinas, invitation solely by Cabeceo & Mirada, respecting the codes of the dancefloor... these were Philippe‘s primary objectives.

As a Tango-teacher, Philippe focusses on the basics: connection, walk, music. Up until now, he prefers to impart his ideas in private classes. In such an environment, he can much better show corporeally what Tango means to him. He also never wanted to live from giving Tango classes or even DJing - he feared that this might corrupt his sincere Tango, make him feel obliged to dance with women out of politeness, to show steps instead of principles... I find that very respectable, although I think you can stay true to yourself - even when you‘re a professional Tango teacher. ;-)

But Philippe is really not a man of compromises. So in 2009, he decided to close his firm (he was an electrician installing heatings and A/Cs), sell his equipment, sports-car and boat, rent out his house and live in a Caravan. He just wanted to Tango: to drive - like a gypsy - from one Milonga to the other, from one Festivalito to the next Encuentro Milonguero. And this is exactly what he does since then: dancing at the Milongas (mostly in Italy), DJing a lot, teaching here and then, meeting friends, having fun and great meals... Sometimes I envy him, if it weren‘t for the frugal living in his VW bus. Well, it suits him and Gitango is the name he chose as a DJ!

As a dancer, he chooses the women for their quality of embrace, not for her technique or intricate decorations. He once told me, that the sole reason he invited me to dance for the first time was not because I danced good or was a teacher, but because he could read the emotions on my face. And since them, he‘s become my favourite dance partner for slow Tangos by Di Sarli. We will not move a lot, but feel and play the music with tiny shifts of weight or steps in slow-motion. Sometimes, we will just stand still... His embrace became much softer over the years, allowing for a nice dissociation and organic communication. To enjoy dancing with Philippe, you have to be flexible and relaxed - a woman with stiff embrace and legs will not be able to get the subtle leading impulses. And if you think you can rely on memorised steps, you will be very surprised!

His new partner in life and dance is an Italian physical therapist who shares his ideas of Tango and living in freedom. Renata is such a warm and sensitive person, who connects very strongly to her partner. That makes her a perfect match for Philippe.

I don‘t want to forget, that Philippe and his friends Paule, Marcel and Renata are organising one of the biggest events for Milongueros in Europe: the „Encuentro Milonguero Les Cigales“. It takes place in early summer and boasts 3 days of dancing to the best DJ‘s choices, respect for the „codigos“, common meals, time to spend with friends - the epitome of savoir-vivre in France!

You will not be surprised, that after all those big positive changes in his life, Philippe is not grumpy any more: He‘s experiencing so much friendship and happy moments in Tango, that he will give it back to the world, smiling and and with a huge taste of self-irony. Nowadays, he even likes our demos and compliments us on them. And if I‘m lucky, I‘ll get an excellent foot-massage. To Di Sarli‘s music... ;-)

I will present you two videos in addition to the one with Céline in my last post:
- The first shows Philippe dancing with me at the first Festivalito con Amigos in Saarbrücken. See how the other three couples are racing along the dancefloor, compared to our slow moves. ;-) You can in this video also watch Andreas and Céline dancing together, the honourees of the last two posts.
- The second video is of a recent demo with his new partner Renata Lacchini in the „Contatto Club“ in Spinea, Venice.

Enjoy!

European Milongueras - Céline Devèze

2011-07-28T09:10:00.005+02:00

Preface:

I know, that the term „Milonguera“ was in earlier times often used pejoratively to describe women of questionable moral conduct, who frequented the Milongas. (Please have a look at Cherie‘s historic definition.) But nowadays, a big majority just uses the word as the feminine form of Milonguero: a women, spending all her spare time at the Milongas, living for the embrace in a traditional setting - in contrast to a professional show-dancer, who strives for choreographies or impressive moves. This change of meaning is proven by the fact, that some of the most popular Milongas in Buenos Aires organise special „Noches de las Milongueras“ to honour the women, who have dedicated their lives to Tango. So please allow me to use the term „Milonguera“ in the same positive way.

I would like to introduce today‘s honouree with her own words, translated from French:

„Argentine Tango is a universe that comes to life though the body of your partner, the embrace of the couple, mutual exchange and respect. It is a magical moment, a pure emotion full of vibrations and poetry, that we long to relive indefatigably.“

I encountered Céline Devèze 2007 in Lyon, when she participated in some of our classes with her former partner Philippe Gonella. She is a very refined French young lady with a taste for luxury and an elaborate language, that she uses to describe her passion for Tango. And from the beginning, she struck me as a very sensitive and emotional being. Even during class, she would give in completely to the embrace and the feeling - in a way that infatuated all the guys. And still does. You already met Céline in my former post, dancing with Andreas Wichter, who‘s a big fan of hers. ;-)

Céline lives in the south of France, in Grasse, a historic town up the hills near the white beaches of the Côte D‘Azur. She started dancing almost 10 years ago and took classes with Pablo & Béatrice Ojeda, Thierry Lecocq & Véronique Bouscasse, Térésa Cunha, Graciela Gonzales, Géraldine Rojas, Silvina Vals, Maria Plazaola and Aurora Lubiz amongst others. She once told me, that Veronique Bouscasse was her most important influence in the first years.

You can tell, that Tango conquered her life completely. Very early in her career as a Milonguera, Céine co-founded the Tango association „Cariño Tango“ and started giving classes with Philippe Gonella. She travelled to all the events in reach and became a fixture in the Milongas in Nimes, Marseille, Lyon, Montpellier... Nowadays, her radius has expanded as she frequents the traditional Milongas and Encuentros in Italy as well as in other countries like the UK, Germany, and Scandinavia. In the last few years, you often see her name amongst the DJs of a traditional Festival. Once a year, she organises a big event in her home region - La Pasionara It takes place at carnival and features workshops, demos and sometimes life-music. Céline‘s latest passion is photographing and filming. So, when you do not see her dancing at a Milonga, she‘s most likely pointing her camera at you to capture all the lovely embraces, that mean so much to her. And after the event, she‘ll compose a beautiful video, that makes you want to cry. She‘s obviously a women of many talents! I guess, the last year, when she was unfortunately unemployed , must have been one of her best years ever - because she had the time to travel to all the great events without having to fit in a tiring business schedule.

When it comes to dancing, her passionate embrace is unrivalled and all the best dancers are lining up to dance with her. The women admire (and sometimes envy) her elegant moves and understated decorations. So, Céline dances and dances and dances... I have never seen her leave a Milonga before the end - no matter how late it is!

I am going to show you three videos:

The first one shows her performing with Philippe Gonella.

The second one is a film about her big event „La Pasionara“. Check out all the great social dancers, who Céline manages to bring together.

The last video shows impressions from her „Milonga Linda“ and tells us, what Tango really means to Céline.

I proudly present a European Milonguera:

European Milongueros - Andreas Wichter

2011-07-14T19:36:00.008+02:00

Now, nobody will be surprised, that I chose Andreas as the first European Milonguero to be presented in my blog. But for those, who do not know me so well or have not been reading my all my posts:

Andreas Wichter is the person with whom I started dancing Tango in the mid-90s. We go way back (when he still had black hair) and without him, I would never have immersed myself into this new world. It was his idea to take Tango classes and in the beginning, I thought, it was just to please me. But I was mistaken. This guy meant business.

I should not have been surprised, because that‘s Andreas‘ way: whatever he decides to do, he will really plunge into it. His two former purposes in life had been Wing Chun and Roleplaying Games: He had started Martial Arts in 1983, travelled to Hongkong and taught it for over 10 years. Roleplaying Games did not remain a pastime for him either: every minute available he (and me) spend preparing games and researching for them historically, travelling to conventions, writing and editing a fanzine and translating Roleplaying manuals professionally. You can see the pattern: He takes something up as a hobby and soon the passion becomes so overwhelming, that it‘ll evolve into a profession. And his big love was meant to be Tango!

So, who is this crazy guy and what is his Tango like?

Andreas is German and was born in the town where I live, Saarbrücken. Although he studied for some years in Berlin, he came back to his home town and this is where we discovered Tango. After a first introduction to Tango in 1995-96, we gave it up again. Classes were bad and no Milongas existed in our region. But from January 2000 we got really into it and this is when Andreas‘ passion for Tango really came into bloom: After having been introduced to close embrace Tango de Salon by his early mentor Just Kuhl, he started travelling to all Milongas and Festivals within reach, taking classes with many important teachers and couples: Hernan Obispo & Mariana Dragone, Chicho, Eric Jorissen & Komala, Mauricio Castro, „El Pibe“ Sarandi & Elina Roldan, „El Turco“ Jose Brahemcha, Rodolfo „El Chino“ & Miho, Eduardo Capussi & Mariana Flores, Javier Rodriguez & Andrea Misse. But his main influences were definitely two of the big Milongueros: Tete, who influenced him strongly and Gavito, who changed Andreas‘ dance overnight. But taking classes and going to Milongas was not enough for him and he spend almost every waking hour watching videos on the newly created Youtube, listening to Tango music and practising movements alone. His roommate (my very good friend Juliana of the Tangokombinat) went bonkers because she could hear him walking and pivoting all night above her head in the attic room. You can imagine, that his job as a freelance webdesigner, journalist and Wing Chun teacher suffered immensely...

In late 2003 he started dancing with Anne-Cecile Dubois from Metz (France) and teaching in Luxembourg. After we had founded the Tangokombinat in December 2004, Andreas‘ teaching activities became even more time-consuming. Apart from teaching in our hometown, Andreas co-operated with Detlef and me in the weekly classes in Metz (France) and Landau (Germany) and was invited to teach at Festivals and events in Germany, Belgium, the UK and France. In 2005 he met the lovely Lynn Collins and spend more and more time in the UK, to were he finally moved in 2009. Now he‘s giving classes in the Southwest of the UK as well as in London and is organising the "Abrazos - Encuentro Milonguero UK“ with his life partner. Whenever possible, Andreas travels to the important Milonguero Festivals in Italy and France. And we are - of course - still organising the "Festivalito con Amigos" as a Tangokombinat event. All his-non Tango-activities have been reduced to a absolute minimum and I can assure you, that he‘s one of the most dedicated and strict teachers, that I‘ve ever met. As a DJ, he slowly manages to influence the „eclectic“ UK Tango culture with his very traditional approach and has been invited to work at numerous events on the continent.

Wherever he goes, Andreas is one of the most sought-after partners for women who want to experience a musical Tango with a strong connection. He‘s got an immaculate axis that makes turned movements so easy - a result of 30 years of martial arts, I guess. I always find, that he‘s the most traditional of my close friends: his Tango is very similar to the dance of the Milongueros in Buenos Aires and you can still feel a lot of Tete in his movements. He nevertheless dissociates and communicates with very modern body concepts. This is where you can feel the influence of the more „nuevo“ teachers and our close co-operation. It is the rhythmic music, that I prefer to dance with Andreas: Tangos by Biagi and Valses of every kind. With this music, he develops a very unique and powerful dynamic, that you may not see from the outside, but feel in the couple. Andreas is furthermore the ONLY man, with whom I dance very fast Milongas - and still do decorations, because I feel so comfortable. When he‘s not around, I sit them out...

And now you may sit back and watch Andreas dance.

I want to present two videos: In the first, we are dancing to „El Adios“ by Donato at our Festivalito con Amigos . In the second, you can see him dancing with Céline Devèze at the 2009 edition of „Les Cigales“ in the south of France during a Tanda of Biagi. I especially like the last bit, when we leads Céline into a turn of forward steps in both directions. Beautiful. That‘s no performance, just social dancing. And it shows best, what Andreas is: a Milonguero with all his heart!

The European Milongueros & Milongueras

2011-07-11T16:28:00.013+02:00

So here I am again. I‘ve been thinking about what to write, when an idea hit me:

There are quite some blogs, who feature the „old Milongueros“ of Buenos Aires. That‘s very important and I always enjoy reading about their experiences or seeing them dancing. But I‘d like to introduce you to the European Milongueros and Milongueras in a series of blog articles over the next weeks.

And, yes - they do exist! Men and women who dedicate their life to social Tango in the traditional Milongas in Europe and all around the globe. Dancers who cherish the embrace above all, who dance with all their heart and passion - and sometimes give up everything they‘ve achieved in real-life just to dance. And sometimes teach or DJ... Not to become rich or famous - it's just that they could not imagine, investing time in something else than Tango. Most of them are still young - in their 30s or 40s - but they‘ve acquired already quite some Tango-wisdom by travelling, dancing, reading, talking to people - just living the Tango - as the „old Milongueros“ do!

And they are my friends. Some of them, I know since ages, others, I‘ve just met recently. You surely know some of them personally. I find, they deserve a tribute on my blog, for: We share one philosophy and many embraces.

So, I poudly present: The European Milongueros!

I give up - for the moment!

2011-07-11T15:52:00.003+02:00

For the last 1,5 years, I've been trying to study for a master in "European Modern History & Literatur". Although I was well aware, that it would take me years to complete it, I was still confident that I could make it. I have to admid, that I was wrong.
My work as a Tango teacher & DJ, my blogging activities and several other interests do not allow me to spend enough time to seriously progress in this degree programm. I can only concentrate on so much at a time. I'm sad about this decision, but I have to let it be for the moment.
Once I'm done with Tango, I'm going to pursue the task of becoming a Master of History anew. But for the moment, I will confine myself in studying history just for the fun of it. And that's actually not so bad, as it leaves me the time, to read what I want to read and not what I'm supposed to read! ;-)

Me in the blogs

2011-06-21T10:07:00.011+02:00

That's been a really blog-intensive last year.... Not only am I writing my blog, I (or Detlef and me) have on several occasions been subject to blog entries or interviews.

Here's a short overview:
Brand-new interview with Detlef & Melina on Tango Reviews (part 1, part 2, part 3)
Review of one of our demos on Tango Reviews
Interview with Melina on Cassiels blog (part 1, part 2, part 3, german)
Translation of Cassiels interview on Tangocommuters blog (part 1, part 2, part 3, english)
Transcript and english explanation of a short teaching video on Ms. Hedgehogs blog
Reviews of some of our classes in Switzerland and a Tangoholiday in the south of France (No register on Patric's blog. A helpful reader posted the links to the reviews in the comments below.)
Review of the same Tangoholiday, from the point of view of a french participant.

There might be more that I don't know of. If you find one, please write me a note.

We have to try harder!

2011-06-11T12:49:00.005+02:00

I‘m not happy and I‘m going to tell you why.

In the last few weeks, we‘ve been travelling to several events, where I‘ve been shocked by the total lack of social skills on the dance-floors.

Mostly, Detlef and I are invited to places and festivals, where people are connected to a social Tango. So we are used to meeting dancers of the most different levels and styles, but sharing a general philosophy of how Tango has to be applied in a social context, a Milonga. I usually do not attend the typical big Festivals or events, that are focused on a more showy kind of Tango. So maybe, in these past few years, I‘ve been living in a kind of Salon/Milonguero bubble, getting the impression, that Tango has really developed in Europe! It surely has, but...

... obviously, there are still too many communities, where dancers are limited to a dangerous Tango-Escenario & Tango-Nuevo combination. This leads to huge gestures on the floor, dancing without any connection to the music or the partner and mostly without any sense of direction. I‘ve recently seen people do Sentadas, linear high Voleos, Soltadas, women-used-to-sweep-the-floor-movements and other stuff in packed Milongas. Do not misunderstand me here: a good Tango-Nuevo dancer will be able to adapt his movements to a social dancefloor. But these people were just going crazy!

How can that be?

Since the beginning of the new millennium, there are many teachers, who focus on social dance or at least pretend to do so. If you look at webpages or festival announcements, you‘ll find lots of Maestros, who seem to transmit skills usable in the Milonga. Are they not well booked or do they not hold what they promise? Do teachers still teach the grand steps? Don‘t teachers explain the difference between a move for the stage and a move for a Milonga? Somehow, I doubt it....

In my opinion, there are at least three factors, that are responsible for people going crazy at Milongas:

1. Classes with non-social contents: Is it really necessary to teach all those big movements to social dancers, dear colleagues? Could you not restrict your classes on high Voleos, end poses, jumps and kicks exclusively to people who aspire to use them as show-dancers? Or to those who sign a contract, that they will only apply them in their living-room, whilst practising alone? Could you please also explain to your clients, that some kind of movements require an exceptional control over the body, only found in skilled dancers with a classical or contemporary background. Please help them to not make fools of themselves on the dancefloor!

2. Maestros who teach social Tango, but don‘t show in demos: There‘s nothing wrong in being an artist and expressing the music with spectacular steps. But please, if you dance a choreography or an improvisation with „unsocial“ movements, point out to the audience, that this is not, how Tango is meant to be danced in a Milonga. You may know that, but do your students?

3. A non-social choice of music: Please organisers, invite DJs and (if you must) orchestras who play danceable music. If you don‘t understand, what I mean by that, please check this article. Do always keep in mind, that expressive and highly dynamic music encourages people to do the same kind of movements. And do you really want to hear complaints about a messy floor at your event?

I wish instead, that teachers and organisers showed their clients how to:

- navigate and behave in a social environment,

- adapt the amplitude of every movement to the space on the dancefloor,

- adapt the timing and dynamics of every movement to the requirements of the music and the dancefloor,

- Improvise freely without relying on memorised steps,
- find pleasure in the embrace and simple movements.

In short: how to dance an interesting an musical Tango without the need of big steps, without hurting each other and without disturbing the line of dance!

If you already do all that, please try harder. I will as well!

The reasons, why I don‘t dance.

2011-05-31T19:47:00.008+02:00

This might be a rather unusual blog-entry for a professional Tango teacher, but I guess you are by now accustomed to my personal weirdness, dear readers.

The reason why I write this article, lies in the fact, that I just spend 8 evenings in a row sitting in Milongas and watching the dancers. On the last evening, one of the locals asked me, why he did not see me on the dancefloor for more than one or two Tandas. I explained to him:

I do indeed not dance as much as others at Milongas, and the reasons for that vary. Basically, my non-dancing results from three different situations:

I have been working all day:

Most Milongas that I visit nowadays, take place in the context of a professional employment. So, on a day like that, I‘ve been getting up early, doing organisational stuff, maybe a workout, teaching for many hours and sometimes giving a performance. During our work, we have to stay focussed, be attentive, bond with people and cannot show show signs of tiredness. We love our work and want to give everything! This costs a lot of energy and at the end of a working day I am quite often physically and mentally exhausted. Too exhausted to relate to a dancer in the way I would want to relate in the embrace. I‘m sure, that many of you know that feeling and will thus not go to a lot of Milongas during the week. On your workdays, you prefer to stay at home with a good book or a movie, isn‘t it? But for us, the situation is reversed: Most Milongas take place on weekends, when the dancers can sleep long and are therefore well rested and energetic for a night out. Those are our customer-involved working days. (Not to forget the rest of the week, when we do the advertising, preparations, planning, travelling and other work-related stuff.) So please forgive me, if I am just too tired to get off my seat. Sitting, watching and chatting is fine for me. ;-)

I am DJing:

When I am DJing, I concentrate on the dancefloor. I will be watching the dancers, try to make out their mood, feel what they might want to dance to... I basically do the job, for which I am paid. I will maybe dance a Tanda or two, if I feel, that everything is going smoothly, but that‘s it. As a DJ, it's my pleasure to make YOU dance! :-)

So, these were answers enough for the Tanguero, who asked me that question on a full travelling, teaching, performing day, when I was also DJing at the Milonga in question. But there is another factor...

I only dance, when I really want to dance:

There are luckily still Milongas, that we attend for the fun of dancing and/or meeting friends. And even then, I might not be dancing as much as others. Why? Let me put it bluntly: Although being a professional teacher and depending on contracts, I will not do „social-engineering“ by dancing with potential customers or organisers. I will not either dance out of boredom, nor out of a general „urge to move“ with everyone, to no matter what music. I‘m funny in that way: When I dance with a man (or a woman), I do it for the pleasure of the embrace and I will connect very deeply with the person in question and the music. I can only do this, if the music and mood are right, if the dancefloor is well-organised, if I am awake and in an acceptable physical shape and if the other person shares my general ideas of Tango. I will rather dance with the beginner, who embraces me nicely and simply walks to the beat, than the „Maestro“ who wants to impress me with his athletic moves or complex steps. Feeling is more important to me than looks. And even amongst Salón or Milonguero dancers there are quite a few, who look nice to dance with, who move elegantly, but do not „feel“ nice! They will not connect properly, they will not communicate their ideas, they will expect me to dance memorised patterns, they are stiff and do not dissociate... It's about the quality of the dance. Am I fastidious? Maybe... But am I demanding too much? I don‘t know.... As I said: just walking to the music and holding one another gently in the arms is a great experience. I do not ask for more.

But I won‘t accept less!

Abrazos - Encuentro Milonguero UK (Review)

2011-05-11T18:32:00.002+02:00

So... here you are. Have a look at my review of a beautiful weekend in the british countryside and a perfect debut Festival:

ABRAZOS - Encuentro Milonguero UK (May, 6-8, 2011)

The first Festival of social Tango in the United Kingdom was organised by our friends and Tangokombinat comrades Andreas Wichter & Lynn Collins. Andreas is teaching in the UK for some years and has been invited to Southhampton, Bristol, Cardiff, London and other places. He and Lynn are living in Totnes, Devon a lovely small town at the river Dart surrounded by tolkienesque hills and filled with stores that sell crystals and homemade shoes. This is Hobbit country. The Shire par excellence!

The Festival itself was set on Dartington Hall Estate nearby, a conglomerate of picturesque houses, the most beautiful garden in the world and some very functional multipurpose buildings, that host all kinds of cultural activities and art. On the same weekend, a festival in honour of the poet Rabindranath Tagore took place on the estate and you could enjoy all kinds of indian-inspired food, colourful people and (obviously) an elephant in the garden.

Practicas, Milonguitas & Milongas:

The Festival offered lots of opportunities to dance over the weekend. There were Practicas every day, two afternoon Milonguitas, two big Milongas on Friday and Saturday, and a Despedida on Sunday. The concentration of so many Milongas, a big choice of classes and many people sharing Embraces, meals and discussions on this lovely spot in Devon, really made this event stand out. From all the Encuentros and Festivalitos this was definitely the most festival-like one.

DJs:

All DJs presented traditional music in Tandas and Cortinas even during the Practicas. There were Jill Barret (UK) and Deke As (UK) for the Practicas, Celine Deveze and Philippe Gonella for the Milonguitas and Enrico „il Mali“, Uwe Willié and myself of the Milongas. I already mentioned Celine, Philippe and Enrico in my description of the YSM3 in Crema. Uwe Willié is our comrade in the Tangokombinat and was chosen for the Sunday Despedida. It‘s a actually speciality of his as he concentrates on Tandas of a more romantic and peaceful ambiance. Perfect for the final notes of a Festival.

Classes:

We (Detlef & I) were teaching alongside Marek & Olivera Szotkowski and were focussing on the embrace, movements for crowded floors and musicality in order to attract the right crowd of dancers. As each of us did a „full programme“ (10 hours) of teaching over the weekend, we did not have the time to attend the afternoon Milonguitas or Practicas - apart from the initial guided practica of course. It was fun to work at the Abrazos Festival: the class rooms were big enough and equipped with an excellent wooden floor, the organisation was impeccable. All classes were sold out.

There was one special offer: each teacher was available for four „Privatandas“, mini private classes of the length of a Tanda. We already know the concept from the USA and like it a lot. It is a very dense kind of work, where you have to concentrate on one or two aspects. The big upside is, that you do not „overload“ the student with information. From what I can tell of the feedback, the participants got a lot out of it.

Demos:

We did a short demo (2 dances per couple and one Vals together) on Saturday evening.

Detlef and I danced two Tangos by Di Sarli as an illustration of our teaching during the day. We had given a special class on Di Sarli‘s oeuvre and wanted to demonstrate the interpretation of different styles of Tangos by the „Senor del Tango“. You can see our demos here and here.

Marek and Olivera danced to a Tango by Laurenz and a Milonga in their very elegant and personal way. I will add a link to heir demo, as soon as it is online.

Extra activities:

Apart from strolling around on Dartington Estate (see above), you could visit Totnes, the Dartmoor, take a ride on an old-fashioned choo-choo-train, have tea and scones, look at Otters and other rare breeds... All very british and much appreciated by the visitors from the continent. Unluckily, the weather was not perfect. But who‘d expect this? ;-)

Locations:

The locations were very, very convenient. As I already stated: wooden floors, state of the art technique and sound, appropriate sizes, nice arty ambiance.... The Practicas and Milonguitas took place in the „Hex“ a hexagonal hall with an arena-like tribune for seating and some additional tables and chairs. It was situated in the same building as the classrooms, including dressing rooms with showers, a vendor of shoes, a food stand and the reception. The Friday evening Milonga took place in the same building in the very nicely decorated large hall. I preferred this hall to the one of the Saturday and Sunday Milongas, which was set across the Estate in another building. This one was a tad „long and narrow“ for my taste. But nevertheless all places were perfectly fit for a Festival of that size, creating a very pure ambiance!

Crowd:

The majority of the dancers came from the UK and we knew many from former visits. It was great to meet them again and see them dance so nicely with our friends from the continent, who flew in from France, Italy, Slovenia, Germany, Sweden and Denmark. Let‘s not forget our Scotch and Irish friends of course!

I was very much impressed by the discipline and respect of the dancers on the floor and amongst each other. I have visited several british Milongas in the last three years and found the behaviour (outside of London) quite decent, but there were always some rascals on the floor, disturbing the Ronda. This was not the case at Abrazos! I have never-ever seen such a perfect Ronda with 2-3 concentric circles in all my Tango life, not even in Buenos Aires or in the most renowned Festivals. Obviously, the special emphasis on social Tango, the embrace and the „reglas“ in the publicity and choice of classes really had an impact. I know by personal feedback of participants, that they‘ve never experienced such a peace- and respectful ambiance at a Tangoevent in the UK before. The emotions ranged from tears to laughter of pleasure. Even I was touched by the harmony of the couples on the dancefloor, when I was sitting with my aching feet up and watching the crowd dance the last Tanda to a perfect Tango by Di Sarli. Whilst receiving a foot massage by my favourite foot-massage and Di-Sarli person. What more can I ask for?

Preview:

Andreas and Lynn are already planning next years event, which will most likely take place on Dartington Hall Estate again. This is only the beginning of a deep friendship between british and continental Milongueros. The social Tango in a close embrace has found a new home on the island and there will hopefully be many more Abrazos. We‘ll sure be back!

Festivalitos for Milongueros - the first review

2011-04-27T19:38:00.009+02:00

In an earlier post I recommended a choice of events for Tangueros who want to cherish the embrace. These Festivalitos or Encuentros are developing all over Europe and are attracting a rapidly growing crowd. I would like to present the ones in which I am participating in 2011, either as teacher, organiser or just as a dancer. You cannot expect me to write a neutral report, as I am always emotionally involved, but I will not praise what is not worthy!

I would first like to describe the phenomenon of the Encuentro Milonguero itself.

Encuentros are in some way comparable to the Tango-Marathons as events that focus on the social dance without long interruptions by shows or concerts. The emphasis of the Encuentros of course is on a more traditional Tango in a close embrace - you may call it Tango Milonguero or Tango de Salon, whatever you prefer. These events are not as strictly defined as the Marathons: some of them may include workshops or short demos, others are „dancing-only“. But they do have several aspects in common:

- Traditional DJing: The focus is on social dancing to the best traditional orchestras, so excellent DJs present their classical choice of music. Orchestras are usually not invited, which also helps to keep the prices reasonable.
- Traditional setting: Milonguero events use Tandas and Cortinas and cultivate the invitation by Cabeceo & Mirada. The rules of the social dancefloor are stressed upon to guarantee a maximum of dance quality.
- Limitation in size: Encuentros or Festivalitos want to create an intimate and friendly atmosphere. Therefore not more than 100-250 dancers are admitted. In the last year, attempts were being made to balance the number of men and women, but so far, not all of organisers succeed in being strict about it.
- No non-stop-dancing: Although Encuentros are very intensive, usually sporting 4-6 Milongas during a weekend, they do not go on non-stop. Some might say, that the reason lies in the weaker stamina of the Milongueros, but actually this form of organisation derives from a particular philosophy: Apart from allowing time to socialise, chat and eat out of the dance context, a Milonga with a well defined beginning and ending gives the opportunity DJ to build up a personal dramaturgy during the evening. There will be a slow warm-up-phase, a climax, an ending-phase and of course the sweet „Ultima Tanda“ you will want to share with one dear person. In my opinion, this also contributes to a positive „group-feeling“ as everyone will participate in these special moments.
- Mixed crowd: Although traditional Tango is said to attract the „old ones“, the participants of these Festivalitos nowadays are very divers and a lot of young people attend, happily sharing embraces with each other and the more aged Milongueros.
- Internationality: Only very few years ago, all these events were frequented mainly by local dancers, but most of them have developed into international Festivals with visitors from all over Europe or even from the USA. As it must be the case amongst the „Marathonians“, international groups of friends have formed over the last two or three years - dancers who meet one month in Crema and the next in Dartington. Very often, contacts are maintained with the aid of Facebook.

Let me now present my first two Festivalitos of the year.

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

MONTECATINI TERME TANGO FESTIVALITO (April 1-3)

This Festivalito was organised by FrAnTango Buenos Aires - Francesca Bertelli (New York) and her husband Antonio Martinez (Buenos Aires), who are now living in lovely Tuscany. Their aim is to cultivate Tango Milonguero in a region, where you can still find a lot of Tango Fantasia - big moves for athletic dancers. In my opinion, the first edition with around 180 visitors at the main Milonga was a great success. Taking into consideration that Antonio & Francesca only moved to Italy last summer, this achievement is even more formidable. It helped of course, that Francesca was born in Montecatini Terme and was able to activate lots of old „amici“ in the administration of the city and the thermal baths.

Milongas:

There were four Milongas starting with an evening Milonga on Friday and ending with a Tango-Brunch on Sunday afternoon. Pre-booking was only needed for the Friday Milonga because of the limited space.

DJs:

All four DJs presented traditional music in Tandas and Cortinas with different orientations: Al Porteño (Italy) concentrates on very rhythmical arrangements for typical Milongueros, with a high percentage of early 30‘s music. Andreas Wichter (UK/Germany) prefers Tandas of the epoca d‘oro, also with a slight emphasis on the rhythmical stuff. Unfortunately I could not attend to Antonio Martinez‘ DJing debut in Italy at the afternoon Milonga. Myself, I alternate rhythmical and melodical Tandas as a principle and will never play less than two Tandas of Di Sarli per Milonga (plus Calo, Fresedo, Garcia...) thus creating a more romantic ambiance for the Despedida.

Classes/Demos:

We (Detlef & I) were asked to give three workshops and do a small demo, but there was still some time to enjoy the Festival as well. There was no other teacher couple and our workshops sold out quickly.

Extra activities:

There was a shoe sale (Francescas Tango Boutique), a dress sale (Pepitango) and a welcome dinner on Friday. And of course there was lots of time to visit the spas, the old village on the hill, eat an icecream in Montecatini Terme, even visit Florence or Lucca... The sun was shining all day and it was a perfect holiday - for those who did not work! ;-)

Locations:

The locations were chosen carefully and actually quite impressive. The Friday Milonga took place in a Restaurant/Theatre in picturesque Montecatini Alto. The Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon milongas were set in the a big hall of the Terme Tetuccio, that looks like Galadriels home in Lothlórien with it‘s tree-like wooden structures. Unfortunately, I did not attend the outdoors afternoon Milonga due to our classes. The floors were - as usually in Italy - tiles. Good enough to pivot, but quite hard of course.

You can find a video with some impressions here.

Crowd:

I was very much pleased to find a significant number of visitors from New York, France, Slovenia, Germany, the UK and Switzerland who mingled nicely with the local dancers, the majority of whom was from the Tuscan region. Unfortunately, some of the target audience did not show up because of a parallel event in northern Italy. I am sure, that next years event will attract more dancers from all over Italy as Antonio and Francesca grow a reputation as excellent hosts and real Milongueros.

Preview:

Francesca and Antonio are currently planning next years event which will have a similar formula on another date. We plan on going again, even if we will not be teaching! Let‘s keep our fingers crossed, that we do not have to work someplace else on the weekend.

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

YO SOY MILONGUERO - 3° Encuentro de Abrazos in Crema (April 23-25)

The third edition of YSM was also our third visit in Crema, a small town near Milano in northern Italy. Crema on Easter weekend - the traditional YSM date - is kind of sleepy and relaxed. There is one pedestrian street with a couple of shops and restaurants, a small park and not much other stuff going on. That‘s why you can concentrate perfectly on the dancing. Although the crowd has changed over the years (see below), there are still enough „repeaters“ to make it feel like coming home. For me, it‘s a great opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones.

Milongas:

There were five Milongas starting with an afternoon Milonga on Saturday and ending with an afternoon Milonga on Monday. Pre-booking was necessary for all Milongas and all were sold out weeks before the event.

DJs:

The choice of DJs was typical for YSM: Enrico il Mali (the host, an excellent DJ, who will soon be giving his debut in the UK), Al Porteño (see above), Celine Deveze (France), Philippe Gonella (France) and Paolo Persiani (Italy). I preferred Enrico, Philippe and Celine who manage to create a very nicely balanced ambiance with a lot of „emozione“.
Check out a video that was made during one of the afternoon Milongas.

Classes/Demos

None

Extra activities:

Mangiare! There were four common meals in different restaurants. Although I did not find the choice of food particularly interesting, I always enjoy his part as it makes an emphasis on the socialising. Eating, drinking and chatting with friends is a big part of the Encuentro in Crema!

Locations:

All Milongas took place in the Hotel Ponte del Rialto, where we had also booked our spacious rooms. This was very convenient and I like the bright ambiance, but I have to admit, that the space is not ideal. Apart from the inevitable tile floor, there is just not enough place to seat all visitors appropriately at tables. In the first two years, two other locations had been used for the festival, but they were not available/ big enough anymore. The caring organisers Anna Albini and Enrico Malinverni are thinking about changing the location, so let‘s wait and see...

Crowd:

Over the last three years, this Festival‘s population has changed a lot. It developed from a mostly local event with some French friends into an international Encuentro. The level of social dancing was high and I embraced some excellent dancers from all over Italy, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Romania. There were furthermore visitors from Switzerland, Austria and Spain. What more can you ask for?

Well... there was one thing: Enrico and Anna tried to equal the number of men and women but did not quite succeed. This did not bother me so much, as I do not have to dance non-stop and am quite picky as well, but some women were a little disappointed. I am confident, that next years event will be more evenly balanced.

Preview:

There will be a YSM4 on Easter 2012. And it‘s gonna be even better, I‘m sure. I certainly reserved the date in my calendar!

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

Well... that‘s it for the moment.

Next week, we will visit the first edition of the ABRAZOS - Encuentro Milonguero UK. I can already tell you, that the Milongas are sold out and most of the classes are full. We are expecting visitors from all over the UK and the continent. I‘m prepared for another great Festivalito for social dancers - although I will have to work a lot there...

Let's talk about sex!

2011-04-14T11:23:00.005+02:00

... or the lack of it in Tango.

Why? Because it‘s one of the most obvious and most avoided topics in our favourite pastime or profession. And because there seems to be a tiny spark of a psychologist in me after all. ;-)

We‘ve all made up our minds! Contrary to the image displayed in Tango shows, bad movies or in the heads the uninformed, Tango is not a sexual or erotic dance. It is sensual - at the utmost! How often have I explained this to Non-Tangueros, in order to avoid their pitying or lecherous glances and remarks! And even amongst Tangueros, people tend to make it very clear, that they‘ve got nothing to do with the antiquated notion of Tango as the most erotic dance in the world.

Let‘s have a look at some typical opinions and statements.

There are for example the ones who prefer to dance in an open or flexible embrace - often dancers of a younger generation. They focus on the possibilities of the movement and the music. I‘ve heard heard quite a few snide remarks coming from this group, like: „Dancing in a close embrace is for the old and unattractive ones. You know, those who do not find a partner in real life and use Tango as a replacement for sex or as a hunting ground. We do not need that.“

Huh....

Those who cherish the close embrace might answer: „These young ones! They‘re afraid of real relationships and nearness. They hide behind complex movements in order to avoid intimacy. We experience a real connection, but will of course not try to exploit it. It will only last for a Tanda and then it‘s over! We would never, ever... We‘re sophisticated and spiritual beings, not Salseros, who only dance in order to pick up a man/woman. We do not need that.“

So, what all these people want to tell us, is that they will not use Tango to make sexual or romantic advances to another person. Everyone who dances in a close embrace with someone he/she finds attractive will know, that this is not the whole truth and that the dance itself can become very sexy. But if you restrict this activity to a set of four Tangos and restrain yourself from taking it any further, this will definitively have consequences.

Because, if you take into account that:

- a lot of Tangueros are singles,
- Tango is their major or only pastime - the only place where they could find a partner,
- and that they spend most of their nights dancing, coming home exhausted physically and mentally...
... the question imposes upon one: Are those people ever going to find a partner for life or the night? They must all be celibate!

And let‘s have a look at those, who do have a steady relationship: They will not show their affection during a Milonga out of fear of not being invited by someone else, they will spend lots of communicative energy to embrace strangers all night, they come home late and exhausted... How much energy will they have left to connect to their partner, in whatever way?

So what, Tangueros in general don‘t have sex and Tango is their substitute for it?

At first glance, scientific research seems to back up this idea. In the context of my psychological thesis („Sex-roles in Argentine Tango“ - now please think Sandra Bem and not Naughty Nurses) - I interviewed 170 German Tango dancers. The majority of them (100 persons) were single. Now, this was in 2001 to 2003 and I‘d probably develop a totally different questionnaire nowadays - but nevertheless some of the results are interesting:
68,3 % of the respondents associate Tango with passion and erotics.
80,5 % of the respondents see Tango as an opportunity to experience physical nearness to other people.
56,7 % of the respondents see Tango as an opportunity to be near to a man/woman in a non-committing way.
But only 14,2 % of them comprehend Tango as an opportunity to find a partner.

So again: people make connections, rather important ones to opposite-sex partners in Tango, but they will not take it any further and go home solo. But why is that so?

There are several explanations, that I‘ve heard over the years:
- Most Tangueros have relational issues or are just too shy.
- They are afraid of loosing a particular person as a dance partner.
- They are afraid of endangering their standing as a Tanguero by getting a reputation as a slut or a womaniser.
- Tango itself is a sanctuary. You do not desecrate it by profane actions.

Well... I don‘t know.... I don‘t believe in all of that. Not even in the results of my studies. When I look around, I see many people finding partners for life or having love affairs in Tango. Very often, they just don‘t tell, which is a little strange for me, because I used to move in circles, where people talked openly about their sexuality or at least did not try to repress this primal need. But if you take Tango seriously, sex seems to be a taboo.

And now I come to the point, where I want to introduce Argentina as a „good“ example, because there, Tango is a normal part of everyday life. People go there to have fun with their spouses, they bring their family, eat, chat and yes, use the environment to find a partner for the night or for life. Sure, they will abide to rules of discretion, if they still want to dance with other people, so they won‘t leave the Milonga with their lover or sit with a partner - but apart from that, it‘s no secret, that Milongueros and Milongueras use the Milongas as a „hunting ground“. And why should they not?

We‘re all confident grown-ups and if we don‘t want to accept a polite invitation, we just say no, don‘t we?

(Note for the over-zealous: This is not a post to encourage transgressive behaviour in the dance or "sexy" Milongas. I‘m discussing an interesting phenomenon from an analytic perspective and making a small leap into the question of a „natural“ attitude towards Tango. That's all!)

Post inbetween posts 6 - End of pause

2011-04-14T09:42:00.000+02:00

I've been inactive for a couple of weeks. Due to work, studying, sewing, running and a lot of other activities I did not find the time to post on my blog.
I was also lacking the inspiration for a meaningful article. I know, that some bloggers use it as a kind of journal where they note random thoughts or scraps of ideas, things they find on the net... That's very fine, but I do that on Facebook already and wanna keep the blog for longer posts.
But do not worry: I'm back and my next post will surely lead to another lively discussion.
It's about sex.

Tango Friends

2011-03-23T10:54:00.003+01:00

Last weekend, I've been teaching in Amsterdam. As we‘ve been there a couple of times, we know quite some people and places. It feels good to come to a town, where you‘ve already made friends.

But it‘s sad to say good-bye.

You might know what I‘m talking of, even if you are no travelling teacher: The Tango community has grown into a fast-paced, international crowd. People are travelling to Buenos Aires, Berlin and Rome to visit Milongas, Marathons or Festivals, either as teachers or as consumers/students. And isn‘t it great to make so many friends everywhere? Tango allows us to get to know another person quite intimately in a very short time. The embrace, the sweat, the all night dancing, sharing breakfast in the mornings and yes, all the time we spend in classes, trying to explore a new world. Tango is a challenging dance: it demands that we bring in our whole personality, our body, our soul. You give a lot and you receive a lot. No wonder, that Tangueros get addicted to that kind of nomad life!

But are we really making friends?

Do we not meet in a kind of bubble, where everything evolves about Tango and where huge parts of our life are blanked? Do you know the name of person you just greeted so enthusiastically? Do you know, if your dance-partner has got siblings, a wife, a husband? Do you know her job and do you know her plans for the future? Do you know, if he sleeps well at night or if he‘s suffering from a disease? Most likely not. Because all we talk about is Tango. We meet, we dance, we chat... and we leave again.

Two weeks ago, I heard of the death of a dancer, that I used to meet regularly a couple of years ago. We spend quite some time together but then I stopped going to the Milongas that she frequented. And I forgot about her. Until I got the message of her passing away.

Is this an exception? What about yourself? Will your Tango friends remember you, when you stop going to Milongas, because you‘re ill or old or just fed up. Won‘t most of them forget you? When I am going to stop teaching and dancing, people will talk about this for a couple of weeks. Some of them will regret it deeply, I‘m sure. But soon they‘ll forget, because there are so many new people, faces, impressions. It‘s overwhelming.

Sure... you do not forget everyone. There are the ones, that you get to know a little better. Maybe you even talk about non-Tango-stuff, get a glimpse into real-life. And you really like that person. You feel that you‘re making a friend. But very soon, you will have to go back to your hometown or to the next gig. If you‘re lucky, you will meet again in a couple of months or next year. And you will start all over again with the getting-to-know process. People change and you cannot keep up with these changes by checking the news on Facebook.

And what about your non-tango friends at home? How often do you meet them? You‘re most likely taking classes or going to Milongas during the week and on the weekends there‘s the Festivals... I‘ve heard so many Tangueros complain about the fact, that they‘ve lost most of their „other“ friends“. And that the „friendships“ in Tango remain superficial.

Building a friendship takes time and maintaining it as well. Do we still have that time?

I try my best. I meet my non-tango friends as often as possible. I try to stay in touch with people, whom I get to know and like during my travels. I try to get to know them better, whilst I‘m with them. But there‘s never enough time before I have to leave again.

I try. But there‘s too many good-byes!

Post inbetween posts 5 - Sin Tango

2011-03-11T08:46:00.004+01:00

So... I'm a couple of weeks into studying and as some of you may know, I took a month off from my Tango work. No teaching or dancing since mid February, so that I can concentrate on the studies. Kind of an intensive kick-off phase. That worked out nicely for me, although there is still a lot of Tango-organising and planning to do. That's why I'm never really Tango-free. ;-)

Do I miss dancing or teaching? No. There's too much other things to do, to read and to think. And as I know that I'll be travelling for the rest of the year without pause, I rather cherish the time at home. It's nice. And I'll be refreshed and newly motivated for work.

But, there's a problem: I've got nothing new to write about. Not about Tango anyway. My thoughts are evolving about the definition of modernity in history and literature, about the difference of historicism and historic social sciences, about the long 19th century, the industrial revolution and about Mr. Marx. My head is spinning and I cannot imagine how I can my thoughts in order to pass the exam. I am kinda scared.

Sometimes, I really ask myself: Why am I doing this? I do not need another qualification, I do not need another academic title... I am doing it for the sheer pleasure of learning and yet I am condemming myself to years of studying in my rare free time. That's no fun anymore. I must be crazy. Ok. I can live with that.

But do not dispair: I'll be back in the Tango world from next weekend on and there'll be much more to write about...

No rest for the wicked!

Post inbetween posts 4 - I'm not a cheerful blogger

2011-02-26T15:25:00.005+01:00

Since I've started this blogging business, I‘ve visited lots of other blogs. Most of the Tangueros write about music or famous Maestros, share their lovely experiences or review the Milongas, that they have visited. I‘ve read so many great stories, that make me feel like Ebenezer Scrooge, always nagging ... I‘m really sorry.

But: That‘s just me. I‘m not the cheerful, romantic person who gets all googly eyed, when seeing a new dancer enter the room and compliments him on his super technique. I‘m the gal who complains about that same guy showing off on the dance floor.

Believe me, I‘ve had lots of wonderful experiences in Tango, at Milongas, during classes, in the exchange with friends. If not, I would not keep on doing it. But I will most likely not write about these moments of bliss. There are enough people who do that.

I want to go on writing about the stuff, that many do not care to express. Sometimes, this may be provocative, contradictory to other people's opinion and not "tango-politically correct". I know that there are quite a few, who share my opinions, but don't dare to make a statement, because they are scared of "loosing contracts" or making enemies. I‘m not and I believe that talking about all aspects of a phenomenon - also the negative ones - leads to development!

I nevertheless do stay polite and try not to insult other people's feelings.

And this is what I ask from people who comment on my blog as well. I do accept critique and lively discussions with Tangueros, who do not share my opinion, as you can very well see in the commentaries. But now people start threatening or insulting me anonymously or by using pseudonyms. I can cope with them personally, but I do not have to give them a voice on my blog. This is why, from now on, commentaries will be moderated. This is not an open forum, but my private blog. Do not hesitate to comment though. Usually I read the blog once per day and if you do stick to the rules of polite conversation, I will of course post you commentary.

Everyone else, readers and commentators, I thank with all my heart for taking the time to read my blog.

A love story: Melina and the Vampires

2011-02-20T14:49:00.004+01:00

It began in the dawn of time. I must have been seven years old and we had just recently moved to Germany. It was night-time and I was cuddled up on the sofa sitting next to my mother. This is when I met him for the first time: Dracula!

He presented himself in the form of Christopher Lee playing in an old Hammer movie. One of the countless films about the infamous count from Transsilvania: Dracula, Dracula - Prince of darkness, Dracula has risen from the grave, Taste the blood of Dracula... I‘ve seen and loved them all. The movies did not tell us much about the count himself, where he came from, his motives, how he felt. And he did not talk a lot: he would just look at his victim, commanding it to come nearer, open his arms beneath the black cape and encompass them in his deadly embrace. He was a monster in the body of a man. And yes, I was scared. A little. But I knew, that nothing bad would happen, if I pulled my blanked up over my neck. And if he came... well... maybe this would not be so bad after all. He was kinda good-looking, wasn‘t he?

This is when it began, my life-long love-story with Vampires.

I emerged myself in it, watching the Hammer-movies on TV, discovering the south american interpretations of Dracula, the silent-movies with Bela Lugosi and of course the source of it all, the novel by Bram Stoker.

Written in 1897, it was the first of it‘s kind. Earlier Vampire stories (Le Fanu‘s „Camilla“, Polidori‘s „The Vampyre“) had been mostly targeted to the intellectual and romantic elite. They had created an interest in the drinkers of blood, but their Vampires remained somehow ghostlike, diffuse creatures. Stoker made a man out of the spectre and his book was a worldwide success. It contained everything that you expect of a good novel: sex, action and mystery. Dracula himself is the predator, the monster with hairy hands and a hawk-like nose, who is feared and killed in the end. Very much, what the Hammer-movies had try to convey with their rather simple means. It was an adventure book and I adored it. I must have ready it dozens of times.

This I why I was perfectly equipped to write my own book about Vampires. Not a novel of course. My analytic mind asked for a scientific challenge. So, in 1978 (being ten-and-two years old) I spend numerous hours researching the evil creatures with the aid of Bram Stoker‘s work, other stories, films, magazine articles, history books and much more. The result was kind of manual, listing all the important facts: how Vampires are created, how to repel them, how to kill them, the story of Dracula, the historic figure and a section that I called „The abuse of Vampire“, dealing with Vampires as subjects of jokes in magazines. Yep. I was really serious about it.

And serious it remained, because in the following years, my attention shifted to the more ambitious manifestations of Vampire movies: Murnau‘s „Nosferatu“, Herzog‘s „Nosferatu“ with the glorious Klaus Kinski, Andy Warhol‘s Dracula... Obviously, the monster had become a symbol for all kinds of repressed feelings, fear of the unknown, the monster inside, passion. Art had discovered the Vampire and I was feeling very intellectual.

This came to a sudden end, when Francis Ford Coppola presented his new movie in 1992: Bram Stoker‘s Dracula. Yes! Here he was again, but totally changed. Coppola‘s interpretation transformed the speechless monster and intellectual symbol into a romantic hero. A loving creature that turns to the dark side as a result of a great loss, of being forsaken by god. Yes, he kills, yes, he‘s a ghastly monster, but we could all understand why. And we suffered with him every minute up until his salvation and Christ-like ascension.

Anne Rice‘s Vampire novels had been written earlier, but I discovered them around the same time as the Coppola movie, in the early 90‘s. They were expressing a similar picture of Vampires: tortured creatures with feelings and emotions, killing, hunting, but suffering because of it. Asking the eternal questions: Why am I that way? What is my destiny?

Well... the destiny of this new Vampire was definitely to be transferred into my most important pastime. A few years earlier I had started to do role-playing games, by then concentrating on fantasy and medieval settings. In 1991 the storyteller-based game "Vampire - The Masquerade" was published by White Wolf. And guess who play-tested the game at the authors place even before it was published officially? I will not name him, but he‘s a Tango teacher as well... ;-)

My friends and me started playing the game in the original modern setting: Vampires living in our modern world, somehow connected to it, but forming a secret society. These Vampires where very much influenced by the Rice novels when it came to their suffering souls. Their torment was resulting from an ancient curse that god had called upon the first Vampire, Cain. It was supposed to be a mythological game. But, let‘s face it, it was also about playing a super-hero. Vampires had all these exciting skills: they could change into wolves and bats, had night-vision, where very strong, could read minds and mind-control ordinary people. So it was no surprise, that it many cases it transformed into an action-based game, the Vampires being just another way to live out juvenile fantasies of power.

I found this rather boring, not being juvenile any more, so in January 1994 I started my own Vampire game: set in the early 19th century, the story is based in Venice. La Serenissima suffering from the napoleonic conquest and being finally reduced to a austrian province. A sinking and degrading city, living in the memories of a great past. This is where my Vampires are living in an equally decomposing society, clinging to former fame and archaic ideals. It is about mythology and history. It‘s about Europe on the brink of modern times, about mankind adapting to a new era. The main-characters of this play being immortal allows us to encompass a longer period in history. An we‘re still playing. After 17 years, our group has now arrived in the game-year of 1908. It‘s getting hard to meet, with my crazy schedule and because of the fact, that one of our players moved to England and has to travel all the way to Germany... But we‘re holding up and looking forward to our 20th anniversary in 2014.

(This role-playing game was b.t.w. the reason that I re-discovered my love for history and now I‘m preparing to do my Master in „Modern European History and Literature“, dealing mostly with the 19th century.)

In 2006, Vampires invaded another part of my life: TV series. It‘s Lynn‘s fault. Or Andreas‘? I forgot. When I first discovered „Buffy, the Vampire slayer“ (first aired in 1997) and it‘s spin-off „Angel“, I was very sceptical: what good could come from a series named after a 15-year-old girl called Buffy? But I was surprised by the wit, style and depth of the series, becoming a real fan, watching it over and over again... It somehow depicted every aspect of Vampires: the monster, the symbol, the suffering lover, the super-hero. I have to admit, it‘s about growing up and I‘m kinda old, but what the hell: It‘s great entertainment! And it prepared me for my latest passion: The series „True Blood“ after the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Much darker, much more sex, much more grown-up than Buffy. Great music too....

And this is how finally Vampires crept into Tango as well: for our last Tangokombinat Christmas-CD, we chose the True-Bood-theme as a Cortina: „I wanna do bad things to you.“

Yes... that‘s it for the moment. Next week, we are gonna meet again for our Vampire-roleplaying-game. I still have to prepare for it and I am sure, that it will take over a lot of time, when I should be preparing for my exam. But what can I do? I‘m in love.

* Go on now, my fellow psychologists: Interpret and analyse my passion for this genre. Just don‘t do it on my blog.

The eternal question: Salon or Milonguero?

2011-02-16T00:53:00.015+01:00

We‘ve just returned from Italy. Been in Modena, Spinea and La Serenissima Venezia. Great places. Nice Milongas with warm embraces, welcoming friends and marvellous food. Italy is definitely one of my all-time favourite countries.

There was just one tiny little detail that bugged me. It‘s about labels.

We arrived by plane and were picked up by the owner of a Tango club, that was going to host us for a few classes and a demo. He did not know us very well, as the deal was brokered by one of the local teachers. So, whilst driving, we were making some basic conversation. And there it was again.

The inevitable remark: So, you are dancing Tango Milonguero?

We: We are dancing Tango de Salon.

He: But Tango de Salon is danced more open with big steps. You dance close with simple movements, yes?

We: hum.... yes. Not necessarily. And we...

He: So you dance Tango Milonguero.

We: No... but... yes, ok...

Given our poor Italian, his rather sketchy English and our level of fatigue, we complied. But this is, what I would have wanted to explain:

When I re-started dancing Tango in 2000, I learned, that there are basically three kinds of Tango:

1. Tango Escenario, as it is danced on stage and sometimes - inappropriately - in Milongas. It is danced by bailarines, usually people with a classical training and the wannabe performers.

2. Tango de Salon, as it is danced in the Milongas of Buenos Aires and all around the globe at social events. It is danced by Milongueros and Milongueras - people who visit Milongas on a regular basis.

3. Tango Nuevo, that had just recently been invented and aspired to be a method of analysing movements and inventing new ones. It is used by social dancers and performers alike.
(So originally, these three terms are not describing specific styles. They were used as umbrella terms, referring to the different approaches to Tango and the different contexts in which Tango is danced.)

Luckily, our local teacher had a strong bond to the traditional Milongas in Buenos Aires and invited all kinds of Milongueros to cultivate social Tango. And all of them danced their personal interpretation of Tango de Salon, allowing for many kinds of embraces, from very close to a half open V-form. Some of them danced complex movements with real pivots and even ganchos, some just walked to the music. Some analysed, some showed steps. Some even showed choreographed performances. Tete danced Tango de Salon as well as El Indio or Hernan Obispo. They told us about Tango orillero, Tango del centro, Tango liso, Tango apilado, Tango Villa Urquiza, Tango Milonguero.... sub-styles of the Tango de Salon with one common idea: to move on the dancefloor with other couples, to embrace the partner and the music. To dance socially.

So, when Detlef and I started teaching, our objective was not to promote a specific style, but social Tango as such - Tango de Salon. We chose it as our heraldic motto, our slogan. And it worked very nicely. Until we travelled to farther regions and met labelling issues.

In France, Tango de Salon was standing for ballroom Tango - le Tango des danses de salon. Bummer. So we had to explain our use of the word. That was hard enough.

And when we started reaching out into countries and regions, a new problem presented itself:

Susanna Miller, who took up working in the USA and Europe in the 90‘s, found the pre-dominant style to be a hybrid of social Tango and Tango escenario which was unfortunately called Tango de Salon. It was a result of many years of instruction by stage dancers and very different from the social Tango in Buenos Aires. And although she had been announcing to teach „Tango de Salon“ in „El Tangauta“, she now had to distinguish her authentic style from the Salon-hybrid. So she called it „Tango Milonguero“. She focussed on a limited set of simple movements with small steps, appropriate for a crowded Milonga and a close embrace. Mrs. Miller taught (as every teacher does) her personal technique and style, apparently requiring the women to lean slightly onto the men, not allowing for pivots or larger dissociation. That‘s all very fine and brought a lot of people to the Tango of the Milongueros, the Tango de Salon.

Our problem is: Mrs. Millers sub-style „Tango Milonguero“ became a synonym for social Tango in a close embrace. This label was established notably in the USA, Italy, the Netherlands and other countries, where she (or her students) were teaching more frequently. Nowadays, every person, who dances Tango in a close embrace with relatively simple movements dances Tango Milonguero. So, according to a lot of people, we dance Tango Milonguero as well.

No, no, no!

We have had one lesson with the Milonguero ambassador, that did not influence our dance. We want to stand in our own axis. We use real pivots when we feel up to it. Our step-size varies according to the music, the mood and the space. We break down the sacred Ocho-Cortado and whoever has taken a lesson with us will find, that we‘ve adopted a rather „nuevo“ method of analysis, deconstruction and communication. Ok, we don‘t do ganchos, voleos or other „showy“ stuff. The longer we teach, the more we focus on the basis of the Tango, the walking, the music, the embrace. We dance simple. But we do not dance „Tango Milonguero“.

And in the meanwhile, a new annoying process of labelling took place.

The Campeonatos Mundiales in Buenos Aires have brought attention to another sub-style of Tango de Salon. Teachers like Jorge Dispari or Rosa & Carlos Perez and their numerous followers stand for a Tango that focusses on elegance, a well defined set of steps with a distinct musicality and turns in a half open embrace. After an an astonishing process of standardisation the „Estilo Villa Urquiza“ now claims to be the one and only Tango de Salon. Another pars pro toto.

We had one lesson with the Villa Urquiza teacher, who does not want to be named (see comments). From his point of view, we were dancing Tango Milonguero as well. He told us, that we would be dancing Tango de Salon, if we danced like him. But unfortunately, we do not agree with the majority of his technical or philosophical principles. We do not want to lead with the arms, we do not want to open the embrace for turns and we do not want to make the woman look like a goddess. We want her to feel like in heaven.

So, let‘s summarise: Many Miller-Milongueros and the Villa-Urquiza-Salon-dancers label our dance „Estilo Milonguero“. Some will find that our pedagogy makes us rather „nuevo“. Fine. Call us whatever you like. Why not label it „Estilo D&M“. ;-)

We still dance Tango de Salon. Social Tango.

Great embraces: Festivalitos for Milongueros

2011-02-01T17:05:00.011+01:00

As a short follow-up to my previous post, I would like to add a small list of Tango events for Milongueros who cherish dancing in a close embrace to traditional music.
There may be many more Festivals like these. But I just want to share those, that I have visited personally and that I can vouch for. I assure you, that the quality of embraces will be equal to those at the best traditional Milongas in Buenos Aires. These are the places, to where me and my friends from all over Europe go dancing just for fun - if we are not teaching there or organising the event. ;-)
Looking forward to meeting you at these occasions in 2011:

Montecatini Terme Tango Festivalito, Montecatini Terme, Italy, April 1-3 (read review)
Yo soy Milonguero, Crema, Italy, April 23-25 (read review)
Abrazos - Encuentro Milonguero UK, Devon, United Kingdom, Mai 6-8 (read review)
Les Cigales, Carpentras, France, June 2-5 (read review by Ms. Hedgehog)
Tango Guinguette, Caromb, France, July 16-24
Raduno Rural, Slovenia, July 14-17 (read review by Ms. Hedhehog)
Tango del Mar - Encuentro de Abrazos, Constanta, Rumania, August 26-26 (read review)
Encuentro Milonguero, Kehl, Germany, September 8-11
Festivalito Rural, Celje, Slovenia, September 16-18 (read review)
Festivalito con Amigos, Saarbruecken, Germany, October 14-16
Raduno Milonguero, Impruneta, Italy, around November 1
Ferrara Tango Festival, Ferrrara, Italy, November 11-13
Abrazame, Barcelona, Spain, December, 2-4

More infos on the concept of Festivalitos and Encuentros: here.

You will find the dates for 2012 on the websites of the organizers. Just follow the links!

Self reflection

2011-01-27T01:28:00.004+01:00

Two weeks ago, I had a short discussion with a colleague. He used to be a very famous Tango performer and is now teaching mainly in Germany. He was quite surprised when I told him, that I do not perceive myself as an artist.

Of course not! An artist creates something unique in order to present a thought, an idea or a feeling to an audience. A Tango artist may dance a choreography or at least improvise for an audience, driven by this artistic motivation. I don‘t do that. Of course Detlef and I do demos and have a distinctive style of movement and musical expression. And we may even create something new whilst dancing. But every social dancers does it, when he or she really improvises. When we do a demo, we just want to show people, how social Tango can look like and what they can expect to learn from us. That‘s not the motivation of an artist.

I am not even a dancer. Why? Although I‘ve danced all my life, I never aspired to do this professionally. I do not own a dance diploma and I do not earn my living by dancing or doing performances. Most of my time, I spend at the computer, organising, planning and reflecting classes or writing about Tango. I spend a lot of time sitting in cars, train and airplanes and of course several hours per week teaching Tango. I spend much less time actually dancing Tango. Those who have read my previous posts, may have figured that out already and know the numerous reasons why. To call myself a dancer would be presumptuous.

So. I am a Tango teacher, an organiser, a manager, a blog author and a Tango DJ. I used to be a psychologist, a social worker and a politician. Hopefully, I will be a historian, one day. That is, If I ever get to preparing for my exams... ;-)

But I am no artist and I am no dancer.

I dance Tango, because I love it. Just for the fun of it.

Tango cosmopolites - or not?

2011-01-24T11:50:00.015+01:00

Tango is an international phenomenon. Nowadays, you can find Tango all over the world, from South Africa to Finland, from California to Japan. If you want to dance nicely, you don‘t have to travel to Argentina - you find great Milongas & Festivals everywhere. You will meet people, dancing to traditional music, respecting the codes of the Milonga and having developed a great new Tango combining the close embrace of the elders with the gift of real improvisation, deriving from the innovators. Tango is a product of an international exchange, that started around 1900 and that is still happening all over the world.
I even want to go further and postulate, that in order to understand modern Tango, it is not enough to stay in your hometown and save all your money for the important trip to Buenos Aires. No, to really get Tango, you have to embrace the world!

So, experiencing an international process of evolution, I‘m always surprised to encounter national narrow-mindedness on the one hand and over-glorification of all that‘s argentine on the other hand.

Here I am again, breaking a tabu. Tangueros are supposed to worship the Argentinean gods, but I don‘t.

But what can I do? I was born in England and mostly grew up in Germany as the daughter of a German mother and a Spanish father. We spoke German, Spanish and - even more important - English. Lots of our friends were Americans, because my parents worked as travel agents for the american military and their families. As a child, I travelled a lot and got to know different cultures and people and I learned several other languages. Today, I study European history and literature. I perceive myself as an international creature and am therefore very sensitive to shows of national superiority, wherever they manifest.

In my first years of dancing Tango, I heard a lot of great stories about Buenos Aires. Although I‘m not easily impressionable, I was spellbound by the anecdotes of my German teacher, depicting all the phenomenal dancers, shiny Milongas and larger-than-life demos. In 2004 (I was teaching Tango since 2001), Detlef and me set out for our first trip to Buenos Aires. We visited the usual Milongas, danced with the porteños, where invited to do our first demo at the Confiteria Ideal... all very nice. But: I was definitely not overwhelmed. Apart from noticing a big concentration of top dancers, the average dance-level* at the Milongas was usually not very impressive and very often, the foreigners even raised the bar. I have to admit, that in 2004, many argentine dancers knew the music better and were more accustomed to navigate on a crowded dance floor. Do not misinterpret me here: I love dancing in Buenos Aires: They‘ve got the tradition and it‘s great, to experience the special ambiance of an original Milonga. But still: My favourite partner was an Italian.

And there they were: all those guys who tried to impress me with their grasp and wanted to sell private classes to the gullible tourist. And this was just a side-phenomenon of a greater notion: the idea that, no matter how little he knows, an argentine will understand Tango better than all those foreigners. And although nowadays many argentines acknowledge the broad understanding and high development of non-argentine dancers, the myth of the super-human Maestro still lingers.

No matter that a lot of the European or North American dancers developed a inferiority complex, manifesting in the most ridiculous ways: teachers making up false Spanish names and identities, students worshipping their Maestros and willing to pay 300€ for a private class, people plastering their walls with panoramas of the Iguazu falls and trying to drop Spanish words into every conversation to show: I‘m one of you!

Listen up: You‘ll never be an argentine, unless you give up your original nationality and move to Buenos Aires for good. And even then... But that‘s actually not important! To become a good Tango dancer, you don‘t have to ape argentineans. You have to dance and study Tango, wherever you find it and with whoever you think can teach you best, no matter which nationality he or she has.

Now this may read as If I were envying the argentine teachers their success, but if you look at our schedule, you‘ll see, that I‘ve got no reason to do so. And I can definitely live with the fact, that some organisers will never invite me to one of their glamour festivals, because I‘m German and my partner is too. Other sensible people will. ;-)

The Germans! They are the boldest admirers of foreign cultures and lots of them speak several languages, one of them usually being English. Many get real enthusiastic and I already have to endure the tendency to glorify Argentina ... But now a reverse-problem seems to manifest.

It‘s about language. I‘m used to French or Spanish people complaining, when you do not use their national idiom. Few of them they speak other languages, so I try my best. But I will use English as my default-language when teaching in other foreign countries, I use it on Facebook, on Youtube and I blog in English. Our Tangokombinat-site is now purely English, as our events attract an international crowd. Sometimes I even send an e-mail to our mailing list purely in English, when I do not have the time to translate it in French and German as well.

And now the Germans are complaining! Since about two years, several German Tangueros annoy me with comments on our Youtube videos, mails or now even on my blog. These are people who complain that I do not use German as my official language. What? German chauvinism in the Tango community? That‘s really more than I am willing to stand.

As I said: Tango is international. Get used to it!

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By the way 1: I wrote a paper on "Tango as a product of international exchange" for my history studies. It's unfortunately in German, so it does not make sense to publish it here. Sorry.
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By the way 2: English native speakers are of course very lucky. Their language has developed into THE international idiom. Fine... That does not mean, that learning other languages does not make any sense for you. He? ;-)
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* As an explanation and response to several comments: when talking of "dance-level", I do not refer only to technique or complexity. A high level in dancing especially manifests in a nice embrace and rich musicality: the "feeling".
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BEFORE you write a commentary on my text and start raving about bad Melina denouncing Argentine culture, please read again. I am NOT advising people against dancing in Buenos Aires and learning with the argentine teachers. I am just speaking out against over-glorification and thoughtless imitation. Get it?
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Walking through mud and dancing on a volcano!

2011-01-18T19:27:00.002+01:00

You may have noticed, that I'm rather the critical type. I usually write about the things worth complaining in Tango. But there's also lots of good stuff and on Friday, I've experienced another great example of Tango solidarity and commitment.

We were on our way to a local Milonga in Wiesbaden (Milonga Orillera) and actually happy about the rising temperatures of the last few days. When approaching the site, a sign appeared, telling us, that the way to the Milonga was flooded and that we had to take a detour by food to access the place. Obviously, the waters of the Main had also risen! I have to admit, that I would have turned around and gone to a restaurant, had we not agreed to meet our host of this weekend's workshops at the Milonga.

Although I really appreciated it, that Michael of the organising team lead the way by bike through the deserted area, I was rather annoyed. I grumbled along the muddy riverside way, trying to keep my feet dry. We really did not expect more than a dozen dancers.

I was surprised to find a full-blown Milonga with around 80 Tangueros crowding the dance floor. The atmosphere was warm and every guest was greeted like a long-missed friend having made the effort to come! All knew, that we might be stuck there, as the waters were still rising and our way back might be obstructed my the flood as well. It was like dancing on a volcano and we stayed until the end, ignoring the pending doom!

And we had been right: on our way back, the waters were knee-high. But the organisers had provided for help. After their self-constructed catwalk had collapsed, they arranged for a shuttle service: one of them was driving the visitors with his mini-van through the waters, risking to be stuck in the mud.

So, thanks to great organisation and kindness, we arrived in dry territory without wetting our feet.

Well... almost... As I mistook a shining surface of water with asphalt, I managed to drain my boots. That's so me!

It's a job - for god's sake!

2011-01-17T13:20:00.015+01:00

Teaching Tango is a great thing to do.

You get to know a lot of people, make friends, explore an interesting culture and you receive a lot of positive feedback and self-affirmation. Enough reasons for quite a few to give up better paid and secure jobs. It‘s about following a dream. And those who manage to make a living out of it are perceived as particularly blessed. We few, we happy few!

Yep.

But the job is not without disadvantages and what I want to focus on, is a specific characteristic of occupations in the recreational field or the arts. I am referring to the fact that teaching Tango, as a result of it‘s merits and because of the friendly relations you make, is widely not perceived as a real profession. Very often this results in unprofessional behaviour by teachers, organisers and consumers.

Already within the first months of dancing Tango, I was surprised by the amount of unprofessional comportment on the side of the teachers, some of them obviously some kind of stars: coming too late to class, not being prepared, fighting in front of the students, insulting customers... You all know, what I‘m talking about.

So when I started teaching and organising events, I wanted to do better. But although I was behaving correctly, my job was not taken seriously by all of my customers. The participants of our regular courses e.g., did not understand, why I might be tired after class and wanted to go home, instead of spending the rest of the evening (and most of my earned money) in a restaurant. Some of them, even made me feel bad about taking money. And I still remember them wishing us a „happy holiday“ when we were about to start our first tour to the USA. What? Running to catch a Metro in New York after hours of privates to get to a pre-Milonga class without having had dinner is definitely no holiday!

And during all those years, I unfortunately also met a lot of organisers (private persons, Tango clubs or Tango schools) who have shown their share of unprofessional conduct: overbooking classes, not doing proper announcements, letting people wait for a Milonga ...

As always, I polarise and let‘s not forget all those great people, who are doing a great job. But still...

There are far too many out there, who do not understand the following: The moment, money is exchanged for a service, you are dealing with a professional situation and you have to behave according to it.

And because I‘m obsessively correct, I decided to compose a list of „do‘s and don‘ts in Tango-teaching business“. An incomplete handbook. Ein kleiner Leitfaden. It is adressed to teachers (both travelling and local), organisers and students.

TEACHERS

People pay money, so that you help them to learn Tango or inspire them with a show. You are an employee or at least a person who renders a service. You are entitled to a fair payment and correct behaviour on the side of the organisers and students and to whatever additional compensation that your contract with the organiser agrees on.

Do‘s & don‘ts:

Be clear in your communication with organisers. Respond to their mails or calls and give them whatever information they need to prepare the event. If possible, provide a pre-written contract or at least a paper with your conditions. Prepare an invoice.
Prepare instruction thoroughly. Knowing a step is not sufficient. You have to know how to structure a class, to initiate exercises and to be able to explain whatever is necessary to understand your concepts and ideas. It‘s called pedagogy. You can study it at universities, in case you are not yet properly equipped for the job.
If possible and necessary, learn languages to communicate with your customers. Nobody will expect you to speak French, if you go there for one Festival only. But if you are invited repeatedly, you may want to learn a few terms in order to facilitate your instruction.
Be punctual.
Do not drink or take drugs before or during classes or Milongas. It‘s likewise not cool to come to class with a hangover from yesterday‘s night out!
Be polite to your customers and employers.
During classes, give personal feedback and help to students. It is not enough, to show a step and then sit back to drink Mate.
Do not bring your children to a gig, definitely not to class. They will distract you.
If you teach social Tango, behave socially at a Milonga: It is not cool to sit and dance only with your colleagues or buddies. Do not think, that you're too good for the civilians. If you have to, please refuse invitations to dance or to communicate in a polite way.
Being at a Milonga is part of your job to promote Tango culture. This is why it is likewise arrogant, to show up 5 minutes before the demo and go directly after it‘s done, if you do not have a real good excuse. (I‘m not talking about a longer Festival here. Nobody can expect that you participate at every Milonga in this special case.)
Prepare the music for your demo and co-ordinate early enough with the DJ, so that he/she can plan accordingly.
Having fun at a Milonga is one of the perks of your job, but do not overdo it. It‘s possibly not a good idea to stay until the end of an all-nighter, if your next class starts early the next day. You‘ve got a job to do!

ORGANISERS

People give you money, so that you hire teachers or organise Milongas and Festivals. You are an employer or at least an agent. You are entitled to a service as described in your contract with the teacher/artist and a complete payment by the final customers.

Do‘s & don‘ts:

Be clear in your communication with the teachers and students. Respond to their mails or calls and give them whatever information they need to prepare for the event. Post complete info on the net with whatever details might be relevant.
Announce your events in due time. A good and early publicity is the pre-requisite for a successful workshop, festival or Milonga. Half empty classes are bad for your budget and for the general morale!
Do not overbook classes and try to keep class sizes reasonably. Every student above 12 couples will minimise the teaching quality, as it does not allow for enough time to correct each student individually.
Be punctual and organise enough helpers, if needed.
Do not forget to arrange breaks in the class schedule.
Provide correct lodgings for the teachers. They will need a bedroom with enough space to store their clothes and an appropriate bed or beds. A private bathroom is good and lodging the teachers in a hotel is even better. Tango teachers are sociable people, but many of them travel the entire year and will need some privacy.
Provide food and drinks according to the needs and tastes of the teachers. They will work hard, so they need proper nurturing.
Lots of Tango teachers travel all year. They will most likely not have the time and energy to do sight seeing. If you nevertheless suggest it , please accept a „no“ without being hurt.
Pay teachers fairly. It is not Ok to overbook classes with 20 couples, and in the same time try to keep the salary of the teachers as low as possible. It‘s totally acceptable to aim for a profit, but the income should at least be shared 50/50. Teachers who work on a shared-income basis and not on a fixed salary, will might even ask for a share of 70%.
Announce demos properly and try to cheer up the audience. Performers need an alert and eager audience to do their best.

STUDENTS

You pay the teachers and organisers to provide a sound education or amusement at an event. You are a customer. You are entitled to a service as described in the announcements and furthermore a polite and proper treatment by both teachers and organisers.

Do‘s & don‘ts:

No matter how good you know the teachers, give them some privacy. Do not crowd them during class breaks or at Milongas. They might want to prepare or just need some time-out. Sitting in the corner with the feet up and eating a sandwich does not signalise: I want to have a chat!
Show up for class. If you've pre-booked a class and cannot come, please cancel early enough, so that the organiser can give your place to someone else.
Be punctual for class.
During class, do not interrupt the teachers without a show of hands and do not chat during their explanations. It‘s likewise impolite to leave the room for a longer period without explaining why.
Please do the exercises that you were asked to do. If you do not understand them, ask the teacher. If you do not agree, explain why.
Accept corrections without moping. It‘s the teachers job to give feedback and if you feel, that you do not need instruction, please do not attend a class.
Do not idolise a teacher. You‘ve got the right to question his or her concepts and didactics. If you feel, that something does not make sense or if you do not share an opinion, you may say so politely. If the teacher does not behave in a civilised manner, comes to late or doesn‘t do his job properly, complain with him/her and with the organisers.
Ask in advance, if it is allowed to videotape the class summary or demo. Do not post it on Youtube without permission.
It is permitted to invite teachers to dance, but please do it respectfully. Collecting dances with „Maestros“ is purely stupid. Use cabeceo & mirada to express invitations and accept a „no“ if given. Apart from being tired, a teacher may have the same reasons to accept or refuse an invitation as anyone else. You pay teachers for instruction, but they are no taxi-dancers.
When inviting a female teacher to dance, do not try to impress her with all the great steps you‘ve learned. She will definitely be bored or annoyed. Dance simply, musically and with a nice embrace and she will love it.
Do not mistake an intimate teacher-student-relation with a real friendship. Making friends with a teacher takes time and requires personal exchange - as it would with anyone else. I‘ve made a quite few friends amongst students and organisers, but these are the relationships that transcend Tango and this article.

Oh gosh! Against all good intentions, I posted another Tango-related long article. I'll try to do better next time. I promise. ;-)

The Real Me

2010-12-30T12:02:00.000+01:00

For my friends.

Post in between posts 3 - get to the point!

2010-12-28T17:33:00.001+01:00

Ok... I already mentioned, that I like to lecture and my posts tend to get a little longer, did I not? The last one got much longer, than I intendet it to be. I vow to shorten my posts in future! At least, when writing about Tango.... which I do most of the time. ;-)
My next post will nevertheless NOT be about Tango. It's gonna deal with the long 19th century and you're gonna see, that this one was longer than others... no kidding.

The Tango Free Zone

2010-12-27T12:23:00.027+01:00

As you know, my partner Detlef and I are travelling all over Europe, the USA and to Buenos Aires to teach and dance Tango. And wherever we go, from the Big Apple to the smallest French village, people ask us: „So, you‘re from Berlin, right? How‘s Tango in your town?“ And those, who like us: „That must be so nice for your students at home, to have you as resident teachers.“

And as these questions are asked so frequently, I will answer them on my blog.

This will be a very personal post, in which I cannot avoid to critizise circumstances and people whom I have known personally. But the bizarre fact of being an internationally active Tango teacher whilst living in a Tango free zone, amazes quite a lot of people. So, I‘m gonna take the risk, to alienate a few individuals. If you‘re not interested, better stop reading here!

...

Since the end of the 80‘s, I‘m living in Saarbrücken, a German town with about 200.000 inhabitants, the capital of the Saar region. There‘s quite some culture going on, but the city really awakens in the warm season, when everybody‘s outside, sitting in the street cafes or at the riverside. There‘s lots of students and an alternative ambiance. It‘s the place where I moved to study Psychology and somehow I got stuck here. Most of my non-Tango friends live here and I try to meet them as much as my crazy schedule allows.

And: this is the place, where I discovered Tango in 1995. A dancer from Berlin had moved here and started hosting a Practica, that I and Andreas Wichter attended. I am sure, she had the best intentions, but it was exactly what you would have expected in the provinces in this era: Every two weeks, she would show us a new step, that we‘d practice without any idea of technique or communication. There was no Ronda, no connection to the music and of course no place, where you would have danced Tango. From what I know now, we might have found a Milonga in Frankfurt or Karlsruhe, about two hours drive away. But by then, we had no clue. We did not even know that Milongas existed. It was kinda pointless. So, after a year, we abandoned this pastime for more interesting things like our role-playing games. Nevertheless it left us with the feeling, that there might have been more to it.

A couple of years later Andreas and I discovered, that one of the former participants of the Practica had started teaching Tango and we decided to give it another try. And although we still remembered most of our steps, we went to the beginner‘s class in January 2000.

In the meanwhile, a small Tango community had developed. There were regular classes and a weekly Milonga. People met in a little Tango studio to dance and apply the argentine customs like greeting everyone with a kiss, which we found very weird. ;-)

This is where we met Detlef, who had started to dance 3 years earlier. And when dancing with me, he tried out all the complex steps, that he had learned in workshops. Although he already danced real Tango de Salon in other places, he was also still into the big moves - at least in our home town. So, in my years of absence, the general Tango-philosophy had not changed so much in Saarbrücken: it was about steps in a mostly open embrace, inspired by the classic Tango shows.

Again, I was underwhelmed, especially after discovering close embrace by accident, after a couple of glasses Likor 43! But the people where nice, and sometimes dancers from other places would visit, so we started looking around. And although our Tango teacher would not tell us the directions, Andreas and I found a Milonga in Kaiserslautern (K-town for the large American population), less than an hours drive away.

Now this was something different: Here we discovered Tango de Salon, as it was danced in the traditional Milongas of Buenos Aires. The local teachers focused on the embrace, basic technique and “sentimiento“. This was quite avant-garde in an era, when most of Europe was still doing Fantasia on the dancefloor. In this environment, also Detlef danced more close-embrace. The Milonga at the „Cotton Club“ became our Tango home and we owe a lot to it‘s organisers, who invited quality teachers, some of them still relatively unknown by then. Not all of them were Milongueros, but they taught social Tango with an approach to quality and musicality. The rest was up to us. We began travelling to Milongas in other towns and Tango evens. In late 2000, when I started partnering Detlef, him and I drove as far as Hamburg or Basel, to visit the famous Festivals of this era. Many of you have experienced that part of widening the horizon.

But this is where the problems started and our home town developed into a Tango free zone for us. Already in early 2001, I had stopped taking classes in Saarbrücken, as I was looking for a deeper understanding, than the local teacher would offer. In the same year, Detlef and I were asked to run a Practica in Karlsruhe. This seemed to threaten our former teacher, and all kinds of bad stuff ensued. Hey, I was doing a monthly Practica in a town 140 km away! Why did she even bother? Nowadays I understand, that this kind of reactions are not uncommon in the Tango context, but by then I was deeply hurt and stopped going to the local events altogether.

So there we were: all revved up, and no place to go. We visited the weekly Milonga in K-Town an hour away, but when we wanted to go to another Milonga, we had to drive at least two hours. And we still had our regular jobs, so dancing more than two times a week was usually out of question.

But still we managed to develop our Tango: We danced and travelled as much as we could. Over the next two years, we were asked to teach in several other cities and to organise a monthly Milonga in a small town in our region. And then Andreas took up teaching as well, very soon in co-operation with us. So we met to prepare classes, to develop a common technique and pedagogy. We did learn a lot by thinking, discussing and exchanging ideas in this period.

In the meanwhile, two local Argentines, who had discovered Tango with the same German teacher, had started organising Milongas and giving classes in Saarbrücken. In the beginning, I thought this would be a good idea: maybe there would be some Tango for me after all in Saarbrücken. But when I looked at the results of their work, I was frustrated and stopped attending their events. So still no Milonga for me in my hometown!

Should I not do something! But what? Although I had vowed, never to teach in my hometown, I was tempted by the idea to help develop the local and regional Tango community. So in 2005 we founded the Tangokombinat with our friends Andreas, Anne-Cecile and (by then) Damian Lobato and Ina. Our comrades commenced teaching, and together we rented a small studio and started organising a Practica libre. But unluckily, none of our friends managed to attract enough local dancers to hold up regular classes and soon gave it up. We never even tried.

But since then, we‘ve been organising events in our hometown: Our first ball in the „Johanneskirche“ was a great success and the ancestor of our „Festivalito con Amigos“. In the same year, we initiated a monthly Milonga, that ran for over 4 years and attracted people from a perimeter of 250 km, but almost no locals.

And today? What‘s the situation in 2010?

The Tangokombinat spread out: Damian teaches in the USA and Andreas is successfully spreading the word in the UK. We gave up our regular jobs, the weekly classes in the greater region and our monthly Milonga in order to teach abroad. Our „Festivalito con Amigos“ grew into an international event, that attracts Tangueros from all around the world, but almost no locals. The small community of less than 50 dancers in Saarbrücken never got to know us, most of them would not even know we exist. No wonder, because we have not visited one of the local Milongas for over five years and they usually do not travel. They are living in their small Tango-bubble, where our former teacher and the two Argentines created some kind of a cult around their personae.

So what about the local Tango community? I only know it by the descriptions of others: Just a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine visited one of the two local Milongas. She was shocked by the lack of connection to the music and by the dangerously big and uncoordinated movements. So now they have gone from a half-open, fantasia-inspired thing to a chaotic-nuevoesk style. This is not the Tango we know and love.

That‘s it: I am living in a Tango free zone!

Do I bother? Usually not, as we are basically never here. We discovered a world of Tango and made great friends. We would never have experienced this by staying in our hometown. So it is actually a good thing, that I had to travel.

But in a way it is bothering me. The Tango free zone also results in me almost never dancing casually at a Milonga, without having to perform or teach. We are teaching almost every weekend, and thus are only rarely free to choose the Milongas we visit. Although our former Tango-home in K-Town died a couple of years ago, there are some nice Milongas in the greater region, in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden or Koblenz. We‘d love to go there, but they happen on weekends. There are no acceptable Milongas during the week in a perimeter of less than 250 km. When we are at home for two or three days, there‘s lots of work to do and I am too tired to stay up late. So going to a Milonga in a distance of more than 2 hours drive is really out of question! If there was a nice Milonga during the week in my hometown...

And sometimes, I wonder if things could change, if the local dancers had access to another kind of Tango philosophy...

So, as we are going to have a free weekend come January, we decided to give an intensive workshop on basics and musicality in Saarbrücken. Apart from one class in 2005 during one of our Festivals, this will be our first and only workshop in our hometown. The rest of the year, we‘ll be travelling again. So far, one local couple inscribed, the rest are dancers from from elsewhere.

I presume, my hometown will remain a Tango free zone for me. At least until our next Festivalito con Amigos! :-)

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

Appendix on January, 17 2011:

I've received some private messages asking for more info on the Tango community in my hometown. Obviously, my readers want to judge for themselves, if my comments are appropriate. I can very well understand and this is why I'm attaching the following links to my colleagues in Saarbrücken:

Eva Perez (formerly Eva Magyar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQG3o9SkQoQ

www.juantango.de

Guillermo & Silvina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XleN6KBgBro
www.ag-libertango.de

Nao & Elisabeth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2PfpDbeHT8
www.tango.naochika.com

----------------------
Appendix on January, 24 2011:

So, we've done our workshop in Saarbrücken: In the end, the majority of the participants were people dancing in our hometown. That was unexpected...

And: our friend Juliana of the Tangokombinat dedided to start a monthly practica in our studio.

And even more: Our friend Uwe of the Tangokombinat was asked to DJ at one of the local Milongas.

So, after all, Saarbrücken might change into a Tango-zone for us. Little by little... ;-)

Making choices - women‘s active participation in the dance

2010-12-08T11:12:00.008+01:00

Men lead, women follow. The roles in Tango seem to be defined very clearly and for many years, this concept worked nicely. Buenos Aires men used to learn with the Maestros or invent steps with their pals. Women just came to the Milongas and started dancing right away. They did not need classes, just a little practice on the dance floor. And even the most famous female dancers told us, that women do not dance a particular style, they just adapt to the men.

But then came the 70s with women‘s liberation and the 80s with the „new man“. And the Tangoshows, with often classically trained dancers, who definitely needed more, than just a little practice on the dance floor. The Millennium brought Tango Nuevo, role-changing and women, who „just take the boleo, if the man does not lead it“. So now, women are supposed to participate actively in the dance.

But what if you don‘t create a choreography with your partner and thus bring in your own personality? What if you don‘t want to exchange roles during the dance or make movements, that are not suggested to you? What about active participation in a fairly traditional, close-embrace Tango?

There are still a lot of Milonguero or Salon teachers, who promote a quite passive woman‘s role: waiting for the man to invite her, waiting for the man to lead a step, to bring her back to her place. When I „grew up“ in Tango, I was told, that it‘s always the men‘s fault, if something goes wrong. Even then, I asked myself: why do we need classes, especially women‘s technique, if the quality and course of the dance is uniquely the men‘s responsibility?

And then I had a look my early teachers or colleagues. And I saw lots of female teachers, who (although they were doing all of the organisation) left most of the talking to their male partners or let them choose the music for a demo. „HE has to interpret the music, I do not need to know about it.“ But hey! Don‘t you dance to the music as well, I ask them? What about your preferences, taste, needs? Do you just want to tag along?

For me, it‘s all about making choices!

Choose your style.

I know, that there are less Tangueros than Tangueras, and women tend to go to classes or Milongas of a certain style, because their partner (or a partner) wants to participate. But you will know best, what kind of Tango you want to dance. You want to dance high boleos and soltadas? Fine, go look for a partner, who shares your idea of sportive movements. You want to concentrate on the walk and a nice embrace? Go and look out for Milongas and teachers, who focus on that kind of Tango. Not mentioning names here...

But seriously: it‘s up to you, even in a Milonga, to show, how you want to dance. Show it by your posture, by your embrace, by your way to move. You may even convince an otherwise acrobatic dancer to dance a nice close-embrace Tango, if you demonstrate him, how wonderful your embrace can be.

Be an active practice-partner.

A lot of women never complain in classes for the sake of avoiding arguments. They just stand there and let the men figure out, what‘s going on. Very often they pout and are bored. Or they „help“ by anticipating every movement, he is supposed to lead. No, that does not help at all! Be constructive. Tell your partner, how you feel about a certain movement and it‘s communication, so that he can figure out the proper way to lead it. In case you‘ve got an idea of the proper lead, why not show him? Tell him, what an exercise is about, when he get‘s it wrong and do not wait until the teacher does. You loose valuable time!

I do not want to encourage nagging and knowing-it-all, but an active positive participation in the process of learning is the pre-requisite for understanding and developing the dance. And of course: pre-requisite for giving constructive feedback is the ability to receiving it as well, as a friend just reminded me. Both partners bear responsibility for the outcome and can make mistakes!

Know and choose your music.

An active dancer needs to know the music and the possibilities it gives. Musicality workshops are not men‘s only classes! So, explore these possibilities, get to know the music, develop a personal taste and - for god‘s sake - dance only, when you really like the music. How can you interpret it, if you don‘t like it? In this case, you can just passively tag along. Knowing and loving the music enables those exquisite moments, where both partners move in unison, without being able to say, who is leading or following. They are both dancing to the music!

Choose your partners at a Milonga.

With the method of the Cabeceo/Mirada, both men and woman choose their partners for the next Tanda. Do not hesitate to use this method. You do not have to dance with everybody and accept every invitation out of fear or politeness. An active dancer chooses a particular partner for a particular music. If I want to dance to Di Sarli, I will choose a special man. If I want to dance to Rodriguez, I will choose another. And if the Di Sarli partner invites me to a Rodriguez Tanda, I may even refuse the invitation (politely), as I know, that he will not interpret this kind of music the way I like it. And if a man will dance a style I don‘t like, or does not communicate properly, or does not have the technique to make me feel comfortable, I will not dance with him at all - no matter to which music. I rather sit during a Tanda of Di Sarli, than dance it with a partner who will push and pull me around.

Learn the basic principles of leading.

Apart from enabling you to lead other women or men, this will open a whole new world of communication. With the proper technique of making a suggestion, waiting for the acceptance and then following the woman, a modern Tanguero will be open to your input. I do not speak about taking over the lead or doing stuff on your own, because he does not suggest it. I am talking about liberating spaces or blocking them and about subtly communicating your ideas. This may sound dubious, but with some time and maybe a couple of hints from appropriate teachers, you will figure it out.

I do not have to mention here, that an mastery of the basic techniques is the requirement to a more active role in the dance. Do not even think about making suggestions to your partner, if you cannot stand, walk or pivot on your own!

Choose to do decorations carefully.

Unfortunately, active participation in the dance is very often mistaken as doing lots of decorations. But WOW, is this wrong! How often do I see women, who can barely stand, and have to lean on their partners for support, moving their feet frenetically, because they want to express their personality. That‘s bad on so many levels. Not only that it is totally annoying and prevents your partner from improvising, mostly it just looks nasty. But the most severe outcome from doing too many Adornos is that you have to shift the attention from the embrace to your feet. This will not only result in a loss of quality in the embrace, but you will definitely miss those moments, where you might communicate more actively as discussed in the former paragraph. So, concentrating on decorations might even prevent developing an active role in the dance.

Don‘t get me wrong: a decoration here and then, to interpret the music is a nice thing to do. But just don‘t overdo it!

Choose to be passive.

And now that we‘ve talked so much about being active and participating in a modern and conscious way, I want to tell you: you don‘t have to do it! If just want to give over the responsibility to your partner, that‘s totally ok. Women do carry their lot in society, they don‘t have to in Tango. Social dance is about having fun, feeling good and should not become another field of competition or create stress.

Even I sometimes choose to be passive: when the music is right and the partner dances nicely and I am tired of teaching and being aware and active, I just follow and enjoy the embrace. And this can be exactly the perfect choice.

Once in a while. ;-)

What impact can a travelling Tango teacher have?

2010-11-25T23:47:00.006+01:00

Just recently, I was interviewed by the Tangoblogger Cassiel and the (translated) interview was later also published on Tangocommuters blog. We talked about Tango didactics, especially from the point of view of a travelling teacher - as I am.

During the interview I stressed the necessity to focus on basics, to structure the classes, to keep group sizes manageable... lots of important points that guarantee, that our visits all over the world help developing Tango. And yes, I can be proud of our work: I can see real progress during classes, I help people to understand things better and to evolve their personal style. Very often, we receive enthusiastic mails after classes, telling us, how tango-changing our classes are. That‘s very encouraging.

But are they really? What if we come back? Have the dancers really changed or improved their Tango? What is the impact we have on people‘s Tango and what are the factors that further progress? To illustrate these questions, I am gonna tell you a story of two Tango communities, one in England and one in France.

The Tango community A is situated in a tiny English village near a bigger industrial town. We have been invited for the third time by the local organisers, a very nice couple teaching Tango since 5 years. It‘s always a great pleasure to be there, not only because we have been received very warmly, made friends and had some great food there. Although it‘s been only 1,5 years, we can see, that our classes influenced people‘s dance a lot. Many of them really apply what we are trying to convey in our classes and I can see, that they are enjoying their dance and progress. It is great.

The other community B is situated in a lovely French town with lots of culture and historic sites, near our hometown. We‘ve been teaching there since 7 years. The members of the Tango club are lovely and we know them quite well, as we used to give regular classes in another town nearby. Many of them have visited our Milongas and Festivals in the past. But unfortunately, very few of them take up our ideas of technique or musicality. They do well during the classes, really trying to grasp the concepts, but when we return in the following year or see them at a local event, only very little has changed. Most of them just keep on doing what they did before and we can start all over again with our basic principles. That‘s actually frustrating.

So why the difference? Why is one group responding to our teaching and the other not so much? What are we doing differently? May it be the teaching in different languages, English and French? I took that into consideration, but have to say, that our French speaking abilities are almost as good as the the English ones - at least in the teaching context. I may not be able to write a blog in French, but I can very well explain the counter-body-rotation, believe me.

A friend pointed out, that it might be a matter of respect: when we first came to town A, we were already quite known and thus more respected. Whereas in town B, we were basically locals, some of them even knew us as beginners. So maybe, they aren‘t so much impressed by what we teach and don‘t feel compelled to apply it... I can understand that point, but I don‘t think, it get‘s to the heart of the problem.

I rather want to look at the totally different circumstances in these two communities:

Former instruction:

Tango community A (TCA) is pretty young - referring to the number of years, that people are dancing. I guess, only very few people are dancing more than 5 years there. They started learning Tango in a period, where there was already a decent know-how and good teachers where available. So all of them already had a good idea of social Tango before we started spilling our ideas.

Tango community B (TCB) is much older and quite a lot people there are dancing the same number of years as we do. They‘ve seen a lot of bad teaching, especially in the first years, where most Tango teachers were doing unspeakable things on the dancefloor. Some of that stuff sticks to you until the end!

Ongoing instruction:

TCA has got very dedicated professional teachers, who participate in our classes and take consciously up our ideas in their teaching. This permits people to understand the concepts on a deeper basis.

TCB does have a couple of very different teachers, who focus on steps in an open embrace, although they take part in our classes since years. This confuses people.

Milongas:

TCA hosts regular Milongas, where you can find traditional music suitable for dancing and practising ours and the resident teachers musical concepts.

TCB does have no regular Milongas and the DJs unfortunately focus on rather undanceable music, no matter of which époque and on Electrotango.

Other visiting teachers:

TCA hosts different visiting teachers over the course of the year, but most of them seem to focus on basic work. They may be dancing more in an open embrace, but they teach a modern way of communication, that goes well with our concept of organic movements.

TCB hosts visiting teachers of a more classical or showy style, that promote such a different technical approach, that they basically contradict most of the things we are teaching.

Personal dedication:

In TCA you‘ll find a lot of people, who are really dedicated to Tango. They visit regular Milongas, travel for Tango and form strong opinions about how they want to dance. They choose teachers and classes consciously.

In TCB most people won‘t travel a lot (or at all) for Tango and many of them practice other dances as well. Most of them don‘t seem to care much about the style of teaching and dancing, they just wanna have fun and take whatever class is offered.

I could go on and find even more differences, but I think, I covered the most important ones. And now comes the part, where I ruin my business because I have to conclude, that travelling teachers can only achieve very little. Even if their teaching is fabulous, the impact will be limited by the local circumstances.

So this is what I want to tell organisers and dancers:

- Don‘t invite visiting teachers, if you cannot support their work locally. It does not make sense, to expose people to good ideas and concepts, if there is no-one who can practice the stuff with them after the „stars“ have left. (If you don't have teachers, who can cover that, set up a monitored practica to encourage discussion and practice of the workshops contents.)

- Don‘t bother with the great „ball with demo“, if you don‘t organise regular Milongas, where people can dance to decent music and practise whatever they have learned in the workshops.

- Forget about a „ very special couple“ if you plan to invite another „very special couple“ who contradict all their ideas next month. People need a little consistency in concepts.

- All of you, be sensible consumers! It is up to you to decide, how much time and energy you want to invest in Tango and what kind of classes you book. You don‘t have to book every class and you don‘t have to appreciate every teacher. An intelligent buying behaviour and a lot of dedication are the most dominant pre-requisites for developing a personal style.

- The fancy travelling teacher may give you some good ideas and concept, but it takes much more, to build up a Tango community with a decent level of social dancing.

So... if now some of you organisers decide to cancel our invitation, because I convinced you, that we will not have much of an impact, I cannot help it. But I rather hope to encourage a more conscious teaching & event management: Please, think about what you want to achieve for your Tango community and plan your events, workshops and regular classes according to that goals. It will help you save a lot of money and it will be much more satisfactory for everyone, including the travelling teachers! ;-)

Melina's favourite novels

2010-11-24T13:45:00.013+01:00

Based on the BBC recent list of "100 Best Books", I've made my own catalogue of 60 favourites. Some of them match, but I've especially added various important works, that weren't on the english-biased compilation. I furthermore concentrate on novels and erased all plays (Shakespeare), poems (Dante) and religious writings (Bible) off the list.

So, these are the novels, that I enjoyed most or find recommendable as being important in the history of literature:

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Alexandre Dumas - La reine Margot
Alice Walker - The Color Purple
Anne Rice - Interview with a Vampire
Bram Stoker - Dracula
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
Edward Rutherfurd - Sarum
Elisabeth Gaskell - North and South
Emile Zola - Germinal
Emile Zola - Nana
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment (Преступление и наказание)
Fyodor Dostoyevski - The Idiot (Идиот)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Cien años de soledad
George Eliot - Middlemarch
George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty Four
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - Il Gattopardo
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
Heinrich Mann - Der Untertan
Henry James - Washington Square
Hermann Hesse - Demian
Isabel Allende - La casa de los espiritus
Jacqueline Susan - Valley of the dolls
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath
Joyce Carol Oates - A garden of earthly delights
Joyce Carol Oates - Them
JRR Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
Ken Follett - The pillars of the earth
Klaus Mann - Mephisto
Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace (Война и мир)
Leon Uris - Exodus
Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland
Lion Feuchtwanger - Josephus Trilogie
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Mitchell - Gone With The Wind
Marilyn French - The women‘s room
Nathaniel Hawthorne - The scarlet letter
Neil Gaiman - American Gods
Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Grey
Patrick Süsskind - Das Parfüm
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
Rebecca Skloot - The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Sandor Marai - Wandlungen einer Ehe (Az igazi / Judit ...é az utóhang)
Simone de Beauvoir - Memoirs d‘une jeune fille rangée
Stephen King - It
Steven King - The stand
Theordor Fontane - Effie Briest
Thomas Hardy - Far From The Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Thomas Mann - Die Buddenbrooks
Thornton Wilder - Theophilus North
Umberto Eco - Il nome della rosa
Umberto Eco - Il pendolo di Foucault
William Golding - Lord of the Flies
William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair

Yes, and I know, that there are some easy-reading-novels on the list, like Anne Rices, Steven Kings or Ken Folletts... but I liked them so much and as so many people around the world loved them as well, they are worth mentioning. Plus, not to forget: some of these were highly influential on certain genres of literature or even changed them totally. "The interview with the Vampire" changed the whole perception of Vampires. And, as you know, I'm a fan of Vampires... ;-)

Looking forward to other lists and comments.

Post in between posts 2 - cocooning issues

2010-11-18T16:20:00.005+01:00

Today is not a good day for me. My private sphere is being invaded by two nice young men, who are ripping apart some of our windows in order to put new ones in. Generally, this might be a good idea. But it is freezing cold outside, I have to sit in the kitchen (instead of my usual workplace), there‘s lots of noise and - worst of all - social behaviour is expected from me. At home!

And this is really becoming an issue: By travelling all around the globe and teaching social Tango, I have transformed into a very unsocial being. BT (Before Tango) I used to spend time in cafés and cinemas or at my friends, meeting people, partying, always being a group-person. Now, I exhaust all my interactive energy by travelling, teaching, constantly being with people, so that I drop into heavy cocooning mode, when I‘ve got a few days at home. I usually don‘t leave the house, order whatever is possible on the internet and even have to force myself to meet my friends. Don‘t misunderstand me - I love them and am always happy, when I‘m there. But it just costs me so much to leave my computer, dress properly and maybe even get out of the house. Watching a DVD, reading a book or writing on blogs are my preferred pastimes... I don‘t even remember when I last visited a real party... Sad...

But it‘s not only me and my wish to counterbalance the strenuous life of a travelling person!

Actually all of my friends describe the same problem, even those with regular jobs. Even the non-tangueros. So is it age? Are we mutating into old bores? And then I look at the younger generation and discover the same mechanisms: Teenagers preferring the TV or computer to the disco, young people spending the time at home with their elders playing cards instead of chatting up girls!

What‘s wrong? Is it a trend in society? Scientists tell us, that cocooning derives from the wish of fleeing the unstable and perilous world, especially after 9/11. But I'm not so sure. My personal life is not so frightening. My hometown Saarbrücken is a relatively nice and calm smaller city and I've never experienced war or terrorism. Almost none of my personal acquaintances have... So what is it?

I‘m gonna keep an eye on this.... most likely by reading articles online and not by talking to people. ;-)

Don't mention the war!

2010-11-17T13:32:00.007+01:00

But Ken Follett does. Repeatedly.

The british novelist is renowned for his spy-stories, often set in the time of World War II, like „The Needle“ or „The key to Rebecca“. But I read none of those, as recent history (20th century) has never interested me a lot.

My focus has always been on medieval, renaissance and 19th century history and thus of course I read and loved „The pillars of the earth“. I was thrilled, when Follett published a follow-up in 2007 and started to read it, as soon it was available on the german market. (By then, I still bought real paper books...) But I was to be disappointed: the novel did not live up to my expectations, being somewhat lengthy and boring. I did not even finish it. And I can tell you, that happens only rarely!

So it was kind of risky to buy Folletts newest novel „Fall of Giants“ for my Kindle, but it turns out to be a captivating read. I have not finished it yet, but I have nevertheless decided to present it to my dear readers.

The story of is set in London and St. Petersburg in the year 1914, right after the heir to the Austrian throne, Franz-Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. Very typically for Follett, he describes the world on the brink of war out of different perspectives: an English earl, his housekeeper, a young coal miner, a German diplomat, a Russian worker... all these fates being intertwined by personal relationships, that are about to change dramatically due to the upcoming apocalypse. There is lots of politics and diplomacy, there is oppression and rebellion and of course there is also love. All the ingredients for a good story.

Follett uses the fictional plot artfully to depict history in a easily digestible way, without making it too obvious. The reader witnesses the chain of events that lead to the British entering the war and the change in mood, that makes warmongers out of pacifists after Germany decides to invade Belgium. Not surprisingly, the author - being an active supporter of the Labour Party - does not fail to mention that this group was amongst the few, who tried to prevent a British participation in the conflict until the end. But we can forgive him that bias.

Surprisingly though, that the good guy in this story is the German diplomat, whereas the English lord... But I won‘t tell too much.

Some critics complain about the language being to simplistic and dialogues that read like "children's writing". Of course, Follett is no poet, but to me, the language is good enough to make it an agreeable read. But then of course, I'm not an English native speaker...

However, if a book succeeds in making me interested in World War I, it cannot be so bad. So, if you like historic novels, it's worth checking it out!

What makes music danceable?

2010-11-12T07:32:00.008+01:00

I‘ve been meaning to write about danceability all along, when today, a friend of mine sent me a message.

Francesco Bruno ist studying Bandoneon at the Rotterdam conservatory and is about to write his thesis. He‘s examining „danceability“ on 8 versions of a Tango, played by different orchestras and therefore developed a questionnaire. You‘ll find it here:

http://www.fbandoneon.com/entrerriano/Site/Entrerriano.html

If you are interested in taking part in the review, please do not go on reading now. I do not want you to develop a bias. If you‘ve already taken part or are not interested, you may now proceed.

...

Well. I was already about to go to sleep, when I started thinking about his question: What makes a Tango danceable?

As a Tango-DJ, this is the most relevant issue, when choosing music for a Milonga. Of course, the matter of danceability depends on the general proficiency level of the dancers at this specific event. A beginner will need a „simpler“ music, than a fully trained, professional stage dancer and artist.

But let‘s evoke a normal local Milonga in a bigger town. It‘s a social event, so you‘ll find none or only very few stage dancers, a few (mostly semi-professional) teachers, some fairly advanced dancers, a majority of intermediate people and a bunch of beginners. That‘s what you have to deal with.

Your choice of music thus has to be „simple“ enough to be danced by the beginners and intermediates, but needs to appeal to the more advanced dancers as well. So changing the level of „simplicity“ within the course of the Milonga or alternating between different levels is the sensible thing to do.

But lets look at the defining factors. In my opinion, a danceable Tango (Vals, Milonga) is characterised by:

A perceivable beat:

An instrument (often the bass) plays the beats within the measure (1234 or 123 or 12) and you would be able to count them to go along. Some Tangos by Biagi (e.g. Belgica) may be already quite hard to dance to, as he makes pauses and lets drop notes and beats within the measure.

A constant speed:

The speed does not change dramatically during the course of the Tango (Milonga or Vals). A typically slower „introduction“ or finale to e.g. a romantic Vals is no problem, but there should be a longer period within the piece of music, where the speed stay constant. Lots of Tangos by Pugliese change speed much too often, and are thus not easy enough to dance to.

An acceptable speed:

The speed should be in a danceable range. If a Tango is too slow (e.g. modern music by Los Cosos de a Lao) or too fast (some d‘Arienzo Valses or Milongas) it just gets too hard. People are either lacking the balance or the the stamina to keep up with such a speed.

An acceptable sound quality:

Let‘s face it, some of the very old Tangos might be very sweet and even easy to dance to, but the sound quality is just not acceptable. When all you hear are scratches or noise a Tango is not danceable any more. So keep the percentage of Petrucellis, Carabellis and Brignolos very small.

An acceptable complexity:

There are simple Tangos and those that are much to complex. I measure this factor in dependance of the layers within the music. A simple Tango may consist of a layer of basic rhythm (the beats counting the measure) and a „hummable“ melody. This melody can alternate with a second melody. If there is a third melody or two of them are overlaid, it gets already quit complex. A singer as a part of the orchestra may take over the melody during a shorter period of the Tango. This does not interfere with the danceability.

A predictable course:

The predictability depends on the overall composition of the Tango‘s scheme. If there are distinguishable parts within the music, and not more than 3 different melodies are repeated according to a constant rule (e.g. ABABA), a dancer can guess easily, which part of the melody will be played when and can adapt his movements to the flow of the music. If the melody is totally free, forget about it.

An emotional appeal:

Music speaks to you. It will evoke emotions, inspire you. This makes the difference in between just moving to the beat and dancing, especially if you are a more advanced dancer. This factor is of course very subjective, because here we touch the question of how much we „like“ a Tango or not. But nevertheless, it is crucial. I will not dance to a Tango, if I don‘t like it and - here it gets even more subjective - in my opinion this depends on the „humanity“ of the music. A perfectly composed Tango by De Caro may be „complex, challenging and interesting“, but it may not be as emotional as a Tango by Rodriguez with the singer Armando Moreno. So very often, it is the human voice and even the content of the lyrics, that creates the „humane appeal“. Sometimes, it may be also an humane attribution of a specific instrument - the wailing violin of Elvino Vardaro for example. In Buenos Aires Milongas, you‘ll hear the old Milongueros sing along to their favourite Tangos and the DJ you will only rarely play a purely instrumental Tanda.

(Just think about movies or advertising: it‘s always the humanisation, that makes us cry. A fawn in the forest is just nature, but we cry with Bambi, because we give him human feelings of loneliness, loss...)

So a good DJ will have a feeling for which Tangos make the dancers sad, happy or emotional and will even know favourites of special dancers. This last factor is it what distinguishes a danceable Milonga from a great one.

Oh dear. It‘s 7.15 in the morning and I have written far too much. Parts of it are based on a DJ-seminar, I just recently held in France, a few thoughts are new. May it help some of you out there... Gonna try and sleep a bit.

Melina's multiple personalities

2010-11-11T23:29:00.006+01:00

Wow.

I just found this video on the internet. It's not only perfectly fitting to my former post on visual orientation in Tango it also displays my two antagonistic personae: the psychologist/scientist and the tangodancer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua7CBToQQ5Y

And to all, who ask themselves... I own 19 pair of Tango shoes, 4 of them flat shoes for teaching, 15 fancy stilettos, approx. half of them Comme-il-fauts. That's not so bad, isn't it? ;-)

Post in between posts 1

2010-11-10T12:08:00.000+01:00

I'm currently reviewing my first post and preparing some new ones. But in between posts, I just wanted to point out some banal and in the same time crucial facts about me and my writing:

1. Whatever I write is subjective, because I can only observe things from my point of view. But I try nevertheless to approach objectivity as much as possible.
2. Not everything, that I write will be new. You may have heard similar thoughts from other people or even from me. If you know me personally, we may have already talked about certain topics. I do not aspire originality, I just write about stuff, that matters to me.
3. I am not insulted by critical comments, if you keep them polite. I do not own the truth and there are differing opinions to almost every topic. Being a tangoteacher and dancing awhile does not make me omniscient. I am well aware of that.
4. I have got nevertheless a tendency to "lecturing". That comes from my scientific background and a general disposition to know-it-all. I just like writing - as Detlef likes to call them - "small manuals". When I was ten, I wrote a manual about Vampires (how to become a vampire, how to reject one, how to destroy them etc.). It's somehow in the genes. Please forgive me.

So, that's it for the moment.
Wish you all a pleasant day.

Good news. Really.

2010-11-08T12:01:00.022+01:00

Men are visual beings. That‘s no news. You‘ve only got to sit with one of them in a cafe: each time a good looking woman will pass by, their focus will shift from you, the meal or their friends to this female. That‘s OK and women exploit it by wearing make-up, high heels and sexy dresses to attract attention. The Tango setting is no exception and there, it is even more obvious, as this kind of make-over is very compatible to Tango traditions and imagery. So, if you come to a Milonga, you will see a huge number of women, nicely made-up, in the most stunning outfits, wearing the highest and latest Comme-Il-Fauts. I‘ve never seen so many gorgeous women as in Tango and lots of them are quite decent dancers as well!

Unfortunately, I‘ve never seen so few gorgeous men as in Tango. Men are in a minority, often dress very carelessly and the average level of attractivity isn‘t breathtaking. Also the dance level is much lower amongst men, than amongst women. And this is why every semi-decent male dancer can feel like a kid in a candy-shop and choose freely amongst the female population according to the check-list:

- Age

- Level of attractivity

- Make-over and shoes

- Dance qualities

And yes, dance qualities come last, because A, they don‘t matter so much and B, many men just assume, that good looking women, who wear high heels will be good dancers as well. (That‘s totally in accordance to scientific findings, as I recall from early psychology classes: attractive people are given higher ratings in skills and positive personality traits, than unattractive people.) And let‘s not forget, that a high dance level in a female, quite often is perceived as being threatening for male dancers. So dance quality will be the least important factor for the majority of men, when choosing a partner.

The funny outcomes of that kind of selection procedure: Even good male dancers (some of them quite near to me) repeatedly end up dancing with way below average dancers, who can hardly walk, because of a comically bad decision based on looks, heel-size and age. I won‘t mention names now... OK, once, it even happened to me. There was this good looking guy in Niño Bien Milonga in Buenos Aires... but that‘s another story. ;-)

The not-so-funny results: The majority of women over 40 or those not being of ideal proportions are sitting most of the time, no matter how they dress or dance. In Buenos Aires, this is even more crass: Lots of the eldest Milongueros dance as a principle only with the youngest Tangueras, often even choosing them as lovers. And don‘t tell me about age being honoured in argentine Milongas! The elder Tangueras may be put on a pedestal, but it‘s the young girls, who are invited to dance. It‘s kinda sad, all of it, and it creates a lot of frustration amongst women and a high pressure on men.

I started out as a beginner, being fairly attractive and still young enough, so that I was chosen as one of the favourite partners by the better local dancers. And being a little talented as well, they could do all kinds of fancy stuff with me and show me the world, as men like to do.

As I grew older and gained some kilos and became - at last - a professional Tango teacher, I was much more rarely invited. So I sat, watched my partner dance and - as I valued quantity higher than quality - was frustrated most of the time.

But over the years, my priorities shifted. Having developed musical preferences and a high quality approach to Tango, nowadays, I don‘t care to dance, when the music does not inspire me, when I‘m tired or when there are no interesting partners for me. Very often, I even refuse invitations. I choose not to dance. (I will write about „making choices“ in one of my next posts.)

So most of the time, I'm still sitting, but contentedly listening to the music and having the leisure to observe people and notice an interesting development over the last two years.

The young men are coming! And they are different.

I watch these guys in their 30‘s emerging from the crowd as real nice dancers with a pleasant embrace. They are dancing a social Tango without fancy stuff and focus on quality and musicality. All the young attractive Tangueras love to dance with them. But I notice, that these young men are dancing with all kinds of women: those being double their age, double their size and those wearing homely dresses. And I see both partners smiling and enjoying the dance, because it‘s not about what you see from the outside, it‘s about what you feel on the inside.

Some of these young men are amongst my favourite partners and we had lots of fun at some recent events, that attract close-embrace social dancers: the Festivalito Rural in Celje (Slovenia), the Festivalito con Amigos in Saarbruecken (Germany), Autumn Tango in Eton (UK) and the Raduno Milonguero in Impruneta (Italy). And I‘m gonna meet some of them in Bramshaw (UK) soon!

I don‘t know much about the Nuevo community, but I presume, that with the focus on athletic movement and flexibility, age and weight will remain constant selective criteria for this style of dance.

But it seems, that with an increasing higher emphasis on quality of movement and embrace, the selective criteria in social Tango could change over the years. Women might be perceived as attractive dance partners because of their experience in the dance and because of their ability to really commit to the embrace and not because of their looks or age.

And, as society is getting older and all the young women in Tango as well, this is actually a very positive outlook. Isn‘t it?

I want to thank all these nice young men, for being who they are and helping to create a much more agreeable Tango community.

Note in reaction to a comment on November 9:

What I am talking about, is a general situation, not individual personalities.

If you are a nice guy with a nice embrace (no matter what age), who respects women and will choose your partner because of her dancing skillls, then I‘m not talking about you in the first half of my post. And of course, there are more guys like you. I know, because I dance with them. But unfortunately, you are not in the majority, because if you were, there would not not be so many nice, talented women at the Milongas, who have to leave frustrated.

I'm a blogger

2010-11-07T12:41:00.010+01:00

As of now, I'm a blogger.
Or better: I'm trying it out.

I definetely like writing and I've got opinions. Lots. And I'm travelling all over the world, meeting people, experiencing good and bad situations. So some of the stuff might be interesting for other people as well.

The problems are:

1. I'm not a english native speaker, my mother language is german. So I may not be able to express myself well enough, to make the reading agreeable. But I'll try my best.

2. I'm kind of known in the Tango community, but don't want to stay anoymous. So I will try to write about my experiences without hurting or insulting the feelings and opinions of the people I work with: organizers, Tango clubs, collegues and students. But I want to be honest as well. I might therefore write things, that critique what I encounter. I will have to live with the results.
3. I don't want to limit myself to writing about Tango, as I'm interested in other things as well: literature, history, TV shows, people, everyday life... And I don't know, if this mix is interesting enough for the Tango community who knows me and who is mainly interested in Tango. But hey - you don't have to read it. ;-)

Why blog now?
I recently gave an interview with the german Tangoblogger Cassiel, that was also translated and posted by Tangocommuter. Up until then, I had very rarely read blogs and did not feel comfortable with the format. But I kinda got hooked up, when I noticed, how interested readers are and how they respond to blogs. You can really reach a lot of people....

So, here you go...