Saturday, June 28, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Tango Push-Ups?
Mmmm. I think only push ups.
Posted by
La Tanguera
at
7:35 PM
2
comments
Labels: Life is a Milonga, Tango Road
Saturday, June 7, 2008
And the Tango blogosphere keeps on growing...
Posted by
La Tanguera
at
12:19 PM
1 comments
Labels: Blogs
Monday, June 2, 2008
Tango-Compatible Outfits: The Ironic History of Corsets and Tango

"1913 was the Year of the Tango all over the world. Tango was the couple dance everyone wanted to learn. In this year the Tango Teas began at the Waldorf Hotel in London, picking up the fashion of Tes Dansants from Paris, and a grand Tango ball held in the Selfridges department store was declared the event of the season. All of Europe was dancing the Tango. There were many disapproving voices, but the mania had bitten.
Fashions in clothing, already changing away from the restrictions of the Victorian corset and hooped skirts, changed more quickly under the influence of the Tango. It is said that women in Paris abandoned the corset in order to dance it. The feathers in women's hats moved from horizontal, sweeping across in front of the face, to vertical, going up from the forehead, letting a couple dance without the feather getting in the Tango partner's way. Tulip skirts, which opened at the front, made dancing easier. Women were sold not just Tango shoes, but Tango stockings, Tango hats, Tango dresses, and anything else that manufacturers could think of. And the colour of Tango was orange."


Posted by
La Tanguera
at
10:00 PM
7
comments
Labels: Tango clothing, Tango History
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
A note about Denver...
I love this Festival...
Posted by
La Tanguera
at
12:06 AM
6
comments
Labels: Festivals
Friday, May 16, 2008
Finally... !
So, part of the rough period is over. More (and perhaps tougher) roughness will come, I know. But, just for today, I'm really looking forward to:
- Dancing again this weekend, fearless and full of emotion, with my heart out, remembering always to embrace the person.
- Dancing during the week, as much as possible, letting myself flow more and more into that life full of dance that I've been missing so much in past weeks...
- Traveling to Denver's Milonguero Tango Festival--- oohhhh, I so much love that Festival :) :) and even more so since it involves traveling and dancing a lot with Mr. Bear ;) (cross fingers!!!!)
Ahhh... :)
Posted by
La Tanguera
at
9:34 PM
2
comments
Labels: Life is a Milonga, Tango Addiction
Saturday, May 10, 2008
My You-Tube-Tango-Hours: Why do I watch Tango Videos?
Still missing my chances to dance, I look for one of my old, most favorite videos: Geraldine and Javier dancing to Canaro's "Poema". As I watch, my heart beats strongly...
In the last few days, I've been thinking a bit about a post by our dear Miss Tango in Her Eyes --always so insightful -- where she confesses that she does not go too crazy for You-Tube-Tango but, rather, she often gets bored by them.
Actually, I have heard something similar before from other people as well. The usual line is "I love *dancing* Tango, I do not like *watching* Tango". In fact, I can empathize completely: for anyone who has experienced the wholesome of a good, blissful, connected Tango, watching others dance can well mean next to nothing.
But, you know? To me, it does. Not always, certainly, but there are some special times in which I catch some videos that leave me gasping for air. Some that make my heart stop. Some that make my heart beat very hard. Some that make me feel butterflies in my stomach, and some that make me feel as if I were crying inside, with the each of the steps, with each of the notes of the music.
I'm not really sure why. In fact, I often go back to the videos I have posted here in my blog, to watch them. Each one of them has made me feel something important. Some very strong emotion, that comes back to me every time I push "play" on the little screen in my computer.
The funny thing is, there is *that* other crowd of "You-Tube-Tango-Watchers" who I'd call "The Pragmatics". Curiously, these are often men, who watch with extremely careful attention for specific steps, repeat certain sections of the video again and again and again, trying to memorize what the leader is doing. And once they feel they got it, they stand up and try to replicate what they just watched. I often have the impression that this kind of Tanguero has divorced himself from the feeling the dance provoked on him in the first place. It may well have been that a high note of emotion was what caught his initial attention to the step, but once he's into the "learning" mode, it is all about understanding the mechanics of the steps. And I bet that there are many Tangueros that browse videos not looking for the feeling per se, but for something interesting to learn about the technique of the dance.
I definitely do *not* belong to this class. To me, the technique details are a bit of a blurr when I'm watching. It's not that I'm not amazed by them --just as an example, Javier and Geraldine's interpretation of "Poema", and Ezequiel and Sabrina's dance to "El Patético" never cease to leave me breathless with their technical perfection. But the thing is, in the end, I don't browse Tango You-Tube Videos looking for a step to learn, or an adornment to copy. I am in search of the bliss that watching something completely beautiful and artistic can provide me. A wonderful moment in which I can see, with my own eyes, the ideal of perfection captured in 3 very concrete minutes of a type of beauty that really gets into my heart. And it encompasses the greatest musicality, the most wonderful connection, the living representation of the music I love.
Needless to say, this is not something that comes with every video. Indeed, there is mediocrecy everywhere, sometimes coming even from the Masters. But it does come from time to time, and when I find it, I am happy.
And I should add, perhaps, that I don't really look for dancer "names" most of the time. Very often, my You Tube search is triggered by a sudden urge of listening to this or that song that is playing in my head. If I don't know the name of the song, but I'm lucky enough that it has lyrics, I "google" them to find the song's title... then, I look for videos that would allow me to listen to it and savor it right away. At times, this has led me to great videos of Tango singers (Gardel's Yira Yira is one of my favorites) or of Tango Orchestras (like this one from an incredibly powerful D'Arienzo performance). On others, it's led me to discover all types of dancing couples.
Anyway... Just a reflection on this issue. What about you? Why do *you* watch You-Tube-Tango?
Posted by
La Tanguera
at
11:27 PM
7
comments
Labels: Tango Addiction, Videos


