My Tango Diaries

"If I could suggest a theme for our walk it would be : Tango es entre paso y paso. Tango is between one step and the next. Steps are not tango, steps are memory and choreography. Tango can never be in the things that are said. It is in the improvisation. The steps learned in dance schools are not improvisation, they are choreography. Small choreographies, brief ones. Then you learn how to connect one figure to another but one thing is still missing – tango. There is no step." Gavito in “El Farolito”, Oct. 2003 Almost all of Carlos Gavito's dancing that I had seen until this past week, was stage tango . Choreographed, elegant, dramatic. For all the drama, his performances were still more "contained" than many other stage performances. What few clips on YouTube I had seen of his teaching gave me a glimpse of another side of his dancing. Every move was as elegant, and yet perfectly efficient, as it could be made - for his partner and for himself. His movements loo...

. . talking about tango connection. Sallycatway got the ball rolling with her post,, called "The Milongueros I love - The Gift (Pt. 1)" - a brilliant post you should read right away. Really, it's okay, I'll wait. . . . I told you it was brilliant, didn't I? "I have a theory that the milongueros I love the most of all, share a secret. And, it is the secret of how to obtain the gift. The gift is unbelievably precious, is given by women in the tango embrace, and once tasted by a man, cannot be resisted: it will keep him dancing tango, in pursuit of bliss, until the day he dies. "What is the gift? If you dance tango, you’ll probably know what I mean, or maybe you will by the time you’ve finished reading this post. Let me describe the 6 classic bliss-seeking behaviours of all the milongueros I love the most: various combinations of these things guarantee that I will give the gift to them, and these guys know it, the clever devils." Now she asks two ques...

I know I've always talked about how devoted I am to estilo milonguero tango, and I really am - but this looks like so much fun!! Every once in awhile a hear of a class or workshop - so next time I may just have to dive in and give it a try. Thank you Irene and Man Yung, for posting it on your wonderful blog !

At the milonga . . . Me: (Surprised to find myself closely embraced.) I thought you preferred open embrace? Him: I find I prefer what the lady prefers. Me: ♥ ♥ ♥

Flow Watching videos of some milongas in Buenos Aires is mesmerizing for me. The music and dancing are beautiful generally, but, especially with some of the more crowded traditional milongas, if the camera angle is just right, you can see the mass of people moving counter-clockwise as one flowing, beautiful, multi-legged organism. Each couple is doing something different, but they are within the music together, with the rest of the floor. Some dancers call this "flow". When you've felt it on the dance floor, there's nothing else like it. It requires a high level of floorcraft and a certain willingness to not stand out - if that makes sense. Within the flow, my partner and I can relax a little, be soothed by the music, each other, and the mass of bodies around us. It's deeply moving, almost meditative. Blissful. Soothing on an almost cellular level. That is the milonga experience I crave and it's so rare. I hear it's rare pretty much everywhere outside of...

"I've had a few arguments with people, but I never carry a grudge. You know why? While you're carrying a grudge, they're out dancing." --Buddy Hackett One of the trickiest aspects of writing a tango blog, when you are personally known to your tango community and to your readers, is that it creates an added level of insecurity-angsty-ness when you're already feeling your lowest. Now, when sitting and wondering why it feels like everyone is dancing but me - I don't just have the usual favorites, 'Is it my dancing?', 'Is it the way I look?', 'Was it something I said?' - but also, 'Was it something I wrote ?' It's a hazard of the job... er.. hobby. Public posts are like kids wandering around the mall trying out all the new words they heard you say when you were mad. I just run behind them face-palming and saying 'I didn't mean it exactly like that! Well, I kind of did. Seemed like a good idea at the time . . .'...

A tanguero's frustration. He sees "perfection" in the couple before him. A "master" leader able to lead a beginner to dozens of graceful movements while he could not walk her to the cross. "Perfect," he whispers. "Do you think so?" I ask. The follower's face is blissfully light, animated, as if astonished at feeling suddenly gorgeous. "Obviously - look at what she can do in his arms. He's a master! He can lead anything!" He is watching the follower's legs move fluidly from step, to step, weaving in and around her leader. I am watching the leader's face. The master leader is engrossed by his follower's movements. And there it is - a quick change. He had meant to go one way, but her response changed his plan. He smiled, led her comfortably, gracefully into something else. He pays such close attention and never assumes she will be where he led her. Yet there is no furrowed brow, no impatience in the lines of his mo...