Female leaders 2009

I want to share a playlist of early female leaders dancing in public! Check your favorites!

One of my favorites is the number 13 on the list. Alejandra Mantinan is leading and she is doing it REALLY well!

https://youtu.be/Xj10sM2U5QQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8UI-llsDLQ&list=PL-XFTL-1U1LN6L0GnFrViuli5RnYq1QPB&index=10

An early female leader

Fabiano Sharna is a longtime female leader who started among the first female leaders in the world to lead in public!

Here some of the thoughts she want to share with us others

. . . report greater satisfaction with their overall social tango experience when they share learning and dancing time with other women.

. . . Beyond my own story, though, one of the biggest reasons I continue to offer events for women is simply to keep them dancing! I want tango to be healthy and inspiring for women and the truth is that it is not always that.

. . . Because when women DO stay involved for the long haul, and find ways to enjoy tango on their own terms, everyone wins! The community as a whole grows stronger and benefits both from their dancing skills and also from a multitude of creative contributions that range from DJ-ing to dressmaking.


The whole story you can find via the link below:
http://www.sharnafabiano.com/blog/2016/4/27/lady-leaders

She has been working on these aspects for a long time. Here her thoughts from 2011

Uneven lovely dance - is hard compensation

"If we are dependent on having a “good partner”, then we aren’t actually very good dancers."

This was the essence of the blog linked below!

When you are only dancing with partners who are vigorously compensating your low skill level to keep the dance going on you are developing a wrong image about your skill. You probably are not working on the most severe problems in your technique because you are not aware of them, you newer meet your devils.

The whole story!
https://karenkaye.net/2015/06/13/delusions-of-competence/

I still think that the BEST COMBO is when the partners are about at the same level!

Demography of some BA milongas

I do not know the origin of this graph but it is fun to check and as I see it has some real relevance!

To predict a break up of your tango group

It seems that there is quite concrete way to find out if a group has reach a stage when a polarization of the group will split the it to two parts. When I was aware of this mechanism I became more calm and the split was easier to accept.

Mathematical analysis of the break point for a group. Read it because it could do your day some easier too!

This article points out that the dynamics for groups and relationships seems to have different mechanisms. For groups the high number of shared connections is good but for relationship more separated friendship clusters are stabilizing the couple.

http://blogs.mathworks.com/loren/2015/09/30/can-we-predict-a-breakup-social-network-analysis-with-matlab/

Ridiculous difficulties!

During my tango years I have become aware of the fact that we are transforming a simple process of dancing to something difficult!  We define the distances, the way we approach the dance partner and all the other small details presented.

Your can open a door but if you need to do it in the Finnish way - then the whole process will turn to  VERY complicated collection of steps which are nearly impossible to perform smoothly!

When watching this old video you could think about your tango history in a class!

    the rhythmically correct way, the critical left foot step, to change weight correctly

 some other similarities? 

There are English subtitles for you if your Finish language skills need some support

Shouldn't we start to reclaim the easy way to learn?

The mishmatch shoes

She visited Buenos Aires and bought shoes. Different colors but same model, the only one fitting her capricious feet.
At home the pairs were worn out after months of dancing but she liked the model and the old lady who was running the shop was trusted. So the next pair was ordered at distance and was delivered across the Atlantic.

It was a disaster. The new pair did not fit.

After some time she was traveling to Buenos Aires again and the shoes with her!

The shopkeeper took a good look at the model, checked the dimensions, asked some questions about my friends special needs and when there wasn't any she said that the shoes were wrongly build!

The front part was size 37 as it should but the heel belonged to a size 38. That was the reason of the bad fit. But that wasn't a problem for her because they could rebuild the shoe, open up the heel and place a correct size 37 there.

When my friend showed the reminds of the earlier pairs, the highly beloved ones, she offered to restore them. Her team could open up the shoe, replace some of the worn out parts and then complete the reparation. That message gave back happy pista for her and some of the other followers my friend met there!

Korea tango - historic and modern

Asia did participitate in the tango boom before the wwII. Here we have a Korean dancer singing a tango.  Seung-Hee Choi - A Garden in Italy 1936

Yuna Kim is not a dancer but a skater and she is sharing the underlying Korean musicality! You may watch the whole performance but if in a hurry check the link to the English speaking commentator who is extatic about her musicality! Starts at 3m10s

https://youtu.be/Vh-850kqJoE?t=3m10s

Here the whole performance - a tango hardly recognized as so . . .

Yuna Kim 2007 World Championships SP El Tango De Roxanne

(British EuroSport Ver. / Kor sub)

And at the end some actual Argentine tango dancing

(Rare!) Seung-Hee Choi - A Garden In Italy (1936)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5x8Ms3s2So

Yuna Kim 2007 World Championships SP El Tango De Roxanne
(British EuroSport Ver. / Kor sub)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh-850kqJoE

Popes birthday dance!

No he is not dancing but the enthusiastic crowd is doing it! Here is the evidence:

Another documentary is quite a lot longer if you are interested!  :)

Even leaders dance at 96

Most of the videos featuring an old tango dancer, a real old one, have been about the followers, about the great grannies!

Here we have a video showing that a leader can be in charge at 96!

96th Birthday Milonga for Alex Turney with Fernanda Ghi, Guillermo Merlo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6GweF98USo

The new layout!

As you see it looks different now! Hopefully it is easier to find the postings you are interested in!

Some of the old functions are hidden in the very right side edge! Just hover around there and they will pop up again like in this picture attached.

This dynamic layout provides us the possibility to explore the blog in different ways - YOU decide!!

Check the alternatives under the blog name  CARAMBA!

My personal favorite is the second alternative from the left, the light grey one - Flipcard!
You get a thump nail for every posting and this gives you a easy overall picture of the total blog content.

Try it!!  Which is your favorite!

Encuentro Notches de Invierno

Just after the New Year I participated in the Encuentro Milonguero Notches de Invierno in Raichenau, Austria. This was my second time and the event was nice and as well organized as ever!

I had my new camera with me producing videos only in H265 format and it seems to be a bigger problem to get good editing option for that . . .

Here anyhow some of the photos taken with the high speed option!  With other words the base for these GIF animations are ordinary photos taken in sequence.

The dancing one of the nights!

. . . and clearing the pista!

Address to the website
http://www.nochesdeinvierno.com/en/

Shoe storage you didn't think

I am reorganizing at home  - a smaaaal one room flat - and run across this!

You can also use it as a feet rest after an arduous milonga night!

The idea is at the end of this video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2xoemzJjmc

The knitting needles in new hands!

According to the stories from the early days of tango the mothers were following their daughters to the milonga! They were sitting there and watching what was going on and taking care of the young family members. I can see the virtual scenery where these mothers are sitting in the back ground, in the shadows of a milonga and some of them are knitting so the time was not waisted.

Yesterday evening I have seen the opposite!

The daughter was sitting in the milonga sofa and knitting! She was knitting and meanwhile her mother took the tandas!

A giant shoe building!

No one mentioned the word tango in the article below about the Church in Taiwan but there  m u s t  be some energetic followers behind this building!

Your find the BBC article via the link below

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35320373

Sundays at 3Esquinas

We have a very popular Sunday late afternoon milonga called 3Esquinas with different DJs.
My exceptional Saturday mood had calmed down but the dancing was still ok. The thing not ok was the loud volume preferred by the DJ and organizer!

I have on my phone a basic type of decibel indicator and the level for this night was constantly over 80db and many times 85db.

I did talk to the dj and he even came to the pista for a check and YES! he turned the volume down for a while but it did creep upwards again quite soon.

The organizer loves chacarera and every now and then there is a workshop and one or two dance options during the following milonga!

If you are interested to have a healthy music volume try to download an app for your mobile. When you can show the actual noise level in the room it is easier to discuss - maybe the only option - and to find a sound level below the harmful one.

(Today the only milonga (among the few I am visiting regularly) where they keep the sound level on a nice level is the RuntRunt milonga! )

The mystery of changed mood

Last weekend I started my Saturday round with very low expectations similar to the grey November weather outside. The first stop was Comme il faut - a monthly milonga with strict traditional setup - where I usually have good tandas. But not this time - I just couldn't get in to right mood, just couldn't get into the music or connect to the followers. Only the most experienced followers could reach to me at the bottom of this evening!

I left the place around 9PM to get to my second stop. It was a walk in the darkness.

At arrival I decided to fulfill my promise to dance some tandas and then go home. I started the tanda with my longtime partner and after a half tanda we nearly fell down when she suddenly went to an unleaded sideways volgada in a direction where I had just a fraction of possibility to support her.

But this was the start signal for an amazing night!

After that our bodies started to cooperate seamlessly in a amazing way. Her movements have never been so relaxed and exact! My body must have moved in a similar way because we got deep into an exalted flow and you can not reach there alone but both need to be in the same mood!

We did all the tandas we could manage before we noticed the first signs of fatigue. I danced just one more tanda and left for home. Such a highly memorable night!

           

 


Milonga RuntRunt








RuntRunt is also the only milonga keeping the ear-friendly volume!
I made some metering in milongas I visited during last 7 days and it is a huge advantage to be able to dance without earplugs!

Eleonora Kalganova Women's Technique 5

When you see her dancing you will remember her!

The footwork is fantastic and I understand why after seeing her exercise. They differ from other videos because the movements are so small that you are actually able to apply this on your dance, and use on the pista!

Enjoy!





Here you have a walz from September this year!

Sebastian Arce Mariana Montes interview subtitled

My top favorite, elegant artists in tango!

In this video Mariana is talking a lot also :) You will hear about the background for moving to Europe and their experiences while here.

TangoTalks - your traveling companion

Sometimes I feel that just listening the music and dancing is not enough. I have allways loved to study and my brain is often hungry wanting to know some theoretical explanations or stories about deeper personal experiences in tango.

Now I put my hope on TangoTalks. This website presents one hour long interviews with tango personalities.

I found this site for not a long time ago so I do not know how it will be working for me but I am traveling some days in the future and have a plan to listen to these episodes on the go.

Click this line to land the site!

http://reportango.net/RT/TangoTalks.html