Lost my dance!

As stated in the earlier posting my dance has clearly two levels. The stepping mode where i just do the moves and the intense one when the dance comes alive.

To my surprise the daylight situation makes it difficult to reach the dancing level. If you add a crowd dancing in very different styles so the harmonious pista is not developed and I was left craving for my fix!

Stepping vs dancing mode

Sometimes I notice that I am just moving to the music and decide that this is not enough.

I change the mood and the dance comes alive.

There is a change of focus, intensity but not necessarily a change of steps or in musicality. I am though quite sure that this change is visible to an experienced eye!

Environment Impacts the experience

Sometimes I am surprised how important it is to present the movements in a certain way so we can fully enjoy the dance. Here you get two versions of Hiroshi and Kyoko who are dancing in a cafe kind of environment and at a fully set up pista performance.

Does their movements look similar or is there aspects not visible in one of the videos but not in the other?



Hiroshi and Kyoko are champions from 2009

In their casuals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maoFISpmlYA

A performance outfit
https://youtu.be/t3lRcGk-aw0

Dancing feet at Encuentro Stockholm 2014

Please note that these video clips are not with selected dancers but some of the participants on Stockholm Encuentro; they just passed my camera during the song.

The video below starts in mute mode - you can not hear the music. Please let it run so and check the delicate speed changes these feet are doing! Silence reveals these small but skillful changes better!





Here a playlist for the other ones - totally there is 6 small clip!

Playlist 

My timetable for the weekend!

This is my timetable for the weekend I have been seeing forward to since March when it was booked! This Encuentro is one of the strongest cabeceo holds in Europe so it will be interesting to find out how we two go together deep in to the nights! 

The only thing making some worries is this:

It will be HOT hot HOT!

Dreaming away

Sometimes my colleagues have told that they have driven a car for several miles without any possibility to recall what happened. They remember how they started the engine and then the next thing was that they find themselves at home in front of the garage door.

Most of the times this happened during a period of high stress level or tiredness.

I believe though,  that this kind of state of mind, where your body is working properly but the mind is absent, can occur for the dancers too.  Especially for the followers who can close the eyes, and just relax in the movement. It could be a kind of meditative state and I think that the followers, who have experienced of loosing the awareness of time during a tanda, have been somewhere there.

Floor breaking birthday milonga

It feels that a piece of tango historia will turn alive again when Pino together with his own family, is planning to reopen Pele, an old family restaurant.

His parents bought it earlier but from 1994 they have had tango actitivities there and it was here I came when the wether came chillier and I needed to find a place to dance inside. So to Pele we went and met our friends!

Yesterday we started the process by celebrating Pinos birthday and after dancing several hours we broke the floor and carried it out! The new floor will come shortly we hope!





Pino is also His wife organizing one of the oldest and biggest festivals in South Sweden, Tango Camp.

http://www.tangocamp.se/tc/sweden/welcome

Tips from a follower

Every now and then I get a suggestion from a follower about a follower I should dance with. When that suggestion is based on follower's  opinion of a dancers good skill I have most often had a different opinion. I feel that something important is missing for me during the dance! 

I think there is a problem if followers idea of a good follower is not about the same as the leaders have. Both leaders and followers need to develope skill sets which include the most vital skills for the other group in order to create a good dance.

............ but how to find those skill sets?

Keep on telling me could be one method!

Absorbed

The picture from my home pista in the last posting kept me thinking. I was searching the word, which could describe the feeling I got when looking at the dancers and now I have found it!

The word is absorbed. That is the word I feel matches the expressions of these couples!

Your are enjoying, you are dancing, you are learning and fully absorbed in your activity.

To see the image again - see the posting below or click here!

Stockholm & Paris

I have started to take photos and videos at our weekly practica to find a way to visualize the dance there. When I looked this picture so full of life, dance and movement I immediately was moved to another capital and century. What do you think?

Stockholm 2014

Paris 188x

Social tango - A tango for Joe

I think this is considered to be one of the most common stories. You find a place in a tango community and get connected, appreciated again.

When you want to meet Joe, click here!

http://vimeo.com/38262282

Social Tango - SANTA FE Junio 2013

In this video they dance and behind the tables starts the palyground for the kids. Isn't this the ultimate form of social tango? Social tango where your whole life is present!

Una familia milongueando

The whole family is dancing!

Åke y Gertrud a beautiful, calm dance

When I was working on the New Year video this dance took a hold on my eyes! I appreciated the advancing and returning side steps in giro, fitting the way I also hear the music. There were some occasions when they go down together to express the music, performed in concert with all parties! A beautiful, calm dance among other dancers.

Can you se what they are listening to? What they choose to dance to?




This is one of my attempts to give space for those dancing next to me on the pista!

A practica at Alvik, Stockholm

Tango Norte organizes a practica every Wednesday night for about 80-120 people. The night starts with an introduction for beginners or newcomers 18.00 - 19.00 The longtime dancers come at 19.00 and we continue to dance to 21.45

Dancing to Solo Tango

One of the festival bonuses are the breakfast discussions with friends. On Sunday morning we were discussing the Solo Tango orchestra and the easiness to dance to their music. One of friends pointed out the actually obvious fact that Solo Tango is an orchestra in DiSarli tradition and the dancers find their steps easily. Most other orchestras are fascinated about Piazzolla and the steps are different.

Here are we dancing to Solo Tango at Frostbite 2014!





The blur effect is applied for privacy reasons.

Balance, lost in whiteness

I never thought that a room itself could break my balance!

I had been dancing normally an hour or two, when we decided to go to the next milonga. It was a new one for me, located at a photo studio. For those purposes the room was white. I meen totally white; white floor, same white color on walls and the ceiling. The floor was slightly sloping towards the corner where our DJ was playing.

At first tanda I was lost, my balance was gone. Totally lost and it just continued. When talking about it, I heard some other leaders having similar problems and we became aware of that we were missing our guiding lines; the edges where the floor and the wall meet as well as the edge for the ceiling and the wall.
I suppose the followers were more aware of the uneven floor than the whiteness. Same pista but different difficulties!

Anyhow my body learned, adapted and the dance started to flow as usual. Later on I got an idea about using this as a special kind of tough balance training!

Photo Credit: Airi Iliste, Stockholm, 2014

At Milonga Brujo, February 2014