Friday, August 7, 2015

The body exceeds its limits!

During the last weekend I participated in the encuentro Stockholm in a close embrace! A wonderful event just a few minutes away from my home! We were offered 26 hours of dancing and the warming up as well as cooling down milongas added 7 more hours to the total number.

I usually get tired just after the midnight but not at this event. I came early and stayed around the pista most of the hours just squeezing out an half an hour here and there.

This was also the first time I withouth doubt experienced the effect of the skilled DJs. During the weekend I felt flames of frustration within me when a tanda was sounding and I did not managed to get a partner at once. Later on it was more difficult when the pista was filled up and it was not possibly to catch an eye on the other side. On Sunday the strategies were better and of my 5,5 hours at the event I danced 5.

I clearly experienced in my body an arousal level above of the normal, a level driving up the number of dancing hours. My usually so morning stiff back was nearly ok but I still expected that the body would be aching some days after the last milonga. It has been so earlier - but no, not this time. Even when all the happiness chemicals had thinned out from my system the pain did not reveal itself.

Here is the program for the weekend and the DJs who put my body in fire!


 I think the change of my basic training in to the cardio direction and the closer relationship to the music are the main reasons for the difference compared to the earlier encuentros.


Friday, July 31, 2015

In Close Embrace: premilonga

Stockholm in Close Embrace

Yesterday the enquentro Stockhom in Close Embrace had a premilonga at one of venues for our  ordinary traditional milongas. The crowd was nearly the double for an ordinary evening and we who came a little bit late could only be seated at the couple area with slight difficulties for mirada. But we danced a lot!

Some of us went for a beer afterwards and when the music catched our ears we could not resist but danced between the tables!























And the video!  When you hear the music you understand how desperately we still wanted to dance!



Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Follower navigating

Sometimes when the floor is uneasy some followers start to take responsibility for navigation by indicating for troubles behind the leaders neck. It is mostly a discrete pull with her left hand suggesting that the leader should change direction or something.

It has happened earlier but I can not recall any memories of these early warnings. Today I find it quite disturbing! Most of the times the warning comes just a fraction before my change of direction but still it interferes the dance rhythm, the natural flow of movements.

If the couple has been involved in several and severe bumps when the axes of the couples are shaking - then there is reason to interfere. But why should you do it in other cases?

Once when the pista was very crowded a follower commented: I opened my eyes and was frightened - the other couples were so near! I decided to keep the eyes closed during the rest of this tanda and the leader got to cope with the situation.




Thursday, July 23, 2015

Two Brains in Sync?

NeuroTango Experiment: Two Brains in Sync

The first attemts to check in what degree you share a same experience during a tanda. The experiment leaders were suspicious about the blue couple - Are their brains this syncronized or is the equipment broken?
The lowest level of sync was found when the couple was listening a song in embrace or thinking of a song. So my conclusion is in direction of dancing - better to dance to get in sync with my partner.





Here you find the whole blog posings even with more videos!
http://www.werklig.com/solutions/kyro-distillery-company/

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

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

Monday, July 20, 2015

Korea: My best info

This is a personal collection of facts and observations which made my trip comfortable, or made it possibly to reach my goals.

Tourist help number 1330
The turist number 24/7 is an unbelievable service which you can call to to get detailed informations about traveling in South Korea or for translation services when you are standing on the street. Next time I will even skype call them from home when planning my trip.  (link below!)

Traveling email account
I have created a traveling email account  and during my trip all the mails from my ordinary accounts are forwarded to this account. This keeps me calm when I need to check my mails on less secure computers.

I was happy about this when the disastrous login happened! The hostel had a totally new, nice computer with Windows 8 - all in korean and I did not managed to change the language in a hurry. I did as I used to at home and checked the mails but when wanted to log out I could not!  After clicking around I understood that I had installed my mail account as the main account on this computer - with other words my mails were the first thing the visitors met when logging in to this PC. Not a good thing!

The guys in charge did not know what to do (I thought all younger guys in Korea were hackers - Disappointing!) I did not want to open an other account for a new disaster but a few days later I changed the PW - to my surprice it took nearly 2 hours to run through. 

Credit cards: Visa most reliable
I had problems with my card and the ATM messages were erroneous telling me: Your card has been closed down. or Your card is invalid. I was travelling alone and when getting these messages when I had 3 weeks to go - you can easily imagine that I felt quite stressed.

At similar situation you may try a different machine and look for a new, shiny machine a one with visible credit card icons. Some machines also spell - International card - All these machines provided me money - but they took an extra fee for the service.

Cash card
I bought this card for several years ago for the underground trips in Seoul and surprisingly it was still working now! I used it as mentioned below but I know that it is working in taxis too and far more occasions.






Underground: Seoul, Daejeon as well as in Busan
Cash card: In several convenience stores
Reload: I reloaded it at convenience stores /underground stations.

Long distance busses and train
I never made an reservation and still the departures were within 15 minutes after the purchase but I did not have strict schedule so I could take the risk. Trains work as home. Busses made a stop after driving about one hour - I took a photo with the licence plate and the buss stop number on the ground visible in case I went to the bathroom or shops. It is lovely to continue the trip on the same buss your things are on. This worked for sight seeing busses too

Directions: There is different buss terminals for directions - north going or east going bussies may have separate terminals. 
Type of buss: Intercity or express buss terminals may have different locations.
You always fix your own luggage: open the side of the buss, place your luggage and close.

Underground and local buses
The underground is the easiest way to get around - the maps are available and to follow the trip advancing is easy. I found it very helpful to take photo of the exit signs. Here is an example from Busan where you can see the information options!






Exit #8, 
Station name in Korean; 
Station number and name in 3 additional language.
Timetable information - see below the zoomed photo


Information about the first and last train in both directions



I used local busses only a very few times but the camera was very helpful here too. I showed my goal on the map (paper or saved in my camera or phone) and they discussed lively untill they gave me a suggestion pointing the right buss number.  The start /end stops are shown in the photo and I could follow the stops passing by on the buss' electronic sign board.






Accomodation and food
There was risk to put long hours on surfing among the different options for night and dinner. I decided to stick to my guide book and choose an option at suitable price level. I had a goal for average price for one night so sometimes it was higher and sometimes lower to end up at acceptable average level.

I think I know 2/3 of the alphabet and it was enough to read the most of the signs. I learned to copy the city names to show when buying the tickets - My nightmare was to end up at a totally different city because of my bad pronunciation - never happened though!


Internet translation
Usually the browser translation service was not working at all.  When needed I copied the most important text to google translation which to my surprice worked as usuall!!



Tourist help number and site
http://asiaenglish.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/GK/GK_EN_2_7_1.jsp


Busses
https://www.google.se/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=south%20korea%20bus&es_th=1



Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Dancing in Busan!

In Busan they have several milongas and a few of them are listed on the Milongas-in.com site. (someone said the number was over 10 milongas)

I had possibility to visit one of them; the Friday night milonga organized by TangoBi.
This lady had the power over our music, loading energy to our feet!


As usual in Korea the community was friendly and talkative and easy going group of people.  Cabeceos were clearly answered and the followers were waiting seated until you get there. Friends were behaving as friends are behaving all over the world and just asked for a dance after a chat.



Later in the evening a group of teachers and other organizers were joining the milonga and even there I got a few nice dances and a chat.

Some milongas in Busan
http://milongas-in.com/milongas-in-asia.php?c=Korea&city=Busan#Busan

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Dancing in Pohang!

I found information about the tango in Pohang on the milongas-in.com site, wrote to them and soon I got a friendly mail responce. We even met during the Seoul Tango festival and Patrick's wife was kind to dance with me at one of the evenings! 

When I come to a new town and plan to visit a milonga I often choose to explore during the day the part of town where the milonga is located. When the pista is placed higher up in the house in a djungle of small streets around you will for sure have  difficulties to find the address in the darkness, it is easy to miss the signs fully visible for the locals.

On the very evening of my visit the community had its birthday celebrations! Three of the members had their day within the range: Pay attention to the wine glases! So here you have the cake and the greetings! I am sorry not presenting any videos of that specific tango but I was dancing - even following here!

                    

This milonga has been run for about 10 years, organized by Ja Kang Jung. It is a warm, talkative, friendly dancing community. It was pity that the day with traveling and unorganized meals lowered my blood sugar level so I lost the energy before the milonga ended. I missed even when the group went out for a beer and continued birthday celebrations. 

With other words I definitely have a reason to return with better planning!


                                                                                                                        

Frederico and Selen have been teaching here for years while living in Pohang. Today some of the members are running the basic courses and the community is organizing workshops with visiting teachers to get more influences! Next couple to come is Andres Laza Moreno and Luciana Arregui - What a good choice! 

If you decide to visit Pohang I am sure these dancers will give you a warm welcome!


















(The picture is taken by midnight and it seems someone has already fallen in sleep! :) )


My contact persons in town!     배성곤 (Patrick) and  이진형  - you find them in facebook!



Facebook link for the milonga
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152791235680846&set=a.10150644800240846.385539.638125845&type=1&theater

Organizers photos in Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152793812150846&set=pcb.10152793813240846&type=1&theater

Andres Laza Moreno and Luciana Arregui   a Facebook announcement   
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=482452801917239&set=gm.845901482163183&type=1&theater


Sunday, July 5, 2015

Dancing in Daejeon!

After the festival in Seoul my next stop was Daejeon. I visited the city for first time 2012 and met the dancers in a milonga.  I was hapy to visit the Azucar community again! The group is small but has been learning and dancing for a long time!

The evening starts with a lesson and continues with a practica for a few hours. So even this night! I came late because I got lost in the darkness -  I just couldn't recall to what direction I should go from the underground station and turned to opposite.  I met some helpful, party people and got to the right road!

The friendly people and one familiar face from the last visit made my night! I was even following for some songs! Here you see some members dancing - two couples in front and the others in the mirror!
























Later in the evening I filmed this couple dancing a milonga! It was not a performance but just a play for fun and we enjoyed! Well done! 



Beelzebub y Saerom and it is true a Devil he is in leading a milonga!

There is at least two more milongas/practicas in Daejeon and you find them via the link below or by asking people you learn to know!


A search page for milongas in the world!
http://milongas-in.com/milongas-in.php

( To ask for directions in Korea can be difficult. When I asked at the metro station I think I misunderstood the answer, the sign language. The party people used a translation program in the mobile and then the turist 7/24 help phone line to solve the situation! People + technics => solution is an ever amazing combination in this country!  Just dial 1330 to Information Center and ask for service in English. )


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Seoul: El Tango Cafe


Retro Milonga,  DJ: Felipe (San Francisco)

Farewell Milonga,  DJ: Lung-Kuei (Taipei)

This venue was just a 15 mins walk from my hotel so it is easy to take a short walk but it can still be a challenge to end up to the right door. The last few turns I managed by tailing a couple with NEO TANGO bag hanging from the shoulder!

Once more this is totally ok venue for a slower milonguero style group but the young dynamic version of tango made the situation a liiiiittle bit difficult.

This evening was also the nigth of international performances. All the couples had one song to do and they were not aware of which it could be but the organizer had decided it for them - it was a kind of game and the dancers could show their real skill in improvisation!  And they did!

The organizer had tighten up the regim compared to my last visit and even these performances were esclusively dedicated to organizers camera.

The Masters for this year had also good time!  Later in the evening Jorge and Marita Dispari were on the floor with a joyful rock'n roll. We enjoyed it and it looked that they had as much fun as we. Some other caribean rythms were irresistible and the rest of masters ended up to the floor too.

The Korean atmosphere is joyful and people really can have fun and play!
(hmmmm, . . .have i been fixated on this phrase or smthing? ? ?  )




We had two nights at this venue and these videos are from the first one: May first!

                                                                





Thursday, June 11, 2015

Seoul: SC Convention Gangnam

Grand Milonga,  DJ: Anthony (Sydney)

This is the main milonga, the most expencive and spaceous one during the festival. There was a proper buffet too to start the evening with. I can tell you it was delicious!

At the table we were very talkative, chatting away a great part of the night: Three from Finland, one from Malaysia and a Korean leader. What a conversations we created! The dancing was thou not so succesfull and for my concern there will not be so much dancing. I have not managed to catch my dance feeling it seems to be somewhere else.

The main event for the night were the performances of all the masters. They were very beautifull, all of them were beautifull. This year Javier Rodrigues came alone and his first dance was with Maria Dispari. She did an different kind of dance with Javier, playing with music and feet in a new way! Nice to se! (all the performances are loaded at organizers youtube account)

The Korean/Asian crowd is the best one in the whole world to show their appreciation. They start cheering when the couple walks to the pista, next ovations come when they hear what song will be danced. At the end they are cheering, waiving their arms in a way I never heard or seen before! It must be wonderful to be performing here! Listen to the wery end of the perfomances to get an impression!

This kind of atmosphere gets us to relax and invites us to open up our minds for playing, having fun! The teachers are not made of stone so this appreciation and playfullness will even make them to enjoy their job, performig and afterwards to dance socialy.

This night we had also a Korean live orchester lead by the bandoneon player Sangji Koh. You find her orchestra and us dancing in the video below!





If you want to know more about Sangji and her life you get quite a lot information here to start with! Burning For Tango Koh, Sangji : http://foundmag.net/51455


But we others continue with a tango!  



The evening get even better when I got my shoes back! They were found at Lime studio and taken to the yesterdays milonga by the owner! Thanks, thanks a lot. I am happy again!


Saturday, June 6, 2015

Seoul: Lime Dance Studio

Welcome Milonga,  DJ: Xiao Bai (Shanghai)

This Thursday evening was the first festival night and we celebrated it at the Lime Dance Studio. There had been a late change of place because this event had grown in popularity and a bigger place was needed and still it was crowded, very crowded! This number of people at an encuentro is maybe not an issue but here where people are mostly dancing tango salon it is difficult - the dancing is more dynamic, outgoing, with figures and playfulness. I got a boleo which did actually not hit me but the circular movement was driving around in my cloths and she needed a moment to get out!    :)


  


I had some dances with visiting milongueras who knew how to take the steps on a small space. Lucky me!


                      
 

It was allso wonderful to reconnect with the teachers I have been taking lessons for several years!

I was so unfocused in the end of the evening that my shoes were left behind. My favorites with the sole for every floor, How will my life be without you?


Seoul tango festival 2015
http://www.seoultangofestival.com/2014/11/2015-seoul-tango-festival-april-30-may-1.html

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Seoul: Royal Tango House

Singles Milonga,  DJ: Yojine (Seoul)

I set off to this milonga with a plan not to dance at all but take some pictures and then leave the place early. I kept the first part of my plan but I stayed nearly to the very end. The athmosphere was that nice!

I still cannot figure out what makes a venue more attractive and keeps me back there the whole night while others are more easy for an early departure. This evening made me hang around for a long time!

To give you an impression about the dencity on the pista check these images. The space to next couple is just not so much here!














This event was also the first time in my tangolife where I have seen a natural mix of teachers dancing with each others, with other dancers or together just for fun!


Saturday, May 30, 2015

Seoul: Tango O'Nada

Warm-up Milonga, DJ: Benjamin (Seoul)

It was easy to find to Tango O'Nada just following the instructions on the site - you find the URL below - and it was generous too with the payment. No one at the door collecting the fees but a bowl on the bar table. When you pay your 10.000W you get a drink and I choosed to have a bottle with a cap to take with me when it was time to go home!


The crowd was young and very skilled dancing tango salon. They were musical, placing the feet exactly and not shoveling around at all. Many dancers were expressing the music in the body, dissociating beautifully, lowering and raising the body softly to the music.

Most of the leaders managed a quite dynamic dance in a space usually llocated by the crowded pista. Only one younger Asian leader and a long legged foreigner clearly needed a double space at the ronda.

There was even a very skilled female leader and you can spot her here in a white shirt, black trousers and a scarf around the neck as an alternative tie.

                     


And here some feet!
You can even see how beautifully the outer line is formed!
        


Tango O'Nada in Seoul: the link below gives you the map as well as the instructions how to get there!
http://www.milonga.kr/xe/map

http://milonga.kr/xe/index.php?mid=map

On this page you find several more addresses to Korea milongas.
Before your trip try to contact the organizer via the email addresses provided. Sometimes the venue addresses and times are changed.

http://milongas-in.com/milongas-in-asia.php?c=Korea&city=Seoul#Seoul



Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Seoul tango festival - some Facts and opinions!










You find all the information about this festival on their home page! 
http://www.seoultangofestival.com/2014/11/2015-seoul-tango-festival-april-30-may-1.html

The videos posted by the organizer at El Bulin channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/florenciatango/videos

Here you find the opinions of some other Finish visitors on their blog! (2011)
https://movementinvitesmovement.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/we-heart-the-seoul-tango-festival/

My postings can be found by a search with a lable KOREA on this blog and videos in Youtube!
https://www.youtube.com/user/LeenaTango/videos


Thursday, April 16, 2015

Tango for the brave - Saxtas


I like the sound here!  And the dancing!

       






Tango and Parkinson's desease

Here you have the conclusions for the study how Argentine tango effects on persons with Parkinson's disease:

Conclusion
Argentine tango can improve balance, and functional mobility, and may have modest benefits upon cognition and fatigue in Parkinson’s disease. These findings must be confirmed in longer-term trials explicitly powered for cognition and fatigue.

“Tango for treatment of motor and non-motor manifestations in Parkinson’s disease: A randomized control study” by Silvia Rios Romenets, Julius Anang, Seyed-Mohammad Fereshtehnejad, Amelie Pelletier, and Ronald Postuma in Complementary Therapies in Medicine. Published online February 9 2015 doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2015.01.015

The following link gives you a some lengthier text:  http://neurosciencenews.com/parkinsons-tango-dancing-neurology-1948/

[In the end of this URL they have numbers 1948. I assume it is not the year when this study was done. . . . . ]

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Tango took me to the stage!

One of my long time tango friends produced a play for a private theater in town. I was asked to join the team to produce and run the visuals for this play and my wild mind said Thank You and I will fix that!

It was ok to produce the videos and prepare the existing for better quality but I did not have a clue how to show them professionally! I got a phone number to a person who is working with media production and the hard message was that he had not been able to find any reliable tool for a PC. He was using Mac.

His advice was to use VLC player and extended screen on computer. This advice did put me on a reasonable track and after some training at home with a smal Pico projector I completed my part of the production.

The team was wonderful and the performance was great so we are now preparing an extra perfomance within some weeks!


                                    The story of the couple dance!     



(PS.  I was dancing too!  A part of an candombe and then later some bad steps :)  )


Thursday, April 2, 2015

Heads on top, please

No we are not ballroom dancers and the Throwaway Oversway is not on our training list! Maybe some quebradas. Men anyhow we also bend the head forward and so we are rocking the same boat! Risky for our neck!










The whole story you find by cklicking here, this very line!


http://www.delta.dance/2015/03/the-biggest-mistake-dancers-make/

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Happy birthday!

A new trend is growing - this is not the first invitation!  :)

Saturday, January 16, 2016 is my birthday.
I will have a small event of some sort, wil arrange it after xx and I has arrived to Buenos Aires on Monday 11/1

So ... you're invited to come and celebrate with me




A tango film about why we dance

  https://youtu.be/QFs1VGbTnls