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. )

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!

                                                                

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!

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

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!

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

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

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. . . . . ]

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 :)  )

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/

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

            

Well done Sebastian and Roxana!

Performing is not necessarily so glamorous and you do not necessarily know how the pista for your performance will look like or how the scene is prepared for you. Still I was surprised finding this!

Roxana is even smiling - real professionals they are!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH2FpSE_utc

DJs on Youtube: Passiontango1

On this Youtube account you find a large amount different tandas you can  combine to a whole dance evening!

Follow the link to the site by cklicking this line!

and you will land on site as below. 

          

Or you prefere to follow an orchestra? On the page below you can find long playlists organized by orchestras and for example you will find a lot of play-ready tandas for d'Arienzo. There is clear risk that your feet are off beforen the playlist has finnished!

This takes you to the page!

        

It will be nice with 43 vals tandas too or what would you prefere? I appreciate the names of the song in the winndow.


https://www.youtube.com/user/passiontango1/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/passiontango1/playlists

Missing the valses!

Performers don't do valses anymore! or more precicely there is only few who do valses.

I have had this feeling for some time and it went down for counting at Forstbite festival in the end of February. There were three performers dancing three songs each with an extra song and this makes the number to 12 performances totally. Not even one vals was included.

It was a week or two afterwards I noticed this fact - so it means that I am not anymore even expecting to hear all three music types during performances.

That is the reason for me to share with you the all time high vals from years back!

According to information on video text this was filmed 2005. I am not sure if this is the original link but this song and performance had a total spell on me. It carried me far a way and still does. At that time Chicho was dancing so differently from other couples, he had such a musicality and as you hear he was appreciated by the crowd!

There is good vals performers but they are not so many. I will come back with my favorites some day!

A musicality that hits my core!

Adrian and Amanda Costa mede it again!  The way they do relate to the music  - I am just dreaming of it!

I can every now and then spot the patterns their teachers - Jorge and Maria Dispari - use but Adrian and Amanda have integrated those steps totally to their OWN dance; they are not puting up some copies.

Please enjoy!  Start by clicking here to a facebook link.

Encuentros milongueros addresses

Here you have some more addresses to find interesting encuentros! CLICK the link and make your choices!

http://www.gatomilongueiro.com/encuentros2/default2.asp

Frostbite 2015: Javier Rodriguez & Noelia Barsi

I have followed Javiers path since 2004 when he was dancing with Ceraldine Rojas.

He has an ability to cooperate with his partners and create an elegant atmosphere and dance. So also with Noelia!





I had some problems with audience geting in a prominent position, therefore I have used this oval framing. I appologize if you can't follow some interesting movements which are happening behind the frame!

DJs on Youtube: Xenia

This late I realized the possibility to listen a milonga evening or part of it on youtube!

Here  you have Xenia!

A capricious joy

The joy of dancing is a capricious companion nowadays!

Earlier it was enough to enter to a tango venue and I was lifted from my daily hassles. I got a clear feeling of dancing, a connection to the music and to my partner for the tanda. It is not so anymore.

During many years I never checked who of my friends was going out to a specific place. I just went there and find my partners there or made new aquintances. Today I don't go if my favorit partners decide to stay at home.

Venues which have put me in the mood for years don't have that power anymore. I do not know why the change is taking place now but I am curious where this new track is going to take me!

One old place is still on top: Pele!

For some reason it has always had a vivid attraction to the crowds here. During long times the only place where we could get some food, drinks and a place to sit down for a talk. It is a family own place and one of the sons is running it now. But his mother is still participating - sitting on the wheelchair and though she doesn't recognize us anymore we chat with her for a while between dances.