Last Sunday Lina and I went to see our friend Jennifer sing in a live concert at a club called La Biblioteca. It’s a great little spot, although the sound system could use some help. We could hear the piano just fine, but Jenn’s lovely voice was a bit quiet. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it.
She was doing a tribute to Diana Krall, singing some of her arrangements. Lina is a big Diana Krall fan, and of course I’m proud she is Canadian! Here’s a little clip from the show.
Here are the first videos with Ale, my new tango teacher. He’s a really good teacher as well as lots of fun, and I’m learning a lot of new things from him. He was very into this video, and he wore his white tango shoes and his milonga hairstyle for the occasion! We made two videos, one tango and one milonga.
There are many famous, classic tango orchestras, each with its own distinctive style. My favourite is Carlos Di Sarli, known as El Señor de Tango—the Gentleman of Tango. His music is lush and romantic, and we danced the first video to my favourite of his songs, Indio Manso.
There are three variations on tango: tango, vals and milonga. Vals is a tango version of the waltz, danced to kind of waltz music but in tango embrace and with tango steps. Personally, I don’t like it much, preferring the other two. While tango tends to be either melancholy or romantic, or a combination of the two, milonga is a faster rhythm, kind of tricky steps and it’s upbeat and fun.
I think you’ll see the difference between the two—I hope you enjoy them. (Ale would love to have your comments!)
Last night my friend Susan, who lives just a couple of blocks up the street from me, held her annual tango party. Her apartment is on the 13th floor, and the outside terrace is spectacular. That’s where we did most of our dancing, under the stars and with the twinkling of Susan’s Christmas lights in the background. So romantic!
I didn’t want to be spending my time making videos, because I just wanted to dance, but I did shoot just this little short one at the beginning to give you a feel for the event.
Susan has quite a lot of tango friends, and she selected some great dancers for the party. I danced with everyone there for about three hours, and then wandered home tired but very happy.
Gracias, Susan!
A couple of months ago I was interviewed by Kathy Barthel, a friend and client in Toronto, for her podcast, The B.R.A.T. Show.
Unlike other podcast interviews I’ve done for my business, this one was an interview about my life, past and present, and my move to Argentina. It went live on YouTube today, and I thought you might enjoy it.
Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkpCr3cs02s
I realize once again that I do look better with my glasses on!
On Friday I called my friend Joanna to see if she’d like to go out for dinner on Saturday. She said she’d love to, but she had a ticket for a show. If I wanted to go with her, that would be great. I jumped online and got a ticket, and we were set.
We had dinner first in an old-school Buenos Aires restaurant that was OK, and close to the show venue. It’s a great spot called The Backroom, in a larger place called Borges 1975, which is the actual address. I had been there before with a group of friends. The room was dim, almost full when we arrived, and the stage was full of a variety of musical instruments.
We found a table right at the front. Joanna was particularly pleased because the piano player was someone she sings with quite a lot. She said he was an excellent pianist and she wanted to watch his fingers!
The music was a fascinating fusion of tango and jazz. I wasn’t sure I’d like it, being more a fan of tango than jazz, but it was great. Here’s a little taste of it on video, and a couple of shots of the two of us. It was a great night. (For some reason I can’t embed the video in the usual way, so here’s the link to watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=100QUEAJP4A )
On Saturday afternoon a few of us went up to our favourite people-watching haunt, La Biela. As on other occasions, there was a professional tango dancing couple doing their thing. I asked the guy, Gustavo, if he was willing to dance with us and he said of course. So Lina and I had a go.
A word of explanation. The word milonga has two meanings. It’s the place where you go to dance tango, but it’s also a dance in its own right, or at least a variation of tango. While tango tends to be quite slow and dramatic, and usually melancholy, milonga is a faster happier dance. It’s also quite tricky. When I asked Gustavo if we could dance milonga, he suggested we dance a tango first—Lina and I agreed that he wanted to be sure I could keep up first before he risked milonga! Anyway, I must have passed his test, because he was happy to lead me in a fun, upbeat milonga too.
As I told him Lina was a better dancer than I am, having danced tango much longer, he just went straight into the milonga with her.
We were both ecstatic about the whole thing. We are missing tango so desperately we are considering going up there every weekend and giving him a big tip just to dance with us!
I hope you enjoy our videos—thanks to Jayne for taking them!
I can’t believe I haven’t posted since Cecilia’s fiesta! Pure laziness, but I couldn’t resist posting this one.
Yesterday I went out for brunch with Sally and Venetia, and we ended up on the terrace at La Biela. On the weekends there’s usually a couple dancing tango, and they were there yesterday. When the woman came round with the hat, on impulse I asked if I could dance with the guy, and she said yes!
I wasn’t dressed for it at all. My long skirt made it hard to move my legs and I had on my ugly walking sandals, but given all that and the fact that I haven’t danced for months, I think I did all right. I told the guy I was out of practice, but he didn’t make any allowances!
When I came back to my table, the waiter said I danced tango like an Argentine!
Here’s the video Venetia shot — thanks Venetia! I hope you enjoy it.
To get a world view of the news, I scan BBC World News and Aljazeera every morning. For the most part, the world tends to ignore Argentina, so when I see a mention of the country I jump on it. This week, I found this lovely video that contrasts people suffering under isolation in the city with a man who has voluntarily lived alone in a cave in the mountains of Tucuman in Northern Argentina for 45 years. I hope you enjoy it.
Just as I was thinking I had nothing to post about, my talented Porteña friend Viviana Falabella sent this video. Vivi is a professional musician, and she joined up with some colleagues in California to produce this lovely performance. Vivi is the singer and also the pianist. Enjoy!
Recently I wrote about taking new friend Liz shopping for tango shoes, and last night she had her first tango lesson. As she was a tad nervous, I went with her, and Alejandro and I did a few demo dances.
Liz did amazingly well! Check out her video, and remember this was her first time dancing tango! (Due credit to Alejandro as he is an amazing teacher.)
Before you watch the videos, I wanted to say something people often ask me about. Every time I post one of my tango videos, someone usually wonders how I can remember all the steps and sequences. The answer is that I don’t. You don’t need to remember, because you dance according to where you’re being led, and as you contribute to the co-creation of the dance, the steps evolve naturally. None of these videos, including Liz’s, is choreographed in any way. It’s all about connection with the music, between the dancers and with the floor.
We did three demo dances. The first was a traditional tango with music from the thirties or forties, then we did a lighthearted, playful one, and the last one was dramatic and passionate — Liz said she couldn’t breathe as she watched it!
Anyway, I’ve included just the first and second ones for you to see the different ways you can dance tango. I love tango — can you tell?
Liz’s debut!
Traditional style
A more playful approach