Tango

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Practica in Punta

The night before we left became the highlight of our visit, at least for me. Thanks to our Buenos Aires friend Montserrat, who did the housesit the week before we did, we were introduced to a lovely lady called Alicia, who in turn introduced us to her tango community. As it turned out, a group of them have a weekly practica, which is, as you can probably guess, a kind of practice session. It’s actually very similar to a milonga, but less formal. They invited us, and Alicia was kind enough to pick us up and bring us home.

The practica took place in the home of one of the group members, a great tango dancer nicknamed Cabeza, and the space was excellent. I think there were about twenty people there. They all know each other and are super friendly. Everyone danced with everyone else, which was lovely. We took wine and nibbles and that was part of the social aspect of it.

As Venetia doesn’t dance tango, she assumed the role of videographer. The photo at the beginning of the video is, left to right, Alicia, me, a wonderful dancer called Pablo, and his wife, Evelyn, who is also an amazing tango dancer. As you can tell, the lighting was quite dim, but Venetia did a great job to just give an idea of what it was like. I loved it so much I’m thinking about how I might do something similar in my apartment. Stay tuned!

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Busy, Happy Day

I don’t quite know how yesterday got to be so busy, but it did and I enjoyed every minute.

First, I have joined a writers’ group. I’ve never done this before as I’ve never come across a group that appealed to me. But Cliff, one of my expat friends, invited me to come along and I did a couple of weeks ago. There are some talented writers there, and all very supportive of one another. It will certainly hold me to my commitment to writing my novel every day, and the opportunity to have people critique it is also helpful. I’m sure this will do good things for my writing. We meet every Wednesday.

I rushed home from that and jumped online to meet with Susan and Lois, my Butt Kickers. I kind of hogged the time, I’m afraid, but they did want to hear all about my new apartment. I told them I had looked at a red couch, but was thinking it would be more sensible to get a neutral colour and brighten it up with cushions. They pointed out that doing the sensible thing wasn’t a noticeable characteristic of mine — true — and they both voted for the red couch. I’m going to do it!

Then I was off to the movies with Venetia to see The Return of Mary Poppins. It was a fun, happy movie. There aren’t too many of those around these days, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Dick Van Dyke even made a brief appearance — even in his nineties the man can still dance!

Finally, speaking of dancing, I dashed home and had a quick bite to eat and then went out dancing tango. Lina and I went to El Obelisco, a milonga I had gone to a couple of times last year but on Fridays. I did enjoy it last night, but I think it was better on Fridays so I’m going to try that next time. The milongas are run by different organizers every night, and sometimes that means they take on a certain personality with the organizers. So the same venue can be quite different on different nights. Any way you cut it, though, I love dancing tango in Buenos Aires!

I enjoyed my busy day, but I really must try to keep better track of things and not book so much in one day. Maybe.

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One of the Highlights Every Year!

Every year as my time in Argentina is winding down, Alejandro and I do a video of one of my tango lessons. This time we did two — one standard speed and one more uptempo. And there’s an outtake too — Alejandro had been drinking maté before I got there and he was wired! This bit of silliness was the result! Hope you enjoy all three.


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Two Very Different Tango Evenings

There are many people here in Buenos Aires who love tango music, but don’t dance. It’s such a complex and varied form of music that it’s possible to enjoy it on many levels. As you know from my posts here, my preference is to dance, but I also love being exposed to other forms. This past week brought two such opportunities.

La Hora del Tango

On Wednesday night Venetia and I went to the Kirchner Cultural Centre to see something called The Hour of Tango, and neither of us was quite sure what it was all about. It turned out that La Hora del Tango is the name of a television series that is currently being produced, and this was the final episode. So the show was being recorded for television, which of course made it a whole different experience. There were takes and retakes, and a great deal of “hurry up and wait”, which stretched the hour out beyond two hours! The process was a bit tedious, but the tango itself was lovely.

A full tango orchestra performed by itself first, and then provided accompaniment for a troupe of at least a dozen dancers. We saw the first dance number twice, as apparently there was a small technical problem at the end, which was fine for the audience but I’m not sure how the dancers felt about it!

We had a couple of tango songs from Chico Navarro, who is very old now but was apparently a very big deal in his day and the audience loved him.

I have no photos of this, because they wouldn’t let us take any because of the television people.

Lola Mora at Bar Celta

One of the Bares Notables I’ve visited for my research was Bar Celta, and I remember reading that they had live music downstairs. Lola recently discovered a whole series called Music at the Bares Notables, and last night we went to see the show downstairs at Bar Celta.

Lola Mora (no relation to my friend Lola!) is a duo of women, one pianist and one violinist, who play a wide range of music but with a specialty in tango. They were fabulous! What musicians they were!

Here’s a short video clip of just one of their songs. This is a famous song called Adios Nonino, by a famous and controversial Argentine tango musician of the fifties called Astor Piazzola. He wrote it after learning that his father had died while he was off on a tour — the title roughly translates as “Goodbye Daddy”. As you can tell from the comments by my friends, it’s a well loved popular favourite.

And just to round things off, tonight I’m off to the milonga to actually dance tango — still my favourite!

 

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Milonga Obelisco

This is the milonga I went to last night with my friends Lola and Viviana. We had such a great night!

It’s a friendly crowd, with what we call here buena onda — similar to good vibes in English. All three of us danced a lot, and I was delighted I was even able to dance a presentable milonga. The milonga is not only the place to dance tango, but it’s also a variation of tango. I love watching people dance it because it’s fast, and it’s such a happy dance, but I’ve been a bit intimidated by it in the past because of the fast footwork. But I had a lovely partner who led me beautifully into it, and I danced blissfully, eyes closed, around the floor.

Love tango. Love the milonga. Love Buenos Aires!!

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Special Milonga

On Sunday night I went with my friend Lola to the milonga at La Nacional, but this was a special charity milonga. There was no fixed price to get in, and you just donated whatever you wanted. I put just a bit more than I would normally pay, but some people must have been extremely generous because they raised 90,000 pesos, or almost $1,400. The money goes towards education in the rural areas of Argentina, so it was a good cause. They do this every month for a different charity — sadly I’ll have left by the time next month’s rolls around.

At one point during the evening there was a break from the dancing, and we were treated to two exhibitions. One was a couple dancing a very nice tango, and the second was this exhibition of a folkloric dance called the Chacarera. Its origins are in the mountains, and it’s a very lyrical, romantic dance of flirtation between the couple.

As I have just over three weeks left before I leave this time, I’ll be going to a lot of milongas between now and then!

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Research at Petit Colon

I haven’t been very active here for a week or so, largely because I’m battling my second cold of the summer. I’ve managed to keep up with most of the social stuff, but just haven’t felt up to writing about them.

Anyway, last night I went with Joanna, Venetia, Michael and Bettye to Petit Colon to continue the research for my book. It’s only 40 years old, which is quite new for a Bar Notable, and in fact it was renovated just five years ago. But it is a lovely little place.

It’s called Petit Colon because it is on the street behind the Teatro Colon, and they have panelled the walls with a dark tapestry type fabric, reminiscent of old theatres. There is a fantastic alabaster chandelier my friends were urging me to sketch, but I couldn’t resist this big old clock. (It wasn’t actually six o’clock, of course, but that’s where the clock has stuck!) I might go back for morning coffee one day and do the chandelier.

There’s a fun research place coming up on Thursday night, and so many people are coming I think I actually have to make a reservation! I’ll post about that one for sure.

I had an interesting tango lesson this week from a different teacher. There are special “feminine techniques” in tango that help give it that special elegance, and I decided I needed to work with a woman to get that. So yesterday morning, despite the sniffles, I spent an hour with Luciana Lial, and I feel it is going to help my tango when I add it to what I am learning from Alejandro. Tango on!

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A Different Kind of Tango Experience

On Saturday night Venetia and I went to a concert at the Kirchner Cultural Centre, music by the Tango Orchestra of Buenos Aires. Just what it sounds like — tango played by an orchestra. It was much as you would expect of any orchestra, except for the five bandoneones. Those are the instruments that look like concertinas but aren’t, and they give tango music its unique melancholy sound. I enjoyed the concert. It was certainly a different kind of tango experience — in stark contrast to the milonga I had danced at in the afternoon! Here’s Venetia’s short video.

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Another ‘Research’ Event — and a Bonus Surprise for Me!

Last night I went with five women friends on another “research” trip for the new book. It was also International Women’s Day, which is very big down here, so a nice way to celebrate. We were Cecilia, Venetia, Joanna, Lola and Gillian.

Bar Sur is a very old establishment in the very old barrio of San Telmo, where many of the Bares Notables are to be found. It’s tiny, dark and very cozy and intimate. I had spoken with Beatriz, the proprietor, last week, so she knew we were coming and welcomed us warmly.

We ordered wine and picada, and sat back to chat and wait for the show.

Bar Sur claims to have the oldest tango show in San Telmo, and I believe it. The signed photos of tango stars of the past around the walls testify to its tight ties with the music and dance of tango.

There’s no stage in Bar Sur, so the performers sing, dance and play right there on the floor beside the tables, which makes you feel almost like part of the show. I particularly liked the bandoneonero and the two dancers, who beautifully evoked the soulful sound of tango, which was emphasized even more because of the very dim lighting. I’ve put some photos of the iside here.

You might be wondering what the surprise bonus was. Well …

While some of us were taking advantage of a photo opp with the dancers (see the end of the first video), I told him I actually wanted to dance. He didn’t say anything at the time, but before the end of the show I looked up to find him in front of me, giving me a cabeceo — invitation to dance!

I separated Joanna’s video of this, as I didn’t want to put it beside the real dancers, but take a look and let me know what you think.

Of course if I had realized I was going to be part of the show, I would have worn my tango shoes!

We still have a lot of bares notables to see, but it will be hard to top that one just for the experience! See the videos below.


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New Tango Shoes — and a Foot Massage!

After a couple of false starts, I finally found my way to a little area downtown that has a cluster of shops selling tango gear, both shoes and clothes. I went for a skirt, and got two great ones — with fishtails! Great for swishing around doing pivots!

I wasn’t going to buy shoes, but when I saw the prices I changed my mind. For the shoes and both skirts, I paid quite a bit less than half of what I paid in Toronto for just shoes. Happy girl. Can’t wait to wear the shoes to the milonga tomorrow!

And because I told the guy a lot of the shoes were too high for my feet, he gave me a lovely foot massage and said, “What’s wrong with  your feet? You have perfect feet!?” Got to love these Argentine men!