The philosophy of Tango Dance

Buenos Aires, Argentina time showed at 17.00 a few hours again I will enjoy live tango dance. Chanta Cuatro in a restaurant in downtown Buenos Aires. Tango dance is a traditional dance from Argentina, the dance that combines compactness as well as exotic a movement being performed simultaneously. Every beat combined with typical accompaniment music, well a new spectacle in life and my experience. Interesting!!! I was so excited to watch this tango dance directly. Dance may be as long as I see through the glass screen. Immediately I rushed ... for the bath.

Exactly at 18.00 the car which takes me to the restaurant chanta cuatro has been waiting in the lobby of the Hilton hotel. I rushed down to immediately head to the restaurant. Carlos Gardel is the name of the area I was going to go, it was said in this area is the place to dance tango. Here is the headquarters of tango dancers who are experienced in Argentina.

Passing through city areas in Argentina gave a picture of a country that is so excited. Imagine in pinggiran2 café I watched so many people danced with such passion. Tarian2 tango can be seen around the streets of Buenos Aires. Replica Evita peron's former first lady of Argentina ever plastered building in downtown Buenos Aires. Finally we arrived at Chanta cuatro. The atmosphere of the restaurant is similar to the usual telenovela2 I see in the glass display. Not how long they start serving dinner entrees.

Along with the arrival of food, the curtains at the front desk we were open. Looks hand over some player music complete with its launch of the show. The beat and very typical tango music began to sound. While the dancers began to enter the stage! Wonderful, a sensational experience I was having. Music interspersed with dances that the longer the more adrenaline that makes my feet ever join the stamping. Sexy tango dancers began to perform the action. Combined with the typical steak and wine Argentina. I so enjoy a night full of new experiences for me.

The end of the show, I am reliving a philosophy of tango dance. An idiom that says "it takes two to tango" reminds me of the sense of the importance of a co-operation in any case. As is the case in the tango dance is so enchanting and sensational. You need the cooperation of both parties. Such a beautiful night and a dance that was so riveting.

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Tango Series in Newport with Mike Eblen

Spread the word: Mike Eblen is back in Newport Oregon later this month to teach a series of classes withhis new partner Jeanine VanSise.

Check out these Argentine Tango lessons that will be offered there July 26, 27th and 28:

• Class 1, Friday, July 26th 7:00pm -  Nice Beginnings and Memorable Resolutions. In this class we will find ways to expand our appreciation of when a dance begins and ends and how we can facilitate a more enjoyable experience for our partner. 

• Class 2, Saturday July 27th 1:00pm -  Finding My Axis, Your Axis and Our Axis. Start your Saturday with exercises help strengthen the awareness that you have of your balance as well as your partner's.  We will explore how to maintain stability as the dance becomes more challenging.

• Class 3, Saturday afternoon 2:30pm -  Making Sense of Musicality. It's no secret that tango music is rather complicated, with all the layers of sound, how can we begin to dance with the music?  Mike and Mari will help make sense of this challenging topic. 

• Class 4, Sunday 1:00pm -  Taking Turns to the Next Level. What would a weekend class series be without covering what is arguably the hardest part of tango, turns!  There will be wisdom and guidance for all regardless of skill level.

• Class 5, Sunday 2:30pm -  Deepening Connection. Finish off this weekend class series with Mike's favorite(and most popular) class.  We will be finding ways to make the steps we are familiar with feel exponentially better.

Classes are $10 a la carte, registering for the full weekend costs only $40.  All classes will be accessible for dancers of any experience level.

Classes are at Heather's house:

567 SE Vista Dr Newport
for more information or to schedule a private please contact Heather :
hjoyh at me dot com
541-272-2019

About Jeanine:

Jeanine VanSise began dancing tango, by accident, in 2007 and has not stopped since! She first studied Tango with Vicky Ayers and Elizabeth Wartluf at The University of Oregon, but has since taken advantage of the chance to study with teachers from all over the world. She feels most fortunate for the chances she has had to study extensively with Dominic Bridge, Rebecca Rorick-Smith, and Kara Wenham & Javier Antar. Most of the time you will find Jeanine DJing or dancing in Eugene or Portland, but she did have the chance to spend a Summer studying and dancing in Argentina.

In 2009 Jeanine took on an active role in the Eugene tango community when she took over both the Beginning and Intermediate tango classes at The University of Oregon. Jeanine also was the DJ and co-host of Eugene’s popular Milonga Entre Suenos with Carmela Hill-Burke for four years.

When teaching, Jeanine emphasizes the chance to connect both to a partner, and to music. While technique and strong fundamentals are emphasized in her classes she finds that her strength is helping students find both a love for the dance, and a love for connecting with a variety of partners. Jeanine is a teacher outside of tango, and because of that students comment that her classes are accessible, full of passion, and create a warm, comfortable, environment for learning.

Last Tango in Corvallis: A milonga for Wikus and Dedra by Catherine Liggett

When: Friday, June 14, 2013

Time: 8:00pm

Where: 1935 NW Menlo dr. Corvallis OR 97330

Come to this informal milonga to dance and celebrate the amazing work everyone at the OSU club have done this past year for tango in Corvallis!

Very shortly after this party, Dedra and I will be moving to Washington DC to begin our new life there.

The party is at the home of Catherine and Gretchen, and has a large hard wood floor to dance on. Heels are fine to wear, as long as they are non-scratching or marking.

It is, of course, totally free!

If you feel inspired, bring along some vegetarian goodies for everyone to snack on, and/or something to drink.
 
Please invite your tango-dancing friends!

DJs TBA- Message Catherine (cliggett at facebook dot com) if you would be interested in contributing to the music for the night.

The Future of Tango at OSU

For those who're behind on the plot - My wife Dedra Demaree and I started a Tango club at Oregon State University last year and, except for my trip back to South Africa, have been teaching there more or less ever since.


We've always been partial to helping beginners find their feet, and so the "nothing fancy, just good fundamentals" motto is what permeated our tenure here - but as things have worked out in 2013 - due to work and life circumstances we will moving to Washington DC at the end of June.

OSU Tango will keep going

Because we're going away (for now) that doesn't mean OSU is soon to dance its last tanda!

In fact, there are already 3 veterans from the community who have made commitments to carry on instruction at the class - Rafeal Miranda who more or less runs the Tango scene in Newport, Frank Davis who's well known all round and a regular at the Portland Tango (both of whom have taught at the club before), and Peter Gysegym who's had his own classes and milongas going in Corvallis for years - with one or two other experienced gentlemen waiting in the wings who want to help build Tango in Corvallis.

There is also an OSU faculty member ready to take the reigns on the club admin. So classes should continue without issue after we've left.
 
We hope that it'll remain free of charge - open to anyone with a good attitude that wants to get a start in Argentine Tango.
 
We largely started the club to help nurture the local community and expose OSU's ample ballroom, swing and blues fraternities to this art; which we're happy to have been successful at.

Our main concern at the moment is getting a few new students willing to stand up as committee members for the club at the turn of the new academic year. We trust that a few of you will raise your hands and help keep the doors open when the time comes. Please contact me directly should you feel motivated to contribute and...
 
Work together to help the club grow.

For now, classes will run as usual, every monday evening from 7 - 9pm, and will have one last milonga at our house some time in June.

Tango Flash Mob in Cape Town

This weekend myself and an elite unit of local Cape Town tangueros descended upon the Lifestyle shopping centre set in a trendy part of the city, for an Argentine Tango flash mob to celebrate my birthday. 

Despite a few hassles from secturiy, caused by a certain Tango neophyte "someone" (a.k.a Mister Let's-go-and-tell-security-about-the-mob-two-miniutes-before-we-start-and-have-Wikus-deal-with-the-fallout) we sprung the surprise on dozens of shoppers and passers by - much to the annoyance of the guards who dutifully but gently shooed us from the mall entrance to the amply-sized sidewalk.

Alas even without the beneft of good acoustics, with our punchy Bose sound system we had no shortage of volume to make our presence known.

Our playlist of the day consisted of "Amor te sigo queriendo", "Mariposita" and "Borges y Paraguay". A forth track -"A Media Luz" - was cut from the planned line-up to help ease a few bubbling frustration levels. 

The only misfortune was that the person who volunteered to film our exploits had to withdraw from attendance shorly before the event, so unless something by one of the camera-wielding onlookers pops up on youtube in due course, I sadly don't have any footage to share with you.

Here are a few snapshots from the mob: 

33 Tango Quotes That Will Change Your Dancing

Be inspired by to put poetry in motion with these Argentine Tango quotes.

 "I believe that Tango has the potential to bring out the best in each of us, at least while in the embrace. We surrender our egos; leave prickly personality traits at the table; and cease to be CEOs, taxi drivers, engineers, unemployed. We replace all our externals with a purity of spirit, a generosity of kindness, splendid caring. And when these elements flow freely between partners, it is... the joy." - Unknown
 
"Warning: tango contains highly addictive ingredients, such as pain, pleasure, passion, excitement, connection, freedom, torment, and bliss. In seven out of ten cases it takes over a person's life." - Naomi Hotta

"There are no wrong moves in tango, only new ones." - VaroTango

"The wealth of a tango couple resides in that they both contribute to the choreographic creation. The improvision, the emotion that each feels which is materialized in steps. It is ideal when both partners contribute what they feel to the music." - Guillermina Quiroga

Javier: "When a man walks nicely, the woman dies in his embrace." Stella: "When a man walks badly, the woman wants to die." - Jaiver Rodriguez & Stella Misse

“A good dancer is one who listens to the music…We dance the music not the steps. Anyone who aspires to dance never thinks about what he is going to do. What he cares about is that he follows the music. You see, we are painters. We paint the music with our feet.” - Carlos Gavito

"Other music exists to heal wounds; but the tango when sung and played is for the purpose of opening them, for the purpose of sticking you finger in the wound and to tear them until they bleed." - Unknown

"The Tango is the ultimate communication between two people. It begins with an embrace, an initial sharing of affection, yet stresses individual balance... The mastering of one's individual balance is what allows two bodies to dance as one, along with a technique that is clean and uncluttered, a form that is pure, a line that is classical and an elegance that is sublime." - Miguel Angel Pla

"The music goes in my ears, is filtered through my heart, and comes out through my feet." - El Flaco Dany Garcia

"When someone begins he can be dazzled by things that are external; the things of tango are internal... A dancer arrives at the roots of tango when he falls in love..." - Eduardo Arquimba

"When you dance tango with someone, you don’t need to know their entire history in order to get a glimpse of their more ‘raw’ self, their human warmth or lack thereof, their ability to listen and participate in a dialogue, their ability to enjoy the music, open themselves emotionally and show their vulnerable side. It’s harder to hide our ‘raw self’ if we are not able to use words to conceal." - Unknown

 "It's not about fancy repertoire, flourishes and embellishments... At the core it's about starting, stepping and pausing with the music. All the rest is icing on the cake." - Chris Corby


"Sssh. Don't tell anyone this. This is a secret. Imagine telling a beginner man he has to learn to find the rhythm of the music, watch out for navigational hazards on the dance floor, develop a strategy on the spot for dealing with them choosing from a repertoire of movements he has learned, then lead the woman to move in the intended direction with the intended speed while maintaining the connection, and then... He has to follow the woman's response to his lead to determine the next move (within a millisecond, after all, this is not chess), and take responsibility for whatever goes wrong. And we wonder why there aren't enough men in tango? Yet the surviving men keep trying. It must be that the rewards of tango are greater than its obstacles." - Jay Rabe

"What we need are more people with sensitivity and fewer exhibitionists." - Osvaldo Natucci

"The tango trance. Seek it, and it will elude you. Talk about it in too much detail and it will haunt you evily. Live for it, and you will die many deaths. Treasure it, but don't hold onto it. Dance with love and freedom and it will embrace you. Be vulnerable, and feel it's power." - Dan Boccia

 "The tango is an embrace in movement. A man and a woman enter a dialogue through their bodies, guided by music which has an almost somber quality of yearning. Of a passion that can that can never be fulfilled. Of a sweet sadness. Two strangers become one for the duration of the dance. Two opposites come together briefly to create the fantasy of a harmonious whole." - Gisela Kirberg Mamone

 "Tango is not a race: there is no finish line." - Robin Thomas

"For me, when I think of the best leaders I've danced with, I've noticed a commonality between all of them which is an apparent lack of ego or bravado. Instead of thinking about themselves, they just surrender to the music and to the pleasure of having a woman in their arms, no matter if she's experienced or not. They are the kind who would never let a woman feel incompetent or humiliated but instead as though it's been a sublime privilege to share this wonderful thing called tango with them. The worst leaders are the ones who don't pay attention to a woman's skill level and instead try to guide her into doing moves that are obviously beyond her knowledge of the choreography, thus shaming and humiliating her. They are the worst because they are only focusing on themselves instead of making it a wonderful experience for them both. In other words, they didn't surrender to the experience but to their own egos with complete disregard for the women's." - Caroline Polack

"Tango is a dance in which is it easy to become obsessed with perfection. The taste of heaven that is found within tango may encourage some to seek perfection. Others may bring their own perfectionism to tango. But we should never confuse heaven and perfection. They are very different. The path of perfectionism often leads away from heaven — as we find ourselves accompanied and driven forward by demons that become all too familiar. If we pursue perfection in our practice, we are likely developing the demons that seek to keep us from effective dancing." - Stephen Brown

"Tango is a a four legged animal with two beating hearts." - Unknown

"When the tango took hold of me, it was as if I had found the ultimate lover. No single experience can be as fascinating as this dance. No single work of art is so replete with all the joy and sorrow and longing and tragi-comedy of the human race, as is a tango danced between a man and a woman. It is labyrinthine, yet so simple. Each lasts just a few moments, yet it is eternal. There is a purity amidst all its complexities. The more one searches for the meaning behind its mystery, the ever more elusive is the tango... And yet, it is what it is, and we can see it, hear it, feel it, breathe it, live it, in the pleasure of its immediacy. Those of us it holds in its power - we want to shape our whole lives around it, its cadences, its sweat, its subtle messages and surging desires. The tango changes us forever. It changed me forever. Never have I been so intensely in love. Never had I felt so intensely alive. It helps me forget. And it helps me remember sweetly." - La Nuit Blanche

"In tango, the relationship between lead and follower, man and woman, is so intense and all consuming, that there is simply no time for small talk. The last man I danced with, I know more intricately in many ways than his lover: I know that he perspires in a tiny spot above his brow; that when the dance slows and our connection is tight, his breathing almost stops; that when my leg sweeps his, he arches his neck imperceptibly upwards; that when another couple got too close he subconsciously enclosed me in a protective embrace; and that his hand rested so delicately on the flesh of my back. Yet all I know about him are his name and his country of origin. Small talk is a luxury not afforded to us tango addicts." - Anastasia Demaggio

"Tango is great for people who don't get enough opportunities to get rejected in everyday life." - Squeaky Frobisher

"In tango, heaven is found through the simple gift of grace. That comes from getting out on the dance floor with the person that happens to be right for the moment, opening one's heart and falling in love again. The times that this happens, one is just happy to be in the arms of another at the end of the tanda." - Unknown

"Tango is about feeling and sensitivity, otherwise you are just doing gymnastics. You can do all the steps but it has to have the feeling and sensitivity of authentic tango." - Miguel Zotto

"Beginners want to dance like intermediates; intermediates want to dance like advanced dancers; advanced dancers want to dance like the greats; but the greats always go back to basics." - Unknown

"Tango can save your life, and it will break your heart." - Ms. Heartbreak Tango

"When you dance with a partner you are close and the dance is very suggestive, but it is not personal... Close is what the music inspires you to become. The embrace looks personal, but what we are actually embracing is the music." - Carlos Gavito

"To be a great lead, do not love the woman you dance with; rather, listen to the music and love it! Beautiful tango is a process of transference - your love for the music will be transferred to the follower, and she will be enchanted." - John Vaina

"People talk about styles of tango, but there is only one tango. It accommodates itself to every place and every era." - Eduardo Arquimbau

"However an excellent dancer you are as a man, even if you are able to dance with every woman, when you dance with a woman who can’t follow you have more responsibility. You must dance perfectly, which means you can’t relax, you can’t think about your posture, and you can’t rattle off a fine step: what is the use of being able to do everything if the woman can’t follow you?" - Miguel Zotto

"Tango is a sad feeling that is danced." - Enrique Santos Discépoloo

"Please, just for me, forget the steps... Hold me, feel the music, and give me your soul. Then I can give you mine."