Monthly Archives: November 2019

Milonga, Tango

A new, abbreviated blog format for my regular milongas

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Shorthand abbreviated blog.jpg

I’d intended to go to the Tango on the Thames lesson and milonga on Sunday, but my BsAs sleep deprivation finally caught up with me, a week later. I think I’d largely been running on adrenalin since our return, riding the high!

I had a lazy day Sunday, and was in bed by early evening yesterday, so now felt rested – if not entirely relaxed due to a bit of a frustrating end to the day. I trusted that tango would take care of that, and indeed it did …

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Group class, Tango

Walking and Musicality: a workshop with the Costas

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costas

Meeting one’s heroes can be dangerous! I’ve long been an admirer of Adrian’s walk, having seen it in countless videos, so there is a certain risk involved in doing a workshop with him – but fortunately it was good!

While I love ochos and am now very much more confident with giros, walking remains my absolute favourite part of the dance. Some of my all-time favourite dances have been when there was room to walk, with a follower who enjoys it as much as I do. So a ‘Walking and Musicality’ workshop with Adrian and Amanda Costa was irresistible …

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Group class, Milonga, Tango

Another ‘one thing’ from my lesson, then a great night at Tango Terra!

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Tango Terra.jpg

I’d caught the end of the intermediate lesson on Tuesday, on leader and follower decorations, and it had looked fiendishly complicated. I very much hoped Luis and Natalia could be counted on for either a more accessible version, or a careful build-up to the final thing.

I needn’t have worried. Not that I could do the final version, which involved the leader pivoting on one foot while doing lapices with the other, but Luis did indeed break it down well. I was able to do my own version of it, pivoting on two feet without the lapices. And my ‘one thing from each lesson’ approach meant that while I wasn’t going to do the whole thing, I did very much like another new way to do a medio-giro …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Outdoors, Private lesson, Tango

Buenos Aires: the video

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Less a short film, more the video equivalent of a snapshot. All shot handheld on my iPhone. But while it won’t win any cinematography awards, it captures the memories rather well!

Following, Milonga, Practica, Tango

A touch of BsAs in London, and dancing almost every tanda

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La Rubia

I’d wondered how it would feel, returning to dancing in London. Whether my familiar milongas would now feel strange. Tonight’s didn’t: lots of friends were there, and I dived straight back in.

What did feel strange was that it had been four whole days since my last milonga! Technically, three days, I suppose, since we left Yira Yira in the early hours of Saturday morning and I was at the Tango Space milonga when it started at 8pm on Tuesday. As an added bonus, there was a touch of Buenos Aires to the dance …

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Buenos Aires, Progress update, Tango

Twenty-five milongas in twelve days: lessons from Buenos Aires

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Lessons from BsAs

It feels like I arrived only yesterday; it feels like I’ve been here forever. It feels like milongas are the real world, and London is some kind of vague dream.

Forever is also about the time it will take me to integrate everything I’ve learned here, both in lessons and from dancing in all those milongas – but let’s at least make a start …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Private lesson, Socialising, Tango

An amazing private, a lovely dinner and two last milongas

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Laura

Private lesson 3 with Laura Heredia

My third and final private was another with Laura, and it was an absolutely amazing one! Half of it was devoted to technique, the other half to more simple tools for use in crowded milongas and to give me more options for expressing the music.

We worked on the first step of the walk, aiming to get a vertical diagonal feel to it – pushing down into the floor with the standing foot while creating a rising sensation in the chest. Laura also had me try the Argentine style position with my left hand …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Private lesson, Tango

A day that did not go entirely to plan …

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queer tango demo

My plan for the day was simple: work in the morning, a 90-minute private in the afternoon, a suit fitting, the first hour of a milonga in the evening and in bed by midnight.

Some of that happened …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Tango

Just the one milonga tonight, honest …

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just one

Getting out of bed at 7am was again difficult. Well, impossible, I guess, as I didn’t. I had a rather abbreviated breakfast before work.

I’ve never been able to nap – once I’m asleep, I’m asleep, and being woken by an alarm after a short time just makes me feel like death. Not even death warmed up. But a bout of insomnia a long time ago did teach me that rest is the next best thing to sleep, so I decided to have a very lazy afternoon, just reading in bed, before heading out to an 8pm milonga …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Not Tango, Private lesson, Tango

Passing my Spanish pronunciation exam; a great private; the best bookshop in the world; and some missing magic

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El Ateneo.jpg

As is usual this week, I had work in the morning. Getting up at 7am is never pleasant in my world, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday thanks to me exercising restraint where milongas were concerned.

After work, it was time for my second Spanish pronunciation lesson, dealing with the rest of the consonants …

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