Category Archives: Outdoors

Milonga, Outdoors

Heaven and hell at Jamboree (and suing the Spitalfields weather gods)

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That was one of my more entertaining tango evenings …

It started innocently enough in the afternoon, by dropping into the outdoor milonga at Spitalfields. My general view is that outdoor milongas are overrated, the romance of dancing under the sun generally outweighed by, well, the sun. For me, being fried to a crisp by laser-like sunbeams tends to take something of the magic away. But as it was around the corner, it seemed polite to at least drop in – and this afternoon both weather gods and weather apps assured me it would be 21C and overcast …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Outdoors

La Glorieta de Belgrano, with accidental gelato

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Tina went shopping at a market, had lunch, and visited Cementerio de la Recoleta. I don’t plan to visit that one, but will at some point go to Cementerio de la Chacarita to say hello to Pugliese and Troilo.

While they were spending time with people of varying degrees of aliveness, I opted for a lazy day at home before just one milonga …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Outdoors, Private lesson, Spanish

Accidentally achieving one of my goals by going to the wrong milonga

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I slept for about nine hours, though still felt that was about ten hours short of the required quota. However, we did nothing in the morning, so a bit of lazing was the perfect start to the day.

This was helped considerably by my foresight. I’d decided that a one-month stay was more like short-term living than long-term holidaying, so had brought with me some key home comforts – including my favourite tea, infusers, and pint mug …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Outdoors, Private lesson

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!

Buenos Aires, Milonga, Outdoors, Private lesson

From tango lesson to feeling like a tango god in three easy steps

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Tango god.jpg

Most of my lessons are very technique-focused. The great thing about those is that a small detail can make a massive difference to the experience you give to a follower. The downside, however, is that because you’re always revisiting the basics, it can make you feel like you’re starting all over again.

Today, I went from feeling like starting again from first principles to feeling like a tango god …

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Buenos Aires, Following, Group class, Milonga, Outdoors

Patio de Tango, La Viruta and a magical evening at Salon Canning

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Canning dance.jpg

You’ll have to excuse the blobby photos from milongas. I’m really trying not to take photos this trip. Instead, I’m shooting very short video clips with my phone, and will then edit them into maybe a 5-10 minute overview of the whole trip. This means most of my photos are in fact screengrabs from video, thus not the greatest quality.

The daytime part of the blog is rather brief: I had breakfast in bed, then lazed (apart from accidentally writing a blog post).

I made up for this laziness in the evening, managing one-and-a-bit classes and three milongas …

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Milonga, Outdoors

Two hilarious tandas at the Spitalfields milonga

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hilarious

I could only make the final hour or so of the Spitalfields milonga, and had four tandas, two of which were hilarious for different reasons.

Regular readers will know that when it’s clear I’m dancing with an experienced follower, I will do my best to create space for her dance via the parada-and-pause approach: lead a parada, pause, relax the embrace and see what happens. Prior to tonight, I would have said there were three levels of response to this – plus a level zero …

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Milonga, Outdoors, Progress update

Tango on the Thames tangasms, with giros and counter-giros – and accidental ganchos

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Tango on the Thames

As with Spitalfields, I’d first seen Tango on the Thames long before I danced; stood and watched for a while, and thought of it as one of those delightfully eccentric English things done by people who aren’t me.

It was an incredibly hot day, 32C ambient, and more in the sun. We estimated when the sun would have dropped beneath the building line and turned up at around 7.15pm, which was perfect timing …

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Milonga, Outdoors

Mad dogs and Englishmen …

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spitalfields tango

There is something special about dancing outdoors. My introduction to the art had been in a Hyde Park bandstand in April, followed by Spitalfields in May. Another visit to the latter yesterday maintained my newly-established ‘one outdoor milonga per month’ tradition.

It was a very warm day, with temperatures in the 24-26C range, but at least there was a bit of a breeze with it …

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Milonga, Outdoors, Socialising

Venturing once more into the great outdoors

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Tango@Spitalfields.jpg

After the Hyde Park bandstand milonga, Sunday provided another opportunity to dance outdoors. Rene and Hiba from Tango Fever organise Tango@Spitalfields, held in the Amphitheatre Canopy outside Patisserie Valerie.

It felt strange to be going there to dance: I’d passed several of these milongas in my pre-tango days, and always thought of them as a really fun idea. I never imagined I would one day be participating!

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Milonga, Outdoors

Dancing in three square feet in Hyde Park

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hyde park.JPG

Warren Edwardes runs regular free milongas in the bandstand in Hyde Park. These are semi-official: held with permission, but without actually hiring the bandstand, so they rely on other park users cooperating. Normally, they also wouldn’t have the lighting, but the Royal Parks people kindly switched them on.

The space is small, and tonight was popular, so things were absolutely packed. All of which left each couple dancing in about three square feet, leaving room for precisely one step forward and one side-step …

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