Why does no-one ever believe me when I say I’m only staying for the first hour of a milonga?
Today was the final Tango Space workshop of the year, a one-hour one billed as lessons Pablo and Anne had learned from their students, followed by Prosecco and mince pies – then the monthly Browns milonga …
Continue reading They make long hours at this time of the year
Tonight was my type of music, my type of followers, my type of dance.
Mara Ovieda was again DJing. There were a lot of lyrical tandas, and the more rhythmical ones still had depth to them. I only sat out a few tandas, and that was mostly because I was busy chatting …
It feels like we arrived only yesterday; it feels like we’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 …
Continue reading Twenty-five milongas in twelve days: lessons from Buenos Aires
My sartorial standards in milongas are respectable, but I’ve now given up on mornings. We just made it to the hotel breakfast room before it closed, and I was unshaven, with uncombed hair and wearing my Virgin sleep suit.
Breakfast was spent sorting out some more of our tango schedule. With up to 20 or so milongas from which to choose every day, it’s no easy task …
Continue reading Some reflections, some wanderings and an ‘entertaining’ milonga
Bad colds suck. First, because you have aches where you used to have energy, and second, because even when you reach the point where you’d like to dance, you don’t want to pass on the misery to anyone else.
All of which explains why I’ve missed two milongas and two group classes. Indeed, it’ll have been a full two weeks between milongas by the time I get to my next one on Tuesday! I have really, really missed dancing …
Continue reading An unwelcome hiatus, followed by an unexpected breakthrough
When Fede said my dancing on Sunday was my best yet, he was referring to my posture and technique. Behind this was a single secret he’d been trying to share with me for some considerable time: do one thing at a time.
With a back ocho, for example, lead a side-step first. No more than that. Don’t enter the side-step deciding in advance that it’s going to be a back ocho, as that will lead to me blending the two, compromising my posture in the process …
Continue reading Six-point-three lovely tandas, and my one-year appraisal
