Category Archives: Tango

Milonga, Progress update, Tango

A nostalgic return to Tango Space at the Shield: Where it all began

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Technically where my tango began was in my living-room, since my introduction to the dance was with Mariano in privates at home – followed by some group classes at Tango Garden. It was also at Tango Garden where I technically first danced in a milonga, after all of five lessons!

But it was at Tango Space where I found my first tango home, made a great many tango friends, discovered several amazing teachers, and where I first danced in a milonga with fellow beginners …

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Milonga, Tango

Tango Secrets: A long-awaited visit to a tiny village in Buckinghamshire

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A milonga held in a community hall in a tiny village in Buckinghamshire might seem an unlikely entry on anyone’s tango bucket list, but it had been on mine for rather a long time.

Tango Secrets is run by Irina Zoueva, a teacher and DJ who followed my blog from an early stage, as she found it helped her teaching to get the perspective of someone new to tango. She was also kind enough to message me the solution to a problem I was having very early on: tango maths …

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Festival, Following, Milonga, Private lesson, Tango

My heart remains in BsAs, but the spirit of the city is alive in the UK

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I’ve been back in the UK for almost two months now, but the pull of BsAs hasn’t diminished in the slightest. While most of my body got on the plane to Heathrow, I seem to have forgotten to pack my heart. If only my bank account shared my sentiment, I’d get straight back on a plane again tomorrow.

Fortunately, there are places in the UK where the spirit of the city is alive, and I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy three of them since my return: the Argentine ambassador’s milonga, the Sheffield Tango Festival, and a return visit to Tango by the Sea …

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Following, Private lesson, Tango

Another hit of the following drug, in a joyful private with Emma

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Tango has an astonishing ability to energise. I’d been woken at 4am by a certain chocolate-coloured feline who decided to make a heroically unsuccessful attempt to jump onto the living room window-sill. I was alerted to this fact by the sound of two cacti pots crashing to the floor. (Orange Boy had a solid alibi as he was asleep on my pillow at the time.)

I didn’t get back to sleep, and when Emma arrived for my private some 14 hours later, I was feeling not dissimilar to the cacti. But as soon as we danced the first song, I found myself feeling as lively as a 4am cat …

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Festival, Following, Milonga, Tango

Many familiar faces and embraces at the delicious Sheffield Tango Festival

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The Sheffield Tango Festival was a first for me, but it certainly didn’t feel that way: there were a great many familiar faces and embraces from London, Cambridge, The Feast, Tango by the Sea, and – in at least one case – Buenos Aires.

Of course, the ‘familiar faces’ part is for varying values of same, and in some cases it was the embrace rather than the face I recognised …

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Private lesson, Tango, Thoughts

When a thirst for understanding turns into a deluge!

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Tango is an extraordinarily skilled hunter, capable of looking deep into each of us, and figuring out the most reliable way to draw us in.

Once she’s captured us, she has many ways to leave us incapable of ever escaping her all-enveloping embrace. But I think with each of us, there was a singular weakness she used to ensnare us in the first place. With me, it was my thirst for understanding …

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Buenos Aires, Progress update, Tango

Feeling like my tango has finally levelled-up – after a very long plateau

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One of the challenges in tango is that it’s really hard to be happy where we are. We always want to be at the next level, whatever that may mean to each of us. Even for me, an avowed ‘journey not the destination’ guy, it’s tough.

Tango is also never a straight line. It’s the very definition of two steps forward, one step back – and sometimes feels like the other way around …

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Milonga, Tango, Thoughts

There’s a lot of chance in London tango – but not enough leaders taking a chance

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It’s always a bit of a culture shock, returning to London tango after BsAs; all the more so when timings meant I couldn’t make my usual favourite milongas.

The two milongas I did get to really brought home to me how much of a role is played by sheer chance when it comes to our tango experiences – and how that’s particularly true in London …

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Buenos Aires, Tango, Thoughts

How did Buenos Aires change me this year?

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When I returned from a month in BsAs last year, I said that I had learned four lessons. Reconnecting with the essence of tango (‘this person, this music, this moment’). Having milongas be a more rounded social experience, rather than dancing every tanda. Fewer plans, more spontaneity. Spending even more time listening to even more tango music.

Happily, I felt like each of those lessons stayed with me. When reflecting on what I’d learned this time, two big things of course stood out …

Update: My first return to a favourite London milonga turned out to give me a better perspective on this.

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Buenos Aires, Tango, Thoughts

Returning home before I was ready, and really feeling the temptation to emigrate

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My first visit, I almost immediately understood how people come here for a fortnight and end up staying for ten years. My second visit, I actually got as far as semi-serious discussions about moving here. This time, I’ve felt that pull more strongly than ever. I really didn’t want to leave.

There are a zillion reasons not to do it, ranging from practical issues around property to being so far away from London friends …

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