I’ve danced at the Sheffield Tango Festival four years in succession, and as with the Feast there comes a point when I feel I’ve said it all before.
However, I couldn’t let the occasion go entirely without mention, so I’ve put together one of my taster videos intended to give a sense of the event …
Continue reading Taster video: Sheffield Tango Festival is perhaps the friendliest festival on the planetI’ve added this video to my blog post for the event, but given the length of that, I thought it made sense to create a standalone post just for the taster video.
I finally decided I’d written all there is to write about my experiences at the Feast – and I think the same is true of other repeat events.
I could write a blog post about the Eastonathon, where I had a wonderful time, but in truth it would remarkably similar to the ones I’ve already written …
Continue reading A brief note (but definitely not a blog post) about a delicious EastonathonI recently tidied-up my YouTube channel, as well as adding a bunch of performance videos to it. But I thought it would be useful to collate all my tango videos, formal and informal, in one place – so you’ll now find a Videos tab at the top of the page. Depending on your connection speed, it may take a minute to load.
I first started dancing at Tango Secrets almost three years ago now, when it was not at all easy to reach from the capital. These days, however, it’s a breeze – thanks to the Elizabeth Line.
Taplow station is just 36 minutes from Paddington, and Irina’s husband Jonathon is usually able to offer a free pickup and drop-off service. There’s even time to dance the last tanda and still make the last through-train which runs through to east London …
Continue reading Taster video: Tango Secrets is a world away from London (yet only 36 minutes)I know, I know, I’m a man who can turn any conversational subject under the sun into a discussion about tango, but I genuinely had no idea that the topic of my latest interview would turn out to have dance as a core element.
After really enjoying listening to people talking about tango, my plan was to conduct some other interviews where the common thread was people talking about things they love. Admittedly, the second of these was with a dancer, but when it came to the third, I had no idea that the backstory involved dance …
Continue reading Thought Experiments in Pubs – a conversation that wasn’t supposed to be about dance …Tango taster videos are a concept that emerged from sharing short video clips of festivals and milongas on Facebook, and people who’d never been to them telling me how useful they were.
They said that while still photos can be fantastic for capturing the romance of an event, there’s no substitute for video when it comes to giving a sense of what it’s actually like to be there …
Continue reading Introducing taster videosI was born without the spectating gene: even with activities I love to do myself, I have very little interest in watching someone else do them. It’s probably not coincidence that I haven’t owned a telly in more than 25 years.
There were three additional reasons I used to grump about tango performances, which I’ll get to in a moment. So it may seem rather strange that I have seemingly filmed 45 of them over the past few years …
Continue reading A man who used to grump about performances has apparently filmed 45 of themI said last time that I’d finally been able to write a short blog post about a Feast, because I’d reached a point of having said it all before. Exhibit A: all my previous Feast posts. That’s again the case with the March edition, and this is really the highest compliment I can give to the event: they are just consistently blissful.
But there are a couple of additional reasons I’m resisting the temptation to add to the many thousands of words I’ve previously written about the beautiful dancing and wonderful warmth of the atmosphere …
Continue reading There’s no March Feast blog post, but there are collated video clipsYou can always count on Gaucho for superb steaks and excellent Malbec, but you have to get the right branch (Covent Garden) and time (after 9pm on Fridays or Saturdays) to be treated to an equally spectacular dance performance at the same time …
Continue reading That time when you’re eating a steak, drinking Malbec, and being treated to a dance performanceI joined a webinar by writer and director Oliver Kolker last week, and he kindly offered participants the opportunity to watch his beautiful film for free – and to share it with others.
You can watch it here, but only until Monday. Don’t miss the chance! You can also see a trailer for his next film, Tuve El Corazón, here.
This project brings together two of my passions: tango, and filmmaking! It’s a micro documentary (16 minutes long) in which a dozen dancers share their love of tango, and the ways in which it has enriched their lives.
The film was a long time in the planning – it was something I first had in mind prior to the pandemic – and has a hidden agenda …
Continue reading Tango: The dance that changes everything – a micro documentaryI happened across a link to one of Yelizaveta’s podcasts on a tango forum, and was instantly hooked. Anyone who reads my blog clearly enjoys the ramblings of people who over-think all things tango, so I suspect you’ll like her too. (If you’re a leader, don’t feel under fire – she has one about followers too!).
ben lovejoy 