This post has enough content in it, that I've been procrastinating. The LA tango festival went well, with an ok turn out considering it was the first one ever, although it was different from the usual fare, in some good ways, and some not so good. Most festivals have a very high level of dance, where the floors get crowded to the point of having a couple on every tile, and there's enough dancing going on for the veterans to have their afternoons occupied. This one was a bit more beginner oriented, with Milongas Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and workshops being the only option during the day.
Friday I went to an afternoon class on Chacarrera, one of the folk dances which looks like a mix between something in medieval times, and flamenco. It was very popular in Portland, so I decided to check it out. That night was a decent milonga, with live music from Adrover's Quintet (guitar, bandoneon, piano, violin, bass) from Argentina. The problem with live music is that you have to be able to dance for that particular group, as the pianist and I talked about on Sunday. Some of the times I danced to them felt uninspired, some were fantastic.
Here's a picture from Friday night, with the red eye special. Laura and I have been practicing a bit of tango on the side. I don't know what it is, but I am definately not photogenic. Perhaps in this case it's because I just danced a salsa and got all sweaty.
On Saturday, I went to three advanced workshops, the first being by Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau, an older couple who were my favorites by far. The second class was being run by the organizers, Hugo and Miriam Patyn, and it was packed. It was a fun complicated little milonga figure. I find a lot of teachers teach moves without going in depth in terms of the lead and follow, or fundamentals, but Hugo did a good job at at least expressing some of the harder elements of the steps' body mechanics. Pedro Monteleone was the last class, which was a bit of a waste of time, since he showed up 45 minutes late, but it allowed me to practice with a very experienced dancer who helped me clean up my lead a bit. After that it was a chacarrera class. That evening was another milonga, with a dinner and show, which was pretty darn good, and included 4 Patyns (Hugo, Natalia, Juan, and Miriam) as well as the live ensemble. I'll try to get some pictures up later.
Sunday I followed Gloria and Eduardo to an intermediate, advanced, and intermediate class. I found that they give away the most in terms of good dancing advice, and the Patyn class was too packed for what he was trying to teach.
I had lunch with Juan Patyn to the right of me, his brother Hugo sitting to the right of me, and John Tice (DJ and promoter) on the very right. I don't know who the ladies are, but they did help out for the festival.
After all that I was too tired to dance chacarrera with Juan, but I picked up some more dances, including Zamba (pronounced samba) and Gato. Juan and I got along nicely during the festival, perhaps because his English is fairly nonexistent, and I was able to translate. I've got another friend for my trip to BA, I can use plenty. Here's a picture of Juan in his gaucho gear:
On the left is a young lady from Up north a ways who was wearing the cutest little corset on Saturday night, and was fun to dance with.
That night was another milonga, and despite a bit of bone deep wearyness, I had kept some energy in reserve. This particular night I discovered a new move, where it's basically a continuous turn of the woman around the man, all in close embrace of course. It's funny how suddenly something because apparent, after months of playing around, I became aware of a new aspect of how to move.
Here's a pic of Stefanie and her mother Jasmine. Stephanie went to Buenos Aires to visit family during the summer, and got into tango. Check out my mad skillz with one armed photo taking.
During that evening, Vlad and I talked about promoting tango in the LA area. One exciting thing is that he is going to be making some glossy flyers for my practice, with a bio and a nice pic of me. Hopefully that will help us both out, since the flyer will have the tango afficionado stamp of approval on it. Vlad wants to bring more people into tango with a longer festival, perhaps up to a week, which would showcase LA area teachers. I'd like to see a higher skill level festival with dance floors packed to the gills, but I think that LA isn't mature enough for it yet.
One highlight of that Sunday was when Billy Jean was being played by the DJ. People were dancing some kind of disco 2 step I think (although some were dancing tango), and I thought to myself, "Well, if I can't dance this with someone, why don't I do it alone?" I then proceeded to do some flow and a bit of pop locking (think Usher). After a minute of this, I went to sit down, and about three tables of women started cheering, loudly. One of the ladies wanted some more, so I decided to humor the crowd. After I had enough, I did a little drunken style dancing to represent that I'd had enough (think drunken Kung Fu, but not as martial) and fanned myself off, approaching my seat, and then fanned off the crowd.
I imagine that I had at least 50 people watching me, and people definately got a kick out of it. I would've had a real kick out of it if I had a hat at the time. I used to go to my fair share of clubs and raves (although always sober) and so this type of dancing was run of the mill for me, but I got a lot of favorable comments from it. Natalia Patyn and her partner Jorge (who are both around my age) even mentioned it.
Friday I went to an afternoon class on Chacarrera, one of the folk dances which looks like a mix between something in medieval times, and flamenco. It was very popular in Portland, so I decided to check it out. That night was a decent milonga, with live music from Adrover's Quintet (guitar, bandoneon, piano, violin, bass) from Argentina. The problem with live music is that you have to be able to dance for that particular group, as the pianist and I talked about on Sunday. Some of the times I danced to them felt uninspired, some were fantastic.
Here's a picture from Friday night, with the red eye special. Laura and I have been practicing a bit of tango on the side. I don't know what it is, but I am definately not photogenic. Perhaps in this case it's because I just danced a salsa and got all sweaty.
On Saturday, I went to three advanced workshops, the first being by Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau, an older couple who were my favorites by far. The second class was being run by the organizers, Hugo and Miriam Patyn, and it was packed. It was a fun complicated little milonga figure. I find a lot of teachers teach moves without going in depth in terms of the lead and follow, or fundamentals, but Hugo did a good job at at least expressing some of the harder elements of the steps' body mechanics. Pedro Monteleone was the last class, which was a bit of a waste of time, since he showed up 45 minutes late, but it allowed me to practice with a very experienced dancer who helped me clean up my lead a bit. After that it was a chacarrera class. That evening was another milonga, with a dinner and show, which was pretty darn good, and included 4 Patyns (Hugo, Natalia, Juan, and Miriam) as well as the live ensemble. I'll try to get some pictures up later.
Sunday I followed Gloria and Eduardo to an intermediate, advanced, and intermediate class. I found that they give away the most in terms of good dancing advice, and the Patyn class was too packed for what he was trying to teach.
I had lunch with Juan Patyn to the right of me, his brother Hugo sitting to the right of me, and John Tice (DJ and promoter) on the very right. I don't know who the ladies are, but they did help out for the festival.
After all that I was too tired to dance chacarrera with Juan, but I picked up some more dances, including Zamba (pronounced samba) and Gato. Juan and I got along nicely during the festival, perhaps because his English is fairly nonexistent, and I was able to translate. I've got another friend for my trip to BA, I can use plenty. Here's a picture of Juan in his gaucho gear:
On the left is a young lady from Up north a ways who was wearing the cutest little corset on Saturday night, and was fun to dance with.
That night was another milonga, and despite a bit of bone deep wearyness, I had kept some energy in reserve. This particular night I discovered a new move, where it's basically a continuous turn of the woman around the man, all in close embrace of course. It's funny how suddenly something because apparent, after months of playing around, I became aware of a new aspect of how to move.
Here's a pic of Stefanie and her mother Jasmine. Stephanie went to Buenos Aires to visit family during the summer, and got into tango. Check out my mad skillz with one armed photo taking.
During that evening, Vlad and I talked about promoting tango in the LA area. One exciting thing is that he is going to be making some glossy flyers for my practice, with a bio and a nice pic of me. Hopefully that will help us both out, since the flyer will have the tango afficionado stamp of approval on it. Vlad wants to bring more people into tango with a longer festival, perhaps up to a week, which would showcase LA area teachers. I'd like to see a higher skill level festival with dance floors packed to the gills, but I think that LA isn't mature enough for it yet.
One highlight of that Sunday was when Billy Jean was being played by the DJ. People were dancing some kind of disco 2 step I think (although some were dancing tango), and I thought to myself, "Well, if I can't dance this with someone, why don't I do it alone?" I then proceeded to do some flow and a bit of pop locking (think Usher). After a minute of this, I went to sit down, and about three tables of women started cheering, loudly. One of the ladies wanted some more, so I decided to humor the crowd. After I had enough, I did a little drunken style dancing to represent that I'd had enough (think drunken Kung Fu, but not as martial) and fanned myself off, approaching my seat, and then fanned off the crowd.
I imagine that I had at least 50 people watching me, and people definately got a kick out of it. I would've had a real kick out of it if I had a hat at the time. I used to go to my fair share of clubs and raves (although always sober) and so this type of dancing was run of the mill for me, but I got a lot of favorable comments from it. Natalia Patyn and her partner Jorge (who are both around my age) even mentioned it.
posted by Tango Master at
5:38 PM
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