less than a week

Guys, thanks a lot for writing. I haven't had the time to post anything or reply, It's been a hellish time doing my best to put everything in order, finishing projects, etc... The few free moments that I had I spent reading blogs (esp. on BsAs) rather than writing. The more I read the more I let go and agree with sallycat about BsAs beeing in the soul of the beholder.

Now It's a little bit more calm, though there are many friends coming and leaving and I want to see them all before we split again. I'm thinking less and less about the trip, sort of letting it go with the flow. I don't have any ideea about what to take with me (I'm pretty sure the luggage will be grabbed in an hour or so) and I hope they loose my stuff so I can have a good reason for not having all the stuff I need :D There is a birthday party right the night before I leave, I think I'll spend the first flight minding my hangover.

Now, everyone could you please have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones :) Thank you.

May your new year be full of tango!

on BsAs, of course

Tango in Buenos Aires from Kate9 on Vimeo.

I can't really concentrate on anything else. ANYTHING. I really don't want to build up my expectations so every time the BsAs thought creeps in I try to find something to do. Not that I wouldn't have stuff to do. I have a lot of things to do and I ignore each and everyone of them. It's stupid. Can't really focus on anything...

I want to be there already. To walk the streets to smell the air to meet the portenos to go to milongas to go to classes to see the maestros to listen to live tango around the corners to drink a coffee early in the morning anywhere in any square just sitting and watching Buenos Aires going by. Sunrise. To feel the blood and beat of the city enchanted by music. Sleepless nights and tiresome days. Oblivion and surrender.

Maybe not.

Far,far,away

Distance for tango: roughly 7700 mi or 12300 km in a straight line
Departure: 29th of December
I still can't believe it. I'm going to Buenos Aires for a month!
The only thing that worries me is that a month passes so quickly.
Big grin on my face :)

Any tips?

L

There is L, a tanguero from here. I know him since I've started the tango thing and I always looked up to him for he's a very fine dancer. But there was this thing about him... he seemed rushed, not that he did miss the cadencia or something, I can't really put my finger on it.

But Sunday night I saw a wonderful thing happen. He went dancing and he seemed so relaxed and so calm. I don't know what happened to him but he'd better keep it. Really beautiful. It was so nice to see one of us dance like that!

Eso L!

It's lions I tell ya

Having a walk home. Feeling like the longest trip you've ever taken. Cold and foggy is the night. Tricky street lamps tempt you to feel comfortable and secure. You keep walking, not a soul in sight. You have to get home but you don't hurry. A stray barking from afar kinda keeps your senses awake. It's all so quiet. Loosing the love to the fog, a living dead disappearing into the mist. Or be left guttered by knife by the pavement the only thing you can do is fake warmth, keep silent and wait.

For all we do is dance. The closest embrace you can think of. The most elegant step you may ever take for it may be the last. Breathe, for you're not to waste your breath. Take your time, for your step should not be hasted. Feel her for all those souls can feel no more. Touch her dreams and lead the music for the music would lead you back.

Whisper, step, whisper, step, step,... hold...

For all we do is dance.

tango issue #two

A while ago someone on tv said among other things that "tango is for people born old". I believe he shed quite a gloomy light on tango in that interview.

Well.. I must disagree with him. If anything the tango is for people who never grow old (not that they die, of course). As I see it It's not that heavy world filled with regret and nostalgia. Yes It has very powerful emotions. I guess tango as a whole it's beyond it's lyrics. One of the reasons it's so addictive is that it has quite a few facets. It can be depressive or it can be bliss. One thing always leads to another, which might be quite the opposite.

Sometimes it's the milonga floor sometimes it's the milonga crowd sometimes it's the young and the old it's the music the lyrics the embrace the cadencia the etiquette the woman. Above all it's a feeling. And a rather joyful one and not at all suicidal I might add. You may actually have some fun. :)

tango issue #one

I was reading this post on Sorin's Blog and I was wondering...

As I said before It's a small tango community here. Let's say 50 (I stand corrected if I'm wrong). So learning tango is very much like learning to drive in your grandparents 20 house village. What happens when you eventually hit the highway? Or the big city traffic? I'll get a lot of horns (it's a latin thing) and sweet words for sure..

We have little choice here on a regular basis. If we want other people we pretty much have to travel abroad. Which is ok. Then again... I'm not yet sure how dancing in the same relatively small crowd impacts one's skills.

I must admit I was a bit scared of not learning the proper technique. There has been no choice but to trust my gut feeling and obviously my teacher. Fortunately, the fear dissipated with Ney and Jennifer's visit here.

For now I sit quietly in my spot waiting for BsAs this winter :)

Ney & Jennifer were here

First contact.
These wonderful pages.. I've been enjoying them for quite some time now. So many colors, so many people. I swap them with my friends and then we try to act like those guys in the pages. On the page each box has as still drawing in it, but we know better. There's a whole world between the boxes.

But I'm growing up they say. Slowly I'm beginning to understand those funny things with no pictures. Letters they say. Wreadin'.. I don't know them all and I have to read each and every one aloud but they're starting to make sense... and we have all those pages neatly tied together with so many words up on those shelves, my folks say I have to grow up some more to read those.

The other day the most curious thing happened. Me and my friends were alone for the whole day at home. We've been planning on this. We sneaked up on those shelves and got one of those books. We opened it... carefully... and we read.

By the time the grow-ups came back we read a whole page. Letter by letter. By ourselves. Wooow. For some days after we were just... silent. Mesmerized. And curious. And happy.
And we have to learn to read and write beautiful words like those on that page. And to grow up.

Ney Melo and Jennifer Bratt

a very very brief recuerdo

In Romania the first tango school started just 3 years ago. You ca find a more detailed history here, on the elTango page.

It's still a fairly small tango community but I think it's growing fast. This year two new schools have emerged, Tango Brujo led by La Morocha and the Tango Tangent led by Daniel Mandita

I'm trying to dance since May.

Julio Balmaceda & Corina de la Rosa

I find them to be one of the most elegant couples on the tango scene.
The video is made in Denver, USA and the music is live (?!)

No words. No comment. No doubt.

Julio Balmaceda & Corina de la Rosa

First seen on this cool blog La Tanguera

tango why tango

At first it seemed provocative. At least. Then it changed. It doesn't sit still for a moment. It's ever changing, ever growing. Intriguingly beautiful. Deceivingly addictive. It's like good perfume lingering a piano bar filled in cigarette smoke. You'd follow but you're not sure who's perfume it is. Another sip and you're writing poems in your head.
Scent of things to come.

But first you have to master it. It takes time, a lifetime maybe. Bathed in the rhythm one may be confused if sinful or blissful. I believe it to be both. Pleasurable, treacherous, it gets hold of you and I'm not sure if it ever lets go.

This is the beginning of a story. The tale of my tango addiction. The words of a tango rookie in a new found world of music, people and dance. Should my posts to come be boring (vague may be), please indulge my awkward writing. My intent is not to rationalize but to express the things between my right and left hemispheres, to depict illusions and to speak the gray of tango and the colours between.
:)