Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Why did I worry?
Just the most wonderful time for all of us and I've never seen a milonga like the Oliver and Silvina version. Good food and the most gorgeous evening surrounded by our friends, the true- believers- and 6 tango instructors under one tent roof. Back in the spring for our 4th summer.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Moving the Date and Getting Ready
Oliver and Silvina don't mind the cold and we don't mind the cold, but we moved the tent closing back two weeks this year so our last night would be a bit balmy. The forecast looked dismal. Mike and I ran around trying to rent another propane heater for the other end of the tent, but nothing was left for the weekend. Home Depot had a 7 footer with a gorgeous copper base. "Takes about 30 minutes to construct" Hah!
Walter came on Friday to make Pigs in the Blanket. "Goes really quickly" Hah!
I never want to see a cabbage again!
So tonight we'll see how it goes. Mike and I have to hang plastic sheeting around the small tent, clean the floor and add all the finishing touches.
Thank god for friends who always help and give us support for this crazy endeavor. Thank God for Oliver and Silvina who teach us the tango.
Walter came on Friday to make Pigs in the Blanket. "Goes really quickly" Hah!
I never want to see a cabbage again!
So tonight we'll see how it goes. Mike and I have to hang plastic sheeting around the small tent, clean the floor and add all the finishing touches.
Thank god for friends who always help and give us support for this crazy endeavor. Thank God for Oliver and Silvina who teach us the tango.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Joaquin at Jack's
All kinds of walking -leg wraps and boleos. The variety was fun. Having Cathie work with Joaquin helped me understand the movements. 3 hours of satisfying work and another inch of improvement. Mike danced with ease and added many new moves. Who was that man? Melissa has the tango bug. Maybe we need a vaccine to calm us down and kill the bug. Ron is new and I hope he comes back. Joe is a natural tango guy. I love them all. Donna and Maureen were so cool leading and being guys for a day. Offering to do that is the hardest thing for me to imagine. It was a wonderful afternoon.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
ANASTOMOSIS/ANASTOMOSE
Gene gave me a book to read after Jill's tango lesson 2 in Tunkhannock. "Body of Work -Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab". Did I need to spend this week inside a cadaver named Eve with all the detailed description of nerves, muscles, bones- their origins and insertions -down to tiny details?
Tango, as it always does, creeps its way into everything I read, and arrives on page 96 where I stumble on anastomosis, a word I haven't seen since 10th grade advanced biology( a shark and cat- not a human).
The word means the intersection of 2 parts and their subsequent shared pathways. Comes from the Greek word meaning to intercommunicate.
: the union of parts or branches (as of streams, blood vessels, or leaf veins) so as to intercommunicate or interconnect.
This beautiful word gives our tango a joining. I think of the communication in tango that almost joins us for 3 minutes of silence. Maybe I just like the word.
Tango, as it always does, creeps its way into everything I read, and arrives on page 96 where I stumble on anastomosis, a word I haven't seen since 10th grade advanced biology( a shark and cat- not a human).
The word means the intersection of 2 parts and their subsequent shared pathways. Comes from the Greek word meaning to intercommunicate.
: the union of parts or branches (as of streams, blood vessels, or leaf veins) so as to intercommunicate or interconnect.
This beautiful word gives our tango a joining. I think of the communication in tango that almost joins us for 3 minutes of silence. Maybe I just like the word.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
SVPA Center in Stroudsburg- September 5th
What did I really think of the Oliver Kolker and Silvina Valz lesson?
I needed it.
The men are not moving the women forward like they do in BsAs. No "marca" to me means the drive is not coming from the body but from the legs. This I know has to be changed. If we keep doing beginner after beginner lesson the participants get bored, but then the dance never becomes tango. How do you mix the basic, much needed embrace and posture with the much desired fancy stepping and footwork?
Well, if I knew the answer I'd be the tango teacher not the silent observing beginner.
My memory holds the feeling from the real milongueros- Eduardo Saucedo, Chiche, Demian Garcia, Fernando, Gustavo Zaid, Jesus Valesquez, JCC- who drive forward like a tractor form the core and the chest- who take me with them on a ride around the floor. More men should dance with these men to channel that steady forward and horizontal force. Mike looks a bit silly, but always asks the strong leaders to lead him once around the floor. Today I add his name to the above list.
I needed it.
The men are not moving the women forward like they do in BsAs. No "marca" to me means the drive is not coming from the body but from the legs. This I know has to be changed. If we keep doing beginner after beginner lesson the participants get bored, but then the dance never becomes tango. How do you mix the basic, much needed embrace and posture with the much desired fancy stepping and footwork?
Well, if I knew the answer I'd be the tango teacher not the silent observing beginner.
My memory holds the feeling from the real milongueros- Eduardo Saucedo, Chiche, Demian Garcia, Fernando, Gustavo Zaid, Jesus Valesquez, JCC- who drive forward like a tractor form the core and the chest- who take me with them on a ride around the floor. More men should dance with these men to channel that steady forward and horizontal force. Mike looks a bit silly, but always asks the strong leaders to lead him once around the floor. Today I add his name to the above list.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Diatribe on chemical exposure during tango- Posted by Omar
Today is the first day of my vacation. I am going camping on the Delaware River with S B:-) She is going to paint up a storm...maybe even in a storm:-O I woke up this morning and my nose started running. Now it is running non-stop and I am halfway through a roll of toilet paper that I am using to blow my nose because I've run out of tissue...where was I last night, oh yeah, tango and now I am covered with various chemical intoxicants from 8 different women. It's like I'm a 5'10" cotton swab taking chemical samples during tandas.
Now I've got to choose between taking an allergy pill and being groggy all day or take a chance that there will be no further escalation of my allergy symptoms after I take a shower. I choose the shower...here goes!
Okay, I'm outta the shower, I'll pray later. If I choose poorly then S B's day will be adversely affected because the next few days are all for her. I promised I'd take her to this particular spot so she could paint for a few days. I'm like her personal riverguide. That means I pretty much do everything for her as I take her down the Delaware River in my canoe to the camping spot. The tent and sleeping bags and all that other gear is all packed in waterproof sacks. I will load the canoe on my van, which is a big task as I get older because it is nearly a hundred pounds and seems to get heavier every year...maybe it's just me.
Anyhow, I've got to get the van loaded, drive to the takeout(the point where we will be getting out of the river), meet S B, take her to the put-in(vice versa), take the canoe off the van, load it with all the gear so it is perfectly balanced so as not to tip over when we go through the rapids of which there are many, paddle us down to the camping area avoiding rocks and eel weirs along the way, unload the canoe, pitch the tent and chairs, make supper, pleasure S B with sweet talk and tender caresses all night long, fend off bears and animals of lesser size, make up lies about all those noises in the woods, pack up everything after two days so it all fits in the canoe and is perfectly balanced so as not to tip us over in the rapids, paddle to the take-out, load the canoe back on the van, drive home, unload the canoe and put away all the gear nice and neat so my house is organized and pleasant to live in. That last part never happens...my house is a mess.
If I am groggy due to the effects of allergy medicine I cannot do all these things and remain a chipper camper for very long. What should be a pleasant two-day outing on the river turns into an unpleasant cohabitation in a shoddy shelter devoid of the amenities and distractions necessary to make this sentence bearable...a visit by a bear would be a welcome distraction at this time.
I try to talk to women about allergens but I feel I am barking up a tree with no raccoon in it. I danced with a girl on Friday who's hairspray triggered an allergic reaction and ended up missing most of an excellent workshop in Stroudsburg on Saturday. In March, one particular woman nearly had me in the hospital. It was an excellent workshop with Steve Cook where I learned how to lead a back boleo between the leaders legs without getting castrated! It took me two weeks to get over that reaction.
It is hard for me to ask a woman to dance. Usually, I have just a few seconds to make my decision based on eye contact or attraction or whatever. If I have to consider the toxic content of a woman's total chemical application, I usually decide not to ask. God made women with sugar and spice and everything nice. Coco Chanel makes his fragrances with Chinese laborers doing everything they can to cut costs. Hairspray is the worst. Nothing is the best.
I dance with a woman at Dance Manhattan who always stinks of sweat. It's a little uncomfortable at first but then I get used to it and we dance many tandas together in the closest embrace possible, with no adverse reactions:-)
It looks like I chose wisely....my nose has stopped running and I am off to vacation where we will tango naked on the riverbank in just our dance shoes...whoooopppeeeeeee!!!!!;-) ;-)
Now I've got to choose between taking an allergy pill and being groggy all day or take a chance that there will be no further escalation of my allergy symptoms after I take a shower. I choose the shower...here goes!
Okay, I'm outta the shower, I'll pray later. If I choose poorly then S B's day will be adversely affected because the next few days are all for her. I promised I'd take her to this particular spot so she could paint for a few days. I'm like her personal riverguide. That means I pretty much do everything for her as I take her down the Delaware River in my canoe to the camping spot. The tent and sleeping bags and all that other gear is all packed in waterproof sacks. I will load the canoe on my van, which is a big task as I get older because it is nearly a hundred pounds and seems to get heavier every year...maybe it's just me.
Anyhow, I've got to get the van loaded, drive to the takeout(the point where we will be getting out of the river), meet S B, take her to the put-in(vice versa), take the canoe off the van, load it with all the gear so it is perfectly balanced so as not to tip over when we go through the rapids of which there are many, paddle us down to the camping area avoiding rocks and eel weirs along the way, unload the canoe, pitch the tent and chairs, make supper, pleasure S B with sweet talk and tender caresses all night long, fend off bears and animals of lesser size, make up lies about all those noises in the woods, pack up everything after two days so it all fits in the canoe and is perfectly balanced so as not to tip us over in the rapids, paddle to the take-out, load the canoe back on the van, drive home, unload the canoe and put away all the gear nice and neat so my house is organized and pleasant to live in. That last part never happens...my house is a mess.
If I am groggy due to the effects of allergy medicine I cannot do all these things and remain a chipper camper for very long. What should be a pleasant two-day outing on the river turns into an unpleasant cohabitation in a shoddy shelter devoid of the amenities and distractions necessary to make this sentence bearable...a visit by a bear would be a welcome distraction at this time.
I try to talk to women about allergens but I feel I am barking up a tree with no raccoon in it. I danced with a girl on Friday who's hairspray triggered an allergic reaction and ended up missing most of an excellent workshop in Stroudsburg on Saturday. In March, one particular woman nearly had me in the hospital. It was an excellent workshop with Steve Cook where I learned how to lead a back boleo between the leaders legs without getting castrated! It took me two weeks to get over that reaction.
It is hard for me to ask a woman to dance. Usually, I have just a few seconds to make my decision based on eye contact or attraction or whatever. If I have to consider the toxic content of a woman's total chemical application, I usually decide not to ask. God made women with sugar and spice and everything nice. Coco Chanel makes his fragrances with Chinese laborers doing everything they can to cut costs. Hairspray is the worst. Nothing is the best.
I dance with a woman at Dance Manhattan who always stinks of sweat. It's a little uncomfortable at first but then I get used to it and we dance many tandas together in the closest embrace possible, with no adverse reactions:-)
It looks like I chose wisely....my nose has stopped running and I am off to vacation where we will tango naked on the riverbank in just our dance shoes...whoooopppeeeeeee!!!!!;-) ;-)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Try Not to Focus on the Lead
If the lead is lousy, which it often is ( not you Mike), work on my own movement.
If "la marca" is nonexistant, feel what I can and GO.
If the man forgets about my axis, put myself on my axis and wait. Make my own dancing the best it can be step by step. A long leg reaching back from my upper torso would be an improvement and will give me something to work on at this weeks Sunday milonga. The traditional birthday waltz video in NY looks stilted and like my body is in a cast. Mike gets the brunt of my aggravation when the dance goes poorly. This has officially stopped. Now I pledge to improve my walk and balance through my own hard work. When we decide to work together on the dance we'll discuss it and hone our steps -practice hold first.
Changing the subject, the new dance floor in our dance room looks so much better than the old literally floating floor. Signature Floor expedited the delivery and we carried it down and laid it in about 2 hours after my birthday trip to NYC. When Andy and Svetlana come on Sunday they have another, cooler, choice of places to work for their maybe private lessons.
If "la marca" is nonexistant, feel what I can and GO.
If the man forgets about my axis, put myself on my axis and wait. Make my own dancing the best it can be step by step. A long leg reaching back from my upper torso would be an improvement and will give me something to work on at this weeks Sunday milonga. The traditional birthday waltz video in NY looks stilted and like my body is in a cast. Mike gets the brunt of my aggravation when the dance goes poorly. This has officially stopped. Now I pledge to improve my walk and balance through my own hard work. When we decide to work together on the dance we'll discuss it and hone our steps -practice hold first.
Changing the subject, the new dance floor in our dance room looks so much better than the old literally floating floor. Signature Floor expedited the delivery and we carried it down and laid it in about 2 hours after my birthday trip to NYC. When Andy and Svetlana come on Sunday they have another, cooler, choice of places to work for their maybe private lessons.
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