The GIFT and Publishing THIS WRITING

Helen and Mary want to give me a gift, but the gift arrived when they arrived. I GOT IT. What a pleasure to watch them- faces of joy  that come naturally when someone understands the music, the dance, and the life here in this amazing city. They GOT IT.
During our lesson with Carlos Copello yesterday at La Viruta, he asked what is the tango. There were many responses: feeling music, connection, movement etc. All the standard responses. Mike leaned over and whispered in my ear, "The heart of the dance is the Argentine people." He GOT IT!
This has been a truly perfect time here for us. If I can figure out how to put this blog into a little book, it will be a gift for my partner in life and my partner in the dance. TANGO.....Y NADA MAS!

Another LIST See us on Facebook NEPA Tang0 in the TENT

Summer of 2014  Here is ONE MORE list so we can look back at a wonderful, almost rain free summer.
   Argentine Tango every Sunday
   June-September 5:30-8:30
   Many couples joined in: Wednesday Couples Practicas
We started with a fund raiser at The Cooperage in Honesdale.
May 18  The movie, The Tango Lesson, followed by a lesson with Vince and Anna Gallo.
June 1   Tent OPENED- Joe Krenetsky walked us through the vals.
June 8    Jon Tariq "Feel the Music"
June 15 "Milonga Moves" with Carl and Elizabeth
JULY 6   "World Champions- Eliana y Carlos Arias from Colombia"
JULY 20 "Andy Kaye- Tango in his Smooth Style"
AUGUST 8 " Our DRAWING, tango, SOCIAL" with Ted Michalowski
AUGUST 10 "Andy Kaye- Turns in Tight Places"
AUGUST 25 "Frank Como- Starting the Beginners"
SEPTEMBER 13 "ANOTHER Ted Michalowski DRAWING SOCIAL"
SEPTEMBER 14 "Johana Copes and Joaquin Besga  Salon Tango"  with a sweet guitar by Jay Stevesky on Saturday and Sunday.
SEPTEMBER 21 "ANDY KAYE- Finding the Pause in the MUSIC"
SEPTEMBER 28 "Anton Gazenbeek-Person brings ADORNOS"
NOVEMBER 16 "Milonga at BLU WASABI in Clarks Summit for 26.
   Thank you ALL for "showing up" and for the delicious FOOD.
    After all this, here we are in Buenos Aires to find our tango.























-   

Borges "El Sur" and tango

Michael (not my Mike) recounted the short story El Sur while we enjoyed ribs at our monthly BAIN luncheon. Luckily I can search and find these files on the internet, which I think would have amused Borges. His writing makes me laugh and makes me cry all  in the same moment. Here is an excerpt

He placed his suitcase in a luggage net.  

When cars lurched forward, he opened it and, after some hesitation, took

out the first volume of the Thousand and One Nights. Travelling with this book, which
was so linked to the story of his misfortune, was an affirmation both that that misfortune
had been erased and a joyous and secret challenge to the frustrated forces of evil.
On both side of the train the city gradually broke apart into separate suburbs.
First this view of them and then the sight of truck gardens and small farms delayed the
start of his reading. The truth is that Dahlmann read very little. The magnet mountain
and the genie who has sworn to kill his benefactor were—who can deny it—
marvelous,16 but not much more than the morning and the fact of being. Such joy
distracted him from reading about Shahrazad and her superfluous miracles. Dahlmann
simply would close his book and let himself be alive.


So in tango. Close the lessons and let it be only the music and the floor. Let it come alive.

Please Roy! Don't Ask Me to DELETE This.

Roy has given me a place to think about tango in a different way.


Here are some of my thoughts on Tango as a dance, a form of expression, a philosophy, if you will.  Some is old material.

Roy  

P.S.  It is a bit kitsch.

                        On the Spiritual Physicality of The Tango
                                             by  Roy Whitman

 The Tango begins with the embrace between consciousness and necessity, or the spiritual and physical worlds, which assumes a restricted form (Adorno & Horkheimer).  The embrace represents one physical unit, like an anchor, with its own weight and synergy.  The steps of the tango, however, are light and ephemeral.  It is both Beethoven and Bach at once, or the physical and spiritual entwined (Kundera).  The dance is both spiritual (heavy) and spirited (light) with two physical beings together like Jacob wrestling with the Angel (Genesis).  It is both a restricted physicality (Cohen) and a restricted spirituality (Whitman).  It is the forces of nature colliding with the forces of heaven (Wagner).  It is the very breath of God (Michelangelo).

 

The Tango is neither a purely physical phenomenon nor purely a spiritual phenomenon.  The physical attributes of it can influence the spiritual attributes and the spiritual attributes can influence the physical attributes (Osborne, “Marx and Freud,” Elster “Making Sense of Marx,” and Engels on Marx) and each can interplay with the other in a myriad of nuanced and subtle ways.  The Tango is pure physics; to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (Newton), combined with improvisation inspired by the primitive Id (Freud).  Think of “Summer breeze makes me feel fine/tangoing with the jasmine in my mind” (Seals & Crofts); “Dust in the wind/all we are, are tango partners in the wind” (Kansas); and “The answer, my friend, is tangoing in the wind/the answer is tangoing in the wind.” (Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary)

 

Tango is a most utilitarian form of dance, satisfying both the higher and lower pleasures, or the spirit and the body. (Stuart Mills)  It is both a Gemeinschaft, or community, and a Gesellschaft, or society. (Marx)  While the former is based on a relatively homogenous culture and tends to be intimate, informal, cooperative, and imbued with a sense of moral obligation to the group, the latter is more formal, goal-oriented, heterogeneous, and based on individual self-interest, competition, and complex division of labor. It is Japanese discipline, teamwork, and craftsmanship, (Toyota) combined with a pursuit of egotistical advantages. (Smith)) As such, it is subject to relativity or the influence of space and time. (Einstein)

 

Tango is art and the culture of love. Colorful and dream-like (Chagall) yet abstract, angular, and obtuse while being sensual and hypnotic (Modern and Impressionism), Tango captures the essence between two people or forces. It is Eros and Thanatos vying for predominance or the Ego reconciling with the Id. (Freud).  It is Romeo and Juliet, Samson and Delilah, Marc Antony and Cleopatra, Tristan and Isolde, Maria and Tony, the King and I, and Captain Von Trapp and Maria.  Our daddies always said :”It takes two to tango.”. 

                     

Florida Garden

Huge thunderclaps and bolts of lightning.
A downpour that was mesmerizing.
Sheets of blowing rain.
Mike says let's walk to Florida Garden -1/2 block. I'll buy you breakfast.
Umbrella in hand we scurried across Florida and watched people going about their daily routines as if the sun were shining.
Our favorite waiter, Oca, brought the lagrimas and medialunas while we read the paper and chatted. As usual, the conversation turned to tango. Yesterday was a tango marathon. 4 1/2 hours at La Viruta with Noelia and Javier + the famous old timers Osvaldo and Coca. A great review of the basics.
I decided to strike up a conversation in Spanish with Oca who has no English. I told him about the tango lesson and how we had a chance to study with the greats- Osvaldo y Coca. In Spanish he said we should have had Osvaldo with "vino" instead of "Coka". Mike, as usual with is quick humor whispered in my ear, "Right about that. I guess he must have seen Coca."

Tango Skirts

We are tackling our postage-stamp size closet. First I started with the skirts. 30. 30 means I am crazy. It took me an hour to try them on and cut the amount in 1/2. The ones with the elastic waists are all back in the closet- too much pasta.
Mike started with his Levi's. He uses a marker to mark the 514 from the 511's. Some have no labels so he tries them on and models them before he decides where to stack them. He wonders how they could have shrunk when they sat in the closet for almost 6 months- too many medialunas?

ALBERTO PAZ R.I.P.

I wrote this post  as a distraction from the very sad news of a great loss to the tango world. Alberto, where are you? Please, I hope you made  plenty of time for small talk with Valorie before you went on your way to teach that tango lesson and  on your way to places beyond.
Attacking the Problem of “Small Talk”
Small talk is my weakness, I think. Mike doesn’t know where to start with it and my dear friend HS can’t make it.  I envy Sherry who makes small talk with total sincerity and finds interesting conversation with everyone.

Mike is sharing John Holt with me, a book called Instead of Education. He highlights portions for me to read  and  I write notes in the margin. We are both thinking and talking about the development of language and the purpose of communication. Holt says it’s to move people and get things done. Holt states, "Only in a place like S-chool where we are seldom allowed to talk, much less talk about anything interesting or real, and where our words seldom make anything important happen, and may only earn us humiliation and failure, does our growth in language slow to a stop."

Anyway I was sharing something I’d read years ago about conversation starters. It is something like this.

Picture the other person so you are NOT talking about yourself. How to start the conversation can come from a picture in your mind of the person’s house. So now ask “house”  questions -where they live or maybe about remodeling, ETC.  Next picture their family in front of the house. Here’s an opening for “How many children do you have? ETC. This leads to where they work, education, ETC.

Mike looks at me this morning and asks about this technique. He says dryly. I can picture the house and I can picture the family outside, but I see them standing in the rain.

I said, “So here is an opening to talk about the WEATHER”

His response was “Why would I want to talk to or know anything about  anyone who is too dumb to come in out of the rain.”
I LOVE MY HUSBAND
VALORIE LOVED HER HUSBAND
I hope Alberto talked to Valorie about the weather, about their silly plans for the day and gave her a huge hug and a huge kiss before he closed the door on the way to his last tango.

TANGO in Charlotte NC. THE BEST

Daniel Arredondo. We needed exercise after packing and getting on a last minute flight to Charlotte. The only tango lesson I could find  on Friday night was at the Metropolitan Ballroom at 6:30. What a surprise. Because we've studied with so many teachers here and in Buenos Aires, I didn't expect anything more than the needed exercise. SURPRISE! This is one of the best lessons we've had. Daniel built all of the exercises into the final simple 6 count step using torso, rock steps and a sequence of 10 movements to help us get there with fluidity and rhythm. What looks so simple is a challenge of walking the woman around the man OR side stepping the woman around the man. Mike was able to understand this and returned on Saturday for a private lesson with Daniel.
Maybe next winter we'll end up on Lake Norman to study more with Daniel.

A Dancer's Ear- GAVITO- Posted by Mike Lucey

Saber escuchar la musica... The legendary dancer Carlos Gavito, recognized milonguero and Zen philosopher of the tango dance said: The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step. It is to make the impossible thing possible: to dance silence.

Carlos Gavito: The important thing is to know why we want to dance. We dance a solitude that we have inside us and cannot occupy with anything. This gap, that emptiness to which we put movement is the TANGO.

New Year- New Apartment DEEP SOUTH

Florida Street? Calle Florida? Why not the outer areas from central city our friends asked. This location is a gem for us. San Martin park is 1 block N. Our favorite dance studio is 1/2 block S in the most gorgeous shopping center in the world. Florida has a parade of 1,000,000 pedestrians every day. We can walk to the movies, the theater and 100's of restaurants and shops are around every corner.
Cool it is. The subway 2 blocks away and a taxi/bus system where there is no waiting-ever. I LOVE Buenos Aires.
About buying an apartment. This was almost impossible. The money had to be paid in cash in US dollars. Getting a bank account so I could wire in the money took many bank visits. Paper after paper and then more papers to sign-"just one more". We had wonderful people- Federico, Susana, Emiliano, Jorge V and Jorge A, Marina, Sara and her husband, Julio, Martin and Luis, Enrique helping us through the process, but not without tears of frustration. People at the police department, AFIP, immigration, HSBC and the Banco Nacion never met us with anything less than courtesy and smiles. Meeting Sara de Anchorena- the owner- was a pleasure. After 4 weeks of running around, it's ours. Tiny, beautiful and it's ours. Mike and I came home with suitcases empty and heads full of ideas for our next visit in the spring. Already packing.

Workshop Weekend in Ithaca

Oliver and Silvina both had birthdays on November 7th so the weekend was special for all of us. Dinner hosts at the farm made our stay even more special. Wolfgang and Susan concocted a carrot soup that was laced with ginger. The rest of the meal was equally delicious. Nice to visit with Joaquin, Vatan, Juan and other tango lovers.
Workshop 1 - rebounds with a slow, quick, slow beat. Most of the guys mastered the step but not the beat.
Workshop 2- interrupting the cross. This was gorgeous but hard to lead. I decided to do the cruzada every time unless the interruption was clear. Worked well for me. The first one we learned was an overturned cruzada. This is my favorite walking step this year or maybe ever. I have to remember to drill into the floor before the forward step.
Anyway I don't know how the Durkins drive the distance in 1 1/2 hours. 2 hours and we were just pulling in - the last 30 minutes seemed like forever in the dark.
The more we organize and get ready for our trip to BsAs the messier it gets.
Bonfire might be good right now. Too many clothes, too much clutter and not enough time to do something about it all.

Far Out FANTASY

To make the day a little more interesting my far out fantasy might evolve. Just say, some famous person, maybe someone like Jaques D'Ambois, who I saw in the movie "Every Little Step" at the Kirby Center last week with Mike and Cathie, would call me on the phone this afternoon. Someone like Jaques D'Ambois, who I've deeply admired all my life and was an inspiration to my teaching and thinking.
Maybe Mike would answer the phone and say, "Hola" Cup his hand over the phone and say something like, "There's some kind of character on the phone for you."
And so if it really was JD, I would have said, " My husband said that you were some kind of a (ha-ha) character." And he would have said, "Maybe he is the character." From there the conversation might turn to tango, and Charlotte, and life and dance and more tango and the tent. A hint of mutual admiration might creep in, but that would really be stretching the fantasy. With another invitation to join us on a Sunday and a little more talk the call would end and I would go back, with a smile, to the rest of my day with the "character" who really exists. Then again..... if he did take the time to call, Mr. D'Ambois would fill my days with smiles, but, of course, why would he call me- a usually frazzled woman in a little rural town in NE PA who wants to tango.

SILVINA SAYS........

1. GO WITH YOUR BODY - last night at Cathie's excellent lesson at Jack's I moved so differently I didn't know it was me. This was tango. Even our milonga moved freely. My last milonga with Dan in close embrace surprised both of us. Better, much better. How nice to see 10 enthusiasts walking to the BEAT of tango.
2. GO WITH EASE- Silvina stood me up from the breakfast table and took me sideways, backwards, forward over and over in a relaxed embrace. If Silvina only knew how many times I've heard, relax, relax the free leg, breathe, just RELAX. It's #1 on my list of 17.
3.LOOK OUT AT EYE LEVEL AND IT WILL ORGANIZE YOUR SKELETON- picking things around the room at eye level was a distraction for many tandas. Now I understand the way it works. Makes me feel giddy, but my balance is a million times better.
4. DRILL INTO THE FLOOR BEFORE THE BACK OCHO- my axis was secure and I was able to "open my hips". Drilling is not bending the knees. The floor is my first romance.
5. WALK ON THE BEAT- Mike is slowly starting to grasp the beat and will allow me to softly count it out for a few measures. This is the biggest change in our dancing.
6. WATCH HOW YO PLACE YOUR FOOT- I am on my metatarsals with all toes flat. With all the ballet training I had years and years ago I am starting a love affair with the floor. CARESS the floor she tells me. Thank God ballroom has bypassed my limited dancing lessons.
Silvina is my hero and an extraordinary teacher and woman. I watch her over and over on YouTube and our videos to try to channel her energy and grace. She has changed my dance. Might I someday leave the beginner level ? This thought hadn't even crossed my mind. We'll see. MAYBE?

Tango Tent -OPENING

Jerry( deep blue suede) and Adele( green and gorgeous Comme Il Faut) made the long haul from Middletown NY for our first announced opening- a little tango has been going on here for a few Sundays to make sure this one would run smoothly and THAT it did. Everyone got a chance to work on balance and walking- thanks to these 2 kind instructors and the simple exercises we all practiced -though I hate the dreaded basic 8( step 1 and step 8???) A nice crowd graced the floor. They interspersed lessons with the dancing as the night went on. How do you thank people who give so much? Mike actually walked on the beat. Speaking of thanks, Frank said he'd have the bathroom finished today, but at about 4:00 I had my doubts. Frank plugged away and the first flush at 5:45 was music. Mike looks at me and I can tell he's thinking, "What next!" There is no answer to this.
Judy and Al are a surprise. Al looks like a milonguero. He gets it. I feel like a mother hen. Mike is happy that the "true believers" are here and his favorite music is filling the night air. Good food, a quiet group and the lighting makes the tango tent looks like a spaceship from the outside. What a way to start our third summer under the sky.

Vince and His Magic Eye

Vince misses nothing. Mike gets thrown off balance and Vince sees why as he carefully corrects my slight lean forward or my head sticking forward - that solves that problem. Vince never insults or hurts my feelings. Vince twinkles. Vince sees me studying my "Ways to Improve" list (now up to 17 items) from many talented instructors in Argentina and doesn't need to look at the list. I tell him what I'm working on and he tells me what I NEED to work on first. For me this usually comes back to posture and axis. All our efforts bounce back to Vince and his ability to analyze, correct and enjoy our enthusiasm as we all learn together- preparing us for our November trip back to the real world of tango.
Sometimes the dance is so comfortable and natural I can't do any better. What a joy to feel the music and get lost. All our Thursday night men are better- even the weak left arms that drive me crazy-feel more like the Zotto embrace. Matt moves like an Argentine. I like his pace. Mike A moves with a solid embrace. Tonight we announced the return of Oliver and Silvina in 2 weeks. This will become such a whirlwind weekend. Dance, food and and flying lessons somewhere in the mix. Their showcases left us breathless in October. Getting ready for the weekend has been moving forward thanks to Roscoe showing up here to work and to help us with the extras- the deck, the mulch on mulch, the garage and on and on. The weekend after the workshop on Sunday, June 7 our tango tent opens every Sunday for this summer. 5:30-8:30. We have more room this year and a few extra surprises for the season. Bring friends. Bring VINCE!

JOHANA=#1

15 days of lessons- then Johana
All the figures run together in a blur and the worst part of this is that I hate figures.
Johana was so kind to take Mike and me into a separate room at the Museum of Tango at the Academia and work with us on basic walking for an hour.The floor was slippery , newly waxed, and I kept sliding nervously off my axis.
Julio wet a towel and put it in the corner where we could plant our feet every few minutes. My dancing has NEVER been worse and Mike was no better. All the skating lessons we had before our pairs competition didn’t help -the slippery floor worked under us like a sheet of ice. The 2 ½ years of hard work since we started with Johana in November of 06 fell away into awkward nonfeeling tango- the tango I can't tolerate. The more I worried about what she was thinking the worse I danced. Side step, short step, l-o-o-o-ng step. The V. Reach back, push back. Finally the last tango and we were free to stare at beautiful Antonella. Mike held her for a picture then we went to the street and hopefully better days ahead. Giving up the skating was easy. After all, 1 broken arm and 1 dislocated shoulder somehow meant I'd had enough. After this lesson I think giving up the tango might be the best choice for my old bones and broken little toe. Ah! But what to do with the 3 new pairs of 3" heels and all the many little leather flower shoe adornments that I bought for myself and as gifts. David at Tango 8 in Abasto has them made locally. These little clip-on flowers make the old shoes look elegant and new. A steal for 25 pesos a pair. My entrepreneurial mind says why don’t we buy 500 pairs and sell them in the US at dance events. Mike says let's sell them as a non-profit organization and pour the money back into the tango community in some way to promote the dance. I like the non-profit idea, of course.

Jesus ( Not the Easter One) and the S-L-O-W Walk

So here we are dancing every day- 15 in a row- and sometimes more than 2 hours. Jesus gives us a 1 hour lesson and what do we do for the hour. WALK. This walk just about did us in. Mike is hobbling around ever since and my feet are mostly in hot water for hours. This walk was painfully slow. We'd go slow and he'd say slower. We'd go slower and he' say slower. Slower than watching grass grow. Jesus, on the floor, planting my feet and then holding my hips level. 1 hour of this over and over. Almost at the end of the hour I said, "Oh, Jesus!". Mike's eyes widened and he suppressed a laugh. I laughed inside. Before our next lesson with this wonderful instructor I promised I'd practice every day. Now my dance is changing and flowing along gracefully. A little magic from an hour of slow walking. The lesson was at one of our favorite studios on Belgrano. After we climbed the stairs Severio greeted us like lost family. Even though Jesus and Severio speak no English we all laugh when he finds out that Mike and he are the same age and he has been dancing for 61 years and Mike for only 2 1/2. Tango binds us to so many.

Packing

First we had to go through a few things we didn't unpack from our three trips to BsAs in 2008.
Mike and I were determined to get it all in 2 suitcases and 2 carry-ons. About 1/2 way through the list my bag was already 42 pounds- only 8 to go to the 50 limit and my tango shoes were still in a pile. I scrambled to the attic to look for another smaller bag and threw in my tango shoes, plugs and a bunch of stuff on the bed totally disorganized. EVERY time we go away I say I won't do that, but at the last minute in it all goes in a jumble of junk.
The screeners at the airport will love this one. At least we decided to forgo the 5 jars of peanut butter that were lovingly packed in double zip-locks last November.
Mike comes along and says, "I need to charge my Kindle" I gave him a glassy stare and a glance at the jumble in the suitcase. He said he'd charge it in Buenos Aires. SMART MAN! The driver is coming around 3:30 and every time I glance at the clock my heart races a little too much. The 350 cholesterol lurks in the back of my mind when the ticker ticks harder. The driver today is Darryl. Darryl was supposed to drive us to Sloan Kettering for Mike's horrid Clinical Trial in February, but Gene came in as a last minute substitute. Darryl's 62 year old wife had died unexpectedly the week before. This also plays on my mind, as our ride to Kennedy is often filled with stories about Darryl, his wife and their interesting, never-again-to-be cruises. Being a Great Worrier instead of a Great Warrior, I worry that Darryl and "I Don't Even Know Her Name" never had or will have the immense joy from a 3 minute Argentine tango.

Our Last Night in Clarks Summit

It doesn't get any better than this night. Tina, who is a natural, came first. This gave us about 30 minutes to walk, do torso and balance work. She just soaks it all up and transfers all the learning directly to movement. I tell her something simple- something like, "Watch that your foot doesn't turn in when you step and for the rest of the night she turns her feet out. This puzzles me. How does she do that? I can't wait until this summer when we open our tent and we can practice all we know. I love and respect her ability to learn. Matt came next. A total of 7 couples on the floor at one time. Right before Cathy left I made a video of her tango with Mike. This man is amazing.
He's right up there with the best. A little like Carlito Perez and Gustavo ZAid. My milonguero after only 3 years of hard and dedicated work.
At 8:30 we played "A Juan Carlos Copes", my favorite milonga because it's short and jaunty and Mike can make it through the entire 83 seconds. Matt, Matt, Suz and Tina helped us pack up the tables and chairs. With a little help coming our way we can dismantle the dance floor and put it away in the morning. One more private lesson with Vince on Thursday. One more tango workshop on Saturday with Joaquin Canay and we're ready for tango in the deep deep south. That 11 hour plane ride just doesn't see so long when the real dance awaits.

Hope we can manage all this!

Sunday will be the last chance to dance at our winter space in Clarks Summit. Monday the headaches begin. Because we moved in over a 3 week period, I didn't realize the accumulation of things that have to be hauled out. 13 tables, 30 chairs, tango pictures, the coat rack that Mike almost made level. Next there are the signs, the lights, the 8' ladder, vacuum, garbage can, storage containers and the still thriving poinsettia we feed every Sunday with 4 huge scoops of ice.
If all goes well, about 5 helpers and 2 trucks will drive in on Monday morning at 10:00- rain date Tuesday or Wednesday- and if anyone is reading this just stop by and help for an hour or two. The hard part is moving the 1000 pound dance deck and hardboard under it.
Today I called Celina Tent in Ohio and ordered a sister tent 15 X 15 for our "tango tent" at the airport. These things cost a fortune. Might as well do it now, I thought, as we may have to pack it up, head south and LIVE in it next year.