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.

Words by Deby Novitz- thoughts by many

Deby has an honest and interesting blog.
She is an expat who in now a resident of BsAs.
Also rents rooms to tourists.

http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/whose-tango-is-it/
In the arms of some old guy I would get a music lesson. In the U.S. you dance the same to every song. People dance tango to vals, a tango variation to milonga, the same steps to everything. Here in Buenos Aires I was told that you dance different to each orchestra. Long back steps to DiSarli, more giros to D’arienzo. It was exciting. There was so much to learn and the milonga was my teacher.
What makes Argentine Tango unique is the abrazo – the embrace. When you take that away, you take away the essence of the dance. The tango is a seduction. It is two people playing with each other. The tango like a seduction is improvisation. It is not the same steps over and over again. When you take away the embrace, you dance the same steps over and over again, and you don’t even dance it to tango music, what are you dancing?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.