DRAFT of another Poem

What Comes Down OUR Calle Florida
Yeah, Yeah all the tour books say a million pedestrians stroll these 16 blocks every day.
Beware the ladrones!
Shoppers, vendors, tourists all purposefully moving along at different  paces.
Moving past our building where our tiny apartment gives me a glimpse of the street, a glimpse when I hang off the narrow balcony and stretch a long neck to the left. 
If  the wind blows from the east, luring words drift upward, "cambio, cambio, cambio" or "tango show, lady" or "leather factory, lady" as they echo through soft street music.
But other happenings along Calle Florida stun me into silence.
There was butterfly week. Up they came from south to north,
Tiny orange flutterers tinted with yellow, day after day
Zooming up past the 11^th floor and out of sight
On a mission to somewhere, I think.
More butterflies than the determined window shoppers. Why don’t you look up at these fragile beauties, I wonder    
And the clouds.
The puffy ones float by from west to east
White figures against deep blue where I search for tango dancers or other kinds of mating rituals    
Oops, there goes a spouting whale- moving backwards next to a toadstool forest
My bed in the window where the street sounds are muted from Cordoba is a candy store.
The southern cross stares down at me from this window bed, but I doubt if the pedestrians along the street below look above to find its silent beauty
How can life become that busy?
Karen Lucey    April 2014

KHALIL GIBRAN- posted by Amanda Gris

Cierta vez una bailarina con sus músicos había arribado a la corte del Príncipe de Birkasha. Y, admitida en la corte, bailó ante el príncipe al son del laúd, de la flauta, de las tablas y tambores, y de la cítara.
Bailó la danza de las estrellas y la danza del espacio, y por último la danza de las flores al viento. Luego se detuvo ante el Príncipe e inclinándose, le hizo una reverencia.
El príncipe emocionado le pidió se acercara y le dijo:
" Bella mujer, hija de la gracia... y del encanto, de donde viene tu arte? Como dominas tú la tierra y el aire en tus pasos y el agua y el fuego con tu ritmo y tu cadencia?"
La bailarina se inclinó de nuevo ante el Príncipe y le contestó:
"Su alteza, no estoy segura como responder su pregunta, pero sí sé que el alma del filósofo vive en su cabeza,
el alma del poeta en su corazón, que el alma del cantor vibra en su garganta.
Pero que en cambio, el alma de la bailarina, vive en todo su cuerpo"
Khalil Gibran


Once, a dancer with her ​​musicians had arrived at the court of the Prince of Birkasha. And, she, admitted in court, before the prince, danced to the sound of the lute, flute, drums and tables, and zither.
  She danced the dance of stars and the dance of space, and finally the dance of flowers in the wind. Then she stopped and bowed to the Prince- he bowed.
  The prince asked her to approach excited and said:
  "Beautiful woman, daughter of grace and delight, whence comes your art? Like you dominate the earth and the air in your footsteps and water and fire with your rhythm and cadence?"
  The dancer bowed again before the Prince and replied:
  "Your Highness, I am not sure how to answer your question, but I do know that the soul of the philosopher lives in his head,
  the poet's soul in his heart, the soul of the singer vibrates in his throat.
 But instead, the soul of the dancer, lives in his whole body "
  Khalil Gibran

Dinzel- Lesson 2- Not an April Fool's Gag

Rodolfo Dinzel. I like the way the name sounds so I write both first and last names. We were there, Villa Crespo, at 10:00 for our second lesson. First a five minute warm up and then the master, who sits in the corner, and his followers, who sit around the room on the floor, watch us dance. Next comes the discussion, Spanish to English with an interpreter at his side, His "baby?". El maestro says to write on paper, I think this typing will satisfy him, all that he has mentioned and study it all for our next lesson on Tuesday.
For Mike:
Repeat all the exercises from week 1. Also keep the steps long and slow.
Use the back muscles more for the pivots and the torso for the back ochos. A wider base keeps you more stable.
Keep the left arm forward of the torso.
Use a step into and between the woman. This is the tango.
Use the chest as the eyes. Pretend it's a spotlight looking into my face.
For me:
Work on my right arm. Don't let it collapse
Dance more around Mike
Keep the same distance between us. Chest to chest.
At times step between his legs.
Be happy. Enjoy the dance.
Come back on October 7th to celebrate his birthday. MAYBE?

SOLO WHALE

I asked my friend Juan to translate my little poem into Spanish.

ALONE

Why have you become the solo whale?
The adventure is now closer to shore where the
     water runs warmer
Head off to the deep when the music stops
When you must find your own quiet space
But today the frolic and dance continue

 Karen Lucey  -2013


ON APRIL 5th it arrived via email

A spanish version for your great poem

Hugs for both of you.   Juan

Soledad

¿Porque te has convertido en la ballena solitaria?

La aventura ocurre ahora bien cerca de la costa

donde el agua es más cálida

Regresa a lo profundo cuando la música pare 

cuando debas encontrar tu propio espacio, más calmo

Pero ahora la diversión y el baile continúan

IT GOT BETTER

Just when I think I can't absorb another tango ANYTHING, it got better.
Today we had a lesson with the master Rodolfo Dinzel. Our teacher at the Galerias, Amanda Gris, said we must persue a lesson with Sr. Dinzel to explore the possibilities of more communication between us.
OK. I sent an email- no response. I called and left a message- no response. Mike and I said let's just get on a bus and go his studio (Jufre 160) to see if we can get a lesson.  He was there in a more than interesting studio. It was a new approach to the dance. We stepped out for empanadas and returned in an hour for our lesson. First he wanted our attitudes changed- more attitude.
After another dance he wanted longer and slower walking.
Next he gave us exercises to practice before our lesson next week.
I hold Mike's shoulders and lead the back ochos for myself.
One hand (right or left) goes to Mike's or my chest and we move with eyes closed to the music. Next both hands, palm touching lead the dance in a circular or back and forth movement to the music.
We need to do these exercises 5 minutes every day to start to feel the circular communication of the dance. LOVED this lesson.

From the Sunday NY Times- March 2014

In the large-scale Nurses’ Health Study of more than 60,000 postmenopausal women, those who walked briskly at least four times per week were at much lower risk of hip fractures (an indirect but practical indicator of bone health) than the women who walked less often, more slowly, or not at all.

Had the walkers occasionally jigged backwards and sideways, all the better. So-called odd impacts, created when you move in a direction other than straight ahead, can initiate remodeling throughout the hipbone and spine in older people, a few recent studies suggest.

Now what dance does that bring to mind?

This post is for ME-What I have learned.

1. Silvina Valz: Go with my body, Go with ease, Look out at or above eye level (this organizes my body), Walk on the beat, Caress the floor, Move leg from my diaphragm, go at the last minute (tension and release)
2. Cecelia Gonzalez: Use more disassociation, Use the torso and back in the molinete, Keep my hips facing the man.
3. Amanda Gris: Improvise and interpret on my own, Keep body soft (ice to water)
4. Johana Copes: Don't go up and down, Make a definite step, Use the standing leg for power, Don't collapse my left side. In forward ocho- torso, hip, leg and then the foot, In the back ocho- hip first.
5. Maria Angeles Rodriguez: Weight over front foot in forward ochos
6. Marcela Duran: Long leg back in the ocho before the weight goes down( cross the leg a little), Ice-cream cone theory- enjoy every part of every step.
7. Augusto Balizano: Dance the pivot into the floor, Posture erect, Take my time- slow it down, Follow through with the right arm.
8. Olga Besio: Find the pause in the tango, Dance to the floor and the music.
9. Daniela Arcuri: Don't collapse my left side, Don't collapse my right side.
10. Carina Mele: Lift torso, Lighten my upper body
11. Eliana Sanchez Arteaga: Follow the man's left arm
12. Marissa Quiroga: Feet on the floor, Beauty in the foot.
13. Pablo Veron: Put the back heel down, Look over the mans shoulder and up a bit (posture up, head up)
14. Sonia Peralta: Move like a methodical cat, Don't go up and down.
15. Pablo Alvarez: Keep hip level in the side step
16. Noelia Barsi: Open the hip on the back step, deeper cruzada
17. Aurora Lubiz: Free leg totally free, small beautiful adornos but seldom
18. Gabriel Misse: Use the diaphragm for balance forward and back, Use the back muscles for lateral balance, lag the back leg
19. Oscar Gauna: Breathe together.
20. Silvana Nunez: Vary the speed between fast and slow
21. Me: Perservere, Keep a blog about all this, Thank all the above and all the below in some way.
22. Privates and group lessons with instructors who nudged me with some of the above ideas. Junior Cervila, Jesus Velazquez, Natalia Rojo, Miguel Zotto, Alberto Paz, and more to come.
ADD ONS from April 2014- Of course, Rodolfo Dinzel
 Beto Barsellini and Lis Dorin: Complete the pivots, relax the ankles, knees and hips, lift the chest at a slight diagonal, push the floor on every step. More disassociation.