My One Year Tango Anniversary

Today marks one year since I first stepped foot into Marcelo and Romina's Steppin' Out studio for my first Argentine tango class. I remember deciding I wanted to take Argentine tango so I googled all the possibilities in the South Bay that I could attend the following week. Tuesday was going to be Steppin' Out, Thursday would be Starlite, and Saturday or Sunday somewhere in San Jose. At the beginning of the first class I felt very overwhelmed and lost... this is not easy stuff! But even by the end of the first class, with Marcelo and Romina's style and guidance I was able to feel the connection and feel a sense of small improvement over the course of an hour... I was elated with this newfound activity! Thursday's class was a bit discouraging. I suddenly had to learn this "basic ocho" pattern that is used as a teaching mechanism by some teachers... front, side, back, back cross, yadda. I didn't feel as much of the connection that I had earlier in the week. Then on the weekend I actually forget where I went, but it wasn't for me. I couldn't wait to get back to the Tuesday class the following week... but I only had a couple more classes until they went back to Argentina for a few weeks over the holidays. I was definitely in withdrawal already!

I've been one super lucky gal in many ways:

To have discovered Marcelo and Romina from the beginning... I feel I have a strong foundation from which to work. Some dancers have been dancing for years and don't walk away with these essential fundamentals, only to discover and learn them later. I highly recommend them as teachers, and they are also just super nice and approachable people. They teach Monday nights at Alberto's club in Mountain View, but also teach weekly in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, and Lafayette (and no they didn't pay me to advertise for them hehe). Still lots to learn though and work on.

I was also blessed to have been asked and persuaded to be Martin's dance partner after only having danced 6 weeks. It was funny having this experienced dancer trying to sell himself to me and telling me why I was gold to him. His years of experience and expertise on both the lead and follow helped me progress at a rapid pace and helped mold me into the dancer I am now. I couldn't have asked for a better situation as a newbie! I remember I didn't even know the names of steps so I'd have to ask how the step goes where he hits my leg and then it goes around in a circle from front to back, or that thing where my leg whips back and then forward. We had some funny conversations, but he was extremely patient and accommodating and still is.

I remember being really nervous going to milongas by myself last December. I was on my way to Tarragon milonga for the first time, but when I arrived I discovered I'd left my wallet at home! Not having really met anyone in tango yet since it'd only been a couple weeks I didn't know anyone I could borrow money from so I had to drive back home to get my wallet. After retrieving my wallet, I remember driving back to Tarragon thinking, "what the hell am I doing?" See, usually I am not a very social person, but with tango I started to become more social. I kind of had a reality check that night though and almost didn't go back to the milonga... me, being social? and dancing with all these strangers? What had I gotten myself into? Oh, and since it was December, it was also my birthday month, so they had this birthday waltz. I remember boldly going up to the front to help blow out the candles and then was told that people would take turns dancing a Vals with me. A vals?! I only knew a little tango, and quickly whispered to the first guy, "sorry, I don't know waltz, only tango" to which he replied, "you'll be fine... just follow me" and it was alright. Of course now I know that tangos consist of the tango, vals, and milonga :)

For New Year's Eve, I dragged myself alone to Alberto's New Year's Eve milonga. That night was amazing though. I met some dear groups of people that night who have stood by my side as friends to this day. Suddenly I went from being awkwardly alone to gabbing it up with a bunch of gals. Then it was 2009.

For my one-year celebration, everyone was busy, so I went to Cell Space by myself. At first I just sat there, but then after the first tanda I kept getting asked by guys to dance and got a good 2 hours of almost solid dancing in which was great. The music is so-so (not the classics I'm used to) but everyone is friendly and nice there, and since it wasn't as crowded as usual, we could use the space more which was nice. I'd only been to Cell Space once before and it was enormously crowded. I remember several times my foot would wind up off the main floor since we were pushed to the outermost edges of the dance floor!

I can't say things just came easily to me. I put in a lot of hard work, and so did my teachers and dance partner, Martin. From the very first week I danced 4 or 5 times a week, going to every class or milonga I could find in the southbay. The multiple classes quickly got replaced by practice time with Martin. Now I'm taking privates with my teachers twice a month and practicing once or twice a week, plus going to 1 or 2 milongas a weekend. The hardest thing is probably finding balance in my life. So many of us get bitten by the tango bug and it is such a friendly addiction that we don't notice other things in life passing us by. Tango becomes our world. Actually the hardest thing is probably finding tango shoes that fit my feet, but that aside, it's been an incredible year for me and I look forward to another exciting and eye-opening year.

Keep your friends close, but your tango shoes closer :) Breathe, relax, connect, and have fun! See you on the dance floor...

Tango Performance Debut!

Last night I had the honor of being a guest violinist with Marcelo Puig and Bocha Lopez at Studio Gracia's milonga. We kind of just threw it together last minute so I was incredibly nervous, wishing there'd been more time to prepare, but it actually went really well and I might actually do something like that again! Many thanks to all my friends who showed up to support me (even some non-tango friends!) It was my first time at Studio Gracia and I had a good time. I even took Negracha and Diego's intermediate class on Milonga traspie, which was a lot of fun. And evidentally Studio Gracia always is decked out with food and drinks so no one will ever go hungry! There were empanadas, quiche, croissants, watermelon, and lots more throughout the night. I got a lot of dancing in too which was fun, and helped keep me warm when my fingers started getting cold before playing violin. I have video footage of Negracha and Diego's performances, but I'll post that another night.

Lots to remember from tango tonight: continuing to rotate/turn and not stop in the middle even if the leader stops, keeping my right shoulder forward, continuing my follow even during an embellishment or embellishments (before I think I would stay static until I was done with my embellishment and then move with the leader but I need to continuously move with the lead throughout my embellishment), and of course the omnipresent DELAY. Often it seems the more I learn, the more I see how much more there is still to learn! But it's great, powerful stuff. What was life like before tango was in it?

The Amazing Gustavo & Giselle!

Had a really great treat to see the phenomenal Gustavo Naveira & Giselle-Anne tonight at La Milonga de Nora at Allegro in Emeryville. Had a fun time carpooling up with 5 other tango friends.

Enjoy!




Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Tango and Music Merge

I went to Lafayette for Marcelo's class and milonga. They had a pretty decent turnout! Another Marcelo who I'd met once before invited me to play violin at Studio Gracia on November 23rd with his group, so we'll discuss more, and maybe I will! This is pretty exciting since it would really bring my love for tango and music full circle. But not sure I'm cut out for it... we'll see.

I've been struggling in my dancing lately with the embrace... to lean or not to lean. That seems to be my question as of late. I've been taught a very milongeuro style with much lean, but now I need to distinguish between when that is good and when I should not lean so much and be more on my own axis. Also, Martin has been throwing much larger steps and gestures at me, which is also a different style of dancing. I've been so used to the small subtle gestures and steps. Anyway, this is all new as of the last week or so, so I'm sure in time it will all settle in.

Tomorrow my quartet is playing for an hour at Barnes and Noble which should be fun, prior to which I'll be seeing my niece's soccer game.

Been listening to Piazzolla's Homenaje Adios Nonino Y Sus Temas Mas Recordados album, my favorite song being the 8-minute Adios Nonino Tango. Genius!

Greatly looking forward to Alberto's 1st anniversary milonga this Sunday in Mountain View - yay!

Palo Alto Milonga

Here is a milonga video of Martin and Me taken at last Friday's Palo Alto milonga. Finally I can see some of the embellishments I've felt compelled to do. Hopefully we will get more footage today after our privates as well to something a little slower, like tango or vals :)



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Less is More

I have been dancing a little less lately, but I seem to be developing into my own right now, and it is exciting! Since a week or two ago I have been doing more and more embellishments. I think I go a little crazy at practicas because that's where one should practice them. I think I will be a little more conservate in milongas - but we'll see! It is hard because the follow has to be timed so precisely right in order to know if I can do an embellishment and for how long I can do it. And then sometimes to have it feel seamless to my partner as if I'm not doing anything, although at times I feel like I should let my partner feel that I am doing a little something. I remember the line from Office Space, where Jennifer Aniston is wearing those buttons as pieces of "flare" and then she gets upset and sticks up her middle fingers to her boss, and says "This is me expressing myself!" Well, I feel the same, This is me expressing myself, but not in such a crude way. Last night I found myself doing even newer strange embellishments, and it was kind of like, what are my feet doing? ... Well... ok, sure. I got a compliment after practica though that someone enjoyed watching me dance, and really liked my footwork, so that made me happy. Another person said they really enjoyed watching my footwork at milonga last Sunday as well. Anyway, no new footage in the last few weeks so I have little idea of how I actually look since I have not looked in a mirror or seen myself on tape. My confidence is getting stronger, and I think once I hit my one-year mark for tango dancing I will feel worlds of difference.

Tango is awesome

Went to Lafayette last night with Martin for class and milonga. It was an incredible night for me. I feel like I reached a new level with my dancing... the next big plateau. Wished I'd grabbed some footage. I dance very differently at a milonga than say at privates, class, or practica, and it's my dancing at a milonga that I'd like to see footage of but have none. Last night the music seemed to just take me and I was doing lots of embellishments, even some I'd never done before, but just got caught up in the music and the present moment and did whatever my feet felt like doing (it did help that the music was awesome... r&m always do an awesome job with that)! I'm actually quite surprised at this. I consider embellishments similar to musical improv, and I have never been good at musical improvisation (perhaps I should give it another shot now). With music, it was always, give me some music to read off of and I'll play the notes on the page and sight-read it quite well, but ask me to embellish and add to the music and sorry, I'm not that kind of person; find someone else. So this is quite liberating for me in many ways. I suppose now I should really hunker down and start listening to tango music to familiarize myself with the songs so I can make the most out the songs while I'm dancing. And then I find myself thinking of tango steps throughout the day and thinking, what kind of embellishment might I be able to come up with to do there? It's quite fun and exciting... and different/new. I think I do have self-confidence issues which I also need to work though with my dancing. I've now been dancing tango for 11 months and while I think I have come very far in those 11 months I can't help but to still feel like a newbie beginner... a very small fish in this very big world of tango. I think having a second consistent tango partner will help with that. For my short tango life, I've only had Martin, while during his longer tango life he's had quite a number of tango partners. I did go ahead and ask one person and while he can't offer a consistent weekly slot until perhaps next year, he did offer some time so I will take him up on that offer :) As long as we are all moving forward with the dancing, life is good :)