Juan and Sol perform at Alberto's - beautiful rendition of Poema

Beautiful dancers. I'd have loved to take some of their classes but didn't have any time in my schedule. At least I got to see their exquisite performances:


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Diego Blanco and Ana Padrone at Alberto's milonga May 24th, 2009

Please enjoy their performances:


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Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Back to Tango

After only dancing a few times in the past couple months I seem to have resumed tango in a limited capacity (2-3 times a week as oppose to 4-5 times a week). I went to Late Shift last Saturday and as I was about to leave, Juan and Sol gave a tango performance. I thought they did an excellent job, but did not capture video of it. They will be at Alberto's milonga tomorrow night performing so I hope to catch some footage then.

Life continues to be crazy busy, and I'm greatly looking forward to the week before July 4th when I'll have a few extra days to catch up on things. Work, hobbies, and classes fill my schedule. I'm a bit excited (and nervous) to get to meet Condoleezza tomorrow when my quartet will get to play through some Dvorak and Schumann piano quintets with her. The pieces really speak to me so they have been very rewarding to practice and very fulfilling to play through with my quartet so far. I love music!

Grand Canyon Adventure

In less than a week I finally fly out to the Grand Canyon for my big Team In Training event for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I'm pretty excited as this will be my first time traveling to the Grand Canyon, and with the training I've received, I feel very prepared for a full day hike. It's not too late to donate on my Team In Training page http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/CanyonS309/dalrae I can't believe the huge response and support I've gotten from so many people. It has truly been remarkable. Thanks so much to all of you for making this possible!!

Finally, I can start resting a bit and resuming tango again :)

The magnificent Mariela Franganillo & Cesar Coelho performances

I took Mariela and Cesar's workshops both Friday at ODC and their two Sunday workshops at Alberto's. Fantastic teachers with a light and fun demeanor. Great exercises and steps were taught (not too crazy, so they can be repeated at milongas and the such). R and I were going to take a private with Mariela Monday but she had to fly back to New York Sunday night, so she gave a little bit of private tips to me both on Sunday's workshops and at the beginning of the milonga perhaps since we didn't get a private with her. Very useful information that doesn't really complicate or get in the way of my regular way of dancing. I definitely wish to study with them again when they return.

Please enjoy the two videos from their milonga performance at Alberto's from Sunday night (sorry Dropshots cuts out after about 2 minutes):




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Team in Training

As I train more and more with Team in Training for my big Grand Canyon hike in May, I find many correlations with tango. I can see how athletes push themselves and overdo it, much like I experience and see in the world of tango. I can also see how people get that rush, whether connecting on the dancefloor, connecting with a partner, connecting with the music, connecting with yourself, or connecting with a hiking team, connecting with nature, connecting with oneself (mind and body). It feels good having your body doing things, being active, pushing your limits, new achievements and progress, breathing, and having fun. I guess life is all about experiences, and it's funny how some that are so contrasting can actually be so similar in so many different ways.

If you have a few dollars to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), it will go towards my fundraising event which will be a one day 8-10 hour hike of The Grand Canyon. Your gift is tax deductible and more than 75% goes directly towards research efforts.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/CanyonS309/dalrae

Thanks, abrazos, and good health...



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The Lovely Alicia Pons and Robert Hauk at Alberto's milonga

My newest favorite dancer is Alicia Pons, and we've had the good fortune of having her and Robert Hauk visiting for a week. I took her class at La Pista last Thursday which was amazing, and also one of her three workshops this past Sunday at Alberto's before the milonga. Here are their performances from that evening at Alberto's milonga:



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Andrea and Gato at Los Gatos milonga

I attended Los Gatos milonga Saturday night at Los Gatos Gourmet. It was fun. A lot of the Alberto's milonga crowd which was nice and many out of towners. Warm feeling, almost like BsAs, and old small crowded floor just like BsAs as well! Andrea and Gatos blessed us with 3 performances! Enjoy.



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Diego and Negracha performance

This is from Los Altos milonga, the Friday before they went back to Buenos Aires:


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Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Tango Photo Shoot

Martin and I had some tango pictures taken back in December. Here they are!


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Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


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Jorge Torres's visit

I took all six workshops from Jorge Torres January 24th (Dance Sport in San Jose) and January 25th (Alberto's in Mountain View). He emphasized breathing, relaxation (tension gets in the way of the steps), feeling the earth and using the ground, feeling the music, less is more, sense of self/balance before projecting to another step, and sense of partner. These are all very similar thoughts that my teacher Marcelo has, so it was easy to accept the information. I really liked his style, but wish we could have seen him perform with his wife Chino. Ah well. Please enjoy the videos from the workshops and the last video where he danced at Alberto's milonga with a volunteer from the audience (drats I should have raised my hand!):


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Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Living Vicariously

So Monday was my last day of tango for 2 weeks. Giving my feet a rest and will return to tango on Sunday or Monday in two weeks. So, I've been watching lots of youtube videos living vicariously and trying to "practice" by watching. I've been looking up Alicia Pons since she will be a visiting artist in a month and found this great video of her and this suave guy, Osky Casas.


and her feet are absolutely gorgeous in this Vals:

Time off from Tango

I've been concerned about my feet, since I've heard horror stories of people finally seeing a foot doctor only to hear they must stop tango entirely, or totally revamp how they go about tango. So I finally saw a podiatrist today. It wasn't so bad. My plantar fascias is tight as are my big toe knuckles, and perhaps a bit enlarged. He recommended some inserts for the sole of my feet which I got at the pharmacy and will try to implement into my shoes (both street shoes and tango shoes). He also recommended at some point for me to schedule a week or two of down time so that my feet can rest and recover instead of going through constant strain every couple days. I'd actually been wondering what life would be like if I didn't dance tango for a week or two. What would I fill my time with? So this is a perfect time to do just that! Of course this will be after I take the already scheduled six workshops with Jorge Torres this weekend, go to Alberto's milonga Sunday night and have my private with Marcelo on Monday. Starting Tuesday I will take a week and a half off though and not start dancing again until the following Friday or Saturday. I am actually excited, first to be taking care of my feet and hope they are happier in the long run, and secondly to catch up on some other stuff in my life: projects, friends, cooking, etc. So I really see this as a good thing. I really need to take some of my existing shoes in to the cobbler to have him customize my shoes so that I have better tango shoes to wear once I resume tango after my break as well. I am actually excited about all this!

My tango kind of had a New Year's breakthrough which I am happy about. I feel so much better about my embrace now. I've been working on my posture, my balance (not leaning too much, or just the right amount), and relaxing my body, specifically my right arm, right shoulder, and having my back breathe and be alive/active while still relaxed. From a class I took with Diego and Negracha, I'm also trying to be conscious of the spirit of the music and of my leader, and bringing that energy to the dance. It is a fine balance. I've had comments in the last week from leaders who can tell the difference in my dance, and praised me for it, so I know I'm on the right track! Martin and I also got several compliments from people last night after practica how our dancing was just "great!" and how they loved our style. So that always feels good to be recognized and hopefully inspire others as well.

Tonight I'll be seeing the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and tomorrow night Gran Torino!

San Diego Tango Festival Performance

Here it is finally:



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A New Year!

Lots of changes going on in the last few months in all facets of my life. Both my cat and I are greatly enjoying my new apartment and it's so quiet without having upstairs neighbors and a lot of unshared walls now! My cat is more cat-like now instead of on-edge... she's more affectionate and more relaxed. The New Year is off to a great start!

I've kind of shifted my "branching out" schema. This year I actually want to start leading, so I've just started by taking my second class as a leader in Marcelo's beginning/fundamentals class. It's hard because his fundamentals class usually has more leaders so I often feel like I should be a follower for at least part of the time, but his intermediate class usually has more followers. We need more newbie women and intermediate men! I plan on attending more of the weekend workshops though, especially with the visiting teachers. So that is my new course of action!

The weekend workshop idea formulated while I was in San Diego this past weekend attending the tango festival there, and Robert Hauk was there who I danced with at the milonga for the first time on the first night and enjoyed his connection, intimacy, and smaller unobtrusive steps. Unfortunately I didn't make it to his workshop the 2nd day, but later found out he'd been in the bay area just a month ago, where he recognized me from Alberto's where he'd DJ'd around Thanksgiving. I think we are really lucky in the bay area to get some great visiting artists so I want to take advantage of that more instead of traveling to so many places where it can be so costly paying for airfare and lodging. I do think I'll try to go to the San Diego tango festival again next year though since I had a good time and it's not that far away, plus I have a couple friends I can visit there as well. I feel so indebted to Fabienne who helped Brigitta teach the two workshops I took on the first day. I'd always known my back and arms were a bit stiff and am always thinking and trying to "relax". But she helped me make it happen by telling me to let my back "breathe". For some reason, like clockwork it just makes it relax even though I'm not thinking about relaxing but having my back "breathe". What wonderful results!

Through facebook.com I reconnected with an old friend dating back to elementary school whom I haven't seen in probably over 15 years. She'd just moved back ot San Diego so we had a lengthy dinner together to catch up. Ah, the wonders of the internet!

Over the holidays I watched the entire Season 1 of Chuck as well as what was online for Season 2, so now I'm a Chuck addict. I'm wondering if all of Season 3 of Heroes will still be up online for me to watch this week and next since I haven't watch any of the current season yet!

It was a bit of a shock to go back to work today after being on vacation for 1 1/2 weeks, but in a way it was nice to get back to a groove/routine again instead of having so many unstructured holiday days. Now I just need to transition from going to bed at 3am/4am in the morning and waking at noon, 1pm, etc. to a bit of an earlier schedule! Happy New Year! I'm sure this will be the best year yet :)