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:



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

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 :)