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Digest from 26 Apr 1999
to 27 Apr 1999
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Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 03:00:00 -0400
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Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 26 Apr 1999 to 27 Apr 1999
There are 19 messages totalling 820 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. More on feet (5)
2. Leaning + Leading with the Body (2)
3. More on feet (pads)
4. memorial day weekend with Brigitte, Eric, etc.
5. tango technique (2)
6. Leaning Post
7. Sore Feet
8. Tango x 2 site update
9. Accommodating your partner's footwork (was: Sore Feet)
10. (no subject)
11. Tango Technique
12. Fw: tango technique
13. Japan Tango
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 03:32:51 -0400
From: Jacques Gauthier <salsa-m @LYCOSMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: More on feet
Hi,
Callouses develop to protect your feet. It's best to
simply leave them there. I never did understand
why some people want to remove it.
I once developped similar calouses on my hands when
I worked as a city worker when I was a student. The
calouses prevented my hands from getting bloody when
I had to use a shovel or a rake for extended periods of
time. (The first weeks I had bloody hands).
The callouses on my hands are now gone as I've been
doing computer work for the last 5 years but the skin
on my hands is somewhat thicker than before I did the
city work.
Jacques G.
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De: Greg Olsen at Work [SMTP:golsen @NONSTOP.COM]
> Date: Friday, April 23, 1999 3:49 PM
> A: TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Objet: More on feet
>
> Dear tango-l,
>
> In the last two months I have trippled the amount of dancing I am
> doing.
> I now dance 6 nights a week and have begun developing thick callouses
> on my feet, particularly on the balls of my feet and big toes. How
> do
> you remove them and keep them from developing?
>
> Happy trails,
>
> Greg Olsen
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 00:34:01 +0000
From: Larry Carroll <larrydla @JUNO.COM>
Subject: Leaning + Leading with the Body
A little bit of a lean toward your partner helps to weld you together &
improves your physical connection. And it can feel good subjectively.
But more than a very few ounces of pressure against hand or arms very
quickly adds up to cramped muscles. More than a very few pounds of
pressure against the torso can lead to upper or lower back pain. I'm
big & strong, but even tiny women can hurt me enough to ruin an entire
evening, & maybe several to come. I avoid women who do this to me.
On leading with arms versus body: It's not a simple matter of doing
one or the other. Basically, the upper body gives & gets the signal
to move the entire body in some direction, or to change directions.
The arms are an extension of the body; except for a slight spring-like
give & take they should usually stay the same in relation to your upper
body.
There are some exceptions to this rule, though. I won't go into them;
it's too late at night. But until you master leading with your upper
body, working on those exceptions will ruin your ability to lead (or
follow) well. If you let impatience or ignorance lead you to ignore
this advice, you will pay for it.
As time goes on you'll discover or be taught what those exceptions
are. Also the man will learn how to refine the overall body motion by
using the hand behind a woman's back. This should, however, be in
ADDITION to the signals you give with your upper body, NOT as a
replacement for them.
Larry de Los Angeles
http://home.att.net/~larrydla
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Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 02:47:01 -0700
From: JC Dill <tango @VO.CNCHOST.COM>
Subject: Re: More on feet
On 03:32 AM 4/26/99 -0400, Jacques Gauthier wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Callouses develop to protect your feet. It's best to
>simply leave them there. I never did understand
>why some people want to remove it.
There are callouses that protect, and then there are callouses that hurt.
I have had many protective callouses in my life (I've owned horses since I
was 12 and spent many years mucking stalls, and 6 years as a professional
farrier aka horseshoer), but the callouses I get on my feet from dancing
HURT! They are worst if I am wearing or dancing in high heels a lot, and
less if I wear and dance in lower heels (and avoid AT :(, no matter how low
the heels you end up on the balls of your feet a lot when dancing AT). I
trim my callouses periodically (with nail scissors!) to remove the "excess"
callous build-up so that they *don't* hurt. My feet don't get sore after I
trim the callouses (because I removed the "protection" from the callouses)
but they do get sore a few weeks later when the callouses have grown again
such that they impact on how my feet fit within my shoes.
I get the worst callouses right under the metatarsal pads (the balls of my
feet), with secondary callouses along the outside back edge of my big toe.
Worst on my right foot then on my left foot. My feet get sore a lot faster
when I am dancing if I need to trim the callouses than if I have recently
trimmed them. Trimming them *only* causes pain (when trimming or later
when dancing) if I trim off too much and don't leave enough protection,
which is an uncommon event now that I know how far to trim.
Sorry if this is more than you wanted to know!
jc
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 06:41:14 -0400
From: Jacques Gauthier <salsa-m @LYCOSMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: More on feet
Hi,
> HURT! They are worst if I am wearing or dancing in high heels a lot,
> and less if I wear and dance in lower heels (and avoid AT :(, no
matter
> how low the heels you end up on the balls of your feet a lot when
> dancing AT).
I thought that it was the wearing of high heels that
was responsible for the pain as opposed to the
calouses themselves because you get more of your
weight above the forward part of your foot.
The dancers I've met who have mentionned experiencing
foot pains have been women. Before Greg's post, I didn't
realise that men also experienced similar discomfort.
Perhaps Greg wears high latin heels ? Are there other
guys on the list with similar foot pains ?
Have you experienced similar pains from walking in
non-heeled shoes ? (flat shoes ?).
My personal experience with foot/leg pain through
dancing has been the following:
1- Injured knee. (From trying to turn on a floor that
gripped my feet too much.) This, for me is the
worst pain. The pain occasionally comes back.
2- Old injury: I once had torn ligaments on my left
leg (left side of left leg). When dancing Chacha,
the ligaments would feel overworked and it would
hurt. Sometimes I had to stop dancing for a month
before the pain would stop. (The ligaments have
since strenghtened but the Chacha side step can
still cause the pain).
3- Blisters: From going to a dance camp wearing
ballroom shoes. Spending 8 hours a days on
my feet wearing just ballroom shoes was cruel
and unjust punishment for my feet. I now wear
a shoe with an athletic sole inside.
I guess I should count myself lucky though
that I don't have to remove the excess skin
buildup on my feet. Having to stop because
of pain is no fun.
Jacques G.
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 10:54:20 +0200
From: Alexis Cousein <al @BRUSSELS.SGI.COM>
Subject: Re: Leaning + Leading with the Body
Larry Carroll wrote:
>
> A little bit of a lean toward your partner helps to weld you together &
> improves your physical connection. And it can feel good subjectively.
> But more than a very few ounces of pressure against hand or arms very
> quickly adds up to cramped muscles.
That is why I observed that the styles in which partners *do* lean
towards each other are most commonly with chest contact. I *have* danced
a style with a common point of gravity for both partners without chest
contact, and with everything carried on the arms, but only as an
academic exercise -- though I can heartily recommend it to any couple
who wishes to combine tango with masochism[1].
In this discussion, I have heard a lot of comments from people who are
obviously from one end of the (two separate axes / one common axis )
spectrum comment on the essentials of the other end as "not right" or
"an illusion" [2] -- but we should just accept that these are different
dancing styles, each with a perfectly coherent set of resolutions to the
common problems.
And there's even a continuum, even though dancing *without* chest
contact pretty much forces you firmly at one end of the spectrum, just
because of what Larry wrote.
If you have one set of solutions to a problem, don't try to change just
one thing to see if it works, then conclude it doesn't because you're
obviously torturing yourself -- if you really want to see if something
else works, be humble and start from scratch, preferrably with the help
of someone who *has* found a good working solution different from yours.
[1] Well, in this particular case, *both* partners are maso -- quite
uncommon ;)
[2] I can assure anyone that some women I dance with *do* lean, and
they'd *really* fall if I were to change into thin air! I regard the
example of some people who tried to show dancing an A-style frame
*without* leaning as another example of an academical exercise -- though
it's a theoretical possibility, if you don't want to lean, you're not
going to make it difficult for yourself, so you won't adopt that type of
frame in Real Life.
--
Alexis Cousein
Systems Engineer
SGI Belgium
al @brussels.sgi.com
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 09:06:37 -0600
From: Robin Young <rdcuer @MICRON.NET>
Subject: Re: More on feet
To some people i.e., a Sherpa climbing rock and ice in the Himayalas,
callouses are 'protective' layers of 'scar tissue'. That is true
Jacques. However, to some people callouses cause a great deal of pain on
the balls of the feet. That is why some people want them removed. Robin
Young, R.N.
Jacques Gauthier wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Callouses develop to protect your feet. It's best to
> simply leave them there. I never did understand
> why some people want to remove it.
>
> I once developped similar calouses on my hands when
> I worked as a city worker when I was a student. The
> calouses prevented my hands from getting bloody when
> I had to use a shovel or a rake for extended periods of
> time. (The first weeks I had bloody hands).
>
> The callouses on my hands are now gone as I've been
> doing computer work for the last 5 years but the skin
> on my hands is somewhat thicker than before I did the
> city work.
>
> Jacques G.
>
> > -----Message d'origine-----
> > De: Greg Olsen at Work [SMTP:golsen @NONSTOP.COM]
> > Date: Friday, April 23, 1999 3:49 PM
> > A: TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Objet: More on feet
> >
> > Dear tango-l,
> >
> > In the last two months I have trippled the amount of dancing I am
> > doing.
> > I now dance 6 nights a week and have begun developing thick callouses
> > on my feet, particularly on the balls of my feet and big toes. How
> > do
> > you remove them and keep them from developing?
> >
> > Happy trails,
> >
> > Greg Olsen
--
IdahoWebSite http://netnow.micron.net/~ryoung
"People don't stop dancing because they get too old;
People get too old because they stop dancing." ANON
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 08:09:59 PDT
From: John Trimble <john.trimble @EXCITE.COM>
Subject: Re: More on feet (pads)
Just thought I'd mention something that 's common knowledge among ballet
dancers. When you use pads, it's best to put them to the side of callouses
or sore spots. This redistributes your weight away from the trouble spot.
John
John Trimble
john.trimble @excite.com
or backup john_trimble @hotmail.com
My web page has social dance venues in Dallas
http://home.switchboard.com/dancewithme
_______________________________________________________
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Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 11:26:51 EDT
From: Candy Korman <Milonga @AOL.COM>
Subject: memorial day weekend with Brigitte, Eric, etc.
I went to last year's Tango Escape with Brigitte Winkler and Eric Jorrissen.
Don't miss it this year -- especially if you like the close embrace
(Milonguero/Club Style) Tango.
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 09:30:39 -0600
From: Wayne R Williams <WAYNE_WILLIAMS @HP-LOVELAND-OM2.OM.HP.COM>
Subject: tango technique
rich writes
>The male teacher explained to us that to lead a woman the leader
>should use his hands (very subtly) to manipulate the direction he
>wants h er to go, i.e., slightly pulling her right hand outwards is
>suppose to tell her move her right leg
>outwards to the right, pushing her hand towards the line of dance is
>suppose to tell her to move her right leg back, and pulling her hand
>opposite to the line o f dance is suppose to tell her to move her
>right leg forward; the leader's righ t hand is used similarly for
>leading the follower's left leg; by pulling her sid eways, forwards,
>and backwards (this is more difficult since there is nothing to
>hold on to!!). If
>I have learned one thing about tango dancing from lessons I have taken
>these pas t three months, it would seem that this method violates some
>of the fundamental rules I was taught in leading the follower. Am I
>wrong? Any comments?
i have seen some teachers use this technique with beginners to illustrate
to the leader that they are directing the movement of the partner step by
step. This technique is used to demonstrate this concept initially because
it is presumed that it is more difficult to achieve the same affect with a
beginner through a lead through the chest. students are then transition
away from the hands to learn the proper lead through the chest. personally
i do not like the style of instruction because of the high risk of
instilling the pattern of leading through hand twitches....
juan bruno starts many of his classes this way - i think it may have a
different motivation - i'm guessing here because my lack of spanish did not
allow to follow up. some of the women who danced with juan said he lead
through the chest but would occasionally offer additional clues, hands, if
he sensed that the woman needed the help. the milonguero as gentlemen -
taking care of the women?? thoughts??
wayne williams
boulder colorado
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 09:20:30 -0700
From: Ted Crowley <ted @DANCER.NET>
Subject: Re: Leaning Post
Group --
A follower leaning on my somewhat usually isn't any
problem for me. But here are a few problem cases
and/or comments:
1. In Milonguero (inverted-Y, chest-to-chest lead) any
"weight" is pushing sideways, not down on you. Some
followers push very heavily, some medium, some light,
some with literally zero push, 100% their own balance.
Some teachers teach very heavy, others less. None of
this is painful or uncomfortable to me as a leader.
But 100% 'zero push' is very difficult to lead. As a
leader the most fundamental thing is knowing what foot
my partner is on at any moment, without which I can't
lead the next step. I don't lose track often, but it
occurs most often in this "chest not arms" leading
when the follower chooses zero push.
2. In salon any "weight" is more likely downward, but
only the following situations are actually painful:
(a) leaning heavily forward (like Milonguero "heavy")
but without chests touching, putting all her weight
on my forearms (which makes it "down" weight). This
felt like something you do in a gym and stop after
20 repititions -- it was painful within a half minute
and too painful to continue before the song was over:
the only time I've ever stopped dancing during a song.
(b) putting heavy weight (downward) on her left hand
on a particular spot on the top of my shoulder. The
choice of spot is the problem: 20 pounds of weight on
1 square inch of my muscle/sinew becomes very painful
after a few minutes. On a different spot it would be okay.
3. Not painful, but makes it almost impossible to dance:
some followers (in either close embrace or open salon
position) put their left hand behind my upper shoulder
blade and exert a constant pressure in a pulling direction
to balance their movement. The pressure varies with what
they are doing: I'm being used as a "ballet bar" rather
than a "leaning post". It doesn't hurt but can throw me
off balance severely. I've learned to do tango two ways:
(a) 100% on my own balance (b) leaning into my partner.
But I haven't learned to do it (c) leaning my upper body
away from my partner (right side only) with some force,
and it's even harder if that force varies unpredictably.
-- Ted
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 11:44:00 -0400
From: Michael Ditkoff <Michael.B.Ditkoff @USDOJ.GOV>
Subject: Sore Feet
Dear List:
It seems I started a firestorm with my response to Collette
about using the man's left arm as a "private leaning post."
Responses were sent at 3 AM!
It's obvious that I didn't express myself as well as I should
have and I apologize for not being clearer.
I never meant to suggest that a man should absorb 5 pounds of
weight in his left arm. That definitely would cause pain. I
meant that the left arm can be used to help steady a woman's
balance. Furthermore, there's nothing wrong with a woman
leaning into a man. Writers who mentioned milonguero style
understand completely the Argentine expression:
4 legs
2 bodies
1 heart
because when you dance with one heart, you're experiencing
tango, not just dancing tango. At times I feel so much
electricity, I'm glad the floor is wooden and not metal.
Part of dancing milonguero style is a woman leaning into the
man. It's not so much for support but as a conductor of
electricity.
Another thing my teacher told me (I hope this doesn't start a
firestorm) is for men to think of the dance from the woman's
perspective. Examples include knowing which foot she is
standing and to always accommodate her, as in waiting for her
to complete the ocho before moving in the opposite direction
and not moving quickly in a circle while she's dancing a
molinete around me. (I need to add Spanish to spell check.)
I appreciate the comments, even from those who disagreed with
me. I'm getting an education.
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 11:55:18 -0500
From: robin tara <rtara @MAINE.RR.COM>
Subject: Re: tango technique
A friend in Argentina tells me that Omar Vega says: "in a perfect tango
the man is the flagpole and the woman the flag."
I like that image.
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 19:03:20 +0200
From: "Gabriella C. Marino" <gcmarino @IOL.IT>
Subject: Tango x 2 site update
Erica Boaglio and Adrian Aragon of Tango x 2 have just finished updating
their website at http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/3843/index.html
You'll find new photos, updated resumes, workshop dates and info on Tango x
2's next tours!
The site is in Spanish, English and Italian.
Best regards,
Gabriella
Parma, Italy
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 13:36:22 -0400
From: "Walter M. Kane" <oldzeid @FRONTIERNET.NET>
Subject: Accommodating your partner's footwork (was: Sore Feet)
> From: Michael Ditkoff Monday, April 26, 1999 11:44 AM
>
> Another thing my teacher told me (I hope this doesn't start a
> firestorm) is for men to think of the dance from the woman's
> perspective. Examples include knowing which foot she is
> standing and to always accommodate her, ....
No firestorm here, Michael. I practice sometimes with my eyes closed (when
there's no danger of collision). One of the benefits is that I learn to
sense where my partner's feet are without peeking. If I'm marking the steps
properly, I'll control where they go, but sometimes I will miss, and then I
have to readjust to accommodate her "misstep." Doing this with my eyes
closed forces me to be more sensitive to reading her balance and her whole
body, including her feet.
One of the other benefits of "dancing in the dark" is that by blocking out
one of the senses, I can experience the music better. I understand why some
women close their eyes whenever they tango. Touch and hearing take over
completely.
> .... as in waiting for her
> to complete the ocho before moving in the opposite direction
> and not moving quickly in a circle while she's dancing a
> molinete around me.
What I find more of a challenge than accommodating by *waiting for her*, is
accommodating by *keeping up with her*. We've had past discussions about
this. Not my sweetie, but other partners will rush into cruzada or will
zigzag a fast ocho ahead of the beat and ahead of my intent. Sometimes I
can control it, but I've heard opinions from more experienced dancers than
I am, that it's better to just "go with it."
Tangringo
____________________
Walter M. (Tangringo) Kane
Harriman, NY
oldzeid @frontiernet.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tango Lyrics in Spanish and English at
http://www.hooked.net/~tangoman/letras.htm
Por el fomento y progreso del Tango
===================
Visit the Hudson Valley Tango Web Site at
http://www.nycdc.com/hvtango
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 11:11:35 -0700
From: Greg Olsen at Work <golsen @NONSTOP.COM>
Subject: Re: More on feet
>
>The dancers I've met who have mentionned experiencing
>foot pains have been women. Before Greg's post, I didn't
>realise that men also experienced similar discomfort.
>Perhaps Greg wears high latin heels ? Are there other
>guys on the list with similar foot pains ?
>
>Have you experienced similar pains from walking in
>non-heeled shoes ? (flat shoes ?).
>
My problem with calluses are a consequence of the tango and latin that
I have been doing. I have been putting together competition routines
in rumba, cha-cha-cha, and mambo lately. I also have become rabid
for AT. I normally wear regular ballroom shoes for tango, but I wear
cuban heels for latin. I figured out that I am spending 18 hours a week
on the dance floor with classes, lessons, practices, and social dancing.
I can recommend a couple of things for you knee and leg problems that really
helped me. Last year I did a 10 series with a Rolfer to fix some postural
problems and miraculously a lot of foot and leg pains went away. The Rolfer
spent a lot of time working my feet and legs taking out a lot of asymmetry
from 13 years as a compeditive fencer and coach. This year I have started
a regular regimen of Pilates which is making me much stronger and more
flexible without adding bulk. Pilates is really good for rehabilitating
injuries because is is no-impact. Because both are used by dancers a lot,
Rolfers and Pilates instructors know a lot about dancer's needs. You can
get information and a list of practitioners for Rolfing and Pilates at
www.rolf.org and www.pilates-studio.com respectively.
Happy trails,
Greg Olsen
>My personal experience with foot/leg pain through
>dancing has been the following:
>
>1- Injured knee. (From trying to turn on a floor that
>gripped my feet too much.) This, for me is the
>worst pain. The pain occasionally comes back.
>
>2- Old injury: I once had torn ligaments on my left
>leg (left side of left leg). When dancing Chacha,
>the ligaments would feel overworked and it would
>hurt. Sometimes I had to stop dancing for a month
>before the pain would stop. (The ligaments have
>since strenghtened but the Chacha side step can
>still cause the pain).
>
>3- Blisters: From going to a dance camp wearing
>ballroom shoes. Spending 8 hours a days on
>my feet wearing just ballroom shoes was cruel
>and unjust punishment for my feet. I now wear
>a shoe with an athletic sole inside.
>
>I guess I should count myself lucky though
>that I don't have to remove the excess skin
>buildup on my feet. Having to stop because
>of pain is no fun.
>
>Jacques G.
>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 15:30:51 EDT
From: Sherrie Pallotta <SherPal @AOL.COM>
Subject: (no subject)
Has anyone stayed at either Lidia Ferrari's place in town center In BsAs or
at Lina Acuna's place in San Telmo. Do you have any recommedations or
preferences. Any feedback would be helpful. thanks, Sherrie in Cleveland.
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 13:18:06 -0500
From: Stephen P Brown <Stephen.P.Brown @DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Tango Technique
Rich deSousa wrote:
>>The male teacher explained to us that to lead a woman the leader
>>should use his hands (very subtly) to manipulate the direction he
>>wants her to go.
>>The teachers were great dancers with impeccable performance
>>credentials, but I would venture to say that I would not take
>>another class from this couple since I felt their technique violated
>>some of the fundamental rules I was taught by other teachers.
Frank responded:
>... But I've had teachers who, themselves, really don't use the
>techniques in the way that they teach them.
In the process of reviewing many instructional videos, I have found a
few in which the professors provide detailed instruction on leading
with the hands. In some of these cases, however, the demonstration
dances provided no evidence of hand leading.
I have also seen instructors teach a very specific embrace, and then
immediately embrace their partners differently to dance.
A number of years ago I took private lessons from an instructor who
lifted his feet high off the ground on each step to help him mark the
timing of his steps. I copied him right away, only to have him scold
me, "Don't lift your feet so high. It's bad technigue. Where did you
learn that?" On his videos, you can see the whites of his soles
during many of the demonstration dances. ;-)
Frank continued:
>...As for Rich's experience, at best, if the rest of the teachers'
>frame is good then the hands may not interfere much!
As far as leading is concerned, I find it works better to mark steps
with the movement of my chest, but my partner and I do not drop our
arms to our sides (except as an exercise). I use my arms to embrace
my partner in a very relaxed manner, and I move them together with the
upper part of my body. In this way my arms reinforce the movement of
my chest in marking the steps, but only subtly.
--Steve de Tejas
For an independent listing with ratings and reviews of more than 60
instructional videos for Argentine tango see Planet Tango--
<http://www.hooked.net/~tangoman/revu-1.htm>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 15:24:02 -0500
From: Guy Barbe <gbarbe @GETUS.COM>
Subject: Fw: tango technique
Subject: Re: tango technique
Responding to Wayne's reply. I agree lets us learn the right way from
the start. I normally lead with the chest as much as possible.
However, there are times when the lead is not very well understood, I
will then recover and try again and use my right hand for an
additional clue, very gently at first. If that didn't work I will
adjust and try again, a little more forcefully this time. If that
doesn't work, I will then just abandon that combination, and off the
dance floor will explain to the lady what I was trying to do and ask
her what kind a lead she would need the next time. There are times
when my lead is very clear to some and not so clear to others. It is
up to us, milongeros, to recover, adjust and minimize the "misstep" so
that the only people who will know are the partner and us.
Ladies I want to apologize for the guy's who have said out loud "put
your foot there" I have seen men actually take the lady's foot and
place it on the floor!!
Guy Barbe
Houston Texas
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 22:52:37 -0800
From: Kate Withey <withey @SFO.COM>
Subject: Japan Tango
Well, I did manage to find tango in Japan. In Tokyo, I went to a
practica & -- after getting lost in the subway system until it was
almost over -- the last few dances of a milonga (called a tango party
there). Everyone was extremely nice, language barriers notwithstanding,
& there were even some tall men! There were maybe 15-20 people at the
practica, & 40 at the milonga, evenly divided between men & women (!).
There were a couple of very good woman leaders at the practica (& I
think at the milonga, too). The differences I noticed from what I'm
used to were that fewer people (if any) were dancing really close
milonguero style, and more men led gancho sequences (even with a tall
woman) & boleos than I'm used to in a social dance (but their studios
were nice & big, so they do have lots of room for them). Another
difference is that their events are all early -- 6-9pm -- since many
people live an hour or more out of the city, so people go right after
work & bring their tango clothes.
In Kyoto, I went to a (non-dancing) concert by a very good 3-piece
Japanese tango band (with an Argentine singer). Playing in a little bar
in front of a big spray of cherry blossoms....
Perhaps illogically, it felt much stranger to me to be dancing or
listening to tango in Japan than it has in North America or Europe.
Don't know if that's about cultural stereotyping, but I think it's
(even) farther from their culture than it is from ours.
Contact info & details offlist to any who want them. (Also
non-dance-related info on a truly great walking tour of Kyoto if you
want to learn a lot about zen gardens & temples....)
Cheers,
Kate :)
San Francisco
"Great dancers are not great because of
their technique; they're great because
of their passion." - Martha Graham
Oh, & has it been mentioned that the number one hit song of all time (I
think) in Japan is a children's song about little dumplings on a stick,
called "dango" -- so naturally, the song is a tango called "Dango
Tango"?... I bought the CD single, but it's such a bad pressing (or my
CD player has rotted in 3 weeks) that I've had trouble really listening
to it. Sounds cute but not danceable.
End of TANGO-L Digest - 26 Apr 1999 to 27 Apr 1999
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