2924  Portland festival impressions

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 04:15:30 +0000
From: Oleh Kovalchuke <oleh_k@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Portland festival impressions

It's oh, so quiet around here lately. Meanwhile Neil has not wasted time and
posted Portland festival impressions in his blog:

https://milongas.blogspot.com/2004/10/millys-neils-milongas-blog-awards-my.html

More than 600 people went, only one has returned with impressions worth
writing about?

Cheers, Oleh K., who didn't go, but intend to do so for Valentango.
https://TangoSpring.com


PS Cirque du Soleil. I second the opinion that Querer is one of the best
alternative tangos I have danced to. As far as overall quality though,
Quidam is my favorite album (three songs for Alegria vs. ten for Quidam,
with a few alt tangos among those ten too).

Check out Election 2004 for up-to-date election news, plus voter tools and

Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 13:40:38 -0600
From: Paul Akmajian & Karen Reck <paulnkaren@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Portland festival impressions

This message is from Karen:

Oleh wrote:

> More than 600 people went, only one has returned with impressions worth
> writing about?

And then Michael from Houston posts:

> You said about Portland <More than 600 people went, only one has returned with
> impressions worth writing about?> Yup, I noticed the same thing, and you know
> the main reason? In my opinion, and from what I've heard from those that
> attended? Abominable, atrocious floorcraft.

Firstly, there have been many impressions posted -- just not many to Tango-L
-- which doesn't mean they don't exist. ;-) Clay posted to Tango-A today w/
links to TangoFest feedback on his website. (Those of us who attended,
already received his post.) Go to https://www.claysdancestudio.com/ & click
on the TangoFest Evaluations links.

Paul & I were there, and considering the number of people on the floors --
at times maybe twice the number we've experienced at some of the Denver
Holiday Weekend milongas -- the floorcraft was overall pretty good,
especially considering the range of styles & experience levels. And often
the outer lane was very crowded, but the dancers there were generally very
good at adjusting to conditions. (I did on more occasions than usual dance
eyes-open, a factor of the diversity & sheer numbers of dancers.) The only
time we both sat out for an extended period was during much (not all) of
Tango Garufa's sets at the Tiffany -- not our idea of danceable music, but
obviously a great many dancers felt differently.

We attended only the milongas this trip, our first TangoFest, & danced at 7
milongas at varied venues w/ varied (from "well-attended" to extremely
crowded) attendance, varied music, etc. I especially enjoyed watching the
large community of younger, very accomplished dancers, both at the
alternative and traditional milongas. Kudos to Portland, Seattle & other
teachers re that. Admittedly, my favorite milonga was Monday night at the
BossaNova w/ Robert Hauk DJing, after many festival attendees were gone, but
many wonderful visiting dancers remained along with the locals -- there was
room to move comfortably but still the satisfaction of a well-attended
milonga & it was much easier to socialize & get dances. At the larger
milongas I found it more difficult to circulate socially (not so much of a
problem for Paul) & I mostly danced w/ those nearby our seats.

Instead of attending classes we enjoyed Portland's Japanese & Chinese
gardens & a day trip w/ our daughter (attending college in Tacoma) driving
along the Oregon coast & Willamette Valley. Even a series of mishaps (the
timing belt broke on our daughter's car, extending my stay a couple of days
& making for a very expensive vacation... then losing our digital camera
somewhere between leaving Portland & driving the repaired car back to
Tacoma... then being "randomly selected" for wanding, etc. at SEATAC...)
didn't completely diminish the pleasure of our visit. Plus, the Portland
transit authority found our camera & are mailing it here. Thank you TriMet &
the good citizens of Portland!

Karen Reck
Albuquerque, NM

PS: We danced 90%+ "parallel frame" while there, occasionally open-frame at
the alt. milongas, or close-embrace salon "V" with a few partners. I also
found this to be a weird discussion, especially considering the number of US
teachers (many/most teachers at the Denver weekends for example) using the
milonguero/apilado/parallel frame.