148  Tango in Portland, Oregon?

Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 21:54:18 -0800
From: Dan Boccia <redfox@ALASKA.NET>
Subject: Tango in Portland, Oregon?

Kathleen and friends-

My note does not seem appropriate for the Tango-A so I'm posting to the L.

I've been waiting for such a chance to say my two cents worth about dancing
in Portland....speaking from a frequent outside visitor's perspective,
Portland's tango scene is absolutely FIRST RATE! Every time I've danced
there I've been warmly welcomed and the energy of the community is cohesive
and very upbeat. Their community is heavily geared toward social dancing -
I don't see a lot of crazy people bouncing in and out of the line of dance
attempting stage tango - the dances typically have a nice flow to them and
people are respectful of each other. Many people there are definitely
serious about their dancing - but they just know how to keep it FUN and
serious. They bring in a never-ending parade of first-rate master
instructors of all different styles and backgrounds as well. I've had some
of my best and most enjoyable nights dancing tango in Portland for these
reasons, not to mention some of the fine DJing I've experienced there.

Thanks you guys! I can hardly wait to come back....

And one last thing - Portland has one of the absolute best websites I've
encountered for a local tango scene due to the tireless and tenacious
efforts of Bill Alsup, whom I've personally experienced tweaking his site at
3am after a milonga because he's too wound up to sleep.....and his visitor,
equally wound up, is playing tango music and rifling through Bill's tango
album collection in search of new music! Check it out at
https://home.europa.com/~walsup/tango/

Cheers!

Dan

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 7:50 PM
To: TANGO-A@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: NA-W: Tango in Portland, Oregon?

I would be interested to know what the tango is like in Portland, Oregon.
Thank you.


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Date: Wed, 22 May 2002 13:31:03 -0500
From: Chris Humphrey <humphrey@MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject: ego

Bottom line: the minute ego gets involved, it's no longer dance.

Thank you, Maria. You stated this so eloquently. Here is a favorite 'dance quote' of mine which seems appropriate to our current discussion:

"You only dance when you're dancing. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

You can't dance by the numbers.

You can't dance when you are checking to see if you are dancing.

You can't dance when you're comparing your movement to your ideal.

In order to dance, you have to dance.



That's what freedom is.

That's who you are."

--author unknown



Chris Humphrey
Biomedical Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712
512-471-1826
512-232-9140 (fax)

"We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance."

- Speed Levitch in 'Waking Life'