3684  re; communities/mixers

Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 20:54:51 -0500
From: Michael Figart II <michaelfigart@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: re; communities/mixers

Hola mis amigos, y mis amigas,

First, I'd like to thank Karen Whitesell, and Janis, and all her other
helpers, for another beautiful time at the 2005 "Meet in the Middle"
Tango Festival in beautiful Mt Vernon, Missouri this last weekend. The
entire weekend was perfect, and enjoyed by all. And it was so good to
see again, and meet people from OK, MO, KS, IL, OH, who don't normally
make it to Denver every year. (By the way, I'm looking forward to seeing
everybody in Seattle this weekend).

Sorry, but I must state that I'm tired of dancing to orchestras. Tango
Lorca in Missouri, and Extasis in Denver are great bands. Their music is
beautiful, and they are very talented. I'm a musician (sax, flute,
piano, guitar), and really appreciate all the hard work these bands put
in. But damnit, this music is not danceable. Yes, there are a few who
can put together a decent dance (Korey comes to mind), to this stuff,
but there is no way that I can enjoy it, and I'll not attend milongas
where these orchestras perform.

Texas has a fantastic orchestra/band led by Glover Gill under various
names, mostly known as Glovertango. They play gorgeous rhythmic
arrangements of danceable tango. Very enjoyable, and very danceable. Why
can't these other bands develop a playlist that I can dance to?

I put this question to Tom Stermitz several months ago (again), and I
now demand a good answer. Come on Tom; go ahead with your Friday night
at Mercury; there are many who love Extasis, and will crowd the floor
with their huge kicks and boleos, not to mention their other invasive,
and deadly steps. Please have your Mercury event, but please provide a
separate event, the "Friday Night Jet Lag Practica" back at the hotel
for those of us that prefer something a little more manageable.

And regarding Susan Munoz' posting about mixers/taxis/single women,,,,,,

I have a very profound regard for ALL the women of our Argentine Tango
World. It really sucks that there are not enough leaders to go around,
and that even among these leaders, there are many who don't care about
how they treat their followers. Here in Houston there are more than just
a few leaders who took some tango classes ten years ago, and think they
know Argentine Tango. They go to many of our local events, and violate
every primary law by inviting beginners onto the milonga floor for a
teaching session, which is generally accomplished by muscling their
newfound chickie around with their arms, into a step that they think
resembles something sort of tango-ish. Our beautiful followers generally
accept any and all invitations to dance because if they didn't, they
would sit all evening, and never dance.

To the followers; please stop these assholes dead in their tracks. If
they ask you to dance, just say NO. Or no way in hell would I dance with
you if you were the last person in this universe. You suck, your dancing
sucks, and I don't want to touch you, much less dance with you. This
approach would tell these stupid men that they are not welcome until
they learn to dance.

Just a small note here; I must not know anything about Argentine Tango
since I do not know Argentine Spanish. Pretty weird, huh? Once I learn
Argentine Spanish, will I have to start over? Or can my past experience
still apply? And if I learn Argentine Spanish, does that mean that I
have to start forcing my followers around with my arms while I look at
my feet? If I learn Argentine Spanish, and still don't know tango, will
I have to learn to speak French also? That should insure that I know
Tango, huh? If I learn Argentine Spanish, will my leader skills be
doubled? Or will that just mean that I can only dance "Derik-Tango"?
This is a rarely-recognized subset of Argentine Tango characterized by
vicious arm movements, invasive floorcraft, and eyes on the floor.

To the beginning leaders; please, please stick around, and keep working
and learning. I know it's a long, long, row to hoe, but keep after it;
there is nothing like having a great dance with a beautiful woman who
tells you that you "made time stand still", or that the last tanda was
"Pedacito de Cielo".
That is what I dance for; that elusive and indescribable experience when
my follower becomes an extension of my desire, my passion, my love.
These feelings can be experienced with just a walk. JUST A WALK. And
I'll even say it again, just a walk...with a pause thrown in here and
there.

Again, to those less experienced.....please keep after it. I'm an old
Texas cowboy who never even learned to two step, but I've managed to
learn a little tango.....do not get discouraged.

Mixers; I don't think I like the idea.. isn't this where everybody lines
up, leaders on one side, and followers on the other? Takes way too long,
and not enough dancing....I want to dance, not stand around waiting!

Taxi Dancers; no problem to me at all. I'm sorry that our chosen hobby
is short of leaders. And yes; I feel responsible that our followers must
resort to "taxi" dancers, but I'll never hold that against them; au
contraire, I'll wish them great dances, and the best of luck.

My name is Michael, and I do my best to dance with everyone, everywhere.
I don't care whether my follower is small or large, tall or short, big
or little. One of my main goals when I attend these events is to dance
with everyone that I possibly can. I don't care about size, or ability;
all I want is a desire to feel what I feel.

And since "I want to dance with everyone", I like small tandas. In my
opinion, tandas of milonga should be held to two songs; sorry, but
milonga wears me out and makes me sweat too much. And tandas of tango
and vals should be three songs, never four....I feel that three songs is
plenty for me to establish my style and have great dances, but four
songs limits greatly the number of women with whom I can dance every
night.

To address the couples only question...what a mistake that would be. I
go to festivals to dance with every woman there; to (hopefully)
experience a "trance" with every woman with whom I dance. And to learn;
I can't learn new stuff dancing with the same partner every time. I have
to have a backstop with which to operate, and some variety amongst my
followers. Practice is great, but much better when we both accept that
there is much more to learn.

To all followers; please praise your leaders. Find something good about
their "style", and let them know that you appreciate the dance, and the
fact that they asked you to dance. Learning to lead is very difficult,
and this little bit of encouragement can make the difference in whether
a potential leader quits or stays. Many thanks to all my followers who
have kept me pursuing the dance by their compliments.

And as a final aside to the women, please keep your eyes open, and be
alert; I use the cabaceo pretty exclusively. If you don't catch my eye,
you don't catch my dance!

Warm regards to all,

Michael from Houston

Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 13:13:40 -0600
From: Dave Schmitz <dschmitz@MAGELLAN.TEQ.STORTEK.COM>
Subject: milonga tandas; was Re: [TANGO-L] re; communities/mixers

This is about tandas of milongas.

Michael from Texas wrote:

> In my
> opinion, tandas of milonga should be held to two songs; sorry, but
> milonga wears me out and makes me sweat too much. And tandas of tango
> and vals should be three songs, never four....I feel that three songs is
> plenty for me to establish my style and have great dances, but four
> songs limits greatly the number of women with whom I can dance every
> night.

That is an admirable aim, to dance with more partners in an evening.



However, a tanda of only three milongas leaves me wanting for more.

At a Portland tangofest, during the all-nighter at Alex's,
I invited a lovely dancer, one of my favorite people,
but when she heard the music start she said,
"I'm too tired to dance milonga",
to which I replied
"We can dance small"
and we did,
moving about 10 or 12 feet
in the entire tanda.
That tanda is one of my special memories.

Milonga does not need to, and should not, wear one out.
It's a very special, very creative, very close means of
communication.

As Omar Vega has taught it, milonga can be done small, with
little physical effort, it can be a beautiful expression
between two people.

Since milongas are so short, there should be five in a tanda.
;-)

Dave de Denver