Tango Cities

Practice with Tango Sticks

June 9, 2017 No Comments

At some point along your tango curve, you have wanted 1.) to practice a step, a pattern, or a figure. Or 2.) you have seen something that you want to try out. Or 3.) you’re imagining an idea of how something might work and want to try it. In all three of these instances, you will need a practice partner. You’ll need to schedule their time against yours. And once you’re in the same room with them, balance their issues of how they do X vs. how you engage X. And once that challenge is overcome then it’s getting into the idea of what it is you had in mind to begin with. All told, this could be several hours or days between the idea and the actual doing of it.

New York

January 31, 2019 No Comments

Our little summary of dancing in New York City for the World Traveler that will be landing in NY soon and looking for some place to dance.

Going to El Corte ?

January 25, 2017 No Comments

The words "El Corte" translated to English from Spanish literally means ‘Cut, Court, or Edge’. However, in the Tango world the word has another meaning: Nijmegen, The Netherlands. What’s in/at Nijmegen ? A dance studio of certain renown: El Corte! Think of El Corte as one of your GoTo destinations. Assuming you want to experience a quality of dance in an environment that is at once fun, and at the same time entirely engaging on multiple levels. Caveat: You do need to have your sh*t together if you visit, while at the same time you must be willing and open to a whole different way of looking at the dance (again, on multiple levels).

Magical Improvement

February 25, 2017 No Comments

“She’s not magically going to improve just because you ‘show’ her what she’s supposed to do at that moment.” To make this non gender specific, because this axiom applies to both genders, and both roles. As well as teachers and students. Some teachers know this truth, some teachers learn it the hard way. Clarity: The – “supposed to do” part above. This idea frequently occurs where you have a male Lead that has an expectation of X being followed properly, where X is Traveling Ochos, Volcada, Milonguero Turn, etc. And when it doesn’t they stop their dancing and then show the Follower what was intended. And here’s the magical part, they keep showing them, hoping that it will change the Follower’s behavior and frequently it doesn’t.

The ‘High Season’ in Buenos Aires

February 14, 2019 No Comments

What is the "High Season" in Buenos Aires ? It’s the period of time between December 15th and March 15th when several things happen all at once. 1.) It’s INSANELY HOT. It should be noted that sometimes this is called the ‘hot’ season. 2.) The traveling teachers return home to practice, and to build new routines. 3.) There’s a lot of tango touristas (you). 4.) There’s a lot of seminarios that happen. 5.) Did we mention there’s a lot of people ?

Men (Age)

February 26, 2017 No Comments

Welcome to the Department of the Obvious Department. Today’s menu of the Obvious includes: Men not asking for directions when lost, Men over talking Women, Men squeezing the living daylights out of their partners, and last but not least the Age of a Man has nothing to do with his ability to get dances!

La Viruta

March 3, 2017 No Comments

Let’s get the details out of the way. The sight lines are awful. It’s dark, pitch dark in certain parts of the room. It’s crowded, and hot even with the A.C on in the ‘summer’. The drinks are expensive. The tables are small, assuming you can find one or have reserved one (which is recommended). The ‘hot’ area, meaning a place to ‘get’ dances, in the room is in front of the bar at the back left side of the room, and the entrance fee is on par with everywhere else (see end). There’s a restaurant upstairs, and on Mondays and Tuesday nights there is Salsa there. The rest of the week, it’s all Tango baby. There are classes nearly every night of the week, for different levels.

Wood Floors

February 11, 2018 No Comments

The toy of choice for most dancers is a ‘Sprung’ floor! That’s a work of art, science, and pure magic. Sprung floors are to dancers, what honey is to bees. A ‘Sprung’ floor ? What’s that ? A Sprung floor is a dance floor that easily absorbs shocks, giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best available for dance and indoor sports and physical education. They enhance performance and greatly reduce injuries.

Waiting vs. Listening

June 2, 2018 No Comments

What is Waiting Vs. Listening ? In it’s simplest form this comparison deals with the axiom of Followers are told to "Wait for your L/lead", and instead implies that there is another idea sitting there that almost never gets talked about and in today’s Tango world almost never gets used, which is "Listening".

Rejection

April 5, 2017 No Comments

What follows relates to the verbal ask for a dance and the rejection, this thought does not talk about the reject from a failed cabeceo or mirada. Let’s lay out some facts before we get to the heart of this stuff. Fact: The ask, no matter how ‘sly’ you think you’re being, is going to be awkward.

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