Items featured on our holiday menu were:

Sue - brisket with matzo balls, potatoes, string beans and carrots, pastries, dried fruits and nuts,  macaroons, desserts, matzo

Joe Dallon - Turkey

Tsipoyra Sartan - Passover cake

Judy Assisi and Herb Goodfried- fruit

Jack Block - Tsimmes

Bonny Y - Chopped liver, pickled herring, and charoset 

Jan Folmsbee - Cucumber salad

Hilda Genni - Kale salad

Janice G - Four amazing Passover cakes for Eva's birthday

Faye and Lou - fresh pineapple

Mike and Debbie - Salad

George Ngo - Fresh home mad beet salad

Rose Whitehill- Whitefish

Eva Roth - Noodle kugel

Jean Gastfriend - Potato kugel

Tonya S. - Sauerkraut

Marie and Francis have been loyal Firehouse followers for many years and have been to Buenos Aires with us as well.  Moreover, we are very happy to be able to call them our friends.  The two will start the birthday dance together and then all of the Firsehouse tangueras will cut in. 

Marie and Francis always overwhelm us with tons of goodies, and we always appreciate their generosity.  

Workshops in New York

-
WEEKEND WORSHOPS, Saturday and Sunday April 26/27 at Champion's Studios

Saturday 26
4:00 to 5:15 PM Tango: Giving and getting: What, how, when?
Part 1: Part 1: Tips to adjust my dance according with my occasional partner.

5:30 a 6:45 PM Tango: Giving and getting: What, how, when?
Part 2: Tips to adapt my dance according with the different orchestras.

Sunday 27
5:00 to 6:45 PM Milonga: Lisa and with traspié.

Workshops at Champion's studios. 257 West 39th Street, 14th floor.
Pre-registration required, first come, first served.

SATURDAY:
One workshop: $40
Two workshops $70

SUNDAY:
Milonga workshop: $50

For registration, please contact Monica at: tangopaz@yahoo.com.ar

-PRIVATE LESSONS at Champions Studio - 257W 39th Street, 14th floor
To book private classes, please contact Monica at tangopaz@yahoo.com.ar


Un abrazo milonguero,
Monica
www.mptango.com

Monica's web site with interviews of old milongueros 

Monica is passionate about preserving the traditions, codes, and history of tango.  To this end, she continues pursuing her project of interviewing the precious few remaining old milongueros of Buenos Aires.  Their stories and the videos accompanying them, as well as other wonderful videos of Monica can be found on her web site at www.mptango.com   Scroll down for English or Spanish selection.


Facebook page and Calendar

Every day, our dear friend and teacher in Buenos Aires posts a historical tango fact of the day. These interesting and informative tidbits always include English, Spanish and Italian  information and a relevant recording. You can see all of them and listen to the recording by simply joining Monica Paz PractiMilonguero Facebook page. I enjoy these posts so much that I share them with my readers every week in my newsletter (See below.)
 

Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. For many of us, learning how to dance Tango can be a difficult -- even traumatic -- experience. If we try to do it by just showing up at a milonga, and attempting to emulate people on the dance floor, it can feel completely overwhelming. If instead, we decide to approach the challenge by taking dance classes, it can seem to take forever for us to make any progress at all -- while everyone around us may appear to be learning at a far more accelerated pace than we. Meanwhile, everyone keeps telling us how much fun learning to dance is, and how easy it is to do.

No way!

Learning Tango -- learning anything, in fact -- is difficult. We start by knowing nothing, and this mind set persists for quite a while no matter how much information we try to take in. Eventually -- if we work really hard -- we sort of start to get it. Then, if we devote ourselves to applying what we've begun to learn by correctly repeating our lessons again and again, we start to form new habits, which will tend to stay with us as long as we keep at it. If we have lapses, if we take breaks from the process for things like work or a personal life, it all begins to come apart.

That doesn't sound like fun to me. I mean, not even close.

So what does it take to hang in there, to stay the course, to give yourself the strongest opportunity to actually get somewhere in learning how to dance Tango? What I tell my students is that they have to reach deep down and cultivate four  crucial inner strengths. These are patience, humility, a sense of humor, and courage.

Patience. We live during a time, when many of us wish we could have things handed to us on a silver platter -- and we want it all now. I guarantee that this will not happen with Tango. We can wish it were the case. We can get angry and beat out heads against a wall, when things don't work that way. But no matter what we do, learning Tango will take lots of time. If we can begin to accept that fact right from the onset of our learning process, everything will go much better. Otherwise, we will end up in a constant tantrum over something we just can't do anything about.

Humility. Many of us tend to overestimate our ability to learn. We may see others around us who seem to be picking things up quickly, and we want to be as good as -- or preferably better than -- they. We may actually feel entitled to be the smartest kid on the block. Unfortunately, this attitude will almost always lead us to focus on keeping our ego well massaged rather than on the job at hand -- which is to learn how to dance Tango. Humility is the more direct path.

A sense of humor. I see a lot of people in the contemporary Tango student community, taking things very, very seriously. In particular, they seem to take themselves so seriously that there just isn't any room for an openness to the profound joy of learning. I continue to be baffled by this behavior. My own feeling is that -- notwithstanding its causes -- the more profitable stance would be to lighten up, recognize that dancing Tango is an occasion for fun, and enjoy the process in a state of humorous camaraderie rather than isolating self-importance,

Courage. Getting back to where we started, we have to face the fact that learning Tango is really very difficult. Physically, Tango places demands on us that no other social dance I can think of does. Furthermore, because most of us in this country were not born in Argentina, our emotional connection to Tango has to come from inference -- from our imagination -- rather than from direct life experience. This makes the process of incorporating Tango into our creative souls extremely challenging. Ultimately, accepting the task of learning how to dance Tango -- of overcoming the profound gulf of cultural distance -- requires a great deal of courage.

Tango is one of the most enjoyable social dance experiences of our lives. Pat and I think that we need to share it as a joyous communal celebration, not another occasion for alienation and competition. I would love to hear what you think about these ideas. You can contact me at franchesleigh@mac.com or Pat at paltman21@gmail.com

You are invited to join our monthly event on  Saturday, April 19, 2014

This month a special guest instructor - Monica Paz from Argentina

Monica will conduct two classes:

6:00pm to 7:00pm

Beginner Fundamental technique  (fundamentos y tecnica - para principiantes y otros niveles que quieren afianzar los conocimientos)

7:00pm to 8:00pm

Intermediate/Advanced Close Embrace Milonguero style (Bailando en espacios reducidos, bailar en una baldosa)

social dancing from 8:00pm
Couples, singles and beginners welcome!

Admission $15, including home cooked "delight"

The VFW is located at:

725 Franklin Ave.
(corner of Pulis Ave.)
Franklin Lakes NJ 07417

For directions click here

For more information contact us at:
info@lospitucos.com
and visit our website at
http://lospitucos.com

For information about Tango in the New York metro area visit http://newyorktango.com

                                -------------------------------------------------------

About Los Pitucos

 Every day, our dear friend and teacher in Buenos Aires posts a historical tango fact of the day. These interesting and informative tidbits always include English, Spanish and Italian  information and a relevant recording. You can see all of them and listen to the recording by simply joining Monica Paz PractiMilonguero Facebook page. Below is the post for April 14th and a link to the Facebook page, where you can hear the music:

14 DE ABRIL DE 1897

April 14, 1897: Birth of EDGARDO DONATO, son of an Italian couple. His father was a cellist and trained him in classical music. When Edgardo organized his own tango orchestra, he played the violin and 3 of his 8 brothers played with him: Osvaldo (piano),  Ascanio (cello) and Felipe (violin). Now let's pay attention to one of his compositions, which sound in the milongas.

Nace EDGARDO DONATO. Hijo de un matrimonio italiano. Su padre era violonchelista y lo formó en la música clásica. Cuando Edgardo organizó su propia orquesta de tango, él tocaba el violín y 3 de sus 8 hermanos la integraban: Osvaldo (piano), Ascanio (chelo) y Felipe (violín). Ahora prestemos atención a una de sus composiciones que suenan en las milongas.

14 aprile 1897: Nasce EDGARDO DONATO. Figlio d'italiani. Suo padre era violoncellista e lo formò alla musica classica. Quando Edgardo organizzò la sua orchestra di tango, lui suonava il violino e 3 dei suoi 8 fratelli la completavano: Osvaldo (piano), Ascanio (violoncello) e Felipe (violino). Prestiamo l'orecchio a una delle sue composizioni che si ascoltano in milonga.

 https://www.facebook.com/MPTango

And the following one for her latest interview (She regularly posts interviews that she does with surviving old milongueros) : 

MP Tango Interview

MPTango Presents Jorge Garcia at PractiMilonguero

http://youtu.be/iBvxXlJp3FU

Our group leaves New York on Friday, October 31, 2014 at 10:15 PM and returns Monday, November 10 at 6:15 AM. As I write, the round trip fare for non-stop American flights #953/956 is $1285. Let me know now if you are interested in joining us. You can contact me (Sue) at 201-825-1570 or  firehousetango@gmail.com.

How Much:

Cost of the trip including everything listed below (excluding air) is $2000 (double occupancy). Single supplement is available for an additional fee of $300. Airfare should be about 1,285.

Give check made out to Firehouse Tango for $400 together with your name, address and phone numbers to Sue or send to Sue Dallon, 16 Fox Hollow Rd. Ramsey, NJ 07446. For more information or references ask Sue or call 201-825-1570 or 201-826-6602.

What's included?

·         8 nights / 9 days in Buenos Aires with the friendliest group around

·         Stay at the excellent, centrally located Bauen Suites Hotel

·         Full breakfast every day

·         Transfers to and from hotel (included only if traveling with group on American # 953 Fri Oct 31 and # 956 Sunday November 9 (arriving Mon  10))

·         Welcome luncheon where you will meet the instructors

·         Private group lessons with excellent local teachers and local hosts as partners

·         Milongas with local hosts (male and female) who are there just to dance with us

·         City Tour

·         Full day at gaucho ranch with barbeque and show

·         Popular Tango show with dinner

·         Day at San Telmo Flea Market & enough free time for shopping, exploring the city, visiting museums, taking private lessons, visiting milongas on your own or resting (heaven forbid).

·         You most certainly will want to visit a shoe store (shoes cost about 1/3 of price here).  Prices in Buenos Aires are amazingly low & additional costs are minimal.

·         Excellent & inexpensive local teachers highly recommended by us for privately scheduled lessons.

Optional add-on - Four days in Mendoza - Argentine wine country

The following folks helped set up, break down and clean up before and after the milonga. Without them, there would be no Firehouse Tango.

• Tony Mele (Terri's son)
  
• Terri Lopez
• Tsipoyra Sartan
  
• Jesse Barton
• Elena Titova
  
• Bob Brillo
  
• steve turi
• Debbie Glaser
• Steve Maisch 

• Adrienne Burton - Pineapple
• Eva Roth - Noodle Kugel
• Stephen Herbst - Potato Kugel
• Jan Folmsbee - Kirby Cucumber, Onion & Dill Salad
• George Ngo - Beet & Leek Salad
• Bonny Yankauer - Chopped Liver, Charoset & Pickled Herring
  
• Jack Block - Tsimnies
  
• Herb & Judy - Fruit Bowl
• Lou & Faye - Pineapple
• Hilda & Rafael - Kale Salad
• Tonia Shahsovar - Sauerkraut
• Tsipoyra - Passover Cake
  

• Rifky Mackeen
• Heidi Fedor
• Tom Rodgers
• George Ngo
• Bob Brillo
• Hilda & Rafael
• Horatio Piccioni
• Tonia Shahsovar
• Terri Lopez