Thursday, September 4, 2014 (Next Thursday) Firehouse Tango at Victor's Maywood Inn |
On Thursday, September 4 (That's next week,) Firehouse Tango will be at Victor's Maywood Inn, less than a mile from The Knights of Columbus. The time and schedule is the same as always. The place will change, the price will be lower, and you CANNOT bring wine. You can (and should,) however buy a glass or two, along with dinner or snacks.
Please note that we will be going back to our old schedule just for this night.
Victor's Maywood Inn 122 W. Pleasant Avenue Maywood, N.J. 07607-1235 (201) 843-8022 http://www.maywoodinn.com/ Thursday, September 5 7:00 - 8:00 PM : Beginner lesson with Fran Chesleigh 8:00 - 9:00 PM Intermediate Lesson with Fran Chesleigh 9:00 - 11:00
PM Milonga Admission is only $10 and includes lessons and milonga. The Maywood Inn has an excellent menu and bar. We encourage you to try both. Please do not bring wine.
For additional information, call Sue at 201-825-1570 DIRECTIONS TO VICTOR'S MAYWOOD INN - FROM KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS HALL - GOING TOWARDS
MAYWOOD AVE Start going northwest on Grove Avenue towards Elm St to Maywood Avenue. Make a left on Maywood Avenue. Take the 3rd right
onto W Passaic St. Go .3 miles and turn right onto Lincoln Avenue. Go .08 miles and turn right onto West Pleasant Avenue. Victor's Maywood Inn is on the right at 122 W Pleasant Avenue (two-way street with a middle divider). ROUTE 17, NORTH
Exit at the Passaic Street, Rochelle Park - Maywood Exit. Go right on Passaic Street towards Maywood. Continue on Passaic Street about 5 blocks to Spencer Joseph Way. Make left onto Spencer Joseph Way and proceed to our parking lot on left.
ROUTE 17, SOUTH
Exit onto Route 4, East, and follow directions for Route 4, East.
GARDEN STATE PARKWAY, NORTH
Exit after the Bergen Toll Plaza at Exit 160. Make a right onto Passaic Street (towards Maywood) about 1 1/4 miles, to Spencer Joseph Way. Make left onto Spencer Joseph Way and proceed to our
parking lot on left.
GARDEN STATE PARKWAY, SOUTH
Take Exit 163 onto Route 17, South, in Paramus and exit onto Route 4, East, and follow directions for Route 4 East.
ROUTE 4, EAST
Exit in Paramus at Spring Valley Road, Oradell / Maywood Exit. Continue
toward Maywood on Spring Valley Road to West Pleasant Avenue. Make a left onto West Pleasant Avenue (two-way street with a middle divider). Victor's Maywood Inn is on the right about 2 1/2 blocks.
ROUTE 4, WEST
Take the Paramus exit. Exit is after the underpass and marked "Bergen Mall Entrance". At the end of the exit make a right onto Forest Avenue. Forest Avenue will turn
into Maywood Avenue, continue south on Maywood Avenue to West Pleasant Avenue (at light). Make right onto West Pleasant Avenue (two-way street with a middle divider). Victor's Maywood Inn is on the left about 3 blocks.
ROUTE 80, EAST
Exit 62 to the Garden State Parkway North and follow the directions for the Garden State Parkway, North
ROUTE 80, WEST
Exit 63A to Route 17 North and follow directions for Route 17, North. No celebrations next week, just great dancing, learning, socializing, eating and drinking at Victor's Maywood Inn. See above for directions and
information. It's a great place, and only about a mile from the Knights', so don't miss it.
If heaven is anything like celebrating one's birthday at Firehouse Tango, it has a lot to recommend it. Frankly, I'd rather be at Firehouse. Thank you lovely tangueras, for a birthday memory I shall cherish. Con mucho
amore,
Steve Turi
I keep saying I do not want to celebrate any more birthdays, but how many men will line up to dance with me, if not for the traditional tributes on birthdays.....oh well, you know that is not really true because our tanqueros dance with all of the ladies...
Terri
Lopez
September is a big month at Firehouse Tango.
Thursday, September 4
Venue change to Victor's Maywood Inn
Admission $10
includes beginner and intermediate lessons See above in this newsletter for information
Thursday, September 11
Birthday of Tsipoyra Sartan
Tsipoyra has been with us since the beginning. She is an indispensable part of Firehouse Tango, and we are thrilled to be able to celebrate her birthday on September 11.
Birthday of Herb Goodfried
Herb will celebrate his birthday Thursday, September 11, sin baile (without a dance) but with a luscious rum raisin cake, his favorite - brought by Judy. We are delighted to be able to take what we can get from this terrific guy.
Thursday, September 18
Anniversary of Walter Monteblanco and Gay Fallows Monteblanco
Can it be five years since we rejoiced at the marriage of our very good friend Walter and
Gay? We will celebrate their anniversary with great joy - the tangueros dancing with Gay and the tangueras with Walter. I can't wait.
Walter has been a close friend and supporter since the very beginning at Paramus Firehouse # 4, and Gay came soon after. When they aren't traveling, they come to Firehouse often. Walter also teaches private lessons by appointment.
Thursday, September 25
Birthday of Terri Lopez
Terri, who has become so indispensable that I call her Firehouse friend # 1, will celebrate her birthday on Thursday, September 25th. We invite the Firehouse Tangueros to show our most loyal Firehouse friend EVER just how much we all appreciate her. Terri Lopez has been a part of the Firehouse
family since our first days at Paramus Firehouse # 4, and we look forward to many more birthday celebrations with her. Each lucky tanguero will get to cut in and enjoy a short tango until the next person cuts in.
Thank you Elena Titova - Tibor returns next
week
|
Thanks to Elena Titova for manning (womaning?) our front desk for the entire month of August, while Tibor was
away. She did a wonderful job with not-such-an-easy task.
Thank you from Elena Titova - Tibor returns
next week - finally no more signing in at the door!!!!
|
Thank you so much for making me feel welcome and bringing change and making the job so easy and fun. Special thanks
for signing in at the door. Now that Tibor is back you do not have to do it any more. I appreciate all your help.
Elena
We welcome readers' contributions about Argentine Tango in general and Firehouse Tango in particular. Send your thoughts to firehousetango@gmail.com We welcome readers' contributions about Argentine Tango in general and Firehouse Tango in particular. Send your thoughts to firehousetango@gmail.com
Octavio Brunetti - Fundraiser
|
Octavio Brunetti and Machiko Ozawa wowed us at Firehouse Tango last June with their awesome piano and violin. Many of us also saw their
wonderful performance in September at Ramapo College with Pedro Giraudo on double bass.
Octavio is in the hospital with a life-threatening infection. A friend has started a Gofundme fundraiser for him. Below is the link and information posted on Facebook by Ianina Wentinck: http://www.gofundme.com/ct0ehkDonate Now Share on Facebook
Below are messages from yesterday morning (August 27) and from August 19th.
Queridos amigos,
Desde la última vez que les escibí si bien Octavio se mantuvo igual en algunos aspectos, en otros empezó a enfrentar grandes desafíos.
Su situación ha sido difícil desde que se internó, y sigue siendo difícil.
Nosotros tenemos fe, creemos en Octavio y lo apoyamos siempre. Lo único que les pido es que sigan rezando por él.
Abrazos,
Adam
Translation by Sue
Dear Friends, Since the last time that I wrote to you, Octavio has remained the same in some ways, and in others, he has begun to face big challenges. The situation has been difficult since the beginning and continues being difficult.
We have faith. We believe in Octavio and support him always. The only
thing that I ask is that you continue praying for him. Hugs! Adam
Update # 3 from Angela Maria:
Our friend
OCTAVIO BRUNETTI has been in the hospital since August 3rd and is fighting a severe bacterial infection that is life-threatening. The doctors continue to search for the location of the infection and the cure, but so far they have not found it. Every hour counts for him, as every cent counts for his family, who will have to face huge medical bills. We decided to start this fundraising campaign so that we can all raise money and support Octavio's during this difficult time.
(Maestro
Brunetti is a distinguished pianist, composer, arranger and educator from Argentina and based in New York. He's traveled the world playing Argentine tango and his most recent concert was the Octavio Brunetti Tango Orchestra at the Midsummer Night Swing festival at Lincoln Center in this July).https://www.facebook.com/octavio.brunetti>, a musician who made a
difference in the world's tango community.
Let us send Octavio healing thoughts of good health and strength as we visualize Octavio whole and healthy back on stage sharing his inspiring music with us. Let us think of Octavio renewed and healing by the power of God's energy continuously moving through him. Thinking of Octavio
and his family,
Angela Maria
Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Remember the perennially popular song, "It takes two to Tango?" These words state in a nutshell exactly what happens, when two people get together to enjoy our favorite dance. As Pat described last week -- and as I addressed several weeks earlier -- it takes a
highly skilled leader and a highly skilled follower to create this dance, working together in a very sophisticated collaboration. If one of the partners is inexperienced or unknowledgable, the dance just doesn't work. When I first began to learn about Tango, most of my ballroom acquaintances (including lots of professional dance teachers) told me "Ya gotta have a steady partner for that -- the steps are weird." Let me translate that sentiment into what I now believe to be true. I think that what these generally well-meaning people were actually saying (although neither I, nor any of them realized it, of course) is this: "We have learned to dance as a continuing sequence of memorized figures. Since we now know these individual figures, we can execute them with confidence and skill as long as we're dancing with someone who also knows
them. If a leader wants to dance different ("weird") figures with a partner, both would have to first memorize, then practice these figures before they could execute them on the dance floor with any degree of competence." In other words -- as stated above -- "Ya gotta have a partner for that." As I moved through the often difficult process of learning how to dance Tango, I very slowly began to realize that this dance has nothing
whatever to do with memorizing elaborate dance figures. In fact, it is precisely the opposite. Every series of movements which occurs between a man and a woman (or leader and follower, if you prefer) during a social Tango in Argentina is completely improvised, based on a highly sophisticated skill called lead/follow. While Argentine social dancers seem to take this for granted -- that's what they actually do on the dance floor -- to me this idea was an absolute revelation! All my
early Argentine teachers had told me quite emphatically "There are no steps in Tango." But these words had meant little or nothing to me, because I was rooted in the American/European mind set of memorized figures. Eventually, it began to dawn on me that because Argentine people learn to dance within a tradition that is so radically different from ours, they have no idea at all about our own ingrained tradition. There is, in fact, a total disconnect going on here. And because of this disconnect, it never occurs to them that they need to address the crucial difference between how they think about social dance and how we think about it. Such statements as "There are no steps in Tango" has no
meaning whatever to us, when what our eyes tell us is that, in fact, Argentine social dancers consistently execute what we would call "figures," which we could quite easily memorize and then replicate. And to make
things even more confusing, most teachers from Argentina all too readily adopt our current, preferred method of teaching -- i.e., elaborate memorized figures -- when they conduct workshops here in this country, because for what I believe are largely financial considerations they've very quickly learned that this is what we like, and are willing to pay good money for. Ultimately, I believe, the bridge between our tradition and theirs is the very complex, essential skill of lead/follow. Argentine social dancers learn to lead and follow as a primary condition of being able to dance. We don't. I think that maybe we used to way back when. But our tradition has, for various reasons, changed over
almost exclusively to one of memorizing figures. (Gimme the good stuff right now!) Pat and I spend a lot of time, trying our best to teach this skill to our students. Those who persevere learn it sooner or later, and,
in our opinion, become far better dancers. Those who have no stomach for lead/follow eventually gravitate toward teachers who focus primarily on steps. We continue, however, to believe that if you want to be any good as a dancer of social Tango, you can only get there through the skill of lead/follow. Not too long ago, I was at a milonga in Hallendale, Florida, accompanied by a close friend, who happened to be a very skilled ballroom dance teacher. He was well entrenched in the "Ya gotta have a partner" school of thought about Argentine Tango. Since I didn't know any of the women at the milonga, my friend challenged me to dance with one of them without completely embarrassing myself. In
fact, he chose a partner for me, an older woman (about my age) who seemed to be conducting herself fairly well on the floor with other partners. "Try that one," he said. "Let's see what you got." After this woman agreed to dance with me -- I'm sure she was as apprehensive as I was, since neither of us knew whether the other person could dance Tango or not -- our first few movements were understandingly tentative. Then, we
found a groove, and as our dance progressed, I was able to invite more and more elaborate sequences, some of them ridiculously "showy." Under other circumstances, I probably would have kept our interaction very social and conservative -- but I was making a point for my friend. I wanted him to see very clearly that even people who've never met can dance Tango at a highly sophisticated level, if they both understand and practice the art of lead/follow. When I returned to my seat after a complete
"tanda" with this very fine partner, I asked my friend what he thought of our dancing. After a moment, he shrugged, and said with complete conviction, "She knew the steps."
Saturdays with Fran and Pat at Dance Manhattan |
Every Saturday, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Dance Manhattan, Fran and Pat host
a special beginner/intermediate practice, geared toward helping you bring your skills up to speed. The cost for the practice is $10 per person. (Bringing a partner isn't necessary.) Fran and Pat are always on hand to answer any questions you may have about your dancing, and to help you with material you're working on. If you'd like a private lesson, call Fran directly at 212-662-7692, or email him at franchesleigh@mac.com. For the practice, all you have to do is arrive with $10 and your dance shoes in hand.
View Monica Paz' terrific tango Facebook posts - my
pick from this week is below |
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 a link to the Facebook page, where you
can hear the music:
August 25th, 1945 On this date Enrique Rodríguez and Armando Moreno record LA VI LLEGAR. The previous year this tango had had a considerable success. First it was recorded by Miguel Caló with Raúl
Iriarte (04/19/44) and then by Aníbal Troilo with Alberto Marino (06/27/44). The poet of Italian origin Julián Centeya wrote its lyrics and the music is by Enrique Francini, a violinist with Caló. ♫ LA VI LLEGAR Enrique Rodríguez y Armando
Moreno (1945) ⊙ En la Colección Natucci dedicada al director (2 CD) +info Here is the Facebook link to see Monica's tango calendar: 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 Eduardo
"El Nene" Masci at PractiMilonguero Click on cc underneath the screen for English subtitles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBECqsZMnl0&feature=youtu.be
Domingo Tango Club - Returns October 5th
|
We look forward to the reopening of Domingo Tango Club after a well-deserved summer break. This is our favorite New York milonga with our favorite New York DJ, Rich Ariza.
Sunday Evening: 6:30 'till 10:30 PM hosted by Richard & Eddie
TRIANGULO
135 West 20th Street, Suie 301 New York, NY
10011 (212) 633-6445
September Stardust Dance Weekend
|
Ballroom Dance Resort Weekend: September 12-14, 2014 Joe and I are planning to attend this weekend. Let me know if you would like to sit with us
(firehousetango@gmail.com .)
This is our 99th dance weekend! We are pleased to introduce you to the new HONOR'S HAVEN RESORT & SPA (formally known as the Fallsview Resort). Located only 90 miles from New York City and Albany on a 250 acre private estate with spectacular surroundings and glorious views of the Shawangunk Mountains. The new ownership has renovated all the public spaces and the
hotel grounds. Best of all, they have thousands of square feet of wooden dance floor. Honor's Haven Resort also has the finest chef in the Hudson Valley, making it the perfect dance venue! - Overnight Accommodations at Full Service Resort
- 7 Meals
- Champagne & Wine Reception
- Open Bar Cocktail Party & Smorgasbord
- Over 50 Dance Workshops
- Night & Day Dancing to 4 Great DJ's
- Swing Shift Orchestra
- Great
Gatsby Theme Saturday Night
- Dancing During Lunch & Dinner
- Top Nite Club Entertainment Each Evening
- Friday Lunch is on us! (Served from 1 - 2 PM)
- Your choice - Separate Dance Facilities for Latin, Ballroom, Argentine Tango, &
Hustle/West Coast Swing
- Special Thursday Night Package (Join us for our Stardust Mixer Thursday Night to meet old and new friends)
- Call for more information 800-537-2797 (Monday-Friday 9am - 5pm) Outside USA & Canada 845-794-4707
- DAY PACKAGES AVAILABLE (based on availability, limited space) -
Click here for info!
*For more information click here --> Dance Weekend FAQ Section OVER 50 DANCE WORKSHOPS Please
note: Each class is designed for different levels of proficiency. Most classes are repeated offering everyone a chance to learn these stylish new steps. (A) Beginner (B) Intermediate (C) Advanced *SPECIAL WORKSHOPS* 2 Hour Salsa Workshop 2 Hour West Coast Swing Workshop 2 Hour Argentine Tango Workshop *2 Hour Hustle Workshop
Click
Here to Meet The Stardust Dance Faculty
Our cancellation policy - We STILL rarely cancel
|
In spite of the fact that we have cancelled twice this year, we STILL rarely cancel. We want to remind everyone that if the
weather looks really bad, we will leave messages on our web site www.firehousetango.com and phone 201-825-1570. You can also reach us on our cell phone 201-826-6602 (Sue) and 201-913-8504 (Joe). Feel free to leave a message on any of these lines. We cancel only when absolutely necessary (only about seven or eight times in all these years - including, unfortunately, the first scheduled milonga of 2014), but please check whenever you're not sure. If there isn't any message,
we're on.During Hurricane Sandy, when we had only cell phone service, I was able to leave a message on my cell, so I guess that the best number to call is 201-826-6602.
The following folks helped set up, break down and clean up before and after the milonga. Without them, there would be no Firehouse Tango.
- Tsipoyra Sartan
- Steve Maisch
- Steve Turi
- Elena Titova
- Debbie Glaser
And of course, without Terri Lopez, we would have to close up shop.
A reminder that Firehouse Tango does not supply wine - Your fellow tangueros bring it.
Therefore, if you drink it, please make sure to bring a bottle every so often.The folks below brought food and wine this week - George Ngo -
Grapes
- Bonny - Guacamole and chips
- Eva Roth - Beef Stew
And these people brought
wine
- Bob
Brillo
-
George
Ngo
-
Camille
-
Horatio
Piccioni
Horatio
Piccioni
-
Mary and
Francis
-
Doug & Amina
Verost
-
Marie and
Francis
-
EduardoEduar
Krukovsky
Tango in New Jersey and New York
|
|
|