Let's all offer up a million thank-yous to Tatyana Gelfand for sponsoring tonight's milonga. This wonderful new friend asked me how much I paid for the food each week and then proceded to write a check for that amount. You all know that Firehouse Tango is a labor of love, and I appreciate all the help I can get.
This, however, was beyond my wildest expectations.
Until recently, Firehouse Tango organized wildly successful yearly trips to Buenos Aires. Many participants said that it was the best trip of their life. Some continued to come every year. Everyone loved it.
Last year, we took a group, and exceeded
all expectations. We're thinking about doing it again at the beginning of November, 2015. If you think you might want to join us, just send me an e mail at firehousetango@gmail.com, call us at 201-825-1570, or grab me at the Thursday milonga. This is just a preliminary survey, and there is absolutely no obligation, so don't hesitate. We just want to see if there is enough interest to pursue it further.
To
give you an idea of what it would be like, here is what we included in our previous trips (May be different this time):
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 if traveling with group on American # 255 and #256)
- Private group lessons with excellent local teachers
- 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
We haven't worked up the numbers yet, but the cost would probably be about $3,000 per person, including airfare. Next Thursday April 3 - Birthday of Mona Phillips
Mona - Birthday tango We miss Mona and she misses us. She has said that she can't think of a better way of getting
older than with tango at Firehouse. I couldn't agree more. Kevin will start the dance and then all the tangueros can cut in.
Last Thursday I forgot to acknowledge the cake
Maribel Soto
I forgot to give credit to Diane for
bringing Maribel's delicious red velvet birthday cake last week.
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
There are five Thursdays in April, and we are making great use of each one.
April 2 - Birthday of Mona
Phillips
See details above in this newsletter under Celebrations. April 9 -
Birthday of Sue Dallon and traditional Firehouse Tango Passover Milonga/Feast Sue Dallon Birthday
I hope every one of my Firehouse friends will join me for my birthday on Thursday. April
9th. I can't imagine a better way to celebrate the occasion than dancing, socializing, and sharing the best years of my life with the folks nearest and dearest to my heart. I want to dance with every single Firehouse tanguero. Please don't disappoint me.
Passover Milonga
See detailed information
below.
April 16 - Actual Birthday of Francis Gregoire
Francis and Marie Gregoire have been coming to Firehouse for many years and have been to Buenos Aires with us twice, and we are
honored to be able to celebrate Francis' birthday on April 16 th. Francis will start the birthday tango with Marie and then we lucky ladies can begin cutting in. It will be delightful. Oh, and the mountain of huge and luscious shrimp and delicious chocolate cake that Francis and Marie always bring will be fabulous, as always.
April
23- Birthday of Eva Roth
Our dear milonguera from Buenos Aires, who took Firehouse by storm a few years ago and cooks something different for us almost every Thursday when she is here, will celebrate her birthday with us on Thursday, April 23rd. Eva loves the milonga, and she will glow while dancing her favorite dance with all of the Firehouse
Tangueros.
April 30- Birthday of Walter Monteblanco
Our wonderful friend Walter is actually celebrating his birthday with us during the month when it occurs. This is a first, as the Monteblancos are usually
traveling.
Walter has been teaching Argentine Tango since way before I knew it existed, and he's my absolute favorite vals partner in the world.
Everyone loves Walter's large and happy personality. We look forward to celebrating Gay's (Mrs. M.) birthday the first week of May.
Gay will start the celebratory dance, and I will fight with Marita for the privilege of being second. Each of the tangueras can then have her turn. Possibly a few tangueros will cut in as well, since Walter follows as flawlessly as he leads. 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
From Fred Rueck
Fred has been sending lots of contributions, for which I am delighted and grateful. I'm repeating this one from last week so you can see Debbie Glaser's response below. Terri and I both agreed that
we fit almost everything on the list. I guess that makes us tango addicts.
Signs you are a tango addict- Ability to dance tango becomes a strong plus in looking for a partner
- You stopped apologizing upon mistakes, and just tango out of them
- You agonize for weeks over the colour
and style of your next tango shoes
- The word 'ocho' makes your body pivot involuntarily
- People at work know you dance tango, and you don't care
- The world is divided into two types of people: those who tango... and those who don't have a clue
- You have more tango shoes than 'real-life' shoes
- The worst type of injury isn't heart failure, but twisting your ankle
- You have a strong position on Tango Nuevo
- You suddenly realize all the people you know are at the milonga
- The close embrace with absolute strangers doesn't make you panic
- You arrange dinners with friends so they don't clash with
lessons, practicas and milongas
- You choose your next house based on the amount of polished wooden boards
- You're depressed because the milonga was cancelled
- You're elated because you've finally cracked 'that move'
- You actually know who Carlos Gardel is
- You've had a number of very
heated 'tango arguments' with your partner
- You've given up on taking notes... and you can't understand your previous notes anyway
- Your next holiday (defined as a 'pilgrimage') is to Buenos Aires
- You're at a cafe, a new tune comes on, and you tell everyone around you (as if they care) that it's 'tango music'
- You permanently
keep mints and a pair of tango dance shoes in your car... 'just in case'
- You wish you'd started tango when you were 10
- Your life is divided into 'pre-tango' and 'post-tango'
- You web search the tango venues of any area you are traveling to, in advance
- You find the reply to asking someone for a dance, and being told they are
'resting', is offensive
- You have started to form new tango moves without lessons - and think you are a genius for it
- You think dancing with a martyr's smile on your face is acceptable
- You've started teaching tango to family and friends
- You think that ability to dance is more important than looks
- The word 'connection' takes on a mystical tone
- The word 'sacada' does not mean an 'unbearably loud insect'
- You've experienced more intimacy in a dance than your long term relationships
- You practice the 'tango walk' on the street
- You truly believe that a man and a woman can touch chest to breast in an
'innocent' manner
- You've had 'the tango fight' with your partner on the dance floor
- Your computer screensaver is tango related
- You define good clothes as 'those that you can dance tango in'
- Most of your Google searches include the word 'tango'
- You wish you knew
Spanish
- Your answer to 'what do you do?' is invariably linked with tango
- Your view someone who can play the bandoneon not as a nerd who learned an accordion-like instrument, but as a musical genius
- You scoff at 'fake' tango shown in movies
- A 'sandwich' has transitioned from being an item of food to a dance
move
- You create a tango web site (true story!)
- You know that a credenza is not a tango move.
Debbie Glaser's Response
Another sign of tango addict is choosing where you will retire on whether there is a nearby
milonga. Also, when looking at the Weather Channel , checking first the weather of the night of your milonga. And yes, I have my tango shoes in my car.
More or Less Kosher for Passover Milonga |
Our annual traditional more or less kosher for Passover feast will take place at Firehouse Milonga on Thursday, April 9th (also Sue's birthday celebration.) If anyone would like to contribute a Passover dish, please let me
know. Some items featured on our previous holiday menus and commitments for this year were: Sue - brisket with potatoes and
carrots, salad, pastries, dried fruits and nuts, macaroons, desserts *** Same thing this year Judy Saul - holiday soup Georgina Blitzer - Potato Kugel *** Same thing this year Tsipoyra Sartan - egg salad ** this year -
kosher for Passover birthday cake for Sue Judy Assisi- Sephardic fruit compote Herb Goodfried- red cabbage Jack B. - Tsimmes Bonny Y - Chopped liver and
pickled herring Jack M. - Lamb stew Janice G - Passover cake Faye and Lou - pineapple Norma Arias - roasted carrots and fennel and chocolate covered matzah
*** Same thing this year Mike and Debbie - Green salad - bitter herbs *** Same thing this year
Simply Social Dancing Dinner-Dance Sunday |
Hi dancers, Just a reminder to call and reserve a spot, even if you call on Sunday. This helps the restaurant to set the room up properly.
I hope to see you on the dance floor.
Lisa
Sunday March 29th Time: 5:00 to 8:00 pm
Biagio's Restaurant The Banquet room (upstairs in the restaurant) 299 Paramus Rd, Paramus NJ
We will start the evening with a few basic dance steps for brand new people, followed by a Salsa dance lesson (about 30 min.) This is a chance to learn a few steps, and to break the ice in meeting each other. I will play a variety of music for the remainder of the evening.
Cost: $35.00 per person (this includes tip) / Cash bar Please call Biagio's for reservations before Sunday
evening. *This allows them to prepare for the number of people attending. Even if you call on March 29th to make a reservation, it will help them in setting up for us.
__________________________________
Lisa Skates
Hi everyone, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Let's talk about ballroom dancing -- about American ballroom dancing to be a little more precise. What? What, you say? The weekly Tango Tip is supposed to be about TANGO!!! (Sputter, sputter.) I know, I know; Tango is wonderful; ballroom is the archenemy, right? Okay, okay. Now, let's take a
deep breath, and relax. All I ask is that you hear me out for a minute. This is a perspective piece. In Argentina, there's a long-standing tradition within the social dance community, which comprises Tango, Milonga, and Vals. As most of you readers know, this closely related trio of social dance forms is what you encounter, when you visit one of Argentina's dance halls. These dances are largely improvisational in nature, highly creative, difficult for outsiders to learn, and considered
by practitioners (me, included) to be perhaps the most evolved form of social dancing on the planet. In America, by contrast, we have ballroom dance. Lots of us in the Tango community tend to look down on what we sneeringly call "ballroom" as a rigid, artificially contrived, cookie-cutter excuse for "authentic" dancing that has been insidiously foisted on indiscriminate yokels by the evil empire (meaning professional dance teachers). In fact, when I first began to teach Tango
in New York City, I was treated quite disdainfully by a good many people in our beloved community, because I was professionally trained, and therefore looked upon as tainted. "How could you possibly know anything about Tango -- you're a (gasp, yuk) ballroom person!" Heaven forbid. Anyway, before we completely annihilate the American social dance tradition out of hand, I have one or two things I'd like to say about it. Many years ago, from practically the
beginning of the 20th Century all the way up until about 1957, we actually enjoyed a very robust dance culture in this country. Americans thought of social dancing as an appealing way to entertain themselves, and many people became very, very good at it. Because the U.S.A. is the "melting pot" of many diverse cultures, our social dance tradition encompassed not just a few native dance forms -- Foxtrot, Swing, Hustle and Peabody -- but a wide variety of styles from around the Western World,
including Slow Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Polka, "American" Tango, Mambo, Rumba, Cha Cha Cha, Merengue, Samba and Paso Doble. Although I myself became a social ballroom dancer during the last stages of ballroom dancing's heyday, I vividly remember that this glorious pastime seemed to be alive everywhere. In New York City we had Roseland, the Savoy, the Palladium, the Audobon Ballroom, the Park Palace -- not to mention lots of smaller venues all over Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. We
learned to dance by going out dancing. Everyone developed his/her own particular style. Dancing was a creative act. And nobody --- but nobody -- would be caught dead taking dance lessons. In fact, a badge of honor among "real" dancers was the phrase: "I never took a lesson in my life!" In such a rich, vibrant cultural context as this, Tango would undoubtedly have found its own special place. Americans of our own dance era would have embraced Tango and its unique character with open
arms. But of course, we never got to see Tango here at all -- at least in its pure form. For a wide range of reasons, this extraordinary dance didn't begin to touch our lives until 1985 with the momentous arrival of Tango Argentino on Broadway. And by that time, our own glorious dance era was virtually dead and gone. Tango arrived in America (and around the world) at a time in which ballroom dancing had largely devolved from a highly personalized skill whose
practitioners literally developed their own individual iterations of any given dance style to what had now become a series of inflexible prescriptions by studio-trained dance instructors. Those of us who recalled the days when dancing was more creative quickly seized on Tango as our long-awaited salvation from rigidity and conformance. Real dancing was back. Now, don't get me wrong. Learning to dance Foxtrot, Waltz, and Viennese Waltz the way these dances are taught today
requires a significant level of skill development and perseverance. And, to be frank, I'm well aware that if you want to learn how to dance in America these days, you would be very hard pressed to find anything out there except this kind of bronze/silver/gold pedagogical approach. I'm even seeing indications that some dance studios are applying this kind of regimentation to Argentine Tango -- maybe not in Argentina, but certainly here in America. Okay, I've gone on long enough
today. I just want to leave you with a little wish I have. I wish we could bring back some of our native dances, and incorporate them into our Tango mix. I'd love to dance a Foxtrot once in a while to Frank Sinatra. I'd love to kick up a nice medium-tempo Swing to Count Basie. I'd love to get down with a Mambo from time to time to the sounds of Tito Puente or Machito. I love Tango, I really do. But if we could dance our American dances the way we used to do ... if we could bring these
experiences back into our lives just once in a while ... that would be something I'd really enjoy. See that? I really am a ballroom person after all.
Saturdays with Fran and Pat at Dardo Galletto Studios
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Please join Fran and Pat for our Saturday Practica at Dardo Galletto Studios, 151 West 46th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues; 2-4pm, $10 per person. (Bringing a partner isn't necessary.) Fran and
Pat will be 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: Calendario Milonguero 19 March
Calendario Milonguero
Birth of HORACIO SANGUINETTI (Horacio Basterra). Famous poet and lyricist from the roaring 40s. As an example of his rich creativity, here are 3 of his Tangos:
TRISTEZA MARINA, LOS DESPOJOS and BARRO. He died young in Montevideo, Uruguay, where everything indicates that he had fled after killing the husband of his sister because he was mistreating her. Now one of his successes.
♫ MONEDA DE COBRE Lucio Demare y Raúl Berón (1943) ⊙ CD Nº14 Colección Natucci (40 CDs) +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) : New MP Tango Interview MPTango Presents Carlos Horacio Funes at PractiMilonguero Click on cc underneath the screen for English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6X8BC1MX1s&feature=youtu.be
Our cancellation policy - We STILL rarely cancel
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Even though we had to cancel once 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 my cell phone 201-826-6602. Feel free to leave a message on either of these lines.
We cancel only when absolutely necessary (only about eight or nine times in all these years - including, unfortunately, the first scheduled milonga of March, 2015), 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.
- Elena Titova
- Tsipoyra Sartan
- Jesse B.
- Walter
Milani
- Mike Porro
- steve turi
And of course, without Terri Lopez and steve turi 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 - See above - Barbara Lombardi - Popcorn
- Mary Pagano - Cookies
- Erica Alberto - Soda
And these people brought wine- Adrienne Burton
- Walter Milani
- Bill
Krukovsky
-
Camille
-
Joe
Weintraub
-
George
Ngo
-
Dan & Georgina
- Jack Messing
- Edna Negron
- Horatio
Piccioni
-
John & Fieke
Barous
-
Francis &
Marie
-
Eduardo
Campus
Tango in New Jersey and New York
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