Buenos Aires with Firehouse Tango November, 2015 - More information |
Latest information on Buenos Aires
I think we will have enough people to go to Buenos Aires from October 30 to November 8th, 2015 (with a possible optional extension
to either Mendoza or Iguazu Falls.) It's not necessary to commit, but, with the first payment due in June, I'd like to know if you are still interested in coming.
Last year, we took a group and exceeded all expectations (references are happily available.) If you think you want to come, please send me an e mail at firehousetango@gmail.com or call me at
201-826-6602.
Trip details and payment information are below.
How Much: The cost of the trip including everything listed below (excluding air) is
$2100 (double occupancy). Single supplement is available for an additional fee of $400. Airfare should be about $1,200. Payment Schedule: $400 at signup - Non refundable (Single Supplement $400) due about May 7th $400 June 4th- Refundable if canceled before September
3 $400 July 2 - Refundable if canceled before September 3 $400 August 6 -Refundable if canceled before September 3 $500 Balance September 3 - Non refundable
We advise you to purchase trip cancellation & medical insurance (for example www.accessamerica.com ) You should make your air reservations as soon as
possible, since the fare may go up. There is also an Argentina Reciprocity Fee of $160. This is a one-time payment that is good for ten years.
How to Register: 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
- Welcome luncheon at the hotel
- Transfers to and from hotel (included if traveling with group on American # 255 and #256)
- Private group lessons with excellent local teachers and local partners (male and female) for each person
- 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
Next Thursday April 23rd - 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.
Last Thursday - Birthday of Francis Gregoire and Liz
Contreras
Francis and Marie Gregoire have been coming to Firehouse for many years and have been to Buenos Aires with us three times, and we are honored to have been able to celebrate Francis' birthday with him. Francis started the birthday tango with Marie and then we lucky ladies began cutting in - me first. It was delightful. Oh, and the mountain of huge and luscious shrimp
and chicken wings and delicious chocolate cake that Francis and Marie brought was, as predicted, fabulous, as always.
Liz has been coming on and off for years. She had never celebrated her birthday with us, and she put up just token resistence when I asked her to do so. She was spectacular, with Steve Turi startin the dance and Walter
Monteblanco ending it. She glowed.
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
April 23- Birthday of Eva Roth
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 second 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 Ingrid and Karl
Dear Sue, We wish you a happy birthday celebration tonight. We had planned to join you, however,
Karl had an emergency dentist appointment today and his mouth is still sore. Since TutT has a special milonga on Sunday afternoon, hopefully you will come to that event and you and Karl have a dance together then. We are very sorry to miss the celebration tonight… we are sure that it will be a great milonga birthday
party. Best wishes for good health and happiness always. Love, Ingrid and Karl
From Erica A
Good afternoon, I want to wish you a happy birthday. Unfortunately I cannot go tonight but my heart will be with you.
Enjoy it!!!! And congratulations
Erica
Alberto
From Elena
Syrett
Oh Sue, dearieIt is my pleasure... you have given me so much through FH that my life would not have been the same without it! I wish you a lot of joy from the necklace;
whatever you may feel in your heart you need joy too especially now. With a very warm and very long (!) hug elena
From Carol S.
Happy birthday to one Aries from another Aries. Carol
Adrienne Burton
Happy Birthday, Sue, sorry I couldn't make it.
Adrienne
Veronica D.
Sorry I wasn't able to make. Glad youhad a wonderfully special night! Happy birthday!
Hi everyone, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. I received a somewhat disturbing email from a student the other day. In her note, she was describing a class she took with a Tango teacher whose stage dancing I admire very much. Here is what she wrote: "(Name of teacher) gave the 'if
they don't lead it, you don't do it' lecture last night. There was an interesting response from some of the women. If you stand there and say to the leader 'You didn't lead it, so I won't do it on my own,' you will NOT be doing much dancing." Oh boy. Unfortunately, this is a dilemma that women face all too often on the Tango dance floor. In fact, from the follower's point of view, many
women might easily see it as their lot in life to be constantly caught between the two unacceptable alternatives of either having to read a leader's mind in order to get through a dance -- or having to risk sitting alone for the rest of the night because they insulted his fragile ego by daring to imply that he doesn't know how to lead. Does this happen? Oh yes, indeed, it does. On the other hand, to be
fair, it also happens that a leader may be working hard on learning the very complex art of leading, and be completely frustrated by a follower who has little or no idea how to read and respond to a lead. We often hear leaders complain that they invite one step, and their follower takes two or three. Or they ask for a forward ocho, and their follower goes into perpetual motion. It may come as a surprise to some people out there, but Tango
is not the bunny hop. If learning to dance meant mastering the bunny hop, we might not be too critical of someone who doesn't put their right foot in and twirl it all about at exactly the appropriate moment. But Tango is quite another kettle of fish, isn't it. In order to learn Tango at even the most rudimentary level one has to devote a great deal of time, effort, and money to the process. Shouldn't we hope, maybe even expect, our efforts to yield a satisfying result, when we dance with a
partner? Ultimately, the fantasy of dancing Tango as a euphoric exercise in pure exuberance doesn't really work very well. Choose Tango as your designated joy ride, and you're letting yourself in for a very arduous, often frustrating, pot-hole-riddled, uphill journey long before the giddy fun kicks in. The truth is that without well-developed lead/follow skills, social Tango is virtually impossible to
dance. The truth is that leading and following are both very difficult skills to learn. The truth is that most teachers -- even those who may be able to lead and follow themselves -- really don't know how to teach it, and, to be perfectly honest, find it much more lucrative to teach flashy sequences to students hungry for fantasy dancing. The truth is that even if teachers had the requisite skills to teach lead/follow (and didn't mind having very few students), the overwhelming majority of
students would really not be interested. Because the truth is that all but a very few students have the time, the money, the patience, the courage and the humility to learn how to lead and follow. Does anybody perceive a vicious cycle here? All I want to do is paint like Picasso. Why do I have to learn to draw a straight line first? All I want to do is sing an aria like Pavarotti. Why do I have to take (ugh!) singing lessons to do
it? Do you think you know how to lead and follow? I'll bet most of you don't. Learn to lead and follow. Insist on dancing only with people who know how to lead and follow. If you have to sit, because there's no one around who can lead and follow, so sit. If we can somehow drag ourselves forward into eventually developing a culture of people who have put in the time to actually learn how to dance, won't
our lives be better for it? Don't take lead/follow for granted. It is the key to social Tango.
Saturdays with Fran and Pat at Dardo Galletto Studios
|
Please join us 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.) We think it’s just like being in Buenos Aires! We’ll both be on hand to answer
any questions you may have about your dancing, and to help you with material you're working on. Plus you get a new “must-have” tango move each week! If you’d like a private lesson, call Fran directly at 212-662-7692, or email him at franchesleigh@mac.com. Don’t forget to visit our website at www.franchesleigh.com and join is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/franchesleighllc
Simply Social Dancing - Another dance at Biagio's
|
Hi dancers, Our next Dinner & Dance Event is on April 26th. The details are below. *Please note that we will be starting an hour later.
Sunday April 26th Time: 6:00 to 9:00 pm
Biagio's Restaurant The Banquet room (upstairs in the restaurant) 299 Paramus Rd, Paramus NJ 201 652 0201 http://www.biagios.com
We will start the evening with a beginner dance lesson for brand new people (about 40 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.
Buffet Dinner / Cash bar Cost: $35.00 per person (this includes tip)
We will be in the Banquet Room above the
restaurant. Go through the restaurant's front entrance. They will direct you from there. Just tell them you are attending the "Dinner & Dancing" event.
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 April 26th to make a reservation, it will help them in setting up for us.
___________________________________
Future Dates at Biagio's: May 17th July 19th August
16th ___________________________________
Please feel free to invite friends and family. The more people to meet, the better the event!
You are welcome to call me or respond with any concerns or questions.
Kindly,
Lisa Skates 201-694-7087
http://www.simplysocialdancing.com/
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:
Below is a link to Monica's interview with Juan Carlos Pontorielo from February 8, 2011. He passed away recently. How wonderful to have this video history.
Un bello recuerdo
Juan Carlos Pontorielo
Q.E. P.D.
https://youtu.be/CiEib0rZ92Q
Calendario Milonguero 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. ♫ LA MILONGA QUE FALTABA. Edgardo Donato (1938)
⊙ CD Nº34 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 |
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
- Elena Syrett
- Bob Armstead
- Tsipoyra Sartan
- Jesse Barton
- Steve Maisch
- Walter Milani
- 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 the Passover list for more- Barbara Lombardi - Grapes
- Dorothy Whitton - Snacks
- George Ngo
- Grapes
- Liz Contreras - Empanadas
- Eva Roth - Chicken
And these people brought wine- Erica Alberto
- Eduard Simpson
- George
Ngo
- SM Krukovsky
- Liz Contreras
- Horatio
Piccioni
-
Bob
Brillo
-
Edna
Negron
-
Francis &
Marie
-
Jesse
Barton
-
Eduardo Campos
Tango in New Jersey and New York
|
|
|
