No celebrations next week, just great learning, socializing, and dancing in the world's friendliest milonga.
Birthday of John Wynne last Thursday
Judy started the dance, I followed, and the Firehouse tangueras kept cutting in during a surprise celebration for John Wynne's birthday. John and Judy have been coming to Firehouse since the very beginning, and we are thrilled to have been able to honor him tonight.
Hi Sue
I was very surprised by the
birthday dance tonight. You and
Judy did a great job. I very much enjoyed dancing with so many tangueras that I had never danced with before. I hope they also enjoyed dancing with me. I knew nothing about this until you started the announcement, as you stared right at me!
John
Note from Sue - I'm sure that all of the other tangueras enjoyed dancing with John as much as I did.
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 This week's cortinas were from one of my favorite movies, O Brother, Where art Thou?"
A cortina (curtain) is a short piece (20–60 seconds) of non-dance music that is played between tandas at a milonga (tango dance event). The cortina lets the dancers know that the tanda has ended. The partners can then without insult thank each other and return to their own tables, to find a new dance partner at the next tanda. Cortinas are used at many of the milongas in Argentina and Uruguay but are increasingly common elsewhere. - Wikipedia
Let us know if you are celebrating an occasion and would like to request special music for that night’s cortinas. We will try very hard to accommodate
you.
Buenos Aires with Firehouse Tango November, 2015 - More information |
Latest information on Buenos Aires
Our trip to Buenos Aires from October 30 to November 9th, 2015 (with a possible optional extension to either Mendoza or Iguazu Falls) is on.
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. 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 # 953 and #954)
- 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
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 $1,400. 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.
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
Well, what isn’t Milonga? It actually has several meanings, all
fairly closely related. Milonga is a genre of music, as well as a type of dance and a type of dance event. Have we lost you yet? I don’t blame you; let’s break it down.
www.tanguito.co.uk/blog/muddled-about-milonga/ Jun 20, 2012 - "Milonga" actually has several meanings, all fairly closely related. It is a genre of
music, ... Blog& news for tango dancers; Tango, the music >.
Señor Oucho
Muddled about milonga?As you may know already, we are now
running tangoBOOST (technique class) at 7:30pm, followed by amilonga class at 8:30pm, every Wednesday. So: Well, what isn’t Milonga? It actually has several meanings, all fairly closely related. Milonga is a genre of music, as well as a type of dance and a type of dance event. Have we lost you yet? I don’t blame you; let’s break it down. In a nutshell, when referring to music, milonga is a faster variation of tango music. Like tango, some songs have clearer beats than others. If you’re not a music enthusiast you may wish to zone out now and move on to the next section. If you are a musician or you were brave enough to read on anyway, you may like to know that regular 2/4 tango songs have a [1] 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 rhythm, whereas milonga tunes have either a [1] 2 3 [4] [5] 6 [7] 8 rhythm, or [1] [2] 3 [4] [5] 6 [7] 8. Hopefully you should be able to recognise the difference in pace, if not just pretend  A milonga event is a tango party influenced by Argentine tradition. There is also ‘milonguita’, a tango party designed for beginners. We put these on monthly, to view the details of
the next upcoming milonguita click here. You may have guessed it: milonga is a faster variation of tango, it goes hand in hand with milonga music. Founded by Afro-Argentineans as a mockery of tango, it was frowned upon by society to begin with. In time, like tango, it caught on, reaching the upper classes and dispersing throughout the world’s biggest cities: London,
Paris, Berlin, etc. The dance style is much faster and doesn’t have the pauses seen in regular tango. It doesn’t pauses however, as the steps are less technical; milonga is more of a rhythmic walking with a far more relaxed posture, especially from the waist down. Milonga has faster steps therefore making routines tighter, taking up less
space and meaning that dances are far more static. It’s ironic really – the faster version of tango travels around the dance floor much slower than regular tango! There are two main sub-genres of milonga dance. “Milonga Lisa”, which is a simple milonga – a step on every beat, and then “Milonga con Traspie”, featuring double time, transferring weight and walking three steps in two counts. It’s all very confusing in writing so come along to a class with Nathalie and Bruno and they will break it down for you. Everyone’s new so don’t be afraid to give milonga a try! See you on Wednesday!  We are one of the few dance academies in London with a regular milonga class, open to
everybody! For more information on our milonga classes click here. Abrazo, Emma Langschied Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
We
are (‘small tango’ in spanish – pronounced tang-eeto)! We live and breathe tango and have been told our passion is contagious. We do all things tango-related: classes, milongas, events, clothing & holidays to Buenos Aires.
Hi everyone, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Last week, I introduced the subject of el abrazo del tango, the Tango embrace. If you read that Tip, you're now well aware that one of the things I strongly recommend against in the embrace is leaning on one another. I addressed this issue, because over the past several years leaning has become
more and more prevalent among certain well intentioned, but (I believe) ill-informed Tango dancers. I used to think -- I used to hope -- that this was just another passing fad; but I now see that it has taken root, and is unlikely to disappear any time soon. The point I tried to make last week was that leaning on one another severely limits the lead/follow possibilities within the traditional social dance -- to the extent that only the most rudimentary range of Tango
vocabulary is possible. One might argue here that an entirely new tradition has gradually emerged (what some call tango nuevo or neo-Tango), for which leaning on one another is actually a primary component (I'm referring to elements such as volcada and its attendant variations). However, I think it is important to recognize that in this radical reconstruction of the dance, based to a large extent on the leaning embrace, an entire syllabus of invaluable repertoire -- at least in
this country -- is gradually becoming almost completely lost. Some people might think this is a good thing. I don't, and so far the overwhelming majority of indigenous social dancers in Argentina don't either. All right, let's say you're willing to consider the possibility of not leaning on each other. How do you form the embrace, and what specifically do you do with it? To be sure, the idea of any publicly displayed physical connection between two people has obvious
social and emotional implications. Traditionally, embracing while dancing provides the opportunity to enjoy the touch of another person in a public setting without fear of censure. For our purposes, however, we're going to concentrate on the purely functional role of the embrace, which is to serve as a means of communicating essential information between two partners during the dance. The embrace itself in all of "Western" social dancing (including Tango) presents us with immediate
difficulties as a means of communication between dance partners. To begin with, it is asymmetrical -- meaning that it is different on each side. The leader's right arm is behind the follower's back, while his left arm is raised, and is holding his partner's hand. In an ideal world, we would probably find it more comfortable -- and certainly more efficient -- if we were to use some kind of symmetrical embrace (both sides the same). However, our commonly accepted embrace is
rooted in social traditions, which have gone unchallenged for the past four hundred years, and are unlikely to change anytime soon. So we start right off the bat with something of a handicap, and move on from there. Note about my description below: In Argentina, the leader is almost invariably a male, while the follower is generally a female. For this reason, I will use those specific role definitions. 1. The two partners
begin by facing one another front to front (not offset), their feet together and about three inches away from those of their partner. 2. The leader extends his right arm under the follower's left arm and behind her back. He places his right hand gently at about the center of her back with his right elbow down -- rather than extended to the side. (Another way of saying this is that he does not create a "platform" with his right arm -- as he
might do in contemporary ballroom dance practice.) 3. At this point, the follower places her left arm on her leader's shoulder with her forearm gently touching (not resting heavily on) his right upper arm. Alternatively, she may elect to place her hand on the lower part of his right deltoid, around his back, or even up around his neck. Any one of these choices may be made for her personal comfort or as a matter of "style." Whichever the follower chooses, she
should try to be certain that she does not compromise her upright balance. As I write this, there is a highly affected way of placing the left arm going around in which some women are reaching around the leader's neck, draping themselves on his chest, and extending their lower arm almost straight down his back. Aside from being quite uncomfortable for the leader -- and, at least in my opinion, completely unsightly -- such followers are compromising their balance to the extent that they need to
be carried around the dance floor rather than led. I strongly recommend against this way of a follower using her left arm.
4. The leader now extends his left arm forward by way of inviting the follower to take his hand. She places her hand in his palm at a right angle and closes her hand gently around his. The leader now raises his left hand approximately to the level of his nose with his left elbow out to the left side. As he does this, both
partners keep their elbows pointing toward the floor -- rather than idiosyncratically cocked up as we sometimes see in competitive ballroom technique. Both partners maintain their own individual arm position here -- without in any way leaning on or holding up the other partner's arm. Because the lead will be given through the leader's upper torso -- as we will learn next week -- there is no pressure between the leader's left hand and the follower's right. I recommend maintaining a condition of
"neutrality" between these arms -- in which there is a connection without pressure -- at least for the time being. (I am aware that in some iterations of ballroom dance technique there may actually be significant pressure between these hands -- as well as between the leader's right hand and the left side of the follower's back. However, these conditions do not apply in Tango.) 5. Once the leader and follower have formed their basic
connection as described above, the leader generally situates his head so that he can look forward and slightly past the follower's right shoulder in order to navigate the couple's way around the dance floor without risking collisions with other dancers. The follower may choose to look straight forward (usually at her leader's chest), or she may opt for gazing romantically into his eyes (almost always quite uncomfortable, by the way, since she'll have to tilt her head up in order to do so). She
may also elect to look to her right in the direction of her right hand. These are personal choices, and entirely up to the follower's discretion -- as long as they don't interfere with her ability to consistently maintain her balance. Because of the asymmetry of the embrace (leader's right arm around the follower's back, left arm holding hands), the right side of the dance connection (from the leader's perspective) tends to be slightly closer than the left side. In fact, teachers often
call the right side the closed side, and the left side the open side. It is perfectly natural, therefore, for the couple to form a slight "v-shape" in creating the embrace. I remember some years ago that there was a heated discussion on one of the popular Tango forums, condemning the evils of the v-shape, while espousing a completely squared-off shoulder-to-shoulder juxtaposition. "This is the way it's done among the knowledgeable milongueros from the 'Golden
Age,'" it was assured. The resulting practice one saw on the dance floor for quite a while thereafter was leaders thrusting their left shoulders uncomfortably forward while pulling their right shoulders awkwardly back as they danced in order to adhere to these inaccurate and misguided proclamations. To be generous to people who vilified the infamous v-shape at the time, I would speculate that their purpose might have been to offer a remedy for a leader pulling his follower tightly into his right
side while leaving the left side wide open in what was almost a right angle. In fact, this practice was at one time very commonplace in Argentina among certain rough-and-tumble dancers. Eventually, it gave way to a more front-to-front configuration between the partners, but it never became a rigidly prescribed parallel interrelationship between the couples' shoulders. Have I managed to cover the ABCs of the embrace? As you can see, there's a lot to talk about. If you feel that
something is missing or unclear, ask Pat or me about it, and we'll do our best to help. In the meantime, bear in mind that so far, I have described el abrazo del tango as a static positioning of the bodies, arms, and physical juxtaposition of leader and follower. What is most important in the long run is how the two partners actually use this unique embrace in order to create complex, interactive movement. We'll begin this discussion next
week.
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
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
CHARLO (Carlos José Pérez de la Riestra) was born. Tango artist with many talents: singer, pianist, composer and actor. He started to sing in 1924 on the radio. He had an austere phrasing, not so enhanced like Carlos Gardel’s, the creator of tango phrasing. Many of his musical compositions are played in milongas still today. Let’s listen to his voice. ♫ TIEMPOS VIEJOS. Francisco Canaro and
Charlo (1937)
⊙ En la Colección Natucci dedicada al director (5 CDs) +info
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 and othes like it that Monica has preserved.
Un bello recuerdo
Juan Carlos Pontorielo Q.E. P.D.
https://youtu.be/CiEib0rZ92Q
LATIN NIGHT AT LA HAVANA 59 110 Moonachie Ave, Moonachie NJ Tuesday, July 28th
(last Tuesday of each month) Time 7:00 - 10:00 pm Mostly Argentine Tango and Salsa…. some Bachata, Merengue, Rumba, & Cha Cha
Beginner Tango Lesson at 7:00 pm $20.00 includes 2 house drinks, or 1 house drink and a Latin Night appetizer Please call for reservations: 201-964-9515 __________________________________________________
BIAGIO'S RESTAURANT 299 Paramus Rd, Paramus NJ Sunday, July 19thTime 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm A mix of music for all partner dances (Foxtrot, West Coast Swing, Salsa, Argentine Tango etc). Beginner Swing Lesson at 6:00 pm Cost $35.00 for Buffet and Dancing / Cash bar Please call Biagio's for reservations. 201 652 0201
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
- Tsipoyra
Sartan
- Steve Maisch
- 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 - - Barbara Lombardi - Cherries
- Sydney St.James - Donuts
- Flo Salierno - Cake
And these people brought wine- Dave
Niselson
- George Ngo
- Bill Krukovsky
- Marlene Hill
- Joel Pupps
- Meryl Shapiro
- Bob Brillo
- Naum & Slava Khromov
- Al & Lilian
- Horatio
Piccioni
-
Eduardo Campus
Tango in New Jersey and New York
|
|
|
