Café de Hansen is found by archaeologists

There is very little relicts to be found in tango history. Most of the important things of sounds, steps, atmosphere and words do dissappear when completed. Therefore this peace of archaeological excavations feels so interesting.

Café de Hansen opened the doors 1877 and were hosting the tango visitors to 1912. There is discussions about the information if people were actually dancing there or if they just listen to the music while eating and refreshing themselves.

You find a more detailed story in the Tango Chamuyo blog - better English is it too!
http://jantango.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/cafe-de-hansen/

The Spanish version here:
http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/areas/cultura/cpphc/sitios/detalle.php?id=4

The desert flower opened

I have been longing for Alvaros music for a long time and got it at Tango Brujo tonight!

Most of the musicians and singers on the playlist were born long time after golden ages and I felt how something opened up within me, like a flower after a long dry period. A song could sound totally impossibly but was easy to dance to.

It seems that I need a wide range of variety and this is available so seldom.

Thanks!

Check what is happenig on *El Tango Brujo* : http://www.eltangobrujo.com/

This picture is from the late night, nearly at the end of the Milonga so we were only a few left.
I just couldn't take a break earlier!

Dreaming away

Sometimes my colleagues have told that they have driven a car for several miles without any possibility to recall what happened. They remember how they started the engine and then the next thing was that they find themselves at home in front of the garage door.

Most of the times this happened during a period of high stress level or tiredness.

I believe though,  that this kind of state of mind, where your body is working properly but the mind is absent, can occur for the dancers too.  Especially for the followers who can close the eyes, and just relax in the movement. It could be a kind of meditative state and I think that the followers, who have experienced of loosing the awareness of time during a tanda, have been somewhere there.

The abrazos, back and forth

During my leader years I have become accustomed to hear the price and glory of the Argentine leader abrazo. Many followers got something unfocused in their eyes when they remembered back to those days in South America.

These statements include a serious criticism to the European leaders and their abrazos. But it seems to be ok to tell.

I have heard only a few stories about how European leaders are experiencing the Argentine follower abrazos and cannot now catch the content.

The other way round - how the Argentine leaders and followers are experiencing the European abrazo - I do not have a clue about it today.

I start to listen.

Floor breaking birthday milonga

It feels that a piece of tango historia will turn alive again when Pino together with his own family, is planning to reopen Pele, an old family restaurant.

His parents bought it earlier but from 1994 they have had tango actitivities there and it was here I came when the wether came chillier and I needed to find a place to dance inside. So to Pele we went and met our friends!

Yesterday we started the process by celebrating Pinos birthday and after dancing several hours we broke the floor and carried it out! The new floor will come shortly we hope!





Pino is also His wife organizing one of the oldest and biggest festivals in South Sweden, Tango Camp.

http://www.tangocamp.se/tc/sweden/welcome

Housekeeping music!

During several weeks I have been listening to this playlist of Enrique Rodriquez songs when the flat needs to be cleaned up. The songs are runing in brisk rhythm and glad melody as well as I am! A great help!






It seems that the window above doesn't open the playlist - here a new try!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN2D4gpMA2k&feature=share&list=RDCN2D4gpMA2k

Visual pleasures hit my stomach

Every time when I ask my non dancing friends to come and see my hobby their eyes are catched by the biggest movements and highest boleos. That is tango! they say.

I maybe was like that too during the early days. Today I am more looking for the musicality, how the steps are connected to the beats. Some relaxed, experienced dancers can hit very down to my stomach with simple steps cleverly connected to the music. This is not a metaphor, but some videos are tickling my nerves and the feeling of enjoyment is nearly painful.

I have started to think that there is maybe a path this evolution goes; that you can predict what stages you have before you when you take your first steps.

Lady and the bandoneon

Koh Sangji is the foremost bandoneon player in Korea. She and her band have been playing in milongas, music festivals, concert halls, and have gained a very enthusiastic following in Korea.

She has studied with Komatsu Ryota in Japan and Federico Pereiro and Nestor Marconi in Buenos Aires. She graduated from La Orquesta Escuela de Tango Emilio Balcarce in 2011. She will be playing at Seoul tango festival in May and you find some more information by clicking the link far down.

The Youtube video is of bad quality - filmed and uploaded from a mobile - but it gives you a different picture of what a tango concert can be. In this way the public can be far beyond the conservative group of dancers!






http://www.seoultangofestival.com/2014/04/2014-seoul-tango-festival-live-tango.html

Are your ears HURTING? what ? WHAT?

Some of the dancers claim that they want to feel the music in the breast bone!

**But not me! Sometimes my ears are aching even when I have the earplugs in place. 

It is difficult for a DJ to navigate between a variation of demands during a whole night milonga, and usually the most persistant or with highest ranking in hierarchy gets the volume adaption! Therefore I have started to use an app on my phone showing the decibel levels. It is easier to discuss with some numbers in my hand! 

I am sure Your can find your own at your area  and download it for iPhone or Adroid.

In Sweden you get them here: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=se.av.buller https://itunes.apple.com/se/app/buller/id418022274?mt=8 http://www.av.se/teman/buller/app/

An advantage of a new focus!

Sometimes it is helpfull to find a new focus point. One of my followers is a nervous kind of person, very like me there, worrying to make mistakes. I could feel it in her body because it was stiff and somehow jumping in to the next step. But one day that was different, up to the degree that I commented it. She told that she got tired to be so nervous and has decided to focus on music and leave the leading to me. If I did not fix her feet, she would give me a second try! :)

Intuitive dancer

The process of becoming a fluent speaker in your native language is quite similar to the process I have had to get fluent in stepping to tango music; by communicating with the people around me. After reaching a certain level in your language you start to feel if the words are not in right order or if the verbform is not correct, you don't know why, you just feel that it is not correct. I also developed a feeling indicating that I am relating my steps to music in a good way or the opposite.

Are you with me?!  Are you also an intuitive dancer?!