Themes

Authenticity & Buenos Aires

Cabeceo & the Codigos

The Nuevo Files

Paradigm Shifts (Important)

Experience the “real” tango…

Renaming the Roles

Tango Addiction

The Pleasure Principle

The reverse cabeceo

Chronological Order

NeoTango Rage 2020 I was invited to teach at the Australia NeoTango Rage 2020, which after being cancelled got resurrected as an online open event with themes for posting through the weekend. I have attended many neotango events, but the wording attached to the themes of this event forces me in a way that I don’t like. NeoTango [...]

Neo Tango Australia 2020: Online Participatory Event Starting 22.May the Australian Neo Tango Festival will do a special online version. The idea is pretty cool which is that they have transformed the schedule into themes and asked everyone who wants to participate to post contributions on that theme during the timeslot. I have re-written their schedule adding the time zones around the [...]

Distance: What have you learned about tango by not dancing? In this Distance from milongas, I dance alone with the ocean. What are you doing and how are you feeling about tango, with the perspective of some Distance? I created a workbook to help us think about this.

Tips for teaching your first tango class I believe that many dancers will return from the Distance with a renewed care for our community and a desire to rebuild it with great love. I believe many people will be inspired as never before to share the gift of tango, feeling now perhaps more than ever before the preciousness of gathering, and embracing. Indeed my student Josh is already preparing a class for his community, a clean and sober gym. We had a conversation about how to think about teaching, and this post contains my notes:

An unethical industry? The purpose of the codigos is to protect egos from rejection. But what goes missing when that is the only system we have? What indeed is social, and what social dimensions of tango require care? Let us consider what we can do about that when we return.

Muscle.Fashion.Imagination As a gift during this sheltered pause, I've created a free video series, Fashion Tips for TangoMen and Milongueras and Muscle Training to come back to tango stronger than ever.

Relief I need to tell you that I am feeling tremendous relief about having a break from tango.

How to work at home I've worked at home for 20 years. For folks who are new to it and for those unable to work who are and are abruptly faced with the rather uncomfortable opportunity to move forward on your dream projects, here are 15 tools for Discipline, Self-Awareness, Improvisation, and effective Contemplation.

Retreat is an aperture Indeed interruption is part of the history of tango. During the dictatorship, tango became a family and home practice. It's really not all about milongas. Let us welcome this pause as part of the dance, a needed disruption of rhythm, part of a more complex one.

Tango is not a place for aggression The video proclaimed "if you dare to move your legs (or to enjoy the movement of your lady's legs) you deserve to be restrained and to suffer." And it had the intended effect which was to intimidate even the best dancers in the Wellington community from executing certain movements.

Why I will never call myself ‘nuevo’ My foes are absolutely certain that I am one of those nuevo dancers, toes grazing my shoulders, back turned to my partner, dancing to ambient music in strange shoes. Actually it's beyond nuevo, it's not even tango anymore. My fans, who yearn for self-expression and are often berated for that, cluster around hoping that I will protect and expand the territory of freedom.

WARRIOR These are the folks I want to be dancing with in 5 years. You too? If so, please help me to get this film out globally to these tribes.

Another Improvisation: Interview with pianist Dietmar Schlabertz "At first when I started to do it like this. I only wanted to have time between to open the new piece. With time the improvisation grows, having its own character. It's no longer an opening only. Now the improvisational part is only a little shorter than the piece after it."

Retrospective: The First Post Selecting a few posts to reprint in Until Forever, I re-read my first blog post ever. It was a bit startling to realize that most of the things that concern me about tango today are things I realized from the very beginning. It’s a little embarrassing to realize that I continued despite knowing what I [...]

TangoForge Tour 2020 This year, we will attend more neotango events, and offer our seminars on Fridays adjacent to the workshops. We will do full weekend workshops in Sweden, Frankfurt, and Berlin. Please check the schedule (still under construction) on the AGENDA page.

Was ist Neotango? in EN Viele verschiedene Wörter werden verwendet, um den Tango nach dem Goldenen Zeitalter zu beschreiben: Nuevo, Electro, Neo, Alternativ, Zeitgenössisch, Con-Tango, Fusion … Einige Leute verwenden sogar den Begriff „Non-Tango“. Einige dieser Begriffe haben bereits historische oder sprachliche Bedeutung. Einige haben keine klare oder vereinbarte Bedeutung. Der Begriff „Neotango“ wird in Europa immer gebräuchlicher [...]

What is Neotango? Many different words are used to describe post-Golden Age tango: nuevo, electro, neo, alternative, contemporary, con-tango, fusion ... Some people even use the term 'non-tango'. The term 'neotango' is becoming more common in Europe, and its meaning is becoming more interesting. As I've learned more, I feel that it would help us to have some clarity and consensus where possible about these terms,

What is Fusion? Interview with Bo Wang of Angel City Fusion For many people the music played at the various social dance schools is a bit strange. When they find Fusion, they are dancing to contemporary pop music and they say “Oh, this is the thing. This is the kind of music I want to dance to.”

DIY Orquesta Típica: Interview with Korey Ireland about the Community Tango Orquesta movement In the music of the 30s and 40s, the advantage of an Orquesta Típica is that relatively simple things sound full and exciting. The idea of the Community Tango Orquesta is to create music in a way that fits the expectation of dancers in a milonga, and create it without the need to make money on it.

Alarm Some readers have responded to recent posts with alarm. They perceive a darkness. That’s because I decided to take a serious look at tango. While I was calibrating my dusty social science equipment, people kept dropping by to to me about their pain. I am the one who is alarmed. I found a lot of [...]

No means no Like women who would like to be able to say "no" or "not now" with just a gesture –twisting the torso away– and have that well-perceived by amorous dates, Marks would like to be able to say "no" with their eyes and body language, and not have to deal with a verbal or otherwise unavoidable request.

Pleasures of the Cabeceo The cabeceo is promoted as a way to avoid embarrassment and non-consenual dances. But it's not only a prophylactic, it also has pleasures of its own.

Pain games Is it my ochos? Is it my smile? My friends are skinnier and younger and more charming than me. Is it my dancing or my personality?

Out the Other Side Heroin is a beautiful experience too. So is red wine. That doesn't make them not addictive. That doesn't make the addiction not destructive.

The hardest job in Tango Argentines did not get Tango out of Argentina and build a global community so that we can go dancing every night all over the world. Local organizers did that. They are the the heros to admire.

Meeting your Dream We met on 1.August 2014. There was no middle-ground halfway between our lives in Sydney and Berlin. There was no time to hesitate. We both knew how hard it was to develop without a partner. And we had a taste of what our connection could be.

Gentrification Berlin's venerable dance-hall, Clärchens Ballhaus, is endangered. The building is protected, but the activities which fix it in the fading constellation of Berlin Bohemianism, are not.

FIskabäck Österlen Sverige July 5-7, 2019 The second TangoForge Seminar Compañeros for 2019 and the fifth gathering of TangoForge Sverige took place at the beautiful Fiskabäck retreat center in the Swedish Österlen from 5-7 July, 2019. The focus of the workshop was improvisation with tango customs and patterns, specifically the three giros, molinete lineal, and adornos. Vio y Jessica performed on [...]

The Merry-go-round I watch the milonga. What are we waiting for? An angel to fall from the ceiling into my lap. Because none of these mortals here please me, nor I them. Some ancient thing, some vestige, someone else’s dream – anything that will embrace me, lift me from this chair, and make the merry-go-round spin once [...]

Treasure We had done this ritual for longer than we had danced, with our mothers and grandmothers and every lover we'd ever touched. A ritual as deeply connecting as any embrace, and any dance we would do.

El Blog Total: Archive of All Posts

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