Wow what a beautiful space! Very very slippery, but a gorgeous space, an entire church nave to play in. Even a little energetic music, after 3am.
I had a very weird night. Still exhausted somehow despite a restful day with a long nap and lots of water. Walked in on my own and cabeceod a girl whose outfit I liked. We danced a long time, changing roles. Then I sat for 45 minutes. Then a girl asked me to dance who had complimented me the night before, but she was in the category of ochos only. How is it possible that the only people in the room who can do something besides an ocho are the professional dancers???? Sat for another 45 minutes, then danced with a straight girl I know who is fabulous.
Another long wait and I looked up at Ines: “oh sorry is this your chair?” “no, I want to dance with you.” Then B and aurélie arrived And then I danced with the contact guy. And that was it. 6 dance partners and a lot of yawning. But great dancers.
My hands are more sore than my feet from this festival, because I am clapping more than I am dancing.
I haven’t written anything about the politics of the performances yet. The first night was two same sex couples, a pair of male stage dancers, and Soledad Nani who improvised, but dressed weirdly femme, which does not become her. (she danced with Ines, as usual)
The second night was about queer tango in mixed gender couples. Brigitte Wickler first marked a man from the revel’s side of the embrace, but she was marking so that she did revel’s moves. Then she swapped roles with another man. She was dressed femme and wearing heels the whole time. Then a man woman couple who swapped roles the whole time and were dressed matching (in Munehiro Norma’s designs) except Mariana wore high heels.
Performance photos Ka Yip
The third night was back to same sex, with Augusto and Claudio followed by very nice dances by Astrid and Erika from Queer Tango Seattle.
The only interesting points are that Claudio revels on his toes as if he’s wearing high heels, which looks very unusual esp. in back steps. And someone (Astrid) finally did a sacada.
