Milonga photographer Romain Baillon now has a book!
If you’ve explored TangoForge.com you have undoubtedly seen a number of photos by Romain Baillon. We met many years ago, and he has kindly given permission to use his photos. Now he has printed them in a book, L’embrasement. His photos are not portraits of dancers. They capture the moods and sensations of a milonga. […]
Productivity versus Pleasure
My relationship to work presumes that completion is the main pleasure in life. My overwork is often a drive to finish something. This finish fetish is utterly arbitrary. Usually there’s no urgency, and most things get better with more time (and sleep). I practiced: stopping when it’s not done yet.
The grammar of creation
I resonated, and I was intimidated. I slog away at the day and although I use a lot of creativity to get through problems and take pleasure in every word I choose, every bite of food I eat, and moving my body around, I would hardly call the experience or the result “a love poem”.
Surrealism
Besides flawless composition, Gorey’s art is the conjunction of an “aesthetic preference for the understated and the unstated” and an “attraction to the highly stylized”. He tended to “leave out most of the connections” so as to offer his witnesses “ambiguity” and “subtlety” which give space “for imaginative participation.”
Illustrated Tango Wear from Blame it on the Bandoneon
I am a dancer and artist from Manchester in the UK. My designs are inspired by Tango, I love the intricate patterns found on old Bandoneons and the modern street art of Buenos Ayres. I started putting my art on to t-shirts to wear myself, but people at Tango events always asked where I had […]
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.
What is dancing and art for after all?
We struggle against the floor, I lose control of my step twice, but my shame is invaded with their emotion and a new knowledge breaches:
Dancing with Germain
DJ Elio Astor’s live mixes are improvised; Germain and I don’t know what the music will be or how long it will go on. The reality of dancing this way is very, very difficult. Not knowing what will come, we must continually leap into our interpretation of the music and one another. The demand to “trust thyself” is immanent. In addition to the unknown of the music, Germain is a contemporary dancer. So the matrix of movement possibilities expands dramatically beyond the already-rich tango lexicon.
Go!
It’s striking. Every time I talk with someone about having finally found the dance partner I’ve been looking for, and my plans to return to Berlin to try working with him, people respond with intense encouragement. “Go!” Many people have gone on from that point to offer assistance. I feel that I am surrounded by angels. I’m […]
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Milonga”
Why is it so hard to tell a new story about tango – or even a real story? It’s just not all about drama with your lover. Tango is about race, class, and gender. So many stories to tell, but none of them start with one man and one woman. There are always the women not chosen. And the ghosts. Another disappointing stage show which can’t beyond melodrama, threesomes, and chairs.
Iris Toren custom tango portraits
Iris Toren does custom and commissioned tango portraits and other work. Contact info below. itoren@bigpond.net.au or iristoren@gmail.com +61 425 349 019 //iristoren.com www.facebook.com/iristorenartist
Fabián Pérez tango paintings
Who is that painter? His work is so famous, but as usual in tango, people forget to give credit. He is Fabián Pérez. He has his own website, and here’s a gallery that sells both originals and prints of his work!
Tango vignettes by Ramiro Gigglioti
I love to read his column in El Tangauta. His book Tango Venom is available in English and Spanish but hard to get. I found this German distributor, Abrazos Books, who also offer a number of other interesting tango books in English.
Romain Baillon tango photography
Need some tango art? My favorite tango photographer: Romain Baillon
Is tango art? Entry I
Part 1: 29 October, 2012 This is a question I’ve asked myself repeatedly. I think mostly my view has been that it’s not, but that it could be. Note that I have no training in dance as a fine art, and I don’t know the relevant concepts and terminology, so my criteria are drawn from […]
There’s nothing wrong with Contentment
Tango, like any art form, is rich enough to provide space for lots of different interpretations and personalities. And, like every art form, it’s rife with debates and policing. “That’s not a painting!” But Tango is also a “social dance”, by which we mean a medium for socializing. And, according to doctors these days, a […]
Art and global culture
…in the waves of globalization, one of which birthed tango. We tanguera/os are struggling to learn to share, gripping authority as it slips through the toes, parrying each fusion that comes, trading shifts on the guardwatch, fighting over the orthodox, whirling around to explain that tango has always been a fusion, has always been diverse, has always been changing, has always been shared.