Le Tango around the World!

On April 1st, we arrived in San Francisco. It’s just so wonderful to be back here. I came to SF a few times over the years I lived in the States, either to dance tango or to just be a tourist. And I love the city. So, we combined our trip to visit some of my tango friends, visit the city and especially go and meet Josh’s Grand parents, June and Burt. We took also lots of pictures in the city, with friends etc.

It felt so good to see some friends again. Tango life is interesting. You meet people once or twice a year sometimes, or you don’t see them at all for a couple of years, but somehow, there is always something that keeps you in touch… the tango! We have shared experiences, we went to the same places to dance, and we are all totally obsessed with the tango! So, we understand each other and don’t need to be in constant contact to feel that we are still friends! I love that feeling!

After just a couple of days in SF, we drove to Monterey. Another part of the journey!

In October of last year, when I came back to DC, Josh and I met (again!). We spent two months together in Buenos Aires, and during that time realized it would be much more fun to be gypsies together! So, here we are! The Le Tango around the World Blog is not only mine anymore, but Josh’s as well, we’ll be relating our adventures traveling, seeing friends, dancing and teaching tango …

So, here we go: after the Marathon, we spent a few days in NYC. It was Josh’s first trip north of Baltimore! We were both exited about the trip. At the beginning the idea was to go to NYC with the teachers of the Marathon. Well, it did not work out that well, as all of them got into their groove and went ahead with their plans. So, we worked it out for ourselves and decided to go to Providence for Jaimes’ weekend of classes.

On the way to Providence, we stopped in NYC to drop-off a friend of ours at Columbia U. So, it was Josh’s first encounter with NYC…. The “ohhh” and the “ahhh”s and the “New York New York” blasting on the Ipod when we entered the city, made it quite for me as well!! To complete this first impression of NYC, we had a great Burger at Tom’s… the dinner where Seinfeld was shot at! What else could we ask for!

Providence turned out to be quite nice as well. It felt good to be out of the city for a while… and Providence is quite out of the way! Eheheh… It was quite amazing to see many of the same people who were at the Marathon!! We are just way to obsessed… So we danced, took some classes and went back to NYC. We were staying at some friend’s house in Nyak, just outside of NYC. I would not have gone to that small town if it hadn’t been for this house, and it would have been a shame. It’s a very nice place, right on the water, and just about 30 min outside of NYC. So, we went and visited the city: Central Park, Strawberry field, 5th avenue, the Rockefeller Center and of course Time Square. We were ready to go on top of the Empire State Building to have THE View of the city… but the wait was about 1 hour and we had tickets to see “the Perfect Crime” a show off-Broadway.

The Marathon 2008

It’s been quite a while since I wrote anything on this blog. I guess being on vacation, or retired or not having a regular job doesn’t mean having lots of time. There is always something to do!
So, after spending some time in Europe and two months in Buenos Aires I am back in DC to organize the Tango Marathon. It’s already the 7th year of this festival and this year I was wondering how well it would go. It was the first festival that I organized without being in the city. I just arrived about 10 days before the start, to finalize a few things, but otherwise the whole festival was done remote! Maybe next year I should organize a multi location, video streaming festival! Eh eh eh

It is really amazing… every time I organize something like that, I am exited to do it about 6 months in advance. Then, when the time comes closer I think that I am totally out of my mind to want to put such a big thing together; with teachers, room locations, organizing schedule etc etc… A week before cannot eat anymore because I am wondering what will go wrong, what did I forget and hoping all would work well. The the fun begins… I go and pick up the teachers, some dancers are already coming to town, the excitement is getting bigger and bigger… and then the fun really begins at the first milonga. This year again I joined forces with Bill at the Eastern Market Milonga. The space is just wonderful, great atmosphere… and when you fill it with about 100 great dancers… it becomes magical.

Then, seeing friends, realizing how many visitors are already in town and most of all, being very happy that people appreciate the dancers/teachers I brought this year, was like the icing on the cake! It’s always quite a challenge to figure out who I will invite as teachers. The States has a wonderful group of teachers, some of them travel the world to teach and are extremely well respected. But what I am looking for is to bring new people and be the link between Europe and the States. I have been lucky to travel and dance through Europe for the last few years, and met and became friends with some of the best dancers and teachers Europe has to offer… so, I am taking advantage of the fact that I organize a big tango festival to bring them over and give them the opportunity to visit the States and to be known here, and at the same time, I am bringing new ideas and new energy to the States… I am really happy that that has worked well. Now, there is more exchange …. Too bad the $ exchange is not better, so that we could go to Europe a little more!!! Oh well..

At the end, all was good at the festival. Pictures are online at http://www.unmomento.net and at http://www.SamsSnapshots.com

Enjoy

After Sitges, Barcelona and Sweden, I decided to stay in Belgium just a little! It was nice to be home and see my parents and family, but after a short while, I was already ready to do something else! Good that I have more and more friends now in Europe…. I got to learn about St Tango.

First let me give you a little background of the tango community in Europe.

What I love here is that there are so many people dancing, so many events going on, so many new dancers to discover, so many different style to experience! Sitges is of course the best and biggest as everybody who is somebody in Europe is going there (or has gone or will go! )…. but that also means that there are many many dancers and at festivals it is getting quite difficult to dance with your friends and the ones you like to dance with. So, some special events have been organized. they call it Tango marathon (different from the festival I organize … these are usually close events, where the organizers invite friends on their email list. The event is also limited to a certain number of dancers (100 or 150) and you have to register for the whole weekend. There is no teaching, no performances, usually staying in the same location, cooking and eating together. I know there is one in Loma (Sweden), Berlin, Switzerlan (St Tango) and Hamburg… maybe there are more but I am not aware of them yet. Oh, also, the music is going on the whole time… from Friday evening through Sunday evening… all night and day long! oh no… we are not sick eh eh eh just addicts!

So, last Thursday I took the train from Libramont (close to where I live in Belgium) to Basel, Switzerland. It took me 4,5 hours.. so not too bad. And I arrived at the station, from there we took a mini bus to go to St Anton, a small village in the mountains, close to the Lac of Constance. In the bus, I met with some friends I already knew from other festivals; Julie and Jean-Michel from Paris, Jorge from Basel and then I met new people. Of course we had to do a small stop on the highway… and yes, you guessed it… we danced tango in the parking lot! Eh… we had to warm up for the whole weekend that was coming up!
We finally arrived in St Anton, with a fabulous sunset, and the moon rising over the mountains. The view was fabulous… and it put all of us in a great mood.

When we arrived at the hotel where we were staying I finally understood why people had told me before to bring my mattress, a sleeping bag and get ready for very basic accomodation! Well, the hotel where we were staying hasn’t been used in about 6 years as an hotel. It is still in good condition with water and electriciy and everything, but that’s it! The first thing you have to do when you arrive in that place is to look for a place to sleep… or where to put your mattress! There were about 25 rooms… for about 100 dancers staying there! Anywhere there was space for a mattress, there was one! Some were lucky enough and got a real bed… but they arrived quite early! I finally found a place to sleep, put my shoes on, and went looking for a dance … of course that did not happen right away… there were so many people I wanted to say hi first… friends that were in Sitges, and others that I hadn’t seen for a while. But then I started… and pretty much did not stop for the whole weekend! It has been 2 days now that I am back in Belgium, and still I am still high from all the good dancing I had. You can see pictures of the events at http://www.le-tango.com/2007_StTango.

When we woke up Saturday morning the weather was magnificient! Sunny, blue skies, warm… we were all outside, having breakfast and enjoying the view, with the sound of tango in the background and some people dancing outside and inside! And of course… after we all had enough food, we started dancing again, and again, and again! On Sunday, it was very difficult to leave that place and go back. I stayed one night in Basel at my friend Jorge’s…. some other dancers were still there as well…. so, we ate pizza, watched tango videos… and danced a little bit more!!! again…. no… we are not sick….

So, now… I am planning the next one… Hamburg in two weeks…. same idea… different city!!!

I’ll share it as well!!!

So, now I am in Sweden! After Barcelona I thought I would go to the Tango Festival in Stockholm… why not! I did not have anything special to do, I am still in the tango Gypsie phase, can travel, have fun, meet people and figure out where and what I’ll want to do later!

But on my way to Stockholm I stopped and visited friends in Malmo, which is very close to Copenhagen. So, I arrive last Sunday, and went to the end of the Sunday milonga of the Tango del Norte Festival. Dance a little and then went to meet with my friend. I was very lucky, the weather has been quite nice here; sunny and warm. The beaches are beautiful, the water clear and quiet!!! And in the background you see the bridge that links Sweden and Danemark, and in the back the famous Turning Torso Tower.

I also visited Copenhagen one day; one a nice place. Reminds me of Amsterdam having the water in the city, the same style houses… very beautiul, and of course I had to go and see the little mermaid!!! :-0 When I told my friends here that I went to see it they asked if it was whole!!! Yeap, apparently once in a while some people decide to behead it!! oh well…

So, I am here for a couple more days… hanging out and relaxing… that feels good…. mmmhhh, I have been doing it for about a month now!!! then on my way to belgium and I’ll be back in DC in September… remember the Baltimore Tango fest is coming soon! http://www.baltimoretangofest.com

pictures of sweden on the website as well!

…. I have been staying one week longer than planned in Barcelona because a friend of mine asked me to help him teach a week long course for beginners… of course I said yes!!
Now here is the deal…. he is a great dancer and teacher from Norway, and the group I am teaching is from Norway!! eh eh eh … Anne-Sophie, the belgian who learned to dance tango in the States is teaching tango in Barcelona for a group of norwegian… how more funny can this be!
So, we had about 4 hours of teaching a day: 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon… and dancing or dinner at night. I have to say I love to teach beginners, it is just amazing to see how much progress somebody who has no idea of the dance can move and feel comfortable on the dancefloor just after a hours of teaching!
You can see the pictures of the group at http://www.le-tango.com/ under the pictures page!

On the Wednesday we gave 4 hours of classes in a row, and thus had the rest of the afternoon free. There was not even dinner organized at night, so we decided to go on a roadtrip. Jorn had bought a motorbike the day before… so of course, it was a good idea to try the bike and go for a ride! So, we decided to go back to Sitges, but instead of taking the train as we usually did, we should do it on the bike and take the road around the sea. We set out at about 3.00pm on a beautiful day in Barcelona. I really enjoy being on a bike, eventhough I am not used to it. It is just a great feeling to be on the side of the sea, looking at the nice landscape, the wind blowing! So good.
On the way we stopped at a marina for lunch…. a couple of hours sitting at the beach, enjoying the see, enjoying the quiet and the good food.
It was such a simple and great thing to do! It was a good day!

ok, we are now the Thursday after the festival, and it is only now that everybody has left.

In my previous posting I mentioned that I had decided not to worry too much about how much I would dance, and especially I did not want to worry too much about with whome I would dance because the level was so high, and the politics and power games so important…. I have been lucky to get to know some people who are part of the ” best dancers group” in the previous years, and have become friends with most of them… so, the first night of the festival it was all: ” so nice to see you again”, ” I did not know you would be here”, ” I have’t seen you in a while, what’s happening with you” etc etc….big hugs, big laughs, lots of chatting around with people…. I love the first day of a festival, it is always so much fun. and then the dancing started…. well, I pretty much did not stop dancing this year…. long sets with my friends and with new people. Fabulous dances, great embraces, lots of rythm…. and the whole time on the beach, in a great city… sorry don’t want to make you feel bad telling you all that!

Some friends from the States were here as well. those who have been in Sitges before usually promote it a lot because it is such a unique place to dance and have the festival. We have the beach, Barcelona is very close, lots of dancing, group of friends, but when you come here for the first time and don’t know anybody … it is really difficult. Some followers took on the job of asking the men to dance as they would not have been asked otherwise, and some decided to wait to be invited…. the first option is a lot of work, but at least they got to dance (after all, the men have to do that all the time). And I have also talked to some leaders from the States who also had a more difficult time to dance here!

So, I have had many conversation with many people about that. It had already started in the States as I have had complaints about that division of dancers at the marathon.
Well, I’ll share some thoughts.

For us follows, we feel that the men (the good leaders we want to dance with) play a big power game, that they only want to dance with the young and pretty, good dancers or not, and of course those amazing dancers. We complain when the best leaders don’t ask us to dance, we say no to some of the not so good leaders who would actually ask us to dance… and sometimes we give out bad vibes when we are sitting down!

For the leaders I talked to, it is a different story. Of course they want to dance with the good follows and the pretty ones, but also, they feel the pressure of having to dance a lot with many people. they feel that when they arrive on the dancefloor, they see many women looking at them and that they are kind of trap into dancing, that women come to them, try to start a conversation in the hopes to dance etc etc and they feel uncomfortable! They love to dance but want also to be able to choose who they are dancing with. The ones i know spend a lot of time on the dancefloor and dance with many people, but what you have to understand as well, is that if you dance so much, you don’t have the time to look around and see who else is there you don’t know and want to dance with. On a floor with 300 dancers, if you don’t take the time to stop and look, you cannot see those who might be good and who are not dancing.
It is a tough game for both sides, and the way I understand it now, is that it takes time to know people, it takes time to get in the round of dancing, and also, the better you get and the best energy you give out, the more you will dance.
I guess Leaders are from Mars and Followers from Venus! or something like that! But at the end, it should still be a dance we do for fun, because we like it, because we want to dance. And we should give the best with any leaders or followers we dance with.
I know, for me, I rarely say no to somebody who ask me to dance. It is sometime a risk as I don’t know how good the dancer is, but I have to say that I have had mainly great surprises and not that many bad dances. And if the dances are bad, i don’t have to continue dancing with that person. I have danced with people who were total beginners and when i meet them later, they became some of my favorite leaders. Had I say no at the time because I only wanted to dance with the ones I considered the best, i would have missed a lot!

So, to tell you a little more about the Sitges thing… well, the festival started on Wednesday with the “official milonga” meaning the ones organized by the festival. Then at 3am we all went to the Paseo, which is the boardwalk, and there danced until 8 in the morning. On Thursday we spent the day at the beach and at 7.00pm, the dancing at the beach started… yes on the sand, in swim suits and shorts and tee shirt, and sometime in the water! Can’t have high level dancing there, but it is so much fun (not for the knees ufortunately!). then, the official milonga, then the paseo from 3.00 to …. well 9.00 or 9.30, then a swin in the sea, and we were going to breakfast, meaning that the usual bedtime was 10.00am!…. and we kept doing that until Sunday.
You could see the people getting really tired for lack of sleep and too much dancing, you could see the energy of the dancing growing as people were having more and more fun dancing and getting around the crowd…. and you also have to realize that even at 7.00am… we were about 200 people still dancing! It really is an amazing thing. there were so many people dancing this year that between 3.00 and 6.00 am the dancefloor was so crowded that it was difficult to dance at time. Some were going to sleep and coming down to dance at 6.00am… all fresh and full of energy until the end of the milonga…
Monday, many people left but we still had the dance on the paseo, and finished… again… at 9.00am or later! If you want to see pictures of it, go to http://www.unmomento.net Fredi has been taking many pictures that are online already, you’ll have a good idea of how many people there were…. when it is light and you see people dancing… it means it was after 6.00am!

Today I’ll be going to Barcelona and dance at one of the local milongas. I am quite exited about that as Barcelona might be the city where I’ll live and I want to see what the community is like.

More of the plans and the rest of the travel in the next post!

anso

I have been here in Sitges since July 8th… and we are the 21st (just realized the national day of Belgium… happy 21st of July to all belgians reading this!! ….

So, Sitges. For those who don’t want it is a small beach city about 40 mins from Barcelona, I have been coming here 3 years in a row now, and had been here once earlier already. So, I know the place quite well, feel very comfortable walking around, know where I want to have my breakfast, where is the best shopping etc. Know the spot on the beach that I like (yeah… all those important things in life!)…. I was never too sure how it would be to go to the same vacation spot year after year… and frankly if it wasn’t for the tango festival here, I probably wouldn’t be coming back. but here I am yet again.

I am really lucky to have a friend who lives here and with whom I can stay…. Freddi, who is Djing often at the Tango marathon, has a great appartment here, about 5 min from the beach! How good is that!
I arrived on a sunday night, and after having spent about 2 weeks in the grey, cold and rain of Belgium (as you read in the previous posts), I was quite happy to be able to be laying on the beach in the sun and having nothing else to do! Not to make anybody jealous, but my schedule has been quite nice: waking up around 10:30, having breakfast with the other house guests, and then either go to the beach or to Barcelona, cooking dinner and then go out for drinks…. and then on wednesday the festival here in Sitges started.

the great thing about the tango festival in Sitges, is that you have people from all over the place coming here to take vacation and dance. where I am staying, Anke and Julio from Bremen were staying as well at the beginning. They are tango/salsa dancers who have been coming here for quite a while. We spent a lot of time together, hang out, went to Barcelona salsa dancing. Then, the group staying at the house changed, and it became very scandinavian; 2 guys and a woman from sweden, a woman from danemark, an Australian living in Berlin, Fredi, Marina his girlfriend from New York and myself! quite a great house. It seems quite a lot of people to fit in a small place, but somehow it works!
As the festival has started (and more of that in a later post), the schedule has changed, just a bit! Instead of waking up at 10.30, we are waking up later (yeah, when we come back home at 10.00am, it is quite difficult to wake up at 10.30 he eh eh ).

I have decided to take it easy this year. Sitges is very well known for the very high level of dancers coming: both leaders and follows.. and as usual, there are more good follows than leads, so most of the time, many ladies, even great dancers are sitting down a lot… especially when you don’t know many people. That was my experience for the previous Sitges and other festivals I went to. Of course I understand what was happening… we are having exactly the same thing in the states, but that time I was on the other side of the experience. It is good dancers who come to the festival to meet their friends, dance with them and having a good time. there is very little time to try to go around and meet new people. (which is quite an interesting concept as we are dancing about 8 hours a day for 5 days, and still there is not enough time!) So, I had been taking it with a good attitude, working on knowing people and making friends and not being frustrated if I was not dancing every single tandas of the night. the fact of having so many new people in the appartement will be a good thing of course, especially because the guys staying here are fabulous dancers….
more soon.

anso

When people ask me if I am going to live in Belgium, I usually respond that I wouldn’t because the weather is bad… well, this time is worse than ever!!! I arrived here on June 22nd … and we are July 6th, and it hasn’t stopped raining yet!!! Yeap, almost non stop rain for two weeks with high temperatures of 55 F… (15 celsius!) can’t take it anymore!!! But I’ll be flying to Barcelona on Sunday!!! For sure sunny and warm.

So, Belgium. Well, it is always nice to be back here (even if the weather is really bad), but the food is great and the beer as well eh eh eh. I have spent my time here between two things pretty much: babysitting my two little nieces and sorting through my stuff that arrived from Washington.
Now, you have to realize that I haven’t really been around kids for … well about 12 years!!! I used to play with my nieces when I was visiting, played with my niece in the states as well… but every time, I was either leaving them with their parents or they were going to bed!!! I really enjoy playing the auntie, the one who can do crazy things with them, and because I see them once in a while, it is ok!!! This time was a little different! My parents were away (they usually take care of them when they come back from school), and over the weekend their parents had to go to a Bday party, so, now that Tatie (that’s me) was back and according to the parents and grandparents had nothing better to do than to baby sit!! I have to be frank with you… I am not sure they were quite sure it was a good idea!!! they kind of sort of trusted me, but let’s face it, I am the crazy one who travels, is not married, has no kids and they are not sure can even cook for herself. So, taking care of a 6 and a half and 2 and a half, was probably not something I could do!!! But …. it actually went very well! I really enjoyed spending time with them, and i think they had a great time too… we played, we baked cookies, they slept over one night as well…. quite a lot of fun…. I really like being the aunt!

Then this week I spent it sorting through all my stuff that came back from Belgium… the clothes I might still wear, the tango shoes I cannot do without (eh eh eh ), the papers, books etc… my whole life of 12 years in my appartment in DC. Thank God I had my little niece to help me! She and her sister had so much fun trying on the shoes and clothes, jumping in the big box full of clothes, using the empty boxes as houses….
But now, I am all set, ready to start a new… and on Sunday I am flying to barcelona. To spend some time there and figure out if I want to live there!!! More to come!

ok, here we go, two weeks after my last post.
Let’s start with where I had left it. My last day in Washington DC.
I finally got my ticket to leave Washington DC and got my ticket to go to Greece afterwards.
The trick was what to do with my luggage once in Brussels and before going to TangoCamp! I did not really want to carry my two big pieces of luggage with me all the way, so, thanks to my brother all was good. He came to pick up the luggage in brussels inbetween my flight from DC and the one to greece, so I could travel with just a carry on! yeah… good to have family!

Tango Camp!

I arrive at the airport of Athens after a lay over in Zurich! I could not believe it … I was there again after just … 4 days? On my way back from Mozambique I had to stop there already! I had never been to Athens before and was quite exited to go to Tango camp. For those of you who are not tango dancers (shame on you!) it is a series of tango festivals that take place in Germany, Greece, Sweeden and Italy. A great group of teachers are travelling to all of these festivals. I had wanted to go as I know many of those teachers and wanted to start dancing in Europe again.
I took a taxi to go to the Eritrea Village where the tangocamp was, about 1.5 hours from the airport…. yes, a taxi!!! There was a bus that I could take, but I needed to make sure I was at the hotel early enough as I needed to take a class, and the first one was with Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne…. not to be missed.
The hotel was very nice, on the beach with great pools…. so nice to feel those first few days of … freedom, not having to go to work anymore!
So, I checked in, met with Callie with whome I was sharing a room, and off to the tango class! So nice to dance again and to take classes with Gustavo. I loved the musicality of the class, just having to think about what needed to be done was great. Then after the class I started to meet friends again: Ozhan and Serkan were there teaching, Ezequiel and Eugenia, Claudia and Esteban, Javier and Andrea…. all those fabulous teachers were there, hanging out at the pool before going to teach….
At night, of course the first milonga.
Now here is the thing, when I go to festival in the states, I pretty much know everybody… now that was quite different… I knew many of the teachers, but the dancers and participants was a different story! I was sitting on the side of the dancefloor, looking at the dancers and thinking that I’ll have to work hard again to meet new friends and dancers… but of course, the tango world being so small, I starting recognizing people: Peter from Germany (that I had met in Nijmegen) Dirk from Germany (that I keep meeting in many festivals in Europe), Mazen (another teacher) etc… so, things starting to be better.
Then the festival went on… classes (2 per day), pool time in between, and milongas at night… All in all, great!
I have to say that I love taking classes, I never have enough so being there and studying more with those fabulous teachers was great for me. I took the classes as a leader which I love, and was very surprised that Callie and I were the only women couple taking the classes. In the states we woudl be a few, but for some reason it is not such a common thing there. Not sure if it is something general to Europe or just at a festival like this.

After tango camp, I stayed a little bit in Athens. What a huge city, crazy, hot and full of ruins! We visited the Acropolis and went on a trip to Delphi to see more ruins of the great period of Greece. The landscape was quite amazing. Lots of hills and plains full of olive trees.
Of course I had to go dancing as well. During the tango camp, the group of local dancers were staying pretty much all together without really asking others to dance…. quite the same experience all over the world with big tango festivals. But then, when I was a the local milongas, it was a different story and I danced a lot and met a new group of people. Athens had never been on my list of places I had wanted to visit to dance but I was really pleasantly surprised. The level of the dancers is really good: nice, smooth, musical and creative. The tuesday milonga was in a cafe outside. Apparently it is quite new, just a few weeks, but the atmosphere was very nice. The Wednesday milonga was at Cafe 365. A very small place but where the best dancers gather and have fun! The place is right at the bottom of the Acropolis, quite a view. We danced until 3 in the morning and the next day I was leaving to go back to Belgium….
For the pictures of the visit of Athens and Delphi, check http://www.le-tango.com/2007_Athens

Click here for the pictures of Athens and Delphi