March 17-23

Friday, March 18, 2011
MUSE Milonga with lesson beforehand by Glenn Corteza. I got there late, and with my volunteering duties keeping me occupied, I missed the lesson. But I was told later on that the lesson was a good one, and covered interesting topics like Leader subtle and quick weight changes to do interesting things while not disturbing the Follower. The sequence involved the Follower counterclockwise molinete with Leader sacadas with his left and right foot, then he allows the Follower to complete the quick quick back cross and side step step and do a final sacada to the exit. As I watched the lesson, it seemed that the students were happy to be so blessed to have such attentive individual instruction. Howard's Like-A-Virgin series continues to be popular with the newbies, and even went over the alloted 90 minutes, as they seemed to be having a good time in an extremely supportive, encouraging environment. This milonga was also a benefit for the Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami, and we were able to raise a nice chunk og change for the effort, with an extremely generous donation from Glenn Corteza. So a big thanks to all who came out to have fun for a good cause. DJ Neeraj spun the tunes for the evening, and did a fine job. We'll be seeing much more of him at local milongas behind and in front of the turntables (er...computer). Sheri helped with the food, bringing in the notorious Costco veggie platter with cauliflower. I tried not to tremble with fear and anxiety as I got near it, looking around to see if anyone had touched those child fist-size chunks, break off a piece and put the rest back for others to "enjoy." Thankfully, that didn't happen. Actually, best case is that those huge chunks weren't touched. Anyone who wanted the cauliflower wisely chose the smaller, more manageable pieces. Or they skipped it altogether and just went for the broccoli florets, which were all small and delicately sized, and packed a much better nutritional punch per calorie.

March 10-16

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Verdi Club Milonga. I watched the tail end of the lesson by Andrea Monti and Gato Valdez, and it was a good one. The milonga was nice. It was crowded, but not obnoxiously so. There were also more Leaders than Followers, so I imagine that most Followers had an excellent time. Astrid Weiske was in the house, and did a two-song demo with Pier Voulkos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzqCcygYTts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY-n5RiFGkk

Afterwards, Gato y Andrea did a two-song demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKq4gQAz7tA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjMMQJtFB0Q

Then Christy made the floorcrafting announcement I had heard so much about. Apparently, people keep requesting that she repeat this, so she does at her milongas (not every week, since this is the first time I heard it, but reasonably regularly). She said: Around the perimeter of the room are two rows of tables (or a row of tables and a row of chairs). You are supposed to walk in between the two rows (NOT along the edge of the dance floor). There is also space at the corners of the room to enter and exit the dance floor, as well as some in the middle that are purposefully wide and obviously meant for that. You should enter the dance floor at the beginning of the song, whether it is the first, second or third song, they are all fine. What is not so cool is when you enter into the line of dance in the middle of a song, so please try to refrain from doing this. There might have been some other floorcraft instructions, but those were the main ones off the top of my head. No one clapped or whooped afterwards. I'd be curious to hear what other floorcrafting comments she has, which I hope will be unveiled to me over time as I go to the Verdi Club milongas.

I danced with young Saint James of Argentina first tanda out. This was our first time dancing in a few months, not since a Tuesday Gustavo y Jesica lesson few months ago. Amazingly, he has improved vastly since then, and we were blessed with a reasonably open floor. I asked how he improved so much since the last time we danced (he's now been dancing a mere year and a half, and we first danced together when he was slugging away at tango for about 8 months). Apparently, it was through privates with Marcelo Solis and the practica at Vima. It is truly impressive how Saint James's dancing has improved under the tutelage of Marcelo. I asked if he had a Follower partner for those privates. He said no, he and Marcelo lead and follow each other as they work on improving his dancing. Sounds like an excellent plan to me, and I am very impressed by the results (young Saint James is quite gifted in tango, and that was apparent at 8 months, though he was a little wild back then...now he's a much more elegant, controlled dancer; he's always had excellent musicality). Now I am inspired to visit Vima one Wednesday as a stop on the Scouting Tour one day soon.

Friday, March 11, 2011
Palo Alto Milonga. I missed the lesson by Glenn Corteza because I was having way too much fun at dinner. I hesitated about going to this milonga since by the time I got there, it would be quite late (10:30 p.m.), but upon arriving and peeking in, I saw that leader quality was pretty good and the gender was reasonably balanced enough. So I gave it a go. By the time I had finished putting on my shoes, some people had already begun to leave. Still, I had a nice time since the only leaders left by then were all good to fantastic, and the floor was very open by then so we could dance as freely as we wanted without disturbing the other dancers or worrying too much about floorcrafting. Jaycee and I were a little disappointed that we missed dancing the milonga tanda, and by the time we requested it, it was too late. Ah well. Next time...

Saturday, March 12, 2011
The Late Shift with lesson beforehand by Santiago Croce and Amy Lincoln. I missed the lesson, which was too bad since it was Leader-heavy. The lesson focused on Spirals, which one Leader tried out with me during the milonga. It seemed to work OK as far as I could tell. Originally, I wanted to go to Gustavo y Jesica's Sausalito milonga since Los Ocampo were teaching Canyengue, and Monica Orozco was teaching Followers' Technique. Those two lessons plus the milonga was $40, which I viewed as reasonable. But 6:00 p.m., the time I needed to get on the road if I were to take Maestra's Followers' Technique class, came and went and I still had a load of laundry to do. So with my Sausalito plans shot down, my only options were the Late Shift or Nora's Allegro milonga. I was a little hesitant about going to the Late Shift, as when I went to it in the past on a Nora Allegro night, it would always be sparsely attended. But I am really not too keen on Nora's Allegro milonga anymore because of the exceedingly annoying to me Bucha Effect Light In The Corner. So I figured I could do a drive by to take a peek in at the Late Shift, and if the crowd was too thin, I could always jump on the bridge over to Nora's Allegro milonga in Emeryville easily enough. So that's what I did.

I got to the Late Shift just as the lesson was ending. At the lesson, there were many more leaders than followers, and the leaders who were there were ones I would have been happy to dance with. So I decided to give it a go, and I am glad I did. Though it was lightly attended in the beginning, a steady stream of people trickled in throughout the night so that we ended up with a nice crowd of skilled dancers. There were more Leaders than Followers, and the Leaders were generally good to great, so I imagine most Followers who were at the Late Shift that night were pretty happy. Floorcraft, even though somewhat crowded at times, was pretty good. I wanted to stay until the very end because I was having an excellent time, but I started to bonk and I embraced that I had danced all good or great tandas already that night, even with the one new person I danced with, and so I called it a night shortly after 1 a.m.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Just Milonga with Glenn Corteza. Since the pool is closed for a couple of weeks, I found myself with enough time to get back to the city early enough to attend this class, which has some rave reviews from Leaders I enjoy dancing milonga with. So I gave it a go. Since I was the new girl in class, teacher began with asking the other students to explain the Habanera rhythm, which they explained as the "1, and 3, 4" rhythm, noting that the "2" moves over next to the "3" and dropped so that it becomes "and" instead. The "and 3" is usually higher pitched than the notes around it. Habanera is the main rhythm in milonga. What does it mean for milonga? It defines it, but it's not always there. Can a milonga be a milonga without the Habanera rhythm? No. The composer uses this rhythm in milonga. The 1 beat is where the resolutin is, where it rests. The way to be good at milonga is to be good at dividing. The rhythm is like a pie: 1, and 3, 4. The were to try to eat just one slice of pie, such as the "1", or the "3". We were to try to find the three consecutive beats that are even, In this case it would be the 3, 4, 1, which is the same as QQS, or traspie movement. Then Glenn went on to explain the 8 rhythmic options we can dance to in milonga:
1
1, 3
1, 3, 4
1, and 3, 4
4, 1
and 3
and 4
tempo

Whatever rhythmic option you choose, the vocabulary needs to be understood by the Leader and Follower.

Then we practiced drilling a lot, mostly to Canaro's Milonga Criolla and Milonga Sentimental, various simple steps that we would try on different beats. We would keep the step the same, but fit it into different rhythmic options to add different flavor to how we danced milonga. We started out just walking on the 1, which was really slow and most people had the urge to walk on 1, 3. Then we tried walking on 3, 4, 1. Then 1, and 3, 4. Then 4, 1. Then and 3. Basically, we were to just try to walk at all of the different rhythmic variations.

We also tried doing these rhythmic variations using simple steps. Some of the simple steps were to the Follower's cross, a simple side step, or a series of side steps, or a side step, weight change, and then a Leader's forward/Follower's back rock step. We were to attempt these rhythmic variations with the Leader's eye toward understanding where to place the step. "Where can I put the 4, 1 so that it's cool?"

We also changed the rhythm, with a focus on the 1, and 3 rhythm, which is the Candombe rhythm. Here, we can do the Candombe rhythm to anything that has three steps, like "tan-go-close", or the ocho cortado, which is usually done on the 3, 4, 1, but which can be done on the 1, and 3.

The most fun part of the class was the practica afterwards, where Glenn played many fast, not commonly heard milongas, to really work our musicality and hone our hearing skills. Sadly, it ended pretty much around 9:30 p.m. as scheduled.

This class is small (3-5 couples usually, so I've been told), and the students who go to it seem to be fervent about it. "One of the best kept secrets for those really wanting to learn how to dance milonga well," is one comment I heard from a disciple. And since there are no other options for regular, consistent, prolonged milonga instruction, I would have to agree.

Since this class was in the upstairs ballroom at La Pista, it only made sense to go downstairs for the Practilonga. Santiago y Amy's class was still going on with a half hour more to go, so Jaycee and I decided to go to Mars http://www.marsbarsf.com/ instead to knock back a few before the party began. Mars is a lot more mellow than it was during the dot com heydays when seemingly everyone and their cousin would drop in for a Martian Martini or three. They have a nice selection of libations, and the food is good when the kitchen is open (but unfortunately for us, it was already closed by the time we got there). Still, it was a very convenient place for us to shoot the breeze as we cooled our heels. The Guinness, though on tap, was not served proper :o( -- but easygoing Jaycee isn't fussy about that kind of thing unlike me, and I was happy with my Hendricks. After we finished our drinks, we headed back to La Pista.

The folks who went to the practilonga were the students from Santiago y Amy's class, and Jaycee and I from Glenn's class. So it wasn't a huge crowd, but reasonably skilled. And lucky for me there were more Leaders than Followers (a reflection of the popularity of Santiago's teaching of the Leader side of the equation, I have noticed). I had a good time; it was certainly worth the $5 admission. I danced with a few dancers that I hadn't danced with in years or in class only and never at a milonga, so that was a very interesting experience. One dance, with Irlandes, was a bit set up by Jaycee. Earlier at Mars I was griping about how I had taken lots of the same classes with Irlandes, how we go to a lot of the same milongas, blah blah blah, but how he has never once asked me to dance at a milonga. So of course when Irlandes finally asked, and we danced, afterwards I had to ask Jaycee if he had set him up to do it. Jaycee confirmed that he put a little bug in Irlandes's ear. D'oh!!! The dance with Irlandes was nice. He is a lot better than I visually thought him to be, and vastly improved from our class days.

It was a nice night. I am looking forward to next week. But then after that, the pool will be open again...

March 3-9

Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Late Shift milonga. I missed the lesson by Korey and Adeline Ireland, though I was told by some tangueros I admire that it was an excellent one. It was a fun night of dancing for me, and I hit the milonga tanda trifecta by being blessed with dancing with three of my favorite milonga Leaders. It was nicely crowded, but not overly so, and the gender balance was about even. The vibe was pretty mellow and relaxed, no stink of desperation or anger of some dancers who were sitting too often, and no frenzied speed dancing or boleo whacking, so obviously floorcrafting was pretty decent. The Leader quality was quite high overall, so I imagine most everyone had a good time. For some strange reason, people seemed to be in a very chatty, open mood with me, discussing things that went beyond what we usually talk about on the milonga dance floor.

Sunday, March 6, 2011
Free Bollyhood Practica. Since it was a rainy day, I thought I'd make my way over, assuming it would be less crowded because of the weather. Thankfully, I was right. (Though finding a parking spot was a little more difficult.) The lesson was just finishing up, and I was amazed and pleased to see that it had a very full attendance, with gender balance. Looked like a fun, productive class. The practica was OK. I was surprised to see so many people come in just for the practica, and I was also surprised by the high quality of dancers. I felt the floor was a little sticky, my shoes were a little sloshy, and my body was a little tired and achy from so much dancing the night before, so I didn't dance my best.

I had a chance to catch up a little with Jaime, as I've thought of her often, and I do worry about her if too much time has passed and I haven't seen her around. But that's another story. When we got back from Buenos Aires in August 2007 and started going to a lot of milongas, she told me about her philosophy of dancing with five new people at every milonga as a way to build community and as a way to experience new dancers. I've thought of that nice, friendly sentiment often since I now find myself not particularly cabaceoing much, and un-cabaceoing more, and not particularly wanting to dance with new people, and hearing comments about the San Francisco tango community having the image of not being particularly welcoming, and about the cliques. ::::sigh:::: And so I do try my best to "be out there more", but I admit that I am guilty of having a certain "list" of people I really adore dancing with (that I hope to catch their glance in a cabaceo), and others that I am open or OK dancing with, and yes, there's the list that there is no way in H-E-double-toothpicks that I would ever dance with. Ben of CellSpace once remarked that we all know that there are only 20 or so tandas in every milonga, but 40 people we really want to dance with, and that leaves the newbies or visitors out in the cold sometimes. And so here we are, the San Francisco Bay Area community, not having the most warm and fuzzy reputation in the tango universe, and with those who have been around for a while having the responsibility of either changing that, or living with it.

And so, whenever I am asked by someone unknown to me to dance, I think of ... Jaime. And I suck it up and dance. Sometimes the dances are brilliant. Other times they are agony. Often times they are surprising in their quality.

Back to the reality at Bollyhood, a newbie came up to ask me to dance (after hovering for a while, and asking a few people around me to dance [several of whom declined]), and it happened to be a milonga. So my heart sank a little, but I sucked it up. The dance was... mostly walking... and not always on the music. He had a good time though and wanted another song, so we gave it a go. Then we thanked each other and that was it. No, the experience did not make my heart soar with elation. But I did try my best to follow him (and it's always great to focus on what is essential in tango) and accept his musical interpretation as a Leader. And I could go on and on about dancing with new-to-me folks where my reaction is "Never again!", but what would the point of that be?

So what is my point here? Well, maybe there is none. Although one leader who was feeling chatty recently talked about the pressure of knowing that so many Followers want to dance with him, and wanting to be a nice guy, and concerned about his reputation as not being an easy person to get a dance with. He is really bothered by it... and I am not sure there is any solution. There is a balance between wanting to be open and inclusive and building the local community, versus dancing for ourselves with people who make the experience joyful (however each of us individually feels that). Most of our favorite dance partners have been folks who have been in the same classes with us over the years, people we've traveled with, or people we've seen after going to the same milongas for years. And yeah, that makes it tough on the newbies or visitors. But some of us have spent thousands of hours and hundreds of days walking and working on foot strength, weight changes, and balance exercises at cold, rainy bus stops or dance studios while no one is watching, or listening to lots of tango music and translating and analyzing the lyrics, so it should be understandable if we are frustrated with and don't spend a lot of time dancing with those folks who don't know what an ocho is, or think stop-and-park ganchos are the bomb, don't where the beat is, or who ask the DJ to play Por Una Cabeza because in their mind they think they are as macho as Arnold Schwarzenegger or as attractive and sensual as Tia Carrere http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It8IEGoLyKo when in reality they move as clumsily and clunkily as someone with really bad eyesight who has no musicality and no connection and who was always picked last for every sports team they ever tried out for since kindergarten and who moves with as much grace, precision and alacrity as a dented little red wagon with one missing wheel.

On the other hand, some of my best dances have been with people who I had never danced with before previously. And still other fantastic dances have been with Leaders who were vastly superior dancers than I could ever hope to be, but who showed great kindness and generosity in giving me a spin on the milonga dance floor. And so, to keep the cycle of goodwill going, because what goes around comes around, maybe we all need to bless others as we have been blessed. At least for a token tanda or three at every milonga (whack-a-mole tango ambushers/hogs excluded, of course; no need to reward them at all).

February 24 - March 2

Sunday, February 27, 2011
Free Practica at Bollyhood. On a whim, I decided to go to this since I had heard that it was very popular -- "The place to be" on Sunday afternoon. So after a very full morning of hiking, getting a cut from my Toni and Guy trained stylist, delicious lunch surrounded by the gorgeous men of the Castro at Curry Boyzz (where the Rasamalai is divine), I decided to make my way over since it was only about a five-minute drive away. The parking gods must have been smiling on me, because I found an easy spot a mere half block away. When I got to Bollyhood, the "practica" was in full swing. It was packed, though rumor has it that it was less packed than in previous weeks. If that's the case, then Glenn has a nice little thing going on here. In fact, at one point he said "Hey, this is a practica but nobody is practicing. Everyone looks like they are dancing." Then Mayumi piped in "We are practicing dancing in the line of dance." Everyone cracked up. The mood was light, casual and relaxed. It was cold outside, but extremely warm and humid inside because of all the moving bodies. If you ask me, I think Glenn should charge admission ($5), rename the practica a milonga, and take it to 5:00 p.m., and that Bollyhood should strictly adhere to Business & Professions Code section 25665, lest run the risk of a visit/suspension/fines/or worse from ABC minions.

Cafe Cocomo Milonga with lesson beforehand by Santiago Croce and Amy Lincoln. I missed the class, though I should have made more of an effort to attend it since it was the same entry fee ($20) regardless of whether or not one took the lesson on this night. It looked like a fun lesson with walking, changing from inside to outside, a calesita with Follower foot forward adornment, to pivot around to stop in a Leader parada, for her to have time to do some type of adorno before her pasada. Word on the madera earlier in the day at Bollyhood was that Cafe Cocomo was the place to be later on that night, and they were certainly right. Cafe Cocomo was packed. Milonga floorcraft was difficult because of the crowded condition, but the Leaders did a reasonable job keeping things safe and not too bumpy or jostley, and the Followers were reasonably sane about not doing any high or crazy boleos. Santiago and Amy later did two demo dances, along with Gato y Andrea, and Facundo y Christy, the first with their usual partners, and the second with different partners. There was a tres leches cake for Fernando's birthday, and a birthday vals for all the February babies, which seemed a bit unruly with so many people walking on and off the dance floor, but very festive in its inclusivity. Seth Asarnow y Su Sexteto Tipoco played well, as usual. I only stayed for one set though, as I started to bonk and didn't feel like eating Tres Leche cake and artisanal cheese to alleviate it. Plus I had already had my fill of many excellent tandas, including a milonga one with "Who's Jay?", who, lucky for us San Francisco tangueras, decided to be at Cafe Cocomo instead of Alberto's, more in his neck of the woods on this particular Sunday night. Unfortunately, I had to miss the second Seth Sexteto set. The milonga was taken an hour later, so it ended at 1:00 a.m. instead of the usual midnight.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011
CellSpace ALT milonga with lesson beforehand by Jenny and Tatum Nolan. The lesson was a good one, and with more Leaders than Followers in both the Intermediate and Beginner classes, it was lucky that this intermediate lesson focused on the Leader side of things. We worked on going into and out of cross and parallel system walking, using either an extra step or one less step, going inside and outside partner. We did lots of drills. Then we turned it so that the Leader does a left foot front cross step, right foot side step, left foot front cross step, etc., while the Follower does a series of back ochos, the effect of which the Leader walks around the Follower. It concluded with the Leader freeing the right foot of the Follower, and then leading it to hook back cross against her left foot, and the left foot coming forward and out around to the left side to step back. It was a good lesson. The milonga was fun since it was well attended enough for most people to have a good time. Though it was full, it was not obnoxiously crowded. The Followers were happily kept busy by the ample Leaders. Floorcraft could have been better, but it wasn't horrible. Tolga and Mix Mistress Z did a fine job spinning with a focus on international alt tunes in between the traditional tandas.