The reason I post this video by Céline Deveze is not that there's any particularly wonderful dancing going on (though most of it looks pretty good to me and it's crowded but doesn't look bumpy), but because everyone seems to be having such fun.
The tango that appeals to me is a relatively simple, physically undemanding dance, with all of the complexity provided by the music, and it's the sort of thing that you might want to do at a party, for fun, with lots of different people, some known to you and some new, sometimes perhaps even in fancy dress.
I think we often make it too difficult and dramatic.
On the other hand, it's rather a subversive thing to do. All these people are much closer together and involved with each other than ballroom dancers, or jivers or lindyhoppers would be. They're much more intensely connected; they are varied in age and in other things, and some of them are very beautifully dressed, or wearing ears or tails or elaborate feather masks or imaginative costumes. And they really look as though they're enjoying it. Naughty, huh? Almost as outrageous as four women swiping a meeting room and knitting together for an hour at lunchtime.
Céline's next "Week-end milonguero," with fancy dress ball, is in the last week of January.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
The sort of thing that you might do for fun
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6 comments:
Many thanks for that one, MsH, not least because that's exactly the part of France I end up in when I go south. I looked for tango there last year, but failed to come across this website. I'll definitely pack my shoes next time I go!
& the dancing is just right; gentle, musical, enjoyable. & to me, right now, the floor looks about half empty too, ha ha ha! which at least makes leading a lot simpler.
The 'difficult and dramatic' stuff is just the legacy of that old stage tango stuff isn't it? I hope we're onto something a bit better now!
So there are some traditional milongas in Europe. That looked almost like Buenos Aires. Cote d Azure is a bit far for a weekend milonga, but it is worth keeping in mind hay.
We do not yet get that volume of people up here, but just maybe, that day will come.
TC, MsH, I think this one will be worth going - and I most likely will go. Hell, watching this vid makes me want to go badly - so many people in there I know, and like, and haven't seen for months. I expect there to be quite a number of really good dancers. And it's relatively quick and easy to get there for me.
So maybe I'll see you there.
Tangogales: yes, there are quite a few traditional milongas in Europe, and some with very good dancing indeed.
@tangogales - There are probably lots, just not in the big cities that you hear about. If you enjoyed that video, have a look at this one - 6 hours from St. Pancras on the Eurostar. You could probably fly direct from Manchester to either location - a very short haul and wouldn't cost you as much as a trip to London of the same length.
@Andreas - I'm pondering the practicality and budget. And the costume.
I particularly like the bit starting at about 3.25 with the longhair who moves like a leaf on a pond :o)
But where are the sequences?!
PS
Why do I get an Prachetian image of 4 witches knitting?
@MsH: Ah well, the costume... I hate costume events. Maybe I'll just get those Mickey Mouse ears.
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