Tango instructor Stella Ling’s milonga is at one of the most elegant venues since Camelot. Details: Spring Breezes Argentine Tango Milonga at the Historic Claremont Hotel on Sunday, June 24th Enjoy a special milonga at the historic Claremont Hotel in the hills of Berkeley with panoramic view of the city. 31 Tunnel Rd., Berkeley 7-8 […]
Tango Maestros & Their Nicknames
June 7, 2012 by
Nicknames for the argentine tango maestros – composers & singers
Perchance to Dream, writer’s wisdom
June 2, 2012 by
The dollar is now the yardstick of cultural authority, and an organ like TIME, which not long ago aspired to shape the national taste, now serves mainly to reflect it. Jonathan Franzen.
Writings from Prison
May 30, 2012 by
“Here in Prison” is a collaboration of writings from various inmates all over the United States sent to me by Joel Fox, inmate at Folsom Prison, whose Buddhist meditation practice I help support through letter writing. Find more info on SF Zen Center Prison Correspondence project here.
The Em Dash Paradox
May 30, 2012 by
Ever identified with a symbol of punctuation? The em dash is obsolete—since we went to computers. But raise your arms at your side if you keep it alive.
How to find a competent editor
May 10, 2012 by
15. A good editor should first consider your voice, structure, and the proverbial “narrative arc.”
16. The small stuff in #13 IS important.
17. But, your first concern is that an editor have a form of professional “empathy” for your work.
18. You gather this by listening to what the editor reads/writes back to you about your work.
19. You don’t want to be friends with your editor.
20. You want something more brutally meaningful.
Scenes from Christy Cote’s Tango Boot Camp for beginners, May 5-6, 2012
May 7, 2012 by
Christy Cote’s Argentine Tango Boot Camp in San Francisco at the Metronome Dance Collective, May 5-6, 2012
Tango’s Kama Sutra Positions
April 20, 2012 by
Why Tango is Like the Kama Sutra People (who don’t tango) constantly ask me why I believe tango is like no other dance. Here I simply offer one more piece of evidence to support my case: The eight-count basic can be viewed as the Kama Sutra of Argentine tango. I have called this eight-step pattern the Mother of all tango steps, moves, or patterns because it is the matrix from which all tango is born. From its maternal, or Great Mother, instincts emanate all the offspring positions between two partners in tango.
I am referring to dance positions. The Kama Sutra, an ancient Hindu manual written in Sanskrit, refers in part to human sex position
Janet Lott’s Red & White Muscle distinction
April 5, 2012 by
Think of a chicken—dark and white meat. Dark is the legs and thighs –
chickens can walk around all day. Those are the deep muscles that support our bones. The “white” is the wings and breast. Chickens can fly in spurts
but not very far or for very long. Those are our larger muscles on the outside (generally) of our bodies that we use for larger movements.
These muscle groups can be trained to take over the work of the other, but, generally we desire to enhance the strength of the red muscles because
they have greater strength in the long run.
Tango & Gravity, Alexander Technique
April 4, 2012 by
To help us understand tensegrity and the body we inhabit (one hopes), Janet held up a small model that resembled Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome. It was a simple, symbolic model of the body’s muscle anatomy. The bones (pencil-sized wooden sticks) and muscles (elastic bands), surrounded by air, touched only where they inserted, at joints, but never lay on top of each other. They rested, suspended on their own ability or tensegrity.
Tango Steps & Techniques for Beginners
April 3, 2012 by
Now we get into technique, which emanates not only from the way we individually move and share space, but from the way we move and share space and energy together as partners and as couples moving in sync on the dance floor. For this reason in the beginning classes, we like to do exercises that emphasize:
• How you transfer your weight – presenting or placing the foot moving first, then using the floor and gravity to push off from the trailing foot. No bouncing, little hip movement. The motion is forward and clearly carried out.
Tango as play in the . . .
April 3, 2012 by
Field of the Fertile Void I must acknowledge my friend, Howard Teich, a tango dancer and a therapist, for bringing that lovely mouth-filling phrase, fertile void, to my attention. [Watch for his upcoming book, Solar Light, Lunar Light]. In quantum physics, the fertile void, as I understand it, is the the tendency of all matter […]
Tango is Never Having to Say Sorry
April 2, 2012 by
In the beginning, we all think of tango as a set of steps that must be done a certain way with our partner. We think there is a right and a wrong way. We think in terms of success and failure as we dance. We cannot help thinking in black and white terms. It is the conditioned duality of our species. However, in tango, when we get out of our conditioned mind and fully into our bodies, weget to a place where we understand the natural laws, or what we call “technique,” of tango. We stop thinking and feeling in yes/no, right/wrong, good/bad. We stop blurting out “Sorry, sorry!” when we imagine we didn’t follow or lead a step as it is supposed to be. We understand the power we have to create the dance moment by moment. Yes, teachers pass on the steps, the footwork, the rhythm, and all the component parts. But when you understand this creative power you have within, you channel it through and from your partner. You stop seeing mistakes and start seeing surprises and aha and little epiphanies. In this sense, tango is no different from life or love. All of them mean never having to say Sorry!
Happy St. Pat’s – Boop Boopy Do!
March 17, 2012 by
March 15, 2012 by
Lyrics | Louis Armstrong lyrics – I Get Ideas lyrics
Milonga Class with Alberto Catala
March 3, 2012 by
Beginners Tango, Every Friday!
January 30, 2012 by
In the mind of beginners there are many possibilities, in the mind of experts, few. This is truly Tango Mind, Beginner’s Mind – for mind, body, soul.
Congreso Internacional de Tango Terapia, 2009
January 25, 2012 by
Tango Therapy Following are notes from: Second International Congreso de Tangoterapia, Mendoza, Argentina, Oct 28 thru November 1, 2009 • Tango is unique in its use of silence and pauses. – vrcomasco@ciudad.com.ar Dr. Comasco is a cardiologist who heads the research for the use of tango dancing in the prevention and rehabilitation of heart disease […]
Quantum Tango = D.A.N.C.E.
January 24, 2012 by
If tango is a compound composed of two molecules, say male and female, of equal and opposite attraction, its atomic particles might be these body mechanics: Spirals, Weight changes, Pivots. Combined in numerous, perhaps infinite configurations. When energy in the form of motion and (body) heat is applied to the the “compound” the result is a state called D.A.N.C.E. — Dynamic Association with New Consciousness Elevated.