They say that in dancing a three-minute tango you learn more about a person than you would over six weeks’ worth of coffee chatter. Well, how about when your partner is your mother? What’s left to learn?
Tango Therapy
December 15, 2009 by
Gustavo’s eyes were dead or resting in pharmaceutical peace, while Mattias’s were hyper wild from years of cannabis and other drug practice.
The thing that stays with me is how well both men, wardees at Jose T. Borda psychiatric hospital, dance tango.
The hospital is in Buenos Aire’s Barracas barrio and I assisted in the bi-monthly tango class on a Wednesday afternoon. Dr. Guillermo Honig is the psychiatrist in attendance, though he doesn’t participate in the class.
Why are these people smiling?
December 13, 2009 by
Why are they smilling? They have had no meat, wine, caffeine, sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, or tango for four days. Very little social contact.
Done it here ever?
October 26, 2009 by
I do it in bed all the time. I’ve done it on planes, on my bicycle, and even in my mother’s living room. This morning, like many, after dancing tango for hours the night before, I do it to release tension.
Argentimes review of Tango, an Argentine Love Story
July 31, 2009 by
“I flow with him like quicksilver on an incline. I am the passive element, shifting with his center until we share one sweet spot, wordlessly agreed upon” reads a phrase in the opening chapter. Written in the present tense, Cusumano’s memoir reads as if she is recounting a long, strange dream. It begins with her departure from a disastrous break-up in the US. She decides to turn her tango vacation into an indefinite stay in a foreign land, leaving behind her past while trying to unpack that baggage in Argentina. Through her Zen practices, she connects her love for tango while attempting to find peace with the life she left behind.
For tango followers who want to soar
July 21, 2009 by
I’ve thought about this state of weightlessness while dancing with various partners, how I soar when the points of contact, even with negative space, feel equally weight-bearing. Obviously this state is dynamic. You don’t affix yourself to your partner (kind of as they do in ballroom tango) and then stay there. You must be completely and perpetually aware, ever shifting, ever present, to find the balance. Like skiing, skateboarding.
Buenos Aires Bares Notables
July 16, 2009 by
The bares notables (notable bars and cafes) of Buenos Aires are best accessed at this site.
For tango leaders who want to soar
July 10, 2009 by
I believe in airborne tango – and that exactly describes what it feels like. It feels as if the pull of gravity is no more or less than the press of the man’s palm against my own; no more or less than his torso against my torso; no more or less than his right arm’s pressure against my left side or than the pressure of my breath on my lungs;and equal, if opposite, to our horizontal momentum . In other words, it feels as if you could turn us sideways, inside-out, or upside-down and we’d still feel the dance same way. there is no more pressure on the balls of my feet than on my palms or back.
Mass hysteria in Argentina, swine flu
July 8, 2009 by
Each year, two million children worldwide die from diarrhea that could have been cured with an oral serum costing about fifteen cents, writes Carlos Alberto Morales Paitán, pediatric doctor at Children’s Hospital in Lima, Perú. But his email, which reached me via Argentine friends, was not about that too common tragedy.
Tango in Jeopardy
June 27, 2009 by
Tango was on Jeopardy, featured as a category in the first round of the TV game show on Tuesday, June 24. Just as I was telling someone who is not in the “Tango Club” that, yes, tango is like a cult, there it was on mainstream network TV. I felt elated—the dance that is more than a dance was finally of wide-spread interest.
Tango Jewelry
June 8, 2009 by
I´m a “porteña” (born in Buenos Aires), a tango dancer, and I walked the path of Art all my life ( painting, dress and make-up design for the stage, dance, chant…) And, as I see it, Art is the expression of the Soul and its vital experiences through materials, sounds, colours, movement, etc… So, when the time came to express myself through jewelry, the poetry, passion and sensuality of Tango Argentino came up naturally in my work too.
My teacher, also a tango dancer and son of a well-known jewelry artist in BA, worked for over 12 years at the famous “Tiffany” in New York and conveyed to me the secrets of the finest jewelry.
Tango Music 101
May 31, 2009 by
Here is a brief, very basic primer for beginners in tango, which I wrote for Inspira Travel, an agency here in Buenos Aires for whom I’ll lead some tango-themed tours in November. You can check out their site, too, for great trips all around Argentina. Tango music is something the most unschooled among us recognize […]
Flat Stanley does Buenos Aires
May 13, 2009 by
Flat Stanley is the mascot for a group of second graders in Centreville, Maryland. His travels around the world help the youngsters learn geography because Stanley returns home from his visits (via mail) with tons of photos – and videos in this case. I hope I have done my part to put tango on the map for—and in the hearts of—young people.
What makes a “real artistic tango dancer?”
April 29, 2009 by
Your question really got me thinking—how to answer this succinctly, when really, it took my whole book to write about tango, the art and wonder of it!
I pondered your phrase “a real artistic tango dancer”—whether you meant dancing for exhibition or for your own pleasure. In the end, I think the answer would be about the same because in essence all tango dancers have received a venerable art form. And as artists they are sort of avatars.
Yoga Journal covers Tango
April 15, 2009 by
These poses were struck in anticipation of publication of a short article I wrote for Yoga Journal, which will appear in the March 2009 issue in a section called OM. It’s about how my Catholic upbringing fed seamlessly into my yoga practice, which fed seamlessly into tango.
Dancing Street Tango in La Boca
April 14, 2009 by
I absolutely love walking up to the street dancers in La Boca and asking if they’ll dance with me. I’ve never been disappointed. They are so kind and willing and bravely accept the challenge. My friend Robert Levering (the best-selling author) was visiting the city and I wanted to show him how it works, how you can walk up to a total stranger and talk tango. We scouted out El Caminito and the tanguero in my video on my Home Page was not to be found. But I found my perfect stranger in Gustavo—seen in the two videos
The Spanish of Tango, a great book!
March 13, 2009 by
So, you had a year of Spanish in college and think you can get by in Buenos Aires . . . fageddaboutit. You may as well put a Brit in the same room with an American from the Deep South. Demian Gawianski, esteemed linguist and author of BUENOS AIRES EXPERIENCE, can quickly get you up […]
Milonga Heaven – Oscar Casas
March 5, 2009 by
his is Oscar Casas one of the best tango teachers for all levels in Buenos Aires–and all the world. Mary Ann, Oscar’s wife and partner in teaching, filmed us at the end of a private class. Oscar is out of this world, but so down to earth in his approach to tango.
Patagonia story, Honorable Mention, Solas Award
March 2, 2009 by
n late 2007, I took a break from my busy dancing schedule in Buenos Aires and visited Patagonia for the second time – a 3M place—myth, magic, mystery. While there I met Ronan Lawlor . . .
I’m delighted to announce that my story, Missing in Patagonia, about that heart-wrenching experience, received an Honorable Mention in the Third Annual Solas Awards Winners for 2008.