Misia & Peter – tango blog

Saturday – Sunday (November 15-16)

There’s not so much happening in terms of classes during the weekend, so we took it easy and did only two classes on Saturday.

Tango 5 Abrazo cerrado with Carolina Lafata & Christian Duarte @ DNI
–another great class with these teachers. We started with leading with quality ochos and ochitos with different speed finishing with small volcada and gancho. All in close embrace :)

Milonga class with Carolina Bonaventura & Francisco Forquera (Mariposita, Carlos Calvo 948/950, 1 class – 15 pesos, cheaper if you buy a pass)
– taught in a very traditional way – id est: watch and repeat. without any explanation when it comes to the technique. It was nice to see them doing the things with excellent precision and quality of the movement, however, the learning was much less efective than for example @DNI or Tango brujo where you get the explanation so detailed that you know which muscle you should use to lead/follow certain movement.

The rest of the weekend we spent walking around San Telmo – one of the oldest barrios and Recoleta – enjoying the local handicraft products’ fair. On Saturday there was muesums’ night (La noche de los museos) – we took the opportunity and went to see the puppets’ museum (Museo Argentino del Titere, Piedras 905) and the tango one (Museo Mundial del Tango de La Academia Nacional del Tango, Rivadavia 830, 1st floor), plus we visited famous Cafe Tortoni :) I hope to upload the pictures with commentaries soon! :)

Friday (November 14)

We had a short walk around El Once – the shopping district along Av. Corrientes – lots of Chinese stuff, but also some nice clothes likes dresses, skirts etc.  Then we were off for the first tango class in El Beso with Oscar Casas. Excellent class of tango milonguero/de salon. We started with the idea of controlling the cross – first the forward cross, weight change and the back cross. Developing the idea of controlling the crosses we used them in different steps and combinations, developing our improvisation and creativity skills. The class was very long – 2 hours, however with a short break in the middle. Even though the class was long it kept us alert and active as Oscar was very skillfuly managing the different levels of the students and adding for example volcadas from a bacward cross for us. In the second part of the class we applied all possible crosses into giro.

Afterwards we went to Tango Brujo for another two very good classes -

Tecnica para tango, intermedio y avanzado with Martin Gutierezz & Samantha Di Paolo
– as a week before we started with the exercises for the posture and walk, then for coordination. Afterwards we worked on our boleos – controling the movement, using the disassocation, learning how to make them high or low etc.  We ended up with the sequence of low and high boleo one after another, then gancho with tomada, another gancho, very interesting linear boleo combined later with the circular one and americana exit. A challenge for the balance and posture and precise lead :)

Tango intermedio y avanzado with Raul Masciocchi & Corina Herrera
– we started with the same idea as the last week – backward sacada for a man producing a turn for a woman. However, we didn’t continue with further sacadas and turns. We continued into the linear boleo and backward gancho for a woman… what we did later was too crazy to describe it ;) Anyway, lots of hard work and challenge!

Thursday (November 13)

Yoga 4 para bailarines @ DNI with Maxi
–a perfect start into a day full of classes, stretching, exercises for the feet and much more…

Tango 3 with Carolina Lafata and Christian Duarte @ DNI
–very well structured class about sacadas based on giros. Lots of people again, but even though we got help and corrections from the teachers.

Vals with Monica Linares (Escuela Argentina de Tango, Centro Cultural Borges, Viamonte esq. San Martin, 22 pesos / 1 class, 80 pesos / 4 classes, other passes also available)
– the first disappointing class. It was supposed to be also with Benjamin Grisoni, however, he didn’t appear. The class had no structure, no explanation, no technique aspects were mentioned. Monica Linaes is herself a very good dancer, but not at all a teacher…

Techniqe with Eugenia Eberhardt @ DNI
– unfortunately very crowded… so it was almost impossible to get the help of the teacher. Around 35 people at the class! We were dealing with the rebotes and working on the hips.

In the evening, we are planning to go to Salon Canning ( La Milonga Buenos Aires) – Colortango is going to play :)

Wednesday (November 12)

Tango 5/6 with Pablo Vilarazza & Dana Frigoli @ DNI
– extremly crowded (not only regular students but also whole DNI team took part in the class), but very nicely structured class.  The class itself was challenging – multiple ganchos with soltada and turns.

Milonga La Bruja (El beso, Riobamba 416, 13 pesos)
– for a description have a look at this post :)

Tuesday (November 11)

Yoga 3 @DNI
– this one was taught by Maxi – the assistant of Stella (Dana’s mum). More difficult and crowded, similiar to the power yoga classes that I took in Europe. Fantastic for stretching, builduing up the muscules of your feet (among others) and as a prepartion for any dance. As proof of that – half of the DNI team took part in the class.

Tango intermedios & avanzados with Martin Gutierezz & Samantha Di Paolo @ Tango brujo
– We started the class with the exercises preparing for the linear boleo, paying the attention to the appropriate hip movement, relaxation and balance. Then we started to build up a sequence with ganchos, linear boleos, patadas and other titbits, all the time concentrating on the technique and the quality of the movement. Another great class!

Practica X (Medrano 476, 8 pesos)
– already a cult place with lots of young dancers. A place to be – if you want meet here whole DNI, Tango brujo team and other fantastic dancers in one place and see them dancing, it’s here . The atmosphere is informal and welcoming, even though the dancefloor is full of high ganchos and boleos it’s a safe place to dance also traditional de salon. There’s always some performance – this week it’s was Federico Naveira and Ines Muzzopappa whose dance was greeted with neverending applause. (I’ll post the video later here)

Monday (November 10)

Yoga 1 (@ DNI, the price is the same as the tango classes – 15 pesos if you go the single class, 100 pesos if you buy the pass for the 10 classes)
– the class is taught by the mum of Dana Frigoli (whole DNI is a family business) who’s emanating with warmth and calmness. The moment you enter the class, you already feel relaxed ;) Yoga 1 is a yoga for everyone – the number indicates the level, the highest is 4. There were lots of exercises for the feet, the core muscules, keeping the right posture and breathing.

Tecnica corporal with Santiago Dorkas (@ Tango brujo)
–another great class, which felt almost like a private – 3 couples alltogether. Normally the class is taught both by Santiago Dorkas and Cecilia Garcia, however, she’s in Europe so he was teaching the class with the help of another girl. We started with finding the right sensation for the upper body (partner helping with certain moves), and then the lower body – hips and feet. We continued with walking and changing the direction by two different techniques- with the chest first or with the hip first. The next step was to understand the spirals (or how a woman works) so we did lots of exercises for the spirals to finish practicing the sequence of apertura, sacada for a man, then the spiral in one direction, after 3 steps in the other direction to finish with a sacada backward for a woman to a man, part of giro, sacada for a man combined with small volcada… sounds long and complicated, but in reality it was pretty simple and perfect for practicing the disasociation, the groundness of supporting leg and relaxation of the embrace.

El motivo (the tango school in which only women are teaching) practica (@ Villa Malcolm, Av. Cordoba 5064, 8 pesos)
–much less crowded than the Friday practica in the same place, friendly atmosphere. A place to dance tango nuevo rather than traditional salon or milonguero.

Parakultural milonga (@ Salon Canning, Scalabrini Ortiz 1331, 15 pesos)
–the milonga starts to warm up around midnight and then only becomes more and more crowded. Almost everyone is here on Monday. There’s no division for men and women, tables are mixed. Traditionally cabaceo works, however if you see your friends or you know someone well you can walk up to the table as well.

Sunday (November 9)

And God created Sunday so that people can rest :) – no classes today, whole day I was lying in bed, letting my feet rest and learning PHP from my favourite O’Reilly series (the book).

Saturday (November 8)

Abrazo cerrado class with Carolina Lafata & Christian Duarte (@DNI)
–we started with the simple bouncy step to the side and then forward/backward, concentrating on the sensation of the pendulum in the hips and closing the hips after the side step. Then we added to it a small boleo on the floor, from which we continued with a nice “rebota” which at the end turned into a consecutive volcadas. Extremly crowded, but still very useful class.

Practica @ DNI
– 3 hour practica which felt more like a fiesta – not only tango but also chacarera and salsa. Fantastic international atmosphere, a place where you can meet and get to know lots of people.

Milonga Sunderland (Lugones 3161)
–traditional old milonga that takes place in a sports hall in Villa Urquiza (barrio) – so really out there. A place to be once and that’s it. People come with their partners and friends so it’s more like a dating place than a milonga, hardly impossible to get any dances with someone from the other table. Having been there with the friends from Poland and Hungary, I had nice dances and good time, but otherwise I would be frustrated to death ;)

Friday (November 7)

Tango shoe’s quest continued: I visited Lolo Gerard (Anchorena 607) and was surprised to see the shoes exceeding Comme il faut or Neotango in design… simple, choice of colours and fabrics tasteful, helpful service. I ended up with a pair of the green beauties. :)

Today was the Tango Brujo day (Esmeralda 754, 1 class – 15 pesos, 8 classes – 102 pesos)

Tecnica para tango with Martin Gutierezz & Samantha Di Paolo
– we started with the warm-up exercises and one coordination exercise. The first part was devoted to walking – use of the floor, extending the leg, using the heel, ariving in your axis etc. The second part was two “steps” which we tried to clean up. One of them was a bouncy bacward sacada for a man, the second one was two backward ganchos for a woman with an option to do boleo at the end. The steps were chosen in such a way that they were an appropriate challenge to your balance and forced you to disassociate, disassociate and disasociate once more. There were only three couples alltogether, so we had lots of attention and help from the teachers. Excellent class, fantastic teachers!

Tango avanzados with Raul Masciocchi & Corina Herrera
– a truly advanced and challenging class which turned out to be like a private one – two couples. Started with a bacward sacada for a man which turned into soltada with women’s turning… uff.. as if that was not enough, we added one more sacada for a man after the turn and one more turn. Very Chicho&Juana style. Balance and disassocation were again the key.

Friday means Tangocool practica in Villa Malcolm (Av. Cordoba 5064, 8 pesos) – today Mariana Dragone and Tate di Chiazza are going to dance. Don’t be deceived by the name “practica” – in Buenos Aires practicas start around 23 and finish long after midnight (this one at 3 a.m.) and have a similar feeling as the European milongas.

Thursday (November 6)

I visited Fabio shoes (Riobamba 10, at the intercom choose 10A) – they have an amazing collection of the tango sneakers – a wide range of colours and heels + a comfortable fitting. I couldn’t resist and bought a pair to replace my heavily used jazz shoes. On 18th they’re gonna have new pairs in violet, mmm… can’t wait. ;)

Technique class with Carolina Lafata (DNI, Av. Corrientes 2140, 15pesos per single class/ 10pesos if you buy a 10 classes pass) – inspirational class on the technique of a turn in ocho forward, finding the right position of the center + releasing the free leg. All exercises concentrated on the body awarness. The technique explanation was very detailed and accurate.

Thursday means usually crowded Nino Bien or remote, but small and friendly Soho tango in Villa Malcolm, however, I’m not in the mood for any of these milongas, so I decided to go to the Salon Canning (Scalabrini Ortiz 1331, 18 pesos) – La Buenos Aires milonga organized by El Chino and Miho Omaki. I was won over by the news that Gaston Torelli+Moira Castellano are going to dance. There’s going to be one more performance of Martin Borteiro+Regina Chiappara – advertised as the raising stars… well, I’m curious to see them :)

From the latest edition of La Tangauta – an article by Milena Plebs about teaching tango and the quality.