Natural order
For more than once over the last couple of weeks, I have been hearing people referring to certain milongas in the local scene as being for the “experienced” dancer. Well, while I am sure no organiser sets out intentionally to create that impression, but I find it rather amusing nevertheless. After all the community in Singapore is not that large that we can choose to target only a small section of the dancers!? 🙂
Small pleasures in life
Sorry have been a little quiet for a while. Just usual “distractions” like work… 🙂
Two wonderful things happened at the milonga tonight. Firstly there was a couple of nice tandas with a visitor from London, who incidentally is also a friend of Christine Denniston who was in Singapore many years ago. Too bad I was not feeling well enough last night to dance with her when I was DJing…
The second little nugget is related to the period when I took over the 8-week beginners tango classes at Jitterbugs (a local dance school) towards the end of 2005, as a favour for some friends while they were holidaying in Buenos Aires. Incidentally I am very proud that, of the 20 people who started the course, close to 20 people completed!
Since this was quite a while ago, imagine my surprise when a girl from that class recognised me at the milonga tonight. It turned out that despite admitting not having “gotten it” after the beginners course 5 years ago, she decided to give tango another shot and so started taking a beginners classes recently. What I appreciated the most was when she told me that the reason she picked up tango again was because of the seeds we had sown 5 years ago. I am so happy to know that our work has not been in vain, that somehow or other that we are able to reach out and spread a little bit of the joy of tango! Perhaps I should give her the free CD that the rest of her classmates received upon completion but she missed out because she missed the final class as a present… 😉
Passion
The following quote is actually borrowed from a technology site. Strangely appropriate for tango I think.
“Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion. Technique alone is just an embroidered pot holder.”
Raymond Chandler
Milongas in Buenos Aires
Have been a bit quiet here because of my work.
Following on from my experiences of some milognas in Buenos Aires, noticed that Simba has come up with a list of recommendations for milongas for his friend’sfirst trip to Buenos Aires. The list somewhat overlaps the places that I went to and I highly recommend it to anyone planning to go on their first trip. For the traditional milongas, I would have included also Gricel (not too difficult even for ladies apparently) and Lo De Celia (which can be a little difficult to get a dance if you are new).