Gladys/Ricardo workshop
Tonight was the final session in Gladys and Ricardo’s workshop in Singapore. The main topics of discussion were boleos, contraboleos, and the dynamics of movements. As usual, quite tiring (and especially so since this is the end of the series), physically and conceptually challenging but inspirational at the same time!
Milonga at Raffles Hotel
Just returned home from a full night’s Tango at the Raffles Hotel (one of the oldest hotel in Singapore by the way). The Milonga began at about 9.30pm and finished shortly after 12.30am. Well, can almost say that the dance started as early as 6pm this evening, since that was when today’s workshops began. 🙂
This special occasion was initiated by the Argentinian embassy in Singapore. It was meant as a sort of welcome party for our Tango teachers, Gladys Fernandez and Ricardo Barrios, who arrived this week to conduct workshops. Needless to say, the performance they gave was truly inspirational!
Another memorable incident is that a German friend whom I have not seen for a year also managed to come to the Milonga!
ps. With all the exercises this weekend, did not get a chance to upgrade the MT server to 2.5. Some other time then…
Organising Milongas
Recently, on the Tango-L mailing list, there has been a discussion on the hosting of milongas. Since I am also organising the weekly Wednesday practica-come-milonga* (for the differences between the two, please see Rebecca Shulman’s clear article) in Singapore, much of the discussion is directly relevant for me.
Leading/following
In Argentine Tango, there is the leader (the man), then there is the follower (the woman). As the names suggest, the leader leads, while the follower submits to the lead. In the early days of learning Tango (a bit more than 2 years ago), and in fact up to 2-3 months ago, my understanding and hence how I danced was limited to precisely that. However, in the recent months, perhaps as a result of attending workshops combined with regular practicas, the concept of leader/follower has taken a slightly different twist.
To be sure, the leader is still the one to initiate an action, and the follower still needs to ‘listen’ to the intention of the leader. However, after starting an action, e.g. step, ocho, giro, etc., the leader then needs to wait until the intended action has been brought to a meaningful completion before moving on. I hope this does not come across as being too philosophical, because it is through the internalisation of such ideas that I have been able to feel a connection to my dance partner. And, in this way, the leader becomes, temporarily, the ‘follower’. Quite a spin on the terminology, isn’t it?