A  reminder from  the  editor .

Tickets for the Posada Milonga are selling fast and we can only sell 200. You can find information on the web at this address...
lavidatango.com/pm

Please contact us ASAP for when and where to purchase yours and don't forget the shoe bags that are for sale to help pay for the ballroom...   This is going to be the biggest and best yet...

Hola Tanguero’s  Hola Tangueros,

Como estan todos ? Well recently I attended two milongas, one here in San Antonio, and one at a ranch in south Texas. Both turned out to be enjoyable in they own special way. The first was the milonga at Maggie’s secret garden which was a fund raiser for the Posada Milonga event coming up in December. While the turn out
wasn’t quite as well as hoped for, it still provided an evening of dancing.
There was food and desert for all that attended and a couple of birthdays were recognized. The music was provided by Frank Huddleston, who does a phenomenal job of mixing it up, he surely knows his music. Maggie’s garden provides a beautiful environment for an evening of socializing and entertaining. I will be looking forward to next year’s event.

The second milonga was held at a ranch in south Texas I can’t say how large it was but all I could see was land stretch out for miles. I arrived late on Friday night at the ranch which is about a two hour drive from San Antonio. As I pulled in to the ranch I had to disembark from my all terrain vehicle (Toyota Corolla) to open the gate. As I opened it, I looked up and saw the expanse of stars, I had not seen for years it was an extraordinary view. I knew at this point that no matter how the rest of the weekend went that the view alone was worth the effort of driving down to this ranch. Later as I pulled up to the ranch house I was greeted by several other tango people who had arrived earlier in the evening. After settling in I went out and sat under the stars and witnessed several shooting stars, it was magnificent to see.

The next couple of days were spent doing some tango practice, hiking, and jet skiing. That evening we had our milonga, again the attendance was a bit low but the dance quality was high, and I enjoyed the dancing. The last day at the ranch we did some more hiking and, of course, some picture taking. The ranch event provided an opportunity to relax and mingle with some of the tango people in a different setting.

The event was really worth the time, effort, and planning. My many thanks go out to the people who were instrumental in putting this event together. And of course to the hosts of the ranch thank you for your generosity.

In closing I’d like to say that both these events required a vast amount of time, planning, and expense. Sometimes the milongas have a great turn out, sometimes they don’t, but you never know what you will see or miss when you don’t show up, I have found the milongas to be serendipitous for me in the past
and I am sure they will be in the future.

* All Photos by Roy Montejano

I am a tanguera who loves the close embrace. I also have no problem with letting myself go in a man's arm during a dance. Thus far, I have found that most men have been respectful of that and that only a few might insinuate things after the dance. But I have had two occasions, one very early on in my tango experience, and one most recently, in which the men attempted to kiss me full on during the dance. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy about it and my first reaction was to slap the men. I didn't. I love the dance too much to have any situation ruin my experience. Anyway, my question to you is, how do I go about making my intentions clear? That the outpouring of emotion and passion i have in a dance is strictly for the love of the dance and not for the dancer. Do you think it would be appropriate to just say something along those lines before I begin dancing with someone? Your advice would be much appreciated :)
Thanks, L

Dear L,

Ew, how awful! Well, I don't think it would be appropriate or even necessary to mention that you don't want any 'extra attention' before you begin dancing because in most cases the 'tango relationship' starts off with rules and parameters. One of the wonderful things about the tango experience is that one can feel 'open' during the dance to experience many feelings without crossing boundaries. There is nothing wrong with flirting or trying to hook up with a woman at a milonga, but it should happen off the floor, out to public view, and with the woman's consent. Taking the embrace is not the same as giving consent to romantic intentions. I think you will find most of the good dancers are there just to dance and will demonstrate any romantic feelings through their dance in a respectful way.

Unfortunately, as in the case of the incidents you described, people can sometimes get swept away by these feelings and there will always be those few men who will try to take advantage of you during the dance, whether you 'let go' or not. Some guys think that just because you let them take you in your arms that you want something more, regardless of the signals you are sending him. Personally, I think you should have slapped these guys when they tried to smooch you, or at least pushed them away and said something to put them in their place. At least, I hope you made it very clear that what they did was totally inappropriate, and I hope that you haven't danced with them since. I know you don't want to the reputation of being a b*tch, but you don't want to be known as easy either. In tango, sometimes it's better to be the b*tch. Don't be afraid to be strong about it; if you come off as strong there is less a chance of guys thinking they can take advantage in the future.

[To be fair, my friend who is a guy, wants to say: "May I ask, do you do anything a little 'out of the ordinary' to demonstrate your passion for the dance? Moaning, perhaps? (Some women do this!) Caressing the man's neck? Or even the dreaded um, 'flip up'? Sometimes the woman has to restrain herself too!"]

After posting this answer, I was inundated with e-mails asking 'What is the Dreaded Flip-Up?!?'. Well, for the answer, I'll defer again to my male friend who says...:

'The flip-up started appearing on the scene in the last couple of years as more tango dancers started dancing close-embrace. Unfortunately, many tangueras new to close-embrace did not realize how much twisting (torsion) is involved in the dance and did not adjust their technique. As a result, when it came for them to lift their left leg to step over the gentleman's right foot after a parada, they would not properly twist their hips in the direction that they were going and would, in effect, 'flip up' his 'bits & pieces'. I can assure you that its quite startling when the guy feels his manhood go airborne.'

Um, right then - you had to ask! (Most of the time this is accidental, sometimes though ladies who are 'on the prowl' will do it slowly and intentionally...) Ladies, to avoid being an unwitting 'flipper':

When the man leads you to pivot forwards and step across in front of him (forward ocho, parada, whatever) disassociate in your center, pivot your right foot and let your hips turn as much as possible so when you step across your hips and legs will be facing across your partner, not into him, and your leg will have clearance.

Also, when you lift your left leg a little higher as an embellishment as you step, be aware of how close it is to him, and always keep your knee pointing closed i.e. across yourself, not open i.e. towards him. Not only does this help prevent the 'dreaded flip-up', it also helps you look more lady-like, especially if you are prone to wearing skirts. And if you go further with the embellishment and you run your foot up his leg or your own before stepping across, your foot/shin can touch him but make sure to keep your knee and thigh to yourself!

Needing a holiday gift for a tango lover . . . here is quick  and easy shopping for 
tango art  !

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Revised
November 24, 2006

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LAS MINAS DEL TANGO “The Women of El Tango”

"PSYCHOLOGY of TANGO"

By Elena Pankey

Tango à la Parisienne

a Tango Story  by        
         Robert Osbourne  

The waitress, carrying a tray loaded with empty glasses, passes us on her way to the bar. She spots Natasha, and a warm smile of recognition rises on her lips. She pauses at the edge of the dance floor. We dance across the floor to where she stands. She lifts her tray high above her dance floor. We dance across the floor to where she stands. She lifts her tray high above her head and embraces each of us with her free hand as we exchange kisses. The tango ends and dancers mingle on the dance floor, exchanging greetings, reviewing tango steps and smiling warmly in animated talk. The women gradually leave the floor and return to their tables to make use of their fans and drink champagne. Their fans, folded into unremarkable, inanimate wands, lay on the white linen tablecloth.

They pick up their fans, and, with an imperceptible twist of the wrist, punctuated by an umbrella-opening POP, transform the fans into gorgeous lace wings that stir the moist, perfumed air beneath the plunging décolleté of their gowns, cooling their damp breasts and causing the nostrils of the men standing nearby to twitch. I walk over to the small bar, where Isabelle, a pretty, slew-footed ballerina who traded her toe shoes for the stiletto heels of a professional tango dancer, is meticulously drying gleaming champagne flutes with a towel. "Bonsoir, Robert," she says, leaning over the bar to present her cheek for my kiss.

"The usual?" she asks, reaching for the bottle of scotch on the shelf above the mirror. "No, not tonight, Isabelle. We’re drinking champagne tonight; and I’ll take one of those big fluffy patisseries with all the creamy goop on it, si’il te plait," I tell her, pointing to a tray loaded with a million calories. "Je suis un méchant garçon, and this is my 'redemption': a peace offering to Mademoiselle Natasha for having abused her trusting, Russian generosity. Isabelle withdraws a bottle of champagne from the frig and sets two champagne flutes on the bar. POP! The champagne "shows-off" its bubbly exuberance, fizzes to the top of the glass and then retreats to a safe breathing distance. I raise the glass to my lips and feel a few migrant bubbles burst onto the tip of my nose.

The music begins again, and couples return to the dance floor. Others remain seated at their tables, watching the dancers, admiring the complex movement of their feet, the embraces, the broad sweeps, the clack of heels and the arched backs of the women as their men bend over them in intimate belly-pressed-to-belly embrace. The women's black shoes, armed with stiletto heels, stealthily climb the legs of the men, whose black hats ride low, over eyes lost in shadow. The dancers surrender to the forbidden beat and glide across the floor in close embrace. The women’s eyes are closed. Their blood red lips curve sweetly upwards in La Gioconda smiles, as the men, with slow hands on silken thighs, gaze with half-closed eyes into infinity. The world disappears and conscious thought fades as in a dream..

to be continued . . .
email:  robert_o@lavidatango.com 

UNESCO included in its Memory of the World register the Uruguayan Horacio Loriente Collection of records, some acoustic and some electronic, which was produced between 1913 and 1935 and comprises 770 pieces sung by Carlos Gardel, the "Zorzal Criollo" (Creole nightingale), as the singer was known.
The records, produced in Buenos Aires, Paris and New York, include the 29 musical genres and the different styles that made up Gardel's repertoire, and preserve an excellent record of his unique voice, with its highly unusual nuances.
Created in 1997, the Memory of the World register aims to preserve and "the universal worthy documental patrimony". Nowadays, it comprises 91 works and collections. Gardel -whose birthplace brings out intractable controversies - had spread tango round the whole world. In fact, his success in Europe and the United States caused the opening of Tango academies in Paris, Buenos Aires and Montevideo when the Zorzal Criollo was still alive. Those academies have become hundred of milongas and dance schools all over the American continent, in almost every European country and in Asia, mainly in Japan.
Nowadays, 60 years after his death -which occurred on June 24,1935, in Medellín, Colombia-and 90 years after his earliest recordings were made, Gardel still has many admirers and 34,247 Internet sites (according to a search engine) are devoted to him.

Visit Let'sTanGO! for more information about porteños’ culture, including tours, sites of interest, restaurants, museums, milongas and tango shows in Buenos Aires. Enjoy it ! click here!