from   the heart of .  .  . 

Writing with my heart, using reason to be able to transmit my thoughts. This is how I intend to write about tango, one of the passions of my life which I share with tango fans worldwide. The tango that was, the tango of those who left everything to fuse with those who had nothing. Shared feelings of melancholy became music, dance and song. This is how tango came to represent the Argentinean idiosyncrasy which, in turn, represents people all over the world. This is why when one listens to tango it is not alien: on the contrary, it is familiar and seems part of one.
Tango is a feeling and we all feel, all over the world. The orchestras, the styles, the trends, the attitudes, the defenders of old and new tango were, are and will be part of tango. Even if we disembowel it in order to explain it, tango will continue “alive and kicking”, it will watch us from the opposite sidewalk and it will say to us, I don’t need walls or a roof, I only need a floor to exist.

This is how tango takes possession of us, this is how one comes to live within tango, suffers, enjoys, tells stories and becomes master of rhythm and lord of space. He who listens to tango and watches it from the outside becomes enthusiastic about it. He who is on the inside is intrigued and deceived by it. The very sincerity with which we dance betrays us by showing us as we are.
The summary of tango is for a couple to meet, enjoy those three minutes and time will be sublime. Watching eyes will see a couple dancing, not two people moving…

 Read more about Roberto Herrera click here and visit his web site for his schedule
http://www.robertoherreratango.com.ar  
*photos of Mr. Herrera are courtesy of Alejandra Marin. 

My "Last Tango in Paris"
                                                        by  Orlando Budini

After a short day in Paris "The City of lights" I barely had time to take a shower and watch the silhouette of the "Eiffel Tower" from my hotel room. Those few hours in Paris were plenty enough to make all my senses understand very well where I really was and what this beautiful city had really meant to our Argentine Tango in the past, especially after my visit to Carlos Gardel´s house in Toulouse. Contemplating that tower my "viejo´s tanguero" imagination started flying back through time to remember, as if I was myself there at that very moment when Don Francisco Canaro and his tango orchestra had to play tango dressed like "gauchos" to entertain Parisians, inspiring at the same time the famous "Canaro en Paris". I could see the legendary Eduardo Arolas, El tigre del bandoneon, fighting "mano a mano" with a bare knife against a gang of Parisian Apaches and dying defending his women in one of Paris’s darkest streets. I could also see Carlos Gardel, immaculate with a wide smile in his face, black tie dressed and "peinado a la gomina" singing with all his heart "Luces de Buenos Aires" o "Melodia de Arrabal" at Cabaret Florida in Paris’s Latin Quarters. My father and all my childhood tango memories come back to me one after the other. Paris has always been related to Tango, My excitement was high, here I was in Paris and going to dance tango in every milonga every night of the week! La Latina or Bistro Latino is also call "The Paris Tangueria".  I had to go upstairs to the first floor and being a little hungry I took a table and ask, in my poor French for creeps, the waiter smiled and told me in a perfect Argentinean Spanish “tambien tenemos empanadas“. Later on I found out that a guy from Mendoza, my place of birth, was one of the owners. It was Wednesday so I went to “La Festichola“. Alejandro Rumolino with Victoria Vieyra also Argentineans and this tanguero, are the organizers of this event, one of the best practicas in Paris. We had to do a "salida" at "Diablithos" a very French place with a large salon full of tables and the dance floor at the back, El Flaco Garcia, Carlos Gavito’s friend was waiving his arm saying hello to me as I entered the place. "Les 9 Billiards" at Rue Saint Maur also has a bistro and is the spot to visit on Mondays. "Sortie Samovar" on Saturdays is one of the oldest practicas in Paris. Days ran faster than I expected, so after my regular class I took the metro Gambetta to visit Claudia Rosemblat´s milonga "Practique Oxygen" Claudia is also a Portena and it was nice to see her again. She used to be Daniel Trener`s organizer in Paris. The following night, after a heavy 2 hours class, I went to "La Casa del Tango" when I finally got there taking a train and a metro, I was disappointed to see the place, the front looks like an apartment in a middle of an apartment complex. Dancing there and meeting Fred "the Frenchy" a 100 per cent Parisian teacher, it was a nice real tango experience. There was one more place that I wanted to visit, El Turquito, so that night after class as usual, I went there with a couple of friends, El Turquito is a pizzeria downstairs and a billiard saloon upstairs. We thought we went to the wrong place then realized that the dance floor was at the back of the billiards. The dance floor packed with dancers but I could spot familiar faces like E. Antar and a couple others friends "viejos milongueros" from Buenos Aires. We were there until 3 a.m. dancing, singing and toasting. Well I could not be happier, after a week in Paris I had found a lot of friends who worked hard during the day and danced like crazy every night, everywhere. It was my last night in Paris and my last workshop held a little cafe close to "Notre Dame", after a farewell student party, instead of taking the metro like usual, I started walking alongside the Seine, looking at the river’s waters and the beautiful building shades and shapes was out of this world. When realizing I had already pass 2 bridges! Suddenly I started to hear Tango music, remembering at that moment that somebody had told me about a River milonga, I instantly I follow the music that sounds closer and closer until I got to the square. It was magical, it was the perfect setting, the Seine, the Paris night, Notre Dame’s silhouetting back ground and TANGO! That was my place, there could not be a better good-by for a Tanguero like me. Happy like hell I went down there and dance and dance until they played their final tango . . . my last tango in Paris!

"who we had become 
as women"

A Night of Beauty, Passion and Tango
By Pauline A. Cashion

Elegant perfection. I don’t know how else to describe the Viva Tango Orchestra’s performance at the Carver on November 5th. It was a night of silky music, soothing (sometimes silly) verse, and smooth vocals that combined to form a truly unique fusion of Argentina meets Mexico meets Spain.
The evening began with an instrumental set of traditional tango standards. La Cumparsita, Nostalgia, El Dia Que Me Quieras -- songs we all know and love, filled with passion and energy. The bandoneon player, Gerardo Perez, was nothing short of brilliant. He made his instrument utter tones that invited you to lose yourself in the music transported you to the tango salons in Buenos Aires.
Next came a section of time-honored Spanish and Mexican favorites. Guest artist Ruben De Leon joined Janis De Lara in celebrating the artistic contributions of the gifted Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca and prolific Mexican musician Augustin Lara.
The sold out performance ended with a section dedicated to “El Tango Nuevo” honoring the formidable contributions of Astor Piazzolla to this music genre. Violinist Beth Johnson blew the entire audience away with her haunting rendition of Oblivion. It was well worth the price of admission just to hear this piece alone.
Now I have to say, one of the most beautiful things about the evening for me was the crowd. It wasn’t a gathering of the old faithfuls who follow tango in all its various venues throughout the city. It was more a gathering of arts patrons who were warm and receptive and completely engaged from beginning to end. What a treat to share my passion with a whole new group of fans!
Finally, a personal note for Janis De Lara. To steal a line from one of my favorite movies, what a voice! How lucky are we to have among us such a graceful dancer and fabulous singer — all in one person. For the past several years Janis has dreamed of creating staging opportunities that bridge traditional performance boundaries and allow for seemingly divergent performance art pieces to meld into a new and exciting form of expression. I would have to say that her dream had to be realized that night, at least in part. Kudos to you Janis and thank you for sharing your talent and your vision of how beautiful and enriching high art is for everyone who takes the time to appreciate it. We are truly blessed to have you as part of the tango community in San Antonio.

 your invitation
December 17 

 is hosting a
 Posada Milonga
at the elegant Granada Ballroom in 
San Antonio TX 
This will be the ” tango event” of the holiday season. 

Tango is a Love Story

"Leave My Body Alone "  

I love Tango. All who love Tango have their own Tango stories. I think I came into this world because of Tango. In 1953 my mother met my Greek father on the dance floor of a small town - Gelendgik - on the Black Sea, South of Russia. My parents liked to dance Tango. Tango gave them passion and love; and gave life to me.
Argentine Tango has a lot of deep feelings in it. The music talks from heart to heart about different sides of life and love, and is constantly changing. Like real life it has ups and downs. My parents did not stay for a long time together, and my mother did not live a long life.
Tango later came to me in several different periods of my life. Only now, looking back, I can connect all these small separate pieces for the whole picture and see why and how I came to Tango or why Tango chose me.
First, we had a bandoneon at home. My grandfather brought it from Germany after World War II. He even tried to teach me to play it. Then when I was ten years old, I attended a Young Pioneers summer camp in Russia. In the evenings on the dance floor of this camp people gathered for dance and talk, and on some days children were allowed to come. Tango was very fashionable at that time. So we children tried to mimic adults in this dance. It was especially exciting if a boy would invite you--it was the peak of your personal success.
Once the crowd was especially tight and noisy, reacting very strongly to what was going on on the dance floor. I also tried to come closer, but saw just crazy and strange leg movements, which were doing different tricks under the exciting and passionate music. Those smooth, polished and suddenly fast and then again quiet actions of the legs impressed me very much. Finally I could look up and was shocked by the intimate and very close positions of a man and a woman with closed eyes. Their upper bodies were still and quiet. This couple looked disgustingly sexy. They awoke my interest....
Their heads were slightly turned to the side like they were watching someone inside their embrace. They were dancing the classical triangle. Who was their 3d one? Maybe it was their jealousy, unsatisfied love, another woman or a man... Someone was between them, someone whom they tried to impress, compete with, or seduce. At the end of the dance a man put a woman on his leg and a little down and posed... And at this last moment with the last chord of music he suddenly looked directly in her eyes. Maybe finally they realized that they belonged to each other, at least in this dance, at this moment. They posed and posed, eternity came down to the earth. Silence, dream and love mesmerized everybody. Then the whole crowd exploded and yelled. A man and a woman walked in the opposite directions, faded away and disappeared.
Next evening the orchestra started the Tango. I was invited by a boy and forgot about the whole world. He gave me his hand and Tango came to my soul for the first time.... But I never danced Tango again for almost 40 years.
My second tango sensation I got in 2001 while watching a performance of Tango Passion in California. In the intermission we found a brochure from El Mundo del Tango Club in San Diego with an invitation for one free lesson on Saturday. It was the beginning of my madness and Tango passion. I dreamed to tell my stories by dancing it. I found everything that I did not have in my life there - in the most exciting and complicated music and movements of Tango, with all feelings, with all twists and plots of real life. Passion for a beautiful body, for illusion of finding and losing soul and again loneliness. My mother and her love lived forever there.. I missed my mother; I did not get enough love...
Tango is about love. Finely, my husband's love and generosity brought tango to my real life while we were celebrating our sixth anniversary cruising on Mercury to Alaska. One evening we enjoyed the tango show presented by "Las Pampas Devils" from Argentina. We asked them to teach us. After 10 lessons I was dancing on this ship Tango with Pampas on the stage of the Talent Show. Since then we followed "Las Pampas" for one year and I learned a lot of show steps with Hugo Gonzales. Pablo Vino rehearsed a very interesting choreography with me. At that time I played on the stage more than danced. As a result we got a standing ovation from the audience. It was very exiting, some success and it gave me more motivation to learn Tango. In San Diego I tried several teachers, but I still felt that I did not learn what I was looking for. Once again destiny intervened and my search brought me back to El Mundo del Tango. I began lessons with magic Maestro Ive Simard, who opened for me a very special, mysterious world of tango. His kindness, patience, devotion to tango and deep knowledge of movement and dance attract many aficionados. Saturday milongas are a magnet for the best skilled dancers in the San Diego area. I found that his lessons are the most outstanding and meaningful. In his descriptions of movements I've uses metaphors that precisely talk about the hidden sense of steps. In his lessons I learned about myself, my body and balance.
And again tango was a dance of three -- the classical triangle. Tango is a dance of the invisible third person who is inside our frame, and whom we are constantly looking at. How many new discoveries tango hides.

More about Elena 

Also visit Elena Pankey's web site www.TANGOCAMINITO.com

Now Available 

                 Daniel Monserrat's   
            NEW CD...

           "Amor De Tango"