Love Takes Practice: How To Practice Together

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by Mitra Martin

“The true idealist is no dewy-eyed dreamer but a committed foot soldier in the cause of his vision.” - Laurence Boldt

We started practicing Tango together around seven years ago. We didn’t have a teacher and neither of us knew anything. In our mutual lostness, trying to figure out how we could dance with each other, I remember moments of sobbing and scorn. I also remember, a few times, having the impression that sunlight, falling on the mutilated floor, had come specifically to make these beautiful moments more beautiful. That the hummingbird who lives outside actually paused, touched by our efforts. 

How do you go on in your practice when nothing feels right ? Or, how do you rouse yourself to find something deeper, when things everything feels blissfully okay ? If we believe in love, we believe in practice. We meet and try to connect. Then, we do it again.

Over time and through struggles, Stefan and I have found a few things that help us sustain our imperfect yet real Tango practice. Here are a few of them in case they are of use to you and your partners. 

Mitra's Suggestions for Practice Sanity 

  • Decide what you would like to practice ahead of time. Make a plan. Is there an improvisation game you're interested in ? A step you have decoded from video that you want to try ? Some new foot/ankle/leg/hip/shoulder/arm/whatever technique you want to build your own awareness of ? "Just" walking ? A particular song ? Or a particular orchestra ? Is there a movement theme, e.g., say, boléos ? Are you preparing for a class ? Consider both your and your partner's interests as you plan. 
  • Dress nicely for practice. It makes it feel more important, which it is. "Nicely" just means that you feel nice in what you are wearing ! Like, maybe something flowy instead of something sweatpantsy. 
  • Have a clear start time and end time. For us it is really ideal to make practice a regular ritual that always happens at the same day/time/place/frequency. That way you can look forward to it and prepare in the right way. We have experimented for quite awhile now to find exactly the right rhythm that fits with our energies and the demands of the day, and we're still tinkering.  
  • Starting with a small ritual of respect and gratitude can be really unexpectedly powerful. I remember when I took piano lessons as a very small person, each lesson would start and end with me and my teacher bowing to each other, which was totally impressive and focus-gathering. At the beginning of practice, saying something like, "I pledge to bring loving respect and curiosity to our time together -- Namaste," in words that are meaningful to you, will definitely have a positive effect on your practice time. 
  • Negotiate what you are going to do. Share agendas and be proud of how wonderfully prepared you both are. Then take some time and work out a plan that allows both people to work on whatever they are interested in. Probably, you can't get to everything. 
  • Set a timer for the end so you don't need to keep checking time. Clock-checking is a behavior that might make your partner feel rather forlorn and instead it's nice for both of you to know that you can focus fully on El Tango. Also, set a timer for taking a break if you think you’ll need one. Try different things til you figure out what’s realistic with your energy levels. If your plan includes different parts, set a timer for each one. E.g., first 20 minutes: walking. next 20 minutes: "Griseta" on repeat. Next 20 minutes: work out that thorny Balmaceda move. Or, ideally, more like 100 minutes for each. 
  • Try, seriously and earnestly, to REALLY understand your partner’s question/problems/issues/frustrations/blocks/interests. Tackle them, study them as if they are your own (they are !) Look for resources that can help them, during and outside of practice. 
  • Decide together any general principles you want to adhere to about feedback. As in, do you want it or not ?? Any kind of feedback or only certain topics ? How much/often ? Are you going to adopt The Stefan Fabry Five-Step Formula To Giving Tango Feedback ? (To come, next week !) 
  • Feedback can sometimes be super stressful ! Especially if you are someone like me who mostly expects to receive lots and lots of praise, with rare and only very very gently-phased highly constructive criticism skilfully woven into a fragrant bouquet of compliments ! So, since you have to give feedback to improve, I suggest that you do something that makes the situation funnier if possible, in cases when you can't find enough compliments in which to embed the critique. For instance, give each other feedback LOUDLY, from opposite corners of the room. Or, poke him or her in the ribs if he or she gets too serious/ostentatious in response to your feedback. 
  • Thank them at the end. Never take anyone for granted ! Each practice opportunity is such a gift, even -- especially -- with someone you're very close to and see all the time. In case it is hard to remember that, just saying "Thank you" can actually pull it into focus. 
  • Articulate the growth, improvement, or changes you’ve noticed. E.g., what has changed in the past 10 minutes/hour/week/year/since the partnership began. Say, "hark ! how awesome we are becoming !" 

Our practice feels more productive and harmonious when we keep to these things. Honestly though, I still feel like even with all this we could be getting so much more out of our practice time together. I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on how they work to reach their potential, through practice with a Tango partner. 

Tango and Sangria !

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by Mitra Martin

Has sangria always been intertwined with Tango dancing ? Well, at least since circa 2000 when Sabina started making this yummy one for dancing at Triangulo in NYC.

Who has a great sangria recipe ? Sangria stories ? Or simply some good tricks on how to transport large amounts of it to community gatherings ? Help us create the ultimate Tango bicoastal sangria resource here, go ahead & post it below !

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Navigating the quest for authenticity in Tango

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by Sharna Fabiano

Above: A Tango mural created by the artist Monteleone for Salon CanningAs tango dancers, we’re familiar with the term authentic. We see it on flyers, on websites, and in artist biographies. Authentic tango is legitimate, valuable, the real thing. It also implies its opposite: an inauthentic, bogus, fake tango lurking out there somewhere. Clearly, authentic is good, fake is bad. But what is authentic, and what is fake? How do we know? And from where did this distinction come in the first place?

My dictionary tells me that authentic means “of undisputed origin.” From this we might decide on a standard for tango as it is danced in Buenos Aires or Montevideo, or as taught by individuals born or residing in those cities. But what about those just passing through? What about the Irish, Serbian, and Japanese students of traveling Argentine and Uruguayan artists? What about the students of those students? Is the tango still authentic as its geographic places of practice expand?

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Tangazos: A Tribute to Alberto Podestá

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by Derrick del Pilar

There are dancers’ singers, whose voices cause eyes to dart around the milonga, feet to tap restlessly, and fingers to drum on tabletops. There are singers’ singers, whose voices are best enjoyed at home, ensconced in a wing chair, perhaps with a snifter of good brandy in hand. And then there are the truly great singers, whose voices simultaneously pluck our heartstrings and impel our bodies to dance.

One of these rare titans of tango is still singing Buenos Aires—and he will soon grace our shining seacoasts with his presence, backed up by Alex Krebs’s orchestra, a bridge connecting us to the Golden Age. I am speaking, of course, of the inimitable Alberto Podestá. Before he was even twenty years old, he had recorded classics with Caló, Di Sarli, and Laurenz, timeless pieces that we tirelessly dance to this day.

This list includes but a few of the myriad excellent songs that Podestá recorded in the Golden Age—there are many more that are equally worthy, like “No está,” which was on my first list of tangazos.

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Heroes & Anti-Heroes of Tango: Ten Classic Tangazos

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by Derrick Del Pilar

Scottish statesman Andrew Fletcher famously wrote, “...if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation,” or, as I like to put it, I don’t give a damn who makes the rules as long as I get to write the songs. Or at least translate some of them and present them to you.

Many popular songs and ballads have heroes, (and anti-heroes) whose trials, tribulations, antics, and exploits reflect either the community’s real experiences, or the ideal lives they construct for themselves. Here are just a few from the porteño realm of tango, for your listening and dancing pleasure.

 

La maleva

There are so many powerful and amazing women out on the dance floors of the world—but often the way women are portrayed in tango lyrics is not exactly inspiring. As you’ll see below, when they are not jilting their men, women in tango lyrics are often victims either of his caprices or destiny and disease.

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