Dossier of a baby tanguera

*Désolée pour mes lecteurs français, exceptionnellement ce billet n'est pas traduit*

This is a little game that some in the blogher community have been playing. So if you are nice enough to pretend you're interested in me, keep reading. Otherwise, I kinda understand you have better things to do with your life....

You can also fill in the questionnaire yourself in the comments. You'll find explanations here and Tina Tango did her own too.


Name:
Steph (for most people)
Raphaël's sister (for anyone who dances tango)
Zazagabor (on blip.fm)
Professor (for those poor students who have been taught to confuse respect and ranking. No matter how many times you tell them to use your first name, some can't do it)

Looking Glass Powers:
The ability to laugh loud and clear
The ability to synthesize huge amounts of information and create half-ass theories on the fly
The ability to give others ideas on what to do with their life
The ability to see the bigger pictures while recklessly overlooking the details

Dress-up Closet: (signature items in my wardrobe)
White and red wrap dress, Vietnamese silk dresses (Ao Dai), Chinese silk Kimonos used as coats (if I could remember when I get out), yoga and running gear, more tango shoes than I can use in one night.

Disguise:
Red slutty tango dress and silver CiF. Black track suit with Mom.com T-shirt

Go-To Gadget:
Pink camera-phone, ancient iPod, USB keys, Anis de Flavigny

Vice:
White wine and anything with cachaça or rum or tequila.

Magic Potion:
Earl Grey with soy milk

Battery Recharge Hub:
Tracey's Asanara yoga class on Mondays at Ra'da. Studio Tango milongas.

Bratty Spoilers:
Watching Bolt with my son, and Pho

Owner's Manual: (What defines you in print, what illuminates you)
Anything by Maya Angelou. Belle du Seigneur by Cohen.

Weapon: (What is your tool, your device, your method)
Wit that goes straight for the balls! Natural defiance of social order. Optimism and energy.

Nemesis: (What are you up against, what challenges you)
People who hurt kids. Bikers on sidewalks. When my son blurts out clichés he heard in school. Beginner tango dancers who ask for "steps" or don't dare dancing during milongas. Tango snobs. My balance and my axis. Procrastination. Passive-agressiveness.

Secret Ambitions: (What would your six- year-old self say you should grow up to be)
Doing anything I feel like without thinking twice about it, staying fearless.

This is driving me crazy - Milonga Vs. Tango

So I get out of a Milonga class. Pablo Pugliese - yup, son of... and Noel Strazza -yup, ex-partner of Pablo Veron (Oh yeah baby, Montreal is one star-studded place, I tell ya) teaching. So not exactly average teachers who don't know squat about tango but think they can improvise themselves as such (yup, we also have a bunch of those here...). Anyways... Pablo and Noel ask us what is the difference between Tango and Milonga. We venture guesses and I (idiotically) say "rythm? tempo?" Some of you would have guessed the same right? Well it appears not so!

Then Pablo played Milonga del Angel which, indeed, is just so slow I always thought it was a tango (that just goes to show how much of a beginner I am...). He then explains that it's the melodic line behind that makes the difference, not faster rythm. Damn! The anal-retentive in me was unsatisfied with that answer and I started digging.

Now, mind you, that happened yesterday so I was not able to ask all my tango friends but I will do just that at tonight's milonga.

Meanwhile, I really need your help here. According to what you heard, read, seen, danced, what is the difference between a milonga and a tango? Leave your comments below and I'll agregate them in a post.

As food for thought here is what I found on the web (and that's very little)

(from this site)
"Chronologically both Tango and Milonga coincide. Both come from the black
dance Candombe, but while the Milonga is the dance from the compadritos
orilleros according to Vega and other writers of the time (1880-1900), Tango
is the preferred music by the urban compadritos. The most vivid difference
between the Tango and Milonga is the rhythm. The Milonga is faster and cut,
which gives way to dance it with cortes and quebradas. In this dance the man
shows up his abilities greatly and in second order does the woman. The Tango
is slower which also allows to be danced with cortes and quebradas but with
less frequency, and at a rhythm more adequate for dancers of less expertise.
The Tango allows both man and woman to show up their abilities equally
without differences of gender. The Milonga orillera was for the ones who
danced very well. On the other hand, the urban tango allowed dancers of
lesser dance skills or those called medio pataduras to participate in the
dance"

That actually just contradicts what Pablo said, I know and I'd be more tempted to believe him...

Here is something else:
"The Litmus Test is the rhythmic pattern.

Listen to the Habanera from Bizet's opera, Carmen. The habanera rhythm is identical to the rhythmic pattern of a milonga. However, a habanera is slow and a milonga is fast.

There's a historical connection between habanera and tango. Indeed, old tangos (the kind that people feel inclined to dance "canyengue" to) often use the same rhythm as the habanera.

Did you ever watch the old TV show "Dragnet"? The first part of the Dragnet theme is the same as the habanera rhythm. (DUM da DUM DUM) That might not mean anything without musical notation, but that "dotted" rhythm (it's called a dotted rhythm because of the symbols that are used to notate it) is repeated non-stop in a milonga.

Contrast that with a tango, which aligns more with 4 heavy beats per measure (we tend to walk on every other beat). This difference in feel is why people tend to like dancing traspie in a milonga. That DUM-da-DUM-DUM, DUM-da-DUM-DUM repetition lends well
to double time steps to accommodate the tiny "da".

Did that help? Or did that obscure things more? Listen to that Carmen aria."

This may hold the final explanation but I can't understand music stuff in English ( I learnt it in French...)

"Chicho"

Mariano "Chicho" Frumboli

Un des plus grand danseurs de notre époque. Le roi de l'improvisation.

Chicho est connue pour sa musicalité fantastique et son style unique qu'il a développé depuis plus de 10 ans. Sa technique incroyable et son oreille lui permettent de pouvoir improviser sur des oeuvres extrêmement complexes comme celles d'Astor Piazzolla. En voici un exemple.

Pour finir Chicho déchire sa race grave

Jaimalauxpiedsjaifaimjsuisfatiguemaiscestquandmemesympadetreici

Qu'a fait le tango pour vous? What has Tango done for you?

Pour certains
le tango guérit!

Pour d'autres c'est une leçon de vie

Et pour vous, pourquoi faites vous du tango? Qu'est-ce que le tango a changé dans votre vie, que vous a t-il appris?

*°°°°°*****°°°°°*°°°°°*****°°°°°*°°°°°*****°°°°°

For some
tango heals!

For others it is a life lesson

What about you? Why do you tango? What has Tango changed in your life? What has Tango taught you?

On a tous des modèles....

.... le mien, en tango, c'est mon frère Raphaël.

En deux ans il a réussi à se transformer en danseur de tango. En sortant tous les soirs, en essayant toutes les milongas, en dansant sans relâche, seul chez lui dans la journée, tard les soirs de semaine et de week-end dans les praticas. Il a commencé néo, et il est maintenant plus porté sur un style digne du Golden Age, à voir sur Youtube.

Un avantage majeur chez lui c'est son passé d'art martiaux et de gymnastique. Pour preuve, une vidéo faite par un de ses amis.

Raphaël contribuera de temps en temps à ce blogue suivant ses disponibilités. Son nom de scène: Jaimalauxpiedsjaifaimjsuisfatiguemaiscestquandmemesympadetreici

Hmmmmm......

L'obsession des souliers

Mon amie Daphné vient se s'offrir une superbe paire de GretaFlora, quelques semaines seulement après sa première paire de CommeIlFaut. Vous voulez vous rincer l'oeil avec quelques modèles GretaFlora....?

Il semblerait que l'innovation ne soir pas morte du côté des chaussures de danse made in B.A. Voyez le billet de SallyCat sur les 2X4.

Mes bébés **--** My babies

Deux paires de Néo-Tango et trois paires de Comme Il Faut. 18 mois de danse.