Tangocamp 2010

If you haven’t heard of it yet, Tangocamp is a travelling tango festival, organized by Pino and Natalie from Sweden. It originally started as a Sweden-only event, but now they have extended it to Italy, Greece and Germany. A group of mostly Argentinian teachers and the flamboyant orchestra Sexteto Milonguero go from one city to the other, settling down each weekend for classes and some top-notch milongas. The maestros are quite high level, you might have seen some of them at one of the previous Brussels Tango Festivals: Gustavo Naveira & Giselle Anne, Adrian Veredice & Alejandra Hobert, Esteban Cortez & Evelyn Rivera , Javier Rodriguez & Andrea Missé, Diego Riemer & Maria Belén Giachello, Yanick Wyler & Eugenia Parrilla, Mazen Kiwan & Maria Fiali, Pino Dangiola & Natalie Brateli.

This year the adventure proceeds like this: we start in Dusseldorf, Germany (3-6 June), go to Rome, Italy (11-13 June), travel through Stenungsbaden, near Goteborg, Sweden (17-20 June) and end up in the most heavenly place of Eretria, Greece (24-28 June). You can go to only one of these, to two, or if you’re a bit crazy, do all four: the Tangocamp Marathon!

If this sounds like a good idea: the early bird discount is still available until March 10th!

Tangocamp 2009

One of the reasons why I’m crazy enough to do them all four is because I had such a great time in Tangocamp Greece last year. It was my first time, and I just loved it. Pino and Natalie turned out to be excellent organizers and friendly hosts. I got to know some maestros and musicians and a whole lot of tango dancers from all over the world. And everybody’s just in such a good mood, what with the nice food, the sun and the pool.

Of course I also took a lot of pictures, for the first time as ‘Tango Paparazzo‘ and some of them I’m still proud of. This is Javier Rodriguez and the gorgeous Stella Missé, and the other picture is from the beach party, which is LE-GEN-(waitforit)-DA-RY!

So when I left last year, I was sure: I want to come back. Now I’m booking the plane tickets. Will I see you there?

All pictures are in the Milonga de Gante album.

• “I’m looking for a tango partner, leader, advanced, for X and Y workshop.”
• “I’m coming to Brussels for 3 days, could I stay at some tanguero/tanguera’s place?”

The festival starts in about 6 weeks, so this is a good time to start planning your lodging and your workshops. The updates on the forum will also appear on this site, and will be included in our weekly newsletter to almost 500 tango dancers.

For the Belgian tango dancers, if you want to practice your spanish or meet interesting people from all over the world, this is your chance to show off the famous Belgian hospitality!

• Tuesday Mar 2, 14:30-21:30 @ Cellule133a : 8 couples (dancers) and 2 for the bar
• Monday Mar 8, 08:00-17:15 @ Tangueria: 4 couples (dancers) and 30 spectators

The jobs are paid and if you want to participate, please contact cellule133a@gmail.com !

We also got a demo by Koos & Astrid, who will be giving a class before all the next milongas.

It was a nice crowd that danced the evening round, entertained by the excellent DJ Ben.

All pictures can be found in the new Milonga de Gante album.

Earlier this week we heard that Tete (Pedro Rusconi) had died. He was one of the tango icons, had been dancing since the fifties and was famous for his tango vals style.

And only yesterday, Osvaldo Zotto, brother of Miguel Angel, died at the age of 46 years.

Two different styles, two different personalities and two big losses.

Like last year, I wanted to start the New Year in a tango atmosphere, and that’s why we went to Tangueria to spend the last hours of 2009 and count down to 2010. DJ Emilie was choosing the tandas while we nibbled on panettone and drank bubbles.

We all had fun dancing and started 2010 in the best possible way! I hope to see a lot of all of you in the coming year.

All pictures in the Tangueria album

Also a big thanks to all those who have ordered a milonga.be calendar for 2010. I have been printing a lot of  custom December pictures for each calendar we sold and it has given me great pleasure to know which photos you liked and wanted to look at throughout the coming year. If you still want one, hurry, because they will be probably finished in the next week!

Saturday 19 Dec

• Zone 21, Leuven
• Pasos de Brujas, Brugge
• Tango Evolución, La Luna, Antwerp (DJ Ben plays tandas in chronological order)
• Tango Negro, Casa32, Antwerp
  

Sunday 20 Dec

• El Dorado, Humbeek
   
• La Mi’Lune, Liège

Sunday 27 Dec

• Xmas ball, Tangueria, Brussels

The atmosphere was relaxed and joyful, even if maybe every now and then someone might have stepped on someone else’s foot.

And I tried to photograph some tango hands: there’s the hitchhiker’s-thumb position, the supporting-thumb configuration, the horizontal low-floating arms, the vertical light-house … See if you recognize your own hand?

All pictures are in the Patio album:

They also brought some friends who did their own routine, but that was not of the same level.

The orchestra was a wonderful discovery. Although they come from the Netherlands, none of the four was Dutch. The Bulgarian pianist Maria Martinova was the one who introduced the songs and guided us through a repertoire that was mainly Piazzolla.

The DJ made some odd choices and seemed to be less organised as we’re used to in Brussels. Still, that did not stop the floor from being filled until the end.

All pictures can be found here: Tango in Antwerp.

UPDATE: Now with a custom photo for December that you choose!

Each month of 2010 features a beautiful picture that was taken in the Belgian tango scene. We’ve marked important birth dates of tango composers and performers in the calendar part and on the side there is an interesting little anecdote about tango people and tango events.

If you’re a regular dancer, you will certainly recognize dance floors and dancers. If you’re not, it’s still an eye-catching way to gancho yourself through 2010. We will offer the calendar for sale at a series of milongas in Brussels, Antwerp, … in the weeks to come at the round price of 20€. First ones: Cellule133a tonight, Roma tomorrow, Tangobar on Wednesday and Patio on Thursday!!

If you’re interested to buy one but you don’t go to milongas a lot, you can ask us to send you a copy via the calendar order page. You don’t need us to tell you this, but honestly, isn’t this the perfect Christmas present for you favorite tango partner? Don’t wait too long, because it’s a limited edition!

A special thanks to all the beautiful people who allowed us to use their picture in the calendar, to everyone who helped us choose the 12 ones that made it into the calendar, those who have been anxiously asking us every week “when is it ready?” and especially Nina, who helped me with the selection, layout, writing and who also made one of the twelve pictures!!

If you want to see them dance in real life, this is your chance. I will be going to – and taking pictures at – the Roma salon.

Tangueria had some Argentinian visitors this Sunday: Natalia Games & Gabriel Angio, a couple that has been dancing since 1991, when most of us had hardly heard from tango, even before we could have seen it in ‘The Tango Lesson’ (1997) or ‘Scent of a woman’ (1992). They looked very young and dynamic and showed some excellent dancing during their four dances.

After the demonstration, we danced to the fine music of DJ Oliver.

All photos are here:

I feel sorry for Theresa, because she had already put quite some effort into building that ‘5th Sunday of the month’ salon into a household name for the warm atmosphere, the good music and the classy venue. I hope she finds a new, better location and that soon she can start creating a new milonga that will become even more popular!

Monik & Dante

And there’s also a video

Cynthia & Ernesto

Maria-Lilia & Cesar

And the cherry on the cake was definitely the performances of two gauchos with their bolas. Several of the  spectators had fear in their eyes when they saw the balls whooshing by at what seemed to be at times only a few inches away from their heads.

All pictures can be found here: Tango in Brussels

Pablo Veron

It was a Saturday night, I finished a whole day of workshops and I was exhausted because I took a plane at 5AM from LA the same day. I went anyway to ANM to enjoy the company of a few friends that insisted I go and relax a bit, talking and dancing. So I was sitting with my friends in the corner and that woman (NB) came at me from across the floor with the purpose that she must dance with me. She could not accept I did not say yes, even with her aggressive way of asking. One could hardly imagine she’s so sophisticated and elegant like Jurgen says, with her red scarlet dress, walking hard toward me through the middle of the floor where people where dancing, Interrupting abruptly the conversation I had with my friends, she spoke loudly and rudely to me, asked if I was Pablo Veron and said that she wanted to dance.

My instinctive self protecting reaction was to say “No, I’m not” and my friends start to say the same, that I’m a guy that looks like him. They had the feeling right away that I was embarrassed and felt in a very uncomfortable situation. She ask me for lessons and I say that tomorrow, Sunday, I’ll give a workshop, she could consult with Karina Romero, the organizer. She says, “No, I want a lesson now, I want you to dance with me now,” and I explained to her, traditionally, in tango that it does not work that way, and Rosa also made an intervention saying so as well. She says, “I am from Russia and that’s the way it works in my country,” and just kept insisting saying “I’m here to dance with you, come dance with me now” using her finger in a very offensive manner to describe the way I should come from my chair to her.

At this point I suggested she to go to her table and to think about how she should invite people to dance. She says that I did not want to dance with her because I am an egomaniac, self centered, selfish and a f-ing pig. Seeing that the situation she was creating was just stupid, and believing that we become what we create, from my thoughts I murmured that she was stupid. Putting on incredible face of witch, she slapped me with no hesitation. Seated and with my back to the wall with nowhere to go, my automatic and reflexive reaction was to slap her back in defense. Immediately after, I regretted my reaction and wished I had found a different way to deal with all that.

She started to make a big scandal, coming to me again and again, trying to kick me 5 times aiming between my legs where it hurts a man the most. Beating me, while I was trying to stop her with the internal decision of not engaging her anymore. I had help of some people just after 2 or 3 eternal minutes. I believe that the show was so shocking and pathetic that nobody could react, staying frozen without believing their eyes. (…)
(via tango-blog.com)

The lady in question should remember, that:

• normally it’s the men/leaders that invite. It’s not a crime if the woman/follower does it, but in some cases it can be regarded as impolite.
• maestros already dance a lot and get invited all the time, so the chances of him/her saying ‘no’ are real.
• but most of all: it’s called an invitation for a reason: the other party has to accept it, or not. It is not a right, not an order.

I don’t know Pablo personally, not the woman who aggressed him, nor her side of the story. There are certainly a lot of facts and nuances to this story that I am not aware of. But I would have hated to be in Pablo’s shoes.