Fishnets & Fedoras

Ragtag tango dancers of Fairbanks

2011-12-26T14:44:00+00:00

slideshow

FAIRBANKS - Galen Cook has had a long relationship with swing dancing, but when he was introduced to the Argentine tango in Washington a few years ago, he fell in love.

“It’s a very complex, complicated dance,” he said. “I call it the ultimate balancing act for two people on the dance floor, in which the man and the woman wear a paintbrush on their legs and they paint the floor to their design.

“It’s truly artistry on the dance floor.”

via newsminer.com

A rather lovely story of the birth of a new tango community

Merry Christmas to tango enthusiasts everywhere

2011-12-25T18:07:00+00:00

Merry Christmas!

This has been something of a moribund year for this blog, as other matters have distracted my attention. I'm hoping to breathe some new life into it over the next few months – but in the meantime, I'll raise a festive glass to all tangueros and tangueras out there, and celebrate another year of heart-breaking dancing… ;-)

Here's a little Christmas number given a tango twist to get you in the Christmas mood:

03 - White Christmas

You can pick up the full album on Amazon MP3 Store and iTunes.

Milonga in motion

2011-12-24T18:02:43+00:00

via www.flickr.com

More show tango, but a lovely sense of captured motion in this image.

Tango Estancia

2011-12-24T18:01:47+00:00

via www.flickr.com

Sure, it's a show.

But I love the sense of "pause", of a moment's heartbeat, in this image…

Legs on stage

2011-12-24T17:39:20+00:00

Found this image lying around my hard-drive. Not quite sure where it's from, but I like it…

There is always a tango for every occasion…

2011-09-23T18:05:08+01:00

It was during a tanda at the Tango Mundial that I remembered that I had come to Buenos Aires to learn tango. I had spent days imaging how many classes I would take, how many Milongas I would go to, and the vampiric lifestyle I would be leading. But somehow the city has instead crawled under my skin and ingrained me in a life where tango is the main lifeline, but not the primary goal of my day to day living.

via musobeck.wordpress.com

Lyrical account of a spell living in Buenos Aires

Mundial de Tango 2011: Ronda Desempate

2011-09-23T18:01:39+01:00

via www.youtube.com

Competitive tango at its best…

Tango beneath of circle of colour

2011-09-23T17:58:49+01:00

via unfaithfultranslation.wordpress.com

Lovely picture of a milonga, from an ex-pat blog that's a great read. Recommended.

The tale of an Accidental Tanguera

2011-08-27T23:05:06+01:00

It all started in late 2004, when I walked into an Argentine tango class, looking for – love?

via shannonmcewan.wordpress.com

A great tale of loss and love and possibilities...

Franco Luciani - Marioneta (J. J. Guichandut / A. Tagini)

2011-06-27T14:42:25+01:00

via www.youtube.com

Found via Tango Thoughts

The tango is dead?

2011-03-05T23:40:45+00:00

She hesitated. "For me, the tango is dead." This was powerful coming from a woman who has been dancing since she is 4 years old. She continued. "I went last week to an afternoon milonga. They were too old for me. No milongueros. The ones that used to go were all dead." There are others I wanted to tell her, but she was on a roll. "Later that night I went to another milonga. I met up with some friends. People do not know how to dance. The tourists killed our tango. The foreigners killed our tango. They took it and killed it.

via tangospam.typepad.com

A sobering account of the effects of tango tourism on the milongas of its home country.

Sizzle-free Tango?

2011-03-05T23:23:53+00:00

Being in love is hard work. So is being in lust. Just ask a professional tango dancer. Night after night, the good ones come out looking ready to bodice-rip; men grasping at skin like it's freshly fired porcelain, women clinging knee-to-thigh as if strong tendons are the secret to sealing the deal.

Tango should be steamy stuff. But what if, in reality, the women are ready to throw their partners under the tour bus?

via www.washingtonpost.com

Great into. Pity the article doesn't really go anywhere…

La Maldita Milonga

2011-03-05T23:18:43+00:00

via www.flickr.com

Tango in the Plaza Dorrego

2011-02-25T19:12:01+00:00

via vivmart.wordpress.com

Looks like a happy event

Eco-friendly Tango Dresses

2011-02-25T12:12:10+00:00

Returning to the occasional theme of tango dresses on here (and indeed, to this blog. I really must manage more than one post a month…), there's a new company making the occasional appearance in London, offering eco-friendly tango dresses.

Knús is an Icelandic word for "hug", or embrace I suppose, and they're making their outfits from sustainable materials like bamboo. (Don't mock - I have bamboo socks and they're wonderfully comfortable.)

There's only a couple of looks on the website right now, of which this is the more conventional:

But, personally, I rather like this one:

There's also some men's looks.

Thoughts?