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The Best New Milonga in the Bay Area?

18 Feb

Woah! What an awesome milonga at Studio 1924 yesterday!  Congratulations to Count and Melissa for their successes.  The music, dancing, attendance, ambiance, and vibe were all great yesterday!

Here are some of my favorite things happening at Studio 1924’s Twilight Milonga: 

-There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Count Glover. Count has been active in maintaining the quality of dancing at Studio 1924 during the Twilight Milonga.  How might you ask?  Aside from his charm, that attracts some of the best dancers in the area, he politely asks those who are making things miserable for the rest of us (teaching on the floor/talking super loud/dancing crazy) to politely stop it.  Thank you Count!

-Who doesn’t like to see themselves looking all sexy?  Melissa takes your photo while dancing, posts it on fb, and tags you.  And I know all that is super time consuming.  Some of my favorite dancing pictures are from her. Slip her some bills and you might get some extra attention from her lens. Thank you Melissa!

 -Smart, young, good looking, talented, and broke.  Students are many things, but rich isn’t often one of them.  Studio 1924 has been kind enough to offer one of the best milonga experiences at the lowest cost ($5) to students in all of the bay area. Thank you Studio 1924!

-“I’m gonna pop some tags, only got $20 in my pocket….”  Can you say Twilight Boutique?! I love the fact that Studio 1924 has brought in Yumiko to the milonga.  In a world where everyone is often just out for themselves, it makes it feel so collaborative! Gives me hope for mankind. Yumiko opens shop during the milonga for those itching to get a little retail therapy.  It is an incredibly valuable service to those looking for shoes/dance wear at a discount.  A student of mine (who’s a student) got his first pair of tango shoes for $50.  He was so desperate for dance shoes he was about to get pumas! His tango shoes look good. Really good.  Watch out ladies. Thank you Yumi! 

-Varied DJ’s.  Pretty much everyone I know feels strong about what the DJ is playing, except for me.  People love the music, hate the music, love the tandas, hate the order, can’t stand the mixture…All I care about is that the DJ isn’t terrible and that they have a little variety.  As an aside, I like Yuling DJing a lot… so… Thank you Yuling!

 Studio 1924

So there you have it! Some of my favorite things about Studio 1924’s Twilight Milonga. Keep it up everyone!

 

-Nicholas

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Authentic Swing

10 Feb

When I go out swing dancing in Los Angeles or Oakland I only dance with ‘mericans (people from the USA).  I don’t know what it is, but ‘mericans just get it.  They really truly understand the inherent nature of swing.  So many people are coming to hops and WCS events that are from other countries.  For example, when I see Argentines dancing their “rock” version of swing, I just feel sorry for them, because they don’t understand what it is truly about.  It is not real swing.

Perhaps it is because swing is just so inherent to our ‘merican culture.  Can a foreigner ever really get it?

Note: I feel the same way about people from the East Coast dancing West Coast Swing.

-Nicholas

P.S. for those offended, please look at the tag list.

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The Tango Nuevo Suit

17 Jan

Jeans or sometimes slacks that are bellbottomy and probably a little frayed at the bottom paired with an untucked collared shirt.  Sometimes for a dressier look, a usually unbuttoned sports coat. Shoes are usually well worn. 

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About my last post… people got cross… and what I learned

6 Nov

Hello Everybody, 

I’m pretty happy that so many people chimed in on my last blog post, it even made it to prestigious tango forum on facebook!

I learned two things:

1)    How you say something is just as important as the way you say it.

2)    There are a lot of haters out there.

I probably shouldn’t have used the snarky/pithy/contrite/uppity/sassy/irreverent attitude I did in my last post.  Because as my friend and commentator Jocelyn pointed out, I sounded more like, “I, Nicholas, the young new instructor, shall impose my vast and experienced authority upon the women’s cross.”  That’s not how I wanted it to come out, but it seems that’s how I was understood.  In the forum and on the post I got quite the backlash.  People were attacking my credentials instead of my thoughts. 

In this blog I’m going to keep making observations and putting my thoughts out there.  Possibly (probably) challenging conventions and standards.  Next time I do so, it will be essential that I write in a less inflammatory way, because I’m attempting to prompt discussion and thought, not get the haters going.  My cousin says, “Haters gon hate…that ain’t never gona to change.”  Still… I’ll do my best to write so that people understand and react to have I have to say, not my snarky/pithy/contrite/uppity/sassy/irreverent attitude.

As long as I’m writing, I would like clear the air about my last post.  I wrote it as a counter point to a popular Bay Area instructor who teaches that the proper way to do the cross in the basic eight, is to bring the ankles and heels together, placing the feet into a parallel position.  Based upon my training, experience, and observation, I disagree.  But I think elaborating my point of view would require an in person discussion involving anatomy and demonstrations.  So instead, I attempted to give my thought some authority by I citing the current superstars of the tango world and how they cross.

For those of you who cannot speak Spanish, the ensuing discussion on facebook validated my point of view.  But this is only after I was nearly crucified (haha) for, among other things, not having the appropriate credentials to teach.

 

Lesson learned.

 

-Nicholas

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Yoda, Tango, and Sex Therapists

27 Sep Yoda

Hello Everyone,

I’m becoming more and more like a Jedi Master each day.  No, I can’t use the force or build a light sabre, but I do feel like a Jedi when I work with my students and say, “Doubt in you, there is.  A path to the dark side of tango, that is.”

Haha, I couldn’t resist nerding out!  No, I don’t speak like Master Yoda on lessons, but I can feel doubt, fear, anxiety, and worry when they inhabit a person’s body.  This not only applies to how we’re approaching a new skill but to how well we can connect and dance truly good tango.  My friend’s story will explain.

After 9 years of dancing she was ready to quit tango.  Everything was technically correct, her arms, hips, head, torso, knees, and feet were all doing the “right” things, but she never got that tango “feeling.”  She was frustrated and ready to quit because she could never achieve tango satisfaction aka, a tangasm.

She was extremely jealous of one woman, let’s call her Betty.  Betty was also a foreigner in the milongas and of similar age and beauty.  Betty had…well…not “bad” technique, but it wasn’t the best.  But the leads all declared that Betty danced such beautiful tango. She was on the dance floor with the young Buenos Aires pros night after night.  I was there.  I saw it.  And she wasn’t sleeping with them!

When the opportunity arose, I chatted a minute with Betty.  I learned that Betty was a professional sex therapist and after I presented my friends frustration, she drew some parallels between her work and tango.  She asked, ”If you have proper “technique” in sex…but no emotion…what does that get you?”

My friend was convinced that proper body technique was the answer and the emotional element of tango was irrelevant.

Food for thought.  I just hope I haven’t given you one more thing to worry about!

-Nicholas

Sunday at the Claremont Reminder!

26 Aug

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick reminder Amar and I will be at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley today teaching from 7 until 8pm.  We’ll do a demonstration later in the night.  Come out to enjoy one of the most classy venues in the Bay Area.  Check out the full details on tangomango.org.

Also, below is a video one of our recent demonstrations.  It was the first time we’ve danced on concrete and in the full force of the elements!  A bit distracting but we’re happy about how it all turned out.  Check out the event here.

-Nicholas

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Tango at the Claremont!

20 Aug

Tango at the Claremont!

This Sunday!

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Where the heck are all the good dancers?

17 Aug

Seriously though!  I’m hearing more and more about these people but I never see them around in the milongas.  Do good dancers just not go out?  Are we going to different places?  I’m surprised at the number of ghosty shadowy references to, “Oh do you know so-and-so? They’re such a good dancer!”  Um, no I don’t.  Because they never go out.  What the heck?

-Nicholas

PS Sorry I haven’t been going out to the milongas recently, I’ve been busy.

The Not So Basic Eight Video

25 May

Hello Everyone,

Check out the Not So Basic Eight Video!

 

If you wish to add comments or reply or get the dialog started…please do!

-Nicholas Tapia

An Experience

12 May

This is from a student of tango.  Enjoy.  -Nicholas

 

24Apr2011

We danced a Tanda. I was very nervous, and saw that I approached this as a test rather than as an opportunity to enjoy. 

There were moments in that Tanda where I completely relaxed and gave myself totally to the musical partnership. There were times I didn’t know what to do, but also times when I was really tango-ing without having to know what I was doing, relaxing totally into the Tango embrace. 

One moment I particularly remember was transcendent. Hard to describe. We had adjusted our embrace. I was aware of the wool of his jacket and the humidity of our bodies. Being in the essence of that, not being afraid of the intimacy of the contact. Not being afraid to perform some gestures with my feet to the music without having to know if it was the right thing to do — no “knowing”or “not knowing,” just being in the moment with another human being with complete trust. 

That experience was entirely contained in the dance and when we stopped to talk in the breaks between songs, we were no longer in that universe — not that the sublime moment was lost and distance returned, just that the dance was one kind of relationship and two people talking was another.

 
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