Remember the Early Bird Discount expires on February 18th!
Winter Showers bring Spring Flowers!!
Tucson is getting rain right now! Rain in January and February is always followed by the wonders of a desert in bloom. This means you can expect the gardens at the Tucson Tango Festival Venue to be a heavenly bouquet of sweet citrus fragrances! Nothing beats the aroma of blooming grapefruit and orange trees!!
The temperature is predicted to be 72° to 75° F
While the music, tandas and abrazos promise to be a blazing 98.6° F
Remember the Early Bird Discount expires on February 18th!
Book Your Rooms Now as the Room Block Discount is Expiring Today!!!
Gender Balance: Leaders 47% Followers: 53% not too bad!! – Bring on the men ladies!!!
Come guys, climb aboard! (I listed this backward last time, this time it is accurate)
The Tucson Tango Festival is excited to announce a high energy performance by:
Vladamir Estrin and Meng Wang
This Hilarious Male Duo will tickle your funny bone. You may run out and buy the latest copy of “Tango Dog and Pony Tricks” and begin to practice immediately!
Seriously, this partnership cannot be taken seriously!
All in good fun with blazingly hilarious technique, this uproarious performance is sure to bring a smile to your face and light to your heart!
Saturday Night at the Gran Milonga
Meng, Vladamir and Varo tell me they are being followed to Tucson by an outstanding Los Angeles tango contingent!!!
World Class Guitarist: Gabriel Ayala Live at the Tucson Tango Festival!
Gabriel Ayala will play three songs for us at eh afternoon milonga between 3-7:PM on opening day Thursday, March 4th. This is a must hear artists! A real treat for our festival guests!
Tango Rapper: Momo Smitt performs at the alternative milonga:
Momo was recently smitten by the tango bug, so it overlapped into his singing and writing career as a rapper. Momo has recently wowed them in Portland, Austin and Houston tango festivals. Now he will grace the alternative milonga at the Tucson Tango Festival with a couple of his own compositions of “tango rap”… you gotta catch this outrageous performance! P.S. Momo is learning tango and he will be studying tango at the workshop classes.
Tucson Ambassador Program is in Full Swing:
When you arrive in Tucson expect to be greeted by any one of our scores of local ambassadors. We are here to make you feel at home. Our local tango community have all pulled together to make sure you have help if you need it. If you need information, dinner rides or even a tanda, you will be greeted and treated like a welcome guest!
Master’s Round Table Discussion – invitation only:
We have invited every instructor in Arizona to join us in a discussion of tango community building and instruction.
In hopes of helping local instructors improve their local tango education, we posed these topics to the master instructors:
- Top five essential tango techniques that should always be taught!
- Foundational tango techniques you commonly find missing in the tango communities you visit? This is an opportunity to say: I really wish more local tango instructors addressed “this or that” – share with us deficits you find in outlying tango communities.
- Any ideas and advice to increase tango growth and comprehension.
- What percentage of instruction should be patterns or figuras verses technique and musicality?
- Share with us your pet peeves in social tango.
Joining us at the round table will be the master instructors at this year’s festival:
- Oscar Casas
- Mary Ann Henderson
- Murat Erdemsel
- Michelle Erdemsel
- Daniela Pucci
- Luis Bianchi
- PLUS: Clay Nelson of Ashland Tango Festival, Tangofest & Valentango in Portland
- All of our Spotlight Instructors: Varo Boyajyan, Jay Abling, Amanda Archuleta and Daniela Borgialli
- Arizona’s Tango Instructors, Organizers and Community Builders
Any Instructor at the festival that wants to participate – just drop us an email.
If you are a community builder, organizer or instructor and would like to attend send us an email to get your invitation.
The Guerrilla Milonga is SOLD OUT!
We are ready now and awaiting your arrival. We have almost everything done, Joanne and I plan on being able to dance more at this year’s festival – Hey what’s the point in having a festival on our own door step if we can’t dance, too? Save us a tanda!!! See you in three weeks!!!
Lovingly Lit,
Rusty
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. – Bertrand Russell
We have visitors from:
Albuquerque, NM
Asheville, NC
Ashland, OR
Aurora, CO
Austin, TX
Basalt, CO
Berkeley, CA
Beverly Hills, CA
Boston, MA
Boulder, CO
Buenos Aires, AR
Carefree, AZ
Cave Creek, AZ
Centennial, CO
Chandler, AZ
Chicago, IL
Deerfield, WI
Denver, CO
Elfin Forest, CA
Encinitas, CA
Englewood, CO
Eugene, OR
Evanston, IL
Flagstaff, AZ
Fountain Hills, AZ
Glendale, AZ
Glendale, CA
Hailey, ID
Hollywood, CA
Henderson, NV
Houston, TX
Lafayette, CA
Las Cruces, NM
Little Rock, AR
Littleton, CO
Los Angeles, CA
Madison, WI
Mesilla, NM
New York, NY
Palm Springs, CA
Paradise Valley, AZ
Pasadena, CA
Parkville, MD
Phoenix, AZ
Portland, OR
Roseville, CA
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
Sandia Park, NM
Santa Fe, NM
Scottsdale, AZ
Sedona, AZ
Spokane Valle, WA
Takoma Park, MD
Tempe, AZ
Toms River, NJ
Tucson, AZ
Twentynine Palms, CA
Washington DC
Westminster, CO
Whitney, TX
Williamstown, MA
Posted 1 year, 12 months ago at 1:15 am. Add a comment
I Promise To Deliver You Good Floor Craft!!
The Plan | Floor Craft Advice
All too often I have seen the crowds grow beyond the capacity of a finite dance floor. Then the crowd blames the ensuing bump and grind on poor floor craft. Too tight dancing might be fun for a song or two, but after very a short while, too cramped is too cramped, PERIOD.
Floor craft is challenging it takes some time and experience to get good at crafting your dance around your dance mates. And since Argentine tango is always growing, there will always be people learning their floor craft as they go. Plus there is an obvious limit to how many can dance in a specific floor space, exceed the limit and it always leads to poor floor craft. I promise to always give you enough space, so all you have to do is dance mindful of the fact you are not alone.
We have plenty of quality professional wood flooring for the main floor, we use: American Portable Dance Floors.
I used the following with permission it is written by my good friend Daniel Boardman CCIM:
Ten Principles of Impeccable Tango Floor Craft
by Daniel Boardman CCIM
- Maintain a lane.
When danced socially, tango is danced in strict circular lanes with couples advancing around the room in a counterclockwise direction (called “line-of-dance”). There may be one or more concentric lanes moving simultaneously. Once in a lane, avoid changing lanes during the dance.
- Look before backing up.
Never step backwards against traffic blindly. Likewise, avoid other movements that cause you or your partner to suddenly occupy space behind you in line-of-dance because the dancer behind you may have already begun advancing into that space.
- Avoid passing.
Tango is not a race. If the dancer in front of you is advancing more slowly than you would like, alter your dance so that it is more circular and less linear. Learn to dance well and happily without much forward advancement.
- No parking.
Standing and chatting with your partner between songs is fine, but keep an awareness of when the couples around you start dancing again and move accordingly. If the other dancers have begun to dance and you wish to continue your conversation, simply step off the floor so you don’t obstruct them.
- Never zigzag.
Cutting in and out of line-of-dance is very poor form and disturbing to the dancers you are cutting in front of. If you choose to dance in the center of the room, remain there throughout the song. If you dance in a given lane, finish the dance in that same lane.
- Don’t monopolize the space.
There are many styles of tango. Some require a relatively large amount of floor space; some require a minimal amount of floor space. All styles are fine under the right conditions. If a floor is crowded, dance small, not taking up any more space than any of your fellow dancers. If the floor is not crowded, and you are so inclined, dance large.
- Avoid dangerous moves.
Certain moves, such as high in-line boleos, can be dangerous on a crowded floor. Save them for less crowded conditions.
- Don’t talk, dance!
Talking while dancing is bad form, reveals the dancer’s lack of presence in the moment, and is distracting to other dancers. Save the conversation for when the music stops. Teaching or correcting your partner is particularly inappropriate at a milonga. Save it for a practica.
- Dance with the room.
Endeavor to dance with an awareness of all of the dancers around you. Do not allow gaps in the line-of-dance in front of you to form as this will cause a pileup of dancers behind you. When the music begins, start dancing when the majority of other dancers do.
- Ask before merging.
Before stepping onto a crowded dance floor, if you are a leader, make eye contact with the leader whom you wish to enter the floor in front of. The leader should understand your request and indicate his assent with a nod or wink, and you may then enter line-of-dance.
Thank you for reading and we look forward to having you at the Tucson Tango Festival!!!
Love & Light,
Rusty
Posted 2 years, 7 months ago at 4:31 pm. Add a comment
Mr Tango Shoes by Jorge Nel
Jorge Nel will be with us at the 2012 festival again this year! Be looking for milonga classes to appear on the schedule as well!!!
Announcing a New Service to Festivals: Tango Valet
Tango Valet, LLC will secure your valuables while you dance. Receive a $15 to $25 savings with a full festival pass purchase. Rent a 12wX15dX12h locker for the entire festival for only $25. Or pay only $8 per day. The cost is $10 per day without a full festival pass.
Note: All daily rentals must be emptied one half hour after the close of final event. Ex: The milonga ends at 3 a.m.; lockers must be emptied by 3:30 a.m.
Reserve your locker today!
Contact us at either tangovalet@gmail.com or 520-820-1532
A bit of pixie dust… glamorous shoes you are all set for a magical dance experience!
Yolanda,s collection includes a full line of ARTESANAL and NEO TANGO
women’s and men’s shoes, and fabulous all leather, swede and exotics
fabrics pratice sneakers from FABIO”S of Buenos Aires, also for men & ladies.
Shop at Yolanda’s Tango Splash
“Comfortable shoes for great dancers”
We are the only vendors of Soy Porteno in the US. We have an array of their tango sneakers for men and women. These are shoes designed by a dancer for dancers. We also carry Flabella hand-made heels. Flabella is a family run business for more than 30 years.
Designed and produced by tango dancers, we have our finger on the pulse of tango fashion. Tangoleva knows what works, what feels good, what looks great. Preserving the classics and continually creating inspired pieces. Express your mood and personality with Tangoleva. Fabulous tango dresses, skirts, pants, tops and more!
TangoLeva Shop Online
A tareo™ – created by fusing tango + pareo – is a simple wrap skirt that enables you to be ‘tango-ready’ always and everywhere!
Comfortable, affordable, easy to use and to carry a tareo™ allows you to fully focus on the dance without having to worry about anything else. There will be plenty of tareos™ to choose from so you can either get your first one, or stock up on your existing tareos™ collection!
On-line Store
Turquoise
Turquoise are tango shoes designed and handmade in Istanbul by a team of dancers and shoemakers committed to creating comfortable, light, and beautiful footwear for dancers around the world.
Like the creators of Turquoise shoes, I believe that the most fruitful competition is not the one with others, but with ourselves: working on our chosen endeavor to attain utmost excellence. Turquoise follows this philosophy by continually perfecting their designs.
Turquoise Web Site
Argentine Tango in Tucson is getting better all the time!
Posted 2 years, 9 months ago at 11:36 pm. Add a comment
