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September 28, 2006

Juan Carlos Cáceres : La Murga

"Trailer" promoting the music of Juan Carlos Cáceres (author of Tango Negro). IN his new album he blends tango, candombe, and celebrates the carnival arts of la murga.


Introducing Cáceres
Uploaded by manana

Posted by joegrohens at 05:12 AM | Comments (0)

Radio Stentor

videodocumental de Radio Stentor desde los años 1930 , La Matanza Argentina
Por Pablo Aleandro

Includes occasional contemporary film clips of tango dancing.


Radio Stentor en Buenos Aires Argentina
Uploaded by aleandro

Posted by joegrohens at 02:34 AM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2006

Sebastian Arce on CBS Sacramento

Sep 21, 2006 4:49 pm US/Pacific

Better Body: Tango Your Way To A Trimmer Figure

(includes video clip)

(CBS 13) SACRAMENTO Dramatic, sexy, and what a work-out!

"It’s a perfect exercise in between walking and running. Also it demands a lot of attention and focus on what you're doing,” says Sebastian Arce.

Sebastian Arce flew in from Paris just a few days ago to teach the tango to Northern California. He and his Sacramento based partner Michelle are absolutely hooked on the dance.

"It’s physical, intellectual, and emotional even. The connection with the music and with other people,” says Michelle.

And in addition, Sebastian says tango is a form of therapy, "It liberates you... It's a total freedom when you're dancing."

And believe it or not, Sebastian says it's fairly easy to learn. There’s at least one tango event a week in Sacramento, and a steady supply of instructors. "There’s no basic step in tango, we teach you how to walk and then from that walk we create intersections, circles,” says Sebastian.

Related:


Posted by joegrohens at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2006

Film Review: Tango Fatal

Phil Hall reviews the DVD of the Argentine musical "Tango Fatal", choreographed by Carlos Copello, on filmthreat.com

If “Tango Fatal” skimps on the soundtrack (only two songs – the rest of the score is instrumental) and relies too much on stereotypes (a pair of thugs, one dressed in garish clothing and the other hobbling on a crippled leg, are called “Italian” and “Lame”), it compensates with its extraordinary dancing. Granted, the serious foot movement doesn’t kick in until 20 minutes, but when it starts it becomes a dynamic _expression of powerful body movement and wickedly choreographed eroticism. The tango is perhaps the most sexual of all dances and the dance movements could easily qualify as soft-core if the dancers hadn’t kept their clothing on.

Posted by joegrohens at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)

Alternative Tango Radio

  • NEW! Bailonga! Alternative Tango Radio (From tangocenter.org)

    Posted by joegrohens at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

    September 11, 2006

    30 años golpe de estado en argentina

    Clip sobre aniversario dictadura argentina y los desaparecidos

    Posted by joegrohens at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)

    Tanghetto Special on Korean TV

    I guess Yana is right about Tango exploding in South Korea. If they take to tango like they took to video games and internet, watch out pacific rim!

    Posted by joegrohens at 05:55 PM | Comments (0)

    September 09, 2006

    Tango in a Korean pop music video

    Ok, what she's singing is not exactly tango, but I am still glad to see this. I would like to think it as an indication of how much the Korean tango population grew. :-)

    If you are interested in watching a Korean couple dancing, HERE's a sample.

    Posted by yana at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)

    September 06, 2006

    Interview with Roberto Alvarez (Color Tango)

    http://creativetango.com/colortangointerview.shtml

    Color Tango's Roberto Alvarez talks to CreativeTango.... Color Tango founder and director Roberto Alvarez took time during his August 2006 tour to talk with CreativeTango's Lydia Essary about Osvaldo Pugliese, electronic tango, creativity in music, personnel changes, and Color Tango's upcoming theatrical musical.

    Posted by joegrohens at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)

    September 05, 2006

    t a n g o s e n s o d i n a m i a ®


    www.tangosensodinamia.ar

    Natacha Iglesias, the creator of Tango Sensodinamia, has an interesting philsophy of learning that is inspired by the work of Moshe Feldenkrais.

    To judge from her own description of her work, she has implemented a pedagogy (if you can call it that) that downplays processes or prescribed movement patterns. Instead she provides awareness-building exercises where the dancer-practitioners can experience their bodies and their movement in new ways, and discover the path to development from within themselves. I am putting a lot of my own inferences into this, so I should just let her speak for herself.

    Excerpts:

    • [[Tango Sensodinamia]] is a shared movement technique worked out through tango dance and complemented with concepts from different approaches to bodily movement disciplines. The most important ones are those taken from Moshe Feldenkrais, Gerda Alexander and Susana Mildderman.

    • “When a certain process can be performed in several different ways, somebody can advert the importance of the process itself, doing without the way in which it is performed by anybody. Something in common underlying all individual activities can be distinguished, defining the process as it is… The process is performed according to a specific method resulting from knowledge and it is no longer something natural.” -- Feldenkrais – Awareness through Movement.

    • The ability to dance is given to us naturally. It is strongly tied to our needs. It is a gift mysteriously printed on our behavior and I think that we all have the right to perform it for our health and vitality’s sake. It does not matter how far a person is from his or her natural dancing ability. What really matters is to remember the connection underlying beyond consciousness. Because we started walking with just a single step, anybody expressing his or her wish to dance has started to build his or her own way.

    • The fact that methods to teach a dance have increasing obstacles appears to be a paradox, since it happens at the same time that the knowledge and codifying of the dance acquires more relevance. This is because the need of social approval is considered over by teachers and learners during the learning process. That is why, as a teacher, it is always important to bear in mind that the learning process never ends and that any action is building us at the same time that helps us to know ourselves.

    I would like to learn more about the teaching tactics of Natacha Iglesias. In my own teaching, whether it be Tango, Alexander Technique, or English, I know that I have a natural tendency towards prescribing ways to act or be better. And I usually use analysis to identify how something can be improved. It takes effort for me to find approaches to teaching (sic) where I create a situation for students to discover things for themselves. And then once I have done so, it takes additional effort not to worry about failing. Failing what? Well... failing to teach them much, failing to satisfy the need that brought them to a lesson in the first place, failing to empower them in a good way. One of the beautiful things about Feldenkrais (not that I know much about his work, really), is his confidence that indirect methods will result in improvement. I suppose he had experience on which to base his confidence. But even wanting to have proof of a positive result seems almost antithetical to the faith in the innate wholeness of the individual.

    I think one thing I need to take in is that it is OK and/or good for students to exert themselves in specific methods, but it is bad to set a goal of "doing the method" correctly. The method should lead to an enhanced awareness and freedom of action, and that should lead to unprescribed activities (e.g., real life) where the improved awareness and freedom carry over.

    [...]

    To speak concretely (for once), you can teach dance students a step pattern and accompany their learning with lots of felicitous corrections and advice to help it succeed. If the step is interesting and newly challenging, and within their grasp, dance students seem (visibly and by their comments) to enjoy this approach, especially if they "feel like they are dancing" in the process.

    By contrast, you can give students a couple of rules to improvise by and say "experiment with this and see where it takes you." Or, you can ask students to walk in slow motion on their own, and while they are walking call attention to things they could become aware of. I try such things sometimes as a way to enlarge the movement endeavour and to stimulate self exploration. But it is hard to evaluate their efficacy, so to speak. If my objective is to allow students to open their creativity and physical awareness, I won't necessarily see that result in the same class. It's not the same as being able to see that they can do a specific tango move efficiently.

    Posted by joegrohens at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)