tangomarathon La Divina, Sweden

24 hours at home, and then back on the road again! Since flight connections were really bad, we decided to take night train, day ferryboat and train again to reach Sätra Brunn, location of tango marathon. 48 hrs nonstop music and dancing.
It took 24 hrs for us to reach La Divina. But it was worth it, already now after the first night. I danced til 6am when there was still respectable amount of tangueros having a good time. After four hours sleep, breakfast and sauna, we are back in business and the dancefloor is waiting...

Back in Finland/ Takaisin Suomeen

Life can be really hard. One of the worst things is to fly away from BAires. It just sucks. But see you soon again Mi Buenos Aires Querido!
Takaisin Suomeen ja suoraan sorvin ääreen. Jet Lagista ei tietoakaan!  Tampereen MaailmanTangoFestivaali pyörähti käyntiin konserteilla ja alkeistunneilla. Viikonlopun tunnit menivät mukavasti ja erityisesti ohjattu practica tuntui olevan erityisen hauska ja hyödyllinen. Konsertit olivat myös hienoja ja yleisöäkin oli enemmän kuin viime vuonna. 

Suurin yllätys koko festivaaleilla oli ehdottomasti iltabileet. Telakalla piti olla tavallinen milonga, mutta eihän siellä voi oikeasti tanssia sen lattian takia. Lattia on muutaman neliön kokoinen ja perunapelto on suhteellisen tarkka kuvaus laadusta. Mutta mitä vielä! Porukka diggasi Simonin ja Marian vanhoja rahisevia Gardeleita, alternativea ja muuta ihan kybällä! Lattia oli ajoittain täynnä enemmän ja vähemmän tangoa tanssivia pareja tai henkilöitä. Mahtava meininki! 

Klubilla taas oli tarkoitus olla elektrobileet. Niin siellä olikin, mutta suureksi yllätykseksi mustiin pukeutunut pitkätukkainen nuoriso diggasi eniten 40-luvun Miguel Caloa ja Ricardo Tanturia! Eihän siellä oikein itse mahtunut tanssimaan, mutta oli siistiä nähdä miten Tavallinen Nuoriso pogoili Troiloa!

Los 5 Latinos!!!

OMG!!!!! Estela Raval is the mother of our teacher and friend Monica Romero of Los Ocampo!!! And Estela Raval is the singer of Los 5 Latinos!!!!! And Los 5 Latinos has made some of my favorite tango recordings that I have been listening to many years and I love the singer's voice AND SHE IS MONICA'S MOTHER!!!!! And I didn't know!!!!! And tonight we were in their CONCERT in Luna Park!!!!! Estela Raval is a MAJOR BIG STAR in Argentina and all over Spanish speaking world. She has 50 years long career as a soloist and with Los 5 Latinos. She was so AMAZING, an impressive and charismatic performer. She made thousands of people just go WILD!!! And she had a little time for us after the concert, we got to take a picture with her and she signed my CD!!!!!

Last week... and counting...

Last night was a fun night at Confiteria Ideal with Los Reyes del Tango!!! In the best estilo D'Arienzo those old senors played beautiful music with big energy! The place is an absolute gem, of course, and I was glad to see that they have polished it up a bit but not too much! I hope we can enjoy dancing there for many decades more!
Yesterday we moved from San Telmo to El Pulpo's place in Almagro. I LOVE San Telmo, but it is fun to see some other areas of the city as well. This is a very lively neighborhood, and Practica X and La Catedral are just three blocks away!

we had some REALLY painful and useful privates with Damian. Like mum said, 'it hurts, but it's good for you'...

Folklore fever

It is time to meet the maestros! Our teacher and friend Omar Ocampo organized a folklore festival Encuentro con los maestros here in Buenos Aires this weekend with classes and performances. We went to see their show last night: all the numbers were prepared in the classes during three days!!! Incredible!!! Chacarera, zamba, malambo, zapateo... different styles and different approaches. Beautiful dancers, amazing energy and a lot of noise!!! And also women dancing malambo! It used to be a dance just for men. The cutest thing was 8 year old boy Nazareno, who played drums with the legendary Juan Saavedra and danced malambo in sneakers and a bunny T-shirt! Pasi is trying to decide if he needs to practice more or just buy a cuter T-shirt.
AND then el maestro Saavedra danced with bolas. OMG. Just search on YouTube and you get many many incredible performances.
Here is a video of boleadoras, not from yesterday but still amazing, and here is a video of malambo, also not from yesterday but quite similar to some of the performances we saw yesterday.

Having a break...

... and hoping that a KitKat helps. I have a cold (hi, Maria here!), so it's home and hot tea and ibuprofen for me today. Pasi went to a folklore class by Cynthia Fattori, and practiced chacarera and learned some nice zapateo steps!!! We want to teach some of those in the workshops this autumn!!! Chacarera is such a fun dance! We still have to learn zamba, ooh so beautiful... This week we saw amazing performances of chacarera and zamba by our teachers. Here is a link to a video of their performance on Wednesday in La Viruta.
Cynthia Fattori y Juan Paulo Horvath dance folklore

Buenos Aires querido

First week in Buenos Aires has passed without noticing. Well, I did notice when I got my first Bife de Lomo, though. It brought tears in my eyes. I think there is no point in eating meat outside Baires, so I have decided to become Out-of-Baires-vegeterian.
A lot have changed in two years. New places dominate, energy is different and most importantly, there is even more good dancers than before. Young, crazy, experimenting, but also educated dancers. New schools with great repertory of teachers.
But one thing doesn't change. Music. Well, new electro songs appear, but in practicas the most challenging dance music dominate: Biagi, D'Arienzo, Pugliese. And music in milongas is the same. How deeply satisfying it is when a tanda is Just Right. Perfect combination of certain style of music.
And there are new orquestas. El Afronte impressed me more than any new orquesta lately. Hope we get them to Europe as soon as possible.