tangophilia blog

A couple days ago, Triangle.com published a light article about Latin Dancing in the Triangle. The reporter, Erica Hinton, touched on a few places where you can dance and used a photo from our recent milonga at Cafe Parizade. She was also kind enough to provide a link to this site, and now some of you have clicked through to be here. Thanks for visiting! I hope you enjoy learning more about Argentine Tango .

As to the article itself, I have a few corrections and comments to make.

(1) The photo posted on the site is misattributed to “triangle.com photo by Erica Hinton". It appears to be cropped and resized from this image. The photographer was Dawn Banard. Perhaps it should be properly bylined as “tangophilia.com photo by Dawn Banard.”

(2) The unnamed couple in the photo are myself (Jason Laughlin) and my wife (Gulden Ozen).

(3) The following paras have inaccuracies:

The Triangle Tangueros Club also uses the Triangle Dance Studio for “practicas” every Monday and Wednesday for at 9 p.m. and the first and third Sunday of the month from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The Mon and Wed practicas are held by Tangophilia, not Triangle Tangueros, and are part of the classes that I hold there.

But not all Latin dance skills are practiced here – just Argentine tango, a very passionate dance with close embraces, dramatic moves, tight spins and high kicks. If you really want to impress someone, this is the style for you.

Some editorializing and artistic license is fine but we do encourage people to keep high kicks on stage and off the social dance floor .

Information about classes is listed on the club’s Web site. Classes are also offered by other groups in the Triangle such as Tangophilia and Carolina Dance.

Triangle Tangueros does list information, but they do not actually offer classes (just make sure there is an instructor or substitute at a practice or before certain events). Classes are offered by Tangophilia and Tango North Carolina – we’re not “groups” just instructors/schools of Argentine Tango. As to the Fred Astaire studio at Carolinadance.com, I’m assuming they actually teach ballroom/American tango, a fairly different animal derived long ago from Argentine Tango.

Thanks to Erica Hinton and the News & Observer/Triangle.com for reporting on Latin Dance in the Triangle. I know that the coming year will provide many more opportunities to cover some terrific events!