tangophilia blog

There’s a cool new web tool called the Starbucks Delocator. Punch in your zip code, and it tells you the addresses of local coffeehouses alongside a list of Starbucks shops, so you can choose to support local coffee vendors.

I was taking a look to make sure some of my favorite cafes were listed, and so I punched in a Raleigh zip code to make sure that Helios Coffee Company, site of our 3rd Saturday milongas was represented.

Fortunately, it was. Unfortunately, the person that submitted the info apparently isn’t a fan of tango…

Helios
Cross Street: North Street
Address: 413 Glenwood Ave.
Raleigh, NC 27603
Phone: (919) 838-5177
Posted by Anonymous
Comments: Free wireless, rotating selections of pretty decent coffee, nice contemporary building…unfortunately some weird crap can happen like tango dancing on Saturday night. But give it a shot.

It’s also true that the anonymous coward isn’t alone in that judgment - one of the big issues of having social dances in public spaces like restaurants and cafes is balancing out the benefit we provide, in terms of entertainment, culture and paying customers, versus the customers that the venue might lose on those nights when we’re dancing. This is why it’s very important that we support public events with our attendance and with our dollars so that the restaurants and cafes that host us feel that it’s not only a good aesthetic decision to support tango, but a good business decision as well.

Our next Milonga at Helios Coffee Company is April 16th. I hope to see you there!

Our Second Regional Practica is coming soon. Read what people said about our First Regional Practica!
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Some Dance to Forget - The Eagles, Hotel California

This article at Wired News, The Masters of Memory Lane, talks about people that learn, practice, and demonstrate amazing feats of memory. One of the subjects of the article has a recommendation I’m inclined to agree with .

Hagwood said he wasn’t born with an outstanding ability to memorize, and claims anyone can learn the skill. There are specific techniques that mnemonic masters use – such as associating images with each number and suit when memorizing card positions – but in general it all comes down to keeping your brain synapses in good working order.

To do that, Hagwood, who gives seminars on how to improve memory skills, advises people to use their non-dominant hand in daily chores, do crosswords and puzzles, play chess, take a different route on your daily commute, learn to tango, play an instrument and speak another language.

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.
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This was the largest tango workshop weekend held in North Carolina since Miriam and Hugo’s first visit to the Triangle in August 2001! There were 52 people attending the workshops, with the 2nd Saturday class having 37 people! Saturday’s Milonga at Parizade was particularly impressive with 93 people coming out to dine, dance, and enjoy the performances.
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A big thank you to everybody that attended the milonga at Maggiano’s tonight, and another thank you to everybody that brought along friends and newbies! We had a good crowd of 37 people there tonight (including about 20 new people that showed up on time for the intro lesson!). We even had two visitors from Philadelphia, and a woman from New York. The hors d’oeuvres seemed well-received: grilled vegetable antipasto, stuffed mushrooms, a plate of Italian and domestic cheeses, and a plate of Italian meats. The party was still going strong when the restaurant closed us out at 12:40 .

Here are the photos. If you were there, I hope you enjoyed it! If not, then I hope you can make it July 12 for my milonga at George’s Garage.

Today was the day for one of my students, Charlotte D’Annunzio, to present her end of term project on Argentine Tango. Charlotte is 16 (not 15, my mistake) and a student at Orange HS. Students were completing year-long special research assignments on topics of their own choosing, and she chose to learn how to tango! With the generous support of her mother, Anne, Charlotte spent more than 6 months studying tango with me, culminating in today’s presentation where she spoke about learning to tango (the process and what she learned), then danced three songs with me. The pieces were “El Once” by Carlos Di Sarli, “Desde el Alma” by Osvaldo Pugliese, and “The Pink Panther Theme” by Oranj Symphonette. Charlotte danced wonderfully, didn’t freak out, and didn’t say “oops” even once during the performance. I’m pretty sure the audience in attendance was suitably impressed. Congrats!

Here are some pics.

Update (2003-05-22 17:32:00): The verdict is in, she got a 100 on the project! woo-hoo!

wedding’s going great! The music disappeared in the middle of their dance,but they recovered beautifully & the jazz band whipped something up. Mark&Dora improvised,kept on dancing & did me proud! Congrats to a wonderful couple!