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Robert Hauk, a milonguero
Complete course of Tango Milonguero
in Six Workshops, May 24-28
What is so good about Robert? He is dancing like an Argentinean, but he is not an Argentinean. He understands us and knows what language to speak to us like no other Argentinean would never dreamed of ! Robert knows how most of the best dancers in whole America dance in close embrace. Learning from him we became a part of local community of the best dancers. I've seen many who might have great ideas, or not, beautiful dancing style or not, but no one of them could give a clear, precise teaching on how to become among the most popular tango dancers in America and Europe - our great local tango festivals. How to enter this circle. And Robert does !!!
2008 May 8
Feelings of a Tango Dancer: Tango "Loca" Libertad Lamarque (no dancing).
This is the way to dance tango.
2008 May 7
Here is our Wednesday schedule:
Close Embrace with Igor Polk & Teressa
Cubberly Center - Auditorium
4000 Middlefield Rd.
Palo Alto, CA
8:00 - 9:00pm - Close Embrace Apilado classes with Igor Polk & Teressa. Int-Adv.
9:00pm - late - Practica.
$10 for everything, $5 practica only.
www.jcctango.org
Who is Igor? Check www.virtuar.com/tango/
Igor & Teressa are among the best real-floor dancers in San Francisco Bay Area. Our classes pursue "effortless mastery". We teach "real staff", the way people dance around and in Buenos Aires. But we emphasize perfection as the way to highest levels of pleasure in dancing.
"""
Rober Hauk a milonguero workshop: Tango Milonguero
May 26
8:30 - 10:00 - A fifth in the series of 6 workshops on Tango Milonguero by the famous tango teacher Robert Hauk. Robert is bringing a spirit of the best US tango festivals to San Francisco Bay Area !
10:00 - late - Practica $5 ( free for students )
http://www.virtuar.com/jcc/2008/robert.htm - more information.
(510)-582-8711 ipolk@virtuar.com
2006 May 4
Ney and Jennifer are welcoming you into their new studio: "Tango Vida" in the heart of San Francisco.
2008 May 3
Stanislavski: ".. An enormous amount of work will be done before the treasure is obtained. This enhances the appreciation of its value and the further men penetrate the greater their amazement of its extent."
2008 May 3
This is a green website - no animals were harmed during its creation;
This is a blue website - check my virtual tours - and you will notice the California color;
This is a red website - Red and Black color of these words make it Tango.
What about the yellow? Yellow of Sun is in the beginning of everything: green leaves, blue sky.
Human blood is red. Mixed with yellow it makes the color of Tango: Orange.
20008 April 23
Here are golden words [from a Tango-L post]:
"> Beginners should be taught the line of dance.
How about: Beginners should learn the line of dance.
> Beginners should be taught that tango has pauses.
Beginners should learn that tango has pauses.
The essential objective of education is not teaching, but learning.
> How will beginners learn about tandas and cortinas?
Listen.
The essential /process/ of education is not teaching, but learning."
--
Chris
Nobody can teach you a dance, unless you learn yourself!
Just came back from the Tango Evolution concert with Daniel Binelli, Eduardo Isaak, Eroica Trio and Miriam Larici. There were performing pieces of Binelli himself, Piazzolla, and other composers.
Any tango aficionado holds his breath with the magical music of Maestros Binelli and Isaak. Binelli shows the incredible abilities of bandoneon, depth of sound, humanly breath of this nostalgic instrument. The perfect duo of a virtuoso guitar player and a bandoneonist is accompanied by the romantic Eroica Trio of beautiful women in red. Complex and interactive Binelli's arrangements will call emotions in anyone: classical, jazz, or tango music lovers.
If you do not know what is a bandoneon - it is perfect opportunity to experience its soulful sounds: Maestro Binelli is called the best bandoneon player now in the world. Not only player, but accomplished composer and arranger, and this kind of people is a pure rarity these days ! Now I understand why so many call a bandoneon a living being !
As for what makes the concert truly unique - it is the generous dance performance of incredible Miriam Larici. What are you waiting for, rush to see her !!! This is a life chance ! You will not see these kind of dancing anywhere, not in ballet, nor in Las Vegas. This is a show called Tango!
Here is more information about the performance and other 2 tango concerts in the series.
2008 April 19
"..the observation that movement or posture that feels comfortable is often wrong from a structural standpoint, and though it arose as a consequence of the body's appropriate adaptation or accommodation to an injury or bad shoes, it progresses to feeling comfortable and natural through months or years of habitual repetition. The instructor's role then becomes a bit more complicated and difficult, in bringing the dancer's attention to the issue so they can correct it if possible." - Jay at TangoMoments.com
Any activity body is involved in regularly like sports, kind of work, lifestyle brings an imprint on body and its moves. A tango dancer must develop its own type of body - tango body. Then all the right tango moves become felt natural and correct - "like in Tango". It is a great mistake to think that "walk in tango is just a regular walk". It is not. It is usually said to let students get rid of another problem - overdoing things, exaggerating due to their beginner's perception what is right in tango, what they've seen in the shows. Which is often wrong.
I remember my teacher told me: "Walk like this! They [Argentineans] really are walking like this in the real life! .."
2008 April 12
Perfection
Perfection is an incredibly powerful thing difficult to achieve. One slightest error, aberration - and it is not. That is why a very simple dance made perfect is tremendously better and memorable than any other dance with more complex elements.
2008 April 10
Tigers, Muses & Jasmine. Can not resist of posting this drama performance.
"..uncannily conjures the political and social instability of the Weimar Republic"?
Oh, really? What about France of the period? Russia? Britain? Yes, yes! And.. US? The whole world was heading toward the second great war - as if too little people have died in the first one. 1,000,000 prostitutes in France alone. Why? NOTHING TO EAT !
And it was only about 80 years ago.
Illusions? Illusions help only if you are already disillusioned.
2008 April 9
What is the difference between art and craft? Art is created by movements of spirit. It is difficult or even impossible to re-create the same piece weather it is painting, writing, singing, or dancing. A craftsman is moved by "instructions" "how to do". Experience plays huge role but the roles are different. Spirit moves chaotically. Systematically? May be, but chaotically for sure. So, now, if you see the sequence of dance patterns one by one and clearly defined, you can firmly be assured - this is a very skilled craftsman presenting his product..
Why does spirit move chaotically? Because it is in unknown ! Craftsman stops when he does not know what to do. And this is the heaven time for an artist.
2008 April 5
Art of Tamara de Lempicka - Dancing Russian Waltz of 1938. ( Here is another example of old russian Singing vals: "На сопках Манчжурии", 1905. An example of more folk Russin style of music and voice.)
2008 April 3
One thing tango is excellent is saving from loneliness. How many times one wakes up in the morning and regrets about hours in the last evening so stupidly spent against a muttering TV "relaxing" or rather lowering in a chair? Wouldn't be so much better to put on a nice shirt, jump in a car, get to the Milonga, and circle around embracing beautiful people?
2008 March 30
"Peahens do not prefer peacocks with more elaborate trains" ( a very scientific article ). Anyone who saw them noticed that they are sort of dance. May be hens choose roosters because of their elaborate DANCE ? And then the male is judged by the movement of the tail, how well it is used in in the dance?
2008 March 29
"..there are as many paths to life as there are variations on steps in Tango. Tango is really a beautiful metaphor for all of this because it is filled with contradictions and forces the mind, body, and spirit to cooperate with each other.Thought, matter, and breath are called into harmony--through music--which activates the senses of hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling. So dancing tango can actually resurrect a person to fully being alive to have the experience of feeling fully alive." - Joy
2008 March 25
-Yuki and Chantal dancing Tango.
2008 March 21
On March 19 we had a workshop "Action and Reaction" with Luis Bianchi & Daniela Pucci. That was a wonderful evening full with joy and excitement of Tango. Luis and Daniela are very deep, focused, thorough teachers and amazing improvisational performers. They explain the technique on the level very rarely reached by other teachers .Their YouTube video is in my list of the best tangos, but what I saw at Alberto's on Sunday, they performed three dances, supposed to be in the list of the best performance art ever. Bravo!
2008 March 15
Every
Child
Has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don'ts,
Not the God who ever does,
Anything weird,
But the God who only knows four words
And keeps repeating them, saying:
"Come dance with Me."
Come
Dance
The poem "The God Who Only Knows Four Words."
Hafiz, great Sufi master, from Persia (c. 1320-1389)
translation by Daniel Ladinsky
About another poet: "Jalal El Din Al Rumi, a thirteenth century Moslem Sufi poet, is currently the most popularly read poet in the West. Norman M. Brown, the leader of the Community Unitarian Universalist Church in Daytona Beach, Florida, has an interesting theory regarding Al Rumi's popularity. As he argues, most people, whether conscious of it or not, have spiritual needs and desires. The rational outlook of twentieth century Western civilization suppresses these types of needs and desires, does not give them the opportunity to express or fulfill themselves and, as a result, many people become spiritually frustrated (Brown). The minority who are conscious of their spiritual frustration turn to various religions in search of some type of fulfillment. However, few, if any, of these religions provide such fulfillment. The exception to this, according to Norman M. Brown is Sufi "mystical" Islam which appears to address both human spiritual needs and emotions on one hand, and the human respect for rationality and intellect, on the other (Brown). As Brown argues, Sufi thought, combining between philosophy and spirituality, and concisely expressed in the poetry of Al Rumi, satisfy the inborn human spiritual and intellectual desires and, in this, lies the popularity of the Sufist poet in the West.". Link
2008 March 6
"La Cumparsita" by Juan D'Arienzo, the true and only "El Rey del Compas" !
There is a modern group of musicians called themselves "LOS REYES DEL COMPAS". They very good.
2008 March 4
A Master is able to do and does more than he knows.
2008 February 25
Very recently I was at a workshop where "exotic" figures were taught. There were many students there most of whom could not even make a regular walking step nicely. As I felt, only one woman was able to do the "exotic" element nicely. I asked her:
- Do you have experience with other dances?
- Yes. I did ballet.
- For how long?
- 25 years.
- Have you ever performed?
- It was my career.
2008 February 21
Dedication. It is a magical word. I've seen people very talented who tried tango, and of course it did not work for them right away. Disappointed after several lessons, they drop: too hard! No immediate profit! On the contrary, people, so to speak, less talented, come and practice every time and they do improve ! They might not notice it, but I see that with every lesson, every dance they do. Little by little they are getting there. And they will dance! They are dancing !
And they will surpass "talented ones" because there is very little difference between a natural talent and a trained one.
Or may be they have that internal Drive For Dancing? They have Will To Dance? If so, Will beats the Talent.
Masters have both.
The Drive For Dancing is the feeling of the dance, enjoyment of the dance they experience even in simplest movements. Can you imagine what it will be like when they start dancing well?
2008 February 20
My letter to BATango:
Igor Polk is dancing Canyengue for 5 years on the dance floors of San Francisco with people like you!
Igor Polk has learned this style from Martha Anton when most people never even heard about it.
Last year Igor Polk have taught Canyengue workshop series at Palo Alto JCC Tango Club with great success. Yes, people learn Canyengue very fast and enjoy it !
With Igor you will dance Canyengue right here in San Francisco very soon!
Beginners are welcome !
Igor Polk
www.jcctango.org
PS. Yes, this is my favorite style !!!
2008 February 19
Tango is a theory. No, it is a whole science.
2008 February 15
How to dance Juan D'Arienzo ? "El Rey del Compas" ? May be this record will give you an idea: LOCA. :)
Now NADA MAS.
2008 February 14
"8-count basic". That is a figure everyone should know and no one should dance. Is it so? It depends.
It is definitely an artificial figure. No one knows who invented it, but the rumors are that it was used in 50s to teach american students tango by such people like Copes.
It is a masterpiece of condensed information about the dance. The truth is not in meticulous repetition of it, but in ability to variate it.
2008 February 12
What is the difference between a lesson and a workshop? A workshop is tailored to the topic. A topic should be covered more or less completely. A workshop should be tailored to the best students of the level. While a lesson is tailored to an average student of the group. A teacher should pay more attention to students at the lesson. A lesson usually imply that there will be other lessons to cover and review material missed, and a teacher will be available to correct the students later. A workshop is usually unique. Workshops are especially important to address topics of style and those which are usually scattered across many lessons: workshops summarize material.
2008 February 4
Brigitta Winkler in Palo Alto, January 30, February 3, 4. Classes and Workshops - " Brigitta is one of the world's most praised teachers and innovative dancers of tango". Click here for Information
2008 February 2
A friend of mine, Judy Maxon from Portland, a wonderful dancer herself, have an interesting business. She sells.. buckles. Yes, buckles for dancing shoes which fasten themselves. I bet you will find it useful at milongas. Here is the flyer, click it and you will get to Judy's website:
2008 February 2
The ability to improvise a great dance keeping the feeling of the dance with absolute unison with unfamiliar music with an unfamiliar partner in your own style is considered a mastery in tango.
2008 January 5
Tango should be advertised to intellectual men, who are tired of all that dumbness in surrounding surreality, hectic pace of life. They appreciate tango most - as a deep intellectual, artistic, and spiritual experience.
..With a pleasant lady in hands.
2008 January 3
I have selected the "Sources of Pleasure in Dancing" into a short separate article. This list was deep into other things, now I am making it explicit.
