El sábado

Pablo Inza as a visiting teacher at Dana's practica

On Saturday we had a day of great live music! In the afternoon, the practica of DNI with Marisol Martinez y los Gentiles del tango. Listen to the song "Gloria", it is so beautiful!!!!

In the evening, an exciting trip to La Milonga Moran. 

Sexteto Milonguero playing and Los Totis performing!!!

 And the trip home in the night bus!!!

El rey del compas

I have the feeling that 50% of the music that is played in the milongas is by Orchestra Juan D'Arienzo. The music is mostly rhythmical and pushing, and calm and romantic melodies are rare. I have made calculations and the truth is that for every 10 tandas 2-3 really are D'Arienzo. But the D'Arienzo feeling persists! Often you hear Tanturi, Biagi and Troilo from the 40s, that really sound quite same. Listen to Cachirulo by Troilo and El Africano by D'Arienzo, they sound quite similar! Especially in a milonga setting, when the energy of the music hits you first before you have time to recognize the characteristic style of the orchestra. Or Una noche de Garufa by Tanturi; if you don't know the song, can you name the orchestra?

The other night, Thursday at Nino Bien, I wrote down part of the playlist, and here it is:

Malerba
Tanturi
mixed milonga
D'Arienzo
Biagi (yes, really!)
Troilo vals
D'Arienzo
Calo
Di Sarli instr
Calo vals
Pugliese

Quite classical, I would say... The only Di Sarli I have hear is the good old instrumentals from the 50s. Only once I have heard a classical Rodriguez tanda, only twice a Fresedo tanda (oh how refreshing that was!) and only once or twice a Canaro tanda!!! And a surprise: they love Malerba, and me too, so I'm happy! The truth is that most of the local DJ's don't have so much music, and they don't share, so what they play is quite limited. Maybe Antti and Kristian know more about this. In some ways it is quite nice to dance to familiar music in familiar places: I do love the Troilo-Goyeneche tanda that I count on hearing in Canning on Mondays in the small hours of the morning when the floor is already quite empty...

Wow, now we are playing the "recognize the orchestra" game with D'Arienzo and Troilo. This is fun! And to make it more difficult... add Tanturi or even Biagi! Oh no!!!








And finally, a flower to all the tango DJs and musicalisadores who keep us dancing all day and night long!

El desayuno

Continuing the breakfast theme...

Presenting to you the media luna, the main ingredient of the breakfast in Buenos Aires.
















Arriving home after a successful trip to the supermarket.

Climbing to our roof terrace...
and finally enjoying the breakfast!
Or, hmm, let's say brunch!!!

This week has been quite rainy, so we have taken every chance to sit on our roof and enjoy the sun. This morning we woke up to thunder and lightning; the whole bedroom was full of flashing lights, and thunder and rain roaring on our terrace. Now the sun seems to be back and the birds are singing.

Funny how you can buy ready-made tostados at the bakery, with all kinds of different fillings, and toast them at home! Tostado con jamon y queso, por favor! 

GOOD MORNING!!!

Weekend news 2

* On Sunday we went to the feria artesanal at Plaza Serrano in Palermo, the neighbor barrio. Lots of leather products, bags and belts, and all kinds of jewelry. Clothes, some have a very clever design, some very bad fabric. Funny, I did not buy anything, maybe I'm sick; wait, I am sick, I have a flu.

* Between our barrio Villa Crespo and Palermo there is a huge area of outlet shops. Mostly Argentine brands, but also international sportswear like Puma and Nike. The funny thing is that the shop window says "vintage", and I get all happy and run for the vintage clothes, looking for jackets from 1940s and dresses from 1950s, but in these shops it means only "last season". So now they have the winter collection 2012 on sale, lucky for us! Pasi got these nice winter shoes! Good for the Finnish winter when we come back home...


* On Sunday night we went to the milonga at Villa Malcolm. At Villa Malcolm, there is a milonga every night with a different organizer, so all the nights have a very distinct atmosphere. Sunday night is the milonga Viva La Pepa, popular among young people and different styles of dancers. Before the milonga we took part in the advanced class given by Julio Balmaceda y Corina de la Rosa. They are beautiful tango salon dancers with a lot of experience. For us, their style is special because of the spiral they use in every movement. And we want to learn that! And their vals is so beautiful!!! Check this video, already some years old, but it is the classic where they do all the beautiful typical vals movements!!!! Go ahead boys, check those steps!!!

Their class was very very good, clear instructions, sometimes only one, and enough time to practice after every talk. We were happy. And planning to go again. And of course, we would LOVE to have them in Finland, they really are a big name in the tango world, everybody should know them, and their teaching would really give something essential for the Finnish tango dancers.

* Quinteto Real played at the milonga. Wow. Read about their history and about the founder Horacio Salgan. Very big and beautiful music, composed and played more for listening than dancing, usually played in concert halls, so it was a very special occasion to indeed be able to dance it LIVE!!! There was a beautiful show by Guillermo Cerneaz y Marina Kenny, and it seems that Guillermo's dream has been to dance live with Quinteto Real, so now this dream also came true! Read about this evening also from this blog!

* Best ever: we biked to the milonga!!! Thank heaven for the oneway streets of BA, only one direction at a time to look for danger. I was scared as anything, but still it was the best! 20 blocks to go, what is better than bike!!! And actually there are bike lanes, we have to learn the routes. And yes mother, I will go and buy a helmet.

Weekend news

* On Friday we went to the class of Los Totis, Virginia Gomez & Christian Marquez. Their class was recommended by a friend, I did not know them before. They dance elegant tango salon style, in choreographies they use skillful show elements, and their musical precision is amazing!
The class was nice, they showed a beautiful sequence with classical and interesting and seemingly simple but actually complicated elements, and we could do it, and during the class they both came to help us and then we did it better. And they did not tell us to push or pull or change the embrace, so that was refreshing!

Here are some videos of them:
Lovely vals, amazing jumps for the men!!! Musical and quick milonga; women will maybe recognize some adornos that we practiced at Ruskatango-festival! Here is one more link including tangos and the milonga, filmed at another angle.

What do you think, would it be nice to invite them to Finland?


* Friday night we continued the evening at the milonga Yira Yira at La National. La National was closed for some years, and now it is open again, which is very good, because the venue is nice and the floor is very good. All this you can see on this video of the milonga, filmed earlier this year.

* I have found my long lost twin, Kristin from Norway; several people, even her roommate who has seen her every day the last 2 months, has mixed us up!  Her roommate thought that she is at home sick in bed, and suddenly she saw her dancing in a milonga... Kristin has been great, she updated our milonga knowledge the day we arrived and made us feel welcome, thank you Kristin!!! This photo is taken in the small hours of morning in front of La Viruta, after a day and night of dancing in Practica DNI, Milonga10, Cachirulo and Viruta.

Okay...

I said "more"...

New shoes

Need I say more?

Estilos distintas - Different styles

Yesterday we took our first tango classes here in BA. First we went to DNI Tango School, that is run by Dana Frigoli, and where Carina also teaches. We took a group class and did some efficient shopping in the DNI Store (pictures later!).
In the group class we did some sacadas and ganchos. The sequence itself was easy and clear, we were able to do it with our own style pretty easily, but oh boy, how to do it in the DNI technique!!! I was told to bend my knees, pull with my right hand, make my waist grow 10cm longer, separate my upper body from my lower body and move them to different directions, and wave my tailbone when I take a sidestep. Pasi had to pull with his left hand, connect his right knee and left shoulder, make a circle with his right arm and left foot, and move his foot with his pubic bone. Just do all this and it will be all right, all right? All right???!!???!? Whew. In the end of the 1,5 hour class we were able to do all this, or something like it, or something that remotely resembled it, or at least we felt different and confused. And strangely, it worked. Whew. Need to book more classes.

In the evening we went to a very different place. The practica of Carlos and Rosa Perez is famous for the Villa Urquiza style, training beautiful tango salon style dancers, and also producing winners for the World Championships of Tango Salon. Seven or eight winning couples of the last years have been training and polishing their style there! We are very interested in putting some Villa Urquiza into our tango salon, so the plan is to spend some evenings there. First we had womens' and men's technique separately, and then we just danced, and Carlos and Rosa helped the couples. They are really really nice and friendly!!!
So the new ideas from there? Carlos suggested that we change our dance hold in some little ways, or actually completely! With his right hand, the man doesn't hold around the woman's back but only until the middle or so. Then the man can lead with his right arm! Yes, he leads with his right arm on the woman's back!!! Because the lead from only the chest is not clear enough, and the woman has to feel a clear lead. Good for leading ochos, boleos... We tried this and it worked!!!
The leader's left hand is more on the woman's side than what we are used to. And we had to lift the elbows! And the woman's left arm and hand lies on the shoulder of the man. So in the end the dance hold felt strangely familiar... hmmm, wait... from Finnish tango!

Wow, so amazing to experience this diversity of styles and teaching!!! And so healthy to do things in a new and different way, and also to be told to do something in a way that we usually say NOT to do! So students, can you anymore believe anything we say? I would say it is not about believing, but trying out with an open mind what the teacher is proposing. Are you able do it in the way the teacher is showing? Can you do it in your own way? Feel how it feels, is it working, and then decide what is right for you!

Spreading the joy of Finnish tango

Yesterday we had the honour to show Finnish tango in Buenos Aires. We were invited to perform in the opening ceremony of the Scandinavian Film Festival, that takes place here in BA this week and next week. Last year the main guest of the festival was Mika Kaurismäki; this year the main guest is a Swedish director. The place was beautiful, Club de Progreso, check the photos behind the link!!! We danced on the patio, pictures 8-10!
It was a beautiful sunny day until the evening when it started to rain really really hard, so we danced one of my favorite Finnish tangos: Sateen tango, The Tango of the Rain.

We were happy with our dancing, and so was the audience, the Finnish and the Argentine alike. The Finnish people were happy to see Finnish tango danced in a soft and elegant way, and we were surprised to meet people who live in BA and don't dance tango. Oh no, we will never be able to understand that!

And, most importantly, my bright pink dress matched the poster of the festival.

Buen día, Buenos Aires!

After three movies, two bottles of champagne and a million long hours, the plane finally landed in Buenos Aires. Calm down mother, the champagne bottles were very very small.
We spent the first day with Carina: she was our lovely angel and saved us when we could not get into our flat in the morning. We had a very happy reunion: she has stayed 4 months in Tampere, and she arrived in BA only two days before us! She cooked us a lovely dinner and baked rye bread (pan de senteno), so we all felt at home.

In the evening we got to our new home: the lovely flat of our friends and tango colleagues Solange Chapperon and Gonzalo Orihuela. They are now on tour in Europe with their company Kambras with their new production Cram. If you happen to be in Switzerland or Germany in October-November, go and see the show!!!

Finally, a mystery picture: find Pasi and Theo the cat!