#tango marathon

La Buena Onda Tango Immersion in Holyoke, MA!!

It was an incredible weekend full of fun, friends, feasts, and dancing (is there another f word for dancing?) The hostess with the mostest, Veronika Kruta, encouraged a stellar party with seriously good vibes. 

Entering into a world of art, Otoño en Paris is more than a Tango Marathon - it's a cultural landmark of Paris. Organizing it for the second year, Nina kept people happy with her kind smile and humble approach. 

Everyone in the team contributed not only with their assigned duties but with plenty of smiles and jokes and made people feel right at home. 

One important thing about a tango event is the host. There is never a guarantee for perfection. At this event for example, the food arrived quite late on the Friday. But as long as the host is attentive and talks to people, arranges alternative foods while waiting like fresh fruits, olives, cheese and more.. Then.. You don't mind the delay. And just like a good partner, the marathon became better and better with time. The dinner Saturday was both timely and highly appreciated. 

The brunch was complete with delicious fresh croissants and a solid recipe was taken out to make the scrambled eggs. The big Italian archetype of a chef and his team spread laughters during all the servings. 

The dance floor was jam-packed in the evenings, but it was always moving and people very respectful. The afternoons and early evenings was however the most relaxed and fun hours of dance. Like always at Tango Marathons?

DJs kept a good level of energy throughout the entire weekend. Most appreciated was the Saturday night. The Turkish duo DJ Ramo and Gogo kept the night highly animated right until the finishing line at 6 am. They had plenty of local support from the big team of Turkish tangueros and tangueras. Could 20 dancers from Turkey be a representative number? DJ La Ros ended the official part of the Tango Marathon with a supreme grace and energy.

The dresses were a popular attraction with Tangolace & Two to Tango there with their special collections. Also the shoe section by TangocollectionParis was well explored.  

There’s always this little myth that Parisians are stuffy - well I actually am - but they completely busted that myth. 

A large crowd of both international and French dancers were warmly received in this capital city. And as an extra bonus we got to meet some new Parisians joining just for the after party.  

I made so many new friends! Here are all my pictures: LINK

Other info: 

Price for 3 days 120 EUR, Fri 7 - Sun 9 November including the Sunday after party starting 20.00. (Early bird price 110 EUR)

Included 4 meals and continuous flow of snacks, fruits, water, coffee, tea and smiles.

Location: Old move studio Albatros east of Paris in the neighborhood of Montreuil. Easy access from the centre with Metro 9 (around 10 stops, no change), good hotels like the Ibis and AirBnB offers close the the venue. 

Address 52, Rue Sergent Bobillot, Metro Station Croix de Chaveaux (nr 9)

Links:

The event on Facebook 

The Facebook page

Outside, more than 20 degrees for the second part of October, a sun so high and bright you could stay under for a sunbath, inside a warm atmosphere and smiles dazzling as the sun at the end of the dances. The place was completely decorated (painted) by Eva and it was really creative. At night, the lightning effects gave a new atmosphere and it seems the painting transformed in reality.

It was impossible to compete with the Nature during this week end and the beginning of the days were calm. But at the end of the afternoon, dancers arrived to share the homemade food before dancing untill the end... The atmosphere was friendly, indeed familiar.

The set of DJ was really nice. The beginning of the milongas were progressive with modern and traditional tango. José and Jonas did a great job to please the dancers. We also had the chance to hear live piano music to finish the Saturday milonga (but it was already Sunday because we didn't stop at midnight as we should). I though Germans were more punctual - in this case, it is good to be late.

There was no registration for the event but the parity was perfect. However, men had to wait for the women (we all know they like when we wait...). Dancers were coming from Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Belgium! It was not a wooden floor but with their gentle care, it was really great to dance on it.

It was a long trip to arrive there but I don't regret it.

Here’s my pictures of the event: Karlsruhe Tango Marathon, 18-19/10 2014

Here's my pictures with the pandastic Thes (or pandalicous ?): Karlsruhe bonus - Sunnyday with thes

Other info:

Price: 35€ for two days (23 for Saturday and 17 for Sunday). Free coffee, tea and water. Homemade food at the place from 1€ to 4€ (soups, bretzels, sausages, antipastis and a lot of cakes!!!!) Accomodation: nice help to find places to sleep

Last night, a tanguero told me the woman wearing the dark blue skirt is a calculating woman.

He was whispering some stories as she was dancing. He told me:

"If she comes to speak with you at a milonga, you can be certain that it's just because she wants to dance. She really doesn't care about your thoughts or ideas." (I let you imagine the tone...)

I didn't try to understand the reason that motivated him to "warn" me about this tanguera. Instead, I was rather wondering if there was someone here who was NOT calculating.

If you think about it though.. If you want to dance with someone in particular and if you don't/can't ask him or her to dance - you will surely have to find a way to attract and convince your dancing target. In this situation, everyone is calculating in their own way. You are even more calculating if you are trying to dance with the best dancers of the milonga and avoiding the bad dancers. 

As you know, there are more women than men in tango. This situation clearly doesn't help to fight the concept of "the calculating woman". Just think about how difficult it is to register for events like a tango marathon, where you have to find a partner several months before the event. Girls are sort of forced to be extra nice to guys if they want to participate.

To my experience, it isn't rare to discover a new "best friend" who wants to go to the grand marathon of the year. And then when you tell her you can't participate... She'll lose all interest in you. 

At a tango marathon, the situation is different because the parity is respected - in principle. As there is an equal number of girls and guys, the girls shouldn't need to do tricks to dance. However, it doesn't mean you can't still be confronted with some obvious "baiting" behavior (I'm not being paranoid here..) Like someone who's totally ignored you in the past, now approaches you as you were childhood friends. Possibly because she feels lost or alone in this new environment...

Arguably you might start doubting some women when you really don't have to. For example, when I spoke with Panther about one girl who for me is really kind - she asks for news and send warm messages -  she was for him just a calculating one (she asks for news and send warm messages..heh?).

Your own perception and personal relations with others are elements which will influence your thoughts.

This extremely well organised tango marathon by

Tango 8

took place at their

residence

. I don't know if it's the German way to organise but it truly felt like they had thought about every detail, to make us feel good: seats, drinks, spaces (and sun!). Plenty of sofas to rest. Very cozy! And I'd like nominate this the best buffet of the year.  

The floor wasn't so big (2 lanes) but there was always places in the second lane if you wished to extend your dance. The circulation was good but, with only one spot to enter the floor, the circulation tended to slow down near this spot.

The quality of the DJs was slightly irregular. Saturday was top of the weekend with Christos in the afternoon and Naoko taking over the evening. 

The number of participants didn't seem to be so high which made it feel like an intimate marathon. (max 130 participants) At one point - around 2 am Friday night - I felt a bit overwhelmed by the amount of men. Where did all the ladies suddenly disappear off to?

A good moment to share dances but for a marathon, I was still hungry for more dancing at the end. Unfortunately my little furry self needed to get back to Brussels. Need my panda beauty sleep. Otherwise the after-party milonga which continued at 7pm would have been a sure card.

Other info:

Price 

88 € p.P. (3 days of dancing, 2 x dinner, 3 x soup, 2 x brunch, free drinks throughout the whole time: water, tea, coffee)

Accomodation: list of hotels nearby:

http://www.meininger-hotels.com/de/hotels/koeln/

http://www.hotelchristina.de/