July 28, 2010

Summer is the time for flings and affairs, a season that evokes daydreams about what could have been. But if you don’t fancy yourself straying, books are an ideal way to live vicariously. You can explore all the naughty things you can’t quite bring yourself to do, fantasize about the love you long for, or, on the more serious side, plumb the pages for truths about our human capacity for ecstasy and pain.

It’s a luxury to ride the crest of a character’s emotional life, from the agony of betrayal, to passion’s joys. Here are some recent titles that take a fresh look at illicit love.

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Fresh from a painful divorce, travel writer Maria Finn sought solace in something that made her happy: tango lessons. In her 2010 memoir, HOLD ME TIGHT & TANGO ME HOME, Finn recounts how tango slowly took over her life, until a trip to the birthplace of the dance, Buenos Aires, gave her the confidence to open her heart again. Finn discusses how she mingles memoir with history to create her non-fiction.

Listen to it here: http://www.prx.org/pieces/49109-travel-writer-maria-finn

Listen to “Tango Me Home/The Key” winning story of the Heartbreak Competition

Composed, Produced, Engineered and Performed by Marlan Barry
with Violin by Maxim Moston and Spoken Word by Ana Valle
Inspired by story “The Key” by Cherie Magnus

“The Key” Instrumental Version

Amazon Download is available Here and Itunes coming soon.

Called Tango Panopticon 2.0, it’s the latest in a series of what artist Robert Lawrence calls “Tango Interventions.”

Lawrence, a University of South Florida associate professor, is mixing his love of the tango with his disquiet over government surveillance.

The dancers in each city will go through their paces in front of private and public surveillance cameras. In Tampa, they will be in Ybor City, which has several cameras along Seventh Avenue.

“We’re trying to reclaim the public space,” Lawrence said. “The idea is to say, ‘We know you’re watching us, now watch us do this.’”

Lawrence is working with Adriana Iamnitchi, an assistant professor in computer science and engineering. She and USF graduate student Michael Stillo created a web-based system to display the dancers in each city in real time.

Read the full article Here

This is a little painful for tango dancers to watch, but they pull off a nice cadena. And she has nice, tanguera facial expressions and a lovely decollete.

Watch video, with morbid fascination here: Pamela Anderson and Damian White

Maria Finn
Dancing out of the night
Monday, April 19, 2010

The travel and gardening writer talks about Hold Me Tight and Tango Me Home, her memoir about learning to dance tango and overcoming heartbreak.
LISTEN Dancing Out The Night

To see the video, click here .

And the meat was amazing…

Amy Lincoln & Santiago Croce demonstrated the “Cadena” as I read about it. They got dizzy, but everyone loved the 3-D element of the reading.

Dancers hit the floor after the reading, and pulled in a few newcomers to tango. (That’s me in the corner, getting wine maker Peter Mathis to try tango.) Anything that happens in the Weller House Inn ballroom is pure magic.

Santiago Croce & Amy Lincoln are getting ready to make their way south to Buenos Aires for the winter and Coastal California will miss them. They have been giving lessons, dancing demos, and inspiring tangueros for the past six months. They helped me with the book tour tremendously, giving a great class in Half Moon Bay, dancing a demonstration at the book event at the Weller House Inn, and they event demonstrated steps as I read, creating a “Spoken Word” feel. We will all miss them and wish them well on their journey. Here are a few questions that I asked Santiago about tango & teaching. I decided to not edit this, as that might take away his Argentinean accent, and I’d never want to do that.

What advice can you give people who are considering learning to dance tango?
Take advantage of this dance being one that doesn’t require a dance background. It’s great for you health, is challenging for your brain and it lets you learn about life through dance. In the meantime you have a lot of fun meeting people while listening to the beautiful songs of Argentine tango.

What is your teaching philosophy?
To never forget that as teachers, we are students of our students. A teacher should let them selves be part of the learning process while having fun breaking down the walls that our shyness and lack of confidence build. Learning should be fun. A good teacher gives you tools that you need to reach the concepts that he/she presents during the class.

How can dancing tango change people and their lives?
Have you ever seen our video when we were teaching tango for the blind? I remember the first class when they all those had to walk upstairs to take the class. They were all taken by the hand. We gave the class and 1 hour later they went downstairs with such confidence and without any help. That was the day I understood your question.

Because of the intimacy of the embrace and the social aspects involved with Argentine tango, this particular dance provides a space where we can feel safe to interact with people and feel close without any fears or misconceptions getting in the way.