I went to 5th Holiday Tango Weekend 2023 event in Dallas. Event Organizers were Hugo and Celina, inviting other professionals, many of whom are also event organizing dancers/teachers.
In a Hugo's speech, "maestros are who give".
Tango world is supported by a lot of maestros/maestras who give a lot to the community, as well as dancers and volunteers who are willing. They put everything together and the event was great.
This year, they changed the venue to Hyatt Regency DFW International Airport. A nice hotel. Dance events at airport hotel can increase convenience for traveling/flying-in dancers.
You can be busy at dance events. Classes, practice, private lessons, shows and milongas. Tango events usually do not have amateur competition components, but if they are there (as in West Coast Swing events), or if you are a part of team performance needing practice, you may not even have time for sightseeing or checking out nice restaurants in the town. Three days can just fly.
Well, we are there to dance. Let it be.
I drove from Oklahoma City on Friday afternoon, and attended Friday, Saturday and Sunday milongas and shows.
Stage Tango dancers and aspiring trainees are impressive dancers. (or by definition, they should be).
When they perform on stage, the Tango are usually choreographed pieces/routines, and moves are "compressed", so to speak.
Fancy moves and patterns one after another, occurring flawlessly and fast enough to overwhelm audience's processing. That is certainly a surefire way to impress.
To be able to pull that off, stage dancers have internalized Tango basics, as well as adding embellishments to the basics done with the music. That is why we can tell "stage dancers" just by looking at how they move.
For dance auditions, they say "show us what you've got".
We do not need long time to see the quality of motions, or strong presence as a dancer. For youtube videos, I would only need 15 seconds to know if they have it or not.
And, in Tango, "what you've got" is evident even at the first embrace.
I wrote this segment "Stage tango dancers...the first embrace" as a lengthy intro, because I was intrigued by a female stage pro at social dance in late Sunday night.
Usually, I can tell how my partner's body is moving. And, since I am leading, how her body should be moving. An analogy would be feeling gears (joints), power train (axes) and transmissions (her taking time for dancing and adding something to the dance, which would be her part of contribution to the dance). Stage pros are always smooth, but I can still tell how much time she is taking to rotate her hips, or how far she is stretching her stride, so that I can also step at the appropriate balance point. There is some anatomy involved and dance can feel with more substance, or less so.
She felt a lot lighter. Even among female pros, she was one of most airy ones, which is a sign of her holding herself exceptionally well. As the song was Vals, we could just use energy flow to travel fast, and it was a lot faster than usual dances.
Interesting.
My body resisters such interesting dances, and processes the experience. It would adopt to the lighter energy flow, and also I'd start watching dances that show similar energy flow, so that I may be able to offer a more interesting dance to her next time.
[Friday "Colors" night 12/9/2023, most in this photo are from Oklahoma]
There were many of such interesting times during the event, in some conversation and in practica. I'll write them down later.
