Why the tango guitar duo ‘Villareal Crom’ is so popular with dancers When I rang the doorbell on that sunny spring afternoon in North Oakland, the neighborhood that is known as…
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“You have to learn to accept compliments”
A conversation with tango singer Claudio Ortega At a recent milonga at the ‘Hidden City Ballroom’ on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay Area, I listened to Claudio Ortega…
Joe Powers – a Ray of Light
It was late last fall when we finally caught a ray of light in our gloomy pandemic tango world in the Hudson Valley. Joe Powers, the world-famous harmonica player from Portland, Oregon, paid a visit to our scattered community three thousand miles away from his home and delighted us with a lively performance and an engaging lecture about the long history of his small musical instrument. I was surprised to see so many of our local tangueros in the audience, few of whom had come to the sporadic dance events that had been organized during the summer. Now, apparently, they felt that it was safe enough. It seemed that we had finally left the worst of the pandemic behind us and there was a sense of relief and happiness in the air.
Tango Festivals during Covid: Organizers are attempting a balancing act
Organizers are attempting a balancing act
After thirteen months of being almost exclusively online, Argentine tango is gradually making its comeback to the real world, that is, here, in the USA. From small private gatherings to public outdoor milongas and even some of the better known tango festivals, tango dancing in person is bit by bit becoming a reality again. The first signs could be seen back in March when a handful of festival organizers began to announce that their national events would return this summer, foremost of which were the ‘Windy City Tango Festival’ in Chicago, ‘Burning Tango’ and ‘ATUSA’ in Northern California, and the ‘Tucson Tango Festival’. These popular nationwide events which usually attract a tango crowd of several hundred or more dancers are scheduled to take place as early as June and July, despite ongoing Covid restrictions in most states. And registrations from all over the country have been going strong.
Where are the dancers?
Tango guest-houses have seen few or no guests at all this past year
The closing of milongas due to the Covid lockdown has been lamented a lot this past year. The absence of dancing together in a physical space and the lack of real togetherness has been painful for many dancers, mostly on a social and emotional level. But organizers, hosts, and owners of dance venues that have had to shut down have also suffered often devastating financial losses.
Tango pros: How are they doing now? (Last)
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened had I stayed in Buenos Aires last spring. My visit was cut short by the outbreak of the pandemic. I had arrived in the first days of March, not sure whether I had done the right thing by sticking to my travel plan and not sure what to expect. My plan had been to spend several weeks in Buenos Aires studying Spanish in the morning and tango in the afternoon. The first cases of Covid-19 had arrivd in the USA, but Argentina still seemed a safe place. I was naïve, as were most of us. But I had no idea how quickly the virus was going to spread, and that it in no time it would turn into a pandemic.