Pre-Covid Stories

  • Having the dance always in mind

    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 the birthplace of the Black Panther Party, Juan peeked through the opening of the heavy door where the names ‘Juan’ and ‘Patricio’ were…

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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 performing a number of traditional tango songs, ‘canciones’. It was a rare opportunity to hear live tango singing outside of Argentina where vocals…

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  • 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…

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