A year has passed... and there's so much to catch up on. We talked about Alberto and Paulina's recent tour of San Diego and San Francisco. There's also their upcoming trip to teach at the Chicago Mini Tango Festival on April 8, 2010. Alberto and Paulina both have very busy schedules. It seems that every single day of Alberto's schedule is filled with classes and other appointments with his students, and during a few of the days of our stay, Paulina had to work until 10 p.m. at night at the University, where she is a Professor of Philosophy.Every year, Alberto checks our progress. While I never give Alberto anything to worry about (ha ha! as I would say quite humbly, "I'm an excellent student") - there's always something that Man Yung is doing that troubles Alberto. "Still with all those little tiny steps and inability to pause? Man Yung, I love you but you are a very impulsive dancer!"
Summary of a class with Alberto on March 16, 2010
... I'm only joking about Man Yung. In fact he has improved a lot in the past year - but the journey for leaders is much longer than for followers, and we are extremely lucky to have teachers like Alberto in Buenos Aires who could pinpoint exactly what needs correcting and offer us advice on how to improve the quality of our dancing.
We also followed Alberto and Paulina to the milongas. The milonga scene in Buenos Aires is always changing - some days the milongas at a certain venue would be terrific, and on other days (and sometimes other times on the same day) the milongas held at the same location would be terrifying. We didn't like the milonga we went to at Maipu 444 two years ago - but upon Alberto's advice, we went on a different day this year and encountered a milonga filled with the best local milongueros and milongueras (we even bumped into Adela Galeazzi and Roberto Segarra) and excellent music. What a difference a day makes!
On the Saturday before our return to Toronto, Alberto arranged a little get-together for us with Adela Galeazzi, Elba Biscay and other friends at Glorias Argentinas. We were able to capture some amazing footage of Alberto dancing vals with Paulina:
Alberto and Paulina - Vals at Glorias Argentinas
Everywhere we go, Alberto and Paulina always steal the show whenever they take to the dance floor. I've learned a lot by just watching Paulina dance. "Your feet have to caress the dance floor," she once said to me. When Paulina dances, she is always totally at one with the music and the lead - her dancing is so gentle and loving. That's something I have to learn how to do (if I could only stop thinking about Wal-Mart!)
An evening wouldn't be complete without a surprise. The surprise of this particular evening was that Alberto had made arrangements to perform with me at Glorias Argentinas!
Exhibition at Glorias Argentinas with Alberto
(ha ha Man Yung, you will have to wait for your turn next year!)
(ha ha Man Yung, you will have to wait for your turn next year!)
You know it's a surprise because if I had known beforehand I wouldn't have worn THE SAME LULULEMON TANK TOP AND SKIRT THAT I WORE IN VIDEOS OF ALBERTO I POSTED LAST YEAR. Now the whole world thinks I only own one outfit.
If you are in the Chicago area this week, don't miss the opportunity to learn from Alberto and Paulina at the Chicago Mini Tango Festival!
5 comments:
Dear Irene and Man Yung
Thanks so much for all the recent photos. I wasn't aware that I was depressed, but they have cheered me up a lot! Lovely to see Alberto at his front door again and to remember some very happy hours in that red-tiled room upstairs. & to see Osvaldo looking well, and to see Martha and Manolo, cheerful as ever... & the videos too! I got to watch Alberto and Paulina only at 444 on a Sunday night, which was very crowded, so their vals had a lot of pauses! 'Ah, que vals' said Alberto as we left: they were playing a tanda of D'Arienzo vals and he didn't want to go... Coca and Osvaldo in Confiteria: that's really 'muy lindo'. & I enjoyed Irene with Alberto too! (Even if she was thinking about Walmart... ha ha!)
Many thanks for reminding me of all I'm missing!
Dear Tangocommuter,
Was it that obvious that I was thinking about something else? But you have been DECEIVED! I was not thinking about Wal-Mart at all! In fact, I was thinking about:
1. If I knew that I was going to perform I would have decked myself out in something with more sequins and feathers. And preferably a fringe.
2. When Apple's iPad finally arrives in Canada on April 24, should I get the 32 gig or the 64 gig Wi-Fi only version, or should I wait for one with 3g capabilities? And what if the iPad has a tendency to explode like the 1st generation iPhone?
So many things to contemplate... It's a miracle that I can dance at all!
Buenos Aires is beautiful this time of year, and wonderful to see our teachers so well... makes us want to turn around and go right back!
Thanks for enjoying our recent posts and videos, even more to come soon...
Irene (and Man Yung)
Lovely, Irene. Maybe I should start thinking about gadgets while I'm dancing too :-)
Bravo, Irene! I'm sure your exhibition was really fun, and it's not that easy to dance to that v e r y slow Pugliese. Well done! (Nice shoes BTW.)
Dear Cherie and Johanna,
Thank you for your kind comments - and for abstaining from commenting about my sad non-variety of tango outfits ;) It was fun, but only because it was such a surprise I didn't have enough time to get terrified!
Irene
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