Third Tango Stop - Cleveland, OH

Carmen:



The class and milonga were at Timmy and Joanne Pogros' house, affectionately named Alegria. It is located in North Ridgeville, a west suburb of Cleveland Ohio. Dancers started showing up around 6:30 for the musicality class. It was our third run of the class and was the first time that the material really started to click. Andrew began the class with an explanation of what makes tango sound like tango music, and then we moved to talking about marcatto in 2 using Andrew's accompaniment and then Di Sarli's El Choclo as an example. Avik showed how to use slow walking beats and pauses for marcatto in 2. Next we moved to marcatto in 4, talking about how to use quick steps. Andrew and I played La Cumparsita and we used late 30s D'Arienzo's recording. Next, Avik explained syncopa rhythm, what it is, how to find it, and movement possibilities for dancing it. Andrew and I played La Cumparsita again, marking the first phrase change with a syncopa. Then, I suggested that we use Calo's Jamas Retornaras as another example of how to anticipate a phrase change/pause that if followed by a syncopa. One of the students in the class asked if every tango had syncopa and I realized for the first time that I couldn't think of a single tango that didn't have syncopa somewhere in it.

The milonga was lively, with some of Joanne's homemade food especially her stuffed pastries with cheese, ham, and spinach. It was the last night of traveling and dancing with the Ann Arbor posse, Alan, Gabriela, and Patricia before we are off toward Denver.