Holland: family, friends and tango

It has been quiet on this blog for almost 4 months! During my 3 months back in the Netherlands I did not get to blog at all.


To pick up where I left, let's start with a short resume of my 'summer' (lousy weather) in Holland:


Fortunately I succeeded to meet and catch up with my family and with (most of) my friends; so nice! 
And I really enjoyed my house, garden and cat...cosy.


Further I spent quite a lot of time on tango. 
Dancing (about 2-3 times per month), DJ-ing (and of course many hours of preparing for the) 4 gigs I had and writing two articles for La Cadena, the Dutch tango magazine. 
One about Tango in Mumbai, 4 pages, with my own pictures. I made the set up in english, then edited and translated it in Dutch, then translated back the final version (as published) in english and finally sent copies of the magazine plus the translation to my contacts in India. 
After that I wrote an interview with a rising star in tango: Peninsula Cho, a Korean lady. Same time-consuming procedure. The editors gave me 4 pages again AND the front cover!
In both cases I am very happy with the result.


Since a couple of days I am back in Singapore and today I already prepared for another DJgig, tonight at Abrazos.


We will be here for 2 weeks, followed by 2 months in India (Pune, most likely), after that 2 weeks in Singapore and then back to Holland for me.


Looking forward to some months of traveling, photographing, exploring and blogging. Hopefully you will follow my adventures; let me be your eyes and ears out there,  while you sit comfortably on your couch;-).






For the tango-adepts I add the articles about Peninsula Cho and about Tango in Mumbai, both as published (in Dutch) as in the english translation:

Peninsula Cho: leading lady from Corea, small posture, big ambitions

On YouTube I came across a video from two young Corean women dancing together beautifully. Intrigued I tried to find out more about them on the web. Finally I succeeded to get into contact with the leading lady, Peninsula, via Facebook. A passionate, ambitious Corean woman that stood at the birth of tango in her country ten years ago. An interview with a tiny lady full of big ambitions.

Peninsula Cho turns out not only to dance tango, but she also teaches, performs and does tango choreographies for famous pop artists and for the musical Evita. When she is not busy with tango, she teaches latin-american culture at high schools and universities.

Peninsulares

Her Corean name is Cho Myoung Hee. When traveling to Buenos Aires for the first time however, she decides to call herself Peninsula, after the spanish word 'Peninsulares', referring  to the residents of the area around the river La Plata. "I chose this name first of all because of my fascination with Latin-American history and secondly because we Coreans live in Han, peninsula of East-Asia, making us a sort of Peninsulares ourselves.", she explains.

Forever Tango as eye-opener

Peninsula's parents sent her as a child  to lessons of ballet, modern dance, piano and violin. But when she saw the show Forever Tango in 1997, it touched her profoundly. "I saw something in the Argentine Tango that I missed in modern dance and ballet. Although the dancers in the show were clearly well-trained and professional dancers with a lot of technique, the show still had elements that you could describe as primitive, unusual and even almost clumsy. It opened my eyes and I decided on the spot that one day I would learn to dance tango!".

From online learning to Buenos Aires

Three years later, in 2000, that moment had come. Peninsula met some people via the internet, that shared her interest in the Argentine Tango. Eager and enthusiastic they together searched on the web for whatever availble material from which they could learn and practice. Together they practiced endlessly. After a while Peninsula felt that this way of learning was too limited. Together with a friend she decided to go to Buenos Aires. "The maestros, the milongas, it was a true Mekka for me! The first teacher I met was Juan Carlos Copes. He tought me to move in a natural and comfortable way. Until now that is still my main criterium."

Once back from Buenos Aires, Peninsula started a tango community in Corea and a year later a tango-showteam, both named Tango Arte.

She also started to teach tango and initiated the -by now well-known- tango festival 'Tango in Seoul'.

"Every time when I reached the limits of my abilities, I booked a flight to Buenos Aires. There I took lessons from respected maestros, visited practica's and milongas, learned Porteno and refueled my energy and knowledge. I did this 6 times until today."

Following and/or leading?

In 2005 her dance partner was involved in a car accident due to which he was not able to dance any longer. Peninsula felt more and more the need to be able to dance with her own musicality. She felt limited by her following role and decided to learn how to lead in order to find more freedom in musical interpretation while dancing.

"I found it much harder to become a good leader then it had been to become a good follower. Already physically, since I need strength and technique in order to be able to lead my lady in a safe and comfortable way." To build up muscles, Peninsula therefor does 200 pushups daily. Further more she learned how to express her musicality in 'sentences' and accents in her body and dance. By herself she practices basics like walking and ochos every day.

Performing

Peninsula performs since 10 years as a follower, both salon-style and choreographed. She has performed both in Corea as e.g. in Confiteria Ideal, with many different dance partners.

In april 2011 she performed as a leader for the first time. Someone filmed it and put it on YouTube. This lead to lots of enthusiastic reactions from all over the world. "I received mails, compliments and invites for festivals in the US and in Europe. If my agenda for 2013 allows me, I hope to be able to follow up on some of those invites."

She practiced a lot with one of her best students, Jinsuk Muchacha, with whom she performs and teaches since 2009. "It was a long, hard road, but step by step we made progress and we had a lot of fun while learning and practicing." She calls Jinsuk "…a very nice lady, who is involved in tango passionately since about 8 years. We practice 3 times per week.

Nowadays I actually prefer dancing as a leader above as a follower. Since 2005 I focus mainly on my leading whenever I go to Buenos Aires. Back in Corea I then train my following assistant."

Costume

One of the things I noticed in the YouTube film was Peninsula's outfit. Her frail, small body dressed up in a white, classical men's suit with tie, the hair combed back with gel.

"Out of respect for tango history and -tradition, I dress in a suit, like the tangueros wore around 1940, the golden era of tango. The Argentine Tango got World Heritage status from Unesco for good reason.", Peninsula explains.

"When I go to a salon I dance with everyone; men, women, followers, leaders. I praise myself lucky that I like it all and that I can dance it all! Then  I usually wear trousers, a shirt and mens shoes. For me that is a suitable outfit for both roles. Leading on 8 cm heels I find unstable and dangerous for the follower. You have to be able to protect and 'hold' her in case something would go wrong. Flat shoes give me more freedom and stability."

Different maestros, different lessons

Peninsula says she learned wise lessons from many different teachers. Then she talks about her meeting the maestros that would mean a turning point in her tangolife: Carlos and Rosa Perez. "I met them in january 2011. The couple runs a huge practice in Sunderland. Carlos Perez is a Viejo Milonguero and is considered a legend, so I was quite nervous when I met him", confesses Peninsula. "Besides that, not all my experiences with the old milongeuros had been that pleasant. I walked up to him, made a small bow and asked politely if he would allow me to take lessons with the men. He looked puzzled and asked me why. In poor spanish I told him that I came all the way from Corea to learn the leading role and that I had no male dance partner in Corea. He still found it a bit strange, but he allowed me."

Carlos taught her all about the embrace (abrazo), standing (ponerse) and walking (caminar), for him the three key elements of tango. But his most important lesson is when he tells her: "If you want to become a good leader, you have to love and cherish your follower. Dance with your heart (corazon)!". Peninsula tells me that this was a real eye opener for her: "It was then that I realized that until then, I had danced with my body and not with my heart and soul. Carlos wanted me to dance with the 'essence' of a man, not as woman 'playing' to be a man."

Shocking experience transformed into extra motivation

Peninsula is not always and everywhere accepted as a leader. "In 2010 Jinsuk and I went to Buenos Aires to further improve my leading. In the first salon we visited, La Cachurilo,  we first both danced as followers for a couple of hours. Then we went on the floor to dance with each other. However, Hector, the organizer, came to us and removed us from the floor, stating: "No same sex dancing here! Go somewhere else." I was deeply shocked and hurt."

On the spot Peninsula decides to work on her leading skills even harder. "If I wanted to be accepted and respected  as a leader in milonga's, I would have to become better then most men."

In the end all her hard work pays of, since she and Jinsuk are even asked to perform in milongas in Buenos Aires.

The public rejection in La Cachurilo has not only hurt Peninsula on a personal level. "As may be clear after what I said earlier, I deeply respect the history and tradition of tango. At the same time I think that we live in the 21st century. Tango comes from folk history and should -as far as I am concerned- be freely danced by everybody with everybody. No discrimination.", she declares with fire. "The number of women-dancing-with-women in Corea grows, but I know no male same sex tango couples yet."

Tango in Corea

In her birth country nobody finds it weird that Peninsula leads. Logical, when you consider that she stood at the cradle of tango there. The growing community evolved with her, step by step.

As said, the tango in Corea started about 10 years ago with a handful of 20somethings who explored tango from scratch. The same open and eager to learn attitude is still found in today's Corean tango community. "Tango in Corea is young, energetic and fun. Foreigners call Seoul the Buenos Aires from Asia for good reason!". And it's true; the last year I regularly hear positive stories about tango in Corea, especially that the men are good leaders. Peninsula confirms these stories:"The level in Corea is indeed high, compared to other places I danced, like Japan, China, Rome and Paris."

Apparently not only the quality is good, but also the quantity, listening to what Peninsula says about that:"There is a lot of tango going on in Corea. In Seoul there are 5 regular milongas per week. On weekdays you will find 30-40 people there, on weekends 100+, incidentally going to 200." She tells me that further there are salons in cities like Daejon, Busan, Kwang-Ju en Jeon-Ju. Dancers travel far for their favourite milongas and their preferred dancers.

There is no shortage of DJ's either, since many dancers became enthusiastic DJ's. Next to that occasionally foreign DJ's are invited.

As everywhere else in the world, different people prefer different dance styles within the Corean tango community. Peninsula herself prefers the traditional tango:"When I think of myself as an old lady with grey hair and a bent back, I see myself dancing to Canaro.", she laughs, at the end of the interview.

And here is the article about Tango in Mumbai as it was published in La Cadena.

And translated in English:

Tango in Mumbai: small but nice

The tangoscene in Mumbai is tiny. On 17 million inhabitantsthere are only 35 tango dancers! They can visit once or twice a month the tangosalon organised by actrice Kitu Gidwani. Further there is a small tangoschool with a handfull of students, run by Vivek Yadav. He also orgniases a salon which is meant to be weekly, if not cancelled because nobody shows up. What could be the reason taht the Mumbaikar are not (yet) so enthusiastic about the tango?

Whenever I travel, I check on the internet for tango on my destination and try to find out who the local contacts are. That way I had already arranged some DJ gigs before even setting foot in Mumbai. My main contact was actrice Kitu Gidwani, a local celebrity, who organises a salon omce or twice a month.

City of contrasts

Kitu's salons take place in bar-restaurant Cool Chef Cafe, located on quite an obscure spot near the water. As soon as I step out of the taxi, the smell of rotten fish and garbage smacks me in the face. In the weak light I see a big rat running away on my left, while a brown cow is grazing in a pile of garbage on my right. Some people are gathered around a fire on which something is being cooked. CCC itself looks nice from the outside as well as from the inside: bright colors, graffity and a funky decor.

On weekends the place is loaded, mainly due to the dance space here also the milonga's are held. The two milonga's I visited there (as a dancer and as DJ) were attended by approx 20 pax.

Kitu liked to have DJ lesson, as she called it, so she invited me for lunch at her home. She lives alone in her parental house; a spacious, charming flat with a huge roofterrace. From there she looks at the biggest and most expensice private skyscraper, built by India's richest man fr his family. The contrast between rich and poor is gigantic here: millions of people are really poor. The local tango dancers may not necessarily be rich, but for sure they do not belong to this poor part of society.

We did not only talk about tangomusic and -DJing, but also about how hard it is to make the local tangocommunity grow. Kitu told me she is trying that since four years. She is disappointed and has no clue to why it does not grow faster. Maybe the tango is too introverted for the Indian personality...?

Foreign visitors

Like everywhere else in the world here too there are fortunately visiting maestro's, dancers and DJ's from abroad passing by, who are received with open arms. Take for instance Malou, a swiss lady who, together with her partner Tim, travels the world, teaching and performing tango, jazz and lindy hop. Mumbai has been her base for the last four years. "Our idea to start lindyhop lessons here was not a big success", she tells me, without any sign of defeat by the way."With our tangolessons it goes better, but it remains difficult and hard work. Indians are used to learning many different dances and mainly by copying the teacher's steps. To focus on one dance for years and study technique for a long time is unusual. It is considered way too difficult, tidious and not that cool.

Kitu's story confirms this:" No, I did not fall in love with the tango right away; much too difficult. Only when I fell in love with the music I started to like the dance as well."

Malou continues: " Also the long distances in combination with the congested traffic ( so long travel times) and the long working hours make it hard for people to be able and prepared to come to weekly classes."

But not everybody sees that as a problem. Kalyan, a tangodancer from Pune, travels  four and a half hours forth and four and a half hour back by bus for every tangoevent in Mumbai! That means that he comes back home around 4 in the night, sleeps 3 hours and then leaves for his work. And that to attend a milonga that may be attended by 25 dancers on a peakday but as well as by only 5 dancers on other occasions. No problem for Kalyan: "In Pune is no tango, so if I want to dance, I have to travel to Mumbai."

Social event

That the social aspect is important for Kalyan - and for many of the ther dancers- becomes clear during a cosy, informal home milonga that I attend. Darius and his wife Sonia invite tangueros from time to time for an evening of tango dancing, eating and drinking together and watching cricket on TV in their house in good company. The living room of their bungalow, with a lovely garden all around with 6 cats and a dog, is emptied for the occasion. The dancer from Pune who travelled 9 hours for this event, is - along with my not tangodancing husband- more watching cricket on TV in the loungeroom them that he is dancing. And when, around 11 in the evening, Sonia presents a homemade meal, most people are more eating and chatting then dancing.

Expats

Vivek,the local dance instructor who also teaches tango, tells me that in Delhi there is tano since 15 years already. "Here in Mumbai we only started about 4 years agao, therefor the tangoscene he is smaller then in Delhi, where there are about 75 tango dancers and 3 weekly salons. Also half of the dancers in Delhi are expats, while here in Mumbai we mainly have locals."

Malou explains the absence of expats in the Mumbai tango scene by the kind of companies and jobs here. According to her many expat jobs here are short term which makes that expats come and go. Not a lot of continuity. "Everybody leaves again.", she sighs. Not that there are really zero expats in the tango community in Mumbai. Take Chloe, a woman from Montreal, who came here 3 years ago to study the Indian flute. About 7 years ago, she already took a beginners course tango in Montreal, but was not bitten by the bug then. Snce a couple of months she takes lessons from Vivek in exchange for flute lessons for him. "Only now the click with tango is there.", she tells me, "Back then I was too much in control. Now I can surrender and just follow. Only too bad that they do not play more with variation here. Always the same music is a bit boring." She is not the only one is despair for more tangomusic, since several people would love to copy my whole music librabry.

Religion

As far as tastes and styles in music and dance go: one prefers traditional, the other prefers neo, just as in any other tango community. There does seem to be a special fascination for Di Sarli, I don't know exactly why. For the rest most people here dance close embrace. There are about as many women as men in this tango scene. And people come from different religions and cultural backgrounds. Some dancers think that religion is not a factor in who would and would not dance tango. Others think it may play a role. "Dancing with somebody else then your own husband or wife is not easy for some people.", says Darius.

Artistic climat

Personally I find Mumbai a totally overwhelming and chaotic city. So I was surprised to meet 3 foreign women who came to Mumbai and fell in love with it. Apparently it is that kind of city that has a good community and vibe for artists, musicians and dancers. You an study and learn all sorts of things. Lessons are affordable and in a small community your talent and enthousiasme may make you stand out more easily. So you may be able to develop yourself faster and start performing sooner. Malou gives an additional reason for what connects her to Mumbai: her voluntary work with local  streetchildren.

Tangofestival in hippie town

As said, the Mumbaikar tangueros take any opportunity to dance tango.

During the Holi Festival Auroville -City of Sunrise- organised its first tango festival. Auroville is an experimental city in South India. A sort of ideological hippie colony, concluding from their slogan:"Auroville is meant to be a universal city where men and women from all nations can live together in peace and harmony in human unity." It is inhabited by 1500 adults and 500 children from 43 nationalities. More then one third is originally from India.

About 8 people from the Mumbai tango scene went to the festival in Auroville. They told me that it had been a bit of a culture shock. Funny to hear locals say that. But understandable, since Mumbai's tango dancers are generally not poor, so to speak. The accomodations in Auroville had been quite modest and without airco, despite the heat. Distances between locations were big, while it was not possible to just take a taxi, like in Mumbai. So the dancers had to bike or rent a scooter. Trying to manoevre over sandy roads. The first evening salon was in the open air, without lights, so basically in the dark. Not easy to cabaceo;-). The music seemed at random, without using tanda's. The last evening salon was on a roof terrace with a rough mosaic floor which was hard on high heels. But on the other hand: there were about 100 dancers, some good maestros and some nice dancers, so I was tood. And it is a gorgeous place with very kind inhabitants.

So wether it is due to the Indian personality, religion, traffic jams or the contrast betweetn poor and rich: tango in Mumbai is still small. But I expect to return to Mumbai. And hopefully I will find a growing tango scene, holding on to it's present charme and accessibility. Namaste!