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--TangoMagia
festival in Amsterdam, december 27-30, 2006
Photos
festival 2006
Pay a ticket and not see the
show...
This can happen to you when you visit
the Tangomagia festival in Amsterdam. Year
after year there's people who give up
trying to get a glimpse of the
danceperformances in festival locations
like the Arena Hotel as well as The Roxy
earlier. Less polite visitors elbow
themselves to the front rows and of course
the organisors never need to fight for
their view. Those who travel from far
however may need to.
Organising a festival means working
like a dog, and mistakes happen, but
neglecting the ever returning problems is
not care full. Known
problems need to be looked into and then
solved.
The first two days of the
festival
In 2005 I've enjoyed dancing in the
Arena Hotel more than this year. I'm a bit
puzzled. Because of the two (and a half)
dancefloors being rather small, it's
packed (to european standards) and people
should dance controlled and mind the flow.
Most of them do, but too many don't.
It needs only one leader who decides to
start 'practising' the spectacular move
from his earlier workshop to keep
everybody behind him waiting, and soon
he's blocking the flow of the entire
milonga with that. Is it the steps learned
in the workshops that need that space?
Not impressed
The performances of 'the maestros' at
these first two festival nights haven't I
enjoyed much. Of course there were plenty
of people who did. I saw a load of fun
tricks & stunts, and a 'circus', and
exactly that what I don't like in ballroom
dance contests: people trained as
machines. I missed that other kind of
perfection: elegance and most of all:
sensuality. Technique is one thing, but
then its important what you do with it!
When I saw them dance between all the
other couples in the milonga (26, 27, 28
dec) they received my admiration. During
the 'presentation of the maestros' at the
first night, a dance by all teaching
couples of the festival, I was anxious to
see more. Now that I have seen more, I'm
dissappointed. Please, maestros, reduce
the amount of jumps and stunts and then
see if you may fill the enormous gaps with
some of your tango de salon!
Rob Nuijten / the editor
Photos
dec 2006 Dec 29 and 30, the third fourth
Tangomagia festival nights in
Amsterdam.
One large dancefloor, the third night,
plenty of room and the orchestra Tipica
Silencio playing a few more sets in the
milonga after their official concert. I
think all will agree that having the
orchestra playing in the milonga was quite
a treat. The dance performances by
Sebastian & Mariana were in a
different speed as we saw of them earlier.
This night they chose to be slow and
sensual. Like the other years they knew
how to combine musicality, sensuality,
spectacular moves and elegance. They've
even introduced lots of new moves. At the closing night, it were Chicho
and Lucia who contributed with their dance
performances. There were lots of poses
with Lucias legs high, Chicho holding one
of her feet, slowly manouvring towards
another position. Original creations to be
added to the tangosteps repertory (The
night before, Sebastian and Mariana had
however given away many of these new moves
already). Because of the originality of
the choreographies, that were actually
playful, I thought it also made it look a
bit complexe, also for the dancers
themselves. Therefor, in my experience,
their second dance, a milonga, was more
like really dancing. The couple was
generous in the amount of dances they gave
us, asl all the couples of this festival.
Of course the music Chicho had chosen was
often original, although their second
'otra' was an upbeat old tango. Like the
first and second night, I thought I've
seen better performances of the maestros
of the night, where playfulness and
musicality were at a higher level. The
audience was very enthusiastic and
applauded them warmly.
The dancefloor of this location seemed
not large enough for the gathered crowd.
Last year about 25% couldn't reach this
milonga due to snowfall, but this year all
were obviously there, and it was packed.
Combined with too many 'little maestros'
who never learned how to behave in a
crowded milonga, showing off their steps,
it took awhile before the floor was
danceable.
Rob Nuijten, the editor
Photos
dec 2006 |
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