Around Town
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THE BEST EVENTS, TALKS AND SPORT
>l< Simone de Beauvoir Celebrating the centenary of the great philosopher and theorist’s birth with a talk by Susan Bainbrigge (University of Edinburgh), followed by a documentary in French. Institut Francais d 'Ecosse, Edinburgh, Thu 31 Jan.
>l< Six Nations Rugby: Scotland vs France
If that sounds a bit too cordia/e an entente for you, why not grunt and yell for wur boys? Or girls, in fact. The men's and women's games are kicking off simultaneously. Murrayfie/d Stadium (men 's); Megget/and playing field (women '8), Edinburgh, Sun 3 Feb.
* VoxBox
New spoken word and music night. dreamed up from the fevered brains of Edinburgh performance poets Anita Govan and Kevin Cadwallender and running on the first Thursday of every month. Look out for slams. guest nights, and new writing sessions The Mercat Bar, Edinburgh, Thu 7 Feb.
* Waste Week
Want to know a little bit more about waste? Talks on recycling and composting, and. er, hands on sessions (we’re sure it'll be fine) all week. Edinburgh 200 from Mon 11 Feb.
Wht sOn
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It takes two
As Valentine’s Day looms, Kirstin Innes investigates Glasgow’s burgeoning fascination with the most sensual of dances, the tango
t‘s bucketing down on Buchanan Street with all the maudlin misery of your traditional (ilasgow winter. However. it you diyert up a side alley. local dancers are generating the sort of heat and wild. sensual rhythm better suited to the backroom ol‘ an Argentinian saloon.
Tango has been steadily. stealthin infecting the city since the mid-1990s. but took off properly in 2003. when the Tango Bar. at weekly milongu or social dance. started tip in the space below Blackl'riars. Now there are two. including ‘l-a Bordana~ in the gilded ballroom ol' Sloan's Bar. and classes for all leyels of experience on almost every day ol' the week.
This being an absolute beginners’ class. we're just going to concentrate on walking. Mike. one of our instructors. tells us. There are a few disappointed laces — perhaps we'd all hall-expected to be spinning oil into passionate. leg-flicking clinches. clenching roses between our teeth. at the end of an hour-long session. This is the lirst lesson to take in — we are learning Argentine tango. which is as far remoyed from the pelted lips and mock llounccs seen on programmes like Strictly Come Dancing as the Black liyed l’eas are from proper. raw hip hop. l'nlike the choreographed ‘ballroom tango’. Argentine tango is all improyised. the couples responding to what they hear in the music and building a dance around that. an accumulation of steps. and the connection between their bodies.
‘The music is the soul of the dance] says Stuart .\lc(‘artney. who coordinates (ilasgow 's tango entlitisiasts. ‘lt's what makes people leaye their seats and agree to a momentary seduction. which traditionally lasts three dances.
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‘A famous old maestro came across l‘rom Buenos Aircs to giyc a class a l‘ew years ago. I remetnbcr him saying to one (ilasgow couple: “There are three of you in the tango: you. your partner and the music. ll‘ it‘sjust you and your partner. this is not tango. You may as well go home and go to bed together".'
Tango dancers are separated into leaders and l‘ollowers. or ‘men' and ‘woinerr as they're tnore commonly known. 'Tango is a Very macho dancc.‘ one \cry eager ‘lcader‘ tells the later. ‘lt doesn't know about the women’s moyetnent.'
The trick. we learn. is to maintain a connection between leader and l‘ollower. which is channelled through a yery sensual energy between the dancers‘ chests and kept taut in the circular arm-grip. The most important thing l’or a 't‘ollower‘. l learn. is not to look at what the leader's feet are doing. Laura. Mike's partner. dances with her eyes hall-closed. responding immediately to Mike's smallest moyement.
Alter the class. as the milonga stretches out into the night. people come and bring their partners. and perhaps don't dance with them for most of the night — as .\lc('artney says. it's traditional to change dance partners eyery three dances. and each dancer brings something dil‘l‘erent out in the music. The tango itself is an act of lose e that 'momentary seduction’ only works through the connection between dancers.
Afterwards still walking in rhythm to remembered music. my partner and 1 base a small. slow tango under the street lights. making up the moves as we go.
See www.tangoglasgow.org.uk
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