Tango and George Bernard Shaw, Malvern

Back home in Malvern, having left behind the frenzy of Buenos Aires, and surrounded now by soft greens of our English countryside, I find a new interesting historic connection. For some inexplicable reason I have always maintained that although Malvern is a small town, tango could still happen , being a place rich in art and culture, music and literature with Edward Elgar and George Bernard Shaw being perhaps two of our most famous associations.

Now we are getting ready for a new phase in our young tango club's development, as we have found a new venue for milongas. A beautiful Victorian gothic mansion in Great Malvern called "The Grove" has presented itself which lends itself perfectly to intimate tango soirées - it has a magical atmosphere within a private house and gardens, and the concert hall itself has known both Elgar and Shaw perform there. Thrilled to find out this romantic history I couldn't believe my eyes this weekend when at Birmingham attending the International Dance Festival at the Gallo Ciego Tango club, where I picked up some flyers and other tango papers by the door which I later read this morning. In " The 400 club" paper, an article titled "Tango and the man" Tom Keenes writes how George Bernard Shaw, author of 63 plays including Pygmalion (1913) actually did learn to tango in his later life and referred to this as "the only discoverable dance" - he apparently took tango lessons while on holiday for 6 weeks in Madeira and attributes his teacher Max Rinder as being "the only man who ever taught me anything!"

Maybe, when we dance tango in the dimly lit Grove concert hall perhaps with a fire crackling in the fireplace should the chilly weather so dictate, we'll be thinking of Sir George hoping he smiles on us too.

Our first milonga and tango workshops in a series of "summer tango soirées" will be next Saturday May 8th at The Grove, Avenue road, Malvern with teachers Loyd Vidal and Sandra Bernard who will also do a performance during the evening. (full details on the website at Tango Malvern.)

Tango Malvern web site is http://www.tangomalvern.com

Spas, Festivals and Parties!!

There is a lot happening in the tango world at the moment. Outside Malvern there are festivals happening all over Europe, with Edinburgh this weekend- wish we were going too, but it's a long way and eats up quite a few days in reality with the traveling involved, so as much as I absolutely loved going there last year, this time I allowed my sensible brian to dictate, stay in Worcestershire, save the train fares, and all that!
However, last weekend was a another matter as we drove over to Coventry to join the "Tango Spa", Tango Warwick's 2nd festival. Not a huge distance to drive, about an 1hr 15 mins, and a cheap hotel into the bargain! Credit crunch proof. Not only that, but we had the compete joy of joining workshops run by Ricardo Oria and Jenny Frances the top teachers themselves from Edinburgh! Their dancing is non other than beautiful, elegant and flowing, an inspiration to hold in our minds for a long time... The DJ workshop we took part in with Ricardo Peixoto, Rui "El Galerudo"Resende, and Ricardo Oria, was a highlight for us in what was a brilliant full-on learning weekend, for, in a "relaxed sitting around a table situation" we were able to fire questions at this amazing panel of expert DJs and dancers, really getting to the heart of what being a tango DJ is all about...now we have to finesse our skills on watching the dancefloor and selecting the right tangos at the right times!! (no small order..)
The "Tango Spa" certainly did live up to its "soak yourself in tango" promise.....well done and grateful thanks to Ricardo and Su for their energy and faultless organization!
Now, we need to get to work with plans for our own little tango fiesta, in the diary for the weekend of August 28th (Friday) and Saturday 29th , running into sunday if enough interest... We are very excited about this, as it will be the first of its kind in Malvern, and we know that tangueros will love the chance of walking and running, maybe even dancing a tango, across the stunning Malvern hills literally on our doorstep! A romantic location with a wonderful set of teachers, workshops and events into the bargain!
A beautiful airy modern village hall with excellent dance floor is already booked for the Friday and Saturday, with the possibility of a small marquee on the Sunday for mini workshops and garden tea party is being considered! "Marquee Malarkey" would do this if we go ahead, as we already have experience of their fabulous "Latin-American championship standard" portable dance floors, in effect enabling us to set up and tango virtually anywhere....
I might even get a chance to play some suitably English music of Edward Elgar when I serve the tea and scones in the garden!
Dream on... there's loads of work to do in the meantime...





Tango Malvern website is http://www.tangomalvern.com