This Saturday evening, come down to the Alliance Francaise for a milonga party with la différence -- the scene is a French style literary cafe where you can sample gourmet wine and Gallic-style cooking. Come down early to have dinner (average meal $10-15) at 6.30pm, then take a free sampler class at 7.30pm, followed by dancing until 11.30pm. There is no cover charge or minimum spending! Can you say Oui Oui?

Sat 10/apr
Le Troquet
1 Sarkies Road 
(5 minutes from Newton MRT)
Tel: 6736-1070 

Upcoming Workshops + Milongas: The second quarter of this year will be a busy time for learning, as we welcome the return of three popular couples:

• Argentina: Gato Valdez and Andrea Monti (21-28 Apr)
• Uruguay: Esteban Cortez and Evelyn Rivera (16-31 May)
• Argentina: Gladys Fernandez and Ricardo Gallo (9-16 Jun)

Each of them will conduct their own workshops for beginners, intermediates and advanced, and will also be available for private sessions during their stay. The cost of each 90-minute group lesson is $35 and 60-minute private session is $140 per couple, with discounts for bulk booking.

Naturally they will also be gracing our milongas, held especially to coincide with their visit, at the Singapore History Museum (Riverside Point level 3) foyer on these dates:

• Fri 23/apr with Gato and Andrea
• Fri 21/may with Esteban and Evelyn
• Fri 11/jun with Gladys and Ricardo

Stay tuned for the latest updates next week!

Coordinating Local Events Organisers: There is only so much that a visiting teacher can cram in a few days, no matter how brilliant he or she is. The task of drilling and coaching dancers, and inducting new learners fall invariably on the local instructors.

We are lucky that, as they get more experienced, a number of our tangueros have taken on teaching duties in the past few years. They include:

• Kace and May at Jitterbugs,
• Karen at History Museum, YMCA and Substation,
• Zie at A&J Dance Centre and Singapore Repertory Theatre,
• Markov, Hoe, Wai Chung and Jeremy at Xenbar,
• Kenny and Belinda at People Association and SDS,
• Janet and Louis, choreographers for the tango troupe

This is a good trend as it will help to accelerate the growth of tango with many people pulling. Now we have to make sure they are all pulling in the same direction.

To achieve this, everyone must start to update everyone else of their activities and seminars, even at the planning and discussion phases. This will help to avoid duplication of task, help generate support, and obtain accurate feedback from potential audiences.

One good technology to achieve this is a web log, which allows anyone to post a news item and others to add comments to it. Mailing lists are too intrusive and often off-topic; a forum is too diffused to maintain a discussion. We'll put a blog on our website soon -- stay tuned.

Tango Performance Troupe: In case you have not heard: we now have our very own tango performance troupe. This group has already performed three times in public in the past few weeks: at the Jitterbugs grand opening and National Arts Council public showcase in Toa Payoh in March, and at the Red Cross charity fair last week.

Although many couples have performed in public in the past, and we encourage everyone to perform on stage if they have the opportunity, the bottom line is that stage dancers must choreograph and polish their dance to wow the audience. It would be next to impossible to do spectacular group numbers if the dancers do not rehearse together regularly.

So with the support of Jitterbugs the troupe was put together in February, and given a weekly time slot (every Saturday 6-9pm) to train. Membership in this troupe is open to anyone keen to train with the group -- but check with the troupe first to confirm the dates of rehearsal.

Currently it has Louis, Janet Nio, Janet Phang, Marisa, Jeremy, Jimmy, Charles, Valerie, and Karen; plus a few "guests" who pop in now and then. At press time, the name of the group is still being debated on.

Newbies in Argentina: In January to March I spent six weeks in Buenos Aires, a trip that I have planned three years ago but only managed to execute now. It turned to be a luck break since the peso is now trading at 2.9 to the US dollar (it was 1:1 three years ago) -- effectively making everything 2/3 cheaper.

The entire travelogue will fill a book, so I will elaborate some other time. But here is a short list of highlights to whet your appetite:

• Tango is really the heartbeat of Buenos Aires -- you hear it in stores, on the street, at restaurants. Almost every older porteno knows several tango lyrics by heart. Pictures, posters, murals and plaques of historical tango celebrities are everywhere, even outside tourists areas. There is nothing "for export" about this.
  
  
• The best weather in BsAs is in March and October, with almost constant sunshine and outdoor temperatures of around 20 degree, making alfresco dining and dancing very comfortable. January is as hot as Singapore, but airconditioning is not common.
  
  
• Cost of living is ridiculously cheap by Singapore standard -- a steak dinner for two costs S$10, wine is cheaper than soft drink, and you can rent a whole apartment downtown for S$500 a month. Buses cost S$0.50 per trip, and run 24 hours through almost every major road. The city is completely flat and laid out in square grids so it is easy to navigate, and if you prefer to take taxis, there are reputedly 60,000 of them plying the street!
  
  
• In BsAs you have to sleep in the day and wake up at night, because milongas run daily from 11pm to 5am (with the biggest crowd at around 2am). If you cannot make the switch, don't worry -- there are also "matinee" sessions which run from 3-9pm, but the quality of dancers are much less impressive.
  
  
• The city celebrated two major cultural events during my stay. The first is the Argentine version of the Carnival, called "murga". Kids and poorer people neighbourhoods all around BsAs compete to create the most amount of festive chaos through face painting, colourful home-made costumes, street dancing, and parading down the street accompanied by drum beats and whistles.
  
  
• The second event is the Buenos Aires Tango Festival organised by the local city government. This is meant more for the local citizens and not tourists -- all the concerts, classes and shows are in Spanish and tickets have to be collected by queueing up in the morning -- but almost everything is free. Unfortunately, the closing act, an enormous street milonga party for 10,000 people, was cancelled at the last moment due to drizzle.
  
  
• The celebrated musical "Tanguera" was doing a six week run in BsAs after its triumphant tour of China. I was thrilled I could see it even though it did not tour Singapore. BsAs is like Broadway in that there are dozens of tango musical shows every week, and many dancers also can act.
  
  
• Finally, you must learn Spanish before you take off to Argentina. English is not widely spoken, even among young people. Don't assume you can read the signs either -- an 'M' on toilet door may mean a Woman ('Mujer'), not Man; a 'C' on a tap means Hot ('Caliente'), not Cold. Ouch.