Message from Kace and May
In June 1999, we
invited a pair of tango instructors to come
to Singapore to conduct a course on Argentine Tango.
Gladys Fernandez and Ricardo Gallo were on their
way to teach in Hong Kong, so they were able to make a
detour to stop in Singapore for an extra week.
It was a gamble: we were proposing to hold
a tango workshop at a time when nobody in Singapore
dance the tango. Many dancers did not even know what
tango music sounds like.
Nevertheless
it was
a chance we were willing to take, because
we have seen vibrant
tango communities in the US and Europe, and we
believed Singapore's cosmopolitan population could develop a similar
scene as well.
So we plunged ahead.
Imagine how we couldn't believe our eyes when, on the first day of the workshop,
100 people came to listen to the presentation. By the last
day, when we hold the milonga to end the workshop, the number of
guests had grown to almost 200.
With such an promising start, we had no doubt tango will
become big. We quickly started weekly
practicas, and began scheduling follow-up
workshops and milongas.
This was the beginning of a tango passion that
has burned continuously over the past 8 years,
touched many lives, and brought more than a dozen
couples together. More than 30 maestro workshops have been
held since then, with total participation exceeding 500
people.
After 6 years as a hobby, some of us have switched
to tango as a career. We formed a company
to disseminate quality tango training and resources across the region,
and opened Asia's first and only Argentine Tango
cultural centre -- namely, Abrazos --
in December last year.
It has been a long ride that could not have happened without
the right people to support it.
We are grateful that early tango participants
have stayed by our side, and many of our students
have matured to take on leadership roles
in this community.
They are the pillars for the
next generation, and they will perpetuate
the bedrock values -- of cooperation and inclusiveness --
that bonded the earlier generation.
On this 8th anniversary, my sincere hope is for our
community to regain its bedrock community value,
and reembark on the path towards
the Golden Age of creativity, excellence and inclusiveness.
Kace and May
