Tuesday 2 June 2015

Social media / photography during social events /milongas


Social Tango to most of us is something we experience as personal, and even somewhat private. The more we dance the more intense the connection with our partners, ourselves and the music can be. Sometimes, the clicking of phones and cameras on the dance floor can be intrusive and even if it goes unnoticed whilst dancing, the aftermath  of the Facebook exposure later on can shatter the dream we had been enjoying during the actual event. How cruel those “snaps” can sometimes be .. when what we felt at the actual time may have been blissful and sublime? Tango photography is a serious art just as all photography really is.. you only have to look at some of the famous photographers exhibitions and work to acknowledge that certain lighting and effect have a huge impact on an image created.  Please don’t think of me as a “kill-joy” or tango snob perhaps .. I embrace the art of tango wholeheartedly and passionately and love enjoying a good sociable milonga with friends and a glass of wine (or champagne ideally) but lately, I have noticed the effects of the iPhone, iPad etc., at the milonga!   Of course, I realise that the snaps are taken mostly from a generous and a light-heated perspective, friends observing others in their glamorous clothes and shoes, dancing with lots of different partners, “having fun” and what’s wrong with that ?  It’s taken me a few months to get my thoughts fully together and to write these few lines about this tricky subject and I hope the majority of readers will understand my position.  The milonga can be a wonderful sanctuary from the outside working world - we dance to express our joys and sorrows, we dress in perhaps a more creative way than we do otherwise, we embrace sometimes strangers as if they are lovers for just 4 minutes.  The moment is precious, the event can be magical in its entirety. Sometimes the venue is a plain old village hall, yet during a tango  we could be transported to an exotic location anywhere else in the universe. Yet - afterwards how often has your dream been shattered?  That’s sad, that’s not I how I remember last night, the place, the ambiance, the tango I danced ..

So for this next occasion on  Sunday 14th June, when we will be treated to the exemplary musicianship of the live quartet  Tango Siempre, as well as the sensitive and complimentary recorded music by traditional tango DJ Paul Strudwick (www.magicroundabout.eu) in our lovely airy Colwall Village Hall, at the foot of the majestic Malvern Hills, I will request that all phones are on silent, put away in bags and pockets - with no photography taken within the milonga at all. If you want photos of your friends please take them outside of the milonga, having your picnic, wherever, so that when we wake up the next day we can reflect on our dreams of the previous night  without disillusionment. 

Emi Cloke "artist for the day" Sunday 14th June

At our next special milonga, Sunday 14th June with the famed Tango Siempre live tango band,  we are very excited that we have,  for the first time, local artist Emi Cloke, in attendance for the event ! I first met lovely vivacious Emi at a magnificent concert on 23rd May with the Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra (WSO)  at the St Martin’s Church Worcester. Having only just heard that Saturday morning of the concert on Radio 3, and then mainly, I must admit, because I was attracted to a promised work by Piazzolla - my shameless addiction - “Oblivion” and also, unusually of course, being performed on a saxophone (!) by the world-acclaimed Rob Buckland!  I have a life-long passion for the saxophone. Life is wonderful the way if we just follow our hearts and instincts we can be led somewhere even more surprising. The whole evening was hugely enjoyable, including hearing the whole of the Planets suite  by Holst , a first for me, and meeting Emi who was there as the WSO’s “artist in residence.”  Emi paints and draws what she feels when listening the music and whilst being there during the performance, expressing another perspective of the music though visual art !   I was totally struck by her creative and colourful work and as the days went by after the concert, I thought about how fascinating  it could be to develop a similar project within tango.  So, happily, we have arranged with Emi to join us on Sunday 14th June at the Colwall village hall, complete with her artists materials - she will take up a suitable vantage post in the hall from where she can draw & paint tango-inspired pictures ! Emi will also have some her current work with her, cards for sale, and I hope you will enjoy this additional artistic angle she will bring to us! 

follow Emi Cloke

@Emi78WR2 on Twitter to see some of her work !