it’s sunny and warm outside and i have on shorts and my favorite footware, flip flops. ahhh. this is after two days of rain and cloudy skies. one night i stepped in a big puddle with my flipflops on and all i could think of was ….. i now have diluted dog poo on my feet.
at 8:30pm they announced dinner on the plane and then proceeded to serve us very cold sandwiches. with my new health kick, i had to remove the cheese and the bun which left 3 pieces of yucky turkey…. and i ate it. blah…
if only this was the situation for the flight to buenos aires. now off to find out which hotel i will be assigned.
we are so lucky to have sabine as our official tangopulse photographer. this slide show is beautiful. thank you sabine.
Jonny and I had a great time in chicago… am i seeing a pattern here?? *smile*
we arrived at mark’s house and it is always easy to hang out there. except… mark tried to put me in the princess room. imagine… ”my” room is the one in the basement. it’s dark and i helped pick out the bed when mark moved in and i was helping him unpack and furnish the house. i’m just a little upset that mark didn’t install a door plaque with “jackie’s bedroom” on it. :-) anyway, he was going to put jonny in “my” bedroom and me and paul in the princess bedroom. i guess i should describe the princess room. the previous owners had a young daughter whose bedroom had a disney mural painted on 3 of the walls. so you sleep with beauty and the beast, little mermaid, tinkerbell, ect… a lot of pink, pastel colors… not that i have anything against fairytales but i like the dark… and don’t want to wake up to shrek. i should probably admit to having bedrooms in many of the homes of friends that i visit. i think it is the way that i deal with being away from my home. it probably helps me to imagine that the room i am in is mine. anyway, jonny was very sweet and volunteered to sleep in the princess room. thank you jonny.
paulie flew in which was great. both jonny and i were pretty beat and it was nice to have paulie there to take care of us and be our home base. i understand now why people have entourages… a posse. when you are traveling and meeting new people, staying in someone else’s home, following someone else’s bio clock, you need familiarity. i am starting to get why some of the instructors have requests. like latte…. spring water….special fruit….quiet time…. steel cut oatmeal…. these requests bring comfort and help you center yourself.
we met so many nice people on this leg of the trip also. and we played charades with v.j. and joanna (remember joanna? she started tango in the valley and then moved to boston and is now in chicago). jonny did to joanna what we did to paulie. he gave her the clue “mickey mouse” and then v.j. pretended he didn’t get the clues. papal rat???!! joanna was ready to kill him. the timer was set for 2 minutes but they were having such a good time watching joanna that they added more time. bad boys.
barry, terry, augusto, sevil, laura, deidre, allen, mina, javier, steve, dave, ginny, tracey were just some of the folks that we met. chaira actually flew in from cleveland to attend the workshops again. it was also nice to see filand and diana. the reception and feedback were excellent.
the milonga on saturday was a lot of fun. mark djed and only played one alternative set. i beat him up pretty bad about that. i think he is becoming a traditional tango music snob. would it be so hard to have just one more set? (can you tell i am still upset about that princess room?) seriously, the music was fine but what would life be if i couldn’t give mark a hard time?
danced loads… and they were all good dances. had to take a break at one point… and wouldn’t you know it. that’s when i get asked by 4 men. yes… 4 men. and i am not one to say no (the first to jonny) and then say yes to someone else. that would be rude. it was nice to be asked. i guess the men in chicago have healthy egos. hint hint to the guys in northampton/hartford. :-)
monday was filled with privates and practices. jonny did 7 hours and i just taught for 4 hours but that w{as enough for me. paulie and i drove jonny to the airport on tuesday and then returned in time to teach a small group of mark’s friends. it was fun. we did a little kung fu tango…. whoooooooooaaaaawwwww … you had to be there. (the guy jumping in the picture is mark)
So we decided to drive from pittsburgh (well, jonny was driving) and go as far as we could towards chicago. Both of us wanted to be able to be comfortable on friday so we would be fresh for saturday. Well…. we got a little turned around. The GPS got totally confused because the roads were layered with all these overpasses. It couldn’t tell which road we were on and was constantly recalculating. At the same time I was making hummus and tabouleh sandwiches for the two of us and chowing on the baklavah… compliments of martha. Fortunately some guys doing work on the tunnel kindly stopped and had us follow them to the road we wanted to be on.
We spent the night in a hotel close to the indiana border. The next day was spent eating junk stuff (we were totally missing martha)
This photo is of jonny, mark and veronika praying to the tango god. :-) taken in cleveland after the last workshops.
Here is the group in cleveland doing a new move that jonny created…. the giant colgada.
In our travels, the students have been fantastic and the feedback they give us is all positive. The only complaint stated in our anonymous feedback forms is, “why aren’t you teaching here longer”? They like the balance of explanation and dancing and they really love the focus on technique. The organizers (Trini and Sean from Pittsburgh/Greg and Donna from Cleveland) took a risk to invite jonny, having never heard or experienced DNI but by the end of our stay with them, they saw jonny’s talent and the benefits of the technique. In fact, Greg and Donna, the organizers from Cleveland, drove to Pittsburgh to take the workshops there. (see following photo)
Speaking of Cleveland, a special shout out to Martha who also drove to Pittsburgh with Chaira to continue their studies of the DNI technique and who graciously provided food for our trip to chicago. THANK YOU!!!
Also big thanks to Trini and Sean for hosting us. That last dinner was fabulous. I DJed the milonga and that was fun. They actually appreciated the alternative/nuevo sets i played. I only got to dance one set with Silvio. :-( but i did get to dance with Alex, who also pointed out to me that someone had been trying to make eye contact with me for 15 minutes. I had to explain that I don’t see well in the dark. no glasses. then i danced with him. It was also nice to see my friends, sarah, lauri, caroline, and bob at the milonga. I have other pictures but they are on my other camera and i don’t have a cable. will update later.
a photo of martha, heidiberto and me
greg, me and dan
cecilia and tim
thinking about going out. but wicked tired.
hugs
hugs
hugs
j
Weekend of Dec. 3th and 4th: I was so impressed with our local community that consists of folks from 5 states. What a group of fun, thoughtful, and open people. Jonny had a great time with us and we both worked our butts off. Well…. we didn’t have much to begin with but now, we have less.
Everyone knows my issues around performing from all the whining i do. It’s getting easier and i am whining less. I have come to realize that we’re a team in a performance and me being a crybaby doesn’t help him. So… no more whining from the girl. well, maybe just a little. :-) Saturday night’s exhibition was scary but the TangoPulse “posse” was there in force and totally showed their support and love. You guys rock. Thank you for being there for me.
In these travels, what has really stood out for me is how important it is to connect to the students. Fortunately this comes naturally to both jonny and i. We like people and enjoy socializing and genuinely love to teach and help folks improve as Tango dancers. These are qualities that TangoPulse and DNI have in common. We thought one of the nicest compliments that we received was when a couple said that they weren’t intimidated by us. Throughout our travels, it was exciting that so many people opened their mind to the DNI technique and it was also humbling and gratifying how many also opened their hearts to us. It’s amazing how many good people there are when you are receptive.
giant hugs and gigantic kisses jackie
