1- 2:30pm “Milonga Navigation”
2:30 - 4pm “Really Fast and Really Slow Movement”
w/ Andrew Dugas and Andria Miguez
2 different topics with specific, new processes for creating movement towards mastery of space, time and the universe…at least in the tango context.
-”Navigation”: Tricks and rules for organic, collision and trouble free milonga experience, no matter how tight the floor is.
-”Really Fast/Slow Movement”: Using time as the ultimate creativity playground. How to play with and control the largest dynamic range of speed within any music.
All levels welcome, though some tango experience suggested.
Coming from Houston, moving to Eugene, a city with a vibrant tango community with a place like The Tango Center is like getting your wish.
So what if you got everything you ever wanted, what then? When your dreams come true. My experience is often a kind of blissful lethargy and stasis. Frustration is the great provocateur, the great motivator and when that is gone, sometimes there’s no inspiration. I moved here in September and for the first few months involved myself in a quest to simply connect, observe and enjoy Eugene. Since December I’ve been excited to begin working on my vision to create a festival and bring world renowned dancers and events here, specifically to the Tango Center.
This last month has been an interesting one. “The Tango Center is being evicted.” That was a provocative event. It also inspired a kind of spiritual peace and excitement around all possibilities. In the last 2 weeks there is a real possibility to invest in the Tango Center in a way that wasn’t possible before. I’ll work for that. Here is a letter I’ve written the community.
Hello All,
My name is Andrew Royal Dugas and I moved here with my [partner] Andria Miguez in September. I teach tango and yoga and am the co-founder and organizer for the very successful Houston Tango Festival. I am writing you to share my vision for the possibilities I see for the Tango Center and to make a request.
Most of you have read the saga of the most recent story of the Tango Center in the papers and from emails. The honest story is that the business was not well run, and imploded under years of that ethos. The Tango Center didn’t make its rent and the owners gave an eviction notice.
In my conversations with so many of you I have heard much of the history and frustration with both the space and the management of the Tango Center over the years. You have communicated your disappointment at all of the energy, money and creativity put into the space never coming to fruition. I hear the frustration due to a lack of transparency, a lack of communication, a lack of change. It makes sense that any plea from the Tango Center feels like the same old song.
I have volunteered to lead a group of teachers, organizers and committed tango folks to create something new at the Tango Center. With the help of Tom Kamis, a well respected entrepreneur in downtown, our vision is to create in reality the possibility of a great, well functioning and world renowned tango venue. We have a chance to not only keep the facility, but help make it beautiful, make it comfortable and make its potential a reality. Tom is in negotiation with the owners and, though there are still many variables and nothing is guaranteed, he is on track to become the new lessee, with a new business model that creates more revenue sources such as a stage, a classroom, a kitchen and a bar.
To create this and keep the space open for the month of March, Tom Kamis negotiated with the owners a way to clear the space for this new vision. Before March 15th, if we pay the back-rent, the owners will agree for us to continue to hold events in the space. The amount is $5000 and once paid, will cover everything till April 1st. At this moment we have amounted $1,400 in pledges and money’s from last Saturday’s milonga. We have 11 days to accrue the remaining $3,600 to continue operating through the end of the month and I ask each of you to give what you can at any Tango Center events in the upcoming weeks. As of today, I have become the functional director of the space and the non-profit and I make this commitment to you: Every dime this community gives towards this effort will be accounted for and be taken care of by me personally.
Please join me, your organizers and your community in creating a new Tango Center by pledging and donating at our Saturday, March 7th and 14th milongas or any other Tango Center event.
My email is: royaltango@gmail.com
I want to hear from you! Please contact me with questions, comments, stories, concerns and ideas. Thank you to each and every one of you for you part in creating and sustaining this vision for so many years.
Sincerely and With Excitement,
Andrew
I am excited and ready.
Here is what I look like giving everything dancing with Liz Foster in the 3rd song of 4 at a concert with Joe Powers and Naoko Aoki at Beall Hall, University of Oregon.
Photo by Alejandro Almanza