If you are a tango fan, Taipei is apparently the place to be this weekend, with the first of five Tango Marathons scheduled around Asia this year getting underway this evening. The four-day event, with seven milongas, or tango dance parties, has drawn 300 dancers from 20 countries.
However, the organizers have also set up two shows on the sidelines of the marathon for fans who would like to see the routines and techniques of tango masters from around the world.
There will be two 2016 Tango Weekend@Taipei (一探究竟:探戈文化節) shows, tomorrow and Sunday afternoon, at the Red House (西門紅樓) in Ximending (西門町), featuring nine couples.
Photo courtesy of Yutango
The lineup is very international: Eugene Baek and Kim Tae-hwan (Eugene and Geff) and Eve Youn and Okiz Baek (Eva & Okiz) from South Korea; Gift & Ekkaphol, who hail from Thailand and France respectively; Sae and Juan Carlos, the Japan-based 2007 Asian Salon Tango Champions who hail from Japan and Argentina; Marie Filali and Gianpiero Galdi from France and Italy; Alisa & Eugene and Shunsuke & Junko from Japan; Tilly Kim and Adam Cornett from Boston, Massachusetts (Tilly & Adam); and Isabelle & Felix, a cross-strait partnership of sorts as the London-based Isabelle was born in China, while Felix is from Taiwan.
The musical lineup for the shows features Alvin Cheng (程希智) and Ho Shao-wei (何紹維), both well-known faces at milongas around Taipei.
The hour-and-a-half shows will be followed by an opportunity for the audience to practice what they have just seen, as well as what is billed as a “tango culture market,” which will run from 4pm to 7pm.
The organizers, two sisters surnamed Lin (林), know first-hand how easy it can be to be swept off your feet by tango and they want audiences to have the same opportunity.
They like to say that they were “willingly kidnapped” by the passion of Argentine tango a decade ago, progressing from their first lessons to attending the annual Taipei Tango Festival to traveling around Asia, Europe and the Americas to attend tango-related events.
The story of a gradual interest becoming a full-fledge passion and then a major life commitment appears to be common among tango devotees, judging by the biographies of the performers, not all of whom began with dance backgrounds.
Perhaps the Tango Weekend@Taipei shows should come with an audience caution: Warning, tango can be addictive.
The organizers say that tango is not just a dance, it is a combination of music, culture, fashion, sports and social interaction — a philosophy of life.
More information about Tango Weekend@Taipei, including English-language biographies of the performers, can be found at www.yutango.com.
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