Sadly, my term as president of this wonderful society comes to an end soon. So before I handover to the next person I just wanted to write a soppy blog about the year we’ve had! I started my presidency May 2015. London Tango Festival being one of our first events as a society with me organising it. And I bought my first pair of tango heels. But you can read about that in my previous blog. I haven’t written since September, so that’s where I’m starting off from: We kicked off the new academic year with a sad farewell from our ex-ex president Andrew Wilburn, whom has now moved to the USA. However, just before he did, we all went to Blackpool Tower Tango Ball. It was so lovely to see all the old members who introduced me to Tango two years ago. I remember my very first lesson; I had to put my hands on someone’s chest to understand “the connection”… I was mortified! It was so awkward, I didn’t want to be in someone else’s personal space, and I sure didn’t want someone else in mine. Andrew and Debs were very encouraging though, they said “I was a natural”. Which I don’t believe for one minute, but the sentiment was there. Anyway, as horrified as I was by all this “closeness” and “touching”, I still promised them I’d come back for another lesson. Another lesson turned into another, and many, many more. And after 8 weeks of learning Tango, myself and our-now-treasurer-but-like-me-is-graduating, Tom, decided to join the exec as joint social secretary. We are sociable people. We like drinking and going out and parties and chatting – the perfect role for us. Little did we think we would become so obsessed with Tango it would literally run our lives. (I did write run, not ruin) After a year of social secretary, I ran for president. Tom ran for treasurer. So, seeing all the old members in Blackpool was like a final handover. They taught us how to dance, what a milonga is, the etiquette etc. And now it was our turn to teach the new intake of fresher’s exactly these things. Here are my favourite photos from the night: (courtesy of Rex Boyd and Keith Shaw Buckley) Term 1 starts. Time to recruit new people. How do we make tango interesting? As always, we struggled to compete with the Salsa society who just have a ridiculous number of members!! But we picked up some gems to introduce Tango to. And like in my life, Tango will forever be a part of their lives’. Maybe it’s the addictiveness of that feeling after you’ve just had an amazing tanda? Maybe it’s the fact it’s such a small, niche society, everyone knows everyone, and everyone is friendly? Or maybe, just maybe, I was the influence for someone to stay in the society and dance. I’d like to think so. Teaching is a hard task. A lot of planning goes into it beforehand, music has to be sorted, rooms have to be booked, emails have to be sent and answered. And most importantly, my teaching partner and I have to know what we’re doing! Everyone has their own style of dancing; but you can’t teach that. I thought it best to teach the “standard/conventional” way. Then, later we can work on developing and interpreting one’s own tango. This was difficult, especially with my partner, who has never had a tango lesson outside the university. He is a good dancer, but when it comes to explaining things, well, let’s just say he doesn’t use tango vocab or technique… I decided the best way to teach was to incorporate everything I’ve learnt from all the different teachers I’ve had the honour of being taught by. My main influences being from: my original teachers, Andrew and Debs, my first professional teacher, Dante, then of course Maria Solero, Leandro Palou & Maria Tsiastiani and from Shanghai, Gus, Vivien and Mattias. Thank you all! It sounds cheesy, but you people, and many others, some just from videos or from watching at milongas, have inspired me to inspire others. The society’s next big adventure – Warwick Tango Festival. This really should have been a blog post in itself, but I was bogged down in work, and I although I attended everything: I had to babysit the dear, sweet Tammy for Jenny y Ricardo Oria who were our guest teachers for the weekend. The entire festival was a huge feat for Warwick. There isn’t one every year, and for such a small place, we had so many dancers!! I am so happy I was a part in this! Can’t wait for the next one! Christmas came and went. We said goodbye to Eshani. One of our most committed members who had to fly back home to India. We’re still awaiting your return dear! Eshani and I became regular Negracha goers. When we were both free on a Friday night (which was tragically far too often) we’d always go to Negracha together! Then coffee and gossip after! Term 2 started. We restarted the beginners’ course to encourage another intake of members. And our amazing resident teachers Gosia & Dawid took on the improvers’ class. This soon became our performance class for Pizazz – The annual Warwick dance show. Something we haven’t been a part of for a couple of years; I was determined to show Warwick uni who we are and what we have to show. I chose La Cumparsita as the music to dance to. For many reasons, one, it’s famous. It was played on Strictly Come Dancing last year. Two, there are many dramatic pauses which look good on stage. Three, many repeated phrases means less choreography to write. And four, definitely the silliest reason; before I hated this song. I refused to dance the last tanda sometimes to avoid this song. It’s so predictable! But now, after weeks of playing it on repeat, I actually quite like it and it reminds me of the fabulous job we all did in Pizazz. I was solely in charge of writing the choreography; I don’t think anyone had any faith in me. I wanted it to be dynamic, lots of levels, movement, interesting and vibrant. However, only I could see what I was aiming for; we got there in the end though when the week before when we filmed a run through, everyone could finally see what I had envisaged! And we looked spectacular! I cannot express how moved l I am by everyone’s commitment. Rehearsals every day, some at 9am, me getting snappy. Thank you so much Luana, Sophie, Teresa, Johnny, Rhys, Tom & Yacine. Photos attached. More on our Facebook page. And that brings us back to now. April. Once term starts again, the poll will open to nominate yourself as president (and of course our other positions: Treasurer, Secretary, Social secretary & Equal opps). If you’re unsure of whether to run – Just do it! You already know what an amazing society this is, why not be part of how its run! We’re a small society, so it’s not a burden on your university workload, and it looks fab on your CV. Employers like this ;) and if you don’t run – who will? Hmm! We don’t want this society to fade away. We’ve become so much more recognised this year, we have a bright future ahead!! I’ve had the best of times being your president. I love this society and I love tango. You are all amazing people and beautiful dancers. Don’t stop tangoing… ever! All my love, Your outgoing president, Charlay (PS. I will still write blogs for you all)
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