Benelux tango dance regional championship

Last weekend the very first “Tango Dance Regional Championship” for the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) aka “Brussels Tango Marathon”, for amateurs and professionals alike, was organized by Tango in Brussels.
Dancers could compete in 2 categories: Tango Salon and Tango Escenario. The champions in each category won a free trip to the world championship in Buenos Aires.

In the “Tango salon” category 10 couples participated, the rules were quite strict, no fancy stuff allowed:

- The couple cannot break the embrace
- Ganchos, leaps, trepadas and any other typical tango escenario choreography are absolutely excluded
- No dancer may raise his/her leg above the knee line

The main qualification criteria were:

musicality, elegance and walking style

The jury (Mingo Pugliese, Ana Maria Gutierrez and Susana Rojo) came over from Buenos Aires.

The couples danced in 2 groups for four songs (the first song was just to get into it, the next three were the real thing). From the 2 groups 5 couples were selected for the final.

Friends from the Brussels tango scene were participating and, although I’m not into dancing competitions at all, I decided at the last moment to join in with Nina:

Due to the rules the dancing had to be sober and it was a challenge to be expressive.
In the afternoon we practiced intensively at the Kiosk in the Royal Park with the iPod - one earplug each

The Kiosk at a summer milonga.

Nina had a feeling that Canaro’s “Poema” would be played, a song we both love (Listen to “Poema”). And sure enough: the first song was “Poema”! We smiled and started dancing.
I don’t remember the other songs, but I didn’t really “get into it” enough and afterwards regretted that I had danced really too small and spartan… The stress, the concentration and the attention to every detail of posture and walking, it didn’t contribute to a very natural dance. I need to work a lot to make a chance. At least my legs didn’t tremble and I was stable

Congratulations to our new Tango Salon Champions: Nathalie and Andres from the popular Tango Bar in Brussels.

Tango Salon Champions Nathalie and Andres

If you are a tango dancer and in Brussels on a Wednesday night, go to Tango Bar, I’ll be there!

[All pictures by Peter Forret]

Test your american english accent

I’m Belgian but I have a Northeastern American accent
Which makes sense because apparently that “is actually what dictionaries are based on”.

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Northeastern Most people don’t know it but this is actually what dictionaries are based on. If you don’t believe me, pick up any American dictionary and look up “source” and “sauce” and you’ll see they are written with the same vowel pronunciation.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Earn money while surfing, where did I hear that before?

In the dot com boom years of Internet there was a company called AllAdvantage that developed a toolbar with advertisements that let you earn money while surfing. I tried it then but it was too obtrusive for my taste.
Now they have reincarnated in Agloco, I signed up for it a while ago and their viewbar has just been released now. As with Alladvantage, Agloco allows you to earn from referrals, so if you can build up a network you could earn a lot of money…
I though, well why not? So I’m going to give it a try again.

Be patient if you want to try as well, Agloco seems to be quite successful these days and the site is often hard to reach.