FILM REVIEW :: Tango, Our Dance (1988, Jorge Zanada)

Only 1 hr, 11min. long, made over the course of 3 years by Argentine filmmaker Jorge Zanada; explores the roots, the culture, and the future of tango in Argentina. Interesting alone are the chapter titles:
1. Opening Credits:Interesting shots; spot lights shine on vintage slide photos (hear slide projector clicking), voice over narrative; a converation between narrative and tango (tú). Tango is old fashioned, out-dated, an embarrassment; to be rejected. But now... See graffiti style credits lit up on a dark wall with spot lights; camara moves over handwritten titles (pencil on paper); 80s style computer graphics (must have been cool back then) variety of typographic styles, back and forth.
2. Teaching the Body:Inside a class with Juan Carlos Copes on Corrientes. All men, he is explaining the steps to them; how to lead the woman in a cross. How to dominate the women; how the job they have is to make the woman understand without words...how the steps will express what you are feeling.
3. Tango's Embrace:a woman uses two wooden art models to set up the correct tango embrace and posture.
4. Cured w/Dancing: a milonguero explains how tango was described to treat his mental illness/depression...sucessfully.
5. Intensity:
6. Allure:voice over narrrative, a bit cheesy, very 80s synthesizer music; a man approaches a dark corner at a milonga where 3 women sit waiting for partners. camera cuts to his oversized shadow on the wall; the authoritative gesture known as the cabeceo.
7. Revival:
8. Deep Roots:
9. True Milonga:
10. Live in Me: Juan Carlos Copes speaking about the future of tango; his hopes for young people to travel outside their borders; see more, learn more.

FILM REVIEW :: Assassination Tango (2002, Robert Duvall)

Oh man. what can I say. I so wanted this film to be good. I waited so long to actually see it, finally got my hands on it, and then...the letdown. I really don't know exactly where it went wrong for me, but even just watching the theatrical trailer, I already had the idea that it couldn't possibly work for me.

Perhaps for the characters; John, a hitman, a despicable creep of a man, old, unattractive, a bit greasy, with a somewhat creepy attachment to a young girl who his live-in girlfriend's daughter. Fact remains, she isn't his own, hence, the creepiness. And his split personality; from a cold mafioso hit man, to a doting, overly-concerned psuedo-dad...he even follows her to school to make sure she's safe. This polarized personality is clearly intentional in the character's development, but it doesn't carry for me. It just makes me dislike him as a man. Then, when he is in Buenos Aires, pursuing other women (Manuela) and then in bed with a prostitute whom he makes call him "Daddy", well i just wanted to turn him off completely.

I didn't understand the attempted interweaving of stories, either. I didn't understand John's paranoia, his political detachment, his fascination with Manuela (who appears mannish in the face and voice), i didn't understand the hit job in Buenos Aires as a subplot to discovering tango (or vice versa), and most importantly, I didn't like the cheesy use of dream sequences to show off Robert Duvall's dance moves (his real life tango with his real life girlfriend).

this movie was not what i had hoped, it was unlikeable. It was boring. It wasn't even beautiful. I was more aware of Duvall's only vanity than anything else.

FILM REVIEW :: Tango (1998, Carlos Saura)

This film was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film 1998. It is, in a word, brilliant. Watching it today, in 2006, it's hard to believe it is nearly 10 years old. The visual language is so fresh, so contemporary. I did first see the movie in 2002, but I remember not liking it nearly as much as I do now. The numerous dance sequences (75-85% of the film) seemed to drag on to me back then. The minimalist set and the modernist lighting seemed...boring, pretentious, uninspired. Only the narrative and the love story held me; and you know, I can't remember if I even stayed awake for the whole thing..Probably not.

Watching it now 5 years later with new eyes...tango eyes, design eyes, color eyes. No hay color. The film is amazing. How do I describe it for my notes. My 4 handwritten pages of cryptic notes...

Mario Suárez walks with a cane as a result of a truck accident. His wife has left him, he is alone in his apartment. He imagines her (a tango dancer) with another man; as he looks on, his anger rises up. He reveals a knife, and stabs his wife. He wakens; his wife walks in. They argue; he begs her to take him back. He is rejected.

At the rehearsal; an old man in a suit and tie introduces himself to Mario and hands him his business card saying that his is the best of the Guardia Vieja.

The set is a large soundstage (or airplane hanger?). It is modern/industrial in feel; the space is defined by panels, screens, and technical lighting effects. Purples, Magentas, Reds, blues, Greens, Yellows...black and white. Projectors run, images of La Boca in panoramic view; the terror-filled paintings of Goya, vintage film reels of Carlos Gardel and Tita Merello...Tell the story a través del COLOR. La luminosidad por fuera, la oscuridad por dentro.

Shots of rehearsal reflected through the mirror; Que se vea un solo cuerpo y cuatro piernas!

Slow-moving pans that move sideways; amplify the space and the action; synchronized action.

School children in white coats dance in a large room while the old maestro looks on from a side bench. he says he used to dance, but now "I don't have a partner. My wife died last year. Now, I can't find the meaning in life."

Black silhouettes on light aqua screen; woman dances alone; bright red gel filter on her body/dress.

Tango costumes sway on a rack; a row of beautiful women at a Hollywood style makeup table with mirror and bulbs. Laura invites Elena to a dance; it is a sensuous tango. The other women look on, intently focused. The couple passes behind the rack of clothes; Laura kisses her passionately. End Scene.

Torture: Playing tango music at full blast volume to cover the screams of the victims; bodies thrown into mass graves; a green Ford Falcon, a line up of victims against a wall; with the beat of the music, they fall, shot dead, one by one. Interrogation room; a single chair under a lamp; spotlight.

Immigration; thousands of people, families, children, elderly, rise up over the horizon in the distance; the sky overhead tells us it's early morning; they arrive in waves, wearing early 19th century clothes, carrying suitcases and small children. They sit in groups and wait for whatever it is that comes next....some couples begin to dance.

Elena dances with a man; suddenly a sinister looking gaucho looms, approaches, steals her from her partner; wish a vicious lunge, his knife pierces her abdomen, and she falls dead.

FILM REVIEW :: Gotan Project – La Revancha del Tango (2005, Prisca Lobjoy)

Video montage/Live musical performance by Gotan Project

this is what I see

dark red/blue gels; black background

hight contrast/high saturation lighting and filters

choppy action; cut frame rates; "still" images that flicker and move/back and forth editing

B/W images interspersed with hot color images, heavy black ground and pulled out high chroma colors

Cross dissolves, overlays, vintage B/W footage & clips, opacity variations, projected images over live performers

repeat indexical images; create rhythym

time images to musical beats; synchronized audio

****************************************

woman applying eyeliner

man putting on suit jacker (back and forth, back and forth)

freestyle disco dancing

images of the city/ city lights at night/ city traffic streaming by;

view from a taxi cab; the meter is running

view from the back window of a vehicle in the rain; looking back while moving forward (desaturated, purpley filter)

woman strapping on tango shoes (back and forth, loop image several times)

large red lips fill screen, overlay a man's silhouette

spinning record

husky (dog) cries tears of blood

****************************************

Ceiling fan spins in an industrial building as seen from outdoors through geometric/Mondrian window panes; 2 long flourescent bulbs, bright white stripes

cross dissolve to water surface to water drops to city lights at night

taxi by park on moonlit night

woman with sunglasses in taxi (daytime) leans on bent elbow, looks out window

Buenos Aires highway signs, travel down the highway

blue filter/dust and scratches filters

light bulb close-up; 25W Argentina

****************************************

Circus woman spinning firey torches in lingerie and garter; spinning, loopping image (back and forth)

B/W vintage clip, milonga overhead shot, see formations, forward and reverse to beat

spinning fire torches

legs only shot; fast ganchos by a woman; violent, temperamental

flashing white light over legs moving (abstract/filtered heavily)

****************************************

Bandoneon; dark lighting/spot lighting, instrument appears to be suspended in air by itself; disconnected from the musician's hands as it moves

hot light filtered/watercolorey dancers, seen from shoulders up (back and forth in giros)

spinning waists of dancers in giros

vintage B/W footage of couple dancing with heads connected

B/W woman's hand shakes dice (clip seen in reverse)

woman's hand picks up a pile of bills (money)

ganchos by a woman; kicking

dice roll (forward)

ganchos, back and forth

shake dice/woman lays down

woman's hand lays down money on a table

blue dress spins (back and forth)

view from a car window

****************************************

Extreme close-up of candle flame/flicker blue/flash light

cross dissolve to birthday candles to layers of flames

****************************************

slow motion dancers, man in white shirt, woman in red dress

see separately, and in triplet images of selves

finally seen dancing together; jumping, spinning, stretching

slow-motion playback

end with woman's arm suspended out, a limp nazi-like salute

****************************************

woman climbing stairs in a house; black a white image; see her legs only

woman in white holds a bright white light in hand, looks at camera

hand rolls dice/ close up of a girl's eye

vintage clip; man approaches girl to embrace and begin dance, embrace cut short, back and forth, back and forth

repeat several times, then embrace is reached, they turn a giro

eye close up/hands dance in sign language...or are the fighting? are they gesturing?

****************************************

light reflecting intense color on dark, ripply water

live dancers move in front of stage projection of water; envelops the musicians.

****************************************

day in the city; the virgin, a woman's face, city's streaming traffic

busses pass; still image flickers and moves, riding the bus

B/W ballerina spins in full skirt on stage, stage curtain sweeps in front and obliterates her view

beautiful women everywhere

****************************************

red screen

****************************************

horizontal white bars in 2 irregular columns scroll up the screen

old/dust and scratches filters

racehorse footage, vintage clips in B/W

marching legs (heavy filter)

woman outside on pay phone

flashing streetlights, fade to black ground with flashing orange lights

FILM REVIEW :: The Tango Lesson (1998, Sally Potter)

I saw this film several years ago, right when it came out on video. Of course at that time I was interested in it only because I was gobbling up every artsy, independent, or foreign film I could find at the Madison public library (I hit them all, I think)––but I hadn't ever danced a step of tango, nor could I have probably identified a tango song from a waltz or even a polka, for that matter.

Needless to say, watching it again for the second time this week, after a year of tango examination, it is an entirely different film alltogether. or maybe it's just me. Let's briefly recap for the sake of objective field note observation.

Sally Potter (the film's writer, director, and female lead) plays herself [or a character of herself?], a filmmaker living in London and travelling to France while working on her new film and script. While in Paris, she witnesses a live tango performance by the acclaimed Argentine dancer, Pablo Veron. He and his partner dance an onstage tango that leaves the audience, and Potter, breathless and misty-eyed. Potter approaches him, introduces herself, and Veron agrees to give a lesson. It goes moderately well (he tells her to "walk"). She goes home to London and continues on her film. Back home she attends a local tango event...a practica or informal milonga. It is uncomfortable. She is alone and seated in a child size chair. A man invites her to a dance that lasts all of 20 seconds. She nods and thanks him when it is over and sits back down in the small chair.

When her apartment is found in need of major repair, Sally seizes the 2 week opportunity to go to Buenos Aires. She meets 2 male tango teachers and learns at their side[---an alarming amount from the looks of things...way beyond any 2 week beginner, for sure. of course now i know that Sally Potter studied dance at a conservatory prior to her filmmaking career). When she is next reunited with Pablo Veron for her 2nd lesson in Paris, he is amazed at her progress, and they dance the night away, ultimately falling in some sort of love-like relationship. He asks her to perform with him in Paris, which she accepts. As she says, "I always wanted to be a dancer", to which Pablo replies, "I always wanted to be in films".

the point is clear...is he befriending and teaching Sally only in hopes of one day being made into a star in one of her movies? He is clearly an egotistical and vain creature, in love with attention and living in the limelight. But could we ask too, whether Sally would "love" Pablo as she says she does if he were not the tango dancer that he is? That is to say, does Sally love Pablo for tango the way he loves her for films? If so, is that wrong? or is it the most honest, most mutually beneficial form of love that could be?

Sally did this movie so well, i can hardly imagine anything to surpass it in its format. She covers it all---the emotions from first awareness, to early beginner, the challenges of plateau and partner communication, the pressures of professional dancing, fallout, shoe purchasing, practice, sore feet, obession, the music, the plebians who claim it, the love/hate, the give and take, the, as the taxi driver said, "to understand our tangos, you must have suffered greatly in life". to which Sally simply nods and smiles smugly. Finally a place where suffering and melancholy is a badge of honor.

FILM REVIEW :: The Motorcycle Diaries (2004, Walter Salles)

This film is based on the autobiographical account of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Alberto Granado during their cross-continent motorcycle tour of South America in the early 1950s. Fresh out of medical school, Che and Alberto travel from Buenos Aires as far as Colombia and Brazil. The experiences and relationships made as a result of this trip would prove to influence the life course of both men, and move Che to give up the practice of medicine to pursue greater social causes and ultimately, revolutions.

Because both lead characters are Argentine, and the movie intiates in Argentina (during the 1950s no less), it is of little surprise that tango should be featured in the film. A short time into their trip, Che and Alberto stop in Miramar, Argentina to visit the family of Che's girlfriend Chichina. There, in a gathering of wealthy landowner elitists, the 2 men are guests at a private milonga. Chichina dances a graceful milonga with Alberto as Che looks on. Chichina's suspicious father glares with disdain at Che who is admiring Chichina's moves. Alberto dances the milonga with flourishes and improvisations, head leaning in to Chichina's cheek, back end sticking somewhat out.

Che doesn't know how to dance, but lets Chichina lead him out for a tango. This music is slower. She guides him, one, two, three, four. He tries to follow, but is clearly not as interested in the dance as in Chichina's suggestive flirtations and the watchful eyes of her guardians.

Meanwhile, Alberto has spotted an attractive dark-skinned servant woman and Che spots the 2 of them dancing in the stairwell just outside the ballroom. They move together in expert style, Alberto with his nonchalant, casanova flair, and "La Negra" as she is called, appearing suddenly very at ease and alive. Tango bridges class and status.

BOOK :: Inquiry-Based English Instruction

Subtitled, "Engaging Students in Life and Literature", by Richard Beach and Jamie Myers, 2001 Teacher's College, Columbia University. This book was lent to me by Julie Kalnin.

Chapter 2, incredible how relevant this text is to my work. How I wish I had cited portions of this in my Block Grant proposal for funding. It does reinvigorate my intuitive sense that what I am proposing and embarking upon is of the UTMOST relevance and validity. For example:

"We inquire into social worlds by examinging the tools of language and symbols that humans use to construct those worlds" (17)

"We can critique social worlds being realized and expand our possible relationships and identities by seeking different symbolic interactions (discourses) and social activities (practices). With such a sense of power, there is less chance for language, text, and activity to marginalize people, and a greater chance that a diversity of views will be considered as we, together, continually create and resolve our multiple social worlds." (17)

There are 6 Inquiry Strategies:

1. Immersing: Entering into the activities of a social world, experiencing the social world as a participant, or observing a social world.

2. Identifying, Defining concerns, issues, and dilemmas that arise in a social world, or from conflict across multiple social worlds.

3. Contextualizing: Explaining how the activities, symbols, and texts used in one or more social worlds produce the components of a social world--identities, roles, relationships, expectations, norms, beliefs, and values.

4. Representing: Using symbolic toools to create a text that represents a lived social world or resonds to a represented social world.

5. Critiquing: Analyzing how a representation of a social world privileges particular values and beliefs: analyzing how particular literacy practices within a social world promote certain meanings while marginalizing other possibilities.

6. Transforming: Revising one's meanings for the components of a social world, changing one's actions and words within a social world to construct more desirable identities, relationships, and values.

(pages17-18)

Research Techniques:
wondering
question asking
observing
note taking
interviewing
data analysis

"These inquiry strategies mutually support each other and revolve around various research technqiues--wondering, question asking, observing, note taking, interviewing, and data anaylsis. Although most inquiries begin with the strategy of immersing oneself in the social world of study, a student might identify a concern in the midst of actions attempting to transform a relationship with another person in a social world. Or a student attempting to contextualize a statement in terms of the values it promotes might decide she needs to immerse himself in that world for a longer period of time to better understand the common expectations and practices of the social world. While students may begin their projects with identifying and end with transforming a social world, they may also begin at other ponts in the circle, moving from any one strategy to another strategy. And the circle never stops. Once students have transformed a social world, they only encounter new issues, problems, conflicts, and tensions, requiring further inquiry." (18)

"The primary purpose of engaging in inquiry is...gain an understandingof how we construct or author the social worlds we inhabit. Students conduct inquiry projects about their own everyday experiences in social worlds as well as social worlds portrayed in literature or the media." (20)

>>About Hermeneutic Inquiry:

"1. [Hermeneutic inquiry] seeks to locate sites for inquiry that situate interpreters in the middle of the activities related to ome topic of mutal interest. Taht is, students select issues or topics in which they have access to participatns as they experience certain social worlds, including themselves.

2. Hermeneutic Inquiry seeks to situate all partcipant sin activities that allow the path of inquiry to be 'laid while walking'... This method depends on interpretations given to questions that 'present themselves' rather that questions which are predetermined. This suggestts the importance on continually formulating and reformulating questions, concerns, problems, issues, or "wonderings" during the process of studying a world. As students discover new ideas through observing and talking to people, they formulate new quesitons. They are therefore not locked into prematurely defined questions that may turn out to be irrelevant to their study. Moreover, they continue to generate new conerns, isssues, or dilemmas requireing further study.

3. Hermeneutic inquiry does not seek comfortable situation or solutions. Students also need to be willing to study difficult or controversial issues. And, in doing so, they need to e open to challenging the status quo." (20-21)

"As writers, drawers, readers, viewers, speakers, listeners, or photographer, we participate in social practices that use systems of signs such as language, music, or media to represent and communicate lived expereience in a social world." (22)

FILM REVIEW :: Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder)

I loved this movie. But not for the tango.
Another example of a great filmmaker using tango to set a scene for the bizarre, the ridiculous, the off-key. Wilder would use and abuse tango again in this way in his later film "Some Like it Hot" in a strange tango danced between 2 men, one of them Jack Lemmon in full-on drag.



But back to Sunset Boulevard. The year is 1950, and Joe, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter evades the collectors by ducking his car into an open garage. He soon discovers himself on the estate of the famed (and aging) silent film actress Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Out of both desperation and complacency, he quickly finds himself the estate's newest resident, working on what would be Norma Desmond's comeback script, as acting himself as her "husband".

Norma is completely trapped in a time gone by...a time of silent films, of actors with "faces"...of her own fame and self-adoration, of tangos danced on a tile floor in the arms of Rudolph Valentino (note: Valentino featured prominent tango scenes in several of his silent films). The film reaches a climactic point during Norma's New Year's Eve party...an orquestra plays waltzes and tangos, while the Butler oversees the buffet...for all of the 2 guests who are invited..Norma and Joe. She prods and pulls her unenthusiastic partner onto the dance floor into an awkward tango...she, completely delusional, he, completely detached (and a little disgusted). Although it is Norma's intention that the tango dance release Joe's passion for her, after the dance he rejects her and she ends up fleeing to her room. Instead of following after her, Joe leaves for another party of his own peers, and another girl. When he finally returns to the estate, he discovers that Norma, in her state of hysteria, has attempted suicide.

Tango is the wacky ingredient, the backdrop for the unfolding melodrama of unrequited love, of robotic obedience and willful rejection. Tango is the ridiculousness of a 50 year old silent film star in the arms of a 30 year old dialogue writer...the absurdity of a live orchestra on New Year's Eve for only 2 people...it is also, in this scenario and taken within the context of its own time, an indicator of a bygone era (that is to say, old fashioned in 1950's terms). The people at the young hollywood party are not dancing tango.

FILM REVIEW :: Indochine (1992, Regis Warner)

This film, starring Catherine Deneuve, takes place in French Indochina, and tells the story of a French plantation owner (Deneuve), who adopts a young Indo-Chinese girl when her parents are killed. The girl, Camille, is beloved by her white mother and grandfather, and is raised amid extravagant wealth, power, and luxury.
Elaine, the plantation owner, is a stoic woman who says at one point early in the film, "Unlike you (referring to Jean-Baptiste, the French Navy soldier), I am not accustomed to parading my feelings in public."

This statement sums up Elaine's character throughout the entire film. She is the picture of restraint, which highlights even more the rare and fleeting moments of intense despair or weakness that she does show.

This stoicness, this feigned indifference or coldness, is something that RTF talks about as being integral to tango. In this film, tango is featured in 2 separate scenes. The first is early on, and shows a laughing mother and daughter (Elaine and her adopted daughter Camille) practicing the European stiff-arm tango to a record player. They appear unsure, and awkward, and ultimately collapse on a couch in laughter. Camille asks her mother, "When will I know I am in love?", and Eliane answers her, "When it happens you will know".

The 2nd tango scene indicates the psyhological and emotional changes that have occurred in both women. They have both fallen in love with the same man, Jean-Baptiste. Eliane knows it, but Camille is unaware of her mother's affair. Eliane has summoned her strength stalwartness and has determined to protect her daughter by having Jean-Baptiste transferred to a remote naval post. Camille, for the moment, is only heartsick for her lover, and distressed at his not having arrived at the party.

Eliane rises up from the dinner table when the music starts, and leads Camille to the dance floor, removing her daughter's wrap from her shoulders as she walks. With solemn, somber faces that display plainly their emotional resolve and distress, the women dance a graceful, melancholy tango in perfect rhythm. Each has learned to dance tango through learning the heartaches of love.

Last Tango in Paris (film review)

One of the last scenes in the film takes place in a dance hall where a tango contest is in progress. Paul and Jeanne sit down and order whiskey. Jeanne complains that the place is "disgusting", this, despite the fact that she has just spent 3 days in a old, dank, rat-infested apartment with Paul and the dance hall itself is quite ornate, clean, and beautiful.

Having just watched another Bertolucci film 3 times (The Conformist, 1970), I was quick to pick up on many similiarities between the 2 films, both in cinematography and theme, as well as in the representation of tango. In The Conformist , a sort of tango is danced by the two female leads in a dance hall. Both are tall, thin, utterly beautiful, and dressed in slinky, satin evening gowns. The begin their tango with a particular move (who's name I do not know, if it has one), where
one woman is down on bended knee with arm raised over head. The other woman takes this raised hand and is led around the kneeling dancer, in a circular promenade of sorts.
This same ostentatious display is performed by the kneeling Marlon Brando, as he leads the lady around his periphery (see 1st image below).

Another film critic had this thought to share online:
"The camera's movement throughout this scene is deft as well as graceful. We first saw it come down toward Brando's character from the top. It curved subtly and expertly, but its movement was quick--even aggressive. These qualities characterize the movements of the tango, which you will see the two main characters perform at the end of the film. The dance is a powerful scene, because it finally iterates what has been suggested all along in the film's choreography--both in the movements of the camera and of the characters. We feel swept away by the beauty of the tango despite the tragic quality of the events it accompanies." [from: http://www.ibiblio.org/stabley/lt1.html]

Tango Lyrics and Textual Themes

RFT's book on Tango is proving to be an excellent source! Only 1/3 of the way in, and already swimming in new research avenues. The chapter devoted to "tango as text" describes (and translates) a handful of prominent tango lyrics. RFT references another writer, Jorge Gottling (Tango: The Melancholy Witness), who uncovered 9 recurring themes in tango text.

9 Themes in Tango Lyrics:
1. skepticism
2. the angelic mother
3. the break up of a love affair
4. the lovers' reencounter
5. revenge
6. the barrio knife fight
7. the fleeting quality of love
8. retreat into alcohol
9. gambling

Here's a sample lyric, by Ángel G. Villoldo, 1910

My girl's got a gift
For the real creole tango,
And all its quick stops.
There's power in her hips,
She's a motor, she's tops
She's tango deluxe.
The perfect woman of my youth.

The woman's voice in Tango Text: Eladia Blázquez, b. 1931

Buenos Aires, it's you and me (1967)

Buenos Aires!
I swear on my soul
there's no stronger geography
than your urban landscape.
Here, day after day,
my shoes, my dress, and fears
all gently fade.
I'd be stripped of pride,
I couldn't exist
under any other sky but yours
even when your tangos hurt
as does, sometimes, a guy's warm hand
even when it's hard
to make a living in this land
Nevertheless, because I am as you are,
be it giving or denying,
I proclaim you, Buenos Aires, my town.

BOOK :: TANGO: the Art History of Love

by Robert Farris Thompson, 2005

This book, written by a Yale professor, was recommended to me by John, an avid tango dancer for the past 5 years, whom I met at Four Seasons Dance Studio during a Practica (practice hour).

I just started reading it, but am hopeful to have found a true, research-based, academically sound treatise on the origins and influences of tango, as well as how tango relates to broader societal themes. The reviews on this book have been excellent, inlcuding one glowing endorsement from Mikhail Baryshinikov himself (sorry if I misspelled your name, Mikhail).

Will report in due time (this is a thick one!)

MFA THESIS :: By Lake Nokomis: Fragments from Walks through the Neighborhood and Home Again

by Louise Lystig Fritchie, MFA, Uof M :: July 2002

Abstract
Scenes of the author's neighborhood of many years--the area surrounding Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. --were captured with a digital camera from Septemeber 2001 through April 2002. These images, fragments of the natural and built environment, were composed with an interest in the elements of color, texture, light, line, and shape. A selection of the images is the focus of the web site http://bylakenokomis.com. The website includes the pairing of low- and high-resolution images, a calendar, a map, perosnal narrative, and links for larger, related images. These features allow visitors to make various discoveries about the images, such as the dates, the locations of the subjects, thoughts of the author, and visual surprises. The images were also used for magnets with the web site's URL and a set of banners placed at the end of a 230-foot hallway in whcih visitors discovered the effect of distance on image resolution.

Sections
01. Introduction
02. Neighborhood [geographic/demographic info, factors influencing development, housing characteristics]
03. Photography [author's experience with trad. & digital photography, viewing photos in different formats]
04. Digital Narrative [properties of digital environments, aesthetics of digital narrative]
05. The Nokomis Web Site [development, description, feedback/revisions]
06. Public Display of Work [idea generation, printing & installation, viewing experience, analysis]
07. Conclusion
08. Bibliography
09. Appendices [visual influences, equipment, CD-Rom]

MFA THESIS :: A Legible Cartography?

by Paul Bruski, MFA, UofM :: May 2005

Abstract
The image of a neighborhood is important to its residents, yet it isn't always easy to define that image, or understand its origins. Can this image be better understood through maps? Interactive maps derived from interviews and personal observations are combines with data obtained from various map sources. The interview maps indicate that some areas have clear landmarks, but in some cases they seem to cut off from the majority of the neighborhood, and that other areas have no landmarks. Observation maps seem to show that personal observation can be a useful tool in revealing the underlying structure of the neighborhood.

Sections
01. Introduction
02. Background
03. The Neighborhood
04. The Project
05. Precedents for the Project
06. Process [Research, Interviews, Personal Observation, Project Design]
07. Public Display and Distribution of Work
08. Conclusions
09. Bibliography
10. Appendices [Influential Projects, Sample of Interview Maps, Observational Maps, DVD]

BOOK :: Kiss & Tango: Looking for Love in Buenos Aires

by Marina Palmer (2005) is autobiographical expose into the author's life as she experiences the world of tango (and a good deal of sex) in Argentina. The book covers about 5 years worth of journal entries, marking her first visit to BsAs as a tourist in 1997 where she first witnessed a tango milonga, and following along as she studies, practices and navigatest the tango labryinth.
The author's candid and unabashed style make it easy to live vicariously through her personal experiences. We are excited and nervous for her as she leaves everything behind her in New York and flies away to Argentina to pursue professional tango dancing. We feel anxious as we approach the milonga with her, wondering who will ask her to dance tonight, and whether she'll find the "perfect tango partner".
In terms of research relevance, this book is an excellent source of primary information related to the cultural nuances of tango, gender roles and interactions in particular--how men act in the tango environment, how women are expected to act, the various rules of etiquette on both sides...and what happens when tango relationships spill off of the dance floor...
**note: according to Palmer, tango and love don't mix.
The book does an excellent job of describing, in particular, the non-verbal language that exists within tango...the head nod from the man that indicate an interest in dancing with a particular female (called "cabezeo"), the females fervent eye contact made across dimly lit dance floors, seeking to lock with a potential male partner, and the art of the refusal--a blank stare from the woman indicates a passive "no" to the man's cabezeo, while he saves face in not having been openly rejected.
Despite a narrative that frequently bends back toward the authors private, sexual escapades (thus perpetuating the stereotype of the tango as a erotically charged dance), Palmer's account of the process of learning tango, and learning to love tango, is insightful and informative, offering a taste of the tango as lifestyle, and not just as dance.