The Day of Tango celebrated with a big tango ball in Sofia

As every year during the last 8 years on 11th December the Bulgarian community will celebrate the argentine Day of Tango with a special event. This year this will be a big Tango Ball organized by Tanguerin with the support of the Embassy of Argentina in Bulgaria, which will take place at Interpred Trade Center in Sofia. The audiovisual setting during the evening will be specially selected and compiled so as to represent the history of the danceable tango music. As usual, the musical format of the evening will follow the tradition of the classic Buenos Aires milonga with tandas (a group of 3-5 musical pieces performed by the same orchestra) and cortinas (short musical intermissions between two tandas). The only difference will be that this time the tandas will be ordered chronologically, starting with the danceable tango from the beginning of 20th century and ending with music by contemporary tango ensembles. Each tanda will be accompanied with visuals presenting the performing orchestra or other important personalities and moments from the time of the performance. Elegant attire is compulsory for all guests and the organizers reserve the right to restrict access to the event for inappropriately dressed visitors. All dancers are kindly asked to bring special shoes for dancing as well as to observe the codes and etiquette of the traditional Buenos Aires milongas that include among other things, invitation by eye contact and nodding (cabeceo), moving in circular lanes on the dance floor (ronda) and changing the partner at the end of each tanda.

The culminating point of the tango ball celebrating the Day of Tango is a unique fashion show featuring demonstrations of bulgarian tango dancers who will present clothes from the latest collection of the only Bulgarian  designer label for tango dance clothing Abrazos Tango Wear. The label was founded in the beginning of 2012 by two Bulgarian tangueras, Maria Uzunova and Gergana Boeva, who were led by their passion for tango and love for beautiful clothes with original design. Their aim is to create clothes full of movement providing more comfort and underlining the individuality of the dancer. All clothes by Abrazo are tailor made and done by hand using a great diversity of materials and colors. The slogan of the label says it all: "Dance your life in style!".

The Tango Ball will take place in Sofia hall of the Interpred Trade Center on 36 Dragan Tsankov Blvd with doors opening at 8 pm. During the evening the bar will offer argentine wines from Graffigna and those who want to party in style may do it with sparkling wine No1 in France, Café de Paris, with which the organizers pay tribute to the French capital as one of the most important historical centers for the popularization of the argentinean tango in Europe.

More information about the event can be found on the official page of the celebrations of the Day of Tango in Sofia www.diadeltango.com.

A hot tango concert autumn in Sofia

Sticking to its principle always to present live quality tango music from different periods and styles, the Tanguerin team will organize in October two concerts with famous tango musicians from Buenos Aires representing two styles from the opposite sides of the tango music spectrum.

The first concert will feature one of the leading elelctrotango bands in the world - the legendary Tanghetto (www.tanghetto.com). Apart from being among the pioneers of the electronic tango, Tanghetto are the most awarded representatives of the genre with two Latin Grammy nominations and one Premio Gardel, the most important music award in Argentina.

During its 10-year long career, the band took beyond the very concept of electrotango, adding to the mixture some elements of traditional tango, jazz, diverse South American influences and rocking drum beats. One of the most influential argentinean daily newspapers, La Nacion, defines Tanghetto's music as “a singular combination of simplicity, sophistication, sensibility, energy and no prejudices”. And Los Angeles Time refers to the band as “the most seductive electrotango outfit”. Yet Tanghetto are best acknowledged for their unique ability to consistently surprise with innovative recordings in the studio and a powerful audiovisual show on stage.

Tanghetto are absolute trendsetters in the new tango scene of Buenos Aires. Five studio albums (all platinum or gold in Argentina), a live DVD, a double live album, soundtracks and tours in over 20 countries and 150 cities worldwide are some of their impressive career achievements. 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of the band and the milestone is celebrated with a big world tour that began with a sold-out concert at the Teatro ND / Ateneo in Buenos Aires. And for the first time Tanghetto includes Bulgaria in its tour schedule.

Following the concerts of Otros Aires and Narcotango this is the third of the series of events by Tanguerin dedicated to the electronic tango. Tanghetto's concert in Sofia is organized jointly with Jazz Plus and will happen on the 4th October from 8.30 pm in Sofia Live Club. As in all similar events so far the evening will continue with a big electrotango afterparty fueled by the music selection and the visuals of dj tangerine. Tickets for the event are on sale at the box offices of Ticjet Plus (www.ticketplus.bg), and cost 35 lv. in advance sale and 40 lv. at the door. And until 4th September tickets are sold at the special promotional price of 30 lv.

The second concert, which will be part of a special milonga, is dedicated to the traditional sung tango - the so-called "tango cancion", and will feature a very exotic formation - the vocal duo Fuertes Varnerin (www.fuertesvarnerin.com).

Agustin Fuertes and Ariel Varnerin are a true "vintage" tango duet interpreting famous tangos, valises and milongas with two voices in a very beautiful but rarely performed due to its difficulty style from tango's earliest years. The two tango troubadours brush the dust off the old arrangements, sung by famous tango duets in the past, and accompanied by a guitar and a guitarron (a type of latin-american guitar) they breathe new life into them much to the joy of all lovers of good traditional tango music.

Male duets have been extremely popular in the early stages of the development of tango music.  The most iconic tango singer Carlos Gardel himself started his career as a member of the mythical duet Gardel - Razzano. This very duet, together with several others male doubles of the time mark the beginning of the sung tango also known as "tango cancan". Furtertes and Varnerin perform some famous pieces from the rertoire of this duets but do not limit themselves only to this. They sing also an impressive selection from the Golden Age of tango that includes not only tangos but also emotion-saturated valses and joyful milongas. In their performances the renowned Buenos Aires bards use a unique singing technique, known to the lovers of traditional tangos from the records of such famous orchestras from the 40s as those of De Angelis, Troilo and others.

The concert of Duo Fuertes-Varnerin takes place on 9th October in Studio 5 Club in NDK (The National Palace of Culture) and is part of a special milonga during which there will also be music from the Golden Age of tango selected by DJ Marina from Tango Porta. Ticket for the event cost 15 lv. and can be bought at the door of Studio 5 on the day of the concert.

Pianist Maria Martinova comes back to Sofia for another tango concert.

Bulgarian pianist Maria Martinova, who currently resides in Belgium, will return to Sofia for a tango concert which she will perform with French violinist Cyril Garac. The event will take place on 3rd July in Studio 5 Music Club in Sofia, located at the A3 entrance of the National Palace of Culutre (NDK). This is the third time Maria visits Sofia with a tango project - in January 2009 she played with Tanguarda quartet in a sold out concert in Bulgaria Concert Hall (organized by Tanguerin and Jazz Plus) and a year later she gave a breathtaking performance bridging classical French music and contemporary Argentine tango together with Venezuelan violinist David Nunez (organized by Tanguerin)

According to Maria, her third tango concert in Sofia, this time with violinist Cyril Garac, will include a tango nuevo repertoire with music by Astor Piazzolla and contemporary tango composers such as Gustavo Beytelmann, Pablo Agri and others. The concert is organized and hosted by Studio 5 Music Club  and will start at 19:00. Tickets are on advance sale at 15 lv. in the box offices of NDK and the ticket networks of Eventim, Ticket Plus and Ticketstream. Tickets will be available at the entrance at 20 lv.

More information about Maria can be found on her personal website: www.mariamartinova.com and the official website of Tanguarda - www.tanguarda.com.

Argentinean maestros Luis Mendez and Gaby Gonzalez are back in town!

Our friends Luis Mendez and Gabriela Gonzalez, professional tango dancers and teachers from Buenos Aires, are back in Sofia in June and July to teach a course for absolute beginners, as well as a course for more advanced dancers on tango, milonga and vals.

This time the courses with Luis and Gaby are organized by Tango & Pepper and will take place in Tango & Pepper's studio on 3 Graf Ignatiev St. in Sofia. Classes start on 19th June at 7.30 pm for the absolute beginners course and on 20th June at 7.30 pm for the advanced course. Each course will have a total of 12 classes, taking place twice a week. More information in Bulgarian can be found on Tango and Pepper's website.

The Tanguerin team left the Association tango.bg

Last week the members of the management team of Tanguerin left the Association tango.bg, the organization which they had initiated and co-founded a year and a half ago. Ivo and Nadia, founders and directors of Tanguerin, discontinued their membership in tango.bg and resigned from tango.bg's board of directors. Ivo also stepped down as co-chairman of tango.bg. The main reasons for this move was Ivo and Nadia's isolation from the decision-making process at tango.bg due to their current residency outside Bulgaria, as well as the arising conflict of interests with respect to their work for Tanguerin.

Although Tanguerin may continue to cooperate with tango.bg on certain occasions, Ivo and Nadia should no longer be associated with the activities of tango.bg. This will allow them to focus on the development of Tanguerin and will open possibilities for partnerships with other tango organizations in Bulgaria.

Tanguerin will host a milonga during a stylish tango ball in Sofia's Sheraton Hotel

IT'S BALL TIME! Tanguerin was invited to host a special milonga during the first part of Tango Ball 2012, a sophisticated thematic evening organized by EventEase in the ballrooms of Sheraton Hotel in Sofia. The star guest of the event is the french musician and DJ Philippe Cohen Solal, founder and member of the legendary elelctronic tango group Gotan Project. He will fly directly from Paris to perform a 3-hour DJ set full of the sexy rhythm of electronic tango, bosa nova and unreleased jazzy remixes of Gotan Project's hits, bringing the Buenos Aires magic to Sofia

This will be the first event of its type to take place in the landmark 5-star hotel. During the milonga leading tango teachers from the Association tango.bg will teach short initiation tango classes to those who still don't dance tango. Music for the milonga will be selected by DJ El Maquinista.

Tickets for TANGO BALL 2012 are on sale in the network of Eventim (www.eventim.bg) and cost 25 leva. Special VIP tickets that include a glass of Moet champagne are on sale at 35 lv. Early bird tickets are available at 15 lv. with booking by telephone on 0886 333367.

More details in Bulgarian are availabale on the organizer's website www.eventease.org.