Dancing with Angels – Performing Tango in Singapore

When you think of Tango, South-East Asia in general- and Singapore in particular – would not be the first thing that comes to mind. Yet there I had the wonderful pleasure of connecting with a passionate Tango Community, giving performances,  Master-classes and Workshops, and doing presentations on the work of the CT Tango Ensemble.

It was a great opportunity to meet the dancers and musicians of Singapore. As always, I am moved by the love this dance evokes in people from such different cultures. Similar to the Tango scene in Cape Town, there is a sense of being far removed from the “roots” of Tango: Buenos Aires. And yet, the music and the movement seems to have a life of its own, sending its passion out through the world.

It was very special to be able to do a presentation on the two CD’s I made with my colleagues in the CT Tango Ensemble, and it felt great to be selling our work in Asia! My wonderful host Kace Ong, manager of Abrazos Club Singapore, is a passionate tanguero, a dedicated teacher and a man of vision. He created the connections for me with local musicians and went to so much trouble to integrate me into their programme and the concert flowed naturally from there. Along with Shzree Tan on the Accordion and Dominic Wan on Guitar did workshops and Master-Classes on various aspects of Tango music, and in particular giving attention to arranging music suitable to various combinations of instruments and how to fit these into a traditional milonga. At Singapore’s most important Tango Club, we put on a programme that included some traditional milongas as well as Tango Nuevo. As always in my programmes, Piazzolla was on the menu – and was very well received.

You can read more about the history of Tango Singapore HERE

Find Tango Singapore’s homepage HERE