So much happened at the Portland Valentango festival that it's hard to start, but I guess I'll go the easy route, chronologically:

I got contacted by an Italian woman named Luisa, who told me that she had space for me at her apartment. When I arrived Thursday, I met a german guy a few years older than myself named Ralph. This particular festival was a lot kinder to me, I was able to sleep pretty well on a couch, and Luisa lent me a scarf which served as a blindfold. This was a godsend, considering the difficulty I had at the last Portland festival, where I'm so wired, the smallest amount of light will wake me up.

The night I went to the opening milonga at PPAA, which was being DJ'd by Hung-Yut, a pretty interesting guy with a rather strong set of opinions on the music, as well as a great DJ. When I got in there, I was a bit floored by all of the people who I recognized from Buenos Aires. I felt pretty good to be there, and there was a quality selection of follows available to me.

On Friday, I went to 3 workshops. Creativity in tight spaces and close embrace by Nick and Tara, Nuevo tango floorcraft for traditional milongas by Andres and Meredith (who I studied with in BA), and 720 degree multiple single-axis turns by Mila and Korey (who I also saw in BA).

The milonga that evening at Norse Hall was pretty solid, with an alternative milonga starting up at midnight upstairs. I got to dance with Mila which was a blast, she definately has a lot of personality, which she conveys through her theatrical dressing, amongst other things. Near the end of the evening, I danced with a college student named Amanda until the bitter end. The music was pretty good, and the live session with Korey, Nick, and a third bandoneonist playing La Cumparasita, helped top the evening off with a bang.

Saturday I slept in, and took follower and leader technique with Murat and Mariana, and I took cool combinations with colgadas with Andres and Meredith. Murat taught the concept of 3 axes of contra body movement, which related to a concept which I came up with on my own of having 3 axes of (dis)connection. I mentioned this, and some of the applications. Murat mentioned his interest in hearing more, and gave me his e-mail address. After this, I chilled at home and prepared a meal with Luisa and Ralph.

The Grande Ball was hosted 2 blocks away from where I was staying, and was packed with at least 600 people. Every teacher involved in festival workshops performed, as well as Carlos Copello, who had his own thing going on Monday. Carlos had a surprise dance where he danced "Rock" (aka Jitterbug, which is widely danced in Argentina) with Luna, and stole the show a bit by doing a take away, thanking everyone, prior to starting back up dancing some more. Alex Krebs' live ensemble, Conjunto Berretin, played a nice set, and near the end 3 other bandoneonists joined in.

I was able to hitch a ride with Amanda to Post Grande Ball, where I ended up dancing until the bitter end, 6 AM. Probably due to my dance sneakers which have a rough surface in contact with the foot, I had an experience which every follow who I asked has gone through. Basically, after resting, my feet toes and metatarsals felt like they were on fire, prior to numbing them with an entire song of dancing.

Sunday I attended a single class by Nick and Tara entitled the geometry of nuevo tango. They did a great job of cutting into the minute details of sacadas, and alterations, and I feel like I'll be rapidly improving with some of the base concepts which they provided.

I went to the alternative milonga at Berretin, which was a first for me. There was live music, and some interesting moments, like when Alex went onto the dance floor with his saxophone, or when a guest singer did what sounded like a cute Tom Waits impression. In terms of dance, with alternative music, I have a lot more freedom to express myself in any way which reflects the music. It could very well be anything (eg: Carmen, Tom Waits, Gotan Project, Fiona Apple, and more) and so I decided to play around with hip and chest ornamentation.

At the beginning of one tanda, I was talking to an exotic looking New Yorker of Hawaiian descent, and we both loved that song so much that I mentioned later the idea of connecting, prior to even dancing. We ended up dancing a slow paced tanda, chock full of body rolls, and other goodies, some of which were initiated by her, which left me feeling high. I experienced something similar to this with one of the Portland girls, although not quite as intense.

After all that, I got a ride from a nice German woman named Sybile (who happens to work for Microsoft) to the Portland Airport, and back to the real world.