Crossroads

The love of her youth and innocence...

...is pure in her devotion, passionate in her actions and idealistic in the perception of her lover.

...is like summer breeze, that caresses your face lightly, at the same time filling your heart with warmth.

...is like a blank piece of paper; feels each and every new sensations with unbounded curiousity; savours each and every experience with immeasurable sensibility; ponders every unknown with untiring attentiveness.

...holds no baggage of the past and understands no fear of the future.

...knows not the suffering of her first parting; hence suffers the greatest for her first feeling of loss, suffers the greatest for her first goodbye, and will continue to suffer till she dies; till she is reborn again; as something lesser, and at the same time, something greater.

...is something that we were able to give; once, but never again.

...is beautiful not because she is eternal, although she wishes to; But precisely because her eternity is captured in her fleetedness and her singularity.

...has touched your heart eternally with her tears, her force and her purity.

...is her gift, to you.

I returned to Buenos Aires in late november 2007, to continue my university application in Argentina.

At that time I had with me two sets of bundled documents for my school application. One bundle containing my birth certificate, passport, identification card, police records, school results and testimonials; all legalized by the Singapore government and then legalized by the Argentine counsulate representing Singapore.

The other bundle were the same exact documents but all translated into spanish before legalizing them.

I made a copy for each bundle of documents, and I asked the government and counsulate to legalize the copies as well.

So I had the four sets of legalized documents with me and I thought I was well on my way to get my school registration in Buenos Aires and with that registration, get my student visa in Argentina.

But as though it was some horrific self-fulfilling prophecy between me and administrative issues; something must go wrong and it did, even after so much trouble and after so much consultation amongst lawyers and bureacrats.

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I went to see the department of foreign students of the University of Salvador in late december 2007. The administrator took a careful look at my documents and told me I needed one more certificate, which was the Certificate of Clean Criminal Record in Argentina.

And also, I had legalized everything in a wrong manner...

WHAT?!

"The documents should be legalized separately, each certificate should contain an individual piece of legalization paper from the Argentine counsulate of your country." He explained.

I bundled all the documents together, as one folder. Hence the Argentine consular legalized the entire bundle and its contents with only one legalization paper, which bears the official apostille of Argetina, adding this apostille paper behind the entire bundle.

"But the argentine consular looked through all the documents and he did put a stamp on each document." I tried to make him see the logic behind this.

"Yes I know, but every document should have a individual 'apostille' paper, and not as a bundle..."

"...The immigration department demands this and I cannot help you. Go to the Argentina Immigration Department and appeal to them..."

"...We are going to close for summer vacations and will reopen early febuary. Good luck." He smiled, I could see he was sincerely apologetic about my situation.

He could have as well said, "Fly 36 hours back to Singapore to buy a 2 hour air ticket to Jakarta and do everything again!" But luckily the looming summer vacations had him in a compassionate mood.

I thought back and distinctly remembered being advised by a adminstrator working in the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bundle my documents together as one, before letting the foreign embassy legalize them.

No matter, what can one do? Too much time, effort and money spent to give up. I first went to get my argentine Certificate of Clean Criminal Record; it was surprisingly easy to get. Fifteen minutes in line, a five minute form to fill, and a four day wait.

Then I went to the Argentina Immigration Department. After a two hour wait, I went to the foreign visas department and spoke to the administrator.

I showed him the forms, and explained the situation to him. It was then I found out how ill-advised I was.

"Firstly, you should not have bundled your documents together. We do not need your school results, nor your passport to be legalized..." He explained.

"...The passport is an internationally recognized document, it does not need to be legalized to be accepted legal in a foreign country..."

"...You did not need to legalize your Singapore Identification Card, we do not need it here for your student visa application..."

"...The birth certificate and the certificate of clean police record of Singapore needs to be legalized as individual documents. Once that is done, you do not need to legalize the copies..."

"...Lastly, you did not need to legalize the translated documents. We do not recognize your translation official in Singapore anyway. You need to translate the papers with an appointed official translator here in Buenos Aires. And you do not need to legalize the translation again..."

"...To summarize, what you should have done is very simple: For your student visa application in Argentina's Immigration office, we only need four documents; of which three of them you can get from your own country. 1. Passport, 2. Birth certificate, 3. Certificate of Police Record from Singapore..."

"...Of these three documents, only two of them needs to be legalized, and legalized separately. The birth certificate and the Certificate of Police Record from Singapore...

"...Legalize them first in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your own country (Singapore). Then bring them to our consulate representing Singapore to legalize (put an apostille paper)..."

"...Then the fourth document you need for your student visa application is a Certificate of Police Record from Argentina, which you can apply here in Buenos Aires and that does not need to be legalized because it is from an argentine government agency..."

"...With these four documents, go to our appointed official translator in Buenos Aires, translate them and then apply directly to the university to get a letter of acceptance..."

"...Your university might ask you to legalize also your Singapore school documents, but our immigration offices do not need them. We only need your university's letter of acceptance."

"...Once you get your letter of acceptance, we can start your student visa process." (Whew...)

Great, why didn't I talk to him before I went back to Singapore. Why did everyone, lawyers, adminstrators, even consulars have a different story to tell?

Recognizing that, I should have listened to the story of the one that makes the most important decision; the one who would give me my student visa at the end of the day... this guy.

Who then continued, "I'm afraid you have to do two things now. First bring all your documents which are in english to the official translating agency in Buenos Aires..."

"...Second thing is to send your Certificate of Police Record of Singapore back to the Argentina Counsulate that represents Singapore (in this case, situated in Jakarta), let them attach the legalization paper unto it and then have them send it back to you."

He advised me to go to the Chancellor of Argentina to appeal to them to get the necessary apostille paper done in Buenos Aires.

A few days later, I went to see the Chancellor of Argentina and he told me there is nothing he can do; I have to send that paper back to get it legalized. Luckily I had legalized my birth certificate separately (on the advise of a receptionist in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore! How could the receptionist know better??!!).

I sent it to the Argentina Consulate representing Singapore in Jakarta, through DHL. Now I'm waiting patiently for the legalized paper to come back through their diplomatic mail, which I heard comes only once a month!

In the end, looking at the application FAQ paper provided by the university again, although it does not state that the papers must be legalized separately, it does really state which documents needs to be legalized. The passport was not one of them. Also it did state the address of the offical translating agency in Buenos Aires.

So whose fault was it? The lawyer friend who advised me from the start? The administrator from the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs I spoke to? The Argentine consular in Jakarta who was not aware of my error and assured me it was correctly done? Or myself, who was not able to read the FAQ paper properly?

All of the above I guess, but unfortunately the only one that pays the price is me. %(/·$%!!!

For the longest time I was struggling with the idea of being a teacher in tango. Of course I wanted to share with the Singapore tango community, what I had learnt in my months in Buenos Aires, the wonderful and essential things of tango which I felt and experienced.

It goes without a doubt that I felt a great passion and urge, in letting my tango community in on a little peek of this amazing tango birthplace, half a world away.

But to call myself a teacher, to put myself in a status above my community members; to this end, I hesitated very much. I was prepared to share with them as a peer, out of passion for an activity we all love. But I was not ready to step into an authority of a teacher; getting paid for what I had to offer.

Late febuary 2007, a month before I was due to go back to Singapore, I was still hesitating how I would position myself when I am back in Singapore, along came a few fellow dancers who gave me three very important encouragements.

The first was Ney Melo, I was working for his tango tour group early 2007. During one of the dinners I asked him and Jennifer about their teaching careers. He said, "You have to start somewhere. There is no point in your dancing career where you can say to yourself 'I am fully ready to teach'. It doesn't exist; one always feels some inadequacy in his own dance. Even now I cringe, when I think back of some of the things I told my students when I first started teaching. You keep learning even as you teach. Slowly then you can build up your career and then move on to bigger things."

The second was Daniel Liu, of Tango Taiwan. We met each other early March 2007. During one brief discussion we had in Niño Bien, he asked if I was going to start teaching tango when I am back in Singapore. I mentioned to him I did not feel ready.

In a later email response he wrote, "I guess I would not dance as I do now if I did not start teaching and performing. To teach is to learn..."

"...I admire those who spend years and only start when they are ready, but that's definitely not my case, even if I wanted to - it was literally quite impossible to do that seven years ago."

The third and the most important one was Jean Michel and Royce, my good friends and first tango teachers. After affirming to myself that I could give teaching tango a try, I went to them with grand plans, I wanted to give 3 new classes every weekday and a special seminar every weekend.

They listened quietly and bought me gently back down to Earth. "First of all, teaching is very difficult. Without prior teaching experience, it would be quite unwise to commit to so many classes."

"Secondly, judging from the size of the tango community in Singapore (Less than 50 regular dancers!), you face the risk of getting low or even zero attendances for your classes. Rather than having many classes with few people, it is better to have one class with many people. The energy of the class would be higher and the students would have more fun."

"Thirdly, if you think about it, putting your dancing level aside, you are still dancing only for a little over than a year. Do you think a lot of the regular dancers who danced much longer than you would take classes from you? On the flipside, do you think you have enough time for publicity to get new students?"

After listening to these advices and encouragement, eventually I settled into the idea of giving guided practicas; inspired by one of my trips to a DNI guided practica, where it is really a practica but there are teachers present who would attend to anyone interested to ask questions. The teachers also stop the practica sometimes to show one or two interesting figures for the dancers to work on.

Well the rest is history, I spent 7 great months in Singapore teaching and learning tango at the same time at Ixidanza, with the kind support of the owners Louis and Janet.

At the end of the day, I still did not feel like how being a real teacher ought to be; Like how I feel about my teachers, Javier Rodriguez, Andrea Misse, Cacho Dante, etc. These are really qualified people.

But at least I feel I had achieved what I had wanted in the first place; to share with my community what I had benefitted from being in Buenos Aires.

It was even better to have achieved this in a more relaxed environment; a guided practica, where people come with lesser expectations, pay practica prices and not feel pressured to follow exactly what a teacher says like in a class.

So in this sense, it was the honest truth. I was not ready to be a teacher and neither did I really consider myself to be a teacher in those guided practicas.

A 'guider' might be more apt.

The elegant Stacy Jou, organizer of the Taipei Tango Festival, a picture of calmness, delicate and class. Organizing events can be a daunting task, with so much planning, coordination and last minute contingencies. Not to mention such a regional event with more than a total of 300 participants from countries such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. She managed to maintain a natural poise, unhurried and impeccable.

Many can do it, but not many can do it with such apparent ease and grace; I have seen many organizers of events, including myself, running around looking flustered, tired and irritable.

A brief encounter with her during the Chinese Style Milonga, an hour before she was due to perform in front of the capacity festival crowd with her dance partner Daniel Liu.

"Hi Stacy, how are you? I really admire you having to juggle the administration of the festival and performing not only once but twice within the same night!" I smiled at Stacy, who was behind the ticketing counter.

"Thank you, but luckily I am used to it." Stacy smiled politely, "Its not easy, this woman just called me and said she has a reservation of 9 seats and she is coming now. But we do not have her records at all. We're already very full but I'll see how I can accomodate her." She said, with only the slightest hint of a sigh.

The feeling she gives to me is like a late Carlos Di Sarli piece. Very elegant, beautiful, unhurried and delicate. Through this dignity comes also a quiet formality that is like a very thin veil that masks her deeper sensibilities and emotions.

And how appropriate it was! That I got to dance a Di Sarli tanda with her that night.
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One of the most unforgettable dances I got in the 2007 Taipei festival was with a Korean dancer named Hwayi, or Florencia. Before even dancing with her, I already know she is a very good dancer; one of the dancers regularly invited to perform at the international performers' night at Taipei Tango festivals.

I will try my best to describe in words the sensations that I felt, but I doubt that would really do justice to the incredibleness of the dance that I had.

It was a Juan D'Arienzo tanda when I invited her to dance. For the first two songs we enjoyed a good dance, technically and musically good, with a rather good connection. But I was being quite cautious, for a number of reasons; it was our first dance, the floor was crowded and she was a more experienced dancer than me, so I did not want to screw up.

Midway through the third song, as I danced passed Javier, maybe he saw I was dancing too self conscious, maybe he thought I could attack the beat of D'Arienzo better or maybe he was just being mischievous, he said to me from the edge of the dancefloor, "Matala!" ("Kill her!" Which means just give it to her!).

So I decided to crank it up a notch. Gradually putting in more energy and attacking the beat of the music with more and more vigour. That's when the amazing thing happened. As I gradually raised my energies, I could feel Hwayi's energies gradually rise too. It was almost like mirror where not only she increased her intensity till it was exactly like mine, but the rate of her increase matched mine exactly.

Its not just only a mirror, an exact but lifeless reflection of what the leader wants; much more than that. Neither is it quite exactly like most interchange of dynamics between two dancers, where the girl proposes her own musicality and intensity during the dance and the leader follows that inspiration. The sensation was that she consumed all the energies I gave to her and reflected them back to me with her own energies with such a magnitude and rate that matched mine exactly.

Like two runners pacing each other, as they run towards the last 1km of the race, they'll slowly increase speed, but they do it together, each edging the other along, without a spoken pre-agreement. Gradually and naturally reaching their top speed together.

For the last song of the tanda, we reached the top speed and the D'Arienzo really flew by. But the cherry to the cake was that, at the end of the song, I felt I had already reached the maximum amount of energy and intensity I could give for the dance. But I felt Hwayi would be able to take and give so much more had I continued to increase the intensity. Incredible!