Carole Edrich Weblog

silent tango

One of the really exciting aspects of this year’s Big Dance celebrations is a silent tango event that will involve hundreds of people dancing tango on seven bridges and seven stations throughout London on July 7th. Almost a tango flashmob, while the dancers will hear the same music through converted earphones, the rush-hour onlookers will not.

Monica and Omar were to open the launch by dancing on London Bridge at 6.00pm after which an hour-long milonga would be held for anyone interested. I knew the words would come easily but getting good images posed more of a challenge and that's why I took the difficult decision to cover this evening's launch without participating would normally be the case. I was still regretting the impracticality of doing both while checking camera and equipment during the late afternoon.

The Ocampos dancing on London Bridge with Tower Bridge in the background
(c) Carole Edrich, 2008

Even though dance photography’s my speciality this shoot was one of the most difficult I’ve done. It wasn’t because the TV people kept changing their minds as to the best place to film or that photographers from the big London papers got in the way. The latter were charming and accommodating and the apparent indecision of the former will make a much better story. I had scouted the angles before it all started and the concentration and adrenaline involved in getting the right shot was sufficiently consuming that my ill health was temporarily set aside. The challenge was to keep each composition framed whilst being jogged or walked into by rush-hour commuters, and to time each shot to coincide with completed dance moves whilst passers by walked between the camera and the dancers or behind the dancers but obscuring the landmarks entirely.

I like the way the Ocampos appear in the gap between commuters, but not the way Tower Bridge is obscured
(c) Carole Edrich, 2008

I got some reasonable shots and learned a lot, the best of which I’m saving for later. Monica gave AgentSimon her tangocommute connectors and he asked if I’d dance. What could I do but say yes…. But that’s another story - one which I’m hoping to sell.

Posted by carole at June 6, 2008 01:08 AM