[Tango-L] Lydia & the Miami Festival

[Keith Elshaw]

This morning (Wed), Lydia Henson goes under the knife on knee one.

I gather what she will endure is painful to recover from ... but it is to
fix what has been SO painful for a long time. And that being taken care
of, there will be the other knee next.    !

Those of us who have been in her little troupe have been telling her to
take it easy on the Festival thing, because it is - like - too much.

I don't think it is a secret that she considered stopping the whole thing.
She (with Randy Pittman for the first few years) has done it 11 times. The
biggest and longest festival outside of Argentina.

Well, there will be the 12th this Memorial Weekend coming. Instead of 9
days, it will be 5. (More affordable!).

An on-going festival like this just doesn't "happen." Anyone who has tried
to or thought about organizing something realizes that you don't get all
the great stars she has coming back over a decade if things aren't just
right and special.

Yes?

So, it IS special to have both Miguel and Osvaldo Zotto; Fabian Salas;
Fecundo and Kely; (more of the past big names to be announced in January).

I don't want to be hypy.

But - time has been passing.

What 3 years ago we might have not paid much attention to ...

Next year might be the last. When something is gone, we miss it. Forever.
So, there is a sense with everyone that it is a celebration. It's not
"just another year."

If you were there in the last two years, you will have noticed that I
wasn't there. Yes, I was involved behind the scenes - but I took a break
from attending like regulars do.


There's something about the moment now that is pulling at me, I guess.

I felt I wanted to do something if I could help to restore Tango-L.

Kind of the same thing about wanting to see my friends again in Miami.

I miss Guillermo and Fernanda and Fabian and Miguel and Osvaldo and Lorena
and Kely and Facundo and

Well, it's a long list of people I've sat around and danced around with
down there.

Just now, I'm thinking about all the connections made by the Miami
Festival Lydia and Randy made;

How strong Lydia has been through so much and what she has given no matter
what;

How much the North American world would miss a Miami or Denver or Portland
if it weren't there;

How much they need us and we need them.