Little Epiphanies

Tango Is a Feeling By Kevin Carrel Footer Buenos Aires, 17 April 2022 — I saw her across the dance floor. It was an afternoon milonga at a downtown cultural center, one of my regular haunts. Huge paintings of Galicia hung on the walls, dulled by time but intended to...

by Kevin Carrel Footer The past reminds me of things that were. Like sugar-coated castles, those things glimmer in the distance and their beauty overwhelms me. I would like to return, but cannot. I can find no way back to the lost places. The maps have been destroyed;...

By Kevin Carrel Footer I have been working lately at making that strong place strong. It is hard work. Often the strong place isn’t so strong as it should be. But it should be strong – it must be strong – if we are to become fully ourselves. For most of us, creating...

Take Nothing. Hold it up. Turn it in your hand. Have a good, long stare. Nothing, in spite of its bad press, is really quite something – especially when compared to the alternatives. So many of the things that press around us filling our time and space are so bland...

by Kevin Carrel Footer In La Boca, the river has shed its customary brown livery and turned gray. You would think that a river would remain one color, not change like a chameleon, but you would be wrong. The Rio de la Plata is a shape-shifter, writhing and cavorting...

by Kevin Carrel Footer He ran his fingers across the wooden table because he wanted to feel something real again, something that connected him to the organic world. His fingertips feared splinters — admittedly, that was part of the thrill — but they found only worn...

When a stranger opens their arms to us in a tango embrace, it is an invitation. When we bare our chest to receive our partner, it is trust in its purest form. When our arms wrap around each other in romantic or fraternal love, it is a homecoming, a possibility.

Milonga at Los Laureles, Buenos Aires, 2018 After the first tango ended, we made the small-talk that is the unguent that holds the milonga community together. “Do you come here often?” “How beautiful the orchestra is playing tonight.” “I love the way you dance.” My...

Carnival is back and the party is on the street. I lug my cameras and even a light stand out into the heat of the night. I would like to travel lighter but I don’t know where the photos will spring from. All I know is that I will end the night covered in sweat and...