Sometimes it’s hard to believe how quickly time has passed living here. It’s getting close to seven years – there are days when it seems like I could have only been here two or three, and other days when it seems like longer. Back “in the day”, i.e., those first couple of years, I used to post a lot more about some of the cultural stuff that I’d go out and do with Henry. In fact, I used to do a lot more of that – going to his various dance performances and shows put on by his friends and colleagues. I still tend to go to most of his performances, I just long ago stopped taking photos of all of them and posting about it – plus I often get handed his video camera and end up playing official videographer. And I definitely go to a lot fewer of the shows that he’s not actually in.

So it shouldn’t surprise me that it’s come up numerous times recently that people are surprised to find out he’s a dancer. Not only a dancer, but since receiving his licensiado from IUNA, the national arts institute, he’s been teaching professionally. He’s teaching part-time at the institute itself, and, this year he’s been asked to give some demonstrations and workshops at various folklore festivals – most recently spending two weeks at the big international folklore confab in Córdoba, and then a month up in Lima. He’s already been asked to return in July to Lima and then on to Venezuela in August.

What does all that lead up to? Well I wouldn’t be a good boyfriend if I didn’t give him a little shameless promotion, not just for what he’s accomplished, but, because he’s been offering private dance classes for nearly a year now and I haven’t made mention of them other than having added a note to Our Services page – where you might discover that both he and I offer some things besides just multi-course dinners – for example, he’s also a certified masseur and available for some great holistic style massages! He teaches both tango and other Latin American folk dances primarily to individuals and couples so that he can give them some serious attention. If you can communicate in Spanish you can contact him directly at miskiyakupukyu (AT) hotmail (DOT) com or via cellphone at 15-6015-0623. If not, you can contact me and I can set things up, and generally even be around to at least get some translation in at the beginning or end of the class.

Here are a couple of videos of recent demonstrations at the festivals – one of tango and one of the marinera, Peru’s national dance. He’s also got a lot more of them posted on the same YouTube account.