Dance Flaws

[senorsuitcase]

What is tango to you?

a) neon crazy juice for the under eights, advertised by a man in orange body paint
b) the name of your local tanning salon
c) a large helping of leg spaghetti

If it’s ‘a’ or ‘b’, you haven’t left the UK. If it’s ‘c’, you’re an Ingles in Argentina, with the body of John Cleese and the head of Rab C Nesbitt, who wandered onto a dancefloor with nothing but a few episodes of Strictly Come Dancing for training.

Or, you’re us. We’ve been in Buenos Aires for six months now. In this time, we’ve taken in a good cross-section of the milongas (organised tango evenings where the locals gather to dance) this city has to offer, from La Viruta and La Catedral – still our favourite – at the younger, trendier end of the spectrum, to the more traditional La Confiteria Ideal and neighbourhoody Salon Canning. So in theory, tango should be more than a vague twitch in the third toe on my left foot. However, there are a few obstacles standing between us and tango greatness.

1. Co-ordination. The first hurdle. Eye, meet arms. Arms, meet legs. James, thanks to his dedication on the football pitch, has a little more to offer in this department, but three seasons of goal-hanging for the OC 3rd XI does not make Carlos Tevez into Carlos Gardel.
2. Walking backwards. There’s a huge amount of it for the lady. Without wing mirrors, this can be quite anxiety inducing and limiting to mobility. Imagine a slightly exasperated man in a supermarket pushing around a trolley with a broken wheel. That’s us.
3. Footwear. Not flip-flops or Converse apparently, but steel toecaps or Heelys might help.
4. Protocol. Forget ‘ here’s 10p to phone your mum…’, here, an invitation to dance is delivered in a series of winks and raised eyebrows that may well just be an unfortunate facial spasm. Or perhaps were directed at the lady next to you. You might both get up. Or ignore him and cause offence. The potential for embarrassment is endless.
5. Strangers. Suddenly you’re playing body-odour Russian Roulette with lone men. Of course, most of the tangueros you’ll encounter are scrubbed and Brylcreemed until they’re actually emitting a faintly phosphorescent glow, but you don’t often know which is which until you’re past the point of no return. Which brings me to…
6. Proximity issues. For us, this is the biggy. You see, tango is close. Cheek-to-cheek close. So, even if you’ve fitted your wing mirrors, reverse sensors and BO detectors, you’ve still got to spend five skin-on-skin minutes pressing cheeks with Señor or Señora Random.

By way of a disclaimer, and for all the millions of tango fans who might be reading, I’d also like to point out that tango, danced well – or even just passionately – is a beautiful thing. We hope to enjoy much more of it before leaving. But for now, we’ll stick to non-contact sports. Anyone for line-dancing?

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Señor Suitcase
www.senorsuitcase.com
www.twitter.com/senorsuitcase

 

[tangobob]

I am surprised that this has not been replied to by a local, (maybe this will prompt a reply). A very small percentage of locals actually dance tango ask almost any local what tango means to them and they will either say tourism and foriegners, or they will talk of the music.
Over here in the UK everyone thinks in terms of moves and steps but forget that it is also a musical genre and to those who regularly attend tango events the music is as important if not more so than the dance.
You should try attending one of the free concerts at the Biblioteca Nacional and see just how many locals come just to hear the music. The one time we made it there we had to sit on the floor as it was packed over capacity.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Well, locals, here I am.

La Catedral is one of the worse places to go. It is not a Milonga. Unless you are looking for a LGTB affair you are in the wrong place.

If you are looking for a place with young people, then Milonga 10 is the best option. Villa Malcolm is a tango expat ghetto for those with integration issues (Saturday not included).

Instead of walking reward at the supermarket, I sugest you go to Carlitos and rosa´s class at the Sunderland Club on Monday and Wednesday at 8 o´clock...well, more or less.

You are wrong, there is not such a thing like point of no return, the dance floor is a ruthless place, you can say "gracias" anytime and leave him alone in the middle of a song or after 5 seconds.

Regarding cabeceo, just accept and wait until he is just in front of you to get up, after he invited you AGAIN!

La Ideal is not a traditional place, is a disaster. Traditional places (that deserve to be visited) are Cachirulo (now at Malcolm on Saturdays), el Beso Wednesday and Sundays and Canning on Mondays.

It is difficult that the milongueros invite you to dance if they didn´t see you dancing, if somebody doesn´t respect the protocol say no. Otherwise you are going to be burned.

Instead of been obsessed about coordination, just relax, disocia and follow the man. For girls is simple and easy...only if the man know to lead of course.

About n 6, if when you close your eyes you cannot feel you two are alone on the dance floor, don´t accept to dance with him anymore.

Regards

pd: I still don´t get if you are a guy or a girl, I replied as you are a girl.

 

[AngelinBA]

When I started learning tango, I couldn´t let the man lead for the life of me. Finally, I just gave up and closed my eyes and was finally able to learn to dance!

I remember leaning my cheek into my dance partners, he told me this lovely story about how the ¨good¨girls would dance with their forehead leaning against the man, the prostutites would lean their cheek so that they could whisper their prices into the man´s ear. This made me change position quickly, and instantly corrected the balance problems I´d been having!
And dancing at La Ideal isn´t fun if you´re a tallish girl, all the old men that dance there are about chest height! And take great pleasure in dancing with tall foreign girls and leaning their heads on your CHEST for the duration of the dance. Having said that, dancing with short old men helped me to correct my bad habit of leaning all of my weight on my dance partner.
The music finally got to me though, I switched to Salsa which is much more fun.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Well, Tango is about passion not about having fun. Regards

 

[Sockhopper]

bajo_cero,
Passion IS fun. So it is with dancing Argentine Tango or any culturally rooted social partner dance that is taught and learned well and done for enjoyment.