I´m in BA for the FIRST time. These are my OBSERVATIONS, not universal truths. Everybody has their own experiences. I´m just sharing mine for those who have never been here.
Milongas Whereas the milongas I´ve attended in the US are virtually pitch black (except for the recent Atlanta Tango Festival which wants attendees to practice cabeceo), there is a lot of lighting at the milongas in BA (based on the ones I´ve attended. It´s impossible for me to attend all of them. My rented house is in San Cristobal so I´m going to the milongas near the house (Lo de Celia, El Arranque, and Leonesa (which hosts multiple milongas under different names, such as Nino Bien.) Cabeceo It is practiced religiously here. You need to understand it before you come. For me, I maintain the gaze of Bela Lugosi who portrayed Dracula and focus on the woman I want to dance. If our eyes meet because she is looking for somebody to dance, I have a split second to make a slight nod of my head towards the floor and smile. She will respond with a nod (yes) or shake of the head (no). If yes, I meet her at the closest corner where there are no tables. I go onto the floor first to find a spot and she comes onto the floor. The Embrace It´s only close embrace. There´s no open position. The man raises his left arm with his palm toward himself. The woman puts her right hand in the palm and all the fingers close. The woman puts her left arm around the man´s back. The man lifts his right arm until it comes into contact with her left arm. He then reaches across her back until his fingers reach her arm pit. I haven´t seen any deviations from this embrace by Argentines. The dance It´s very simple because the embrace is EVERYTHING, not the figures. It´s walking, ocho cortado, molinetes and very low boleos, if any. When you pack your luggage, leave your valcadas, colgaldas, and displacements are home. You won´t need them and you may throw the Argentines off. Between the dances Surprisingly, the Argentines talk for about the first 30 seconds of following dances in the tanda. I was told that when young people were chaperoned, the only time they could talk without their parents knowing what was said was at the beginning of each musical selection. No one looks young enough to need a chaperone. At El Arranque, I danced with a Japanese woman to a DiSarli tanda. When my favorite DiSarli tango, El Jacquel, was played, we danced. I didn´t care that the Argentines were still talking. (It was the last half hour of the milonga and the floor was empty.) I wasn´t going to let a beautiful tango go to waste. The language Learn some Spanish. Somebody might speak to you in spanish between the tangos and you´ll be ignorant of what they´re saying. Even though I went to a community college to brush up, I know enough to tell the woman I´m an American and spanish isn´t my primary language so I can´t understand everything she said. And then there´s the issue of getting around the town. Ochos Americans pivot when they ocho so the eight is more horizontal. Not all Argentine woman pivot. They step backward, then reach back with the other foot and cross behing the standing leg. So their ochos are more vertical than horizontal. It´s still an ocho but it´s different. Adjustments I had to adjust my dance to fit the milonguero style. I prefer to dance with my palm up, not my hand arm because I want my arm to be relaxed. It doesn´t make any difference what I want. What the woman wants is more important and I have to accomodate her. Again, these are my observations, not universal truths. The purpose of Tango L is to share information so I´m just sharing. I have a guide who´s helping me get around. That´s all I can think of for now. If I think of anything else, I´ll post. Reporting from Buenos Aires Michael Ditkoff -- I'd rather be dancing Argentine Tango _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
