[Tango-L] Now that I?m here in BsAs

[rtara@maine.rr.com]

Caroline,

What a lovely description of the hypnotic effect of actually "dancing" tango.

I was there at Salon Canning last Sunday night, I forgot to put in my contact lenses and I had 
to depend entirely 
on my partner in an very different way. It was divine. There was a great feeling in the room 
that night and 
wonderful dancers.

Best,

RobinTara


----- Original Message -----
From: Caroline Polack <runcarolinerun at hotmail.com>
Date: Saturday, November 11, 2006 2:37 pm
Subject: [Tango-L] Now that I?m here in BsAs
To: tango-l at mit.edu

> Iºve realized that what I thought I knew about tango, I actually 
> didnºt know 
> at all. Have only been here five days but have already gone to 
> several 
> milongas (Gricel, Nino Bien, Salon Canning, Confiteria Ideal). The 
> first two 
> days, I was absolutely terrified to jump in and dance because I 
> felt so 
> incompetent in comparison to the locals. Then one afternoon, I 
> forced myself 
> to go to Confiteria Ideal, on my own. Just being there was an 
> incredible 
> experience and then 3 and a half hours later, when I finally left, 
> due to 
> massive blisters on my feet from breaking in new tango shoes, I 
> felt as 
> though I was coming back down to earth. I had danced non stop with 
> one 
> porteno after another. One lovely porteno, who noticed that I was a 
> bit 
> stiff (jetlag, oncoming cold, blisters) said to me in broken 
> english, "close 
> your eyes and sleep". And so I did, I closed my eyes and in this 
> dreamlike 
> state, felt as though my partner was telling me a poetic story 
> through his 
> body, his dancing, his tight embrace. Iºve never experienced 
> anything like 
> that in my life. My entire body felt as though I had just imbibed a 
> glass of 
> wine and thus was relaxed from its liquid in my veins.
> 
> The best way to describe what itºs been like dancing with them, 
> itºs as 
> though Iºd been given passage to a secret world where senses 
> collide in the 
> form of tango. It seems so silly now, how obsessive I was about 
> getting the 
> steps right, back home in my hometown. For thatºs so secondary, 
> itºs the 
> musicality that is what tango is all about. Each nuance of each 
> movement is 
> a response to a note in the song. The portenos, they hold you in 
> close till 
> you are forehead to forehead, cheek to cheek, chest to chest, and 
> with all 
> those connection points, itºs almost impossible to make a mistake, 
> for when 
> you follow their leads, you do so not with thought but with 
> instinct, like 
> breathing.
> 
> I have a bad cold and blisters on my feet and I donºt care. All I 
> think 
> about is where and when to go to the next milonga.
> 
> And now Iºm already feeliing sad because I know that this 
> experience may 
> never be again replicated when I go home unless I get lucky enough 
> to dance 
> with men who are either Argentine or who had learned the tango here 
> in 
> Argentina.
> 
> Last night, at Salon Canning, there was a busload of tourists 
> pouring into 
> the milonga. As I sat with my friend and watched them, I almost 
> winced to 
> see how out of place they seemed with their awkward open embrace, 
> or overly 
> fanciful steps. All I could think to myself was "they just donºt 
> get it, 
> they really don't." When you look at the locals, they are calm, 
> beatific, 
> confident. They do not need to step on every single note. They know 
> how to 
> put as much into a pause as they do into a step. The tourists, on 
> the other 
> hand, seemed almost trying too hard to impress upon others that 
> they know 
> what they are doing while completely missing the point.
> 
> The dance floor was very crowded and yet all the portenos danced 
> together in 
> a perfect flow. It was the tourists dancing with each other that 
> were 
> disrupting the flow, or hurting others by kicking up their heels 
> which is a 
> big no no! It should be blatantly obvious that such boleos donºt 
> belong 
> where there isnºt room for them and obvious how discourteous it is 
> to others 
> and I must say kudos to the Argentines for their gracious and 
> benign 
> tolerance. The female tourists, I knew, once they danced with a 
> porteno, 
> will change their style but the men, because they are the leaders, 
> it will 
> take them much longer to understand.
> 
> How I wish I could bring over the entire tango community from back 
> home to 
> this place so they could learn to dance the Argentine way so that I 
> can 
> selfishly have the same experience in Montreal as I do here.
> 
> For months, I had heard that in BsAs, itºs not about knowing all 
> this 
> advanced tango stuff, itºs about the music, about your partner, 
> itºs about 
> translating how the music affects you through your body to your 
> partner. I 
> danced okay in Montreal but there was always a bit of awkwardness 
> somehow 
> but here, my dancing had improved so naturally fast because my 
> mindset 
> shifted from doing the steps properly to closing my eyes and "sleep".
> 
> There arenºt any words to describe the bliss Iºm feeling right now.
> 
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