[Tango-L] Franelear -- have you tried it?

Tue Dec 11 18:40:37 EST 2007

Hmmmm...I have several comments...and some sweeping generalizations.

As a person who has been bringing people (mostly women) to BA for several 
years, I can tell you that some foreign women are not adverse to getting the 
"full milonguero experience", and there are some Argentine men who are quite 
willing to help them. It is not surprising that misunderstandings occur, as 
one woman related in a story in our local tango newsletter. She told about 
dancing multiple times with a man who raved about her dancing, then asked 
her for coffee. When she explained she was married, he never looked at her 
again.

So I am wondering about another problem - some of the men I bring, or 
Americans or European men I talk to there, complain of rude behavior by 
Argentine men toward them. Deliberate bumping or crowding on the dance 
floor, rude hand signals, unsavory comments - what are the Portenos so angry 
about?  I thought it was poor floorcraft, but these foreigners are good 
dancers with good floorcraft. Are Argentines afraid that the foreigners are 
cutting in on their action? After all, not only are we sometimes easy sexual 
targets, but often easy marks for expensive tango lessons as well.

I was asked by a tanguero why we come so far to dance when we are such 
excellent dancers with such good technique - can't we just stay home and 
dance with each other? Wouldn't that be tragic to the Argentine male, not to 
mention the tourist industry!

I remember a local swing dance teacher who got popular by teaching overly 
sensual moves that men just loved. It was like getting permission for 
inappropriate behavior - (my teacher taught me this move!). He was popular 
until the men discovered that women didn't appreciate the moves so much.

Loisa Donnay
Minneapolis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <desdelasnubes at web.de>
To: "Janis Kenyon" <Jantango at feedback.net.ar>; "Tango-L" <Tango-L at mit.edu>; 
"Trini y Sean (PATangoS)" <patangos at yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 4:22 AM
Subject: [Tango-L] Franelear -- have you tried it?

Janis and Trini,

I'm not sure what is meant by "franelear" and "franela".
This might be partially due to the fact that neither Spanish
nor English are my native languages.
As I understood there are milongueros in BA ready
to provide explanations or even hands-on experience on this matter.
But as I live oceans away from Buenos Aires in the very heart of Europe,
where there are no milongueros at hand to
consult as primary sources, I have to relie on secondary sources.
Doing some googling provided the following results:

"Franela: Manoseo sexual.
Franelear: Roce amoroso.
Franelero: El que pasa el tiempo en una casa de tolerancia sin hacer uso de 
ninguna mujer. "
See: http://www.elportaldeltango.com/lunfardo/f.htm

In my poor English translation this would be:

"Franela: Sexual fingering/touching

Franelear: to make out / to hook up [AE], to snog [BE] (see:
http://forum.wordreference.com/archive/index.php/t-74667.html)

Franelero: One who passes the time in a house of tolerance without making 
use of any woman."

Having considered the translations my first guess was that franelear does 
not necessarily have to do
with dancing tango, it might even interfere with the dancing.
My observation in  milongas [hereabouts] is that followers do not appreciate 
the
"franelear/franela/franelero"-thing too much. But there are no reliable 
statistics on this ;)
The practice of franelear may occasionally even lead to tango interruptus or 
shortened tandas.
One reason could be that there are no workshops taught on franeleo 
hereabouts
(at least not to my knowledge), so it might not be done skilfully enough. ;)
As I understand this is different in the United States, where franela-skills 
are promoted
by teaching in classes or practicas:

Trini de Pittsburgh wrote:

> Teaching these franelas (sp?) can also be useful for
> getting the woman rotated enough to stay close to the man
> during pasadas.

We have all sorts of tango teaching on 
tango-pilates-tango-yoga-tango-music-tango-nuevo-tango-tantra etc.
But nobody has ever thought of including the franeleo in the teaching.
At least not to my knowledge.
Still franeleo seems to occur from time to time, not in practicas maybe, 
rather in late-night milongas.
And though I have observed there are quite tolerant people in the milongas
I assume the level of tolerance in milongas is probably significantly lower 
than in the
houses specially designed for tolerance. But again, this is mere hypothesis, 
sorry for not being able
to shed light on this subject.

Anna

>
> --- Janis Kenyon <Jantango at feedback.net.ar> wrote:
>
> > More than a year ago I had a conversation with Carlos
> > Alberto Rodriguez when
> > he used an interesting new word for me--FRANELEAR.  I had
> > some idea about
> > the meaning of the word by his body language and the
> > context in which he
> > used it--to "franelear" a woman while dancing tango with
> > her.  I tried
> > finding the word in my Spanish-English dictionary to no
> > avail.
> >
> > A few weeks ago I bought a copy of the new
> > Lunfardo-English dictionary for
> > tango (1).  The book has only four pages of words related
> > to tango beginning
> > with the letter F.   Franelear: to kiss, to caress, to
> > heavy pet.  I
> > realized I understood what Carlos Alberto had meant,
> > because I had
> > experienced what he was talking about.
> >
> > That lead me to consult the dictionary of Argentine
> > speech (2) which
> > contains a broader definition of the word in Castellano.
> > Franelear.
> > (vulgar transitive verb).  to excite another person with
> > caresses without
> > arriving at the sexual act.  This dictionary doesn't
> > indicate the word is
> > Lunfardo, only vulgar.  It is in common use among
> > Argentines.
> >
> > Then only a week ago during conversation with a tango
> > dancer from Milan,
> > Roberto Angel Puyol used the word.  He said just the
> > opposite of what Carlos
> > Alberto said while talking about dancing tango with a
> > woman.  He said he
> > dances with a woman to enjoy the dance, not to franelear
> > the woman.  Very
> > interesting.  I know that to be true about Roberto
> > Angel's dancing.
> >
> > So why am I talking about a new word?  Two milongueros,
> > whom I have invited
> > to take part in the Milonguero Conference, have a
> > difference of opinion
> > about it.  I have danced with both of them.  I have been
> > the recipient of
> > franeleando while dancing with several milongueros over
> > the years.  In fact,
> > my lessons in franeleando began during my first visit to
> > Buenos Aires in
> > 1996 when Victorio initiated me on things a woman could
> > do while
> > dancing with man if she was interested in something more.
> >
> > I am curious what others think about this topic.  I have
> > no doubt it will
> > draw interesting comments.  Have you tried it with anyone
> > while
> > dancing?  Did the other person reciprocate in some way?
> > What were the
> > consequences?  Did you enjoy it?  Are you trying to
> > remember occasions and
> > with whom you were dancing?
> >
> >
> > (1) Mataburros  Lunfardo/English dictionary of tango by
> > Sara Melul and
> > Roberto Cruanas. July 2007
> > Available at Zivals on Corrientes and Callao for 39
> > pesos.
> > (2) Diccionario del Habla de Los Argentinos.  Academia
> > Argentina de Letras.
> > La Nacion. 2003
> >
> >
> > Janis
> >
> > Milonguero Conference
> > www.totango.net/milongueros.html
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Tango-L mailing list
> > Tango-L at mit.edu
> > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
> >
>
>
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>   Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh’s most popular social 
> dance!
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>
>
>
> 
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