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

[Victor Bennetts]

I thought the original post on this thread was a joke. At least I hoped it was but as it has been responded to as if it was serious I feel compelled to reply. Tango is a dance built on trust (not to mention courtesy and respect), so how can someone trust you if you are touching them up. All the followers I know are serious dancers and would just walk off the floor immediately. So they should, because to my mind using a dance for cheap thrills is just sad, pathetic and if uninvited the lowest form of cowardice.

Now for something a little more positive and the real reason I am responding. In answer to Lois' point below, I can say that in the two weeks my wife and I were both in Argentina recently (with quite a lot of social dancing) we both had only courtesy and gentlemanly behaviour from Argentines we met. No doubt I did observe some loud mouth show offs and also some obvious 'old guy dancing with very young foreign girl who is dancing badly' behaviour, but lets face it, that can happen anywhere. All of the local guys I actually spoke to seemed genuinely pleased that a foreign dancer wanted to come and dance tango in Argentina and I found them in most cases to be quite modest and quietly spoken one on one. This pleasantly surprised me given their collective national stereotype.

Yes, at certain milongas there appeared to be a small minority of back tapping sleazy types, but I thought they were mostly pretty easy to pick and that is where the Cabaceo is good, the woman gets to choose who she dances with. So I am not sure if we were just extremely lucky, but I suspect we had two things going for us. Firstly a positive attitude (or at least a pigheaded determination to succeed in my case ;-))is critical as with all travel because obviously there is a lot of unusual stuff and misunderstandings to deal with. If you expect it to be like Australia, for instance, it can get very stressful very quickly and once you let it get to you the whole place can seem unfriendly. Secondly, being a good catholic boy with a fair bit of Spanish blood and family I probably have some insights into the value system and I think my wife who has spent a lot of time in Italy probably also saw a lot that was familiar. Its not Australia, Europe or the US, its different and you have to accept that you are in their place playing by their rules.

Now I know quite a lot of westerners report bad experiences (including some people I really like and respect) so I know it can happen, but I just wanted to put down our good experience so that anyone contemplating a trip can see that it is not always bad. In fact, I know quite a few female dancers from Australia who just keep going back year after year so I think there can be a lot of good experiences as well as the bad ones.

Victor Bennetts

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

**************** CAUTION - Disclaimer *****************
This e-mail contains PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by e-mail and delete the original message. Further, you are not to copy, disclose, or distribute this e-mail or its contents to any other person and any such actions are unlawful. This e-mail may contain viruses. Infosys has taken every reasonable precaution to minimize this risk, but is not liable for any damage you may sustain as a result of any virus in this e-mail. You should carry out your own virus checks before opening the e-mail or attachment. Infosys reserves the right to monitor and review the content of all messages sent to or from this e-mail address. Messages sent to or from this e-mail address may be stored on the Infosys e-mail system.
***INFOSYS******** End of Disclaimer ********INFOSYS***