[Tango-L] A change in my milonga routine -- Part 2

[Janis Kenyon]

For the past four weeks, my place to dance Thursday and Sunday evenings has
been a neighborhood club.   Susana has organized this seniors milonga for
the past fourteen years.  It has become my refuge from the hot summer
temperatures where one enjoys great hospitality, good music, a spacious
floor, and air-conditioning for a four- or five-peso entrada.

This is where I met Jose Maria for the first time.  I've surprised
myself by dancing exclusively with him for the past month, but it has been a
pleasure.  That hasn't deterred other men from trying to invite me for a
tanda.  I've had to decline invitations from others.  Jose Maria has done
the same.  We have this unspoken agreement to dance with each other for
every tanda of tango and vals.  One tanda with another man, and he's gone.
Argentine men are that way, and I've been here long enough to know it.  Why
would I want to lose the best dancer in the place?  He has invited me for
dinner after the milonga and walks me to the bus stop.  We each travel a
half hour in opposite directions.  Naturally, he's telling everyone that we
are novios.  The milonga is a fantasy world, so he can fantasize all he
wants.  I have established the ground rules.  We don't sit at the same table
in the milonga because we are not a couple, nor do we go dancing anywhere
else together, least of all on Saturday night.

The main topic of conversation among the women in the milongas is always the
same -- fewer men who can dance.  Women outnumber men in the world
population, so it's no different in the milongas.  There are plenty of men,
but the majority of them don't dance well.  Estella of Villa Urquiza travels
for more than an hour to dance at Lo de Celia or Region Leonesa.  Her report
on a new Friday afternoon milonga was -- muchas mujeres.  Later I joined my
friend Rosy at her table, and she, too, immediately commented how there are
fewer men everyday who can dance.  Rosy and I shared a table seven years ago
on Fridays in Gricel.  We both recalled having all the tandas we wanted.
That is no longer the case no matter where you go, including where we met on
Sunday.  The best male dancers were there with partners, so they weren't
available.

I can only imagine what the local women are saying about me, dancing every
tanda, week after week, with Jose Maria.  I've stolen a good dancer from the
small pool of available men.  And one who dances everything well.

Last Thursday I took a woman from Moscow.  She arrived a week earlier for
her first visit to Buenos Aires.  I had her traveling companions explain
what she needed to know about the milonga codes.  It was an interesting
experience since she knows only a few words in Spanish, and I know nothing
in Russian.  I picked her up at her hotel downtown, and we took the bus
together.  I knew that she would have a better chance there than in the
downtown milongas.  She joined me at my table and waited patiently for TWO
hours until she had her first invitation to dance.  He didn't dance very
well, but at least she was able to get up the courage to make eye
contact and smile.  The second invitation came from a good dancer.  I told
him that it was her first visit, and she was very pleased to dance with him.
He asked her for two more tandas of vals and milonga.  Elena was in heaven.
She was getting invitations on her own.  Her last partner danced with
separation, but she accepted two tandas with him.  We were among the first
to arrive and the last to leave the milonga.  She enjoyed the experience so
much that she returned on her own last Sunday and enjoyed watching the
dancing for hours.

I have to change my milonga routine again and skip Thursday.  I know Jose
Maria will be expecting me, but he can dance with other women.  He must be
bored dancing only with me.


Janis Kenyon
Buenos Aires