[Tango-L] First trip to BA, the tango mecca

[Michael]

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