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

[Shahrukh Merchant]

> I´m in BA for the FIRST time. These are my OBSERVATIONS  ...

Quite refreshing to see a post of observations of how things *are* (or 
appear to be, anyway) amongst all those of how things *should be* ... 
:-) Very good posts, Michael, that should give a good feel to other 
first-timers, but let me add some comments of my own as well.

> ... I´m going to the
> milongas near the house (Lo de Celia, El Arranque, and Leonesa
> 
> Cabeceo
> It is practiced religiously here. You need to understand it before you
> come.

If only that were true (I am a cabeceo believer)! For the milongas you 
mention above, yes, indeed that is true (with the exception of Niño Bien 
at Leonesa where it's at best partially true). But at milongas such as 
Parakultural at Canning, Porteño y Bailarin, among many others that have 
high percentage of foreign visitors, it seems to be dying if not dead.

> 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.

Usually, she will ignore (pretend she didn't see you) if it's a "no" 
(though I actually prefer the shake of the head as the recipient). Also, 
as someone else pointed out, normally you would walk over to her table 
once she accepted, and she would stand up only when you were rather 
close to her table (this confirms that it was her you had asked and not 
someone else in the same line of sight--it also maintains the chivalrous 
aspect of the man going over to receive the woman). However, if the 
space is very tight and/or it is very crowded, indeed compromises are 
made and you may very well end up meeting at some point between the two 
of you, but almost always closer to where the woman was.

> It´s only close embrace. There´s no open position. ...
> ... I haven´t seen any deviations from this
> embrace by Argentines.

True for the most part (I can usually tell right away if I am dancing 
with an Argentine, if I haven't already got other clues beforehand) from 
how naturally she adopts a close embrace. There are of course exceptions 
both ways. On the Argentine side, there is a certain "nuevo" following 
who will adopt an open embrace as their "default" and also occasionally 
a performance- and ballet-trained dancer who will put her left hand on 
the man's right bicep and use that to push herself AWAY from the man 
(the former I can deal with, but I especially dislike the latter ... 
precludes any type of connection whatsoever).

> It´s very simple because the embrace is EVERYTHING, not the figures.
> It´s walking, ocho cortado, molinetes and very low boleos, if any.

I would add: ochos (in the milonguero style you describe later for the 
back ochos where the woman swivels her hips minimally and the legs are 
almost crossing each other), and cruzada (perhaps you were including 
that in "walking"). Also, boleos are very much part of the dance, but 
indeed they are low and usually very subtle rather than the "whip 
action" of the performance boleo, and are more likely to be seen in the 
slower more melodic music.

> 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.

Yes, unless you're going to some of the more nuevo-friendly places 
mentioned in recent postings. And it's not a question just of "throwing 
the Argentines off," but really you would be taking up more than your 
share of space on the floor, not integrating with the flow, and in 
general coming across as a nuisance and show-off. On displacements, 
however, the sacada is indeed within the canon of traditional tango, but 
again in more subtle ways (a gentle sacada preceding a giro to the left, 
for example). But you're right that the stage-type high sacadas or back 
sacadas or woman's sacada, etc., would not fit in most milongas in 
Buenos Aires.

It's really not that the figures are taboo, but rather that the dictates 
of plain common consideration preclude their use, except perhaps at the 
very end of the milonga if there happens to be a lot of space. By the 
way, when this is violated, it's not just by foreigners--there are any 
number of "hot-shot" Argentine dancers guilty of the same, including a 
handful of some rather well-known teachers. (They generally don't 
frequent the more traditional milongas, however.)

> 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.

That's the standard explanation :-) about the chaperon, though I'm not 
sure I believe it.

I rather like this tradition, to the point that I've become rather 
addicted to it. My second dance of the tanda, especially with a 
stranger, is often noticeably more comfortable and relaxed because of 
this 30-second "ice-breaker." It also allows you to incorporate the 
music into your being before taking the first step, and reinforces the 
feeling that the milonga is about being social within the context of 
dancing tango, rather than about taking as many steps as possible during 
the evening.

I admit it gets me into trouble outside of Buenos Aires, where the 
puzzled woman is wondering whether I'm stalling because I no longer want 
to dance with her, or that I'm clueless to the fact that the music has 
started, but it has become somewhat of a habit. It could be annoying on 
a crowded floor outside Buenos Aires where no one else is doing it, 
since then you're impeding traffic, but in Buenos Aires it's de rigueur.

Shahrukh