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| YOU CAN DANCE STUDIO |
| Tango Travel Journals Buenos Aires - Part II |
| Nov 7, 2003 hola gang, thanks to everyone who has written me. thanks for the support. everett, please write me, i don't have your address. i am trying to take it easy because yesterday morning i woke up with a killer allergy sinus reaction to all the cigarette smoke and smog here. i am sensitive to both and was kind of expecting it to hit, just did not know when. headed off the the farmacia to get some medicine. i walked in (of course, do i speak spanish?, no) and asked for what i needed by pointing to my face, grabbing my throat, and coughing. the wonderful lady behind the counter shook her head yes, left, and came back with sun screen. luck for me, a young man, Pablo, was standing nearby and offered to help. i thought he was from the states, his english was so clear and unaccented. turns out he is from argentine and been in love with english since he was a kid. thanks to him, i got my pills, they are helping. also yesterday, went to one of the big tango haunts for an afternoon milonga. the place is called confeteria ideal, it has been around forever and used in many tango films. asked permission to photograph, used my high speed film, hope the pics turn out. funny happening, i was accosted by this local woman and her friend. they reminded me of betty davis and joan crawford in the movie whatever happened to baby jane. they were extremely short and i can best describe their appearance as faded glory. they marched up to me and with force asked something that included the word permission and pointed their fingers at my camera. i replied, "si permission", and pointed to the girl standing at the entry. they told me to stay where i was and went to talk to the girl. i just kept taking pictures and they did not come back. fun. used the eye thing to dance and that was also fun. went to a friend's house for dinner and met two women, Gloria and Nora and they were shocked to learn that i lead. no such thing down here, a woman leading. they were intrigued. i asked them if i could lead them to feel what it would feel like to lead a real buenos aires tango follow. they went for it and it was soooooo good for me. a real practice where i got to ask all kinds of questions about how they dance, what they believe about tango, etc.... just a wonderful learning experience. they gave me good useful feedback about my leading. they do feel different from what i am use to in the states. they would not have let me lead them in public. these women social dance several times a week. went to a class at a place called Dandi near our house so we got to walk there. i loved that part, the walking in the neighborhood. the class was a mixture of feel the energy, intention, and then they taught a difficult move. i enjoyed the energy, embrace, intention part. got very lucky because the part of the class where we were suppose to embrace our partner as if meeting for the first time and feeling them with all of our skin...my partner was an older milonguero named "el tranquilo" (i found out about the name later) anyway, the point is this guy embraced me, reached into my body with his energy and held my heart the entire dance. okay, i know like i sound like i have lost it. i have gone off the tango deep end. another milongero person i met the other night causually mentioned that "oh tango is all about moving energy." before i came down here my goal was to seek out the older dancers, male and female. the older dancers feel different than the younger ones. my experience is extremely limited. i will leave it at this. i don't understand myself and think best to leave it all a mystery. i consider myself extremely lucky to be here. best to you all, ev |