A tango weekend ...

Wow, this weekend was ALL tango. Saturday the Longamilonga in Providence, Sunday the milonga at Yale (New Haven) and Monday the practica in Providence.

Let's start with the beginning, the LongaMilonga. We got there around 10 and it was already full, maybe not packed, but full. Since Thuy & Ben are leaving for BsAs soon, it was their last LongaMilonga and people came from all over to celebrate.

Until that night, it was a while since I had a memorable dance, so when I stepped in I was hoping for something really good, but I was not holding my breath. A bit into the milonga I asked for a dance from of the women I've never seen before, she seemed really good, but you never know how you click with someone until you dance with them. WOW! She is one of those really calm dancers, she was getting ALL the nuances I was putting into the dance and at the end of the tanda I was really giddy (on the inside, one needs to keep composure, you know). As we were dancing it was immediately clear to me she was one of the best followers in the room, so when she kept talking through the (what seemed to be an interminable) cortina I was waiting for the "thank you" ... which didn't come! So there we went, on the second tanda. And then on the third, and then a forth! When we finally stopped, I felt like skipping around like a little girl! The Gods were smiling in all sorts of ways because they delayed the milonga tanda (milonga still being my nemesis, although I'm getting better at it) until were were done. Thank you kindly dear Gods, I really appreciated that!

In the past year I've been getting my share of dances from really good followers, but it always felt like they did it as an ... "investment", since I'm promising, you know. I've been a "good dancer for someone that's been dancing for n months". This time, the amount of time I've been dancing only came up after the second tanda, which in some way was the first sign that I'm graduating from "good dancer for someone that's been dancing for n months" to just "good dancer", that really make me feel warm and fuzzy inside! ;)

Then, later in the night, I got to dance with a few more great dancers, like C and J, some of them even sticked around for then one tanda. Yes!

By 4AM I was exhausted, and knowing I was going to Yale in the afternoon, I called it a night. What a night!

Sunday I sent an email to a few people to see if they'd like to go to Yale together, P responded and he offered to drive, so around 2:30PM off we went. The drive was uneventful and around 4:45 we made it there. After walking up and down the block for a few times looking for the building, another dancers "rescued" us and we went in. The place is really cool, check out my review. I uploaded all the pictures I took to my website at http://www.bostonphotographs.com (navigate to "travel/2007-02 Yale milonga" from the main page).

Once I got in, the first really pleasant surprise was to see R, my favorite Princeton follower. It was going to be a good day. And it was. My first dance was with R and it was even better then the last time we danced together which was fantastic! She also brought with her a few friends, all of them exquisite dancers, with whom I danced throughout the evening. I don't know what they feed them in Princeton, but whatever it is, it works! ;)

As I was sitting on the sofa resting, I noticed a couple dancing, they looked magnificent. I've seen the leader before, and he's really good, but I've never seen her, so as soon she became available I went and asked her to dance. And yes, it was fantastic. Well, the first song anyway which was a song I really like, after that I kind of lost my inspiration as I didn't like the music that much and my exhaustion was starting to take a toll. But don't get me wrong, it was not her, it was me that lost it. She did dance with me a couple of tandas despite my less then stellar performance which was awesome for me, but I doubt was as much fun for her. As we were chatting between songs, I found out she started the Yale community years back and now she lives in NY where she DJs regularly. I'm looking forward to dancing with her again when I'm not exhausted. One more reason to go to NY soon!

I pretty much danced until 11PM, and even though my dancing suffered due to exhaustion, people still seemed to enjoy the dances, which was great! Toward the end of the night R wanted to lead a bit, and despite the fact that both of us are absolute beginners at the other role, we had a blast as we were changing roles back and forth mid song. I really wish I could do this well (following that is), as it would be a lot of fun.

Monday I went to the Providence practica and the highlight of the evening was following R. She led me for a few songs, and I can get used to that! In absolute terms I definitely suck at it, but relative to my experience (which amounts to about half an hour as a follower) I do rather well. I need to take some private classes, so I don't develop bad habits which are so difficult to break.

So after this tango weekend I feel much better about my dancing, I think it's still improving and I'm very happy about that, as I would hate to plateau ...