Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 3 - Pre-milonga practica

I got there right at 8PM when the "Practica" was scheduled to start. I said I was going to explain why I made sure to get there right at the beginning. There are a number of reasons, among them having the floor all to myself (or at least large chunks of it), or people being more relaxed as this is a practica, so they feel less pressure to be "perfect" (which incidentally, makes most people dancing better) but the most important reason is it's the best time to try to dance with some of the teachers. They are usually rested and more available.

After changing my shoes I was chatting with someone when Robin Tomas, one of the teachers came in with a coffee cup in one hand and a huge backpack, gave a hug to Mila (of Mila & Korey), another teacher and that hug somehow morphed into a dance that lasted about half a song (all with the coffee in his hand and the backpack still attached). That was rather sweet.

Once they stopped, Mila was tapping on the music as she was sort of sitting on the armrest of the couch, it seemed like that half song dance got her going and she looked like she wanted to dance. I was not going to miss that chance, so I jumped (literally) of the sofa and said "Can I take over?". As the word were coming out of my mouth, I felt kind of guilty putting her on the spot, I felt like I kind of forced her hand to accept, but it was too late to take it back.

She graciously agreed, we started to dance and it got better and better, she was doing all sorts of crazy footwork (practica, remeber?), and you could feel the energy of the dance going up and up. Two songs later, as the tanda ended, instead of saying thank you, she took her coat off, and off we went again. That was so much fun, there is no way I could ever translate that into words, so I won't.

So, one would say I started the evening with a high, and, honestly, for a second or so I entertained the thought of jumping in the car and head home, as it was unlikely to get any better than that, and it's fantastic when the evening ends on (such a) high note.

I didn't and I'm so glad I didn't.