BsAs 2009 - Week 2 - Overview

Make friends. Fast.

The hardest part in some of the BsAs milongas where the people I’d like to dance with go, (the non-traditional milongas) is the “private party” feeling of the event, when one feels it’s not part of the party. Maybe to a far lesser degree, there is some of this in US as well, but in BsAs it’s taken to an art. Unlike any milongas I’ve been to in US and Canada, where people seem to be there to dance with other people and they act as such, people here in BsAs tend come with a group and sit together, all closed up. What I mean is they face each other, chat when they don’t dance and you can’t make eye contact with them to save your life. What is a shame is that at least some of them are in fact expecting to be asked to dance, as if I decide to go to the table and basically stare at them from 3 feet away, they might turn around, look pleasantly surprised that I’m asking and enthusiastically accept. Why the whining then, why don’t I just do that? Well, because the exact same body language will yield the exact opposite result, I can walk to a table, stop in front of it and not even be acknowledged. At all. All of this being done in front of a rather large audience. This feels far worst then being said no, as they seem to be saying “you are not even worth taking the effort to lift my head and nod “No”. So I’m sitting there in front of the table, no one even looking at me, trying to figure out how long do I sit there before I turn around and go back to my table with my tail between my legs. One second? Two? Five? While I blame no one for going somewhere just to dance with their friends, and it’s certainly not anyone’s responsibility to befriend me, not to mention my own stupidity to go to a Spanish speaking country not speaking any spanish, I believe the ignoring thing is rude and unnecessary.

I’m sure someone will ask, or at least wonder, why don’t go to the traditional ones? Maybe the traditional milongas are great in season, but at the ones I have gone to, there were very few people I was interested in dancing with. So, my advice to anyone coming here in the winter is, learn Spanish and make friends. Get thick skinned. As fast as you can.

Milongas & Practicas

Tuesday @ Praktika8 I had a good time. I am more known there, so I generally get the dances I ask for. The people are much friendlier then other places, though what I wrote above certainly applies there as well. Music was good.

Wednesday @ TangoLab I took the class before and while I like the teacher, there was a lot of talking all fast all in Castellano, I could not follow that to save my life. I did pick up a nice boleo from a position I never considered, so the time was not lost. The “practica” after is in fact a milonga (same as Praktika8, PracticaX and others). The place is nice, but the floor is very slippery and the acoustics are terrible (lots of shiny flat surfaces). That’s one of the places you better come with a group. Music was OK.

Thursdays & Fridays @ Villa Malcom I had over all a good time. I had a fantastic Canaro set, quite a few good dances, but I definitely not danced as much I dance when I’m in NYC or at a festival. The one tanda at a time rule makes it more difficult to keep dancing. Music was OK/Good.

Saturday @ DNI practica in the afternoon it was OK. It’s a real practica, but the level is not very high. For the alternative music fan, it’s the place to go. It has the best floor anywhere as it was set up as a dance studio.

Saturday @ Milonga10 I had the best time since I arrived in BsAs. I danced pretty much the entire time from 11 till 4am. I skipped maybe 2 tandas. The music at Milonga10 & Praktika8 was actually really good.

Sunday @ Loca (same place as the TangoLab) was a total loss. The class before which we attended was something about musicality, but there was A LOT of talking and not one tango song was played during the entire 2 hours. Not even Nuevo tango or fusion or nothing, they used some ballad that I was tempted to ask what it was so I can use it as a cortina, as no one would ever attempt to dance to it at a milonga. I am definitely not a fan of that teaching style, where the teachers explains something for 20 minutes and then you get to try it. They were very nice though and tried as best as they could to explain things in English for us, but it didn't really work out at all. The milonga had the same atmosphere as the TangoLab, little groups hanging out together and dancing with each other. So, if you’re going there, go with a group. I did not like the music at all. The music was way to interesting for me (lots of known songs in unusual orchestrations, alternative, nuevo, etc).

Monday @ El Motivo (practica at Villa Malcom) I had a good time. It’s very weakly attended in this season, but this is a real practica so if you find someone you like dancing with and the other way around, no one will look funny at you if you dance for an hour straight. The woman I had the fantastic Canaro set was there and we danced for maybe half an hour (until they played an alternative set which didn’t inspire me at all), that alone definitely would’ve made my night, but the other dances were quite nice too. Music was OK.

Classes

The classes at DNI are useful, but I didn’t take too many this week as I’m working during the day and the evening classes are too basic. I took two classes with Chicho at La Viruta and I think he has the best teaching technique I’ve seen yet. Anywhere. Why?
- he starts the class with some exercises which will have you practice the elements he will use throughout the class. In one class it was leading tiny steps and gigantic steps intertwined, in the other was being able to change the follower’s weight independently then yours.
- he will demonstrate a short part of a sequence and briefly talk about the technique required, maybe an element or two and then lets the class practice for 2-3 songs. He and his partner goes around and they answer questions. After that he goes back to the same part of the sequence and adds more technical details, maybe another 2 or 3. And then you get to practice again. He repeats until all the technique elements required are covered.
- He talks briefly and concisely, he shows what he’s taking about, the bad way(s) and the good ways to do it and even for me who I can’t understand a word in Spanish, I understood most of what was expected of me.
- He doesn’t insist on having the students do what he showed, you take what you want from what he says and work on whatever you want of it.
- The classes are three hours long, which allows for a lot more time to cover technique in detail. It is exhausting though.
- While the material is really hard, and it was way over my head, I definitely learned new things, not moves, but ways of moving.

Other stuff

Sunday we went to San Telmo to the antique fair which is on every sunday. Wholy crap, that was a lot of antiques. I took a few pictures but didn't download them yet. We walked for a few hours, went to a restaurant where they had a "tango show", a couple would come and dance a few songs in a small space between the tables. To their credit, they were dancing on traditional tango music and were actually dancing salon tango.

Between working 10-6, tango classes and milongas I had no time to do anything else, or go see anything else. But I have 4 weeks of vacation out of the next 7, so I will have to find time.