2708 I dance Milonguero and love it
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 17:40:35 +1200
From: Robert <bob.ramsey-turner@QUICKSILVER.NET.NZ>
Subject: I dance Milonguero and love it
Sorry but this is not going to be a short posting.
I have been asked by Pichi, if I would post the private email I sent her
a few days ago.
To put the email into context, I need to tell you I spent a few weeks in
BsAs from March 21 to May 8 this year, for tango.
While there, Pichi introduced me to a Milonguero Jorge, with the view I
would take lessons from him.
After the first lesson I declined to continue, my primary reason was
that Milonguero style tango would be useless in New Zealand, no one else
used it, they are all into salon, mostly close embrace.
So when I posted a note a few days ago, see:-
I dance Milonguero, not because that’s the way its done in BsAs or
anywhere else. I dance that style, because that, for me is where the
ultimate connection is, its where the sweetness, the pathos and the
sheer magic tango is. I find it just as difficult to understand why
others would want it any other way, but they do.
So Pichi spotted this note and asked for any explanation.
Below is the email I sent Pichi, by way of explanation for why we appear
to have conflicting statements from me.
Hi Pichi,
Nice to say hello.
I thought when I was going to write that posting, that you would pick it
up.
What I wrote to you after that lesson was true---- at the time.
Later I started to shift my position, slowly, not some dramatic event.
I'm not sure when quite I decided, if indeed I did decide.
When I got back to NZ, I was under the impression that my tango had
changed little or not at all, I new my milonga had grown, again, though
I'm not sure why but I was aware of a quantum leap forward.
However, the tango, when I attempted to rejoin the classes I had been
going to before BsAs, they all seemed so bland, so I have not been to a
lesson since I left BsAs in May.
The more experienced female dancers here were standing back after a
dance with me, after my return, saying WOW. How could you have improved
and changed so much?
To be honest, I was at a loss to explain, at first I thought it was just
a bit of flattery, but the compliments kept coming, and I never got a
moments peace at a milonga, constantly being asked to dance.
I was having difficulties dancing with some followers, when I stopped to
think why that was, it was only then that I realized I had moved over
to Milonguero style. I tend to be one of those dancers who really
doesn't think too much about how I dance, I just go and do it.
Back to Jorge DeGouvea. That lesson I took, I had thought was to be a
group lesson, not a private, but that was not the reason for the decline
of the lesson offer. I really thought it would be a useless import to
NZ, and added to that, later I learnt the same thing Jorge was trying to
teach me in 10 minutes.
In the weeks that remained to me in BsAs, I went with a friend to
Suzzanna Millers studio and took some lessons there, and in a group
lesson I did collect a basic platform of Milonguero, that coupled with
the combined experience gained at the milongas in BsAs, plus the other
class you directed me to of Pedro Sanchez y Cori at Boedo, has got me to
here. When I stop to think about my tango, I have totally forsaken Salon
style.
This has been a long protracted answer to your question, and I'm not
sure that I have answered you properly.
When I return to BsAs again in March 2005 I will search Jorge out and
give him a bottle of Scotch which he has a soft spot for.
I am just an ordinary working guy, earning my living here in NZ, the
wages are much, much better than BsAs, but much lower than the US, so
private lessons are beyond my purse. Having said that, the cost would
have had some though in this case not a major influence on my decision
at the time.
I really did believe at the time, I was wasting mine and everyone else's
time in taking Milonguero lessons because of its limited application in
NZ, and I was wrong and you were right.
Abrazos
Robert
Auckland NZ
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