5609 First trip to BA, the tango mecca
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:57:08 -0300
From: Michael <tangomaniac@cavtel.net>
Subject: [Tango-L] First trip to BA, the tango mecca
To: tango-l <Tango-L@Mit.Edu>
<13176a380904111957u5c7cfdf7u1aaac91585c9ab00@mail.gmail.com>
I?m in BA for the FIRST time. These are my OBSERVATIONS, not universal
truths. Everybody has their own experiences. I?m just sharing mine for
those who have never been here.
Milongas
Whereas the milongas I?ve attended in the US are virtually pitch black
(except for the recent Atlanta Tango Festival which wants attendees to
practice cabeceo), there is a lot of lighting at the milongas in BA
(based on the ones I?ve attended. It?s impossible for me to attend all
of them. My rented house is in San Cristobal so I?m going to the
milongas near the house (Lo de Celia, El Arranque, and Leonesa (which
hosts multiple milongas under different names, such as Nino Bien.)
Cabeceo
It is practiced religiously here. You need to understand it before you
come. For me, I maintain the gaze of Bela Lugosi who portrayed
Dracula and focus on the woman I want to dance. If our eyes meet
because she is looking for somebody to dance, I have a split second to
make a slight nod of my head towards the floor and smile. She will
respond with a nod (yes) or shake of the head (no). If yes, I meet her
at the closest corner where there are no tables. I go onto the floor
first to find a spot and she comes onto the floor.
The Embrace
It?s only close embrace. There?s no open position. The man raises his
left arm with his palm toward himself. The woman puts her right hand
in the palm and all the fingers close. The woman puts her left arm
around the man?s back. The man lifts his right arm until it comes into
contact with her left arm. He then reaches across her back until his
fingers reach her arm pit. I haven?t seen any deviations from this
embrace by Argentines.
The dance
It?s very simple because the embrace is EVERYTHING, not the figures.
It?s walking, ocho cortado, molinetes and very low boleos, if any.
When you pack your luggage, leave your valcadas, colgaldas, and
displacements are home. You won?t need them and you may throw the
Argentines off.
Between the dances
Surprisingly, the Argentines talk for about the first 30 seconds of
following dances in the tanda. I was told that when young people were
chaperoned, the only time they could talk without their parents
knowing what was said was at the beginning of each musical selection.
No one looks young enough to need a chaperone.
At El Arranque, I danced with a Japanese woman to a DiSarli tanda.
When my favorite DiSarli tango, El Jacquel, was played, we danced. I
didn?t care that the Argentines were still talking. (It was the last
half hour of the milonga and the floor was empty.) I wasn?t going to
let a beautiful tango go to waste.
The language
Learn some Spanish. Somebody might speak to you in spanish between the
tangos and you?ll be ignorant of what they?re saying. Even though I
went to a community college to brush up, I know enough to tell the
woman I?m an American and spanish isn?t my primary language so I can?t
understand everything she said. And then there?s the issue of getting
around the town.
Ochos
Americans pivot when they ocho so the eight is more horizontal. Not
all Argentine woman pivot. They step backward, then reach back with
the other foot and cross behing the standing leg. So their ochos are
more vertical than horizontal. It?s still an ocho but it?s different.
Adjustments
I had to adjust my dance to fit the milonguero style. I prefer to
dance with my palm up, not my hand arm because I want my arm to be
relaxed. It doesn?t make any difference what I want. What the woman
wants is more important and I have to accomodate her.
Again, these are my observations, not universal truths. The purpose of
Tango L is to share information so I?m just sharing.
I have a guide who?s helping me get around.
That?s all I can think of for now. If I think of anything else, I?ll post.
Reporting from Buenos Aires
Michael Ditkoff
--
I'd rather be dancing Argentine Tango
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:01:11 EDT
From: JOANNEPROCHASKA@aol.com
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] First trip to BA, the tango mecca
To: tango-L@mit.edu, tangomaniac@CAVTEL.NET
GREAT to read Michael's observations of the milonga, cabeceo, embrace etc.
For those of you who have yet to visit BA, please take note, as these
observations will aid anyone in preparing for a visit by reducing the learning
curve. After all, no need to re-invent the wheel.
Michael, thanks for taking the time to write, and don't forget to try the
veal napolitana for your next dinner.
Looking forward to your next post.
Joanne Pogros
Cleveland, Ohio
**************
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Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:33:08 -0300
From: Shahrukh Merchant <shahrukh@shahrukhmerchant.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] First trip to BA, the tango mecca
To: tango-l@mit.edu
> I?m in BA for the FIRST time. These are my OBSERVATIONS ...
Quite refreshing to see a post of observations of how things *are* (or
appear to be, anyway) amongst all those of how things *should be* ...
:-) Very good posts, Michael, that should give a good feel to other
first-timers, but let me add some comments of my own as well.
> ... I?m going to the
> milongas near the house (Lo de Celia, El Arranque, and Leonesa
>
> Cabeceo
> It is practiced religiously here. You need to understand it before you
> come.
If only that were true (I am a cabeceo believer)! For the milongas you
mention above, yes, indeed that is true (with the exception of Ni?o Bien
at Leonesa where it's at best partially true). But at milongas such as
Parakultural at Canning, Porte?o y Bailarin, among many others that have
high percentage of foreign visitors, it seems to be dying if not dead.
> She will
> respond with a nod (yes) or shake of the head (no). If yes, I meet her
> at the closest corner where there are no tables. I go onto the floor
> first to find a spot and she comes onto the floor.
Usually, she will ignore (pretend she didn't see you) if it's a "no"
(though I actually prefer the shake of the head as the recipient). Also,
as someone else pointed out, normally you would walk over to her table
once she accepted, and she would stand up only when you were rather
close to her table (this confirms that it was her you had asked and not
someone else in the same line of sight--it also maintains the chivalrous
aspect of the man going over to receive the woman). However, if the
space is very tight and/or it is very crowded, indeed compromises are
made and you may very well end up meeting at some point between the two
of you, but almost always closer to where the woman was.
> It?s only close embrace. There?s no open position. ...
> ... I haven?t seen any deviations from this
> embrace by Argentines.
True for the most part (I can usually tell right away if I am dancing
with an Argentine, if I haven't already got other clues beforehand) from
how naturally she adopts a close embrace. There are of course exceptions
both ways. On the Argentine side, there is a certain "nuevo" following
who will adopt an open embrace as their "default" and also occasionally
a performance- and ballet-trained dancer who will put her left hand on
the man's right bicep and use that to push herself AWAY from the man
(the former I can deal with, but I especially dislike the latter ...
precludes any type of connection whatsoever).
> It?s very simple because the embrace is EVERYTHING, not the figures.
> It?s walking, ocho cortado, molinetes and very low boleos, if any.
I would add: ochos (in the milonguero style you describe later for the
back ochos where the woman swivels her hips minimally and the legs are
almost crossing each other), and cruzada (perhaps you were including
that in "walking"). Also, boleos are very much part of the dance, but
indeed they are low and usually very subtle rather than the "whip
action" of the performance boleo, and are more likely to be seen in the
slower more melodic music.
> When you pack your luggage, leave your valcadas, colgaldas, and
> displacements are home. You won?t need them and you may throw the
> Argentines off.
Yes, unless you're going to some of the more nuevo-friendly places
mentioned in recent postings. And it's not a question just of "throwing
the Argentines off," but really you would be taking up more than your
share of space on the floor, not integrating with the flow, and in
general coming across as a nuisance and show-off. On displacements,
however, the sacada is indeed within the canon of traditional tango, but
again in more subtle ways (a gentle sacada preceding a giro to the left,
for example). But you're right that the stage-type high sacadas or back
sacadas or woman's sacada, etc., would not fit in most milongas in
Buenos Aires.
It's really not that the figures are taboo, but rather that the dictates
of plain common consideration preclude their use, except perhaps at the
very end of the milonga if there happens to be a lot of space. By the
way, when this is violated, it's not just by foreigners--there are any
number of "hot-shot" Argentine dancers guilty of the same, including a
handful of some rather well-known teachers. (They generally don't
frequent the more traditional milongas, however.)
> Surprisingly, the Argentines talk for about the first 30 seconds of
> following dances in the tanda. I was told that when young people were
> chaperoned, the only time they could talk without their parents
> knowing what was said was at the beginning of each musical selection.
That's the standard explanation :-) about the chaperon, though I'm not
sure I believe it.
I rather like this tradition, to the point that I've become rather
addicted to it. My second dance of the tanda, especially with a
stranger, is often noticeably more comfortable and relaxed because of
this 30-second "ice-breaker." It also allows you to incorporate the
music into your being before taking the first step, and reinforces the
feeling that the milonga is about being social within the context of
dancing tango, rather than about taking as many steps as possible during
the evening.
I admit it gets me into trouble outside of Buenos Aires, where the
puzzled woman is wondering whether I'm stalling because I no longer want
to dance with her, or that I'm clueless to the fact that the music has
started, but it has become somewhat of a habit. It could be annoying on
a crowded floor outside Buenos Aires where no one else is doing it,
since then you're impeding traffic, but in Buenos Aires it's de rigueur.
Shahrukh
