3178 The Scent of a Man
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 19:40:20 -0500
From: Cherie Magnus <MACFroggy@AOL.COM>
Subject: The Scent of a Man
To dance Argentine tango properly is difficult for many Americans because there must be a deep embrace. And a woman pressing her breasts against the chest of a perfect stranger, and combining her breath with his as their faces melt together in the perspiration of the dance, is just not too Puritan, our tradition. Americans want their space, goddammit.
So while a couple is in this deep, intimate embrace on the dance floor, all sensuous antennae are working overtime. In tango: you must really listen to the music, you feel your partner, and you inhale each other. The only sense a follower doesn't use is that of sight. Most of the time, if the tango experience is a good one, the woman's eyes are closed. She's in a trance.
After several dances with the same partners, you begin to recognize their scent. Take Alejandro from Argentina, for example. Young, tall, bronze, perfect white teeth, broad shoulders, the only man I ever met who can successfully carry off gold chains under his shirt. He wears so much Tuscany cologne that the next morning I can still smell it on my skin, and I get a rush.
Dimitri, a PhD student at CalTech, was born in Russia, lived in Europe for a while until he could arrange his immigration papers. Like most European men, he doesn't use deodorant. It's been very hot here this summer, and when I dance with Dimitri, so very close, I can smell his underarm odor. And it excites me.
Then there are some Americans I dance with, held far enough away that it's possible to see their faces and talk--but talking is forbidden in tango. All of your attention needs to be on feeling. Most of the time with these partners, I don't smell anything, and I don't feel anything.
So there it is, my own personal gross generalizations: I have found that Latino men invariably smell delicious, European men have BO in hot weather, and Americans are sense-free. Make of it what you will.
And the truth is, if the man dances well, and is sexy and appealing, I don't give a darn. But perhaps it is true only for me, that emanating from an otherwise attractive man, some scent is more sensuous than none.
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 15:38:43 -0800
From: Iron Logic <railogic@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: The Scent of a Man
Cherie, beautiful post!.
I love the smell of sweat, more so if we sweated it together.
Okay..on average I do not have problem with bad odor from women or bad perfume [I hope the converse holds good as well].
However sometimes there seems to be BO from hair. When women dance with tall dancers, the man's nose is literally inside in womens' hair. What would you do in this case?
Personally I am not going to be changing my eating habits just because I am going to be dancing apart from may be avoid something like onion. Someone even posted big list DOs and DONTs diet before milonga, my take is we should NOT take dance that seriously or even life for that matter;)
Cherie Magnus <MACFroggy@AOL.COM> wrote:To dance Argentine tango properly is difficult for many Americans because there must be a deep embrace. And a woman pressing her breasts against the chest of a perfect stranger, and combining her breath with his as their faces melt together in the perspiration of the dance, is just not too Puritan, our tradition. Americans want their space, goddammit.
So while a couple is in this deep, intimate embrace on the dance floor, all sensuous antennae are working overtime. In tango: you must really listen to the music, you feel your partner, and you inhale each other. The only sense a follower doesn't use is that of sight. Most of the time, if the tango experience is a good one, the woman's eyes are closed. She's in a trance.
After several dances with the same partners, you begin to recognize their scent. Take Alejandro from Argentina, for example. Young, tall, bronze, perfect white teeth, broad shoulders, the only man I ever met who can successfully carry off gold chains under his shirt. He wears so much Tuscany cologne that the next morning I can still smell it on my skin, and I get a rush.
Dimitri, a PhD student at CalTech, was born in Russia, lived in Europe for a while until he could arrange his immigration papers. Like most European men, he doesn't use deodorant. It's been very hot here this summer, and when I dance with Dimitri, so very close, I can smell his underarm odor. And it excites me.
Then there are some Americans I dance with, held far enough away that it's possible to see their faces and talk--but talking is forbidden in tango. All of your attention needs to be on feeling. Most of the time with these partners, I don't smell anything, and I don't feel anything.
So there it is, my own personal gross generalizations: I have found that Latino men invariably smell delicious, European men have BO in hot weather, and Americans are sense-free. Make of it what you will.
And the truth is, if the man dances well, and is sexy and appealing, I don't give a darn. But perhaps it is true only for me, that emanating from an otherwise attractive man, some scent is more sensuous than none.
