While
Roy is at the dentist (i am not joking)I will take the chance to sit on the sunny
terrace and write about my Buenos Aires life. The traffic noise is so
loud that I can barley hear my own thoughts and actually that is the
reason we are thinking of leaving this beautiful old building and
moving somewhere else. It is impossible to rest here, the traffic
only calms down for a few hours between midnight and 5 or 6 in the
morning and if we are going out dancing, which we where last night,
and get home at 3 or 4 in the morning then sleeping in the morning is
a problem. So, we are looking into moving back to San Telmo, the
barrio (part of the city) of artists, cosy cafés and restaurants,
street tango and Sunday markets. We might have found something, but I
am not going to say what until it is all set...
So
we have finally started to go out more to evening milongas and that
is quite interesting. The dancing venues do not open until 11 pm
(right after, or during, the Argentinian dinner time) and we find
ourselves taking a taxi to whatever milonga around midnight. It is a
bit crazy really and I am trying to find a way to be functioning in
the days as well as going out in the nights, it is a bit challenging
for a person that cannot really sleep in the mornings, traffic noise
or not. So far at the milongas we mainly dance with people we know,
we have a little group that go out together since it is hard to get
dances with the locals. You need to show up for some time and slowly
get to know some of them to be able to get in to their crowd. Also,
every dance is a proof of how good you are to the people watching.
The
other night we went to a traditional tango place, El Beso, and it was
so interesting to see all the women in one part of the room, sitting
by the tables facing the dance floor waiting for the men to invite
them to dance from the tables at the other end of the dance floor.
The question “do you want to dance?” is made by eye contact and
the agreement is made without words. This makes it easy to avoid the
people you don't want to dance with, but it is tricky to be a
newcomer since no one know you. I was just sitting by the bar
watching the spectacle from the outside.
A
new fried of ours, Chris,who is a musician from the US invited us to
a tango concert (with no dancing) a few nights ago. It was the first
time that I have just solely focused on the tango music itself and I
had an amazing experience. When I dance I am so immersed in the
movements and the connection with my partner (as well as trying to
get everything I learnt work inside my body, like posture, how to
make the movements etc) so I do not get to really HEAR the music. At
the concert however, I closed my eyes and was astonished by the
musical journey of the songs (and this is without understanding the
Spanish lyrics). Each song was like a human life time, all the human
aspects of living where represented there, the joys, the passions,
the sadness, the longing, the love, the sensuality, the beauty, the
fears.... I shivered to the beats of the piano and cried with the
weeping violin. Wow! I will make sure I get the chance to experience
this aspect of the tango culture again.
Apart
from the nights out our life consists of tango classes. Endless tango
classes. Private and group classes many hours per day. The more I
dance the more I understand how complex and hard this dance actually
is, how many layers are there and how much time I would have to
dedicate to really become a good dancer. But I am experiencing a lot
of progress lately. Judging by the approving nods and from the
teachers I am not a hopeless case. I feel so privileged to have so
much private attention by the teachers that are excellent dancers and
are well in tune with the secretes of tango.
At
DNI, the school where we study the style of tango is modern and quite
different from the other styles of tango (take a look at it if you
are interested: http://www.dni-tango.com/es). The teachers are so
young (our youngest teacher is 19 years old and her teaching style is
amazingly mature. She has been dancing for about 7 years now). At
this very moment in time, a bit more than one third into our stay in
BA, I am wondering how this style is comparable with the more
traditional tango style (tango milonguero) which is the most common
style everywhere where tango is danced. We will be leaving this place
dancing in other parts of the world after all, and it would be nice
to fit in anywhere. But we still have time to explore this, and many
other aspects of tango and the city of Buenos Aires.
Now
I am off to a tango class.
Love
ania
