Tango!!

I know, I know—two post in one day? What’s up with that?  But guys—I learned how to tango!  I feel that is worthy of a double blog entry.  So there is a class that meets every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, and it costs 30 pesos per class.  It starts at 8, and so we got there at like 7:50 and there was another woman there with a student from Canada.  The girl was not there with a program for school, but instead with…some other thing that I don’t really know what it was.  I mean, she wasn’t there to study, and so she found some online site that hooks you up with people to stay with or something like that.

ANYWAY, the place is a restaurant on the bottom, but then you go upstairs and there’s a big room that’s kind of dance-studio ish, and it’s kind of old, so the floor is not as polished as I’m sure it once was, but there are mirrors along one wall and chairs lining the rest of the room.  At first it was just the four of us and the instructor, but little by little, people started coming in.  They almost all came in pairs, I noticed.  Not necessarily a man and a woman, it was often times two women, but it was pairs nonetheless.  And so at about 8:15 or so (which is pretty much 8:00 Argen-time) they started playing music and some of the people that already knew what they were doing paired off and started dancing together.  Now, the main instructor was female, but there were several old men that helped out.  By old men, I mean 65+…and by + I mean one guy was at least 80.  Anyway, so the instructor takes the four of us, Inés, myself, the Canadian girl, and her “host mom”, to one side of the room (we were the only new ones at that point) and she starts to show us the basic tango.  It’s eight steps, and it’s not incredibly complicated.  There is one part that’s a little tricky, but it wasn’t too hard to catch on.  So we were doing that for…I don’t know, like 20 minutes?  And we each got a turn to practice with her doing the guy part so that we could get used to the feel of dancing with a partner.

Now, the tango, I came to realize, is all about the legs.  You pretty much keep the upper part of your body super still, and the only parts of you that should be moving are your legs. So after we had been practicing the basic tango for a while and the others that were there had warmed up a bit, we all got in a big circle and the instructor demonstrated how to walk, just a simple, normal walk, but not moving your upper body, but keeping your shoulders relaxed, and just putting one foot in front of the other.  Now ok, this sounds dumb, but it was good!  And so they started some music and we just walked in a big circle around the room, getting a feel for the rhythm and how to move fluidly, but correctly.  And after a while of that, we then continued to walk, except this time taking a step with your left foot, then crossing your right foot behind your left, then crossing your right foot in front of your left, and then stepping forward with your right; then you bring your left foot up and cross it behind your right, then in front, and then step, etc.  While we were all walking, they (the instructor and one of the older gentlemen (who has been tangoing for 20 years and so he knows both the guy and girl parts, and so I think he’s another instructor?)) would come around and correct people and help them, and so it was a learning process.

After the walking was over, they started to play more music so that people could start dancing and practicing again.  Well before we could practice dancing, we had to learn how to pivot (which I didn’t actually use in the dancing, but I guess it’s still good to know).  So the female instructor took the four of us to the corner and we held on to the backs of chairs while we practiced pivoting.

Then we started to dance.  The female instructor brought me to the male instructor (probably mid-60s) and we did the basic tango for a bit, and it was tricky at first, but I definitely improved.  After a couple songs, I went to sit down next to Inés, but not too long after, another older gentleman asked me to dance.  In total, I dance with four different old guys, and I learned another move called “el ocho” (the eight) which is just adding two swivels, really (one to the right and one to the left—so it looks like an 8 I guess).  Well, I was sitting down next to Inés (again), and she hadn’t been able to dance with anyone yet, and so when the male instructor came over and asked if I wanted to dance, I said, “No, dance with her!” (Pointing to Inés) and so she looked a little surprised at first, but then she was delighted that she was able to practice.

While I was sitting, I was able to watch everyone else.  The tango really is a beautiful dance.  It’s so precise, and yet fluid—and it was fascinating to watch the couples who had been doing this a while because they knew different moves, and it was just really really cool to watch.  As we were walking home (yeah, it’s only like four blocks away from her house!) Inés made a joke about how I got more practice than her because everyone wants to dance with the younger one, but it was all good humoredly.  In all, I’m so glad that I got to go, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to make this a weekly thing. I’m pumped. Of course…I didn’t get any homework done today, yet.  So maybe I’ll go do that now? Maybe…

Chau,

Kiki