Learning the Argentine Tango

I’m excited to announce that in 3 weeks, in Mid-May approximately, 30 more pairs of shoes will be added to my online shop. Please visit http://tangospeak.com/updated-collections-april-2008 to see what will be updated.

I said I was taking down my blog and now it’s back up.

There’s a reason for that. Met a couple of women who are at or around the one year mark - one of them said “the better I get, the fewer leaders I like dancing with. Am I being a perfectionist or is it something else?”

Then I realized my entire blog was a response to her questions and others. Since I am too lazy to repeat 2 years’ worth of thoughts, I put my blog back up and sent her the link. Also advised her to check out the links in my blogroll to other tango blogs so she would see that indeed tango is a complicated love affair.

I am not publishing any more posts, I’m just going to leave this blog as is, for all those who are new to the tango scene and want to know, is it just them or is it normal to feel this way?

Been keeping up with Tinatangos’ blog.

Each post she writes makes me miss Buenos Aires more and more. So much so that I think instead of going back in September, I am going to aim for late Spring. Either May or June.

Been dreaming about BsAs every night, many of them just bizarre but perhaps it’s a hint that it’s time to go back soon.

I’ve backed up my blog and taken it down.

(I was going to leave it at this but due to some feedback, I am adding in an addendum).

I am shutting it down because I feel after 2 years, that I’ve said all that one can say about learning the Argentine tango. From here on out, I will be doing what I’ve always been doing - dance at milongas, have a crappy night once in a while, take classes, have multiple cases of self-doubt, go back to Buenos Aires, have many a moment of bliss and despair. Sometimes intertwined.

In other words, the same old thing.

This blog has made me so many friends. It cost me a few. It led me to other bloggers, and their sites. It was great fun to read and compare our experiences in tango. To empathize or sometimes to criticize. I could not have foreseen this when I started up my blog in the early Spring of 2006. I expected a comment once in a while. Tango blogs were not as many back then so I didn’t think I would have many readers. Colour me mistaken.

It’s been quite a ride since then.

And now I’m ready to move on to new ventures.

Speaking of ventures, I am officially launching my tango shoe store tomorrow! Please check out tangospeak.com for GRETAFLORA tango shoes I now have in stock. If you have any questions, please comment.

Jeez…got tagged by Johanne of tangwritemight.com. See her comment to my last post.

What I wanna know is can I tag someone who got tagged by someone else? I only know tango bloggers plus a few miscellaneous…my options are limited.

Anyhoo, rules of Blogger Tag:

The Rules:

1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Link to the person who tagged you
3. Share seven random and/or weird things about yourself.
4. Tag seven people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
   
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I can imitate a banjo. Really. It’s a gift.

2. Ever since I learned typing in high school, I’ve been unable to not chronically play word games in my head involving the keyboard involving mathematical equations. It’s a bit OCD actually. When I compose sentences in my head, all the letters have to add up to an even number. Abbreviations are not allowed. I.E. “Do not” is correct, “Don’t” is cheating.

3. I can make stick furniture. Made myself an armchair made of ash twigs. It was gorgeous but I shouldn’t have left it out all winter. Now it’s gone.

4. I talk to myself when there’s nobody around.

5. I cannot sit in my office chair without putting my feet on my seat. I find it very difficult to sit normally when working long periods of time.

6. I don’t like shellfish. Clam Chowder is all I can eat. Mussels, oysters, they make me shudder. They look like snot and infected pus combined. Putting them on a martini glass filled with ice doesn’t make them look any better. I don’t even like being around people when they slurp them down.

P.S. Brussel sprouts are equally detested.

7. I prefer to eat with a spoon and a soup bowl instead of a fork and a plate for ALL meals.

Ok guys, I dont care if you’ve already been tagged, I’m tagging you anyway.

1.line of sight

2. Midnight Rendezvous

3. Tango in her Eyes

4. Reality Pivots

5. Planchadora (muah ha ha)

I dont really have anything new to say these days. I’m back to my regular routine of dancing 2 or 3 times a week, working at home, cleaning my home, watching the odd DVD once in a while, having brunch with my best friend every Sunday, reading my book in bed every night.

After 2 years of blogging, there really isn’t much new to talk about. Although I’m sure my tango class that’s starting the third week of January will provide some fodder for blogging.

Last night, danced cayengue for the first time. It was very easy to learn and very fun to do.

Got lucky, had a chance to dance with all of my favourite leaders. My right knee was acting up though. That was annoying but I tried my best to ignore the discomfort and closed my eyes to zero in on my leader’s movements and the music. Normally, I tend to keep my eyes wide open because I always felt off balance and disoriented otherwise. Last night though, experienced none of that, instead, felt as if I was in a different realm of senses. It was quite nice actually, no chance of being distracted by others on the floor. And it certainly enabled me to be far more attuned to the music.

There are times I wished I had the whole dance floor to myself and my partner so we could move as freely as we wished. Closing my eyes was almost having that wish come true.

Did some milonga, ay yi yi. Definitely need to take some milonga classes.

And finally, I’m toying with the idea of learning to lead. Just so I know what it’s like to be on the other side. I talk so much about the kind of leading I prefer that I might as well see if I can walk the talk.

But I can’t afford to take extra classes. I will see if perhaps there might be a leader shortage in the beginner classes and see if I can  attend for free in order to even  out the ratio. We’ll see.

And it went well.

Very well. Every single person I danced with was someone who I know well or at least well enough. Whose style of leading I’m very comfortable with.

My compas was a bit off though.  I dont know if because of fatigue or because I was easily distracted by some nuevo newcomers on the floor. But no matter, I had a good time dancing with people with whom I feel relaxed and secure. The nice thing about dancing with someone you know well is that they know you too. So, if you weren’t at your best one night, it doesn’t matter too much because they know you will be on another night.

That’s not to say I was totally off. It was more like missing the mark once in a while.

Eh.

On the other hand, I was expecting to be totally rusty after not dancing in nearly 2 weeks but did much better than I expected. The first tanda of the night was with a sweet sweet man who could only dance two songs with me. He’s been dealing with health issues since last fall and needs to take it easy. Cognizant of his health, I was superlight and very responsive to his leads so he didn’t have to exert the slightest effort.

When the semi-tanda was over, I gave him a big hug. I’ve really missed dancing with him. It is a rare occasion for him to come out to milongas these days. He’s one of those men whose presence alone makes you happy.

What made me sad though is that he loves dancing the milonga. He is not able to dance it much, if at all. When the milonga music came on, the look on his face gave me sympathy pains that made my bones ache.

All in all, the first milonga of 2008 was a good one. It was January, 2006 when I took my first tango lesson. It’s so hard to believe that already 2 years have gone by. It seems so much longer.

…………

I think I am going to sign up for Intermediate Level 5 this month. There are still a couple of moves I would like to learn properly. One is the volgada, I still cannot do it without freezing up when I’m taken off my axis. There’s this huge mental block that crop up each time that happens as if I am freaking about about men having to support my weight. Have I mentioned that I’m tall and not the slimmest girl on the block? I keep having this image of the leader having a hernia each time he has to support my weight.

It’s silly, I know. My taxi dancer/teacher tried to show me how silly when he made me take him off his axis. He basically rested his body on my chest and made me take a couple of steps back. He was surprisingly quite easy to hold up. No dead weight at all and he’s much taller than me. He’s easily 6′4″.

There is also a couple of leg wraps I need to learn since there are some leaders who seem rather fond of taking a woman off her axis sideways so her outer leg would fall down to wrap around the inside of his.

Volgadas and leg wraps are not exactly my favourite steps but even so, I just want to be able to know how to do them well just in case.

I would rather take private lessons but it’s so out of my budget right now.

I will also be going to milonga class. I really want to learn it well. I want to be able to dance it on the floor next time I go back to Buenos Aires. They make it look like so much fun and such a joy to do that it was hard to have to stay in my chair, not being able to join them.

What else do I want to learn?

Ah, yes. Spanish. Need to brush up on that. I lucked out big time. My sister studied Spanish and bought a bunch of books when she stayed in Mexico for a year. She gave me all her books when she was cleaning out her massive bookcase so now, I’m all set to study it properly.

So, tango class, milonga class, Spanish lessons. Lots to do this winter, that’s good.

That’s how it feels, that I haven’t danced in soooooooooo long. In tango years that is. It’s been almost two weeks since my feet have touched a dance floor.

I am finally recovered enough to go out dancing without needing kleenex as my constant companion. I am wondering if I can still dance at all. Or if time off is the best thing I could have done.

The truth shall be known tonight.

Been laid low by a week of sickness. At first it was a stomach bug then it became a cold that started in my sinuses and now has moved down to my chest. I ate very well for 2 days, eating lots of fruits and veggies with valiant effort to get well quickly but alas, it was not to be.

Didn’t go out for New Year’s.  At first I thought that I could but knew by 10 pm that it just wasn’t going to happen. I watched movies instead and went to bed with The Thrall’s Tale.

So, now I am sitting here, waiting for someone to blog about their New Year’s Eve so I can live vicariously through them.