Milongas in Buenos Aires
Have been a bit quiet here because of my work.
Following on from my experiences of some milognas in Buenos Aires, noticed that Simba has come up with a list of recommendations for milongas for his friend’sfirst trip to Buenos Aires. The list somewhat overlaps the places that I went to and I highly recommend it to anyone planning to go on their first trip. For the traditional milongas, I would have included also Gricel (not too difficult even for ladies apparently) and Lo De Celia (which can be a little difficult to get a dance if you are new).
Seating arrangements of milongas in BA
Although I had some opinions about this during my trip, I didn’t imagine they’d turn into a full-blown post until I read some recent comments yesterday.
The background is that in SOME milongas, the “archaic” (my choice of word, not the phrase used by the originator) custom of seating men and women separately* – in particular, having the women in a line against one side of the room. In these situations, invitation is done using the cabaceo exclusively. Basically there was the contention that this was somehow demeaning to women and ought not to happen in this day and age. Firstly I want to point out that in such milongas, men will also get be lined up and get a good sizing over from women from the other side of the room! Secondly, as a visitor, regardless of my own cultural background (and hence prejudices), I always believe in the adage “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”, out of respect for the culture that I am visiting.
Passing of Tito
Just read this morning on Jantango’s blog that Tito passed away in January. Seems that January 2010 is turning out to be a bad month as far as milongueros are concerned…
While Tito may not be a household-name to many people, like for example Tete or Osvaldo Zotto were, I remember him fondly even though we could not communicate and I saw him at the milongas only. By the way, Tito was mentioned on TangoandChaos a few times: Tango in a small space, and On giros.
I first met Tito during my trip to Buenos Aires last year. Always smartly dressed and gentlemanly, he was always friendly and encouraging right from the first few milongas I went to in Buenos Aires, even if I didn’t (and still can’t) understand anything he said. I will definitely miss seeing his delicate touches during milongas. Incidentally he was also the first guy to whisk my partner away from right under my nose at Maipu using the cabeceo! 😉
Rest in peace.
Joy of dancing
This was meant to be the last post related to my trip to Buenos Aires in 2009, which unfortunately I never managed to complete satisfactorily, till now.
“Why do we dance Tango?”
To many people, and I am presuming that you are at least keen enough to have devoted some time to take classes to learn to dance Tango well since you are reading this blog, this may seem like a no-brainer question?
From my observations during the trip to Buenos Aires, the local Argentinians probably took up Tango for the following basic (although this is by no means authoritative) reasons: for the company (e.g. keeping in touch with friends, singles looking for companionship, etc.), earn a living (as instructors, organisers, etc.) but, perhaps most likely of all, for the pure enjoyment of Tango music and the dance itself.
On the other hand, for the endless stream of Tango tourists like ourselves, who finally made the long trek to Tango mecca, I suspect the most common reason for going to Buenos Aires is to improve our dancing. I mean, after spending quite a fortune in money and time, wouldn’t you want to get your money’s worth? We want to perfect our techniques and aim to be a better dancer in the technical sense.