Hands-on cabeceo
I had previously commented on what I thought was the gist of the cabeceo. Since arriving in Buenos Aires, I think in principle what I wrote was still applicable. However, two additional and essential ingredients are required for success: accuracy and speed, especially at the more “competitive” milongas.
Firstly, as always, it is important to know who you may like to dance with – which in itself may require a few repeated visits to the same milonga – and to hope that he/she will look your way. Secondly, time is of the essence, because once the floor starts to get filled up, your line of sight will be blocked and, depending on the seating arrangement of men and women at the particular milonga, the window of opportunity may be lost. By the way, I am still trying to figure out how some men still manage to cabeceo after people have started dancing. It seems the only option after that is for the men to take a walk!?
For these two reasons, while I have had limited success with the cabeceo at the milongas I have been to, it can get a little stressful for a new-comer to the milonga scene in Buenos Aires. To add to this mix, as a total stranger, you may not always get the more favourable seats which makes cabeco extra difficult.
BA: week 1 quick review
I must admit, I arrived in Buenos Aires with very few specifics as far as scheduling of my stay here is concerned. However, it’s funny how time seems to fly even though nothing much seems to be happening!? I suppose this is partly because of the need of traveling everywhere by public transport like subway or buses – unless one was prepared to take taxis all the time although at certain times during the day the traffic can be horrendous too.
So after one week what have I managed to do?
Classes
With our friend’s help, we quickly made to our way to Escuela Argentina de Tango (EAT) and familiarised ourselves with the possible regular classes during our stay. By the way, EAT is a fairly reputable Tango school here with a variety of teachers offering their services. Our strategy is simply to sample the group classes at EAT during the first week in order to find out what styles/teachers we’d like to explore more in the remaining two weeks. Initially I was considering to try out DNI and Tango Brujo, which are two Tango Nuevo schools, but that is probably too ambitious given the little time we have.
Experience of a “superset”
Experienced my first “superset” that Royce had written about at Cachirulo (Maipu 444) last night. The DJ was Carlos Rey.
As far as I could tell, the sequence was
- Vida Mia (Fresedo)
- Percal (Calo)
- Poema (Canaro)
- (Pugliese)
- (Laurenz)
By the end of Poema, the dance floor was completely dark – even the lights at the bar were down to the minimum. Quite an experience, although I was not dancing at the time.
Buenos Aires 2009
Tonight marks the start of my long and very first journey to Buenos Aires, THE place where Tango originated.
Right now, while the rational side of me is telling me not to set too high an expectation – and of course reinforced by what some bloggers have already written about – I guess it’s only human to be feeling butterflies in the stomach, and literally salivating at the thought of finally being able to dance in the place where it all started. The experience of staying in a place where you can’t understand a single word of the local language is priceless, no?
For the next 3.5 weeks, I will use this space to document the snippets of experiences in BA. I am not sure if this is too ambitious – for all I know, laziness or fatigue may take hold even just after a few days! – but I will certainly try. 😉