I picked up the latest La Milonga magazine at Brujo (although at all the shoe stores and many different milongas and practicas you can get your magazines on). Why are those stupid magazines so devoid of intellectual content? Is it an argentinian problem, a dancer problem, or just a stupid free magazine problem? I imagine it's the latter of the three choices.
11.30pm La Nacional
Made it to the Nacional pretty early because I got out of acting class at 11pm or so. I was pretty excited because I had understood from I-don't-know-which website that it was a really cool práctica. Nada que ver! I could tell by the 12 peso entrance fee (prácticas are usually like 4 or 5) that it was kind of milongaish, and in fact, it was a milonga.
What is the difference between a práctica and a milonga? If you ask any argentinian who has been dancing for a while, they'll tell you that there is no difference. Which is why once again asking Argentinians questions is sort of like smacking your head against the wall, except that there's no blood.
Prácticas
- No tandas. The music comes on in big sets and they basically never put in a cortina unless they're switching music.
- Tendency: More space - since prácticas are generally for tango nuevo which is generally though not always characterized by the abrazo abierto and cool ganchos and stuff, you need more space. It can get a bit crowded, but it never gets to be like a night in Pacha. At certain points in a Milonga you're literally holding your partner doing tiny little movements as if you were trapped in a phone booth.
- Tendency: Younger people and foreigners. Milongas are also full or foreigners, but since milongas are considered the real deal for the old folks and so forth, they tend to avoid practicas.
- Prácticas start earlier and generally finish earlier, although they do have schedules that you can check.
- Some people think that in prácticas there will be a teacher or two there helping out and making interesting commentaries. Although this was the original idea with the practicas in Copello, I've never seen it in practice.
- Tendency: Less expectation - This also comes from the lack of tandas. Since the woman knows that you're only going to "force" her to last 2 or 3 songs unless there's good vibe, there's less pressure in prácticas. Also, people are not trying as hard to look like they know how to dance, but are rather focusing on figuring out what you're doing. In general, of course...
- In prácticas like in milongas you have to rotate counter-clockwise, but sometimes people just start screwing around in place. So there's less necessity to rotate, and there's a tiny bit more backwards movement too (but not much).
Notes From the Road
Well I'm not really on the road but rather in Buenos Aires still, and not far from home. I'm at the Victoria Cream on Agüero y Las Heras, where they give you three little espresso-sized pourers filled with whipped cream, chocolate and cinnamin for your coffee. Also, they give you a scoop of ice cream. Now, I would never eat ice cream, but helado regalado es otro tema (claro que sí!).
So I was up at Plaza Mitre again working on caminata and enrosques. These enroques are basically the same as all other enrosques, except that I know exactly how they fit into the woman's giro. Therefore they're different, because I can practice them as much as I want and then try them out in the real world. These are from the intermediate class at Tango Motivo a few weeks ago. I think that's one of the best classes of the week, really: I'm going to head back there even if it conflicts with the first two hours of Practica X. The three female professors are great, though a bit butch.
Enrosques are enrosques, but if you're retarded like me, you'll never figure out how to have the woman do a turn at the same time as you turn. Because at some point you have to have your lower body catch up. And this seems natural, but in fact, the question of "when?" is hard to handle. Anyone who doesn't know how to handle the two issues simultaneously needs to be taught the idea as a "figure" with precise touch-down points.
So back to last night at La Nacional. It was a milonga, y por lo tanto, agobiante. Plus, since only the principiantes dance in the middle of the circle, La nacional really just has one ring of dancers on the floor. And shit gets tight out there.
Not a lot of young women dancers, and not a lot of young men dancers, either :).
So anyway, we were sitting with Jose, Virginia and Daniel and Carla (?) from Copello and some other people and then there were two shows, one of which being Jose and Virginia. I'll try to get the videos up but I really have to start using my camcorder. The video quality from my ultra-compact camera is just not enough.
The first couple was a Japanese couple. They danced well, sort of staid salón stuff, and then the CD started skipping so they ended gracefully (which is admirable. I thought the correct reaction would be "fuck fuck fuck fuck").
Then Jose and Viky performed and they were absolutely great. Really nice stuff, good choreography and great musicality, and of course brilliant technical stuff.
At the end of the night, though, I was left feeling like going to all these milongas is really not the point of my stay in Buenos Aires. I'm trying to learn tango, and a lot of that is basic work alone or with a partner delante del espejo. Going to milongas is fun, dancing can be cool soimetimes, but the endgame is not the milonga. Actually, what is the endgame? One thing I don't need is mucha soltura con mi nivel actual? I'd rather get better.
Tomorrow, my notes on why I'm moving DNI and tango nuevo to the back burner though it is my true passion.
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