Thanks For Your Support

I'm writing this entry from the road so it'll be brief.

Thanks for your comments and emails about this blog. I thought I had no readers at all, but that's not true.

First off, I'm travelling in Brazil until the 17th or so (been here since the 6th) and when I get everything in front of me I will put up my links to all Tango stuff in Rio de Janeiro. I met some nice people and found the main milonga in Lapa (miraculously). I'll write more about the Milonga in Lapa (Rua Lapa at the Associacao of Moco or whatever) later, but the kind of general rule that the old people show up to the first part and then the young people show up is true here. I was trying to think of whether that's true in Buenos Aires, and it kind of is. In La Viruta, for instance, the older people do pack it in earlier than the younger people.

So sometime soon I'll write some stuff about WHAT TIME to get to a milonga or práctica, because that's almost as important as knowing where to go and what to wear (casual for the prácticas, but if you're headed to a nice milonga like Tuesday night at Canning, do dress up).

Anyway, the main questions people had about Tango in Buenos Aires were where DNI is and so forth. Now just let me say for the record that in DNI they work a lot with el abrazo abierto and it's a bit moderny, so I think that if you just do that you're missing a big part of what is tango salón (excuse my Spanishy sentence structure). I would definitely check out the classes with Maxi and Maricel in the OSPACA ( http://www.maxiymaricel.com/) or the superfamous classes with Pablito Perez in Sunderland on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8pm (take the 41 bus from Avenida Cabildo). I wish I had some better suggestions out there, but for right now I'm a bit dry on suggestions.

So anyway, DNI is at http://www.estudiodnitango.com.ar/ and I like them a lot and they are VERY popular so you'll get to know a lot of the foreigners who are in Buenos Aires at the same time as you, studying tango and going to the practicas. As I said, you need something else to supplement DNI, but DNI is a pretty decent place and a good technique, especially for the woman to learn how to responder a la marca. The problem is that the guys learn how to do hard stuff and never learn how to walk.

The best practicas are Tango Cool (www.tangocool.com, I think) and PracticaX (check out their blog which is practicax.blogspot.com ) and yes, there are generally more women than men, which is how the world of dance works anyway.

And now a random note about Tango for both men and women: to increase your chances of dancing more, try everything. You don't have to make yourself supersexy or show cleavage (or wear an Armani suit), but you should be clean and presentable for EVERY night that you go to dance. You may NOT get a chance to dance with a great dancer because of your unkempt appearance, or, worse, you may not get asked (or get accepted if you do the asking) when you come back because of that.

It's true, most people are really nice and don't care if you stink or look nice. But Buenos Aires is, in general, a superficial place, and this is true in Tango también.

And while I'm at it and typing up a storm, two other things: guys, unless you are absolutely convinced it will be well received, do not give women ANY advice, EVER. This is true even if the woman just decides to switch feet on you all the time because she "doesn't understand your lead." First off, your lead is probably unclear, and secondly, you're not going to get her to stop sucking with one or two comments. It will probably take months. And that advice goes for both leaders and followers.

Second, if you're dancing with somebody, pretend you enjoy it until the tanda or three songs (is the práctica) is up, and then say "thank you" and be on your way. If they are really terrible, you can say thanks after one or two songs. Don't make up any excuses about going to the bathroom, and don't ask them how long they've been dancing. Most people who suck know they suck, anyway. I should know. I used to be really bad, and now I'm just "not good" (and getting heaps better).

Cheers from Brazil!