Artur is probably one of the only few people from my hometown that has surrendered to Argentinian Tango. He writes in a really nice blog, Tango Atlântico, which is written in Portuguese and as such, inaccessible to most of you. I have the pleasure of having him as a guest tangologuer. I hope you like it!
I believe there are more blacks and whites on the rules in the milonga rather than grays. I do have a lot of sympathy for women who walk alone in milonga and patiently wait to be invited to dance. Lets be clear in this game that the role of the leader is easier, by the simple fact he dances whenever he wants. If followers are available he always dances his favorite music. For women this is not exactly true. Men normally find that a good milonga it is a milonga where the number of women it is higher than men. Leaders like to choose and followers like to be chosen. Women have to play the game of making the men invite her to dance. The women have to be shown for the first time to be invited again. For women, high mood and great self-esteem helps a lot, as weel as being sighted in a visible position in the room. Especially in US and Europe, no one gets upset if women go and ask the men to dance. Cabeceo is something that it is only fully understood after being in Buenos Aires. Just in a few milongas in France/Spain, the cabeceo is done, but nothing like in Buenos Aires. If you go with your partner, you have to step-away from your partner if both of you want to dance with others. Never dance more than one tanda in a row (or 3 tangos) with you partner. Then step aside, go to fetch a drink, go to toilet or invite immediately after other partner. If you stay chatting no one comes to interrupt your conversation if you are in an alien place. I do this with my wife and it works. Both of us dance, and normally she dances more than me.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tango game
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8 comments:
Hi artur, the theme you've discussed has been around tango blogs as it seems to be a huge problem indeed. However, the points you make (such as sitting on the front row or at the back) are valid and can help some of the ladies that sit for a long time in a milonga.
But, as I have written in this same blog, as far as I can see it, although black and whites exist there is a lot of gray, at least in what my opinion is concerned. I am not talking about inviting ladies in Bs As because I don't live there but inviting ladies in the UK or in the rest of Europe, Portugal included.
In paper, what you wrote "the role of the leader is easier, by the simple fact he dances whenever he wants." is not that simple, at least for me. I have spoken to other leaders that sometimes are not able to invite certain followers, whether because they feel they are not good enough, because they have a boyfriend that goes to the gym everyday and is not looking like he wants his girlfriend to dance with other men, or because they couldn't find a suitable moment.
In a milonga in Porto (and you know which one I am talking about), I have spoken to some wonderful tangueras that only started getting invited to dance when they started wearing short skirts. This is just an example how grays make such a difference in tango.
Well, there are two situations when you are in a milonga within your tango community or when you are alone in a milonga that you don’t know anyone.
Within your own community you know how people dance, and if women it is rightly visible, I go and invite her, independently from her level. Nothing gives more pleasure than taking women doing the very basic steps on the beat of music. I invite all women weather they are in the milonga alone or not. I normally go with my wife and I do dance with 1 tanda per 4-5 I do dance with other women (she do the same). I believe I can perceive well if the women is waiting or not to be invited. Normally I don’t invite women if she is talking closely with a friend or a partner. If I have full confidence I go and break a conversation and get her to dance with. When I’m in an unknown milonga, I invite any one after observing the local codes and the level of the dancers. Sometimes I have the good surprise of inviting women that it is seat for long time and after she revels to be a great dancer.
I don’t feel comfortable to invite Alexandra Baldaque, Andrea Misse or Geraldine Rojas, because they are queens of tango and I’m no one… but let me tell you, those women look for some one that dance simple on the beat of music rather than doing acrobatics.
Point 2, it is true that most couple don’t feel comfortable dancing with others, because there is a lot on intimacy dancing in close embrace. Like Argentinean Poet Jorge Luis Borges say “tango is horizontal wish that is done on vertical”. Well couples have to talk about that clearly about the reasons that take them to tango. I dance tango for myself. When I see my wife dancing with extra connection with other men (with guys with at least 6-8 years of tango..) I would wish to dance like them, but I’m never jealous and I’m happy for her.
I only can talk about me… not about other leaders!
Here are my (slightly aggravated) questions:
As a follower, does she have to ask every time a professional dancer comes along to a community?
It may sound like a naive thing to ask, but why don't professional dancers go and ask 'normal tanguero/as' to dance? Is this because it would hurt their pride and it would bring their status down? Is this because they don't want to look like they're favouring some over others?
When you reach this stage where you need some challenge, and if the community cannot give you that because they haven't quite reached that level of dancing, and you wish to dance with professional dancers, WHY DO WE ALWAYS HAVE TO ASK???
Is this another unwritten rule?
Do we have to strategically position ourselves so that we are very close to the professionals? Is this how you do it? WHY DO WE HAVE TO BEG FOR IT???
Please release me from my naivity and frustration.
I do have a lot of sympathy for questions, because you seem to want to develop your dancing skills and only this is done if you as a follower dance with an experienced tanguero. Honestly, there a kind of a selfish attitude from every tanguero when they go to milonga, they just invite a follower if the follower could provide the leader the extreme fun of have the “tango connection”. However if your tango instructor is the organizer of the milonga, he have the duty to ask you occasionally to dance. I don’t believe you stay much time in tango and staying seated in milongas, therefore he should invite you to dance if he wants to have his milonga full of people. This is particularly tragic in small tango communities where you don’t have the choice of changing of instructor.
mmmmm, anonymous, I'm not sure I know exactly what kind of situation you are talking about...is it when teachers from outside your community come to visit? Your own teachers? Other 'professionals' who are visiting without teaching? Anyway, I guess it depends...on who they are, how much they have worked that day...all kinds of things - like with all of us..Maybe they prefer dancing with their own partners, or they just don't feel like it or...they just want to chat to folk in the milonga - what the hell...yea, it's nice if visiting teachers do dance with folk in a milonga, but I think the reasons they might not are many and varied...
Personally I think there are lots of ways of improving your dancing without dancing with 'professional' dancers - so if it bugs you so much - don't go and 'beg' - enjoy dancing with the people who invite you and who you feel comfortable inviting and learn from and with them.
Enjoy your Tango!
And 'hello' to you Ricardo from Edinburgh.
Claudia
Hypothetical situation:
A follower who has been dancing for a good few years who is at an intermediate or advanced level gets frustrated because the tango community she currently happens to belong to only has leaders that are below the improvers level. She could go to other areas in UK or abroad to learn but because she can't afford to go outside (time & money-wise)too often. For some reason, this community manages to invite professional dancers to come and teach quite frequently, or that professional dancers pass by because the area is so attractive (or for whatever reasons). Obviously, normally, this follower does try to seek challenges or learn from the existing leaders because she has no other choice.
But, this time she sees an opportunity for a challenge with the visiting professional dancers. But she has to go and ask them every single time, sometimes she has to beg for it.
What would you do if you were this follower?
Hello Claudita!!
;)
xx
Its because professional tango dancers often can't lead/follow normal dancers. Its rarely admitted but the spend so long doing fancy choreographed sequences with only one person they lose their ability to lead/follow normal dancers.
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