Tango Lessons

Last week being my first week back in BsAs, I finally got in touch with Ariel, a friend of Danny's from when he was here. Ariel is a Spanish teacher by day and teaches Tango on the side, in his spare time. Since Matías suggested I take lessons (he said I have the "gift"... but what does that really mean, right?) and I was kinda planning on taking them anyway, I met up with Ariel with the plans of setting up private lessons with him.

Monday last week I met up with Ariel just to chat over coffee. Phew, was that intense. Every time I meet someone new, it always takes a few minutes to get used to a new accent and cadence and voice, and figure out a way to converse. 2 hours of talking later - I finally had to beg him to let me go home. I was exhausted, but kinda proud of my accomplishment. We'd talked about philosophy, racism, politics.... ok so maybe I didn't sound like a debate speaker, but I managed....

Anyway, we set up tanding tango classes for Tuesday and Thursday, so at this point I´ve now had three lessons, and I´ve got another one tomorrow. I LOVE them!! Ariel is a very very good dancer, and he has a decent understanding of all the different schools of thought regarding the dance. He likes to teach one, but points out the differences in the others so that if I get a leader that is from a different school, I´ll know how to respond to him. He´s even given me technical exercises to do.... right up my alley of how I learn.

Tango is way different than the dances I know from Ballroom, and yet all the problems I´m having are the same ones I had while I was on the team at school. I guess dancing is dancing... and you can´t really get that far from the basics, no matter what dance you choose. We´ll probably go to a Milonga soon to try out my new steps (although I´d say I haven´t learned a single step really - just techniques for how to follow, and certain flares for my footwork). I´ll let you know how that goes.

Tilke... once again, you and Yann should quit trying to learn tango in the States, and just come here for a month or two, take a zillion classes for 1/10th the price (did I mention I´m paying about $13 for 1.5 hours?) and dance with a zillion incredible dancers.