Another day of dancing….

My days are all running together. I am losing track of time, and just living by the moment. Today, I danced some more. I met Miguel, my German friend and went to Bien Porteño for a Practica. I have been told by Louie, Paula and Armando that I have to take lessons from Raffael (who teaches at Bien Porteño I assume). I expected the practica to include class, but after getting there and seeing we were the only people there, I realized that the 11am to 4pm was just general dancing for whoever that wanted to use the dance floor and practice, I later found out that the classes are at 4pm. Oh well, I have to go back again. In anycase, Miguel and I practiced for an hour. Our next stop was El Beso, where there was a class on Milonga.

The class was interesting. I have danced the Milonga (Milonga can be a place where people dance or as in this case, is also the name of a style of dance) but have no idea of the technique. Typically, I just follow the lead. At the end of this class, I realized that I am not good at learning figures and steps. If I learn the steps I try too hard to remember it, and in the end anticipating the next move when I am dancing and just mess it all up. In any case, it was good practice.

After the class, I went shoe shopping again. I went to a store called Neo Tango and another one called Tango Lieke. I liked a couple of shoes at Neo Tango, but at 380 pesos for a pair, I decided to wait till I go to Comme il Faut and check out their selection first.

I reached home around 5:00 pm and stayed at the house all evening. I spoke with Carina Mele, a beautiful dancer (http://www.carlosycarina.com.ar/) who Louie (my teacher) speaks so highly of. I have scheduled a class with her and Carlos for Saturday afternoon. As I told her, I need some more time to practice dancing before I meet them as I’d be nervous dancing with them as I am still so new. She sounded really nice and friendly. I like her already.

This evening there is a group from the Casa going to Club Gricel for a Milonga. I did not find out about this until 5pm so I had already made plans with Miguel and Dave to go to another Milonga. We were the late birds and left at 11pm to go to Villa Malcolm. The Milonga at Villa Malcolm was so far the most different than any place I have visited. A very young crowd, very casual atmosphere. It almost felt like I was in a college campus and people were practicing dancing. None of the traditional Milonga rules seemed to apply (like the way people sat and how they got asked to dance). I don’t know how it worked here. No one asked me to dance, I guess because I was with two guys, they did not ask. (People sometimes assume if you are with a friend of the opposite sex, you are a couple and would not dance with others). In any case, it was wonderful watching the others dance. This was more Tango Nuevo, being danced in open embrace, which I haven’t seen so far with the other Milongas I visited. I wonder if my friends visited this place when they were here two weeks ago. I know Armando would have loved it, with all the pretty young girls there :-)

This Milonga ended at 1pm. Since we had barely been there two hours, we decided to go to another one. Salon Canning. (Picture 1)It is rated very highly. This one has a more elegant atmosphere. It has a fair share of young people. At 1:30 am, it was very crowded. We had no table to sit, so we had to dance till we managed to get a table after an hour. The dance floor was very crowded too. Small steps was all one could take here when dancing, but still there the odd few people trying out fancy boleos, ang ganchos (a flicking your foot above the ground) With the 5inch stilettos these girls were wearing, it was very dangerous for the others on the dance floor. I have already been stepped on with that beautiful but brutal weapon a couple of times. Whatever happened to the etiquettes I have heard so much about?

We lost track of time, and were there till 4:30am. I am not a night-bird, but that seems to be all I am doing so far. I do not have any lessons today until 3:30pm, so I know I can sleep in. Time to go to bed now and rest my tired feet.