What a wonderful day!

I woke up bright and early at 9am. I was a woman on a mission. I had errands to run and classes to go to. My first stop was a tailor. I had a dress that I bought in the US and needed to have it altered. Next stop – exchange some money. I am down to my last 100 pesos and need more fuel for my shopping, classes and Milongas. I am amazed what a difference there was in the exchange rates out here and in the US. I exchanged $500 in the US at an exchange rate of 2.89. Here the exchange rate of Pesos to the dollar was 3.43. That is one more pair of tango shoes I could have bought. Next time, I will know better.

From there, I took the bus to Arenales Street to Comme il faut. Yes again. I wanted to see their new stock of shoes – they have new styles coming in everyday. These shoes are so amazingly beautiful – it took me forever to decide on what I want. I finally decided on a simple Orange and Black Sandals. Too bad for the men – they only have women’s shoes.

I took a taxi home and realized I was famished. I went to a local restaurant with Federico – It was good food and so darn cheap. In less than $10 we both had Raviolis each and a juice and milkshake. It was definitely not touristy and geared to the locals primarily.

After lunch, I had my third lesson with Luis. I tried on my new 5-inch stilettos for the first time, and found it quite comfortable to dance with. Today Luis and I danced some more and he made suggestions and comments on improving as we danced, but on the whole, he seemed quite happy with my dancing. That was good.

An hour later, was my lesson with Carina and Carlos. I was a little nervous of taking this class only because I am so self conscious when it comes to my dancing – especially in front of someone who is so spectacularly good. But then, they are teachers and they are there to help me. I started with dancing with Carlos with Carina watching to gauge my level .. I was extremely flattered and thrilled when; at the end of the dance they both looked at each other, surprised, and said that was really good. However to get me down to earth, they also said that most people dance well enough on slow tango songs so they put on a faster paced tango and had me dance with Carlos again. Sure enough, this time I goofed up a couple of times. It wasn’t that bad, but enough to let all my weaknesses show. And Carlos was not going easy on me either. We did planeos, ganchos, enganches (I think I even assaulted him in his calves with my pointy heel while doing an enganche the men at Little Rock better watch out when I wear my new shoes for dancing when I see them next). The giros (turns) were done in double time – three consecutive times. And I almost felt dizzy. He sure knew how to work me out. But in 10 min, I had both Carina and Carlos size me up pretty accurately and give me invaluable feedback.

I learned three main things from them in this lesson. The first and the most important being the tango walk. I have learned this so many times with so many different teachers since I have been here, but Carina’s style is the one I liked best. My tango walk was well, just a walk. Nice but ok. Her walk on the other hand will make people sit up and notice. It was cat like, stealthy movements. Instead of walking from waist down, I learned to walk from hips down. When walking forward to bend my hips very slightly, as if I am sitting down, and then extend one leg.. and continue. I was told that I need to concentrate on walking on a straight line (there should be no light between the legs (from your hips to the knees)- as Carina said, pretend that there is a magnet and it sticks your thighs together. I need to keep practicing to get that perfect, because the next thing I worked on was the sandwich position. When I did it, I had the foot that my weight was on, extended… had I walked correctly, that leg would have been slight bent at the knee…. It made so much of a difference in aesthetics. The third thing I learned to improve was my embrace and my posture waist up. I have a tendency to tense up and scrunch my shoulders which looks terrible. I have to learn to loosen up and relax my embrace. All these are suggestions which won’t work overnight, and instead are things I need to work at and improve. I thought this was the best lesson I have had so far. I loved them both. Carina impressed me a lot. She is so petite and frail to look at, yet when she dances, she was so much energy and strength. Carlos was a little rough on the edges, but a very very good dancer and an excellent lead.

After the lesson, Carina said that today is a tango festival. One of the streets (Avenue de Mayo) was shut down and there, they had stages put up and had live bands playing – plus one could dance tango on the streets. She invited me to go with her and her friends which I accepted.

Later on my way home, I strolled down the street to buy some pants to practice Tango in. Zeynep had bought some for $7 and I wanted to find that shop. I finally found it and bought a couple of pants. By the time I got home, the group from the house had already left for the milonga at Bien Porteno for tonight. I could have followed them, but considering I was to meet Carina in two hours, I decided to stay home and rest a bit.

At 9pm, I went to Carina’s apartment. She had a guest Charlie, a girl from South Africa staying with her who joined us. We took the bus to Avenue de Mayo and then walked around enjoying the music and watching the performances (Pictures 1 and 2). I did not dance at the streets – I had to leave early as Maria was having a live orchestra play at the casa tonight too, and I wanted to get back to be able to catch at least some part of that concert.





I took a cab home and did catch the last 30 min of the concert. I am glad I did, as it was indeed fabulous. The singer, a young 26 year old, had such an amazing voice. At the end of the concert, Maria invited Jesus (the singer - picture 3 - at the left) to sit with us and introduced us (Elizabeth and Me) as reporters from France and India respectively who wanted to interview him. We played along and asked him all kinds of questions. He believed us and so did the rest of the band (who got quite jealous that we were interviewing only the singer). It was fun. Poor kid still believes we are reporters – I guess I am to an extent that I am writing about him on my blog.



The concert ended at 12:30pm, and I really wanted to go dancing to a milonga tonight, but did not know how to reach the others who were already out (at the street fair) so instead I will be making this another early night. Tomorrow, is Sunday – no classes and no shopping. My plans are to go to Recoletta and then San Telmo again to enjoy my last Sunday in the city.