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dancing in la catedral

on saturday night I went to a milonga in "la catedral".  I had heard about it, and was told it was amazing.  I was imagining something grand and spectacular, but when I arrived outside the building I couldn't help but be bitterly disappointed.  the place looked like an old gymnasium or something.  all concrete and sadness...

I climbed the rickety old stairs up to the dance hall and as I turned the corner, past the cloakroom, I stopped dead in my tracks and literally lost my breath for a second.  from the outside I couldn't have imagined this place being so spectacular!

the ceiling was just like a catedral, with wooden exposed beams and slats.  the space was huge, the lights were low and there were few people on the dancefloor when we arrived.  that soon changed, as I had arrived with my tango school after a party at the studio.  the great thing about that was that I got a dance or two.

but this is where I realised that my shoes were just too high.  I have never seen a floor like this one.  the hall that I dance in in Balham has a bad floor, but this was ten times worse.  that being said, it looked so charming and inviting in the dim candle light with all the holes and gaps in it.  but I was worried throughout all of my tangos that I was going to fall down and take my partner with me.

but surrounded by the eclectic and somewhat surreal art in this strange cathedral, I stayed on my feet.

http://www.lacatedralclub.com/

hug skills improving

you will all be pleased to hear that following my decision to work on my intimacy issues... I was complimented on my hug in today's tango class!  ok, it was actually my "abrazo", which also translates as "hold", but still!  it's the same thing, I am learning not to be afraid of getting up close to a stranger.

the other thing I learnt, was that my beautiful new tango shoes are in fact too high for dancing in...  oops.  so I went out and bought another pair!  oops!  also beautiful!  so today's class was that much more successful because it was my first class in heels.

all in all a great day.  nicely rounded off with a light hearted argentinian folklore dance class.

guess work with the camera...

do you recognise her?

my very own Jose Oreguy portrait

this picture has nothing to do with the story, I just like it

I had such a fun night last night.  after my four hour tango marathon, where I started to implement strategy "liberate emotions", I went to meet some friends at the circus!

yes my friends, the high top was in town.  all red and yellow and blue stripes and as big as I could ever imagine.  (you can hear the music in your heads now can't you?)  we felt like little kids again as the anticipation built up and the atmosphere grew tense.

there was not an animal in sight, and all the better for it.  this was a young circus from french canada, made up of beautiful athletes.  Polo Circo would make us laugh and gasp, sad and amazed.  they had everything, juggling (whilst cartwheeling of course), trapeze (with obligatory beautiful brunette, again you can hear a song in your head right?), knife throwing (in a kind of pin the tail on the donkey kind of way) and of course springboarding humans across the stage and the cirque du soleil style spinning down a rope.

it was such fun to watch, they choreographed it beautifully and told a really interesting story.

so of course, after meeting the circus performers (as you do) we decided to go for a drink and a dance.  and man alive did we dance!  they were playing such funky beats, songs that I haven't heard in years, and therefore I haven't danced like that in years.  I had my flats on and there was no stopping me.  we danced until two am before deciding to try to find a milonga...

at the milonga there were just four couples on the huge dancefloor.  it felt like a scene in a movie...  the couples dancing, whilst the barman clears away tables around them and starts to turn on the lights.  but the music keeps playing, so the dancers just keep dancing, entranced in their private moments.

it was such a cool night, thank you.

learning faith again... tonight's most important lesson

at tonight's milonga I learnt a few important lessons.

they were that in order to become a better tango dancer I had to, firstly learn how to embrace a perfect stranger... and mean it.  something I have never been very good at, something that my sister could teach me a lot about.

but more importantly, and what would help with that is that I had to learn to have faith in someone again.  trust that they will take care of me in a difficult situation, not let me fall, and that together we can make something beautiful.  I have to learn to let go and to not be in complete control.

this is in order, of course to become a better tango dancer.

after tonight's milonga, I felt ready to throw in the hat and leave Buenos Aires a mediocre tango dancer.  that was until I realised, that perhaps I could get more from this than just a fancy gancho.  after all, there's no doubt I can do the moves, but what I realised late in the evening, is that there is something holding me back.  something key, something that if only I could unlock it, I could swing a boleo with the best of them, all the while smiling inside, while trusting in myself and my partners.

and so my homework for my last few weeks in Buenos Aires, is to learn to let go a little.  put my dancing in somebody else's charge.  and to channel my inner portena.  and perhaps to not give myself such a hard time and to just let go, stop thinking so god damn much.