Tango Lessons

Thursday, January 17 – Day 29

My tango lessons include group sessions from 8:00 to 10:00 pm on Mondays and Thursdays, and a one private lesson scheduled at another time during the week. The classes are held on the 4th floor of a beautiful 150 year old neo-classical building with 20 foot ceilings.

The essence of the dance, as I understand it, is that the man leads and that the woman must always follow the man’s direction. There are no set steps or sequences, so the man is constantly leading, and the woman must be able to interpret and respond to the man’s lead for every step. This is what makes it such a challenging dance. Though dance partners embrace, but very little direction is actually conveyed through the arms or the hands. The posture of both partners is to have the chest out in front of the toes, and all of the direction is conveyed through the chest.

Manuel and the two other instructors are very passionate about their art. Manuel says “Everyone hears the music, but it is the man that interprets it. The woman can hear the music, but she cannot interpret it for herself. This is only for the man to do, and he conveys his interpretation through the chest. The man controls the woman, and she must always do what the man says. The people that watch the dance also recognize that movements the man allows the woman to do are, again, part of his interpretation. This is what he is showing to the audience.” Pretty serious stuff, huh? I just thought it would be a good way to meet girls.

The Anna and Hillary, two of the girls from my class are also taking the tango lessons, and we seem to be getting along well. Anna designs her own line of jewelry, lived in Paris for a while, and now lives in NYC. Hillary was a marketing rep for a large UK consumer products company, had never been to Argentina, but quit her job and moved here. Raul, is a young porteno (a local from BA), and is taking lessons because one of his friends is getting married soon, and he’ll have to dance the tango at the wedding. He tells me that in BA, Thursdays are for going out and cheating on your partner, Fridays are for dates with your partner, and Saturdays are for partying with your buddies. Kind of fun, huh?