This is in response to an anonymous person who criticized a Buenos Aires local for not having advanced dance technique and not having spent all his/her spare time and money on classes.
When you go to Buenos Aires, it’s important to remember that you are a guest in their city.
It’s important to remember that the people of Argentina have different life experiences behind them, a different culture, a different history, and different personal situations.
It’s important to remember that Argentina recently had an economic crisis.
It’s important to remember that Argentines live and think in pesos. They don’t have the luxury of dividing the price by 3 in their head to figure out the American dollar equivalent. The price in pesos is just that: the price in pesos. And it’s not cheap. Because they earn pesos. The cost of living is high for them. Some are luckier than others, but you should take a look at the mortgage rates down there and then look at their average salary and you’ll see what I mean.
We North Americans/Europeans/whatever are fortunate enough to have computers at home with high-speed internet connections, enabling us to watch youtube as much as we want, trying to gleen what we can from the likes of Tete, Julio & Corina, El Flaco Dany, and others.
We have the fortune to be able to find ways to afford lessons, festivals, trips to Buenos Aires, countless pairs of tango shoes.
The Argentines we do meet who visit our local communities to teach workshops are extraordinary dancers who set a particular example of Tango, and give us an idea of what it should be like.
It raises our expectations tremendously, and makes us forget that the rest of the tangueros in Buenos Aires are regular people with families, jobs, normal lives, who just like to go out dancing.
Julio Balmaceda comes to town, teaches a workshop, blows our minds, and we innocently come away thinking that this is how all Argentines dance. (….not to mention a lot of us also mistakenly think that all Argentines dance Tango at all, which is simply not true. Only a small part of the population dances Tango. To some, Tango is still looked down upon a little bit. It wasn’t always considered a classy, elegant dance, you know.)
So we go to milongas in Buenos Aires, expecting all the taxi drivers to just “know” where Nino Bien is… expecting all of the Argentines to dance just like Julio. But the thing is, they don’t. Only Julio dances like Julio. Just like only I dance like me, and only you dance like you.
The rest of the porteños in the milongas are people who don’t always have the extra money to pay for private lessons every week. Or perhaps they don’t feel the need because technique isn’t necessarily their main goal. A lot of times they are people who learn in the milongas and have a deep “something” inside for Tango that is hard for us to understand consciously … they are what we call milongueros.
Sure, some of them do want to challenge themselves and sign up for lessons here and there, but what I witnessed when I was in Buenos Aires and took a class with Geraldine Rojas and her husband Ezequiel, was that most of the students were foreigners. I found out that they really don’t get a lot of locals.
Next time you are lucky enough to have a lesson with one of the Tango greats down there, try to be sensitive and remember that not everybody in Buenos Aires is able spend their money on lessons with expensive teachers.
Why do I have a preference for dancing with the men of Buenos Aires? It’s not because they know fancy steps that they learned from a well-known teacher, and it’s not because they lead perfect turns. It’s because they dance WITH ME. They’re not dancing with me to see how well I follow, to test me, to show off, to see if I’m good enough – they are dancing with me to dance with me. They find me, they find where I am in the music, they somehow magically understand where my center of gravity is and take good care of me on the dance floor. This, my friends, does NOT come from countless private lessons with (insert hot shot teacher here). In my opinion, it comes from something else.
Try to consider these things before criticizing a porteño who doesn’t have “perfect technique”.
Glad I got that off my chest.
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Tina, I have not been to BsAs yet, but this is what I am constantly seeking in every tanda. I am seeking someone to dance with me, not to judge, evaluate, rate, and classify. To enjoy, to appreciate, to understand, to communicate. None of these words might seem at first to have anything to do with giros, or ganchos or salidas, but I really think they are at the heart of all of them. What makes tango tango, is what makes us human. That is why it is so elementary, so primal, so purposeful. That is why it grips us so powerfully.
Thanks Tina. So well said. I just love your common sense. Thank you for bringing back some sanity to the BAs blah blah blah, to the misunderstandings, to the unrealistic expectations.
I think this is a wonderful post.
“Why do I have a preference for dancing with the men of Buenos Aires? It’s not because they know fancy steps that they learned from a well-known teacher, and it’s not because they lead perfect turns. It’s because they dance WITH ME. They’re not dancing with me to see how well I follow, to test me, to show off, to see if I’m good enough – they are dancing with me to dance with me. They find me, they find where I am in the music, they somehow magically understand where my center of gravity is and take good care of me on the dance floor. This, my friends, does NOT come from countless private lessons with (insert hot shot teacher here). In my opinion, it comes from something else.”
once in a while (very very occasionally), i come across someone like this, and i feel i can truly dance with the other person, that this person is meeting me halfway, that this person feels ever so present, in my presence. this is why i dream of the day i will finally go to BsAs, and experience this almost every night. you are so right dear tina — the man doesn’t even need to move, he can just stand there, or just take 3 little steps, and i will love it as long as he can make me feel this way in his embrace. i am beginning to think that tango is not the goal –it is merely a means (of course, a beautiful means) to something else, which is transcendental.
thank you for this amazing post!
Dear Tina, yes. Yes. YES!
And you have reminded me that I have some bitter experience on this matter. And I am going to write about it very soon.
While I agree with you that porteños can not always afford private lessons with World-star teachers like Julio & Corina (who even in Buenos Aires charge an American price, which is fine because they are so popular and many people travel to Buenos Aires to study with them).
But it is not necessary the case with all lessons. There are MANY good teachers in Buenos Aires who charge very affordable price for group classes in pesos. I even went to some group classes with Chicho and paid like 15 pesos for 2 hour class. The class was taught in Spanish and there were very few foreigners. Such classes are not advertised in English-language ads, because otherwise foreigners would flock them. There are also numerous group lessons in La Viruta that are taught by young by very good dancers and many more. Or Tango Milonguero school by Maria and Suzanna.
So yes, porteños have a lot more options to study tango even with their budget, much more options than us who live US (even taking into account great visiting instructor, festivals and such). And what is no less important, they can go to milongas and watch good dancers and it is very important part of education. People do learn by watching and they get inspiration from seeing good dancers. How often you get inspired watching people in Seattle or anywhere in the US…. not often – you opt for youtube. Well, then porteños do not necessary need youtube, because they can find Julio & Corina at Nino Bien or Tete at El Beso.
The other thing that you say about porteño way of dancing – from the heart – it is very true though. It comes from the love of music, from culture, from watching other people dance like this or from just being porteños. And when I think what made Julio, Javier, etc. such good dancers – I think it is the combinations of cool steps and a porteño way of dancing.
I wish someone would teach a class here “learn to dance like a true porteño”
. Of course it is not possible and I am joking, but it is sad when Julio and Corina come to US with workshops and performances and perhaps very few people realize that what they see is more then just a cool sequence of steps executed with good technique. And what we can do to make more people here appreciate tango from the heart… I do not know.
Hi Anton, first of all, that was nicely said about Julio and Corina.
I’m sure that there are a lot of affordable options for tango-dancing portenos who have a genuine interest in improving technique, etc., but my point is that for a lot of the people I happened to see and meet in the milongas, that side of it just wasn’t as important. The men went to dance WITH THE WOMEN. Not to lead ochos or sacadas as well as they could, but to DANCE. To connect.
People go out dancing to go out dancing, or they go to see friends, meet women, whatever. It’s a social thing, and a cultural thing. In this post I was venting that I think it’s rude for people from other countries to go down there and demand excellence or be insulted if someone happens to not be into taking lessons.
Elizabeth said something really nice in a recent blog entry:
“Life is so full of challenges. How to keep the money coming in, how to be good at our studies, our careers, all of the hoops we have to jump through. Be responsible, do well, achieve. I do want to be “good” at tango, but what does that mean? Some people who have visited Buenos Aires express surprise that everyone there is not a great dancer. Why should they be? They dance for fun, for a night out when they can. It is a way to go on a date, or to find love, or to have a really good time.”
The whole entry is here:
http://elizabethbrinton.blogspot.com/2007/12/other-part-of-tango.html
Dear Anton,
Yes porteños can find affordable lessons…but the thing is, when it comes to feeding your family right now or taking lessons…food and keeping a roof over your head comes first.
Come try living here for a month on the average wage of 1200 pesos, take lessons, pay your rent, transit food etc….
then please tell me where your priorities would be.
That’s precisely it. 1200 pesos a month = US$400 a month. Think of it that way, all you people up here in the States.
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I am just curious, where does Geraldine teach in Bs As. I am going there this month and for the life of me can’t find where she teaches on the web. thanks!!!
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