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.

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

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.

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!