Flashback: Dancing with a legend

It was spring or summer of 2003, back in my intermediate days of Tango. Every Tuesday there was a milonga at Mr. Lucky in Seattle. It was a kitchy place with a bad wine selection but was a perfect space for tango, nonetheless. Somehow Evan always manages to get the lighting just right at his milongas.

I was having a pretty good night, dancing with my favorite leaders, talking with friends, truly enjoying myself. Only something was off. There was an older, stout man with glasses staring at me. And staring and staring. It made me a little uncomfortable and I kept avoiding eye contact because I didn’t know who this man was. I’d never seen him before, so for all I knew he was just some guy who came in to check things out, for the sake of curiosity. I noticed that some people I knew who were well-established in Seattle’s tango community were talking to him, but I still just tried to ignore him.

Later in the night I was standing with my friend Gregory, watching the dance floor. I was trying to concentrate on watching the other follows’ footwork, but couldn’t shake that staring guy. “You know, that guy won’t stop staring at me, it’s weird.” I pointed him out and Gregory matter of factly replied, “Oh. that’s Cacho Dante. I think you should make eye contact with him. And then you should dance with him. He wants to invite you to dance.” “Cacho WHO?” was my blank response. “He’s a legend. Go dance with him.” I hadn’t yet learned the codes of inviting at a milonga so I didn’t realize that he’d been trying to catch my eye to invite me to dance. And I sure had no idea who this Cacho Dante character was, but okay. I took a sip of my tasteless red wine, looked back at him, and and he motioned with his head towards the dance floor. Well, okay… here goes.

And thus began a very intimate, subtle tanda with a very sensitive milonguero who knew just how to take care of me… my perspective on Tango was totally changed, and I resolved never to judge a book by its cover again.