Tango toes

I associate salsa with two things: trying to avoid gyrating Mexicans whose heads reached my boob level in Mexico in 2001 and treading on people's feet. I realise this is doing it a big disservice but for me, this is how it is. Whereas tango, in Simon's words, is perfectly summed up by, 'Que romantico!'

The December before last we were in Brussels visiting my friend Kate when we happened upon a small, 1930s-style, smoky, atmospheric bar at 1am which was full of tangoing couples. The graceful strides and the flicky leg moves impressed us enormously. We vowed to learn to tango when we visited Argentina. 

So to Buenos Aires, the home of tango. Two days in and we and Max were at our first tango lesson at Salon Canning, a traditional tango hall. Things got off to an unfortunate start when we arrived too late for the beginner's class and so joined in with the 'intermediate-expert'. All the ladies were wearing stiletto tango heels which I think may aid the near impossible angle that women's pelvis' are expected to assume for hours on end.The first key to tango is that the men are in charge and in total control. The women must follow their every move. We were off to a tricky start. I was out of my natural territory with this. I must sense when Simon is about to move and follow him. He goes forwards and I go backwards. This was not easy.  We trod on one another's feet and banged in to other couples and of course, I kept trying to lead. Then there is the posture, lean in and stride backwards in a graceful manner. 'Obey me'

We didn't master it but our two hour lesson was followed by a fascinating insight into tango in the city.  Our lesson finished at 11pm on a Tuesday evening and the tango hall, which had tables reserved all around the dancefloor filled with people of all ages dressed to the nines and ready for a tango boogie. We retired to the periphery to observe with a bottle of wine. A couple of hours later, all ages, from 20 to 80 years old, were still going strong. At 1.30am they retreated to their tables and we were subjected to a couple of awful slideshow-style videos of some old, former professional couples shuffling around the dancefloor in their twilight years. The evening was a homage to them. We were tempted to leave at this point but were glad we didn't when the professionals came to the dancefloor. The dances were graceful and incredibly complex. We appreciated it all the more after our own dismal efforts.

This is how it should be done. The video is pretty long, our video editing isn't working. The really fancy footwork starts about 2 minutes in.  

A few days later and we were back for more tango with the brilliantly enthusiastic Max as well as Erica and Anya at a contemporary tango hall in a converted wooden cathedral. After several hours more of lessons, which included partner changing a little too often, we concluded that tango for us was not coming naturally and perhaps we enjoy observing it more that participating in it. 

Tango is enjoying a renaissance in Buenos Aires, some dancing traditional tango, others funking it up a bit. I don't think its new found popularity was of a 'Strictly Come Dancing' tv-initiated nature, rather that tango never went away and more people are now realising what an important place it holds in the heart of this city.