Tango.

Beginning the first week in August, I began taking an Argentine Tango class series. I saw Argentine tango for the first time when I was in Argentina back in January. For the most part, people did it for tourists on the street and at shows, but there were also Milongas or dance parties at night, but I never went seeing that I didn’t know how to tango. Upon entering my first class, the first thing I noticed was how many faces looked familiar. About ¼ of the class looked familiar from other dance events I’d been at. I suppose I should have expected that people who dance may do more than one type of dance, but for some reason, I just didn’t think about it. Anyway, I got to my first class, and was surprised by who was teaching. The class is taught by a pair – neither of whom are Argentinian. The lead sounds like he’s from somewhere rural in the south, and the follow has a thick eastern European accent. But they seem to know what they’re doing, and I like their teaching style. Another thing I really like is that they seem like they enjoy dancing. Well, being the girl, my job (as it is in most dances) is to follow. While I think it’s easier to follow than to lead, many guys say the opposite. Basically, we have to figure out what the lead is attempting to do, and follow it. This dance is much more upright than swing dancing. Well, almost all dancing is a lot more upright, but since all I’ve really done in the past is swing, this is different.

I have been doing pretty well in the class learning the footwork and the basics of the dance. I can’t say how good I look doing it, but it feels OK. After the hour long session, there is an “advanced beginner” class that we have the option to stay for. It is essentially an extension of the beginner class with a few variations. They encourage you to stay for the second class, assuming you’re understanding the beginner class. This week (week #4), I didn’t want to stay for the second class because although I do get a few new moves out of it, they do an exercise at the beginning and end of the class that I really don’t enjoy too much, so I was going to blow it off this week. Meanwhile, at the same time as the advanced beginner class, there is an intermediate class going on at the same studio. After changing into my street shoes to leave the studio, my teacher stopped me and asked me to join the intermediate class as a follow. I asked him if he thought my 4 weeks of beginning knowledge would really be enough to jump in halfway into the intermediate class. He said he thought so, so I thought about it for about half a second and joined in. I of course didn’t know a lot of the moves they’d taught earlier in the semester, so I was a little behind, but I picked it up pretty fast, and really enjoyed the class. After it ended, I was so excited, I wanted to come to the class again next week. Let’s see if he lets me =). I spent the next half hour dancing with the teacher learning a few of the other steps I’d missed, and after 150 minutes of straight dancing, my feet hurt and it was time to go home. But I was excited and now of course even more likely to dance more tango in the future.