An evening at Carablanca

It sometimes happens on a not-too-crowded floor that the dancing is more perilous than on a crowded floor, and Carablanca was a bit like that last night. I give myself marks for not bumping anyone: it shouldn't ever happen, but what can you do when you lead a simple ocho cortado and bump the leader of the couple behind, who has his back to you? It just shouldn't happen. You're taught never to drive close to the car in front for good reason. Tangoandchaos has some excellent new pages on floorcraft, complete with diagrams: they explain general principles, and also show how the crowded floorspace in Buenos Aires is used. As I noticed when I was there, the 'lanes' aren't strictly observed: if a space opens up to the leader's left, he'll use it, then filter back into the line of dance. What it doesn't explain is how a practised dancer like “Tete” can, like a quantum particle, appear in different places apparently without passing through the space between them.

& there was a demonstration by Pablo Pugliese and Noel Strazza which, like most demonstrations, left me cold. No, not cold, just vaguely bored. A demonstration of... how not to dance? Ok, it had entertainment value as a stage act, but was it anything more? I can be/have been very moved watching older dancers dancing calmly, slowly, savouring every note of the music, responding with their whole bodies to the rise and fall of every phrase, dancing as part of the music, as if they found their whole life experience in the songs they danced to, with intimacy and complete attention to each other, and with consideration to other dancers dancing the same dance... That's tango.

I danced with a partner who said she's 'just a beginner'. I think she said that because she'd been persuaded by teachers like Pablo into thinking that tango = acrobatic display, that you aren't dancing tango well if you're not dancing wild kicks and dramatic turns. I enjoy dancing with partners who say they are 'just beginners' because I can lead simply, and check how clear my leading is, and because... well, because I enjoy dancing. So long as the lead/follow connection works well, it's good tango: for a few moments the separation between two people just dissolves in the music. That's tango, to me.

&, for the first time, someone came up to me and asked if I was tangocommuter. There has to be a first time.