The tango lesson

Damn, but that was fun! In case any of you have not yet danced the tango, then get up off your lazy butts and do so right now. It's wonderful. The lesson on Saturday was so much fun, that Sally and I (plus a friend of hers) went off to a milonga (tango dance-hall) that night for a few more hours' of dancing. (They are dancing in yet another milonga as I write, but I have to get up early tomorrow for work and must still write a discussion paper for the meeting.)

I enjoyed it so much, that I immediately signed up for the follow-up course next weekend - even though I must attend a birthday party on Saturday evening. So I will take the train there, dance, take the train back, party, take the train there again Sunday morning, dance some more, then take the train back on Monday morning after another milonga session.

It must be love.

The tango is not like other "standard" dances: there are traditional steps and sequences of moves, but these are merely a list of possibilities; each individual dance is an improvisation, and each dancing pair is doing entirely different steps. It's all about communication and body awareness (your own and your partner's); and the better you communicate, the better you will both dance. The proof of this is to watch a woman dancing with her eyes closed: she doesn't know what her partner will (wish her to) do, but is confident that he knows where she is and will signal her what to do next.

I danced quite well (for a raw beginner) with Sally and with a very lovely young woman whom we shall call Giselle (she will be recurring in these pages, we arranged to meet at next Sunday's milonga), and very poorly indeed with two nameless women who refused to be led but insisted on going through the learned routine at the standard pace. I loved being partnered with Giselle, who is a wonderful dancer: smooth, flowing, soft, very aware of herself and of her partner, always on balance and on the correct foot, with perfectly erect posture; all was explained when she said that she also danced ballet. I am so looking forward to dancing with her again.

In other news, my digital camera died this morning: its snout (lens) is jammed halfway out and the display says "System error". Damn and blast.

Snow

Winter is here, almost. The first snow fell this afternoon, but it was still too warm for it to settle.

In other news, I am off to learn to dance the Tango this weekend with Sally and Charly. Wish me well (the expression "break a leg" is probably not appropriate).