My first international tango friend That afternoon I attended a class called 'Destructuring the structured' by Guillermo Barrionuevo & Mariela Sametband. I came solo. Still a bit down after that 'All levels' class, I was hoping to find somebody nice and not too advanced for my level. There were a couple of followers there who also came solo. I hooked up with an elderly lady. We had our warm-up dance. It wasn't bad. She was nice. The class was useful and not too demanding. I could follow quite easily. We took the basic milonga 'square' pattern and played inside that. I enjoyed it. My self-confidence was restored. I even had a little dance with Mariela. She was gorgeous to be in an embrace with. Maybe I did belong in this world. In the next exercise we were grouped into 4 couples, all doing the same walking in the shape of a diamond, switching position with the couple in front of us. It was not an easy one, but my partner and I managed quite well. Then there was some unusual commotion, involving one tall guy. My partner walked over to see what was going on. A petite Asian lady approached me. She told me her partner, the tall guy whom she just met here at the workshop, claimed he could not work with her. Before I knew it, I had a new partner. My former one volunteered to become partners with the demanding tall guy. »Ning,« the petite lady introduced herself. She had been dancing for two years. She was a quick learner, very friendly and had a great sense of humour. Ning referred to her body as a 'she,' whereas her mind was a 'he.' I hadn't heard of such a thing as a mind having a gender. I liked the idea. During the class Ning said it was a relief to work with me. She was surprised to learn that I had only been dancing tango for 5 months. She guessed I had to have some background in either dance or some other movement method. I was touched and the 'all levels' wound finally healed. At the end of the class, Ning and I promised each other a dance at the evening milonga. We hugged and went our separate ways. I was happy! Being a good partner to someone made me feel good about myself. She would became my first international tango friend. How cool is that? Double pool-side tanda On the wings of a good class I had just attended and a new friendship, my feet were light to take me to the afternoon pool milonga. It was of course heavily crowded. But I decided I wouldn't mind. I would just do a little of my evolving 'inner tango' and an occasional step. It was hot as hell. I treated myself to some mojito to cool off. Then went for a swim. After the swim, I could feel that the plaster I had on my toe thumb peeled off. // if you are reading this while having a snack, you should stop with either one activity Three months ago I had an unusually stupid accident which involved myself and stupidity. We had a class with Goran (contact impro) and were doing some backwards running game. I somehow managed to nearly peel off the nail on my toe thumb with the heel of the other foot. The pain was excrushiating and there was no one to yell at. Anyway. The nail first became blue, then violet, then green, then black. And now it was barely hanging on. I did not dare to pull it off, so I used a plaster to tie it back onto my toe. Except now I didn't have any fresh plaster to patch me up. It's not easy being an android, you see. // it is now safe to resume eating Approaching the dance floor, barefoot, Barbara R. caught my mirada. We embraced and immersed ourselves into ourselves and the polenta (sl. corn meal) of dancers. It felt like being inside a womb with many brothers and sisters around. I did not know them personally. I didn't even know their names. Just like in the womb; you may have a twin sibling, but the relationship of 9 months is not personal. Just intimate. I dared to close my eyes and focus on the embrace and connection. Surprisingly my choreography did not suffer from this shift of focus. We made an occasional cross here and there and even some back ochos. I was sweating heavily. We all were. Moving in such close proximity, butt bumps being a regular form of greeting one's neighbours, it was not always easy to claim ownership of every drop of sweat. It didn't even bother me. Nothing could bother the one who is in the womb. // you are again advised to stop eating Like a spear through a crisp morning air, a sudden pain struck me. Barbara's foot came too close to mine and swiped across my thumb toe. I bit my lip. I held my breath to prevent myself from screaming. I was screaming on the inside, like a good yogi should. I did not stop dancing nor did I dare to look down. Fourth song of the tanda was over. I took the opportunity and took a look at my foot. What before was black was now pink. The unfortunate nail was gone. I looked around the crowded dance floor. I realized quickly the search for my nail would be futile. I just gave my nail for tango. Such bravery! // now safe to finish your meal I hugged Barbara and thanked her for the lovely tanda. And then, instead of a cortina, DJ Janja Frank played another tango song. Barbara looked puzzled. I raised my eyebrow but raised no questions. We decided in silence to stay on the dancefloor for the fifth song. But that wasn't the end of the tanda. Sixth song followed and then seventh and finally eighth. Janja played a double-tanda. I confess I did run out of moves and inspiration and just generally energy to dance for two tandas straight. Afterall, that does add up to 25 minutes of leading and listening. Upon exiting the dance floor I returned to my mojito. I sat down, as if I expected something would dawn on me. It really did. I remembered myself from a couple of months ago. Back then I found it impossible to imagine, how does one manage to dance for an entire tanda. So I had set a goal: "to be able to dance for the entire tanda using only basic tango steps." Now I had just danced two full-lenght tandas! Not only did I survive, I enjoyed it! And the best thing was Barbara showed no signs of discomfort or boredom (no, she's not an actress). I felt like I was quietly accepted by the tango gods. Nibbling on my mojito straw I looked around. It seemed nobody else noticed the work of the gods taking place right there and then. Heaven was a busy place. The Konzum incident When the pool milonga ended, I was at peace. Sanja, Agnieszka and Marko found me sitting by the pool. It was time to go hunt for dinner. And what better place than the local supermarket! On our way there I was the chatty one, explaining in detail about the class I had had earlier and my toe nail sacrifice. Inside the supermarket, each of us got a part of the shopping list. We were starving. We spread out to get the ingredients. Time was of essence! Some ten minutes later, we met at the yogurt department. These guys loved Croatian yogurt! They went for the family packaging. I did not care about yogurt. I wanted to show them the sequence I had learned from Guillermo & Mariela! I did the sequence solo first. I struggled. It was not hard, choreographyically speaking. It just demanded a high level of technical skill, the pivoting and balance. For example: the leader leads her into a side-step, while pivoting himself and following her with a back ocho. I tried it a couple of times with the girls. Marko tried it also. We decided it was a nice little toy, but perhaps I shouldn't bother myself with mastering it now. Agnieszka and I tried the sequence a couple more times. Some minutes later we looked around. Nobody was there, except for us and the endless array of yogurt. »Where have they gone,« Agnieszka asked. We only had to turn the corner to find our flat-mates. Down the aisle, they were dancing next to the alcoholic beverages shelf. Agnieszka sighed and raised her eyebrows: »We're a bit mental about this whole tango thing...« I agreed. As we approached our dancing friends, something unexpected happened: Marko led Sanja a boleo. Sanja's leg flew through the air with full force. I caught a glimpse of her flip flop just when her foot knocked down half a shelf of plastic beer bottles. Time slowed down as the bottles hit the ceramic floor. The bottles couldn't take the pressure of the fall. They popped open in foaming explosions. Beer hissing and screaming all over the place. It was glorious. A movie scene if I ever saw one. A spectacle. The dancing couple stopped on the spot as if they got shot. They stood inside the ring with raging beer. Marko put his hand over his mouth, trying to conceal the enthusiasm of a little boy who'd just done something wonderfully wrong. Sanja raised her arms and was walking around in circles. She tried to clean the mess by walking on it with her flip flops, which I found entertaining and adorable. »Wow, this is beautiful,« I exclaimed, but was quick to regain sense. I walked over to the cash registers, firmly pushing the floor away with my toes with each step, just as I had been trained to do. Especially in a case of emergency! I approached a cashier and briefly explained that an accident had just happened and it involved some beer with poor balance skills. I expected the lady would fuss about it. She didn't even look at me. She turned around, instructed her coworker and got back to her job. I shrugged my shoulders. Obviously accidents during the Poreč festival were common enough. I returned to the crime scene. The three of them stood helplessly as they watched the beer pond. The storm had passed. We counted the dead bottles lying on the floor. I tried to estimate how much this performans would cost us. A lady came over with cloth on a stick and before we knew it, the evidence was gone. The crime scene had vanished. We were criminals standing by a memory of what we had done. Since we had all the items from the shopping list, we walked over to the cash registers. I assumed we would be charged for the damaged goods. Not so. The lady didn't even mention it. We paid for the groceries and left. No one stopped us. Once outside, we laughed like crazy and felt great about ourselves. We loaded our getaway car and disappeared into the sun. ! All the other festival days (part 1) is part of The Poreč series. New and last episode coming soon !
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AuthorBlaz B, social tango dancer since February 2015. I'm sharing these posts to inspire future tango beginners, to encourage today's beginners and to possibly entertain those dancers, who have already become regulars at tango heaven.
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