All Tango-ed Up

Not the best picture of me ever or anything, but I'm proud of it because it's of my first tango lesson.

Oh my word. I have a new obsession. I am addicted to tango.

I swore I'd never be able to tango. This was based on a humiliating tango lesson during my time living in Buenos Aires—I'd just come from Mexico where I'd finally become a really pretty good salsa/merengue/bachata dancer and I foolishly assumed that the prowess I finally showed for those dances would come through in tango. I was so dead wrong. My partner actually left me on the dance floor partnerless visibly frustrated with my clumsiness. Part of my problem is that I kept pulling away from him as I felt he was skeevily pressing me to him (erm, it's called close-embrace tango...he wasn't skeevy, he was right). I swore off the art then and there and was almost in tears as I sat alone at my table and changed back into my street shoes.

Well, a couple weeks ago I'd left behind my credit card at Sur Tango's salsa night and returned for it Friday evening after first friday art galleries. I grabbed the card, and made to leave but I was mesmerized by the dancers. Cheek to cheek they glided across the floor perfectly mirroring each other, but their feet made rapid, fluid movements that belied their relaxed, unmovable frames above the waist. The girls curled their lovely legs around the men and the men returned the favor by bending her back elegantly. I sighed and was almost out the door when I bumped into a dancer friend who insisted I participate. Despite my (I thought) firm protests, he slipped my purse off my shoulder, firmly backed me onto the dance floor and drew me into his frame so a lesson could begin. He was brilliant and made the movements very doable. I've been going to lessons since and have been loving every second of it, even the awkward ones when I step on or kick my partner during a "castigada".

I honestly didn't think I'd love anything more than salsa and tango still ties with bachata but tango has stolen my heart. I fantasize about it all day at work and look forward to putting on a dress, my suede-soled shoes, and plastering my hair up for an evening of lessons three days a week.

So far I can do the "parada", "carousel", "castigada", front and back "ochos", "bolero", and "hook". It's the leading into these moves I still have trouble following but I'll get there.

Try tango. So far, the best part of all of this is the amazingingly friendly and accepting tango community in Lincoln. They are so eager for me to catch on that they never let me sit out a dance and are patiently giving me tips which I soak up as much as possible.

When I grow up, I want to be a tanguera.

Thanks for indulging this post, I know it's pretty focused on me, me, me but I am just bursting with enthusiasm over this.