Tango

Tango is a huge thing in Argentina. Anyone who first steps in must watch a Tango show. I haven’t been to those in the two mega theatres in Buenos Aires, but I’ve seen the dancers flit in and out at our dinners. 

Those. I wasn’t at all impressed. They were going through the motions of a paid performance for the night rather than genuinely dancing, or stepping well. Their facial expressions were fine, but the steps were not clean and sharp. The hand movements were not clear and decisive or soft and sensual, but half-hearted and not completed. And, the colors of the costumes were horrendously matched, and badly sewn. If they had passion for their craft, I didn’t see it. I’ve been enjoying the music more than the dancing. 

It’s annoying to see run-of-the-mill sub-par performances milking the tourist dollar at La Boca. Show ‘em some flesh, and the audience is hooked. There must be good tango dancers in Argentina of competition standard. But where are they?!! I was pointed to a dance studio in Buenos Aires which offers tango lessons, and also a shop selling dancing shoes. No tango can be done well without proper dancing shoes. So I bought a simple pair of heels.

I’m not very likely to go dancing in Singapore. The man doesn’t dance at all. Gaaaah. I took a two-hour refresher lesson. It was exhilarating. I’ve almost forgotten that I could dance. After hearing me mention about the poor standards at the tango shows, my dance instructor was highly amused and she took me to her favorite private dance club for a proper milonga. And woah, the good dancers were all there! None were professionals save for some anchor dancers to partner the paying customers. But the best are the ones who do it as a hobby. Very nice. But instructor sighed in disapproval at my short hair. She said long hair is much preferable to bring out the sensuality of tango. Duhhhhhh. What, can’t short hair be sensuous too?