I know I've posted a lot today, but I did a lot. I'm trying to focus each post a little more rather than have each one be a summary of everything I did.
Today after the trauma of the stolen purse in La Continental, I had time to kill before my tango lesson with Marcelo. I was still shaken up and thought maybe I'd see the robber. I walked down Corrientes a little. Corrientes reminds me of midtown Manhatten or Broadway. There are lots of theaters and it has a very New York feel - busy, energetic, lots of billboards and flashing lights.
I looked in some shop windows, bought an alfajore, and stopped at a newsstand to get a copy of Newsweek Argentina so I could read the articles Juliana gave me yesterday but also read some of the other articles, like the one about Obama. I wanted to see what they had to say.
As I was at the newsstand, a march of students came rumbling through. One of them had a drum and there were some older people with them. One of them handed me a flier. Just glancing at it, it said that they had taken their school due to the cancellation of scholarships by Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires. I need to read the whole flyer to see what is really going on, but this was an interesting thing. If I got it right, these students have taken over their school in the same way the factory workers took over their factories. It's like people are demanding to be able to work and study no matter what anyone else says. Kind of incredible.
Well, anyway, once the protesters cleared, it was 1:30 and time for my lesson.
I met Marcelo in the studio and told him I wanted to lead. He started me off with the 8-count basic. Only his way of counting was different from every other teacher I've ever had. For him my 2 was 1, and my 3 was 2, etc. It was very confusing. He also followed a certain rhythm that I was not used to - it was kind of like 1,2,3,4 and 5,6 and 7, 8, or something like that. I kept getting messed up with the rhythm. But not only that. The hold, leading with my torso, putting my leg out before I shifted my weight, using my arm to signal when to stop, etc., etc. It was REALLY frustrating and difficult.
He reminded me of a Spanish teacher, Antonio, that I had in Philadelphia who used an audio-lingual method that was developed for the CIA or something like that (I think it was the FSA, whatever that was). The belief was that mistakes needed to be corrected immediately, so that they would not become permanent. Every time I made a mistake he corrected me - immediately. This is one of the reasons why I have a hard time becoming fluent in Spanish. I was so traumatized by this constant correction that I am afraid to put more than three words together (I'm kind of exaggerating here).
Well, Marcelo was like Antonio. Each time I messed up, he would stop and correct me and then explain why it was wrong and sometimes lead me to show me how I should have done it. The thing was that I often knew I messed up and I knew why, it was just that the steps and the rhythm had not gotten into my muscle memory yet and I just needed to keep repeating it. It didn't help me to have him explain what the problem was because that was speaking to my mind. It didn't help me to have him show me as a follower (with him leading) because I was doing the opposite of what I needed to do. I just needed to do the steps again and again and get it internalized.
Well, that didn't happen.
But, we moved on. He added a few more steps - ochos, and some kind of quick forward, back and cross step thing (I think it has a name). And then we moved on to milonga, which is faster and has a more even rhythm. Milonga was actually easier because each step was on 1 beat and I didn't have to worry about half beats or anything like that.
After a few attempts at me leading him, I knew our time was almost up, I asked him to lead me. I thought it would be good to feel all of this as a follower, and also I wanted to feel like I had danced. One of the things I love the most about lessons with Marcelo is when we actually dance. Because he repeats the same steps, I really begin to feel like I am dancing. And so we did.
We danced two milongas and then he put on a Valz. Valz, is tango to a waltz rhythm. I love Valz most of all (as a follower). It is very Jane Austin, and I think very romantic. The music is beautiful.
Here is another You Tube video, this time of a Vals. (it has different spellings, Vals, Valz or Waltz). This is a home shot video of a couple at a milonga. I like that is just a regular guy (well, sort of) and not some competition or show. Beautiful. I'm not quite there yet.
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