I had a tango lesson with Marcelo tonight at 7 p.m. in the studio he rents at Callao and Corrientes. I left here around 6:30 and walked down Callao, which I don't normally do because it is a pretty busy street and I hate walking next to so much traffic. But being the weekend, traffic is quite a bit lighter, and Callao is a wide street with lots of sidewalk space and some very beautiful buildings.
It was a glorious evening. Warm, and the sun was just setting casting a pinkish hue on all of the beautiful old buildings lining Callao. One building had a kind of tower on top with lights inside and it looked spectacular against the darkening sky with the remants of the pink from the sunset.
I arrived in time to grab a quick slice of pizza at La Continental. It is much cheaper when you stand, I think it might have been 2 pesos less than if I got my pizza sitting down.
I took my time going to the studio because Marcelo has been running late, and I also wanted my lesson to be a little less than an hour, since an hour of private lessons is VERY intense at my level.
When I climbed the winding marble staircase to the first floor (remember the ground floor is zero), there were a bunch of people standing in the hallway, including Marcelo. In the entry to the place where people rent studio space was a young woman lying on the floor and people surrounding her. They had her legs raised, and she was conscious. Now I understood why when I buzzed to enter, they buzzed me in immediately (usually I have to identify myself somehow).
Marcelo and I chatted for a bit, how are you kind of stuff, while we waited for them to move this girl. Then some guys in uniforms came, I guess paramedics. The put her in a regular chair, and then slid the chair out into the hallway and loaded her on to the elevator. The elevator started beeping loudly as they were loading her on, I guess because it was open too long. It was quite a scene. It kind of reminded me of the chaos of my arabic class.
We entered the door and our studio space was clearing out. It was like there were a hundred people in there (probably 10-15). It's a small space and outside of the dance studio is a small desk area. People kept filing out of the dance studio into the desk area where we were standing right inside the door and there was just no room for anyone to go anymore. Finally, Marcelo and I entered the dance studio which smelled of very sweaty bodies. Hundreds of them.
I had been practicing the basic step as Marcelo taught me yesterday, his 1 being my 2, and the little rhythm that he uses. I practiced last night and again this morning, knowing that learning takes place best if you retrace whatever it is that you want to learn before sleep and immediately after waking up. It helped. Only Marcelo didn't compliment me on my improvement. He found more things for me to work on. It's actually very good that he is picking on every little thing. If my lead isn't strong enough, or I'm not in time with the music, or I'm not clear about where we are going, or I miss a step, whatever, he corrected me immediately. Sometimes it was frustrating because I was really trying, but in the end, I really appreciated all of his corrections because it was making me a better dancer. I think I did a terrific job even though he didn't say so.
We danced several songs with me leading, and he had me play a little with the rhythm, sometimes pausing, sometimes going faster, and then throwing in some other steps like this fancy little stop thing he taught me and some ochos. I was feeling more confident than yesterday, even though I still feel like I'm riding a bike with training wheels.
When I saw we had about 5 minutes left, I asked him to lead me. This is my favorite part, and as I follower with him I feel like I have really improved and like I can dance. He keeps his steps simple and his lead is VERY strong and clear, but he also changed things up a lot and I only stumbled a few times. I imagined us dancing at a milonga and me looking like I knew what I was doing. I'm excited about going next week.
We danced one tango and then a milonga and then he told me to lead him to a milonga, which I did. It was tough and he made me do it to another song. I was hoping we'd have time for him to lead me in a Vals, but I think he really wants me to focus on leading. He told me that when I go to the class tomorrow with Hernan, I need to lead. I'm going to follow, because I think it is really good to feel the way people lead here. I have noticed that with Marcelo and with Hernan, their hand that goes behind my back does a lot of the steering. I never learned to use that hand before now. It makes such a difference. I found it hard to do with Marcelo, but now that I am aware of it, it is something I am going to focus on when I return to the regular tango classes at the Escuela Argentina de Tango on Monday.
As we left the building we encountered a protest going down Corrientes. This must be a major protest route as it ends up at the Obelisk. I'm not sure what the protest was, but there were people banging drums and lots of people with flags and some with pictures of people.
It was a beautiful walk back to Santa Fe towards home. I decided to stop for a small pizza and a beer for dinner (it was only 8:30, so still early for a real dinner), then I got a very small ice cream (this one will have to count for the coming week), and went to a bookstore to see if I could find a book to learn how to write in Arabic.
Mario texted me and seemed like he wanted to meet but he didn't respond when I told him I was on my way home. I'm afraid he is going to text me at 11 pm like he did last week. I don't know if I will ever adjust to the crazy hours that people keep here, but it seems like weekends you are considered to be certifiable if you go to bed before 2 a.m. I guess I'm crazy because I don't think I am going to make it to midnight.
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