Tango Men

I’m going to take Tango lessons in Tuesday nights intermediate class. I was happy that the instructor said I could join this class even though I’m a beginner. I decided to try and see if I could keep up in there -- I’d rather dance with more experienced leaders -- it’s easier on me physically. The only thing I dread is that several guys for a while have been asking me to come out to practica on Tuesdays as well. I worry they will see me there and want me to stay and dance.

Actually I’d planned on going and practicing with one really great dancer but I decided to take classes instead just to see how I liked that first.

Of course now I have this dilemma in dealing with some of these other guys. It’s not horrible, but if I had it my way I’d rather not be shown how to dance by any of these others. There is one fellow I definitely need to avoid, he dances only close embrace. Augh, he says I’m doing everything wrong and wants to fix me and can’t wait to see me at a practica so he can straighten me out. I find it very limiting, his style of dancing, I want to move in and out of close embrace not be stuck there permanently.

A funny side note to that is at the time this dancer told me he wanted to fix me, we were at a Friday dance. The guy running the dance was sitting there setting up music and was watching us. Later he took me out on the floor and told me not to let that other guy teach me to dance. It was very fun dancing with this man. We danced some very fast Tangos, I was dizzy we were moving so fast, he rocks -- it was awesome. I got his point.

Each Tango guy has a different style it seems and each has a different way they want me to dance. I am beginning to put them in categories. So far I have the Tango Purists who feel that everything should be done as it is being done in Argentina. They strictly adhere to close embrace dancing.

Then there are the Sophisticates who move in and out between open and closed embrace. They are dancers that tend to have a more “ball room” style approach to Tango. They are very beautiful and elegant dancers but they can be snobby.

There are also the Contemporaries that have more free form movements and where perhaps (I’m only guessing here) experimenting is allowable. I see them mostly dancing open embrace. This group seems to keep to itself more then some of the others.

Where do I fit in? Well I disappointed myself. I am most happy when I belong to no one group. I like to freely move in and out of circles being able to fit in where ever and not be stuck in any one click. But I definitely gravitated towards the second group. I am simply more comfortable there with that style of dancing. Oh dear will I now be known as a Tango snob?

One night I danced with a guy visiting from Tampa. He was a charming professor of art history and had a most unique style. He definitely fell within the categories of a ballroom dancer with deep lunges and cross steps. What else could I do but follow his lead and mirror his moves. I matched his lunges low to the floor, at one point I found myself close and leaning into him as he lowered me into a carpa. His body trembled, holding me low. I was dangerously close to brushing his neck with my lips. I thought of how delightfully salty his sweat must taste! And as the tempo of the music changed he lifted me and we tore up the floor, sweeping and lunging again.

This was the second dance I’d ever been to dancing Tango. Man was that heady stuff. These Tango guys, oh baby! It was like my very first experience with Tango. The man had me mesmerized. I can be a bit pushy on the dance floor but instead here was this man saying, “don’t think, just let me put you there”. He had demanded my attention. I became so absorbed with just reacting that it became a very intense thing for me. This guy’s confidence and manner were most alluring.

He had me laughing, he was such a flirt! I could see that he loved using the mirrors to take a good look at me each time we passed by. He had put me “in the zone”. The zone is a term I use to describe when I’m working my herding dogs on livestock. It’s a feeling of pressure and connection. A cause and effect that is produced between two energetic bodies. In this case quite a sizzling connection.