On Argentine Tango

Last Friday my new friend Clara invited me to join her at a restaurant where she and a number of other people come together to dance Argentine tango.  She had told me before that tango was her passion and now I was going to be able to see her dance.

Of course, as the Spanish would have it, you don't want your dance activities to start too early.  We got to the restaurant about quarter to 11pm, which was still early judging by the empty place.  But people started pouring in around 11 and, without much ado, people got to dancing.

Here is a visual for you.  Picture any Hollywood movie staged around WWII, the place at a navy base, officers' ball.  Everyone dressed in their uniforms and the ladies in their evening dresses.  Officers smoking, all quite classy and the music is from 1930s.  Now just loose the uniforms and you have the picture...

Being an outsider and taking things in from a Canadian perspective, it was very interesting to see that: a) everyone wants to dance with a good dancer, so saying "no" quite openly is Ok (there goes our Canadian inclusiveness); b) I was told there are more women than men around, so men, especially the ones that are good dancers, are in high demand (not sure if that is a good thing, as it seemed the men had very little rest and opportunity to have an extra drink :); c) age truly does not matter - there were couples and singles anywhere from their twenties to dancers in their eighties!  And the best part of all, they rarely danced with their partners, rather they switched around to mix up the style and the tempo.

One couple who was there was Spanish professional dance couple, and they did look the part.  While, being a novice, I could not pick up the very intricacies of the dance, I certainly could tell the difference between the very good ones and the so so ones.  I also made a special note of the fact that women bring their dance shoes with massively high heels and men bring shoes that help them dance better on smooth surfaces.

Along with the variety of ages, people seem to mix with various socioeconomic classes.  For example, I sat with a couple, who were very well known neuro surgeon and neuro physician (I was told they were some of the best in Spain).  They were very pleasant, spoke good English and have been to Victoria and Vancouver.  Whenever I tell anyone about being from Canada and Victoria, they always say "oh, I would love to go to Canada, I hear it is very nice", which I readily confirm.  And then I do have to reinforce that in Spain they do have the best food and much cheaper wine :)

At about 1:20am I have to politely excuse myself as my still-Canadian-stamina obviously cannot keep up with the average 80-year-old, so I will need much practice on this.

Kisses on both cheeks, a few handshakes and I head back to my hotel. Very civilized, passionate and enlightening way to head into the weekend...