Dance around the world

The high standard of tango dancers at the 2006 International Tango Congress of New Zealand http://www.tangoenz.co.nz/ on Friday night was mesmerising.  The event itself reminded me of the faux pas I unwittingly made at my first ever Tango workshop some years ago at the Wellington based NZ Tango Festival http://www.nztangofestival.co.nz/intro.htm  Today's blog tells the story.

The beginners' workshop was about to start.  Some skilled dancers were already on the floor.   Across the room I spied a woman whom I thought I recognised.  As I wasn't certain, I kept looking at her closely from what I thought a safe distance.  The inevitable happened.  She looked at me and held my gaze long enough to accept my unintended signal.  Without hesitation and to my complete surprise, she seemed to bound across the room to dance. 

Explanations were given and accepted and the beginners' workshop started soon afterwards.   

Lots of tango etiquette information is available but this one provides a good explanation of 'cabeceo'.  http://tango.smoothouse.com/dance/Cabeceo 

When we go on the Dance Tours trip to Buenos Aries in April 2007, www.dancetours.co.nz if you don't already know, you will quickly learn many of the wonderful intricacies of tango and milonga culture so that the experience will be stunning and memorable.  If you are not yet convinced, try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sm2IRMQTTI  or this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKy7ITkcbEs&NR are you performing or watching?

Are you game enough to share your dancing faux pas on this blog?  They say it's healthy to laugh at yourself.

...with acknowledgement to Forrest Gump http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/quotes

Blog entries are supposed to be short.  Your comments don't have to be.  

... well if you are a lifelong learner you do.  Last night I met Michelle and Shane from www.jitterbugs.co.nz for the first time.  Michelle had already offered to display some of the Dance Tours posters www.dancetours.co.nz at Labour Weekend's 100%Pure Swing.  An email from Michelle invited all of us on her subscription list to join a four week class in Balboa which began last night.  I had never heard of Balboa so checking with my faithful www.google.com I was led to http://www.balboafeet.com/articles/balboa.php which features a stunning video clip.  Look at those feet move.  Is he on iceskates or what?  

By pure coincidence (even though there is no such thing) my class in Quickstep and Rhumba at www.johnyoungdance.co.nz finished at 8.00pm leaving me time to get to the Balboa class by 8.30pm.  

What a great group of enthusiastic and welcoming people. What surprised me was that there were more men than women, which in my experience happens less frequently than the converse.

The first thing that impressed me was that we were divided into leaders and followers not men and women.  This is not being PC, it is real.  I have attended a number of lessons where women have been learning the lead role.  How much more sensible to change our language to reflect this reality?  

Learning Balboa, I was reminded again of that great movie, www.taketheleadmovie.com where Antonio Banderas, acting as Pierre Dulaine, www.pierredulaine.com tells the school PTA that ballroom dancing is all about respect and trust.  The leader respects the partner and the follower trusts the leader.

There was a lot of respect and trust in our first Balboa lesson last night.  The moves are signalled through the upper chest which must be in contact with your partner's for that signal to be conveyed.  Although they may not read this, I want to thank my partners for their trust and hope that you felt equally treated with respect.  

At the end of the class Michelle invited us all to join her for a coffee and cake at the local cafe.  Most of us attended.

I think I could get into the Swing of things, but aren't I already over-committed to my dancing activities?  We'll see what happens by the end of four weeks of Balboa. 

Want to share what you learned today?

Chris
www.dancetours.co.nz