It feels like we arrived only yesterday; it feels like we’ve been here forever. It feels like milongas are the real world, and London is some kind of vague dream.
Forever is also about the time it will take me to integrate everything I’ve learned here, both in lessons and from dancing in all those milongas – but let’s at least make a start …
Continue reading Twenty-five milongas in twelve days: lessons from Buenos Aires
My third and final private was another with Laura, and it was an absolutely amazing one! Half of it was devoted to technique, the other half to more simple tools for use in crowded milongas and to give me more options for expressing the music.
We worked on the first step of the walk, aiming to get a vertical diagonal feel to it – pushing down into the floor with the standing foot while creating a rising sensation in the chest. Laura also had me try the Argentine style position with my left hand …
Continue reading An amazing private, a lovely dinner and two last milongas
My plan for the day was simple: work in the morning, a 90-minute private in the afternoon, a suit fitting, the first hour of a milonga in the evening and in bed by midnight.
Some of that happened …
Getting out of bed at 7am was again difficult. Well, impossible, I guess, as I didn’t. I had a rather abbreviated breakfast before work.
The afternoon got off to a good start when Steph was late returning to the hotel room for her private with Laura Heredia. Hearing that last night’s milonga was disappointing, Laura declared that we needed to fix this with a lovely dance. Which we indeed did, finishing it just as Steph arrived …
As is usual this week, I had work in the morning. Getting up at 7am is never pleasant in my world, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday thanks to me exercising restraint where milongas were concerned.
After work, it was time for my second Spanish pronunciation lesson, dealing with the rest of the consonants …
No, don’t worry, I don’t mean I caused another diplomatic incident, this time by mispronouncing something, I mean I actually took a lesson in Spanish pronunciation …
Continue reading A lesson in Spanish pronunciation, and Misteriosa Milonga
Most of my lessons are very technique-focused. The great thing about those is that a small detail can make a massive difference to the experience you give to a follower. The downside, however, is that because you’re always revisiting the basics, it can make you feel like you’re starting all over again.
Today, I went from feeling like starting again from first principles to feeling like a tango god …
Continue reading From tango lesson to feeling like a tango god in three easy steps
Steph’s original plan had been to attend a performance at La Catedral (above) at 9pm, eating there before dancing in the Milonga from 11pm.
I’d be back not long after eight, so the plan did seem feasible. However, a certain person was still lazing around in bed when it was time to leave, so we instead headed there for 11pm …
Continue reading La Catedral and El Tacuari: not much dancing, but there was applause
I got as far as the hotel lobby then had to go back upstairs for my sunglasses; seems I’d forgotten what it was like to leave the hotel in daylight.
I’d originally planned to go to La Maria Rolera to see how it compared to its sister milonga on Tuesday, but Diego was insistent I had to go to the DNI practica, and I’m certainly not going to argue with his recommendations.
I did, though, manage to go to both …
Continue reading A relaxed afternoon at the DNI Practica and La Maria Rolera milonga
You’ll have to excuse the blobby photos from milongas. I’m really trying not to take photos this trip. Instead, I’m shooting very short video clips with my phone, and will then edit them into maybe a 5-10 minute overview of the whole trip. This means most of my photos are in fact screengrabs from video, thus not the greatest quality.
The daytime part of the blog is rather brief. We had breakfast in bed, then I lazed (apart from accidentally writing a blog post) while Steph went shoe-shopping for some very nice women’s leading shoes before visiting her Spanish teacher.
I made up for this laziness in the evening, managing one-and-a-bit classes and three milongas …
Continue reading Patio de Tango, La Viruta and a magical evening at Salon Canning
journey of a trainee tanguero 
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