sunnuntai 16. maaliskuuta 2014

On the importance of milongas

Wow, what a nice Sunday milonga we had! As one friend said, there seems to be a market for Sunday milongas!!! Nice to see new dancers, beginners, babies, all coming together for a lovely Sunday social event!
I have been thinking of how important it is to go to milongas when you want to learn to dance Argentine tango. In a milonga you have the chance to dance with many different people, and with the people you want to dance with. You get to meet people with different dancing experience and style, and you also get to dance with more experienced dancers. More experienced dancers take you to a level where you can never go just alone and not just by practicing. 
Our goal as teachers is to help people to become great social dancers. We want everybody to enjoy dancing. To be able to dance with everybody. To really lead and follow, to dance the way you like, and take into account the common rules and codes that give Argentine tango its special character. To listen to the music, and to learn to move to it. In every class, we want to create a learning environment for exploring different aspects of social tango. 
In a milonga we can enjoy a lovely mix of danceable tango music, milonga and vals. The old rule for dancing in a milonga is to do only the steps you really know (I think this is especially important for the man's role). We can learn to use the steps we know in a comfortable way, and we learn to improvise new combinations in a real live environment. In a class we can never practice all the possible combinations that we need on the dance floor. And we all have to find on our own the most natural way of moving. When we use the most simple steps we can, we give space to feelings - physical and emotional feelings. Like the great dancer and teacher, Diego "El Pajaro" Riemer said: "Tango cannot be taught. You learn it."

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