Wood Floors

This is a short tango thought. In Europe, throughout the UK, the Phillipeans, Japan, China, and North America specifically, you are more likely to dance on wood floors, mostly. And as such you’re going to be somewhat expectant that that’s what your experience will be like everywhere else in the world. This is not the case the world over. As time has gone by wood, which was an abundant resources has gotten expensive, and wood flooring … astronomically priced. And dance floors ? Ha! These are even more expensive to put in. It’s cheaper to lay down cement and put tile over it. Tile lasts forever. Wood ? Needs to be maintained.

The toy of choice for most dancers is a ‘SprungFloor! Which is a work of art, science, and pure magic. Sprung Floors are to dancers, what honey is to bees.  A ‘Sprung’ Floor is a dance floor that easily absorbs shocks, giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best available for dance, indoor sports, and physical education. They can easily enhance performance, and greatly reduce injuries on the feet, and most importantly, one’s knees!

Finding a Sprung Floor in the Tango world ? You’re at the mercy of the Milonga organizer.  You’ll get used to dancing on them very quickly, and come to expect them once you do. However, when you get to Buenos Aires, you’re going to be hit with a very real fact: Almost no wood floors! And a Sprung Floor ? Almost not. There are very few of them (left) to dance on. El Beso, Cachirulo (wood), DNI (wood over cement – top floor), El Yeite (wood over cement), Salon Canning (wood over cement), La Catedral (old sprung), Nuveo Chique, Griecel, La Nacional, La Leonesa , Los Laureles and a few others are the only places that have a wood floor. However, La Catedral’s wood floor isn’t exactly the safest thing on the planet. The floor has seen its better days. And quite possibly is a danger, so let the dancer beware. Salon Canning’s floor was redone a few years ago and is in better shape.

However what you’ll be presented with in Buenos Aires are Parque or Baldosa Tile floors to dance on. They’re hard, cement floors. So if you’re looking for this magical BsAs experience with wooden floors, not so much with that. Villa Malcolm, La Viruta, La Baldosa, etc…all Baldosa tiled floors!

Something to be aware of when dancing in BsAs it relates to the floors that you’re dancing on, and the time of year you’re going to go. If it’s the hot season (from Jan – Mar), when the rooms are insanely packed, and hot as the day is long from the heat outside, the TILED floors are going to be VERY slippery for a wide variety of reasons. Either the AC that’s running is running full blast and the floors are cold….or there’s so much sweat dripping going on that it quite literally ends up on the floor. So, as a result, you need to be aware of this little tiny factoid and be ready for it. As it will change how you turn, how you walk, and how stable you are. Ochos will be more difficult for both roles. The turns themselves will become far more challenging because of how slippery the floor is, especially for the dancer with suede on the bottoms of their shoes. The suede becomes impacted and needs to be cleaned out. So it’s a good idea to bring two things in your shoe bag if you haven’t thought of it yet. 1.) Talc Powder. and 2.) Shoe Brushes. Just sayin’. If it’s the cold season, you have no issues.

The Tango Topics Opinion. To dance on a hardwood floor or not to dance on a hardwood floor. That is the question. Whether it is nobler….ok enough bastardization of the bard. In North America and Western Europe, and perhaps the Russian Federation there is the luxury, and it is a luxury to dance on a hardwood floor. Pine, Oak, Beach….it’s almost a dream. And a SPRUNG dance floor ? Good lord, it’s like coming home. However, the rest of the world doesn’t even consider that an option. It’s just not on their radar, nor do they care. There’s a reason for that. Stone is cheaper than hardwoods to put in. So in other words, if you’re planning on visiting somewhere else in the world, aside from BsAs, expect to dance on hard surface.

Dancing in Buenos Aires on a hardwood floor ? Just get that little thought out of your head. There are very few of those spaces left in BsAs. Even the vaunted Salon Canning changed their dance floor to a parque baldosa tile floor a few years back because it was easier to maintain than the hardwood floor that they had previously. 🙂 So….sadly friends, the fantasy must die…right here. 🙁

MORE REMINDERS

Follower Bashing

All too often a good portion of Followers get the short end of the stick as it were. They’re blamed for missing this or that, not having enough resistance (a major no-no), not pushing, not leaning enough (false apilodo another major no-no), not stepping in the right place, not keeping up with the lead, etc. They’re blamed for a host of things from walking, to musical interpretation. After a while they develop a complex of just taking responsibility for almost everything that happens that isn’t desirable in the dance, instead of the Lead taking rightful responsibility for what’s been led! This is known as ‘Bashing The Follower’.

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Magical Improvement

“She’s not magically going to improve just because you ‘show’ her what she’s supposed to do at that moment.” To make this non gender specific, because this axiom applies to both genders, and both roles. As well as teachers and students. Some teachers know this truth, some teachers learn it the hard way. Clarity: The – “supposed to do” part above. This idea frequently occurs where you have a male Lead that has an expectation of X being followed properly, where X is Traveling Ochos, Volcada, Milonguero Turn, etc. And when it doesn’t they stop their dancing and then show the Follower what was intended. And here’s the magical part, they keep showing them, hoping that it will change the Follower’s behavior and frequently it doesn’t.

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Tango Cities

Today’s Tango Thought covers a labor of Tantalus … where is Tango danced and in what cities ? What follows is by no means an exhaustive list of places where tango is danced, it only scratches the surface.

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Where’s The Fun ?

Believe it or not, the ‘fun’ part is everywhere. You are focused on just the outcome of the dancing part. The immediate hit that you get from dancing. But what if you found out that you’re only scratching the surface with Tango. What if you discovered that you’re missing a very important aspect that not only can change the dance from what it is today for you but for it to go far deeper than you ever imagined. What if you found out that the drive to be better is not only a requirement, but it’s the gateway to dancing with better and better partners that you only dream of dancing with but can do because you changed your perspective a bit ?

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The Taxi Dancer Paradox

The Taxi Dancer Paradox is that hiring or being one creates an undesirable social stigma and yet at the same time is actually a very practical, if not entirely reasonable resource to have available to solve the ‘waiting’ for a dance problem.

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Moscow For Leads

There’s a row of women sitting in Moscow (usually several rows deep actually). Only these rows…are every Lead’s fantasy! Yup. Truth. Let’s get something straight. The food is awful. It’s usually effing cold anytime after september and before june. Getting in an out of Moscow (Russia) isn’t exactly a piece of cake (for an American), there are hoops to jump through (read that as VISA issues). It is not exactly cheap. And there is rampant crime in ways you can’t even begin to imagine.

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More Classes

At some point along the curve of your tango life, continuing to take classes seems like a really stupid idea. You’ve learned everything you need to know to get around the floor. Practice isn’t really that important any longer. And going to Milongas is really the important part, so who needs to practice ?

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Giving Feedback

This is probably one the most important things in Argentine Tango that you can do for yourself and the people that you dance with. Giving constructive, clear, concise, clean, direct, and most of all, honest feedback. It is what is required. While feedback is subjective, it is not personal, it’s what is going on for you in the construct of the dance, the walk, the embrace, and how someone moves in relation to you.

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Keep something in the back of your mind: What you’re seeing in a youtube video is a couple that is performing for the 15th row for a room full of people. They’re not social dancingWhereas this website is all about ‘Social Tango’  or how to make things function on a social dance floor. Social Dance floor ? Your local milonga! They are showing you flashy moves as a presentation, to show off! But not stopping and talking about how this works which is what you need to see. This website and all of it’s content show you the how and  why you’d want to put that piece of vocabulary there, or how to make things work. This website is all about those things and more!

You could watch Tango YouTube videos and thereby spend your time, trying to infer, and figure out how things may work in that particular situation. Bend your body this way or that, twist and force this position or that. Place your foot here or there and figure it out. This is known as Tango Twister.  Which can be a lot of fun, but more than likely it won’t help you, because you’re missing something: The explanation from an experienced teacher showing you how to properly excute this stuff from a Leading Perspective as well as from a Following Perspective!

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