I did not expect to return till 2004 but life throws you a curved ball every now and again and here I am in BsAs in May 2003 seven/eight months ahead of what I had an idea for. In my other life I worked in film sound post production, there is very little work of this nature in Ireland at the moment and so on the 4th March I was made redundant. Naturally enough my first thought was Buenos Aires and Tango. So here I am. I arrived at 9:30am on May 29th I am not sure when I return home. My return ticket is valid for one year so that is my goal. Study and dance Tango as intensly as my first visit, return home and teach.
My first milonga was Club Español, it was like just picking up where I left off nearly 4 months ago in February. There was a great welcome from many dance partners and I hardly sat down only two Tandas where I didn't dance they were the Jazz music Tandas. So I was off to a great start. I found the floor very slippy but it does make for very easy Giros, I feel that as I fine tune my balance this will cease to be an issue for me. Afterwards I had some grub in "Mussel" as good as I remembered it. Next was milonga number two Niño Bien, from about 10pm till 4:30am I danced about 4 hours in total. So on day one about 8 hours in all of floor time long may it continue. Friday and Saturday afternoon I met up with my Teachers Enrique, Milva, Susanna and Maria Laura at the Milonga de los Consagrados plenty of floor time there. Friday night was my first visit back to Canning. A bumpy floor very busy but good for tuning up the navigation skills. There was also a display from two brothers who danced two Milongas and one Tango absolutely fabulous a knockout display I have never seen anything like it. Saturday night I was in Club Sunderland there were displays from four couples two danced Milongas one a Salon style Tango and another a Milonguero style Tango. All were excellent. Sunday night was the return to El Beso and then on to Porteño y Bailarín. Over all I have had a great opening weekend on my return to BsAs.
The weather is holding up also , even though it is coming into winter here. Most days one can still wear tshirts but it can be chilly in the evening. The people are as warm and friendly as ever, a case in point being, I lost my credit card on Sunday night that could have put the kibosh on my trip here but I retraced my steps and had my card returned to me in a supermarket where it had fallen out of my special pocket, lucky old me is all I can say and thanks to the finder for turning it over to security.
On Monday dancing started at about 4:30pm in La Confiteria Ideal, organised by Alicia this milonga is a regular haunt for close embrace tango dancing. Finished there around 9pm and after a bite to eat was in Canning till 4am. Woke up on Tuedays with a sore back and a cold on the way clearly not enough rest so I took it easy and napped from 4 till 8 in the afternoon, trouble is I can't stay off the floor for too long. I went to El Beso at about 11pm stayed till 1am didn't dance much so popped along to Porteño y Bailarín which is just up the street and had a fantastic 3 hours of floor time, recieved a marriage proposal and was told I danced like a porteño, what more could one ask for. Wednesday I am back in La Milonga de las Consagrados on the floor for most of that. I had been invited to a meal by Uki which was delicious. La Nacional was the next port of call. I got there about 2am some displays were just over more were on later which I saw all were good. The place was packed as it was a birthday party for the Milonga itself. I hardly got to dance there the place was also very smoky so I left about 4am. Thursday I return to Club Español at about 4:30pm and stay till 9pm I have hardly sat down since I got there. Since I aim to get to 3 Milongas on Friday I am turning in early Niño Bien gets a miss tonight. So thats my first weekend and week on my return to BsAs in a nutshell. I plan to start back taking lessons next week in both tango and spanish. I will report back on those in the next update which should also include some new photos.
