Continued from Part 2

I registered for a Spanish class at adult school. For every two words I was learning, I would forget three. I guess everything has its time. I could not learn as quickly as I wished and be linguistically functional for the trip.

Nora held a couple of special sessions for those who were going on the trip, to orient us for the Milongas in Buenos Aires and what to expect.
An anecdote from a session:

Lustrada

There is a dance move called lustrada (polishing or shoe shine), which is when the leader leads you to a move, during which you rub your shoe or foot, up and down leader’s leg.

With her charming accent, Nora told us, “Ladies, when a leader makes the move for lustrada, just elegantly take a step over his foot and skip the lustrada.”
One of the male students asked, “Why?”
Nora responded, “Because that means he (leader) wants to have a coffee with you.”
The student questioned again, “And, what’s wrong with accepting an offer to have coffee with him?”
Emphatically thrusting her hands into the air, Nora exclaimed “I’m calling it COFFEE!”

Nora reviewed the three dance-styles of Argentine Tango we will experience in Buenos Aires.

Tango Salon-style (which Nora mainly teaches) does not refer to a single specific way of dancing tango. Rather, it is literally tango as it is danced socially in the salons (dance halls) of Buenos Aires. Salon tango was danced throughout the Golden Era of Argentine Tango (1935–1952) when Milongas were held in large dance venues/halls and full tango orchestras performed. Salon tango is often characterized by slow, measured, and smoothly executed moves, rarely ever moving against the line-of-dance, and respecting the space of other dancers on the floor around them. The emphasis is on precision, smoothness, musicality, good navigation, and following the códigos (tango etiquette) of the salons. The couple embraces closely, with some variants having a flexible embrace, opening slightly to make room for various figures and closing again for support and poise. The walk is the most important element, and dancers usually walk 60%-70% of the time during a tango song.

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Milonguero-style tango, also known as estilo milonguero or apilado (piled up, stacked), is a close-embrace style of social tango dancing in which the focus is inward and the leg and arm movements are kept small. The style developed from and is appropriate to crowded dance floors.

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Tango Nuevo (Nuevo Tango, Neotango or simply Nuevo) – style, either a form of music in which new elements are incorporated into traditional Argentine tango, or an evolution of tango dance that began to develop in the 1980s. Tango Nuevo music and dance are examples of constantly changing forms of Argentine tango.

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Having been informed that Buenos Aires was shopping heaven, I prepared two suitcases. One was half-full of what I needed for the trip and the other was an empty suitcase, which I planned to bring back both completely full!

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Tango Blues – By Artist Misha Lenn

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Click here for Part 4

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