[TANGO-L] Tango dress and rites

[Alberto Gesualdi <clambat2001 @YAHOO.COM.AR>]

Dear friends from Tango list

Once again I will like to make some comments about dressing for the tango night ( social dancing ) , and why for some people is a kind of rite, that we may not understand, but could acept .

A rite ...... In a part  "Le petit prince" from St.Exupery , the little prince ask to the fox

Qu'est-ce qu'un rite ?
- C'est aussi quelque chose de trop oublii, dit le renard. C'est ce qui fait qu'un jour est diffirent des autres jours, une heure, des autres heures

Which roughly translated means

What is a rite ?
- It is something that has been forgotten, said the fox.  Is what it makes a day different from other days, an hour, different from other hours.


So , even if we say that dressing does not matter, it does matter . To go to the milonga to socialize , is an experience for the man and the woman, a venture into an unknown world, where , surprisingly or not , he/she founds something that may introduce a sense of belonging.

I would not write now a Treatise of Social behaviour . My experience in milongas of Buenos Aires, is not a Certificate of Graduation of the Wise Voice and Ultimate Truth of the Tango King.

But, I have to say, that in this very particular case of Tango, one prepares to dance with a close contact to another person . And one wants to dance , to propose to dance and to be acepted (being a man) ., Being a woman, I suppose, if  going alone, one is supposed to be requested to dance , so , some signal has to be transmitted to receive a proposal. It may be an elegant dress, it may be the attitude , the waiting and the expectation , that the man feels . You dont propose to dance to a woman that is not looking to the dancing floor, or that is smoking a cigarette with the her back to the dancers .

I remember a woman from USA that came to Salon Canning. I was sitting with a friend on a corner, and could not refrain to look at her, she was sitting at her table , looking to the dancers , and all her body attitude was a neon sign " I am dying to dance now" . Sometimes is not that simple, some women like to dance with some men only , some other women dance with different men until her dancing partner arrives.

I think that is what makes the milonga a special place, this mixture of expectation and possibilities , and this rites , to take your dancing shoes at home, polish it , look the soles and think " I will have to save for another ones , this soles are thin as paper " , put the shoes into the special shoe bag , then the mint pills to have clean breath , to shave , put clean clothes , and then to the milonga .Is one of the rites, other people will have a siesta/nap, and then will go to the milonga dressed with suit, have their meal there, talk with their long time friends , and dance the night , with this rite , the saturday night milonga.


As I said before, what I think it really matters is to dance with the heart , to sustain oneself and to cooperate with the dancing partner to sustain the embrace , being the partner also self sustained, and cooperating to sustain the bridge of the embrace .

I found something of the " Book of the marvels " from the italian merchant, sailor  and  witty observer Marco Polo, quote follows

Warm regards
Alberto Gesualdi
Buenos Aires


Marco Polo describes to Kublai Khan a bridge, stone by stone.

Kublai asks : which stone holds the bridge?

Marco answers: it is not a particular stone, not this stone or that stone, but the arch that they made together that holds the bridge.

Kublai stays in silence , thinking, and says later : I don t want to hear about the stones, I want you to tell me about the arch .

Polo answers: the arch could not be conceived without the stones.







---------------------------------
 ?Buscas un auto?
Encontralo en Yahoo! Autos
!Mas de 4000 clasificados todos los dmas!
Usados - 0 km - Vendi el tuyo

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
REMINDER: Announcements of Tango events or products should be sent to
Tango-A and not to TANGO-L. To subscribe to Tango-A, send the
command "subscribe Tango-A Firstname Lastname" to LISTSERV @MITVMA.MIT.EDU.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------