Lesson with Oscar and Georgina
I had my first lesson of the trip today with Oscar Mandagaran and Georgina Vargas. Oscar has been my main teacher since 2000, and Georgina for the past five years. They rock, which is why they are my teachers! At least here I don't have to argue with everyone that they are stage dancers. Here, people know that they dance social dance milonga. Yes, they also dance on the stage, but they are not stage dancers. They are simply the best, in my humble opinion.
For the first time ever, we didn't start by working on my walk! I guess that means I am starting to get there. It's nice to hear your teachers say things like, "Wow! You haven't lost very much in the year since we've seen you! Ok, let's get to work!" instead of "What happened???" which is what they asked last year.
I have quite a list of things I want to accomplish in ten days of lessons, but it's nice when they say I am entering a higher stage of dancing. Yay!
Shopping frenzy
Georgina has started her own line of clothing, so I've already spent most of my clothing budget without going to any stores. I have some new skirts; two top/skirt outfits; a new top/pants outfit; and a dress cut down in the back so far that it's almost indecent, in a lovely blue print that I'll wear as soon as I figure out a way to keep it on better.
Don't worry, shoppers! I will still wander through the stores and give you a what's-hot list, but I probably won't buy much more myself.
Plaza Bohemia (Alsina 2540)
I used to go to the Friday afternoon dance at Centro Leonesa (Nino Bien). If you remember from last year's blog and the year before, that was always my favorite milonga. It moved, apparently because of the cost of the room rental. Now, it is called Plaza Bohemia, and is at Alsina 2540. Definitely not as high-class in terms of the space, but a lot of the same folks go, so the level is fair.
The price is lower than at Lujos, which cost 35 pesos. This milonga cost 25 (and the water was 12, instead of 14 pesos).
I got there later than I had planned, about 8 PM (it runs from 6 PM until 2 am, but when I left around 11:30, it was starting to thin out). Apart from sitting out a tanda to find the waitress and get water, I danced the entire time. I got a nice spot at a front table. It did not let me see behind me, but I had a good view of the rest of the room.
The music was really good, a nice mix of 1930s and 1940s music, but a tanda of Pugliese cleared the floor. Age-wise, I was probably almost the youngest person there, but there was a mix of middle-aged and elderly folks. I have seen many of the same people at Salon Canning in the afternoons. If you want to do the "scene" for tango, this is NOT the place. If you want to just go and dance, with none of the "Here's my card, I teach tango" or the "Hey, Baby!" comments, this is a good place.