Day 30 - Dancing The Argentine Tango



Saturday, August 25, 2012 - 03:15

Yesterday when we met the Americans at the cemetery they mentioned the Argentine Tango festival was on at the local exhibition centre. Apparently we are fortunate to be in the city at such a time, since it only happens for about a week every year. As a result, we thought it would be the perfect destination to head to on Marc’s last full day in the city. However, there was one downside to this plan, and it took the form of me having a rather bad cold when I woke up. Fortunately I battled through and am feeling a lot better now at the end of the day.

The exhibition centre was close to La Recoleta where we were yesterday, so involved another bus journey. When we arrived, we wandered in (the festival is free) and saw the final rounds of the professional competition. There were dancing couples from a number of countries; mostly south American, but a few from the USA and Mexico, but noticeably none from the UK or even Europe. The dancers were of course very good at what they were doing, and about eight pairs at a time danced around the stage being judged, before making way for the next lot of pairs. We were part of an audience of several hundred people, including a number of professional photographers and film crews.

After watching a few rounds of the competition we headed back up to La Recoleta for a bite to eat. At this point the American’s got in contact with us and mentioned they were in the area, so we met up with them before heading back to the festival. We saw the judges reading out the results of today’s competition round, before heading to the large dance floor at the back of the festival. Turns out the guy from Chicago is a serious ballroom dancer, and has also become rather skilled at the Argentine Tango since being here. He therefore showed Marc and I some of the basic foot movements, and we then each had an attempt at the dance with the girls. Neither of us were anything to write home about, and I quickly retired and took a few pictures of the others and the dance floor in general. It was rather impressive to see the local non-professionals having a go, some of the older couples follow each other’s movements perfectly, despite the moves appearing to be improvised on the spot.

This evening was Marc’s last in Buenos Aires since he flies out to Rio tomorrow. I’m going to spend a couple more days relaxing here before flying up to meet him, since I have around three weeks from now until my flight home.

Photos of the day: some of the professional dancers on stage, Sean the American teaching us some footwork, a vague attempt to Tango.

Comments

Ahhhhhhhhh the dance of love

10, 10,10, 10 !!!!

Marks dance partner looks like something Picasso painted.

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