7 things I’ve learned traveling for tango

I believe that one of the best things about tango is that includes traveling a lot. Being a tango dancer is not just visiting milongas in your own community or your own country. Tango is international.

Even in its beginnings: it was created by emigrants and it included very different cultures that came from different parts of the world.

Traveling almost every month and visiting different types of events, as a DJ, teacher or a dancer, I learned that many of the commonly shared beliefs about people and tango communities are wrong.

“Why are you so nervous? How come you are nervous? You are traveling to Portugal! You will a have great time there”, she was surprised.

“Well, yes, I believe I will, but whenever I travel I know that I will learn something new and that some of my beliefs will be challenged. That makes me nervous”, I said.

It was not that I was expecting to have a bad time – it was just that I knew that every trip was like learning a new lesson which would for sure finish with a test.

Here are some of the most interesting lessons I have learned all these years traveling for tango.

1. People are people – Remember this Depeche mode song lines? It goes:

So we’re different colors
And we’re different creeds
And different people have different needs

In fact, there is nothing further from the truth. People are people, whenever you look around – they have the same basic needs. No matter if we have different ways to express those.

We are all alone. Afraid. Limited. We all crave recognition and we all are happy when we find a soul mate – even if that lasts for a 10 minute tanda.

2. Prejudice is not accurate – Germans are cold. Italians are undisciplined. Argentineans like to hug a lot…. It is all bulls..t!

I’ve meet people opposite to what those popular beliefs tell us. Maybe you can find some truth in some of these beliefs statistically – but people are not statistics. Every person is its own universe – so should be treated like one.

3. People dance the way they are – No matter what kind of teachers they have – people at the end dance the way they are. Of course you can notice style differences depending on the style of their teachers, but the more experience they have – the more of their personality could be seen.

I mean, their personal character – how they personally feel the music, how they connect with other people, how they connect with themselves… I learned that all that is more important than the way tango is taught.

4. Tango degrades if people don’t travel – Closed communities tend to develop their own habits and rituals that are different than those in Buenos Aires and those of the international tango communities. I mean, there is no universal guidebook, but there are some established traditions that people who dance tango share internationally.

There are also some codes of behavior and dancing approaches.

I don’t say that those are necessarily bad – by themselves. I myself started tango in a pretty isolated community, but I also witnessed that the biggest growth happened when people started to travel and invite foreigners as guests.

5. Tango codigos are natural – Yes. You might like them or not – but there is nothing more natural than to keep your eyes at the one that you want to dance with. In tango we call that mirada!

It is similar to the other rules as well. If you want to invite someone giving him/her space to avoid you without awkwardness – you can just stay or sit across and keep your eyes on him/her. In some traditional milongas it is a rule for men and women to sit in different parts of the milonga.

Let me illustrate this with an example. I was DJing in a small marathon in a place with a small tango community where people were not familiar with the traditional way of inviting (cabeceo). People just approached. I feel uncomfortable approaching and taking risk to be embarrassed – so I decided to try cabeceo anyway.

It worked! The only problem was that girls were not looking around. They were talking to each other or looking at their smart phones. But, once they get their heads up – it was not a problem to make invitation with cabeceo/mirada.

6. Being popular doesn’t mean that one is a good dancer – It happened to me many times to invite a girl in a new place, just because it seems that everyone wants to dance with her – and to find out she dances terribly. Also, sometimes you can find the best dancers sitting around all night.

So, whenever you travel to a new community keep your eyes at the behaviors of dancers on and off the dance floor. It can reveal many things about whether you will enjoy dancing with them.

How ladies choose partners

7. Not everyone is friendly – I used to believe that tango communities around the world are open and accept new people, but, unfortunately, it is not always like that.

There are some communities which developed a very closed culture, some are even hostile towards strangers and everything that is different.

This is not new to tango. Back in the Golden Age of tango there was a huge amount of rivalry and hostility among people living in different barrios. There were even knife fights and murders.

I believe that tango opens people up – all good things in them can be seen…. Unfortunately, all bad things, fears and insecurities as well.

What is your experience? Share it with us in the comment section of this article or just send me a message. I would love to hear what you think.

Please share this with your friends, so they can reflect on their experience and comment – so we can all learn.