But first, socks and shoes. Might as well that out of the way. Yes, see:
Yes, that experience you just felt was Vertigo from the view of so much fabulous extending down such long legs! Take a breather and step away from any ledges... As you know, I usually go for the short skirt, flashy socks approach to style, but I have these two amazing pairs of pants that I really can't wear anywhere. This is because they're less pants and more leg-curtains with some passing semblance of hot pants built into the bathing suit portion of pantitude. In certain lights, such as light of my camera flash, they appear entirely opaque, but in actuality, they're pretty transparent. So, not exactly work pants. And when I'm not at work, I'm so excited about slobbing it up in jeans or am already off doing something a little too active for dressing up. Result being that if I have nice clothes that aren't work appropriate, then they'd sure as hell better be dance appropriate.
These tested those boundaries a little bit, insofar as they were long enough to traipse the floor and get caught underfoot and under heel. But compared to many of my dance-wardrobe-related-malfunctions, I say they get a pass. Naturally, that did mean that most of my socks weren't quite apropos, since they would have been visible under the fairly detailed pattern of the pants, so back to my joe boxer sox. Thought the gray worked well. Incidentally, I started wearing socks with my tango shoes for mixed reasons: on the one hand, they are a much cheaper way to dress up my feet (and being a dancer, I naturally have an innate foot obsession) than buying new shoes; on the other, I think I have narrow feet that are prone to blistering, and I've found socks actually have helped increase fit and diminish discomfort. Oh, and I have a really disgusting blackened toenail from a mix of running and leads kicking at my feet as if they were soccer balls.
The odd trip and stumble in a sea of synthetic sheer fabric aside, these pants did the job, and with only one more adornment related aside...
Deglasses-Worthiness and Eye frying:
I did not wear contacts this evening, for a rather exciting reason: you're not supposed to wear contacts for at least seven days before going in for your pre-op consultation at the Pacific Cataract and Laser Center! Yes, I have cataracts! Wait, no... I'm just about at the point of pulling the trigger and having my eyes fried over easy with a side of LASIK. I had a referral exam with my eye-doc, and have reviewed a rather lengthy packet of information from the LASIK people. There was a quiz and a video in addition to the other material. I am proud to say that I passed the quiz with an A (for Adella!). So by this time next abritrarydivisionoftime, I may either see without glasses or have lost an eye and will be wearing a pirate patch for the rest of my life. I give the odds about 50-50. Either way will by great for my dance life.
Contacts work alright, especially the one a day disposables, but glasses have always presented a quandary for dancing. I've mused on this before, so I won't go into details, but it definitely requires a certain judgment call about which leads are worth the inevitable blind groping involved in shedding my glasses for a spin around the floor. There are a category of leads I call deglasses-worthy in the same vein as Elaine's "Sponge Worthy" And, I think my leads kind of get this judgment is occuring. They get a bit of a look in their eyes when I take my glasses off. It's a gesture of expected intimacy when I perform it, but it can also be a little off-putting when I do not. And depending on my mood, the category of deglasses-worthy leads may expand or contract. Those on the cusp get confused, I think.
The Lesson:
Yes, I was back on teaching duty after a little bit of a break. It was a frustrating exercise, as the attendees were mostly people who've been studying in Conway with my teaching partner for the evening, and he picked up from where they'd left off with nary a pre-plan or an explanation. It took me a little while to orient myself and remember the lead's part of what he barely explained to the class. By halfway through the lesson, I'd had a chance to see how I would want to approach it (drag from a molinette disguised as an ocho). I think people who hadn't had the class (the leads, for the most part) looked asea and expressed consternation. I made a few attempts to get back on my part of the teaching game, and had some success, but there was a lot of contradiction in our lesson and I don't feel like the material really gelled with anyone. On the other hand, they had fun enough after defusing the "what are we doing??" panic and I put some brakes on the pace of the class.
The Music!
As a contrast, the set I played last night was pretty much perfect for the evening. I gave into popular pressure and did all three song sets. As I said last month, it's not my dancing preference usually, but it can actually give a dj a little more room to play. With four song tandas, you don't get a huge chance to delve into your collection, because each composer or style takes up about fifteen minutes. Three song tandas shave about three minutes off each tanda, meaning more tandas, and thus more variety of tandas. And with a group of relative newbies who didn't know each other all that well, I think more circulation was also a good thing, so I will begrudgingly embrace the three song tanda idea, I suppose.
One of the real pleasures of being a dj - three song tandas or twenty song tandas - is that you really get to hear your music what the added instrument of dancers. It's like falling in lust all over again when you see your wife of twenty years come down the stairs in an evening dress and full makeup. I keep finding myself saying "oh my god, I LOVE this song." I never realized there was this quirky trombone section in that Troilo! I never noticed how perfectly that little bell sound fits the rhythm.
The others joys, of course, are being able to know what's coming when you're hand picking your leads for tandas, and sharing with others.
For the former pleasure, I lucked out in finding the perfect lead for a boisterous electronic set by APAART. He has a ballroom background, understands music very well, but lacks some of the subtleties of a more rigorous tango background. Small and close with him would be a snore and a waste. What he does well is glam and flam(boyance)... if his rhinestone, studded collar didn't give that away. He's strong, daring, and willing to delve wholeheartedly into the core of a piece of music. Finishing that fifteen minutes of sheer aerobic acrobatics was heady and exhausting, and we both left sweaty but smiling. Immediately after that, was a very mellow guitar set, and my chosen lead just began warning me that he was wanting to dance slowly and not athletically, as the first plaintive strains came on. He just melted into ooey gooey goodness.
For the latter pleasure, it really just was the right playlist for the right people. I heard a lot of people remarking on how much they liked certain sets and trying to write down names. Another asked me how on earth did I find all these songs?
My absolute favorite set of the evening was a milonga set. Milonga - a fast and sassy precursor dance to tango - is not a strength in Bellingham. The options for musically addressing this are not playing milongas, playing really easy ones, or going whole hog and playing fun ones that aren't necessarily easily danced, but play so much that people don't care. I usually minimize the milonga sets to one an evening, and often use slower rhythms for people. But this evening I found some that I haven't played in years and which I adore. And they were as playful as the dancers. The first was version of Begin the Beguine that was clearly a milonga but with a swanky latin lounge feel to it, the second one accelerated and decelerated and sometimes stopped in what I'd call a very tongue in cheek manner, and the last one was so crazy that people broke out in applause after it ended.
My second vals set was a very sweet set of pianos and strings and oboes. Always makes me smile. Not the same energy as the milonga, but a close second favorite. And I rounded the evening out with a vals version of the Cumparsita followed by a jazzy electronic version that was intended to sort of play every one out, but many still stayed to dance it.
The Dancing and the Gossip:
It was a fairly active night for me, despite what I'd describe as lower turn out of the regulars. At this point, I'm not even sure who the regulars are. The group in attendance was largely from far afield and newer to the dance, though I've noticed that we've developed much more of a devoted base of leads compared to (fickle!) follows. My friend/student Doug believes this is because of some large and communal crush the ladies of our town have on certain milongueros who preach the old-style and who - in his opinion - are snobs who only come to town to get laid and bask in idolatry. That would be hearsay, of course, and given Doug's rather colorful take on the world - by his evolving narrative, we are jewelry thieves who spied together in Russia or was it the Middle East between my being a prostitute in a bordello in South America - I wouldn't put much stock in it, but I will say that the follows do tend to be a more changeable component of our attendance. Not a horrible thing for me as a dancer. Granted, some of my favorite leads are the more mysterious ones.And it was reliably pleasant and fun, melding the mood of the music with the read of the room for a very satisfying consistency.
My New Cult:
Doug also announced that when people chide him for not coming to the other milongas in town - you know, the ones that take themselves seriously and apparently are populated with droves of draguers in tango clothing by Doug's salacious accounts - he apparently is now telling people that he worships at the altar of Adella, and if I am not going to a milonga than he isn't. I see this in no way causing some kind of weird gossip cycle where I am going around telling people not to attend other dances and trashing other teachers... at all! No drama. Ever. Seriously, I'm not. I promise!!
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