After
driving for three days at seventy-eight miles per hour, my wonderful world of
Durango seems so far away. I am in shock! For the last year I have been on a
literal and physical high, living at six thousand five hundred feet above sea
level at the base of the Rocky Mountains, experiencing tango with an incredibly
intoxicating partner and dancing tango to country music at the Wild Horse
Saloon. Now I am nine hundred feet in elevation in a large cow town on a
very flat, windy prairie.
Durango
is definitely the wild, wild West and the tango orchestra that goes by the name
of Qtango, is one of the outlaw gangs
riding the vast expanse of purple sage, bringing a booty of musicians and
melodies to a venue near you. I consider myself lucky to have experienced such
an intoxicating place on its ascendancy to tango stability.
When I
think back on my initial experiences in March of 2012 and those of last
Saturday night, I am amazed at how much progress this community has made
in putting down such a strong foundation for the practice of this dance. A year ago
last March, we were lucky if six people showed up at practica. Last Saturday, we
hosted a bona fide milonga with a live orchestra and quite a few leaders and
followers from other tango communities, hailing from as far away as Los Angeles
and El Paso.
If there
was any wish I could grant to the tangueras of our nascent society, it would be
that they get the chance to move to the music in the passionate embrace of a
stranger. To me, that is the greatest joy of tango. It’s kind of like
wife-swapping without the fear of STDs or performance anxiety. A person could
still be hurt emotionally in this kind of situation but the risk is very low
for such a big return on your investment.
What
would a midsummer’s eve dance be without a magical transformation by one of our
ugly ducklings? I’m not going to mention any names but I’d like to talk about
him.
The man
I referenced began last year but dropped out because he was discouraged by his
progress. While the band was playing, I
saw him invite our guest instructor, Svetlana Petkovic, and was astonished to
see she accepted. I would not have been brave enough to approach her. I think they danced a whole tanda. His gambit paid off
because he has been a better dancer ever since. It is as if she sprinkled magic
dust on him and suddenly he could move to the music.
Another tango leader is
born! Every
time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. Every time a new Durangotan leader
dances with Svetlana, he’s ours forever:-)
Qtango,
I have to tell you that I took you for granted. I danced so many tandas with so
many delightful tangueras that it was difficult to tell that I was not in some
huge metropolis instead of a beautiful college town nestled snuggly in the
southern Rocky Mountains. You showed us love that night, bringing a sextet when
we only paid for a quartet; arriving on time, helping out during Svet’s
workshop and warming up while we got the room ready. It felt like we were your
guests and not the other way around.
Thanks,
also, for inviting Dan, a.k.a. Tango Colorado Springs, who delighted all the
ladies with his music selections and fine dancing. He was the icing on the
proverbial cake; eager to dance with as many ladies as possible and enjoying
each one as if she were a champion tanguera.
It all
seems like a dream to me now; surveying the dance floor ahead of me and seeing
Erskine Maytorena in the lights, singing with his tremendous baritone voice,
the town’s denizens peering through the studio's large glass windows, dumbfounded and
not believing that such a wonderful event was happening in their sleepy little
town on such a fine summer night.
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