Tango Is Not Just Music and Dancing

               At a recent milonga, I spied a young tanguera in the throes of communicating disinterest. A young man, so new to tango that he could not lead a back ocho much less be considered a tanguero, was propositioning her for a dance. She slumped in her chair trying her best not to look at him and he was doing his best to get her attention.

               I had already heard her decline his blatant offers with a polite, “no thank you,” but he was undeterred; his patient was flatlining and he was going to do everything he could to save her. He was certain that a dance with him would resuscitate her. 

               He was desperate because she wasn't the only one who was dying.

               Watching the scene play out from across the room I wondered if I should amble over and rescue her. I decided that would be too rude and that she would just have to ride this wave all the way to the shore.

               I couldn’t blame the young man for not giving up. She was intoxicating. I knew that beyond her youthful good looks she was an absolutely delightful dance partner, something he would not know until he began taking his tango education a bit more seriously.

               I was staring in amazement at her ability to appear lifeless when a potential Romeo walked past and was immediately pulled into her orbit. It took Christ three days to rise from the dead but this girl did it in three milliseconds!

               Sitting bolt upright, her neck extended, she smiled at the new man in her life. It made me happy to just to watch her shine.

               Tango is not just music and dancing. It is old men remembering when that light once shone for them as well as the times when they could not even get a fire started.

For more of the Kayak Hombre, read my books Fear of Intimacy and the Tango Cure and River Tango. Available at Amazon.com in paperback or Kindle editions.