Modern Tango World N° 10 (Athens, Greece) | Page 28

I had dremt about tropical Cuban dancers for years.
I would do everything to dance in Havana, and, par-
ticularly tango. But how? I had searched a lot of web-
sites about the dance, and had written down several
addresses. Nothing was certain, but it proved to have
been enough. Mike knew about my passion, and my
history with tango.
Since that first visit, I have danced in Cuba many times.
Now, I acted as a tango guide for many trips. In one of
my events, We Are Going To Cuba - Tango Trip, Dr. Barn-
aby Ruhe had a lot of questions which allowed me to
share my feelings about Cuba, the tango, and the tango
in Cuba. He asked, You came back from Havana with
that delirious look on your face. What was that about!?”
What follows was my reply.
Cuba is a country for lovers, and love affairs, not only the
clandestine ones that come to mind when one hears
that term, but for true affairs of the heart and spirit.
Love is always in the air in Havana. Tango is a dance of
deep personal and interpersonal connection. Tango, of-
ten finds itself breached or engulfed in emotion. It is no
wonder that the tango in Havana is also there for lovers.
This includes everyone who discovers it —friends, fami-
lies, males, females, couples in love or just at play, or, even
two persons of the same gender who are not LGBT.
One stormy night, while we were waiting for some danc-
ers to arrive, we played dominoes and listened to a gui-
tarist who was playing fusion-salsa. A young construction
worker, who had graduated from the conservancy, bor-
rowed a guitar, and a milonga just happened. I realized, at
that moment, that in Havana, time has a different value.
I thought our dance was to start at 9:PM,, but dancing
started when the dancers arrived, much later. Maybe, it
was raining, or the buses were late, or that there were
not enough machinas (taxis). Nobody gets upset. No-
body looks at the clock.
When I am in Cuba, I definitely look at the fifties cars
and the art deco style architecture. Time is frozen in a
spicy, sweet, and sexy way — frozen in the era and style
of the tango. Even if something is half demolished, it still
has so much beauty. The same is true for the people.
They have a pride, stature, and dignity that are com-
bined with elegance and handsomeness that one can-
not find anywhere else in the world. What secret do
they know, the young and the old? Is it a secret of life
and music that they know? In fact, it isn’t a secret, at all.
It is love. It can be felt in the culture and in the secret of
the tango — the embrace.
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It was in such an embrace that
I discovered, for the first time,
how sweaty tango can be so de-
licious. Maria Mietus is a great
dancer from Colorado. She
dances around the world, and
can be the best leader when she
wants. After we had danced, she
did not talk to me for the whole
next day, . When she finally start-
ed to talk, I asked her how the
dancing the night before was.
She said, I’m still dancing. It was
like butter. We did not discuss it
any further. We both knew that
she was speaking of Enrique
Guisado Triay, a pony-tailed
milonguero. Enrique’s technique
is sublime and sensual. His tango
makes you forget where you
are. The secret of his tango is his
embrace.