Tangorgasmatic Joie-de-vivre Jouissance

You can dance all the happy you want - but 

a) don't scratch the piano, and 

b) don't piss people off with your exuberant reenactment of what you have learned from Youtube!

 

Once upon a time only few months ago, a “Tanguero” from an exotic, foreign, Spanish-speaking land suddenly appeared on a local Tango scene near you.

He was immediately noticeable on the dance floor by virtue of his sheer “exuberance”.  Everything he did was a physical display of “Joie-de-vivre”:  Energetic, people-shoving, space-hogging figures; Passionate, forceful, often frenetic “push n’ pull” manipulation of his partner on the dance floor; Weaving in-and-out, bobbing up-and-down to and against the cadence of the music (and the line of dance); Furious toe tapping and multiple rulo/giro “Man-adornments” - 

- and last but not least, stomping, hopping, clapping, yippee-hi-yoddly-doo-da-dooing and finger snapping whenever the DJ played a snippet of chacarera as Cortina.  Life is Jouissance!!!!!!!

I am getting tired just typing this out.

Tangueras who had been sitting on the sides too long were welcoming of his invitations to dance.  For a couple of weeks there he thought he was some hot s*** just because he could get dances - perhaps he even entertained the idea that he was the new “Fabio” because he came from a country located pretty close to Argentina, spoke Spanish and was exuberant?  Unfortunately, he didn't know that some of the dances he got was because some Tangueras were just bored of sitting and would dance with any ol’ donkey and some Tangueras were just being polite - as one told her girlfriends quite candidly, "Dancing with him takes a lot of guesswork (he can't lead for the life of him) and it’s kind of a pain in the ass. Perhaps that's to be expected - he told me there was no need for anyone to take classes or go to Buenos Aires because you can learn everything you want about Tango from Youtube!"

His exuberance was somewhat dented when he tried to ask some of local Milongueras to dance.  They wouldn’t even look at him so he would go straight up to them and ask. Of course they said no (they have a knack for knowing who is dancing Tango and who isn’t – they have been watching the dance floor, you know).   After being curtly rejected by a particularly beautiful, Spanish-speaking Milonguera, he tried to persist by trying to engage her in conversation (in Spanish) and talking fondly about his travels to her homeland and all the people he knew from her homeland, whom he declared were all wonderful, kind and accommodating.  The lovely Milonguera, as wonderful, kind and accommodating as he hoped her to be - still said no.

To make matters worse, he started to realize that other couples on the dance floor (who were following the line of dance and not crashing into others while doing “exuberant” figures) were giving him the evil eye whenever he was around.  “What kill-joys!” he muttered to himself – but secretly, he started to doubt whether it was acceptable to be so exuberant at traditional milongas, even those so far from Buenos Aires.  

He even toned it down – you know, just a little bit, so people wouldn’t glare at him with such displeasure…

…And then he would go home and watch Youtube.

I can’t tell you exactly what he watched on Youtube but I can assure you it embodied all the “Tangorgasmatic Joie-de-Vivre Jouissance” known to Tangokind.  Kicking, jumping, flying, spinning – you name it, he would be thrilled by it.  Did you really think he would watch videos of sedate social dancing by Buenos Aires milongueros on crowded dance floors?  Might as well watch paint dry!

“Why shouldn’t I set myself free, free, free as a bird?” he asked himself while watching the soaring, heart-pounding Tangorgasmatic images flash across the screen.  “THIS IS WHO I REALLY AM AND BY GOLLY I WILL DANCE IT!”

The next time he collided with the dance floor he would be up to his old tricks and people would be giving him the evil eye – yet again.  It is really too bad that no-one has told him that people dance the way they dance on Youtube precisely because the floor has completely cleared out to give them space to perform - and that when there are other people on the floor, you simply can't dance that way!*

*And that's why we didn't go to dance last night.  "I'm sick to my eyeballs of this guy's crazy antics!" said Man Yung.  "I must be naive, thinking that there is some higher power in Tango music that would make anyone who dances it a better person - or at least a better dancer, if they keep on dancing for long enough.  Just looking at his inconsiderate, selfish, egoistical no-shame flapping exhibitionism all over the dance floor makes me feel tired and ready to quit Tango!"**

** Or perhaps Man Yung doesn't want to dance because he is just too depressed about the Hong Kong Chief Executive elections - all the candidates are each worse than the next and the election is not even democratic.  Hong Kong is going to hell in a handbasket and before long Hong Kong would be another casualty of the Mainland Chinese Corrupt Communist regime.