Baja Blue

Baja Blue
Bluetrue sky of the Korokoro Hills

Sunday 12 April 2015

Buenos Aires: El Tango, La Vida

In Buenos Aires "poetry came in search of us".  We fell in love with our serene pied-a-terre in the heart of Recoleta, and spent hours strolling the tree-lined streets, wandering among the beautiful tombs and walkways of Recoleta Cemetary, and watching the world go by from cozy cafés.  But it was the inimitable tango -- the pulse of Buenos Aires itself -- that taught us the lessons that Buenos Aires had to teach.

One rainy evening, we took a tango lesson at El Beso, and later learned that our beautiful and very patient instructor was none other than the marvellous Maria Plazaola, final partner of the late, great Carlos Gavita.  That experience was a lesson in grace, awe and humility.  But another tango experience had even more significant lessons to teach.

On a blustery Sunday, on our way up the stairs to the tango matinee at the famed tango dance hall La Confiteria Ideal, we paused out of respect behind an elderly gentleman struggling to walk up the stairs, and then gasped in amazement to see him glide with ease across the dance floor when the music began; a lesson in both passion and perseverance.  But life in Buenos Aires -- where to live is to tango, and tango just might save your life -- is like that.

Martha Graham once said: "Dance is the hidden language of the soul"; and, in the late-night milongas still active all over Buenos Aires, portenos wear their souls on their sleeves.

In honour of Buenos Aires, here's to living, really living, to discovering the hidden language of our souls, and to dancing, even when we don't think we can.

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