Nobody told me, but I quickly figured it out after walking into an empty classroom second period: It's field trip week! Different grades go every day on a trip to various places near Madrid and explore. It just so happens that their schedules directly align with mine to cause me to barely have to teach this week! Today I taught the first class of the day and then had a break from 10:30 'til 2:30! I could have used the time productively, but that obviously didn't happen. A little Pinterest - under the guise of needing to research Halloween projects for my classes - and the hours just floated on by. Haha.
After school I had my first tutoring session with one of the teachers' kids who's in one of my first grade classes. I had him for last period today and noticed how wonderfully he did the assignment - probably freaking out about me coming over after school! Ha.
Anyway, I was surprised how well the afterschool session was. First, let me just say that Spanish homes are always so tidy and decorated so nicely. This home was no exception! As soon as we got home, his mom made me a cup of coffee (thankfully it was very weak!!) and showed me around their apartment. She then told her son he could pick any game he wanted and we would just play. Unlike one of the other kids I tutor who never ever shuts up (in Spanish, of course), this boy did not say one single word. Nothing. We played his version of Smurf Parchezi (or however you spell it) and we warmed up to each other a little bit. I would count aloud as we moved spaces. I would ask if it was HIS TURN or MY TURN. I would do silly little dances when I landed on BUTTERFLY spaces or MUSHROOM spaces. I tried to just keep saying stuff in English and hope he would catch on.
The other family I tutor for is always coming in the room and checking on us and listening to us and trying to force their kids to speak in English and to work harder... which ultimately results in them saying NOTHING in English and becoming totally disinterested with whatever is going on. It makes me feel stressed out and it's just a bad situation. With this woman, however, everything is the opposite. She informed me when we asked if I would be interested in tutoring her son that she only wanted me to play with him in English. She knew it would take awhile for him to warm up to me and knew he wouldn't produce any English for a little while. This didn't bother her at all - in fact, when she was learning English she was so shy that she never spoke, and now cannot speak or understand English at all because of it. She just wants me to come twice a week to create a comfortable environment for her son so that he doesn't feel scared or embarassed to start speaking so that he will be successful later on with the langauge. :) How adorable!
I was wondering what she was thinking about it all half way through when he hadn't so much as cracked a smile, but when he ran to his room and came back carrying a huge magic kit, I knew things weren't going badly at all. He did tricks with a book, a magic top hat and some rings. I laughed and he did too, and I would ask where things were ("How did you do that!? Where is the ball!? Is it under the couch!? Is in on the table!? Where is the ball?!") and I could hear him whispering the words to himself in English as I said them. He would motion for me to close my eyes or help and I would always ask, "Can I look?" "Are you ready?" and he would always respond with a "Yes!" or a "No!"
After the time was up, his mom asked how I thought it went. I said actually pretty well, considering he spoke no Spanish (which is a good thing!) but responded to my questions pretty well and seemed to understand a lot of what I was saying. She said she was just delighted with how things went and told me that her son had been saying he was going to just hide when I came over because he was too shy and embarrassed. She was surprised he played with me and was giggling and responding . :) YAY!
A walk to the train station later and I was on my way to Madrid for my first tango lesson! I had received an email back earlier in the day from them telling me to just show up and they would put me on the list and it had been all I could think about all day long!! I got to Madrid a little early, so I walked around and continued my black boot mission (still no success, though I did get some cheap black ballerina flats and a much needed brown belt) for a little while before class.
Tango class itself was AMAZING. The teachers were sooooo nice to me and very upbeat and perky. They asked if I understood Spanish well (they seemed very concerned) and after I assured them I did, the set right to teaching me the basic (everybody there already knew it). They seemed impressed I picked it up so quickly and put me in rotation, but didn't let me learn the new step of the night. It's been forever since I've danced in a close hold and it was crazy!
There's one main part in West Coast Swing when you're in close hold during the whip. For those few counts the lead has his hand on your back and is holding your other hand as he whips you around. I've taught the whip before - you teach it that the follow must lay back into the lead's hand so that she keeps connection and only move when that hand on her back tells her to - especially when she's sure she knows what's coming.
Dancing a whole dance in close hold! Man! You really feel the connection - which means you REALLY feel when the connection is just slightly off. >_< I was definitely the most inexperienced in tango in the room and so I knew 95% of the time that awful feeling of breaking connection was totally my fault. And even worse was that I couldn't make some joke about it because I could barely bring myself to answer the question "What's your name?" (which, by the way, I actually answered, "Yes" to. >_< FAIL. But seriously, asking a girl a question in a foreign language with a thick accent minutes after she just learned the basic in a new dance and is already parntered up and trying desperately not to break connection or step on your toes or fall over? Just a bad idea. I do not take all the blame for that one.) much less say, "Ooopsies! My bad! Thank goodness it's my first night and I have an excuse for sucking right now!"
I'm being serious right now: You can't even begin to imagine how much strange vocabularly you need to take a dance class in a foreign language!!! Saying "Oops!" makes people STARE at you like you're from Mars. But what's the Spanish equivalent!? Something like "aye!" or "oiba!" or... I don't remember. It sounds ridiculous whatever it is and I could never make the noise without giggling. To say, "My bad!" you have to say "Me equivoco" - which litereally translates to, "I have mistaken myself." >_< The f*ck? That's FIVE syllables to say that you messed up! You could have fixed the issue by the time all those syllables tumble off your tongue! Plus it just sounds so formal. And all I wanted to say the whole time to each lead was, "Thanks for putting up with the new girl. I promise not to suck next week." But yeah, that wasn't happening. So instead I just tried to smile. Which turned into a giggle. Which scared them, because people in Spain don't really giggle... plus I'm still getting over my mini cold, and my voice is lower, making my giggle sound a little too masculine for its own good.
Anyway, I was impressed with the class and the people and actually left feeling like I'd learned a lot (for a change! haha). I was impressed that I understood 95% of everything the teacher said - even if I was only 45% understood. Eh. I rather understand them than have them understand me - I'm the one paying for the information being taught! I did succeed in asking the head teacher about when to transfer my weight while gathering between the last and first step of the basic and receiving a solid answer. Yeah. YOU try asking that in a foreign language. Mad skills. ;)
On the way home I actually took the metro going in the wrong direction (that almost NEVER happens to me... it's such a rarity that it actually amused me and missing every transfer thereafter didn't bother me too much - thank god for the cryptoquips I keep tucked away in my purse!!), but had plenty to think about from my lesson. After just an hour long introduction, my dancing bones were back and I can't wait for my next class! I was thinking about it all night and all day, and what I've figured out is this:
My absolute favorite VERBAL thing in life is witty banter. You know - when someone says or writes something witty and you come up with a great comeback and they come up with an equally intellectual and sarcastic response and this just continues for as long as it takes for one of the participants to tap out? Ohhh! It's the best! <3
Well, partner dance is like the PHYSICAL version of a witty conversation. The lead decides where to take you on the dance floor and how to get you there. They begin with a single lead and the follow much answer that lead almost instantaneously and with grace. The trick is, the follow must never ever suppose she knows where the lead is going and start doing the steps without the prompting. This is sloppy dancing. This is awful. This is an "ordinary" conversation full of fluff and misunderstandings. No, the art of following is that you must always wait for the direction. One, lead moves forward, you counter him and move forward with your core exactly paralleled to his. Two, lead moves to the side, you counter to the side, your core exactly paralleled to his. Three, the lead is supposed to move back, but being the witty follow you are, you wait for the indication. When none is given, you simply stay right where you are and wait for it. Patient as can be. Sometimes, it's that the dance floor is too crowded and to move anywhere would mean a collision. Sometimes, it's artistic and clever and amazing. Each count feels like a test. Do you trust your lead? Can you read the body language and respond to it AS IT'S HAPPENING? Oh! The intensity of it all!
While the teacher's assistant was leading me, she'd throw in things like that that were not in the basic she'd taught me, and I answered every one of them perfectly. While dancing with one of the leads in the class, he would turn me to avoid collisions and I would follow wherever his connection told me to go. He commented on how well I followed for this being my first time in a tango class. I graciously thanked him, knowing I didn't have the time to explain my dance history in Spanish without just confusing him and, probably, myself!
Sometimes I think I would have done very well in the medieval court days. I definitely could have married well with my following abilities and witty bantering abilities. And to think that you could be judged on those two things alone - I would have shined!
Dancing may not seem like an intellectual thing, but I'm convinced that to be any good at it, you have to have a quick mind and strong intellect to keep up and counter and add your own style through musicality to it all. For certain!
XOXO
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