Saturday 16 November 2013

The Kiss

Yesterday. A sunny and warm afternoon in Lisbon. I was sitting outside a cafe, waiting for my lunch to arrive and - as so often nowadays - texting with my beloved...

... when a pair of arms embraced me from behind and a soft kiss was placed on my cheek.

I finished the sentence and looked up. It was a lovely swedish dancer accompanied by a slovenian friend who lives in France. They sat down and she noticed upon how calm I had stayed in the moment that she kissed me: I was not startled, I did not even stir. She found this remarkable.

And it got me thinking.

Should I not at least show some reaction of surprise when I am sitting all on my own in a town that I have never been to before and someone suddenly kisses me? But, no. This is what Tango life does to you. It changes your perception of strange places and people. 

In the last year - since Detlef and I split up in our private lives, I‘ve been traveling a lot on my own, either to meet someone or for work, joining my dance-partner at the venue or in the hotel. I spent a lot of time alone in trains, planes, walking through cities, taking meal in restaurants... Just normal life stuff that I had been mostly doing as a couple for many years.

I never felt lonely.

Because I knew that there would be friends or Tango wherever I arrive. Walking through a strange city feels different, when you know that there are Tango people all over the place. You will never be surprised to meet someone you know in the streets or in a café. You don‘t even have to spend a lot of time with the Tangueros - it is enough to know that they are there, to create this feeling of „being at home and at ease“ wherever you are. Well, this is how it works for me anyway. Call me a romantic, but I see this as one of the most beautiful qualities of our international Tango community.

And a couple of weeks ago, I could even feel at home in my home town. 

As you may know, I do not spend a lot of time in Saarbruecken and when I go out during the day, I will rarely meet someone I know. My non-tango-friends work all day and I will only see them when we agree upon a date. As I have not been visiting local Milongas for many years, I don‘t have any close Tango acquaintances. So I often feel like a veritable stranger in the town where I live. This is actually the huge downside of the life as a traveling Tango teacher. You totally get out of touch with your home town. But a few weeks ago it was different. We were having our annual „Festivalito con Amigos“ and friends from all over the world joined us. I met them in the streets, in a restaurant, in a store - wherever I went, they where.

I was not a stranger anymore.


5 comments:

Association Cariño Tango Event said...

So real Mélina and so deep. When I am a DJ everywhere where we welcome me I feel at home and in full confidence. Of fabulous exchanges are also possible outside time. Kiss from Nice.

Regina said...

This really captures my experiences of travelling solo around the world. It is a great comfort. Kisses from Nottingham UK. Regina XX

TheNummatus said...

I striked me as strange that Melina is somohow intentionally absent in local tango life. I wonder why? Is some kind of dissonance between your dance vision and local environment...?

Melina Sedo said...

TheNummatus:

Yes. I am absent from local Tango life,

A: Our LOCAL community is a desater. Please read blog post "the Tango free zone".

B: I am traveling all year to teach Tango and am basically NEVER at home to visit Milongas in our home region.

But: As a matter of fast, I will be at home more often in 2014 because of our Tango-Teacher-Training. And will organize Milongas each time - that makes 9 Milongas that I am gonna visit next year in our home town. ;-)

TheNummatus said...

I like your subtle and ascetic style of dancing. I believe it's close to the spirit of tango which is sentimento, nostalgia and amor. And principal veto agaist outwardness...;-)