Heavy loaded history, the absolute beauty and the thirst for new experiences... Dancing tango in Moscow city!

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Started 23/08/2008

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It’s 4:30 in the morning and I am at Domodedovo, the main airport of Moscow ready to catch my flight back to France… Once again I had the opportunity to pretend that I live in Moscow, spending one month in this crazy place (if not the craziest so far!). One month sharing a flat Moscow downtown (in Chistie Prudi), along with the gentlest British accountant I have met so far, Tom… One month, following the same patterns every day: leaving home and being ready to get electro shocked by the views of the hundreds of thousands of astonishing girls living in this city! One month meeting the stoned faces of the Moscovites reading philosophy, history and literature in the metro and then watching them crawling dead-drunk in the parks.

Moscow is a rough place, where the people have been trained through the years to endure hard times. Situations and living conditions that could drive a Western European in despair or even death, within few weeks are every day reality for the Russian people. On the other hand this country offers one magic fix to its male citizens… Abundance of the most beautiful women in the world! Just watching them passing by the street is a reason (and a way) to stay alive (and kicking)!

If somebody hasn’t walked the center of Moscow 20:00-22:00 in the evening, unfortunately cannot understand what I am talking about. Because we are talking about the ‘grand fest’ of beauty… The most direct and natural interpretation of beauty, 100% focused on aesthetics, grace, sensuality, femininity, without ever losing the balance… Russian girls are beautiful in the most efficient and elaborate way. No ideologies, no styles, no perceptions about life and virtue, just the essence, the most pure interpretation of beauty and femininity.

Soviet people have been through several hard times during this century and the combined outcome of the wars, the purges and living in an Empire, which flourished through taking the maximum out of its citizens, had resulted in extreme scarcity of men during several periods. This ‘natural selection’ process left behind the strongest masculine genes, which on the other hand were offered increased possibility of choice regarding their potential mates. So one of the reasons that Russian women are so nice is that they are the ancestors of the most beautiful women of their time! Only they had the ‘privilege’ to find a partner and make families. And in addition, high aesthetic and femininity standards have in that way been implanted in the prevailing culture, with competition between women for male attention being still strong…

On the other hand, there is the sexist education of the Soviet regime, which still persists, according to which young Russian girls are taught that their role in a family is inferior to the one of the man. They are taught to cook and serve, to walk (like in the catwalk) and do their make-up with professional standards, while the boys learn to do the plumbing and the electricity things in the house… And still, when they date each other, the Russian girls expect that the man will pay all their expenses, confirming his superiority and his dominance. They, on the other hand, know very well to support, to animate and stimulate their man… On the other hand, women no matter how feminine and ‘fragile’ they may look, deep inside they carry a strong and well structured character, based on their good education, the hard times of every day life, without often the presence of man.

So, logically speaking, there are plenty of reasons that the Russian women dance tango very well… It’s because they are feminine, they are beautiful, they have the gift of slim silluetes with long legs, which adds an incredible torsion and dynamism in their dance; it’s because they have been educated to understand, follow and inspire the man and they totally surrender when they dance! And on top of that it’s because they are clever, well educated and they love to learn…

While in the west, education has been transformed into skill acquisition, directly related to the job market, the prevailing perception in Russia is still the classical one. Learning just for the pleasure of acquiring knowledge, no matter if it’s on history, philosophy, politics, or arts. Russian people love to train their minds and gain skills and it’s not an accident that they have been completely hooked, by the ‘trip’ of inheriting all these new movements and emotions, the voleos, the sacadas, planeos, the musicality of tango, the pauses and the climaxes. They adore the creativity it carries and they want to master it NOW! In the Moscow tango community there is a madness going on, with lots of (mostly rich) Moscovites attending numerous classes, special lessons, festivals; travelling around the world, curious to know how other people dance and inviting the cream of Argentinean dancers to teach them their secrets.

So the only negative aspect is that some people dance in a way too ‘loaded’ fashion, doing a lot of figures, without having the necessary the base and letting the passion and the ‘feeling’ as second priority. My interpretation of this attitude is that it’s driven by an ‘academic’ desire to explore tango, but it’s almost common in ‘colder’ places, where direct contact with strangers is not part of the prevailing culture. On the other hand the Russian tangeras, with their inherent tendency towards perfection, are so well skilled and devoted, that they will follow any partner and interpretation of the music. And for that reason Moscow tango, for a male dancer, is an awesome experience, it’s one among the high peaks of the worldwide Tango trip. So perfectly spiced with all those cultural gaps, the curiosity and the desire for acquaintance and interaction and the unique scenery of the unique Moscow city. Which no matter how dominant, it disappears after each cortina….

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Finished 20/10/2008