Like:
- Gentle but firm embrace.
- Clean clothes.
- Subtle after-shave.
- Respect for the musical pauses.
- Deodorized.
- Extra hanky for the ladies.
- Genuine compliments.
Dislike:
- Anaconda, vice-grip embrace.
- Moldy t-shirt smelling of last week's many milongas.
- Inuendoes.
- Bad breath.
- Talking while dancing.
- The aroma of fermented cheeses anywhere in the vicinity of our nose.
- This.
9 comments:
I am going to have to stop reading your blog while I'm at work if you persist with the craziness.
I know now how you are finding this stuff and I feel partially responsible.
My two favorites on my personal list: when a leader asked me to dance, then asked me to wait for a minute while he changed his shirt. Then he returned, asked me to smell his shirt and to let him know if it "smelled bad." As it had been laying around in his car for a week.
Needless to say, that guy is on permanent leave from my dance card.
Oh, and the guy that really, really, really wanted me to understand that dancing tango is like having tantric sex. Give me a freaking break.
I was going to take a class from a beautiful Argentine woman, partly because a new-ish lead asked me to, and partly because it was near my house. The ENTIRE room smelled like BO because of one guy. The whole damned big dance room. I could not wait to get out of there. And I haven't been back. I wonder if teachers ought to maybe be the ones to say something? Isn't this just basic stuff that everyone is supposed to learn early on in life? What the hell. Yikes. I bet the nice teacher lost students because of this.
Yes, TB. I am the monster thou hath wrought!!! And I'm ever so grateful :-).
But having some guy sniff his armpits for approval? Ew.....
The really odd thing, Elizabeth, is that BO is not such a big deal in some other countries. Europeans, for example, have a much higher tolerance for it that Americans do. And the fact is that BO is OLD sweat smells. Meaning somebody didn't bathe AFTER sweating up a storm elsewhere... THAT's really yuck, and can really stink up a room. Not to mention the clothes that didn't get washed either...
I need a Valium.
Well, I've travelled a lot to many counties, and I get it that everyone does not have to be fresh as a daisy,(in fact, yes we are maybe a bit squeamish about smells that are acceptable and even valuable in other cultures,) but this was something else....
I actually wish that garlic was not so maligned in the dance culture, it is a favorite flavor or mine and it is so good for us.
I love garlic too! And it smells delicious while being cooked and eaten. It's the POST-eating aroma that takes on a whole other, um, dimension...
The thing is that we are not having a casual conversation, we are intimately embracing someone for 10 minutes, during which our noses are incredibly close to their mouths and breath!
So maybe a "European" (or anyone with a different cultural understanding of personal daintiness) can be tolerable at a distance of 2 feet, when our nose is in his unwashed armpit, it's something else.
To be fair though, I've heard of several opposite cases when the front of the man's shirt smells of BO because the woman's armpit is pressed against it.
Euwwww!
That's absolutely true, tangocherie. Sins go in both directions. I did not mean to imply they don't :-)
I'm certain most men do not enjoy the expense of drycleaning lipstick and make-up off their shirts either.
Johanna,
I don't understand about the "extra hanky for the ladies" - is that a fresh one for each new partner?! :-)
Also, about the facial hair, can I not get away with a very closely shaved goatee?
Hi again AJ! It would be nice for the gentleman to have a fresh supply of hankies for each partner :-) But alas, even I concede how impractical that would be.
As for the goatee, I personally find that acceptable. I think I was envisioning the "Grizzly Adams" approach to facial hairstyle. And the same goes for long, curly hair. It is just as annoying to women as to men to have someone else's hair snaking up your nose.
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