Going out in Cape Town - music and dancing

Partly in the last 10 days I didn't post anything, I was busy going out in Cape Town... it wasn't all work! I emailed the few local argentine tango teachers and found one in the town 45 minutes away. Not sure how I would get to the lesson, he told me of a German student who had just moved from that town to Cape Town and was commuting down for their Tuesday night dances. He got me in touch with her, and she was happy to take me along - and even go early so I could get a lesson before the evening of dancing. (She actually normally goes early to visit her friends there.)

The dance scene in Stellenbosch (the town we went to) is nothing like in Oregon. There were about 15 people at a cafe with a concrete floor. The people were super friendly though! The lesson was fun - it got me warmed up, but I found most of the people there thought of the dance as a series of steps, so weren't so fun to dance with. One guy was nice though - a farmer, mostly of different types of fruits.

I got excited about getting into the dancing scene so I pushed to get a lesson with the Cape Town teacher later that week, who turned out to be fabulous! I had two lessons with him overall, and they were the most amazing dance lessons I've ever had. After the 2nd lesson with him, I left feeling 2 feet taller and half my weight! I felt light, but balanced - strong and stable, but free to move with his lead. It felt like I was doing the dance right - and really dancing! I hope that the things I learned stick with me so I have more good dances back home!!

http://www.tangocapetown.co.za/

Here is a picture of the teacher and his partner - who also teaches:










That Sunday I was stoked to try tango in Cape Town where the scene is bigger and there are some great dancers. However, I was disappointed to find the scene very snobby, and only two people asked me to dance, besides the farmer who had come up from Stellenbosch. And one of those two hit on me while we were dancing close - which is not cool...

So after 2 hours of not much dancing, the German student wanted to go salsa dancing instead, and invited me along. I don't know much about salsa, but people there were nice, and taught me to dance - I was doing all sorts of things I didn't know I could do by the end of 2 hours at that club! I met one nice guy she had made friends with, and over the noise he thought I said I was 24 - turns out he believed it! I can't believe I can pass for that... Salsa was fun - but after the 2nd awesome tango lesson I can't imagine giving up tango...

On top of the dancing, my host's masters student plays bass and invited me out to see him play covers for his weekly Friday night gig. He was in a band and they were going to tour in Canada, but they didn't all get visas, or something like that, and he ended up starting the grad program after undergrad instead. He also took me to a coffee shop before my trip to Kruger to hear some friends of his play. The band was fun to listen to though I was way too old to be out with that scene. People were seriously superficial there - loads of barely legal people making out... I may be able to pass for 24 by looks but I certainly don't want to act like one!!













At any rate - it was fun to go out and explore the night life a bit. As awesome as my host is, he wasn't going to help me on that account :)