Two Argentinian dances

The mating dance of the Argentinians is visible every day as I walk down the street.

The female of the species wears short, tight and brightly coloured clothing and several pieces of over-sized jewelery. As she approaches a male he will express his interest in the female.

This behaviour occurs most frequently when groups of males gather together. In these cases evidence of interest is more apparent as the males compete for attention.

Signals to the female are given in the form of whistles, hisses or exclamations which translate to 'Dear God, I have never seen such a beautiful creature' or 'Hey LADYYYYYYY'.

In most situations, the female will continue to walk past the male feigning deafness. Observations suggest that the males are not discouraged in these cases, rather they make a greater effort in subsequent encounters.

Lone males often behave in a more subtle manner. Such a male will simply stop in his tracks and turn 180 degrees to silently watch the female come and go, appreciating all that he has seen. In these situations, the males will not succeed with the female as she is usually unaware of the interest. The efforts still serve the important role of keeping mating-dance skills tuned.

It's all fascinating to watch!!! And I really do see it ALL the time. Boys here are taught to express approval of what they see. It's actually a nice change as Canadian males do everything they can to AVOID detection when checking out a girl. Given that Dutch males appear to only like leggy blondes, Argentina is finally a place where my ego might get a boost. I figured I could at least enjoy a little harmless attention while I'm down here. Then again, I need to be careful what I wish for....

Case in point: Orlando!

Instead of doing tango lessons at the school today, Margaret (the Aussie girl in my Spanish class) convinced me to go out to try a lesson at the 'La Virula' club which is followed by a social dance. I arrived a bit before the tango class started to watch the milonga class. I ordered food and sat down. Within two minutes my soon-to-be-best-bud-for-the-next-three-hours swooped in to introduce himself and ask me to dance. I didn't even have my shoes on!!!

He was sweet but my God he latched on. He held my hand to and from the dance floor (gentlemanly), he had his arm around me while listening to the instructors (ummm...okay?...) but when he wouldn't change partners even when asked to, it became too much. Perhaps I wouldn't have minded if he looked like Ryan Reynolds and had an amazing personality but he was SO clingy and he was trying too hard. The attention was nice but thank goodness I had a cab booked for 01:30!