Meeting Marcela
It was a long subte ride to get to Plaza Miserere. When I got out, there were people everywhere. Every building had a shop, in front of them make-shift shops, and then people were walking around selling things like umbrellas, underwear, and churros. One man just simply stood and yelled ´paraguas, paraguas, paraguas.´ You couldn´t stand still in the mad hustle and bustle of people. Eventually I found Rivadavia street and the buzz number. Her building was fascinating because once ´inside´we walked through an outdoor hallway to a second building and up some stairs. In her apartment was a long warm dance studio.

The first thing I was instructed to do was to lay on the floor boca abajo and she massaged my back. That is a nice way to start a dance class. After that I did some stretches to loosen my hip joints and she explained the center of my dance were my ´isquion´ which I gathered meant sit bones. We did some floor exercises that worked with spiralling and reminded me of a contemporary dance class I took in Ottawa that was based on Martha Graham technique. Next she watched me do some basic tango steps and gave some suggestions. During the dance she said to always put your partner first and to always be open to accept their ´marca´ or their guidance. The classes next week should be interesting.