Dancing
Dancing in Lomma, Sweden 2007
Karsinova’s ‘Don’ts For Dancers’
I first picked up this book and heard a heavily accented Karsinova telling me… “Don’t be intimidated by the Tango.” I could see her, bedecked in the best of 20s fashion, jewelled and coiffed to an inch of her existence and of course smoking a cigarette through a holder. Dispensing her tips as though it were the most obvious thing.
This pre-fab image played so on my conscience that when I found out this was an alias, I changed her accent to something more London, albeit more upstairs than downstairs.
‘Don’t lose heart because you’ll never learn all the steps the experts dance.’
The advice came thick and with the way I was reading fast too. “Don’t lean on your partner. Hold body erect but not rigid.”
If I ever felt like I repeat myself in classes, this was a meditation on consistency, after all she’s been at it since 1925.
Don’t be fooled by the size or the age of this book, it is a little gem shining with tips and reason for the milonga and you’d have to be a hard hearted milonguero/a if it didn’t bring a smile to your face while reading.