After the first tanda he asked me how long I had been dancing. "I am still new, only three months." I replied. "How'bout you?". "If you have been dancing for three months, I have been dancing for only two months" he said with a shrewd smile on his face, he blinked and extended his hand for another tanda. We were both lying of course. As I was told later, he was a visiting tango teacher.
I used this answer for couple of other leaders in different times... "Wow, you must be a genius", one of them said. "By three months I was still crawling" the other one commented. "Get out of here" the more experienced one remarked. My confidence was sure boosted by the results of this little white lie...
The truth is, I took the first steps of tango over ten years ago, back in Istanbul. My only regret is that I haven't been dancing continuously for all those years. So when people asked me how long I had been dancing I didn't know what to say. I didn't even know how many years it would add to, if I put it all together... three?... four?... six?
For the last one year I have been going to milongas almost every night. The more I dance, the better I get... and the better I get, I get to dance with better leaders. And now, when they ask me how long I have been dancing, I just say "some years", leaving the calculation to them. Couple of days ago, at the end of a tanda someone asked me again, "Really, how long? Three... four... six?"
