TANGO LOVE STORY IN SWEDEN
*the story was originally written in Spanish and placed in the chronological time of our Europa Tango Tour 2006, while in Sweden, in our blog-see Historia de amor y de tango 14/05/2006,
however, on a special request, and because it´s worth retalling and immortalizing: here goes its English version
Let us tell you a love story, more :it´s going to be a tango love story. A Swedish –Danish story with Argentinean ingredients: tango and Aisha & Victor. With secrets, suspension, drama and turmoil, goals and determination, reason and intuition, but most of all- with passion.We are going to tell you a magical love story, of which we were catalysers: a love story of Junot and Diana.
When Junot Delcomyn appeared in front of us for the first time, during our European Tango Tour 2004 ( a sad, grey, rainy Swedish November day...I does not rain very much in Skane- I can hear Junot say), he was just one more student. He had a simple objective- to take some tango classes from ´Argentinean maestros´ to impress and conquer a woman. It would not have been such an original plan, had it not been for the person itself , his personality and how his original idea got modified…
Junot did not have any intention nor time to assist in our group workshop we were giving in different cities of Skane. He chose the private classes as a more efficient method , as he is a totally goal -oriented person , he wanted to achieve what he wanted in the shortest time possible. Junot is not only a successful businessman, he is a man with imagination, creativity, almost romanticism which is not very frequent to find in a modern world ( though he violently refuses to be described by this very trivial word´romantic´ ¨I am NOT ROMANTIC!¨- he exclaims when I challenge him). JUNOT DECIDED TO TAKE HIS TANGO CLASSES IN ABSOLUTE SECRET, SO AS TO SURPRISE DIANA, already a tango addict! To conquer a chosen woman by the same weapon which brought them together the first time ( he recalled thas dancing party with a big caty smile on his face ¨She was the best dancer and everything was just flowing for us!¨ Of course, Junot ALWAYS HAS TO HAVE THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, we were to learn later. But we liked the idea even more: we were the accomplices in a passion!
During the first couple of classes Junot was getting more and more conscious that the original idea of learning tango in a couple of classes, even private, even from the best maestros in the world- was totally unrealistic! Moreover, he realized, being a perfectionist, that the mechanism of guiding and following in a tango , is so fascinating and it´s worth learning it well to mutual enjoynment. There was one more reason, which appeared very soon,I dare to say: we were having a good time together, three of us, and very soon, to our tango encounters we added lunches together.
We turned to be ´every day´s maestros´and companions. Literally: Junot was taking a class of 1,5 hrs till 2 hrs every day, including Saturdays and Sundays. For almost 20 days we spent at least half of every day together!The ritual was following:
- Junot was picking us up at an incredibly brutal time for the dancers: every morning at 10 am punctually his magnificent jaguar was pulling in front of our doors. The number plate of his car, instead of the numbers, was simply LEOPARD : ostentatious, but sweet
- He was taking us from Malmö to his residence in the middle of the forest, by the Baltic Sea, on the outskirts of Höllviken- some 20 km by a motorway. This very travel, admiring the beautiful green and yellow ( raps) fields of Skane, was our manner of waking up. Not to mention our conversations, including metaphysical… ( of which Junot was very fond of) ¨Look at our yellow raps fields!They are not perfect yet, there is too much green in them- but in a week they will turn totally yellow. They are going to be perfectly yellow against the other perfectly green ones. Our SKANE is beautiful! You should always come in May to Skane!¨´ And we did follow his advice and will this year as well.
- The dancing room was already waiting prepared and for the dancers. The residence is a dream, not only of a tango dancer- with its superb wooden floor big enough to dance tango choreographies or to organize a milonga. Anyone, an architect or a common mortal would wish to inhabit/work or have a rest in a such aesthetic surroundings
- Tango class with one of the most demanding, perfectionist and obsessive student we have ever had before. The question was not only to give a class, but to work his manias, insecurities ,impacience and frustration of not being able to perform physically what his brain has already comprehended: in one word- applied psychology tango classes! Thanks god he has a good sense of humor, even though sometimes black humor; he can laugh at himself.
- Junot was taking us to have lunch with him either in Höllviken or his preferred golf clubs or prepared in the house by his cook ( those deliscious salmon dishes prepared in every possible way!) . Those lunches were a continuation of a psychoanalysis sessions of a new born tanguero and a means to get to know one another better. Not that we were monothematic: we talked of life of our prodigy student, his businesses, golf/bridge passion, his unquiet spirit, his art collection and travels. He is a sort of person that we generally describe as ¨successful in life¨ that gets anything he proposes to himself and it was a real pleasure to see his life off stage. We were constantly exhibited and presented to his neighbours, friends, restaurant and golf course owners family member and whatever person who crossed our path. ¨These are my friends from Argentina. They are professional tango dancers on a tour in Europe. They are my personal maestros:Aisha & Victor from Buenos Aires¨ he would repeat to all of them with pride. We were probably never that exposed and praised as in Junot´s presence!
- Junot was bringing us back in his Jaguar ( sometimes substituted by his Volvo) to our temporary residence in Malmö, he was paying us the classes ( the professional relationship teachers-student has always been preserved, independently of the developing friendship) and saying good bye NOT without confirming the next day or fixing a new hour of our encounter. During the weekends, when we normally give group workshops, Junot was adjustable enough for any free hours we had to dedicate to him and his tango.
*the story was originally written in Spanish and placed in the chronological time of our Europa Tango Tour 2006, while in Sweden, in our blog-see Historia de amor y de tango 14/05/2006,
however, on a special request, and because it´s worth retalling and immortalizing: here goes its English version
Let us tell you a love story, more :it´s going to be a tango love story. A Swedish –Danish story with Argentinean ingredients: tango and Aisha & Victor. With secrets, suspension, drama and turmoil, goals and determination, reason and intuition, but most of all- with passion.We are going to tell you a magical love story, of which we were catalysers: a love story of Junot and Diana.
When Junot Delcomyn appeared in front of us for the first time, during our European Tango Tour 2004 ( a sad, grey, rainy Swedish November day...I does not rain very much in Skane- I can hear Junot say), he was just one more student. He had a simple objective- to take some tango classes from ´Argentinean maestros´ to impress and conquer a woman. It would not have been such an original plan, had it not been for the person itself , his personality and how his original idea got modified…
Junot did not have any intention nor time to assist in our group workshop we were giving in different cities of Skane. He chose the private classes as a more efficient method , as he is a totally goal -oriented person , he wanted to achieve what he wanted in the shortest time possible. Junot is not only a successful businessman, he is a man with imagination, creativity, almost romanticism which is not very frequent to find in a modern world ( though he violently refuses to be described by this very trivial word´romantic´ ¨I am NOT ROMANTIC!¨- he exclaims when I challenge him). JUNOT DECIDED TO TAKE HIS TANGO CLASSES IN ABSOLUTE SECRET, SO AS TO SURPRISE DIANA, already a tango addict! To conquer a chosen woman by the same weapon which brought them together the first time ( he recalled thas dancing party with a big caty smile on his face ¨She was the best dancer and everything was just flowing for us!¨ Of course, Junot ALWAYS HAS TO HAVE THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, we were to learn later. But we liked the idea even more: we were the accomplices in a passion!
During the first couple of classes Junot was getting more and more conscious that the original idea of learning tango in a couple of classes, even private, even from the best maestros in the world- was totally unrealistic! Moreover, he realized, being a perfectionist, that the mechanism of guiding and following in a tango , is so fascinating and it´s worth learning it well to mutual enjoynment. There was one more reason, which appeared very soon,I dare to say: we were having a good time together, three of us, and very soon, to our tango encounters we added lunches together.
We turned to be ´every day´s maestros´and companions. Literally: Junot was taking a class of 1,5 hrs till 2 hrs every day, including Saturdays and Sundays. For almost 20 days we spent at least half of every day together!The ritual was following:
- Junot was picking us up at an incredibly brutal time for the dancers: every morning at 10 am punctually his magnificent jaguar was pulling in front of our doors. The number plate of his car, instead of the numbers, was simply LEOPARD : ostentatious, but sweet
- He was taking us from Malmö to his residence in the middle of the forest, by the Baltic Sea, on the outskirts of Höllviken- some 20 km by a motorway. This very travel, admiring the beautiful green and yellow ( raps) fields of Skane, was our manner of waking up. Not to mention our conversations, including metaphysical… ( of which Junot was very fond of) ¨Look at our yellow raps fields!They are not perfect yet, there is too much green in them- but in a week they will turn totally yellow. They are going to be perfectly yellow against the other perfectly green ones. Our SKANE is beautiful! You should always come in May to Skane!¨´ And we did follow his advice and will this year as well.
- The dancing room was already waiting prepared and for the dancers. The residence is a dream, not only of a tango dancer- with its superb wooden floor big enough to dance tango choreographies or to organize a milonga. Anyone, an architect or a common mortal would wish to inhabit/work or have a rest in a such aesthetic surroundings
- Tango class with one of the most demanding, perfectionist and obsessive student we have ever had before. The question was not only to give a class, but to work his manias, insecurities ,impacience and frustration of not being able to perform physically what his brain has already comprehended: in one word- applied psychology tango classes! Thanks god he has a good sense of humor, even though sometimes black humor; he can laugh at himself.
- Junot was taking us to have lunch with him either in Höllviken or his preferred golf clubs or prepared in the house by his cook ( those deliscious salmon dishes prepared in every possible way!) . Those lunches were a continuation of a psychoanalysis sessions of a new born tanguero and a means to get to know one another better. Not that we were monothematic: we talked of life of our prodigy student, his businesses, golf/bridge passion, his unquiet spirit, his art collection and travels. He is a sort of person that we generally describe as ¨successful in life¨ that gets anything he proposes to himself and it was a real pleasure to see his life off stage. We were constantly exhibited and presented to his neighbours, friends, restaurant and golf course owners family member and whatever person who crossed our path. ¨These are my friends from Argentina. They are professional tango dancers on a tour in Europe. They are my personal maestros:Aisha & Victor from Buenos Aires¨ he would repeat to all of them with pride. We were probably never that exposed and praised as in Junot´s presence!
- Junot was bringing us back in his Jaguar ( sometimes substituted by his Volvo) to our temporary residence in Malmö, he was paying us the classes ( the professional relationship teachers-student has always been preserved, independently of the developing friendship) and saying good bye NOT without confirming the next day or fixing a new hour of our encounter. During the weekends, when we normally give group workshops, Junot was adjustable enough for any free hours we had to dedicate to him and his tango.
It was a film of two and a half week´s time, exactly the time when we arrived to Sweden and gave him his first tango class to the date of leaving Sweden to carry on our European Tour. We have NEVER seen anybody who had achieved what Junot has: being able to dance Argentinean tango, guiding a woman, improvising to the music, during such a short time and NO PREVIOUS PREPARATION! If we add the factors of time and frustration, no immediate results, keeping a secret in front of his beloved… It´s a bomb ready to explode any time!
The ups-and-downs of Junot is another topic. One day he arrives only to announce us that he renounces, that he could not possibly carry on and succeed in his tango project. All this due to the last night´s film session, when he watched, together with his beloved woman Diana, a video of Pablo Veron and he realized the impossibility of learning this demon's dance, that he was not even IN THE KINDERGARTEN OF TANGO… to such a point was he enraged that he could not hide it from Diana´s eyes.. Only much later was she to learn about that night´s interior tempest inside of Junot! (* a year later Diana told us about a strange and incomprehensible reaction of Junot seeing the tango spectacle: he seemed to have breathing difficulties, he turned totally pale and incapable of any verbal expression… This mystery she was to comprehend much later). This infamous day of Junot´s tango ´down´ we had to changed the ritual: first we went to an Irish pub, Shakespeare, where the spirit of this English writer with the aid of Irish whiskey helped us to treat and cure the wounded soul of Junot.¨But you said I was good, you said I was progressing,you said I could learn it in a couple of weeks, you said I was talented and I m not even in the kindergarten! ItS IMPOSSIBLE TO LEAR! IT´s DAMN DIFFICULT¨- he was shouting at Aisha. We explained him tango psychology and philosophy, we applied the words of balm and.. we ended up with a new tango class.
Our encounters were totally secret: there was only one accomplice, his best friend and a neighbour, Gitte, and later on her husband. Both of them were witnessing and admiring the determination of the golf and bridge player to become a tango dancer as web. This lovely couple more that one time invited us to dine in their house, when exhausted after the class we craved for some food ( by all means delicious) and an aesthetic design of a house ( for Victor´s architect’s eyes). There was ANOTHER INFAMOUS TANGO CRISIS in Junot: it was when his proper daughter came , asked by himself, during the class to record the progress and register the material. Junot had a typical STAGE FRIGHT ATTACK! He had never danced his tangos in front of the public- it has always been us and Gitte. His knees started to tremble, his body got rigid, his memory went blank, HE COULD NOT DANCE! And there he comes: ¨How will I be able to dance in front of Diana, if I fail to dance in front of my own doughter! Jesus Christ ( his favourite course), what´s happening to me! It´s the END!¨ And of course, it wasn’t. Again, we had to apply our knowledge of applied psychology in tango…
Finally we fixed the GRAN GALA NIGHT in the house of Junot. The whole previous week we were ´conspiring´ and deliberating a fantasy ´screenplay worthy of the night and of Junot. The final idea was following: Junot was to invite Diana as if to give a party to honour her. The special guests: tango dancers from Buenos Aires to give a show and share a dinner! Among the invited were, of course, Gitte with her husband and family members. During this night Diana was to discover something totally new and unimaginable: JUNOT THE TANGO DANCER ( and as she and everybody knows, tango dancers are not born after an autumn rain, but it´s a long and a difficult process of formation, thus hard to hide)
THE GRAND DAY HAS FINALLY COME: Junot asked us for the last repetition a couple of hours before the SPECTACLE, to refresh his mind and warm up his body.
On the indicated hour ( not to forget: we are in SWEDEN!) that is punctually, the guests appear- all dressed up, suits and tie and night dresses. And here entered Diana: with a red rose in her teeth! She is definitely the one who enters into a play spontaneously and joyfully!
The waiters started serving a champagne and the night´s ceremony began by a speech given by Junot: the night was to be dedicated to Diana and her tango passion: and as an ´entrée´Junot had a pleasure to serve the show of Aisha & Victor. And there we went out, dressed for a tango show, the prototypical tangueros of Buenos Aires- any tanguero would love to act in the similar context: the house of Junot was decorated WITH HUNDRETS OF RED ROSES, on his request´( a humangous bunch of those was given to Aisha )! WE danced tango, vals and milonga. Diana was enchanted, giving thanks to Junot for such a gift. But soon, in her playful way, she started to joke and provoke Junot- why does not he try to dance like that? Only try, having a dancer as Aisha to his disposition. Junot only waited for this encouragement- involuntarily she helped him in his screenplay: he stood up and said aloud, so that averybody could hear him: ¨I have watched long enough this tango couple. I think I have learnt. Now, I want to try¨. He extended his hand towards Aisha and nodded to ask for a dance. THERE WAS A MOMENT OF TENSE SILENCE… What is Junot up to? But he only added ¨maestro, musica´and the first sounds of di Sarli music broke the silence…
JUNOT WAS VERY INSPIRED THAT NIGHT. He danced in most elegant, self-secure manner-as if he had danced tangos during his whole life- a real SWEDISH MACHO, to the incredulous stares of the public, especially Diana. She was out of words, when the tango ended and the whole room was like enchanted. Finally Diana recovered her bearings, stood up, and indicated that she wanted to talk. She lifted a toast saying exactly those words ( difficult to forget, therefore I quote them literally) : ¨JUNOT, you know that I love tango. You proved you can do as much as to learn this dance for me. YOU ARE MY TANGO¨ and the tears dropped from her eys. Then Junot stood up and in this Hollywood movie moment, as if every word was prepared ( by the way, I have never believed and quite detested those kitchy hollywoodian happy ends, considering them impossible to happen in reality: but this was happening in front of me, stunned Victor and the rest of us- and I knew everything was sincere and improvised!) and said: ¨Diana, you are the woman worth impossible things. I want to live and dance tango with you. Would you accept to be my woman for the next 20 years? Then, we can nenew the contract¨. And his hand felt for a tiny box in his pocket... Diana says ´YES´and they kissed in a real Hollywood style. ..
May I have a tango dance with you? And off they went to the dance floor!
There was not a single person who would not have been moved in that moment. But the night of surprises and charm was far to be over. As Diana was so fascinated by Aisha´s tango dresses, she was sent by Junot upstairs, to the ´changing room´ to try the shoes and dresses, which Aisha brought especially for that occasion. What followed was a REAL TANGO FASHION SHOW, with Diana as a model, Aisha – as a designer. As she appeared in a shiny, velvet golden dress with new tango shoes on- Junot announced that he purchased this outfit for his angel. We have, obviously, immortalized this very moment: there are a couple of beautiful pictures, adorning Junot´s living room, with a radiant Diana with her new velvet dress and the rest of us around, equally happy.
THE STORY DOES NOT END WITH OUR DEPARTURE FROM SWEDEN in DECEMBER 2004.
There was a next and over the next year encounter. Then, this film had a following casting:
Diana- the lady of the castle, Baltic residence of Junot, and his wife
Junot- a happy husband and a´dancer on a break´, after the surgery of his foot
Aisha & Victor- invited friends and maestros to give tango classes to Diana . We have gained a new house for their European ´second and third houses´collection. In words of Junot: ¨This is your new house- you are more than welcome anytime . Me and Diana are always happy to have you as maestros and as friends¨. What´s said- it´s accomplished every year.
THE STORY DOES NOT END WITH OUR DEPARTURE FROM SWEDEN in DECEMBER 2004.
There was a next and over the next year encounter. Then, this film had a following casting:
Diana- the lady of the castle, Baltic residence of Junot, and his wife
Junot- a happy husband and a´dancer on a break´, after the surgery of his foot
Aisha & Victor- invited friends and maestros to give tango classes to Diana . We have gained a new house for their European ´second and third houses´collection. In words of Junot: ¨This is your new house- you are more than welcome anytime . Me and Diana are always happy to have you as maestros and as friends¨. What´s said- it´s accomplished every year.
Aisha & Victor always include Hölviken and Malmö while in Sweden , on a tango Tour- there is always a botle of good red wine to celebrate the friendship- a special one, for how could anybody dare to challange an argentinean palete? Thus, Chateaunef du Pape was the context of our candlelit dinner.It was then, when we heard of the unknown chapter of their story: Junot, romantically ( even those he says he is not) asked Diana´s hand ON A BICYCLE PARKING IN HÖLLVIKEN KNEELING IN FRONT OF HER! Actually, he dared to asked her when she had a free Saturday, and when she responded, he popped up with a marriage proposal on that date! It´s beyond Hollywood, by all means! JUNOT IS THE MOST UNROMANTICAL ROMANTIC OF OUR TIMES.
He is the one to pick us up during one of our tango visits to Malmö and then take us directly to his freshly finished TURNING TORSO APARTMENT on the 50th floor ( to the breathtaking reaction from Victor, an architect and long time admirer of Calatrava´s design) The detailed description of the fact- in TURNING TORSO chapter. Of course it is unforgettable experience and a great expression of somebody´s gratitude, but for us the most important consequence of this story is not only that we brought two lovely people together, but we remained friends of both of them till now…
For those who want to follow more of our shared chapters with Junot ( like our night in Turning Torso, the visits in Junot´s Baltic Castle etc) and those who can read Spanish we direct to the previous chapters:- Malmö- una noche de magia 12/05/2006
- Aisha & Victor girando con El Torso Que Gira 13/05/2006
- Historia de amor y de tango 14/05/2006
- Una residencia rodeada por Mar Baltico a un lado... 16/05/2006
- Reflexiones de un argentino en Suecia 20/05/2006
T O B E C O N T I N U E D. …..
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