...and she replied «no, I don't dance aux Quais de la Seine any more, the surface is too rough and it ruins my shoes.» I wondered: how many thousands or maybe millions of people in the world would love to be able to say that they wore out a pair of shoes, dancing Tango in Paris by the Seine?
What is the price of a pair of dancing shoes compared to a moment some time in the future when your granddaughter, breathless after her first ballet lesson, asks you did you ever like to dance, and you remember the summer in Paris when you watched the golden rays of the setting sun shine through the lacy stonework of Notre Dame cathedral, then danced in the glowing violet dusk of cool Paris evenings until your shoes wore out.
Dancing aux Quais de la Seine is a memory, a morsel in Hemingway's «moveable feast» that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Don't miss it.
Vive le Tango Libre !!
What a pity such a peaceful and dignified activity, which has been a hallmark of Paris summers for more than twenty years, is now prevented by Bumbledom. The six policemen who were sent to stop our dancing last Saturday (10 July 2010) must have felt silly, having to stand guard over a group of mellow and quiet Tango dancers, when elsewhere in Paris on a Saturday night there are drunken hooligans smashing bottles in the street.
They can silence the music, but they can't stop us dancing, the music is in our heads and our hearts. Some of us danced in silent protest, some of us with MP3 players shared between partners. It must have been disappointing for the hundreds of spectators, on the quay and in the passing tourist boats, not to see people dancing in time with each other.
Vive le Tango Libre !!