Skip to main content

Disconnection

I had my 4th milonga last night. And as usual, i spent 3/4 of the time i was there sitting on my chair trying to look like i am able and ready to dance. Eager beginners get dances? LOL. Next time i'm pulling a C-J tactic. Talk to a guy about something related to tango and after a few minutes, he MIGHT feel semi obligated to ask you to dance. Well, it's worth a shot!

My point is, last night, i had maybe 5 dances in a span of 4 hours. That's only about 1 hour of dancing. Not good. Being out of the scene for about 2 weeks, I had difficulties following a few leaders, for obvious reasons. I'm usually not THAT horrible. arrrrrr. I did have a few good dances with Cikgu and MD and maybe Phillo, but T and i could not connect! At all. I felt nothing. Which is probably the worse feeling you can go through while dancing with someone. It's like you become two separate entities instead of one.

I felt sooooo bad because i could tell that he was trying really hard to establish that connection between us and i just could not read him. I had a good leader, but the chemistry just wasn't there. I don't think i've ever felt that before. Ever. As much of a beginner that I am, there has never been a dance where i felt completely disconnected from my partner. Most times, it's just a matter or me not knowing what to do when he leads me into a step i have absolutely no clue about. Or that he's too agressive that i feel coerced into doing things. Or that he's too light that i have to work extra hard to read his signals.

I don't know how to actually just let go of what had happened with that dance. It's perplexing for me. Is it some sort of failure on my part? or would i just not be able to connect to every single future dance partner that i might have? Is it a matter of chemistry or technique or both?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020

Ah 2020. You have been upended in the most ridiculous way possible by a virus that has destroyed every single activity we do for fun, leisure, pleasure, necessity, survival. Because, humans. Was so looking forward to a year of dancing starting with the Taiwan Valentine's Tango Marathon, leading into STM v5, London, Portugal and maybe BA by the end of the year. Guess what! ALL GONE, DESTROYED. It has been a year since I went to a marathon/event. I am probably the saddest I have been when it comes to the dance front. 11 years ago I made it such a part of my identity that it has accompanied me through the years of visiting different cities for work, for holiday, for weddings, for connections, for reunions with exes, for meeting new interests. Shaped my 20's like nothing else has and only grows stronger year after year. 2020 was the reset required. Mentally, emotionally. This relationship with Tango remains my strongest and most developed of my many relationships with many a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Malaysia Prelims & Tango Festival - Musings

Off the back of a weekend that required me to leave work early and sleep cray hours to finally get back into a semi-human mode of work and sleep. Thoughts? When I first started tango, I jumped straight into a Fire & Ice festival in Ann Arbor January of 2010. That was my first taste of a tango festival which was relatively social and a good scene in hindsight. Coming back to Malaysia I've participated in the KL Festival every single year, Singapore festival twice, Taiwan festival once (24 hour on a whim - fuck it all flight), Shanghai festival once. Other than that the flavour of the day nowadays is definitely geared more toward marathons/encuentros, and for a good reason. Festivals in this part of the world are seriously so tipped toward a certain "type" that it is far more worth my money and sanity to go for the social dancing rather than the festival format. Granted, lessons were good, always learning, picking up new things. Competition was, so-so for me, was...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Unselfish Lead

Been putting on the hat of a leader over this past week and enjoying it even more. Yeah I have no idea how to do giros or sacadas, and don't talk about ganchos either, but what I've figured is that as long as musicality is there, as long as connection exists, both parties enjoy it. This has made me wonder about something though-I always thought that leaders were having all the fun at the start-in the sense that the steps that are taken in this dance are dependent on the leaders to have trained and learnt them-as a follower you can follow even if you don't know much about what you are doing, as long as the leader does. All the classes then seem to be about the leader's steps. But then I've also come to realise that, as a leader, you are expected to craft the dance to understand the steps through the viewpoint of the lady, and maybe this is where many teachers don't emphasize enough. That every step you take, you have to realise what signals you are giving ou...
Post a Comment
Read more