Skip to main content

Strangers in the night

"Strangers in the night
Two lonely people, we were strangers in the night
Up to the moment when we said our first hello little did we know
Love was just a glance away, a warm embracing dance away"

The longer you end up in Tango, the more the elusive reason of why you stay in it begins to fade. After encountering the negative side of the dance - not getting dances, bitchy people, negative emotions - you tend to forget that the positives more than outweigh the bad really. But if there was really anything at the core of it, it is this, it is the moment of locking eyes with a stranger and suddenly becoming the most intimate acquaintances. Sensual, playful, being able to communicate without words, being able to give and take, yin and yang, feminine to the masculine energies, a real blend.

Having fun with the music, having fun with the moves, throwing and catching, releasing and absorbing energies. This is why you train, this is why you take lessons, this is why you spend so much $ on travels, on shoes, on clothing, to create a moment so perfect it lingers with you for the longest time.

Focusing on the minute sessions, focus on the internal and whats within and with-out. To move and commit with every step, to not make fun of it, but to respect the whole way. Respect the music, respect the moves and respect the etiquette of this surviving art form.

It's like finding the perfect partner in a tennis match, where you win some, you lose some and the score is 7-6,6-7,7-6 by the end of it. Equals. Partners.

Do not dance me. Dance with me. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I'm...Back?

Honestly, it has been a struggle to get back into Tango. I'm having a bit of difficulty figuring out why, but it might just be a combination of having disconnected from it in my regular weekly schedule because of COVID, same COVID making it impossible for me to travel to other countries to dance and join Marathons, a number of years since starting and feeling stagnated, and honestly just feeling a waning interest overall. There is still motivation there, it isn't entirely gone, but life has gotten into the way. The using Tango as a bit of an emotional crutch has also been replaced by a real life human being, so that is yet another reason for the increasingly ambivalent attitude I seem to be having to the dance nowadays. All that being said, I did just fly to Singapore this weekend for Tomas workshop and because damnit, I am fan #1 in Malaysia, unabashedly! Time to see if it's time to kickstart the organising again!

Recap 2019

Well well well, here we come again to the end of another Tango year in 2019. Granted, this year was a lot more muted for me, just one Tango Prelims Championship, one Fame Tango Weekend extravaganza, one Tango marathon (shit, just one?!). This years tango centered very much around home, no crazy travels (thanks to change in job), no multi-country tango events (thanks to no budget + no time), a smattering of lessons. But internally, centeredness, duende. Next year, Taipei Tango Weekend, Singapore Tango Marathon + Lisbon for food, travels and Tango. Where is my tango this year? 10 years since that fateful day running to Michigan Union in shorts and t-shirt with flipflops, hair wet from a swim on a balmy end of September day, 3 to 4 weeks into the new semester. Not knowing this would kickstart one of my greatest passions in this life. The one that brings me into the world of friendships, arguments, travels and meetings. All sorts of people, friends, acquaintances, annoyances. The ...

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...