Tangodurians

  “we dance tango because we have secrets.” - Marilyn Cole Lownes    

You forget sometimes that Tango is so much a part of a person that any little jibe can be taken as an insult. Perhaps this is a general life lesson anyway, in that you never really want to hurt someone by insulting something they hold dear to their heart.

Cikgu said to me today that I was dancing like a little shy sparrow. I stared at him for a bit. Then decided to spread my wings and soar. He said that it became easier to dance with me. Lol. Sometimes you need someone to give you that push. You don't want to come out with guns blazing and then have someone look at you and go. WTF are you doing. You need that encouragement that is subtle, reinforcing, so that every time you start to dance, you remember that, hey, you can actually move, and move decently well.

Tango is less about dancing a set sequence of steps. It is at its core a feeling. Your body is the orchestra and the music is the conductor. That is what sets apart the good from the truly good. There's tango, and then there's TANGO. I shut my eyes today, and trusted.

"You've got to get the fundamentals down, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work." — Randy Pausch ( The Last Lecture ) 

Okay, honestly, leaders should not need to tell me to cross my legs. They should LEAD me into it. I mean, honestly. Of course i technically know how to do an ocho cortado. Of course, i technically know how to do a sacada. Of course i technically know how to do a molinete. But seriously man, if you give me crappy leads to work on, how the hell am i supposed to know that you're leading me into a different step than what i'm performing? Yes we've learned it in class together, but the fact still remains, if your body is telling me to do something else, then dude, that's what i'm going to do. If you're trying to lead me into an ocho cortado and can't get my legs to cross, then maybe, just MAYBE, you're doing it wrong. Ever thought of that? I swear, sometimes men take things too technically that they forget to observe how the body reacts to these tiny changes that they make. I have this one dude basically opening up his embrace, tossing me to his side, neg...

There is a malay song that goes as follows: "Andai dipisah lagu dan irama, Lemah tiada berjiwa, hampa" Which basically means, music and rhythm, if separated, leads to a disappointing, soulless (read:dispassionate) endeavor. Last Saturday, at my now 5th Milonga ever, I tried really hard to focus less on my footwork and more on the music. I absorbed the music and tried to just really feel the movements my partner led me into, perhaps getting a gist of his interpretation of the song. I have come to realize that the joys that i experience in tango relates more to how these little beats in each song gives way to tiny little rock steps or provide room for an abbreviated ocho cortado amidst the normal walks we take more often than not. yes, a fancy gancho or a boleo, when appropriate, takes my tango soul to a new level of euphoria, but those tiny improvisations, when executed to near perfect timing to the music makes my tanda magical. It differentiates just dancing for the s...