Tangodurians

Tango progress happens for me in fits and starts. It's like I suddenly get a breakthrough to another level, then I plateau for ages before suddenly finding and shaping and varying how I do certain basic steps and all the times always working on making my walks like a cruiseliner cutting through waves-bladelike and never bobbing. What I'm finding more often though is this idea of catching energies. Of taking the signal given and pushing the energy through from the receiving end (upper torso) into the expressive end (legs most of the time). Looking back at the start, I can barely remember what it was like to suffer through the basics-like how ochos were super impossible and even now, doing a solo ocho remains a very hard thing to do, what with weight balance and a movement that is designed to do everything to try and throw you off balance. It's this flow, this ease of having music and movement come into one whole package that makes the best dancers so beautiful to look a...

Wednesday session with a flood of women, something around the ratio of 1:3 minimum so the female leads decided to take matters into their own hands. Beautifully fun though, I often feel that women have innately a greater sense of musicality because they are not worried about doing multiple fancy moves (mainly because they haven't been taught it). There's also something very nice about a woman's embrace-and a lot of boob wars going on- which lets you feel for an instant what you might actually feel like to a guy. Still trying to sort out my own lead though, I feel somewhat limited in the movements and there are so many I would like to do, but I don't have the tools or the language to do it. It's also potentially because I'm treating leading as a 'self-learning' thing, thinking that since I already know it's counter move that I can deduce the lead. Unfortunately this doesn't occur a lot of times. There's also this abject panic of knowing tha...

  Apenas suspiró tu encanto, apenas floreció tu amor, perfume de ilusión dejaste en mi pesar, recuerdo de una noche y nada más. Mi ensueño se quedó en la dicha y nunca te diré adiós, un beso de pasión, partiste sin amar y el claro de tu ausencia tan mortal. Cuando te veo pasar indiferente de amor, la risa es pobre disfraz de mi tristeza, después te alejas y ya mi pensamiento revive tus palabras y la noche del encuentro. Dijiste "siempre serás para mi vida el amor", palabras de tu emoción que ya murieron. Flor de un día, tu perfume, siempre embriaga a mi corazón. Y todo no fue más que un beso, encanto que plasmó mi amor. Después al despertar, la vida sin color es mezcla de dulzura y de dolor. En vano llamaré tu nombre ya nunca escucharé tu voz distancia de los dos, camino sin final, y el sueño que no espeja en tu mirar.   Just sighed your charm,  flourished just your love,  illusion perfume left on my ...

Besides, most of us come to tango after having had a largely intellectual education. We live in our heads and our computers, not our bodies.   We try to process intellectually what is happening to us. This is not effective when learning movement. Your body works in ways you cannot fully fathom, let alone fully control by your mind. Do you control your digestion? Do you activate your heartbeat? Do you consciously push the blood through your veins? In your brain there are more neural connections than there are stars in our galaxy, and this is a fact, not a figure of speech. Are you controlling them? Or are they controlling you?  Stiffness in a dancer is often the result of his or her conscious mind trying to understand and control every movement BEFORE it happens, which is simply not possible. Your mind is not running the show, it only helps you to understand the intention and the mechanics of the movement. This is why leaders implore their followers: “Please stop thinking!...

Tango word for the year: Smooth

Hasta siempre, amor, pasarás de otro brazo y dolerá el fracaso igual que hoy. Farewell, love, you’ll move to another arm and the failure will hurt same as today. Hasta siempre, amor, corazón como el mío, que compartió tu hastío, no encontrarás.Y entre la gente buscarás la mano amiga que te di y sólo así comprenderás que por quererte te perdí. Farewell, love, heart like mine, which shared your distaste, you won’t find.And among people you’ll seek the friendly hand I gave you and only then you’ll understand that for loving you I lost you Hasta siempre, amor, Hoy me sangra el recuerdo como una espina nueva del corazón. Hasta siempre, amor, cuando sueñes conmigo en las noches de frío ya no estaré. Farewell, love, Today the recall bleeds as a new spine of the heart. Farewell, love, when you dream about me on cold nights I will not longer be there. Y no me llames, si me ves a mi también con otro amor, porque es inútil esperar si la esperanza ya murió. And don’t...

It's been a good year for dancing if not for every other aspect of my life. 2 travels to Shanghai and Singapore, 1 homegrown festival and on a smaller scale Tangoblitz and other lessons with visiting teachers. New tango venues in town and the community continues to attract people on mid-length stints in Malaysia, providing a base for these expats. Started DJ-ing a couple of times. 3 more pairs of shoes. Oops. Above all shifting my POA yet again. This time into more stable dancing and translating this into being more grounded and collecting better. I think I've figured my lag between learning something and putting it into action is about 8 months... Been a good year, will spend next year continually honing the skills even more and being exposed to even more variety of dancing globally.