Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Tango path vs True tango: Your deepest tango experience.


When we talk about tango we want often to define the true tango, what tango really is and most of the time I agree with the descriptions! Still, I would prefer to present my experience of tango as a path the dancers are advancing on, a mental landscape I am passing through.

When I started out the tango WAS about steps and ochos and turns and figures for me. Fast music urged me to move fast forward and a slow song gave me more calm steps. To manage the difficult figures made the joy burst hilariously out and l was looking for more challenges! My dance was external and the music expression was external! Everything in my dance was easily visible to others!

The paradigm shift was the change from the external dance to an internal one!


One day my partner was rising tall at the end of a musical phrase and I felt that it was the most beautiful thing ever! For me, this was the first time I clearly experienced the external movement and its internal equivalent. During the external years, I had developed the internal equivalents for tango and an ability to recognize them within me. Now we could just stand there with small movements released by the music and enjoy a tanda! The best ever! :)

Today I can fall off to a totally external dance during a fast milonga but a heavy Pugliese could tease me down to the most internal dance instead!

Tango keeps surprising me! The sources of joy during the first years were different compared to the delights now. The scenery of today will change and the path will run through different landscapes during the coming years and I am curious!

It is wise to find pleasure from every period of tango, from every section of your path! 



Paris 2011