How would it change our dancing if we danced every step with the focus and intent of strengthening our energetic and emotional connection with our partner?
For most of my tango years, I have been in search of that unitive coupling which gives me the sense, not only that my partner and I are co-creating the dance but that our separateness has been subsumed into the dance. In a felt, sense the dance is dancing us and we are going along for the ride.
We do something completely unintended and unchoreographed, and exquisitely fitted the music. Or, we do something that is not fitting: one of us missteps and both of us are equally convinced that we are responsible for the mistake. Or our bodies seem to meld seamlessly as we float around the dance floor.
This doesn’t happen often, of course. Typically, I indulge in those light pleasant pairings in which we blend into the line of dance, sticking with the comfortable and familiar, chatting a little to get caught up on life. This is all good.
But it is not great. It is not the soul stirring tango high for which I am longing. It does not rescue me from my thick-walled, egoic container which my partner deftly skirts around but is never invited in. And, as a consequence the door is never opened for me to escape.
I want to invite her in. I want to open the door. I want break free. I want to dance.