How science informs our dancing.
Welcome the big question…
My dance partner and I concluded a particularly energetic, free-form response to nuevo/ alternativo music. Neither of us knowing what the other would do or when. Yet, here we are rapid fire spinning and flicking with precision mirroring and timing? Catching our breath after the final flourish, my partner poses the question:
“How do we know how to dance like that?”
The big question indeed…
… which sends me off in search of an equally big answer.
My three check points for integrating what happens on the dance floor are, first off, dance instruction (of course) followed by an eclectic blend of spirituality and science. It continually fascinates me how all seem to inform each other in some magical way.
Check point #1) dance instruction
No help here. We were dancing Nuevo, not traditional Tango. Sure we are adhering to some basic Tango structure, e.g., close embrace, contra-positioning. But Nuevo, depending on the mood and music and partner, has the propensity to be a far freer expression of creative flourishing than the more structured tango.
The question remains: “How do we know how to dance like that?”
Check point #2) Science.
One of the hot topics these days in physics is quantum entanglement.
Wait a minute. Isn’t entanglement exactly what we try to avoid on the dance floor?
interestingly enough, if we bridge micro level (quantum physics) and macro level (e.g., people) perspectives, there is an intriguing application. (True, scientists hate when hobbyists like me misappropriate their theories. But heh, I am not scientist.)
What physicists (who apparently lack any romantic inclinations), term entanglement, the rest of us romantics would readily recognize as coupling.
Apparently, particles no matter how small (We are talking really small here. Quantum size.), have a predisposition toward coupling or entanglement. (The little devils. Who knew? Out of sight …).
But we are not talking about coupling in a traditional sense. This has little perhaps nothing, to do with physical proximity. In fact, entanglement can stretch across galaxies. What we are talking about is the fascinating changes to behaviour respective to each other that result when two particles get connected/ entangled/ coupled at a deep level.
First, the coupling is complimentary, or compensatory. Each particle completes the whole or balances out the singularity of the other. For every yin there is a yang. If one particle spins up, the other one spins down. If one is positive, the other is negative, etc.
Secondly if the properties of one particle changes, the other changes simultaneously. They are no longer able to act independently. The two particles have assumed to some extent a shared identity.
Back to answering my partner’s big question of the night: “How do we know how to dance like that?”
Dance application #1. We have an ability, even predisposition at the very core of our being, to couple with someone in a way that balances/ rounds out/ completes their singularities. Tango is built on the premise of there being two halves, opposites, totally distinctive orientations that are balanced in the dance.
Dance application #2. The particles act and react as one. There is no “one changes first and then the other changes.” There is no time lapse between lead and follow. Everything happens to each part simultaneously. Partners move in complete synchronicity.
Tango in this?
It depends. Typically in Tango, the lead and follow time sequence is very prominent. But there are definitely times when the time lapse between lead and follow is lost (e.g., dancing Nuevo) and it does feel as if both partners are dancing as one, instantaneously. At this stage, it seems somewhat artificial to maintain the lead and follow distinction.
This was particularly our experience the night when my partner popped the big question.
So how close are we to the big answer?
We now know why Tango generally feels so good. This coming together or coupling in a contra-positioning embrace and step is instinctual at a cellular level. It resonates and vibrates through our entire being. We feel complete, whole in the partnership.
Who knew? Well, I suppose we all did, but it somehow makes it more clear or definitive when science adds its perspective (albeit reluctantly).
There is still a major question about entanglement that science has yet to answer, namely, “How does entanglement happen?,” or, “Why does it happen sometimes and not other times?”
This part of the equation is actually answered more clearly (at least for our purposes) at a macro or spiritual level.
But that will be next week. I hope you stay with me.