Dancing Our Way to Peace.

A Christmas wish courtesy of your dance community.

Dancing the Silence

Remembrance Day Milonga. We danced to Lovers in Paris, (Jacob Gurevitsch) as our song for peace. In the middle of the song, the music was silenced while everyone continued to dance. For one minute there was just the soft shuffle of shoes and rustling clothes. The dancing continued to flow. In Carlos Gavito’s words (Un Tal Gavito), we did the impossible – we danced the silence. 

Quite likely the Tango is not the first image that springs to mind when you hear “dance of peace.” We might imagine a Straus waltz or a circle dance with every step choreographed and performed with symmetry and predictability. However, tranquillity and conformity are not necessarily the qualities that support true peace. 

Letting Your Claws Out

One of my more vivid introductions to the Tango was the mesmerizing performance by Carlos Gavito and Marcela Duran dancing “A Evarista Carriego”  with the Forever Tango and the Boston Pops orchestra. There was about as much emotional tension and drama as one could hope to see on the stage. Instead of the dance resolving with a comforting embrace, toe to toe, Marcela claws a slow descent down her partner’s chest! Such a performance had about as little to do with peace as couples suing for divorce. (Check the performance and an excellent interview with Marcela about her performance on youtube). 

Such emotional and relational tension is at the root of tango. Germinating in the social turmoil of the Rio de la Plata region at the turn of the 20th century, Tango coalesced the social deficits and sexual tensions of the immigrant population. The close embrace and sensual contact assuaged (in part) the most basic needs for contact and connection. The gender-divergent roles and steps of lead and follow mirrored demographic strains. (Men outnumbered women 10:1).

A Greater Good

Peace is not a static state of agreement, conformity or uniformity.  Nor is it winner-takes-all, beating the other into submission.  There are no winners and losers. Neither has capitulated to the other. The differences are not compromised or homogenized but respected and acknowledged throughout the process. There is no powering over. Rather it is a commitment to stay with the divergences, listening to each other with non-judgement and attentiveness.  

What germinates from the complex and difficult process of polarized parties committed to negotiating a resolution is something entirely new, a vision beyond what is to what could be, a giving over to a greater good for all.

Tango and World Peace

OK. It seems absurd to include a discussion of dance in the context of world conflict, but there is a connection. The skills required in Tango are in many respects the same as those required in peace-making and conflict resolution on a larger social scale. Lead/ follow roles and gender differences are not homogenized but rather accentuated, while at the same time each creating space for the other to personalize the dance. The contraposition, the non-choreographed steps, and the intermittent pauses intensify the creativity. This is not an opportunity for an enforced embrace or autocratic lead but for the subtle coaxing of emergent consciousness, beginning first with curiosity and then delight in a dialogue of differences. 

Consider this. What if we only voted for leaders who could dance? Or invested part of their week in soul practice of some sort, e.g., yoga or tai chi or prayer and meditation, or took time for walks in nature, sat alone in silence and listened to their inner rhythm? Or knew how to relate to others respectfully and graciously and listened with non-judgemental curiosity? Or who had a sense of what it means to respect personal space, hold someone gently. How many leaders would that leave on the voting card?

I remember a postcard with the image of thousands of soldiers parading at a Nazi rally with the underscored quote: “If Hitler had taught his soldiers how to dance instead of goose step there would never have been a Second World War.” 

So yes, what we are doing is a dance for peace. Just dancing, but at the same time adding to global consciousness – gentleness, affection, and respect. And whatever is done by any, anytime, anywhere blesses everyone.

Have a blessed Christmas, courtesy of your dancing community.