An invitation:

Let’s play the tango improve game next milonga by responding to whatever dance step our partner makes with a “yes, and.” If it is not the response we were expecting or desiring, we can chose to welcome it as an invitation to be creative. 

In holding space, we allow our partner to experiment and take risks without judgement or censorship, while at the same time providing containment and structure so that the dance energy is channelled safely and creatively.

The core of connection is the quality of our attention – to our body, to our partner and to the music.

Tango clearly represents the dynamic tension between masculine and feminine energies and provides, at the same time, an exquisite social exercise for shared leadership and co-creative expression.

Can tango be celebrated in conjunction with International Women’s Day?

The notion would have had my mother rolling over in her grave. The impression often given by stage, performance tango belies everything she believed in as an ardent feminist: scantily clad women draped over men in suits, flung about by their partners at will.

What does bullying have to do with tango?

A fair bit.

Because of its subtle complexities, the tango is the ideal medium for exploring and exposing many relational dynamics, including bullying.

“The secret of tango is in this impossible moment of improvisation that happens between step and step.  It is to make the impossible thing possible, to dance silence..” Carlos Gavito

For those of us who are at risk of despairing in these dark times, consider the inspiring words of Leonard Bernstein, the famous Jewish-American composer and conductor, who spoke defiantly in the face of the rising spectre of Nazism: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music (and dance) more intensely, more beautiful, more devotedly than ever before.”

This is the dance within the dance.
It is the conversation between the dance partners. It moves not to the rhythm of the music but to the melding of beating hearts. It is shared in silence, communicated not with words but with an attitude of gentleness, subtle shifts in posture, a tender touch, a reassuring smile, a soft gaze.

Mutuality is, for me, what makes tango so alluring. It is this element, even more than the music or the intricate movements, that keeps me wading through the limitless learning (and accompanying humiliation).