Musings on Tango, Sensuality and Spirituality
I believe that dance generally and tango specifically, is an effective corrective to the oppositional, polarized, sexualized nature of our society, and by extension to domestic violence. It teaches an entirely different model of relating, one which affirms cooperative and complementary effort. Both parties should leave the dance floor with a smile.
It is our pursuit of beauty, meaning, joy in the midst of atrocities that will transform our soul and the soul of humanity into one of compassion, gentleness, understanding and tolerance: One in which the immigrant is always welcome and those wounded in love and war find solace in a warm embrace and soft turns on the dance floor. This is the alchemy of tango.
It is no secret that the Tango raises issues, pushes buttons, brings to the surface deeply submerged feelings of self-doubt and insecurity, sensuality and sexuality – all of which tend to trip us up, both in our dance or relationships.
Dancing Argentine Tango is like a moving Focusing practice. It requires staying centered and present in one’s own self, and at the same time listening with your whole body to your partner’s motions and emotions. ThIs requires flexibility, adjustment, and adaptation, always in an environment of safety, trust, respect, honesty.
In my mind, all the involved, technical maneuvers that we practice and execute on the dance floor are merely the medium for experiencing the most tantalizing dynamic of tango, that of expressing feeling in and through our bodies.
The secret of Tango is this moment of improvisation that happens between steps. It is to make the impossible thing possible: to dance silence.” Carlos Gavito:
Search beneath all the frenzy of pivoting and kicking and strutting your stuff (what everyone calls the tango).
There is a deeper dance, one that no one can see and only two people can feel.
It is as close as your partner’s cheek, as comforting as her breath, as delicate as a whisper, as engaging as an arm wrapped around your neck.
