Tango

I attended my first intermediate tango class last night. I first took the basic class for a few weeks. The fact that I am now an intermediate class student means that the teacher deems me good enough to move on. Nice work! I have taken tango classes before, when I used to live in Boston. It was different then. Looking back, I didn't feel that I really learn tango then. I did learn some steps, no doubt. But I didn't learn about the tango philosophy, the tango lifestyle. This is what I am learning now. And the difference is the teachers. In Boston my teacher was an American woman who learned tango here and who occasionally goes to Argentina to dance tango. She was a nice person. But she's not Argentinian! Therein lies the difference. My teacher now is an older Argentinian gentleman. He likes to talk. He talks mostly about the tango culture - the Argentinian culture. As a matter of fact, in the first few classes he talked more than have us dance. His technique works! It gets people to embrace the culture, at least when they are in class. I don't necessarily buy into all that culture stuff. But in the context of dancing tango I can see why embodying the tango culture helps. At the very least embodying this culture, this tango attitude, allows you to free yourself from the conservative and sometimes rigid way in which our American relates to dance, to sexuality. Tango is a very sensual dance. In order for you to dance it freely, you need to allow yourself to express your sensuality.

Now, how does dancing tango relate to being a full grown man? To be full grown man means that one is not afraid of one's sensual side। In tango there is definitely a polarity. A great tango couple becomes one when they dance. But there is a distinct feminine and a distinct masculine in this oneness. A full grown man knows which one he is, but he is not afraid to express the other and he is not afraid to embrace the other.