Pensamientos del Tango
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Dec. 20: Saudade: There's a word in Portugese that fits tango (and the Portugese fado) very well. "Saudade" means the presence of absence. It is a more powerful concept than nostalgia, suggesting something more existential, less sentimental. For me, it expresses the longing and loneliness along the high ridge where the personal meets the universal. In tango we dance our longing and when the portal opens in the tango trance find our way into the eternal (and later, inevitably, return). Rather than a diversion, the tango is a direct encounter with our isolation and solitude as egos, and through the wonderful music and lyrics and movement with our partner and community we experience the loneliness as healing and the falling away of the world's cares. Some commentators have derided tango's lyrics as melodramatic, a wallowing in disappointment, rejection, unhappiness, the futility of relationships. The first point to recognize is that all these experiences are the very stuff of life. There's no escaping them or the final reckoning and departure. This is what the Buddha meant by suffering. Second point to recognize is that these experiences are the product of a certain stance towards life, that of the ego. Beyond the ego is the universal, access to which can be gained from time to time through blessings such as the tango, that most meditative of dances. The great tango lyrics are the true poetry of living in these two worlds and on the ridge between the two worlds: the ego's and the universal eternal. Literary figures like Borges recognized this. One has only to peruse some tango lyrics to learn of their muscular awareness of saudade - and often their sharp wit and cheerfulness in the face of it. In Cacho Castana's Garganta Con Arena (Throat with Sand), the poet sings of the singer Goyeneche of the raspy throat, who sings as the audience applauds, not knowing he is dying, not knowing his pain. "Canto, [Sing]" cries the poet (listen to the version sung by Adriana Varela), "garganta con arena." "Tu vida tiene un carma,/cantar, siempre cantar." [Your life has a karma/to sing, always to sing.] The voice breathes in the "asma de un viejo bandoneon" [the asthma of an old bandoneon]. May you all be healthy over the holiday season, breathe well, especially during dancing, and find time for relaxation and celebration. Nov. 24: Tango, the Equalizer: In Argentine tango, everyone can dance with everyone else. Changing partners is encouraged. Leaders search for new followers with whom to dance each tanda, the group of three or four songs that forms the building blocks of an evening of dance, a Milonga. Learning the dance, one also learns to accommodate and respect the different styles of lead and follow. This is an essential part of the learning process because the Argentine tango culture is one of improvisation and developing one's own personal tango style. What is sometimes recollected with surprise after an evening of dancing is how little we know about the partners we've danced with during the evening. Or, to be more accurate, how little we know or perhaps even care about their personas in the outside world, for we have discovered a great deal about them of value deep beneath the surface of our lives governed by words. Tango was born in Buenos Aires among the marginalized, the poor, immigrants, prostitutes, criminals. Over its long history, it has embraced them all, and many more, including the bad rich kids, the ninos bien, and latterly, the middle classes around the world hungry for authentic, rich emotional experiences through the body.  The tango today welcomes all. It offers its particular consolation and joy to all income levels, all ages. It has no prejudices against skin colour, religious or sexual orientation, body shape, marital status, profession, IQ, neighbourhood. All inhabitants of the usual worldly classifications are equal on the dance floor. What counts there is the ability to open up one's feelings, to experience the music and move to it reasonably well with another person and in harmony with the others on the floor. In healthy dance communities, newcomers are welcomed and oldtimers revered, single people are not forgotten, all ages dance with each other, regardless of who or what they are outside the dance hall. Tango's emotional universe recognizes our suffering, loneliness, and longing. It is the ideal country in which to find solace. Since these feelings are universal, why should those separators, the tired old world's classifications, have any currency in the living land of tango? Oct. 24: Tips for Leaders: After describing the dark night of the leader's soul last blog, I now hope to offer a lifeline into a little light from one battlescarred veteran to any other within earshot or sightline, to newcomers, to all my colleagues on the dance floor. All the world loves a list, and I offer these tips humbly and not in any way as definitive maxims, for my own learning continues, as it must forever with tango and all the best things of life. We are all students of the dance and the dance of life. When the learning stops, something vital is over. Fortunately, in an improvisational art form like the Argentine tango, ardent practioners cannot help but discover new paths. I am mostly addressing male leaders here, but I acknowledge the tradition in Argentine tango of the interchange of roles and I support it for our time as well for all its interesting possibilities. TIP THE FIRST: Regard learning to dance as serious and important for its own sake and for your sake, not to please girlfriends or spouses or to meet girlfriends or spouses or to lose weight, all of which can happen, of course, and they are wonderful too. Dance has been central to world cultures and still is in most, and people do dance there to align with a mate, with their community, with nature and with the cosmos. But it is essential to begin with the dance, open yourself to its inherent essence, which is the joy in the moment of movement to music, and let these other matters follow as they will.  Many a man has been dragged forth to a dance class, there to fidget and squirm as if in elementary school again, afraid of being tamed. We are fish out of water, members of a lost generation. Our era has moved so fast, it has outstripped its traditions, including its dance traditions. We have few dancer role models and little cultural validation to dance as our fathers had. In Buenos Aires there is at least still a generation to be watched as they dance as though it mattered, and the younger generation, starting with Veron, Salas and Naviera, have set about rebuilding the tradition. Venues like Practica X are a testament to their hard work and courage. In our little community in Victoria, it takes a special courage for men to go it alone and rebuild what has been lost in such a cultural vacuum, and perhaps pass on to other men a new legacy. Fortunately, the social good cheer of our community and fine venues like the Cafe Casablanca provide welcome consolations along the path. And it goes without saying that having a sense of humour and having fun are indispensible companions to being serious. TIP THE SECOND: Recognize at the outset that anything worth doing is worth doing well, and that doing anything well usually takes a long time and requires a lot of effort. In other words, be prepared to delay gratification, after which gratification will be all the more intense for being earned and proudly yours. Accompanying this tip is the exhortation to keep the faith. Often when the going is toughest is precisely when the most progress is being made, beneath conscious awareness. TIP THE THIRD: Respect your partner. Your partner, whether a partner for a minute in a class or for years, is, after your own courage and resolve, your single greatest resource. The temptation is often to blame the Other for the frustrations of life, in this case the slow pace of one's own learning. Even if a partner truly is learning slower than oneself, a major part of a worthwhile quest is to retain equanimity, the balance of one's mind, during the learning process, and extend a generosity of spirit towards partners. Respect is very important in the Argentine tango tradition. The codification of behaviour on the dance floor in Buenos Aires was a means to transform the savagery that is part of the male principle first into courtesy and then into art. I must say here that followers learn faster than leaders, for at least two reasons. One, in my opinion women are still linked with the dance culture. To say it more directly, women are often connected more truly to life as it is, as opposed to fantasies about life. North American conditioning has not destroyed their connection to dancing as thoroughly as it has done men. And second, there is the simple practical truth that leading Argentine tango is harder than following. The usual rule of thumb (toe?) is that it takes one year for a follower to dance reasonably well and three years for a leader, all things being equal and both applying themselves to learning assiduously. TIP THE FOURTH: Do not think of the new as a mistake or an infraction but as a portal to joy. Being open to the new and the now, being accepting of whatever is happening in the moment, is fundamental to Argentine tango because it is an improvisational dance. This being open to the moment is as true for learning in a class and practising as it is for social dancing in a milonga. To be as happy as possible learning something new and difficult, leaders should become a friend of the current moment rather than live looking to the future when the figure being attempted will theoretically be mastered and all will be well. To paraphrase Eckhart Tolle, the future never comes; all we ever have is the present moment, and therefore our happiness can lie only in the present where we are learning, practising or dancing. This fourth tip relates to the sometime dramatic encounter between the ego and the moment. It's a hard habit to break, the ego's desire to aggrandize itself at the expense of pleasure in the moment regardless of what level of expertise one has. Much suffering ensues. Yet it is here in that learning moment, with the opportunity of surrender to whatever is happening, that the teaching occurs, and it's produced by the collaboration of the student, the teacher and the moment. TIP THE FIFTH: This tip sounds like a recipe for a good bender, as least before the arrival of the metric system. In any case, the tip actually is don't take too many lessons. Taking lessons is necessary. Taking lessons from as many teachers as possible, especially in the early days, is valuable. Doing nothing but take lessons is unhelpful, as is taking a lesson and not practising and not dancing in a milonga. One must create one's own tango, and that can only happen in the living moment of practicas and milongas. Lots and lots of kilometers, as Hedy says. Our recommended ratio is at least five hours of dancing to one hour of lessons. Leaders can learn only in milongas the ultimately immensely pleasurable skill of dancing with one's partner and the whole community. The tango trance happens only in milongas when the music, the couple and the community become one. Learning to navigate takes practice. It's a different skill than performing basic movements and figures. It cannot be learned in classes or practicas. And anyone hoping to go to Buenos Aires or other places where big crowds dance tango must surrender to the moment and learn to navigate. And where better to learn than in less crowded spaces, i.e., support your local community and its venues. TIP THE SIXTH: Listen to as much Argentine tango music as possible, over and over again, and watch as many dancers as possible, good and less experienced. For the connection with partner and community to happen, there must first be connection between leader and music. As Cacho Dante said, the leader must be a slave to the music. The music is everything. The range of Argentine tango music is enormous in rhythm, melody, timbre, complexity and emotion. It's a vast treasure. Leaders dance to all the elements, one more so than another depending on the music and the present moment. Only by much careful listening and much dancing to the music can leaders hope to enter the authentic spirit of the dance. Watching other dancers helps in a couple of ways. We are imitative creatures, dancing monkeys. What we watch is being imprinted on our brains and we are learning subconsciously. Also, leaders will find themselves compelled to watch other leaders to see what they are doing. This inclination should become a regular discipline. Leaders should study other dancers and consciously try to deconstruct what the other leaders, and the couple, are doing. This mental work of careful watching, combined with lessons, practise, and social dancing, will eventually transform into the improvisational ease of the fourth phase of development - unconscious competence - where to feel is to move and to move is to live in delight. TIP THE SEVENTH: Give yourself permission to feel. The tango is above all a feeling experience and the range of feelings is wide and deep. In Buenos Aires, leaders cry on the dance floor. Tango musicians weep as they play. In North America, men have been conditioned to live as if they didn't feel. To feel, one has to get drunk. But of course the feeling is there all the time. Much better to become aware of it and enjoy it. The tango can't be danced well without this vital step of giving yourself permission to feel. Enough for now. It's always a good idea to stop at seven tips. Perhaps you have some good tips too. Email me care of Viejo Correro on this website. 
(Many thanks to photographer Robb Kriser for the photos of the pow-wow dancers.) Oct. 15: More Thoughts for Leaders: I've written before about the blood, sweat and tears that is the leader's lot. That lot is only toughened when some of the blood, sweat and tears is the follower's, inflicted on her by the leader, now writhing with guilt in addition to the other torments of inadequacy. The leader's path is long and arduous, truly one of those quests of yore. If the goal of dancing is to live in the body rapturously and leave the mind a while, few paths seem less likely to arrive at that goal than the Argentine tango, at least for the leader. So much of the early years is spent in the head, the hapless leader transitioning from the unconscious incompetence phase to conscious incompetence like a train wreck. In other words, it almost inevitably gets worse before it gets better. New leaders feel like infants on the dance floor, awkward creatures in a hostile environment, where everyone and everything is the enemy, including the furniture. In civilian life, the leader had held his head high; now the noble brow is steeply sloped down like a slave's towards feet belonging to a stranger. Sadly, the shoes on the stranger's feet are the leader's own. Where once in the outside world he clung to the illusion he led, at least some of the time, now it is clear he cannot, and perhaps never has, so powerful and expansive is the effect on an adult of suddenly being unable to walk and watched by an unfeeling crowd and holding a woman in his arms, which in other circumstances had been the source of such pride and accomplishment. And that cursed music - why must it play incessantly? What can we say to these poor individuals? That the pain will soon go away? It will not. That this period of extreme trial is short? It is not. That he will be loved immediately for his efforts? Not always - though followers are much more forgiving and supportive than leaders generally suppose. O, the awful culling that Nature inflicts. So many young turtles hatching from the egg, so few reaching the sea . . . the Darwinian drama . . . the unthinkable early harvest daily even as the flowers bloom and the birds sing. Many - most - fall away. It is true here, it was and is true in Buenos Aires where the coterie of tangueros in the home of the dance was and is small in relation to the city's huge population. It is true even there where the value of the music and the dance is self-evident to all, including those belonging to the social class that traditionally despised it. For the surviving few, perhaps it's that girls love dancers. Perhaps it's that something so hard must be beaten. Perhaps it's the dawning truth that there is no adventure more extreme on the psychological level than this, after which anything seems easy; or perhaps there is a secret message in a music born in a certain time and place of immigrant longings that speaks to only a few exiled hearts and there can be no predicting which hearts will receive it. Sept. 29: A Few Thoughts for Leaders: Crowded social dance floors challenge navigational and interpretive skills, a situation which viewed rightly presents glorious opportunities. Various forms of the close embrace tango developed in Buenos Aires as a result of densely crowded venues - tango dancers being relegated to small places with the demise of the big band and big venue dance culture of the golden age. Tango figures like higher boleos, ganchos and levadas are rarely done in crowded milongas. Nowadays one sees them emerge with any frequency only in performance or late at night in Buenos Aires (after 3 am or so) or in the heavily attended nuevo venues of the young (Practica X, Villa Malcolm, La Viruta) or in our own North American communities most of the time where space is not an issue. The challenge then is to have a rich experience and navigate successfully in the close embrace on a crowded floor without the dancerly pleasures of a lot of figures that are so much fun to do and so expressive. What it boils down to is going inward, thinking small, being alive in the moment, and expressing subtle nuance, particularly in relation to rhythm. Couples can have a wonderfully rich, intimate experience using every centimetre of their bodies, exchanging messages along the skin in ways mostly invisible to outsiders. Leaders can take their time and listen to the music as if they were playing it, listening so closely that every breath of the bandoneon and every movement of the violin bow can become their own small movements, not just of chest or legs but of the whole body, as if the body were using all its surface to speak, which indeed it is. Leaders can do this within a circumference of a half a metre - even without steps, just movement of a shoulder, little weight changes, then with very small steps forward, backward, to the side, and very little turns. And one should not forget the value and pleasure of doing nothing - of pauses, of the space between the words, as it were. Tango, the improvisational dance, does not require you to be always moving. Life itself is both movement and stillness. Therefore leaders should give themselves permission to not move when the music suggests a pause. Followers can join in this dialogue, acknowledging what the leader's body is saying and responding with what amounts to tiny embellishments of their own, further inspiring the leader, and so on. Followers also should not feel obliged to be always moving. At times the leader can give the follower an opportunity to embellish, to be creative. Other times the leader's invitiation to inhabit a stretch of time may be best enjoyed by non-movement, a pause, dramatic perhaps, or just the joy of being still in the moment. While all this is going on, the urgency of moving foward in the line of dance is much diminished, the little world of the couple is enough in itself, the couple is alive in the moment, and movement forward is no longer a mechanical necessity to get the job done but a natural evolution born out of the fecundity of the couple's intimate experience in their little circumference. It is clear now that the joyful expressiveness of larger figures has its equal in the nuanced pleasures of intimate space. Having said all this, the leader must still be aware of his responsibility to the group on the dance floor and not so indulge himself and his partner within their small circumference that the line of dance is stalled for the whole community. As that stalled inertia begins to dawn on the group, couples behind are drawn out of their charmed world into anxiety, a result every leader must take responsibility for avoiding, just as with larger movements he must take responsiblity for not so violating the space of other couples by backward steps or erratic diagonals that other couples' capacity to go deep into their tango trance is reduced or destroyed. Sept. 24: The "It Takes 10 Tango Weekend" celebrating ten years of tango in Victoria was a heap of fun. Three great milongas, rich teaching by Tony and Ilana, live music with Tango Paradiso and Roland and Andy, a film, and non-stop dancing. Many thanks to David and Diane for their vision, leadership and hard work, and to Tango Pacifico members Linda and Barbara for pitching in. As always, our gratitude to Chuck and Eve at the Cafe Casablanca. The photo below shows tango pioneers David Gurr, Liliana Kleiner and Frank Sullivan. 
Aug. 19: Compenetratos. Interpenetration. Choice word invented by Maria Nieves and quoted by Robert Thompson in "Tango: the Art History of Love" for how she and Juan Carlos Copes danced together. 
In this year of Tango Pacifico's celebration of a decade of tango in Victoria, climaxing with the "10 to Tango" Ball Sept. 15 (visit the Tango Pacifico website for details), Hedy and I can look back upon the development of our tango, and see this perennially evolving subject, the changing dynamic of lead and follow. Maria's wonderful word for Copes' and her fluent mutual understanding of lead and follow fits our experience.She was trying to describe not only the dialogue of movement she and Copes came to share, but also a historical development. Earlier in tango history, the leader was more likely, in turns, for example, to stand still in the centre while the follower stepped around him. But with Maria, Copes was in motion too, and in a manner that was both leading and responding to her movement. In other words, the leader was initiating movement but also "listening" to the follower's part of the dialogue, which in turn inspired him to more moves, and so on. In our case, after years of tango, the lead and follow roles seemed to separate from us as individuals and arise out of some merged new being - the couple as a unity. Related to this was the importance of the leader going slow (even paradoxically when the movement was fast), slow enough to really listen to the follower, allow her time to do what she was inspired to do in that moment, and to be inspired in turn by her creativity. Also related is the concept of a very light lead: no longer the muscling by the arms as if moving furniture, but rather a lead from the chest that is an invitation, a suggestion, one part of a conversation. And like a good conversation, when it's underway it's thrilling and one feels truly alive, and in retrospect it seemed inevitable. |
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