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My friends were in town the day I returned from Baires. I went to meet them at the Sunday milonga. Naturally we talked about my trip, my experience. At some point I said to my friend: you know what, the more I dance, the more I believe in the way Javier and Andrea teach. Because when I dance with women who have been studying the same way (well enough), I feel that I am free and everything is right, the embrace, the walk, the connection, the feeling and the music that I could express and hear from her…

Perfection does exist. I exclaimed.

I know what you mean. He smiled. But… before you know what’s right, you must know what’s wrong.

I almost bowed to him.

When I first read MIM’s post , I laughed out so hard that my colleague thought I just hit the jackpot. Too bad the comment was off. Although it is a misguiding and provoking title, what they described in the post was roughly the same experience that I have had. A subject has been long in my mind yet never put into words. I am glad that they’ve taken the heat first.

Their second post explains one of the important technique: pulling your hips back. Another technique, that was not mentioned in their posts, is “Show off your breast” for the woman. Bring the chest up proudly. Together with pulling the hip back slightly, the culo will naturally “stick out”. Most of the female dancers have tight and round behind, firm legs due to the exercise they have been doing for years. I might be called sexist by saying this: the posture is the sexiest and most beautiful thing to watch.

And nobody, at least nobody whom I have learned from, has taught or being heard teaching anyone to “stick her butt out”. The visual is the consequence of the techniques. In some cultures, women are inhibited to show their feminine characters. Naturally, they are less inclined to accept this aesthetic aspect of the posture.

How this posture, despite different views on its aesthetic merit, actually feel on my side of embrace? When it is right, the moment I embrace the woman, I could feel that it is the beginning of a blissful journey. The connection from the moment the embrace completes is far stronger than the connections that I have experienced with other postures. (And I can’t tell you how much I dislike embracing a woman who stand straight and connect from waist up, which is probably the reason that I stop going out here.)

There are more techniques and benefits of this posture, which deserve another post or two to explore. But let me tell you this: I was in heaven almost every time I danced with certain women who have learned this way. I just wish there were more of them this part of the world.

Here is an example:

A few examples of the postures from different dancers:

Last but not the least

Technique is not important.

Three years ago, when I took my first privates with Javier and Andrea, Javier said to me ” Technique is not important*…. your feeling in tango will one day make you great.” Three year after, in the only two privates that I had the chance to take with them this time, we worked on technique: walking, how to use the arm…

I had assisted Andrea in a couple of her privates, dancing with the ladies. And I had learned so much about woman’s technique and experienced the huge differences before and after the ladies made adjustments in their embraces, walking, and embellishment (for advanced dancer). The sensation of the right embrace, the slight delayed timing of walking, and the little technique of cross was so sensuous, musical and pleasurable.

And I am not talking about the technique of Volcada, Giro, sacada… I am referring to the basic and fundamental technique: walking and embrace. You might be surprised how many people can’t walk two steps straight, and walk long or short evenly. Very often I dance with women who either press their chest with most of their body weight against mine, or try so much to avoid putting any weight that they are escaping from the embrace. Neither way gives me a pleasant feeling. I can’t tell you how much more pleasant a fellow student felt after she made a small adjustment in embrace, after she did what Andrea had taught her. How a strong and powerful short walk without the music made me feel out of this world, after I got the technique of walking.

Technique is very important. It is the catalyst to building and maintaining feeling throughout the dance. It is the essential tool to communicate with each other on a different level. One’s tango experience won’t go very far without proper and sound technique. If you long for the elusive tango bliss, then you should be obsessed with perfecting the technique.

*Technique is not important: when one dances, one should focus on anything but technique. One works on the technique so it becomes natural. Part of the reason that many technique classes aren’t useful is that they teach the technique of leading and following. Instead of that, I was taught and learned the technique that made both feel perfect and free in the dance; that made the woman look and feel beautiful, and the man appreciate the beauty of the woman.

Who with a sane mind wouldn’t want to work on that?

A couple of nights ago, I was about to leave the milonga early: shoes changed, bag packed and winter coat put on. One of my favorite dancers showed up, fashionably late. I greeted her and half jokingly complained about her late appearance. Swiftly she put on her shoes, and I mine, again. We went on the floor and danced a tanda of Troilo con Fiorentino. It was nice.

Just as I thanked her and was ready to call it a night, the next tanda came up: Pugliese con Chanel. I love this! I exclaimed. We could dance if you like. She was generous.  We stepped on the floor again.

We just slowly walked to the music, very simple. It was such a rare experience,  being able to stretch a simple step over the whole phrase in a flowing fashion. On the surface, I felt so calm; underneath I felt the energy surging and receding. At the end of tanda, I’d experienced the joy yet felt so peacefully, like coming out from a meditation…

I hadn’t been able to put this experience into words. I wasn’t sure how to make of this. This approach to tango, the lack of intention of movement, the profound satisfaction of submerging in the energy of the music, of my capable partner and mine… I don’t want to call it a spiritual experience. It sounds corny, especially to someone who hasn’t had similar experience. And I don’t consider myself a spiritual man, although I’d been practiced martial arts for many years, and yoga for a couple.

But I’ve been really feeling this approach to tango.

Coincidentally, my tango brethren posted a video of OSHO: Meditation Is a Very Simple Phenomenon. Looked into his website, I found that the Nataraj way has perfectly described my discovery.

Disappearing in the dance, then relaxing into silence and stillness, is the route inside for this method.

“Forget the dancer, the center of the ego; become the dance. That is the meditation. Dance so deeply that you forget completely that ‘you’ are dancing and begin to feel that you are the dance. The division must disappear; then it becomes a meditation.

If the division is there, then it is an exercise: good, healthy, but it cannot be said to be spiritual. It is just a simple dance. Dance is good in itself – as far as it goes it is good. After it, you will feel fresh, young. But it is not meditation yet. The dancer must go, until only the dance remains…. Don’t stand aside, don’t be an observer. Participate!

And be playful. Remember the word playful always – with me it is very basic.”

I had been experimenting this way of dancing tango, after my private with Cecilia: “Let your unconscious take over completely. Do not control your movements or witness what is happening. Just be totally in the dance…Dance in celebration and enjoy.”

Isn’t it more fulfilling than trying to figure out what step one should dance?

I have been experimenting…

For the past few months, I have been trying to forget everything that I’ve learnt of how to dance tango. I’ve been trying to come to the embrace without thinking about how to dance: how to move, how to walk, how to turn…empty my mind.

When I could actually do that, without thinking about how to dance, the experience was great, memorable. Most of the time, I did what I did the best, I danced: walk, turn, pause, walk, turn… I felt uninspired.

Cecilia Garcia, of formerly Horacio and Cecilia, was in town. I used to be unimpressed by their performances. It was not my kind of tango. So I didn’t take their workshop when I attended Chicago tango festival last year. I didn’t even know who Cecilia was…until I saw her dancing in the milonga with Claudio Gonzalez and Pablo Villarraza. Wow…

Anyway, I took a private lesson with her. The essence of the class was how to use energy in the dance, so it matches the expanding and contracting energy of the music. After dancing three songs to three different orchestras: Di Sarli, D’Arienzo, Pugliese, I worked alone under her guidance. Listen to the music, through breathing, move my axis, connect to the ground, and find freedom by relaxing my body, my mind. As in meditation.

Then we embraced.

Don’t do anything, unless you feel you have to. And do anything that you feel you have to do. She said.

I didn’t take a single step, just changing my axis in place, embracing her and feeling her energy. At certain point, however short it was, I felt that our energy met… together grew and grew, expanded infinitely… it was magical!

What makes one dance? No… what makes me dance? I asked her, at the end of the class.

The music and your energy from music. Her answer was essentially the same as Pedro Sanchez’s.