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While browsing some beautiful photos of a workshop from a tango festival in Moscow, in which students were learning to embrace each other,  I couldn’t recognize the maestra in the photo. Olga Besio, says the photo tag. The only Olga I could think of, who is a great maestra, is the former partner of Gustavo Naveira, the mother of two young tango dancers/teachers: Ariadna and Federico Naveira.  Thanks to Google, I came across this article : The first tango lesson: Where should I begin?

Excerpt:

what is, essentially and at its deepest meaning, the Tango Dance ? It certainly is NOT a succession of steps, figures, structures, and movements. There is something much profound sustaining all that. And this “something” so deep is not precisely “technical” by nature, but something more basic and fundamental.

…

So this is what I believe should be tought and learned during the first lesson:

• The dialogue with the other person. The absolute certainty that everything that happens during the dance is because of the actions and responsibility of both parts in the sense that, in reality, the dance couple is built up between the two (each one on his/her own role), developing each one’s part and helping your partner in every possible way. Within this dialogue, the embrace is only one of its components.
• The dialogue with the music. Within this dialogue we find the walk as one of its possibilities.
• In definive, the “trialogue”, the deep communication amongst these fundamental elements, two persons and the music, with all the incredible significance, deepness and complexity in details that it entails. Within this trialogue we walk, embraced, acording to the music.
• Finally, understanding without doubts that all this aspects constitute one unit that nests presicely, and fundamentally in the escence of tango.

“So this would be, in my opinion, the first tango lesson. But how long should it last ? One hour and a half ? Two ? One month ? Maybe the whole lifetime …” – Olga Besio

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.

I had a very good time dancing with a beautiful woman visiting from out of town. Very nice and giving embrace, smooth walk. And she has only been dancing for less than two years. We had a few mishaps, nonetheless I thought we both enjoyed the tandas.

On my way driving home, I was still immersing in the bliss of these lovely tandas.  Stopping at a traffic light, I suddenly realized that the reason I enjoyed our tandas so much (Those who know me, know how critical I am with my tango experience. ), other than the lovely embrace, despite the technique, was her musicality.

Yes, woman has her own musicality too.

I am sorry if my epiphany is already a well known fact. All I have read before was how women praised the men being musical and I haven’t heard of any one mentioning musicality of the woman. In the hindsight, some of my unforgettable tango experiences were due to the inspirations I had drawn from the woman’s musicality.  It was not because she moved or danced perfectly to the music. It was deeper. Through our embrace, our touching cheeks, I could feel the music from her body before we took a step. It was exhilarating to dance with woman who had good musicality. Technique was no longer an factor. Giving embrace, individual musicality, these almost guaranteed a dreamy tanda.

I just wish there are more women who would knowingly cultivate this quality, if they don’t have it naturally. Few women would respond to the music as if they felt impelled to sing along, with their feet, their bodies and their souls.

And too many teachers are teaching how to dance,  how to lead and follow,  few are teaching what inspires to dance.

The more and more I appreciate what Pedro Sanchez has said to me: ” Take it easy, listen to the music. It will tell you how to dance. ” It is true for the man, as well as for the woman.

I was reading the interview with Chico a few days ago.  I enjoy watching Chico’s performances most of the time. He is unique and brilliant on his own. What impressed me most was what he had said, according to some friends who had taken lessons with him , that students shouldn’t come to him without a solid traditional tango foundation. The problem is that there are  too many bad imitators  and  few truly inspired by him.  Anyway, in this article, he mentioned that at the time his weakness had to do with his inhibition.

Inhibition

Don’t we all have it? Aren’t we all carrying some kind of inhibition into our dance?

One of my friends came back from a trip.  He had an amazing time dancing with an acquaintance of his.  What made it such a unforgettable experience for you? I asked him. ” I felt free, completely free.” he answered.  I knew what he was talking about.

Tango is a partner dance. We are influenced and affected by the other person in embrace. The more we focusing on how to lead and how to follow, the more inhibition we create.  When we are not sure about ourselves, we introduce inhibition to the dance.  One of my teachers asked us this question at one of my beginner’s classe:

” Do you know who you are?”

Much of what he taught was forgotten, but this question has stayed in my head. In retrospect, three and half years of dancing tango, I have been trying to find out who I am. Not until we know who we are, could we come in the embrace without inhibition of our own.  Not until we set ourselves free, could we come in the embrace as one body four feet.

To dance free, I think we have to identify our inhibitions first.

What are your inhibitions?

I used to be puzzled yet at the same time fascinated by some of my close tanguera friends’ tango experiences. How certain men would make them feel…using their own words: “opening up like a flower”, “that he knows every inch of my body”… or simply “orgasmic”. I felt jealous when I listened to these tales.

Just about one year after I started dancing in the milongas, I had already received compliments. Women told me sincerely how beautiful my various partners and I looked together. Some men, who had danced for a longer time, pat me on the shoulder and said that they were going to steal a few moves from me. I knew that I could make women look beautiful dancing with me and make most of them dreaming in my embrace. Everyone told me I was a good dancer, but I wanted to be the best.

When I was not dancing in the milonga, I liked to just sit and observe. I paid attention to how people move and what expressions they wore on their face. And I observed a couple of said men dancing. At first, I felt unjustified.

There was this man, who a friend of mine said that she would go to a milonga just to hope to have a tanda with him. I looked at him barely dancing and questioned ” his movement doesn’t have music. ”

“Oh… he is so musical.”

I don’t understand women… I have twice better posture and movement than this guy. My walk is much more elegant. I definitely dance better than this guy. Hmmm!!!

There is this instructor from BsAs. The first time I saw him dancing. I thought to myself ” What’s the deal?”

He didn’t move much. The woman in his embrace wasn’t what you would call dancing either, movement was sporadic. Yet the expression of the woman’s face was intriguing: eyes closed, small beads of sweat falling through their pink cheeks. A lot of women were thrilled to dance with him. According to some, dancing with him was a tangasmic experience.

I believed the first hand accounts of my friends. But I didn’t understand or started to understand till this post.

Shortly after, one summer night, I was at this outdoor milonga. The night was beautiful. The music was alternative, a beautiful guitar piece by Jesse Cook. I took this tanguera friend’s hand and embraced her. She was on her platform sandal, and I my flip flop. The floor was uneven wood plank. We didn’t dance the way we used to dance. I didn’t even lead ocho. We just embraced and breathed together. Walked slowly, one step then another…

She told me after that she hadn’t felt this way for a long time.

Me neither… I finally start to get it:

Tango is internal.

We really don’t need to do all these movement to connect with the other. Sacada, volcada, boleo, open embrace, fluid embrace…etc these are all external, like how many different positions does a couple have to do in order to achieve orgasm? Or does one have to do a series of movements in order to reach the deepest and most tranquil state in meditation?

I like what maestro Juan Carlos Copes said: