Tango is not only a fascinating dance but also a fascinating philosophy, culture and lifestyle. The search of tango is the search of connection, love, fellowship, unity, harmony and beauty, i.e., an idealism that is not consistent with the dehumanizing reality of the modern world. The world divides us into individuals, but tango unites us into a team, community and species. In tango we are not individualists, feminists, nationalists, Democrats, Republicans, etc., but interconnected and interdependent members of the human family. Tango calls us to tear down the walls, to build bridges, and to regain humanity through affinity, altruism, cooperation, and accommodation. It is a dance that teaches the world to love.



March 29, 2016

A Wise Voice


Anna: Hi, Paul, I totally agree with you on "Good human values are based on what is beneficial to the humanity rather than an individual person or gender." It is so beautifully said and so wise. Freedom and human rights movements led people to put a lot of emphasis on individuality and as a result, the inflated self-image lessens our ability to view the world as a connected whole. This inflated self-image is also probably the root cause to many modern psychological ailments and problems: loneliness, depression, and mental disorder. If we can zoom out and see ourselves as a tiny one, rather than the one, in this big universe, a fact that has not changed a bit since the big bang, we may again find the beauty in the ancient natural law and adopt the right perspective towards the self and the rest of the world.

I had a few Tango lessons by now and was deeply touched by this beautiful dance. I am a woman with strong characters in other people's eyes. When I first started, I experienced a lot of struggle, questioning, and doubt. As you have explained in your excellent blog, unless we adopt the appropriate values and mentality for this dance, we cannot dance the real Tango. As a matter of fact, unless the man and the woman take the right role, they cannot even get the dance going. They will be constantly on each other's toes. No agreement, no harmony, no beauty. Then one day luckily I met a partner who did all the things you mentioned that a good leader should do, he guided me, protected me and let me shine. And without me knowing I surrendered all my wariness and entrusted myself to him. The steps followed naturally. At that moment, I knew how Tango should be done and how beautiful it can be when it is done right, when a man is a man and a woman is a woman. Looking forward to more of your sharing.

Paul: Dear Anna, I appreciate your comment deeply because it summed up so well an important theme throughout this blog, and you did it with such simple elegance. When I started this blog, I thought it was just about tango as a dance. But I soon discovered that in fact I was in search of the lost humanity in ourselves, without which tango lost its soul. Tango awakens our humanity because it forces us to zoom out and see ourselves as part of the picture, to understand our smallness, loneliness, vulnerability and interdependence, as reflected in the “ancient natural law”, and to appreciate the beauty of Creation from a macro or cosmological perspective, as you eloquently put it. The individual is trivial. The strength of mankind comes from our connection, cooperation and solidarity. This truth, as attested by tango, must not be forgotten no matter how much we have achieved individually. Please write and let your voice be heard! My best wish to your tango!



March 24, 2016

惜缘


A reader commented on my last post, The Spirit of Tango, "A ten minute tanda is a radical response to the dehumanizing reality of modern day-to-day living. It is an opportunity for two humans to embrace each other in the promotion of humanity. Don’t let the precious opportunity slip away because your partner isn’t a good enough dancer, tall enough, young enough, old enough, attractive enough, friendly enough, …whatever enough. Every embrace has a story - dance with it." I pondered on the comment, because it reminded me of a Chinese motto "惜缘" (pronounces shee-yuan).

惜缘 means cherishing the luck by which people are brought together. On the wall of my office is a script written in beautiful penmanship by a Chinese calligrapher: "Cherish those who are brought to you by fate. They enrich your life. They are the footprints to your destiny." It's an unfamiliar philosophy in America where human connections are not as appreciated as in some other cultures like China and Argentina. Many Americans value individualism, personal freedom, independence and autonomy. They live alone, act alone, work alone, die alone, are fierce fighters for gun right, but quite ignorant of communal life and relationships, and they often let the opportunity of affinity with people slip away.

Life, however, is not a solo-dance even for Robinson Crusoe. If you think about it, your life is defined by the people associated with you: parents who raised you, siblings who grew up together, teachers who have influenced you, classmates who study together, colleagues working in the same place, and friends who sung together for warmth, etc. Fortune only brings a limited number of people into each person's life. These are the precious resources granted to us by fate. Those who cherish such resources can build great companies and achieve lofty goals. Those who don't, their life tends to be lonely, friendless and unfruitful.

What is true in life is true in tango also. There are only a limited number of people dancing tango in every city. These people, despite their differences, share something in common: their longing for human connection, their belief in fraternity and love, their nostalgia, romanticism, sentimentalism and life attitude, their passion for tango... Those who cherish each other can form a great tango community. Those who tear down the bridge and build walls, their community suffers. Unfortunately, the latter is often the reality in our tango. Many of us do not appreciate enough the lot that brings us together. They are haughty and prejudicial. They see others as rivals and are indifferent and cold towards others. They turn a blind eye to those they deemed unworthy of them. They dance not to enjoy the affinity but to display their ego. They form cliques, fight for dominance and squeeze out competitions, etc.

Individualism is incompatible with tango. I hope we can learn from the philosophy of 惜缘 and cherish the luck that brings us together as a community, because that is what makes tango fascinating. Tango is not just a personal skill. It is a fellowship, a connection with other human beings, and a philosophy of restoring humanity through cooperation and sharing. (See Tango Is a Fellowship.) Instead of trying to reinvent tango, I think we should let tango change us and turn us into a better connected and cooperative people. (See The Lessons of Tango.)



March 15, 2016

The Spirit of Tango


One of our greatest limitations is egocentricity. We think first and often only from a personal perspective, and we act first and often only in our own interests.

But mankind is not always like that. When humanity was in its infancy and childhood, we relied heavily on each other for survival, everything was shared. Fraternity, cooperation and Good Samaritanism were our first nature. Doctrines like liberalism, individualism, feminism, personal freedom and individual rights appeared much later in human history, and are still imperfect theories, or in many ways even adverse to the best human interests overall, as attested by selfishness, greed, competition, aggression, inequality, drug abuse, gun proliferation, obscenity, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, single parent family, LGBTQIAPK+, etc., all in the name of individual rights and freedom. "O Liberty! O Liberty! What crimes are committed in thy name!" - grieved Madame Jeanne-Marie Roland. Mankind is still in its adolescence too self-centric to understand the relation between personal freedom and common interests of the species as a whole. (See The World Needs a Different Philosophy.)

Perhaps the most important lesson that tango teaches us is that we are interdependent rather than independent, that we need each other, that our personal well-being is inseparable from the well-being of others, that one cannot be happy unless all are happy, that cooperation and sharing serve us better than animosity and competition, that human rights are the collective rights of mankind as a species, not just personal rights, and that self-discipline and compassion are important attributes of what makes us human. Tango tells the other side of the human story. It awakens the better part of the humanity in us, and suggests the way for us to live together in peace and harmony through generosity in spirit, loftiness of purpose, altruism, and cooperation. Wherever we go and dance, tango always reminds us that love, despite our many limitations, is what holds us together as a team, community, people, nation and species. (See The Lessons of Tango.)



March 8, 2016

Spot Dancing in Tango


Progressive dances, such as foxtrot and waltz, are danced on the large dance floor of the ballroom. Such a large floor is divided into two sections: the outer travelling lanes for progressive dancing, and the inner or center floor for spot dancing. Dancing progressive dances needs to follow certain rules, including traveling counterclockwise around the dance floor, not moving against traffic, maintaining the flow, avoiding spot dancing that could hold up traffic, avoiding frequent lane changes, moving to the center if you like to do spot dancing or practice new steps, not traveling through the center, keeping a proper distance from the couple dancing in front of you, adapting patterns to what the traffic permits, not focusing on completing a pattern if a collision can result, and not forcing your way to overtake, etc.

Spot dances, such as disco and salsa, are danced in a fixed area. Such dances can be danced on a small floor like that in a restaurant or bar. Dancing spot dances on a small dance floor follows different rules, including dancing on your own spot or slot, using minimum space, not drifting around the dance floor, using compact dance hold or embrace, using small steps, avoiding dangerous movements, respecting the dance spaces of others, and not pushing or elbowing your way around, etc.

Now, is tango a progressive dance or spot dance? What floor size is best for tango dancing? Which set of rules apply when it is danced on a small and crowded dance floor? There are no easy answers to these questions because tango, a progressive dance in general, can be danced in a compact way on a small dance floor. The following is an example.




People do not dance foxtrot and waltz on a coffee table. But tango, an intimate dance danced in close embrace, does not require a large floor. That is why milongas are often held in restaurants and bars. On the plus side, small dance floors are easy to find, affordable, and convenient for cabeceo. On the downside, the small dance floor cannot accommodate many people and tends to be congested. In El Beso, the famous bar in downtown Buenos Aires, for example, there are often more than a hundred people dancing tango on a floor the size of a large family room in an American home. People jammed together using any space available to dance in very tight steps. Obviously, in a crowded venue like that you have to follow rules different from that in a spacious ballroom where lanes are divided, free travel is possible, and open embrace and fancy steps are allowed. We dance tango in various venues. Some are large, others are small. Some are sparsely populated; others are tightly packed. Even a large dance floor can become crowded from time to time. Therefore, one must dance in accordance with the changing situation. Sticking to the way that no longer fits, such as using open embrace, wide steps and dangerous footwork on a crowded dance floor, is a recipe for disaster. Such senseless behaviors are a major cause of accidents in our milongas. (See Milonga Codes.)

This happens partly because most students in this country are not taught to dance tango on a coffee table. They only learned to dance tango on a spacious dance floor. But that is not how tango is dance in Buenos Aires where dance floors are usually packed. Now, with the popularity of tango in the US, our milongas also become increasingly crowded, making it necessary for us to adapt to a more compact way of dancing. Dancing tango as a spot dance requires different techniques, including using close embrace, dancing in small steps, focusing on synchronization rather than fancy performance, a much better command on dissociation, and the knack in floor crafting, etc. It also requires the dancers to focus more on music and feelings rather than movements and impression. Without these abilities, one's tango education is incomplete and inadequate.