There are so many things about Tango that seem to me to align so strongly with asian martial arts and philosophies.

If it was possible to categorise and analyse them – of course in itself  a western approach – I would think about :

The emphasis on technique

Both martial arts and tango strongly emphasise technique, the purest way to perform the simplest of moves. Technique underpins everything.

The repetition of the basic gestures

In both fields students endlessly repeat the most basic elements as good technique is a fundamental requirement for any level of proficiency. A punch – a pivot.  A kick, a step. Weight, balance, rotation and energy.

The learning of figures and patterns – even though we should not use them

Katas, figures, moves – the early ones give us a vocabulary as a beginner, the more advanced ones stretch us as intermediates and then for when it matters – a conflict or a dance that we care about – we must abandon them.  Figures allow us to practise combinations of elements, and then we turn to true improvisation when we are using our skills for the moments that we have been putting all those hours.

The role of the guru

Something so complex needs teachers, and as we progress – a guru.

I like this definition from urban dictionary .. of a guru .. –

a teacher and especially intellectual guide in matters of fundamental concern

.. an intellectual guide – so yes – we have at the beginning teachers who can help us with physical matters and technique but as we become more accomplished we need intellectual – and even spiritual – guidance in these disciplines – the mind is what is important.

The philosophical acceptance that this is a complex subject

In both disciplines students have the sense that this is an endless subject – something that they can never truly master. This is part of the appeal – that it will always ask and offer more.

The connection to the floor and to the heavens

So often we here of the importance of the floor in Tango, and that we should in some way be down from the hips and lift up above them. We push from  the floor and we reach for the sky – the same teachings of Tai Chi could quite literally be applied to Tango – this extract is actually describing Tai Chi but what student of Tango would not agree :

Be heavy and rooted on the bottom, light and supple on top. Don’t move the arms separately form the body, move as one unit, flowing and uninterrupted….No hollows or protrusions, weight down form the coccyx and up from the top of the head.

The concept of  journey for the student

Tango is indeed a journey – so many times the answer to a question is – “it depends where you are on your journey”

Here – again – is a description of Tai Chi

—Tai Chi is process, the point of it is the evolution of the practitioner, not the acquisition of the art.

Softness and technicque generates power and strength

One of the greatest parallels for me – where I am as a student in my Tango journey – is that it is so easy for the student to use far more force than necessary. With correct technique, a lack of tension, good grounding and practised balance so much can be achieved with so little external force.

Something to Learn?

Actually there is a difference in the way we study. In the majority of martial arts – not all – the group will indeed practise the fundamentals of for example one punch, or one kick – as individuals within the group. Later in the class patterns, or katas – will be worked on.

But in the average tango class the first part of the class does not have students repeating the basic moves such as steps and pivots – with a teacher to copy. I have only experienced this with Joao Alves in Seville – where every single class, whatever level, starts with this approach – walking as a group up and down in front of the mirror – with him – perfecting balance and single movements such as a pivot in isolation.

An alternative approach that also works very well is that used by a wonderful teacher whose classes I attend every week in London – in his advanced classes he will indeed start with a figure and extend it – but he repeatedly stresses that the figure is irrelevant as it is choreography only – what matters is what we learn by analysing it and breaking it down.

Instead most normal tango classes immediately work on a figure, or set of figures – that form the choreography of the day. There are many, many classes I have attended where success is measured by the students ‘getting the figure’ with no emphasis or explanation on the purity of the movements and the techniques within it.

This is understandable – teachers need students to feel they are making progress and the accumulation of patterns assists with this learning process – but with this kind of teaching and preoccupation with figures in my view the student’s ability to dance Tango in a pure way, centred and relaxed within themselves and the music is impaired.

This to me is quite a fundamental difference is the way that students learn these two subjects. Imagine the chaos if in martial arts classes beginners were asked to spend most of the class fighting each other. Yet that is exactly what we ask beginners at Tango to do – dance with others when it is obvious that neither know how to do so.

When Tango works it’s magic it produces a very special sensation.

Not for the first time I am trying to work out why it is actually so special – and exactly what that sensation is. I am very aware that people with a whole lot more experience than me have already written extensively about this. But I am still thoughtful about what is happening to me, and why. I will probably look back on this blog in another two years and realise I just had absolutely no understanding at all – but that learning and step changes of understanding is one of the things that makes everything so exciting.

So what actually happens?

To me something takes place, if it is going to happen at all – in the very first seconds of embracing someone. I think we always enter the embrace – if we don’t know someone of course – with the hope that this might be special. Within those first few moments that hope is either completely denied or carried forwards as a possibility.

When the first embrace feels positive – that we hold each other in an appreciative, meaningful and respectful way – I think the most important thing is that as a leader I wait for a few moments. I am unclear exactly what happens – but I get the sense that quietness invites both of us to concentrate on complex feelings – on the emotions between us and the possibility that we can express the musical landscape in our dance. That this dance together need not be another mindless rush through a meaningless series of patterns.

I also think that with that initial delay the embrace adjusts yet again – to something that a teacher of mine recently described as a high resolution embrace. There is a tangible awareness that something is possible – that we both have enough structure in our Tango. Now there is a presence of a physical tension and of excitement.

But for anything to build from this that initial expectation it still needs a validation – which for me happens in the first few steps – simple and timely movements that follow the most basic and familiar structures of Tango. As a leader I must be so aware that the follower is still anxious – that she perhaps feels the promise – but is worried that I am going to blow it with poor musicality, or arrogance, or that we just won’t get on, that I will hold her too tightly or not give her enough time – or any other basic fault that cause her to lapse back into that mindset of worrying what comes next – or even worse what comes now – rather than losing herself to the structure of an embrace and expressing her femininity within a code that she can fully trust.

But why is this happening to me recently?

The answer I have is that because after over two years of trying so hard to learn – I can at last dance Tango as a dance. Of course only at a very basic level – but I am convinced I am now dancing – starting to be creative – listening to the music, understanding more – and above all listening to the follower and being responsive to her.

Tango is a huge journey – and one of the milestones we pass at some stage is that we can actually dance – and not have to plan, panic and analyse, we  can instead offer ourselves to a complete stranger confident in the structure of Tango itself, the music and what we have learned. We can dance together.

Before that moment in our journey nothing truly special is likely to happen – what we feel instead is a great and justifiable sense of achievement at having got through 10 minutes without making a complete idiot of ourselves. This in itself is a huge ask – Tango for the first couple of years is a scary place – in my opinion especially for leaders who tend to be less natural dancers – and it is not surprising that we focus so hard on assembling enough steps and confidence to get us through.

So the embrace feels positive. The first few steps work. What then builds on this opportunity to make the kind of Tanda where you don’t even want to break the embrace between songs? Where at the end you each acknowledge that was something special. I can of course only speak as a leader still at the very beginning of my own journey.

One thing is pauses – I really care that within the first song the follower realises that I am going to give her time to express herself. Because it is a wonderful feeling to give her time, and also because I want to know how she will use it.

I often feel the follower – within the first song – change her embrace. This I think is an expression of her trust – that I have earned her respect – that she feels safe and now wants give herself to our dance and to the music more than she was prepared to do a few moments ago. I find that change of embrace incredibly exciting – it is a direct physical sensation of someone ultimately taking a risk and giving herself to me – for us to dance as one person she more than me has to take risks — in essence to depend on me –  what a privilege when she looks for this and expresses it so directly. She changes her weight distribution that creates a single axis which needs both of us to work – and that decision is a risk for her. When she makes that change she needs me to dance with her.

So this is the the way it seems to happen…

• First of all our initial embrace told us both that a connection exists.
• An initial stillness focusses ourselves on each other and the possibilities of our Tango
• Then the first steps reassure us of our mutual structures, learning and experience. There are going to be no tricks.
• Our musicality is validated – we are comfortable in the movements we make and the way they fit to the music.
• Pauses – she can relax knowing that she is going to be given time to express herself.
• The follower feels that she can truly relax into this Tanda and changes her embrace to commit to us as a couple

The result of all of this is that for me the partner disappears as an individual. This is perhaps a strange thing to say, but after all in close embrace Tango we are practically invisible to each other in terms of sight.

I think this is so important, and yet another area where I have been so slow on the uptake. It seems to me that this is nothing about us as individuals instead for both of us the other exists as an archetype – an idealisation of the perfect woman or man, or emotion, or perhaps more simply they become the perfect shared experience for this moment, and this music. We have committed to each other and really do move as if we were one living thing, one shared emotional experience within which we can be completely lost as individuals.

It is precisely when this special feeling is not present – when we just socially dance together, and talk between songs about where we are from or how long we have been dancing or anything else to fill a silence – that we do still exist as individuals, we have failed to become whatever it is that two people dancing close embrace Tango beautifully together do become.

So now I want to improve – I want to get this Tango feeling more often. What should I focus on?