Exploring Tango: March 2012

Monday, March 12, 2012

Ten Tips For A More Fun Milonga

Or How To Stop Worrying and Love The Traffic

Here are my top ten - no, strike that - my top eleven favorite tips for having more fun at the milonga.

Tip 1 - Arrive early. Relax. Stretch. Change shoes at your convenience. Chat with people. Soak in the ambiance of the room before the crowd files in.

Tip 2 - Take the class if one is offered. Take it even if it's for beginners. It's a good way to warm up, plus you might meet some new friends. The only really good reason to avoid the class is if it would tax you physically or aggravate an injury.

Tip 3 - Listen to the music. Really listen. Listen to more than the beat. Listen to the melody and the orchestration. Music communicates emotions, and those emotions change from moment to moment - joy, sorrow, passion, humor. Synchronize the emotions of your dancing to the emotions of the music.

Tip 4 - Embrace your partner as though you were holding a baby. Don't laugh. Try it. You'll like it, and so will your partner.

Tip 5 - Coordinate your movements with other couples. Don't complain about traffic; use it as inspiration for your own floor craft. Dancing is more fun as a team sport than as a couple versus couple death match.

Tip 6 - Take breaks. Sit down and watch the other dancers. Who is dancing musically? Which couples have the best chemistry? There's something to learn from everyone on the floor. Plus you get to rest your feet, so you'll last longer.

Tip 7 - Dance with a sense of humor. There's great power in laughter and great weakness in taking oneself too seriously. When we laugh we're sharing our emotions without reservation, and that's what tango is all about.

Tip 8 - Dance with someone less experienced and make it memorable. That means no instruction and no criticism, just acceptance and joy and positive vibes. In a year or two that person will be a good dancer, and that good dancer will remember how nice you were to them. Or how mean you were.

Tip 9 - Dance with someone more experienced and keep it simple. Put feeling and connection and expressiveness and musicality ahead of the urge to execute fancy movements.

Tip 10 - Be proud of your mistakes. That's right. You tried something and it didn't work. Congratulations! You're miles ahead of the people who are afraid to try anything risky. No one in the milonga looks worse than the person who's afraid to make a mistake. No one. Even if that mistake-fearing dancer is 'advanced', they'll look stiff and tense. You'll look relaxed and confident because you're not afraid of an occasional stumble. You realize that it's all part of the dance, and you'll casually laugh it off when you do something silly. So, loosen up and go for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Trust me.

Tip 11 - Look as though you're actually having fun. You're dancing, not picking up smelly dog doo. Smile!

This post is dedicated to Tony and Christina who embody the absolute very best spirit of the milonga. Thanks so much for your enduring friendship and for being my milonga role models!

And, yes, in case you were wondering, that's her shoe. ;-)

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

exploringtango.blogspot.com

Friday, March 2, 2012

Improving Tango With Patience And Persistence

Growth Is A Process That Occurs Over Time

When a farmer tills soil and plants seeds he doesn't expect to harvest a crop the next day. He knows that he'll have to invest consistent work over the course of weeks or months before those seeds will bear fruit. Weeding. Watering. Cultivating. Rain or shine.

Sometimes when we take a tango lesson, we lose sight of the wisdom of the farmer. We want to see results. If we don't notice improvement right away, we may wonder whether the lesson was worthwhile. Or worse, we may begin to question our own abilities.

If a garden doesn't produce vegetables in a day, the farmer doesn't become frustrated. There's nothing wrong with his garden. The farmer knows that growth is a process that occurs over time. Similarly, there's nothing wrong with US, and there was nothing wrong with the lesson or the class just because we don't notice immediate improvement. Improvement requires growth, and - yes, that's correct - growth is a process that occurs over time.

The lesson itself is analogous to the planting of the seeds. The practice that we invest over the following weeks and months will help the seeds (i.e. our new steps and techniques) to blossom and grow. If we continue to do the right things consistently week after week, we'll see improvement. We'll have our results.

Will the results be what we expect them to be? A first time farmer shouldn't expect to raise a champion pumpkin in his first growing season. He'll repeat the process season after season, making adjustments along the way. Prepare the soil. Plant the seed. Water and weed as needed. Next time his crop will be a little better. Success builds upon success in small steps.

Like the farmer, we'll see the results of our efforts over time, but we CANNOT see the improvement happening. Improvement is imperceptible. It's like watching the ocean evaporate. It does evaporate, and we can see the clouds that the process creates. But we can't see the process itself. Have you ever tried to watch a tomato plant grow? Yet, grow they do. We've all seen the tomatoes that come from those plants.

The same principle applies in our dancing. We have to be content to see the milestones as we pass them. We have to trust that the imperceptible growth process is happening even though we can't see it. This requires patience and a measure of faith. And it requires persistence, the persistence to keep doing the right things in the right way as we let our eventual improvement take care of itself.

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

exploringtango.blogspot.com