Modern Tango World N° 8 (Moscow, Russia) | Page 39

But to become like a child or a puppy is a very hard thing
for adults. It is challenging for people to find themselves
novices at something, especially when watched and
judged by other people around them. Children do not
mind doing it wrong, but adults want to do it right from
the start. The quickest learners in tango are those who
are not afraid to move, not afraid to lose themselves in
movement and music, not afraid to look ridiculous.
Besides, most of us come to tango after having had a
largely intellectual education. We live in our heads and
our computers, not our bodies. We try to process in-
tellectually what is happening to us. This is not effective
when learning movement. Your body works in ways you
cannot fully fathom, let alone fully control by your mind.
Do you control your digestion? Do you activate your
heartbeat? Do you consciously push the blood through
your veins? In your brain there are more neural connec-
tions than there are stars in our galaxy, and this is a fact,
not a figure of speech. Are you controlling them? Or are
they controlling you? Stiffness in a dancer is often the
result of his or her conscious mind trying to understand
and control every movement BEFORE it happens, which
is simply not possible. Your mind is not running the show,
it only helps you to understand the intention and the
mechanics of the movement. This is why leaders implore
their followers: Please stop thinking!
To be able to become dance you have to allow your
whole being to abandon itself to the energy that you
are generating yet stay fully present and aware of what
is happening. Mere abandonment will lead to automatic
movement. Aware abandonment will create true dance
and the true bliss that we are all looking for in tango.
Dance is that special state of being called flow. It sounds
difficult, but actually it is not. To flow is the most natural
thing for a human being to do. It is what you do when you
are not trying to control what happens, when you are
not efforting. You need to become a dancer before you
can become an advanced dancer, and to dance means to
embody each movement fully. This way, no matter your
skill, you can dance from your first tango day to the last.
Isn’t it good news?
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Ali Khattab..............................................................43
Bailarinas Tango Festival.......................................09
Baltic Sea Tango Festival.......................................40
Chambao.................................................................47
Cicada Rhythm.......................................................47
Cumparsita Festival..............................................28
Hindi Zahra............................................................47
Isadora Paz..............................................................29
Double HH.................................................... .........33
Elba World Tango Paradise..................................17
Espace Pasteur Arbois..........................................29
Guts..........................................................................47
Horacia Salgan.......................................................48
Kayah & Bregovic..................................................47
Lara Fabian..............................................................48
Las Pampas..............................................................15
Latin Dance Camp................................................40
Mad Manoush.........................................................48
Malena Muyal..........................................................43
Milonga Chique......................................................06
Milonga (R)evolution............................................17
Modena Tango Marathon.....................................08
Mutar.......................................................................33
Lara Rosalia de Souza...........................................48
Rupa & the April Fishes........................................48
San Telmo Lounge.................................................33
Seoan.......................................................................43
Souvlaki Tango Festival.........................................13
Stella Mary..............................................................45
Tango by the Bay...................................................13
Tango Experiential.................................................13
Tango Festival in Puglia.........................................09
Tango Moskva........................................................16
Tango Rico..............................................................15
Tango Today............................................................28
Unchained Salon....................................................28
Vietnam Tango Marathon.....................................29
Waldeck..................................................................48
Wovenhand............................................................32
Yael Naim................................................................32
Zucchero.................................................................30
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