Tango: an hyper-codified popular dance

“When a certain process can be performed in several different ways, somebody can advert the importance of the process itself, doing without the way in which it is performed by anybody. Something in common underlying all individual activities can be distinguished, defining the process as it is… The process is performed according to a specific method resulting from knowledge and it is no longer something natural.” Feldenkrais – Awareness through Movement.

Feldenkrais said that all human activity goes through three stages development:

First stage: a natural attitude where actions are carried out by means of an organic impulse. Their grounds are so curious as inexplicable. They are simple and have the mystery of nature manifested in life, giving life the needed wisdom to preserve its vital cycles.

Second stage: individuality, where some persons establish their particular way in performing this action. This is when the individual carries out the activity according to his or her own needs, always connected with his or her own essence and keeping a balance with his or her environment.

Third stage: professionalizing. It is when individuals design a systematized way of performing this activity. A rational codification to develop a specific action offers some advantages (such as the register of professional’s experience) but introduces a distance between the action itself and the needs from where it emerges.

Nowadays tango dance is undergoing the process of becoming professional. Though it is difficult to discern the depth and the exact moment when this process began, we can say that the requirements arisen by the fact of becoming object of international interest have put tango in a race of constant improvement. Dancers, having designed their art based on internal codes of local milonga, are now under the need of getting knowledge of other dances’ techniques.

This huge metamorphosis has generated an uncomfortable feeling among the group of tango dancers. It has put under test the self-esteem of ladies and gentlemen and has generated eternal discussions of couples on how to perform a movement. But, what is worse, learning this wonderful dance has become difficult for some people:  people who are afraid of not being able to understand and perform  these complex sequences of movements at once.

The ability to dance is given to us naturally. It is strongly tied to our needs. It is a gift mysteriously printed on our behavior and I think that we all have the right to perform it for our health and vitality’s sake. It does not matter how far a person is form his or her natural dancing ability. What really matters is to remember the connection underlying beyond consciousness. Because we started walking with just a single step, anybody expressing his or her wish to dance has started to build his or her own way.

The fact that methods to teach a dance have increasing obstacles appears to be a paradox, since it happens at the same time that the knowledge and codifying of the dance acquires more relevance. This is because the need of social approval is considered over by teachers and learners during the learning process. That is why, as a teacher, it is always important to bare in mind that the learning process never ends and that any action is building us at the same time that helps us to know ourselves.

The real question is, then, what tango is. The answer is not the same for everybody. But, since tango is a social dance, there is a finite amount of parameters to define it, at least regarding codes that man and woman agree to share when hugging each other at a dance court. Anyhow, we have to consider that tango is a dialogue where individual aspects are as important as the code that articulates the understanding of each other. If it were not this way, it would be as a language learnt by repeating words form a dictionary by heart.

I am sure that tango is an emotional dance. In my opinion, this is the reason of its international success. Success based more on the social aspects spreading all around the world than in the tango show itself. There is no European community without its own milonga. Tango is a play and a role play of the man-woman relationship. Tango is the search of a balance between feminine and masculine energies, both in the couple and inside our individualities. It is a meditation through movement, sensitiveness, consciousness of energy circulating inside us and our partner. If we are extremely compromised with our body, it is impossible to ignore when our energy is obstructed. The experience of our partner on ourselves and our experience on our partner help us to look ourselves from a wider perspective.

As everything else in this world, the way is personal and the essence of things is in the way we perceive and experience them. From my point of view, tango can be the way to feel our body, to soften feelings and to learn a way of sharing ourselves with the others. Because union presupposes self-approval, tango is a dance that helps us growing up and teaches us how to build a ritual of devotion with a partner, always showing us as the real ones we are.

Text by: Natacha Iglesias