I recently had the opportunity to dance to two different orchestras playing live. After the long covid break, it felt like I’d never done it before. I was trying to think why it feels so much better when you dance to live music. After some thought, I realized that the solution to the mystery lies in the actual description… it’s LIVE.
Why do we enjoy dancing Tango? One of the answers is that it’s one of those activities that makes you feel alive… almost all your senses are hyperactive… getting stimuli…. coordinating… cooperating… and on top of it… add to this equation the unpredictability of another person… our reaction to each others’ moves… our expressions… our feelings… it’s certainly one of the best confirmations you are alive and kicking.
So how live music makes it even better? Well, it’s live… active… present… happening at this exact time by people with their own senses and emotions expressed through their music. You may have heard the same song 100 times from the orchestra on record but listening to it live… watching the musicians… feeling the vibrations of their music… hearing and seeing their excitement…. makes it a totally different experience from listening to it on record.
I can only guess that every time it’s slightly different for them as well… every community inspires differently… every venue gives them a different atmosphere to build on… and although they might use the same playlist every time… I bet it’s not the same energy every time.
So you have a unique mix of multiple live autonomous elements (you, your partner, and the orchestra) interacting with each other… touching… moving… hearing… smelling… watching… feeling… communicating… in the span of a few minutes! That’s why it feels so much better to dance to live music… because it feels much more ALIVE!
Dancing to live music is the king of dancing (like D’Arienzo is the king of the beat) and tonight’s Goodnight Tango is from a live performance of an orchestra that I danced to last week and is very near and dear to me as I have it connected with one of my first milongas in Frankfurt and its welcoming community.
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