Social
Your improvement doesn’t buy you freedom
In my last post, I left you with a rhetorical question. Suppose you improved yourself to the maximum. Suppose you had perfect technique, an expanded vocabulary, and exceptional musicality. What would all that mean if you still couldn’t find a partner to share them with? The answer seems obvious. And yet, the question itself quietly…
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The false promise of self-improvement
Become the best version of yourself. Invest in yourself. You are your greatest asset. You don’t need anyone else to be whole. You have probably seen or heard these, or similar, motivational messages encouraging self-improvement. From physical to psychological and social aspects of life, there is no shortage of content pushing us to upgrade ourselves.
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It’s not for the community we have…
I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, but last year I actually made one. I told myself: “Let’s try to start a YouTube channel… something for new or future Tango dancers. Something that connects Tango life with real life.”
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Self exploration
Your pleasure is not the goal
If the goal of my dance is my enjoyment, what does this make the other person? Are they reduced to a variable in my pleasure… a means to my end?
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Your improvement doesn’t buy you freedom
In my last post, I left you with a rhetorical question. Suppose you improved yourself to the maximum. Suppose you had perfect technique, an expanded vocabulary, and exceptional musicality. What would all that mean if you still couldn’t find a partner to share them with? The answer seems obvious. And yet, the question itself quietly…
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The false promise of self-improvement
Become the best version of yourself. Invest in yourself. You are your greatest asset. You don’t need anyone else to be whole. You have probably seen or heard these, or similar, motivational messages encouraging self-improvement. From physical to psychological and social aspects of life, there is no shortage of content pushing us to upgrade ourselves.
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Musicality
Precision, recall and musicality
Frequently, in discussions with friends, they tell me that they like such and such dancers because they find them very musical. When I ask for more details on why they think so, they have a very hard time explaining what exactly it is that they do. The answer is usually quite vague… Something like… They…
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Struggling with… noise
We had a very interesting conversation last week in the newly founded group about what is musicality. If you haven’t yet joined, do so! I saw so many different responses but amongst them, there was almost always a common pattern. Most people agreed that at some level, musicality means being able to understand the different…
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Do it like kids
I visited a friend’s house the other day. They have two adorable kids and we were playing with them all the time. It is impressive how a couple of game hours with kids can totally change your mood. For better or for worse. I mean you leave the house full of smiles or with a…
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Connection
Connection
This… the ability to sense your partner’s body within your chest, your core, your own body and eventually feel it as if it is part of your own body, is maybe the answer to the incompleteness of the previous post which satisfies our deep need for connection.
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Flawed
We are all flawed, incomplete peripherals, and the irony of the dance is exactly that. You need two to dance it but you will never experience it in its entirety. You can never understand the dance in its entirety.
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Incomplete
If you ever really grasp this… you can understand that there is no leading and following in Tango. There was never such a thing… not even from its beginning. There is only cooperation… partnership… like in a family… in a couple… from the age of cavemen till today… where the man hunted and the woman…
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Language
Story telling
Is it really your own story?
Then whose story is this in the end? Is it the story you had in mind to tell in the beginning? Is it the story your partner wanted to listen to? Is it the story they wanted to tell you?
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How do you tell a story?
What can we learn from TTS software, ebook reading apps, and so many other communication experiences? If the voice has its tools to communicate emotions what are the equivalent tools in our dance?
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What story are you telling?
“I now understand how important it is to listen to a lot of music.” A good friend (follower) told me recently. She explained that when she knows the song she feels more confident and natural for her to also contribute to the dance.
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