Social
Inclusiveness intentions, actions and results.
Lately, I see often in milongas, statements along the lines of “we are against discrimination based on gender, religion, colour etc.”. I never really paid much attention. I found this a nice gesture. But recently I started questioning whether this is true or just a statement. Is it like the CO2 offset to improve an…
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Unknown or unseen?
If you read this blog, you might think I am some kind of super-famous dancer. You might think I am known in milongas. You know… the kind of person who immediately attracts attention when he enters the space. The truth is that I am quite the opposite. Maybe, I became a little “famous” in the…
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Are you a diamond or a bottle of water?
Imagine that someone offers to give you for free a diamond or a bottle of water. Which one would you choose? I guess that most people reading this question would answer… “The diamond”. If you compare the prices of the two goods, there is no doubt that diamonds cost more. That is why you would…
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Self exploration
Do I have it in me?
A few days ago Dimitris posted a text that was arguing that musicality is not something that you have intuitively but rather a skill that you learn. A friend of mine commented below that she believed that there is something in some people that makes them more musical than others. I argued that it is…
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Tango and men in today’s world
I started those posts with one analyzing the power of men based on numbers. I continued on the theme of men possibly feeling disconnected and unnecessary in Tango communities, and I finished by discussing the names of roles and the idea of authenticity concerning dancing the opposite gender role. In my latest post, I tried…
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A ridiculously biased, toxic man. Me!
What I consider normal is not necessarily normal for you and vice versa. Normal is just a construct of our minds. Actually there is not just one “normal”, there are many “normals”. Yours, mine, the guy who just found the post by accident, the lady’s who is looking for a cheesecake recipe and found this…
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Musicality
Emotional technique
There is often an impression that technique is kind of the opposite of emotions, or that it hinders you from expressing emotions. Some weeks ago I saw a question about it on a Facebook group. Many people agree that technique is a tool to dance better, therefore communicate better and consequently express emotions. So the…
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Metaphorically dancing…
I have never really thought about the connection that metaphors can have with dancing. You can actually dance a melody literally or metaphorically. It dawned on me the other day. I was on a musicality workshop about counter melodies with Horacio Godoy and at some point he told the phrase… “you can do something metaphorical”…
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Selfdriven followers
When I was in Greece I had to drive myself every morning to the office and this drove me crazy. I always dreamed of having a fully autonomous car that would just get me to wherever I wanted while I could be sleeping, reading, etc. What does this have to do with trust and musicality?…
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Connection
Dopamine and oxytocin
if you go into this, dancing the emotion, the risk of getting oxytocin instead of dopamin, is quite high. Enjoy it, but be aware you will fall in love, with your dance partner: the tango-love. Just enjoy it but don’t confuse it with real love.
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Counting the uncountable
Expressing emotions is a purely subjective thing. Let’s take for example love as an emotion and music as a medium/language to express it. To some people expressing their love with a tango song, might feel fitting but to others, it might be more fitting to express it with a rock ballad or a jazz song,…
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If it’s not messy… it’s not worth it!
Expressing emotions in dancing is a difficulty we have because as I also wrote there is a tendency from society to undervalue it and maybe sometimes see it as a weakness. However, it’s the only way (IMHO) to enjoy your dance.
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Language
Story telling
Dancers or story tellers?
Dancers with basic musicality can understand and express the music they hear at any given moment. However, if you really want to go a step further you need to see the song as a complete entity, as a story that tells you something, that has a key message.
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