[Tango-L] Returning to the Basics

[larrynla@juno.com]

This Wednesday I'm going to the Portland TangoFest in Oregon, organized 
by Clay Nelson and his compadres.

http://www.claysdancestudio.com/tangofest/index.shtml

This is number 12, so I'm guessing they're doing something right! 
Mostly I just intend to go to all the milongas, visit a friend, and see 
some of the city. But they have an interesting mix of teachers, so I'm 
going to take a few classes. And thereby hangs a ... point of 
discussion.

I'm only going to take the very basic classes, because my attitude 
toward tango dancing has changed in the almost-twenty years since I 
started tango. At first I worked to get comfortable with (master would 
be an exageration) the basics. Then (and like most everyone at the 
time) I got obsessed with learning the most complicated, showy figures. 
(Thank you, all you wonderful women who put up with me!)

Several years into tango I heard a statement attributed to Puppy 
Costello (who, incidentally, preferred that spelling to Pupi) - 
"Figures are easy; walking is hard." It puzzled me for a while, until I 
remembered a number of other activities where I had to "practice the 
scales" often to keep my skills sharp.

It also makes sense, too, that to do (for instance) colgadas well you 
have to have good body control, in several areas. You must also be 
quite skilled at leading and following, especially when dancing with 
relative beginners.

Which brings up a related point. I've found that it helps me to dance 
occasionally with women who are relative beginners. I have to make 
especially sure my leading is clear and well-timed then, and this acts 
as practice for those skills.

Which brings up a point I make periodically here and in similar forums. 
When dancing at a milonga you are inevitably practicing all sorts of 
skills. But the most important is practicing having fun, and practicing 
NOT thinking.

It is a happy side-effect of dancing with beginners that you help them 
to have a good time at a dance. And when they become skilled there is another happy side-effect - many of them remember your kindness and you get more dances.

Larry de Los Angeles


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