[Tango-L] Why are you dancing tango if you don't like tango?

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

'Cause dance is about movement and she liked doing the movements.  Or maybe she only heard bad tango music.

I recently asked a well respected-tango dancer about his experience learning to dance tango at a young age.  I asked what attracted him to tango in his early teens at a time when only old people danced.  He replied "Possibilities".  He liked the unlimited possibilities that he found in tango compared to other dances.  This implies that he was attracted by the physical and mental puzzles of tango, moreso than the music.  Of course, now, he's wonderful with the music some 20 years later.

I'm not surprised that he didn't say "the music" because I don't think young people relate to music with the emotional response of older people.  It may take a broken heart for one to fully appreciate the tango.

I have to confess, it took me years to love the music and that was after I became a teacher.  Perhaps it was partly because I had thought that the future ahead of me was really just learning a bunch of combinations like a trick pony (and nobody had a clue about tango music where I was).  After that I began to turn my attention to the music and found a teacher who taught me to love it.

Trini de Pittsburgh
 

--- On Sun, 5/2/10, Lois Donnay <donnay at donnay.net> wrote:


So my question is: why would someone get involved in tango dancing, so much so that they choose to teach, when they don't like tango?