Tango Embrace

It is strange while mesmerising and beautiful when an embrace feels "Right". My journey to dancing tango started its original path in other social dance forms. I did not feel inhibited to embrace a stranger to dance with, I was used to that, but from the very early lessons I began to feel and learn that there was something a lot more special about the way we embrace a partner to dance tango.

The 'Tango' begins and ends with feelings, and that is mostly shown and spoken by the embrace we share. The tango embrace is more complex and intricate than other forms of embrace employed in non-Argentine dance types. The tango embrace is both the vocabulary and the grammar which we need for the language of dancing tango. We need the embrace to help us to communicate.

In fact the embrace determines more than the style, the space and the physical dimensions of our movements. Its flexibility and control mechanism shapes the dance, and still goes even much further: most importantly it creates 'connectivity', not just for bodies but of minds.

It is easy to feel that in duration of a song or two, and for some people even within the first few seconds of music that the embrace we hold allows us to discover if partners fit, or if they trust each other, and aspire and inspire similarly, or if they know how to compromise, help and care or appreciate and reciprocate or simply be compatible with one another at all.

In a milonga, I often feel that I get to know more about some stranger's personality or any friend's mood in a short few minutes of a tango than I could ever possibly do if I engage in a conversation with them through most of the evening. There is something about an embrace and its personal proximity that shouts volumes about who we are and how we are feeling.

I see an embrace as a window through which we watch one another from within, and are seen and perceived from without.

For those who are proficient in "Performance Art", the embrace becomes a vehicle by which to amplify and project different personas.

My personal experience and observations tell me that everyone develops their own style of tango embrace sooner or later. We look to find our comfort zone, and most of us remain there once we have found it and we like not to change - there can be no criticism of this since it is part of our human nature – a minority of us, however, may try to change this either through better understanding or by not knowing any better but still wanting to strive for something more rewarding. Either way, those who succeed will feel fulfilled and wonderful while many others happily would revert back to their old comfort zone. Many feel reassured for having at least tried.

I would like to think that the form and style of embrace which we all eventually choose is derived from the feelings we have when we dance rather than just our submission to form as taught in some classes.

If it does not feel right, it is best not to try it on at all, and when it does feel right then the joy of that embrace is like that of breathing under water if we could somehow: a way of life we had not known, or at the very least a pleasant dream that we had wished for and now given a short time to live it in life. Enjoy!

MilongaCat.
The only cat who loves you back!