Excuse me while I have a moment of complaining. Or confession I guess.
I find it boring when people over-analyze Tango and come across as though they think they are experts on Tango just because they write a blog. Yes, I get inspired to write something when I have a realization about embracing a person, and yes in the past I have written a few of my opinions, but for the most part it’s all from an emotional and romantic standpoint, and I really much more enjoy writing about my experiences in Buenos Aires off the dance floor. It’s fabulous to be inspired and want to express and share – but when writing about Tango, sometimes I think there is such thing as too much. Too much analyzing and way too many metaphors. How are you supposed to enjoy dancing if you’re busy dissecting every detail of the way someone led something?
What I really get bored with is when people over-analyze “steps” in Tango and get too wordy and literal about them. I am going to be honest and tell you that my eyes sincerely glaze over and I can’t concentrate on such things. And then they start naming steps that I’ve never even heard of! I can follow/teach/sometimes lead, in person, but I honestly could not begin to tell you the names of a lot of steps (except for the obvious ones), and I certainly can’t tell you in written words how to do them. Not in a blog anyway. I’d rather just shut off my computer, get in a taxi, go to the nearest milonga and dance.
Humph!
I wonder if the whole tango blog world will hate me now. Oh well, too bad.
Related Articles
12 users responded in this post
Totally, totally agree.
It could be very boring and really no too useful to talk in such theoretical way.
Some things you just have to do it and practice, not talk (or write) about it.
Besos!
I’m the same way with haircutting… and books.
Some things should just be done, felt and enjoyed, without analyzing and dissecting.
Yeah, with you there.
Nope. I think you’re awesome.
xoxo
Well, it had to be said:)
))
Just don´t read it. Buy shoes!!!
Besos
I can never visualize words to actual physical movement, nor associate numbers with music and steps. The only name of the step that I know is “walk”.
I thought it was just me.
I’m with you about naming steps. I try really hard to NOT think about the steps, but to feel them in my body (not always successfully!). I have a leader in one of my classes that repeatedly asks me how to do his part of whatever we are working on and then gets frustrated when I tell him I don’t know. We might be able to work it out with our bodies, but he wants the words from me, and I just don’t have them.
So, I agree, my eyes glaze over, but I also recognize for the people that need to put it into words to “get it”, there must be value. Just not for me.
Hola Tina,
Many of us, unfortunately, experience the majority of our tango in our heads. We don’t have the luxury of going to a milonga seven nights a week. I’m lucky if I can dance one night, for two or three hours, in seven weeks. There have been periods where I have gone for three or four months without dancing at all.
So, as a result, we tend to think about the details rather than dance the details.
Follower energy is a recurring issue for me, but not being able to dance it and figure it out, occasionally a thought/idea/concept pops into my head and I choose to blog about it. I don’t expect to get any real resolution in blogdom, but I just throw it out there. It’s not like I am over-analyzing and pondering this BS 24/7.
Plus, being bitten by tango, it’s not like I can just stop thinking about it, especially when I’m in a dancing dry spell. The nearest milonga for me is 4 hours of driving (to and fro) and at least a $60 expense between gas and cover.
And lastly, quite to the contrary of your second sentence, I blog exactly because I am still trying to figure tango out – not because I think I am an expert.
I still love you even though I bore you.
Hi Alex, thank you for commenting! Would it surprise you to know that I only dance about 2 or 3 times a week? (Thurs, Fri, Sat)…
Anyway it’s nice to be able to know what goes through the mind and heart of another blogger, particularly a male who at times does take a more cerebral approach. I appreciate the comment (and the love).
Hola again Tina!
No, it doesn’t surprise me. I’m sure most normal folks who live in BA dance once or a few times a week (or every two weeks). I should have said the luxury of “being able to go” to a milonga 7 nights…and “I still love you even tough I ‘may’ bore you…at times…”
It’s all good, though. It makes me wonder if I would have ever started a blog if I were actually dancing more/regularly.
This will all be changing very soon. I have a big news I will be sharing within the next week.
Take care…
I’m sure you would have still started a blog – if someone is in love with something and they like to write, a blog is inevitable.
What’s your big news? Coming to BA?
Moving somewhere? Looking forward to hearing it!
Hi,
first of all, great blog.
I too have just got the tango bug (though cuban salsa is my first love).
Totally agree on overanalysing. My yoga teachers mantra is “do your practice and all is coming”…stolen from her teacher who is 90 and still fit as a fiddle. Wise words methinks.
Thank you again for sharing, from sunny London.
M
Leave A Reply