Aspetta! Pazienza!

TangoCherie wrote this excellent article about how Tango and patience go hand in hand. I am so glad. There are some schools that seem to crank out “McTango” dancers, very quickly. They seem to have a “You’ll be an expert at tango in this amount of time” culture, combined with the fact that they are very eager to train “teachers.” Yes, these teachers are actually beginning/intermediate students who have only been dancing a year. It seems likes a cycle, where the goal is to crank out as many tango dancers as possible in the quickest way possible.

I try to be open, I try to be nice, but I’m just going to be honest: I find this upsetting. I guess I just don’t have that American “feed the masses” mentality or something. I don’t want 50 billion tango dancers in my community. I want a solid community of soulful dancers, no matter how plentiful or few. I was dancing a lovely tango with a friend at a local milonga, and I was distracted and put off when I overheard one of these “beginner teachers” bragging about the classes she taught. These beginners are great at doing complicated figures (part of the curriculum I guess), and some of them indeed look beautiful when they dance, but where is the substance there?

I agree with Cherie - Tango takes time. How can you possibly understand the depth of a dance in just a year? I remember that when I reached my one-year anniversary of dancing Tango, I was still trying to figure out how to relax when I danced, how to connect, how to lose myself in the dance and then rediscover it, how to do graceful ochos and other things. I was not interested in teaching yet, nor would it have ever passed through my mind because I was completely dedicated to taking time to develop a high quality dance for myself. I had so much respect for the dance that I wanted to fully understand it before jumping to conclusions.

Maybe these people should come to Italy and learn about the Slow Food movement. The best quality things take time. Time, time, time. It’s all in the ingredients, the method, the authenticity. In Italy they also have what are called Slow Cities. These are towns which have received such a title because they basically live out Slow Food principles in their entirety. In Umbria there are several - Orvieto is one of them, as well as Todi and Trevi, where I have tasted the most beautiful olive oil. In a Slow City, everything - and I mean everything - is done in the original, traditional method, however long it takes, with local ingredients. You will not find a McDonalds or any sort of chain restaurant in one of these cities. Time and quality rule here. It may take longer and be a little more involved, but the end result is food that is incredibly rich in tradition, nutrition, flavor and soul. It’s real food.

The people in these Slow Cities cannot imagine skipping a step to get a product out more quickly and in larger volumes, because they know that it wouldn’t be the same - there would be something missing, and eventually it would become something completely different, without soul.

I liken this a lot to Tango. Tango is slow food to me. It’s about taking your time to create something delicious and real, savoring every tiny moment, savoring the process of learning.

I’ve been dancing 4-1/2 years now. Would I teach now?  Maybe…I’m not sure.  It could be in my future. But first I think it’s so much more important to fully discover myself in the dance and really make it mine. I’m on my way there and feel good about it. I’m the only one who will know when the right moment will come. It could be tomorrow or it could be next year. My dance is constantly evolving. And I’m happy to allow it to happen at its own pace.