Every so often someone will ask the question:
"So what made you take up tango?".
If they are a dancer they will get the story. If they are not they will get the answer which in its full form can be quite complicated, and for me uncomfortable. Why complicated and uncomfortable? Because, really, within that question there are two questions that compete to be answered. What made me walk in the door of the tango class and what made me stay? Because their answers are at odds with each other and yet not.
Why did I want to take up tango? I can't say I know why. It exists somewhere in the collective subconscious, Adams family pastiches, a couple locked arm in arm cheek to cheek, rose between the teeth, marching up a room and down again, a dance was just steps. Which is of course Ballroom Tango, but the collective western European subconscious isn't terribly aware that there is anything different. Tango is tango, is it not?
My first conscious decision that tango might be something I'd like to try was probably influenced by the tango scene in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman. Who could not be captivated by Al Pacino's forthright character, who wouldn't want a beautiful woman like Gabrielle Anwar in their arms? Strong male, a woman to be seduced, sounds like a good idea.
That was then and this is now.
I've stayed because of what I found, not what I was looking for. Because of what Al Pacino said in that scene, not what he did. "No mistakes in the tango...not like life...It's simple...That's what makes the tango so great..If you make a mistake...get all tangled up...just tango on." What I have found is more subtle, more intimate, a lot more taxing mentally than the uber-machismo of pushing a woman around a room.
3 comments:
Nice entry, good start Limerick. I'll be checking in regularly.
Blogging has brought me some real joy, real friends and lots of good reading about my favorite subject, tango. Besos, and Welcome.
E
I always find that a deeply impertinent, prying question, so I utter a series of things that are individually literally true, but are completely unconnected with any of my real history. Anyone who was genuinely interested would be able to work out that they don't add up to an answer, but fortunately that's rarely a problem.
I second Elizabeth's comment. Welcome.
I have to admit that I started tango because of The Tango Lesson, but in truth, it doesn't matter as much what got you started, but that you found it in the first place.
;-)
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