Notes of encouragement to a lovely lady dancer in a moment of self-doubt.
Hold on to what you have learned and believe how well you can dance.
Picture a moment of real achievement that you have experienced in your dance
and make an archetypal image of yourself dancing that moment. Recall
the archetype when life, mood, energy, a poor leader or any influence
makes you doubt yourself.
And then just dance....
Listen to tango music when you are not dancing. Choose to dance, NO, demand
to dance when a favorite track is played and dance the emotion through
the embrace. Fly with the spirit of the music, live only for the moment
and do not ever let your doubt influence your dance.
This dance is about sharing. You know enough to possess 50% of the
dance and still transmit a sense of sharing, a collaboration of moments
through the embrace. So possess it.
Your axis is your power and your beauty, don't let your dance partner steal it through ignorance, belligerence or ego.
Some men project their insecurity in the dance onto the woman. You need to be strong in mind, body and spirit to deal with this. |
Set yourself small challenges when you dance socially. For instance,
- plan to dance one really, really good backward ocho in a 3 minute tango;
- or know that you influenced the placing of his feet with the music (without him even knowing you did it);
- or
dance with significance to the phrasing of the orchestra even though he
(or she) leads with no sense of togetherness with the music.
Celebrate each small success by painting your archetype with more vivid
hues, dance with pride and elegance and radiate your beauty.
Be
aware of the need to balance aspects of the mind, body and spirit when
you dance tango. Understand that sometimes, despite our best
attempts, it is impossible to find a balance. Believe it will be found tomorrow.
Train yourself to acknowledge,
respect and play with the dichotomies of tango, the unity of
opposites. Know that there is stillness in movement and movement in
stillness. To go backwards, consider a forwards movement. To
collaborate, stand firm.
And then just dance some more. I know you will find what your are looking for.
Steve Morrall, (inspired by teaching 21 hours of
private lessons at Tango Mango in July 2008)
Email Tango UK with comments or questions about any issues raised in the
Pink Papers
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