We’ve changed our ringtone, voicemail, and screen name to reflect our new passion. We are developing our own “style” and compare our dancing to that of others who started about the same time that we did.
We’re developing preferences in music, embrace, teachers and partners. We have discovered which experienced dancers are Beginner-Friendly and which are Beginner-Phobic. We’ve received enough unsolicited lessons to last a lifetime and have learned which “experts” to avoid.
We’re becoming a leeetle self-conscious about how seriously tango might be affecting us, but wouldn’t dream of letting anyone know how much energy we spend trying to understand why, a dance, of all things, is changing our life.
We are reading books and online articles, researching history, watching movies, exploring musical heritage and studying the cultural and social impact tango has had, and is having, on its homeland and the world. We schedule time for tango events first and then everything else.
We have to drag our self away from a milonga even when our feet are begging for mercy because we fear the DJ might play one of our favorites and/or a highly desirable partner might become available, and/or some other reason for not being able to resist one more tanda.
We’ve progressed way beyond curiosity and are drawn by physical, aesthetic, intimate, tactile, mental, and emotional elements. With each experience the attraction deepens, strengthens and reinforces our connection with the dance, its music, our partners and our self. In a word, we are hooked, well on our way to becoming obsessed, and some would even say on the road to becoming “addicted.” So be it.
We have come to understand how and why folks go goofy over this dance and all its accoutrements; the milonga scene, sharing a delicious embrace, sharing a wave length with someone we barely know or who we share our life with. It all makes sense and yet leaves us in wonderment. We thought we’d just be learning a dance. How did it all become so complex?
We’ve become the people we were curious about when we first met tango and we’re helping newbies as we were helped. We’re building partnerships and friendships that extend beyond the floor, and anticipating spontaneous magical moments that can occur at any time. We can’t believe the impact that tango is having on our thoughts, feelings and our responses to music, partners, and our deepest inner self.
Some of our friends and family insinuate that tango has replaced our social life. If they only knew how much our social life has been enhanced. When they assume it’s like what they see on TV and in the movies, we declare emphatically, “It is nothing like that!”
Our shoe collection has grown exponentially, (women), as has our bevy of “tricks” (men), and we can name-drop a list of teachers whose classes we’ve taken. We’re familiar with names of Masters and professionals in the clips we have bookmarked on You Tube, and we exchange links with fellow enthusiasts.
We recognize several orchestras by name and can identify favorite songs by title. We no longer mistake a milonga for a tango or vals and we’re learning how to use cabeceo, if and when we choose to. We’re looking at travel websites more intently and Googling everything there is to know about Buenos Aires, just in case…
Polly's Tango Talk 