November 14, 2012

  • It's Takes Two

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb4lgOiHBZo

    I have been obsessed with this OK Go video for months now.  It all culminated with (finally) quitting bellydance (my final performance was in August) and meeting a table of tangueros who dance in a coffee shop on Friday nights.  Tango is both completely simple (walking) and potentially very complicated.  It reminds me of the tribal style bellydance that I did for so many years - there is a leader, and as a follower you notice the changes in weight and anticipate the next step - steps which have a base and then a variation.

    I dance at the coffee shop every Friday and on Mondays I take actual lessons.  It might seem weird that I am doing this without a partner, but there are actually more leads than follows in our tango community.  And because it is a social dance everyone changes partners anyway.  Practicing by myself is a challenge.  Last night I practiced a step called an "ocho" which is the woman's feet making an eight on the floor.  I put the laptop on the top bunk bed and gently balanced myself with the railing as I mimicked the feet on the screen.  A basic and then variation after variation - lifting the foot on the pivot, dragging the foot on the pivot, pausing with a lifted knee on the pivot.  Argentine Tango is an opportunity for two people to have a conversation in music.  It is much more flexible than the ballroom dance I did years ago.

    It's also much more intimate.

    My husband knows I am dancing Argentine Tango and I think he's not so sure what to make of that.  I have invited him to come and he won't.  I am very aware that while it is not sexual it IS intimate and that is part of what I like so much about it.  Bellydance was less threatening because although people think it is sexy and provocative, it really isn't.  And bellydancers are more into bellydance than men are.

    I can't get over how easy it is to find a subculture when you find a new interest.  I have new friends who have welcomed me and included me in "The Tango Scene."  I didn't even know Lincoln had a tango scene!

    "You want to dance with other men?" he asked.

    "I want to dance with you," I said.

    Mostly I dance with the bunk bed railing.