You cannot be in this city without encountering what is the most magical dance to me - the Argentine Tango. I had heard so much about it before arriving here and was not free of ideas on what it could be Everybody I had spoken to before said - oh you are going to Buenos Aires - you must learn how to dance the Tango. I know I was in love with this dance even before I arrived. What I am finding is a complete new world I cannot wait to explore. Though I love writing I find it really challenging to describe this phenomenon. Tango is a life philosophy, a way of being, level 3 at its best for all of us Coaches and Leaders.
Buenos Aires is packed with Tango places. It is safely described as and industry so it comes in many shapes and forms. Exactly two years ago a friend of mine whom I visited in Buenos Aires took me to a Tango Show. I guess it was even then that I caught the bug. My friend and my co-leader in the Feminine Force series, Anne Marit Lykseth, introduced me 2 weeks ago to Leni Jebsen, a Buenos Aires lover and amazing Tango dancer who just happened to be here for the week I arrived. We instantly connected and Leni introduced me to this world of Tango that has me captured and mesmerized. Out of the blue it seems people will roll out a make shift floor, hook up some funky equipment, play Tango music and from everywhere couples will form - how that works is an Art in itself and I will write about it another time - and step in to the spaces of the dancefloor. Magic happens. I have never witnessed in a dance the divine feminine and divine masculine calling each other forth in such a magical and obvious, elegant and improvised, subtle and forceful, tender and passionate, quiet and attractive, public and intimate way. This is an Artform for all I know. People dance under the stars in the streets, in gorgeous dance halls that are still witness to a long forgotten splendor when this country was one of the richest in the world. After work people do not go to a pub - they go and dance Tango. The way it feels is that I just dipped my toe into a pool of smooth, velvety, deep, soothing water that has exactly the right temperature. I am starting to take lessons over the next few days. My first pair of shoes say - I know who I am, I am a beautiful, powerful, curious, sensual dancer who is strong enough to hold her own and surrender to your lead and intelligent enough to pick this pair as the heel tells you - I am also a beginner. Going to the Melongas I have been asked to dance many times already and my partners seem to enjoy my willingness to learn and do not mind just gently walking me across the floor so I can learn how to read the intention in my partners step, add in mine and co-create this magic fluid experience. I am in Tango fever.
Smiling from ear to ear reading your words. What precious moments to watch you enter the floor for the first time. The joy on your face as you fell deeper and deeper in love with tango.
ResponderEliminarTo me life and tango goes hand in hand. I learn about myself as I enter into the embrace. I learn what I can be with, and what I cannot be with. I learn what my default way of connecting is, and what it is not.
I learn to surrender completely to the music, to the dance, to my partner, - to myself. I learn that to really surrender and follow I have to know how to stand solidly on my own two feet, have pride, confidence, strength and courage. In order to follow I need to lead. One of the many beautiful paradoxes.
Buenos Aires and it's magical world of tango stays with me back in Norway. I ache to go back. To dive into this pool of warmth, acceptance, joy, generosity, friendliness, fun, challenge and leadership at a different level.
Tango with all its beauty can also be a steep learning curve. Again with many parallels to life itself. How to get back up when failing. How to celebrate success - when feeling on top of the world after a great dance. How to be with both. How I look at myself, - or compare myself with others. Insecure, - or not? And not least how to be a woman, full out owning my femininity, my sensuality and walk with my head high, loving the world, myself, the beauty, the potential of what we can create. In every moment, on and off the dance floor.