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Physiological Contact

“You have great connection!” (gggrrrrrrrr)

There is one aspect of The ‘Connection Fallacy‘ that comes up a lot and that’s the idea that there is some mystical/spiritual/magical way in which we communicate in the dance. That communication is stated as how our ‘connection’ is to someone and them to us and how well we ‘connected’ with each other. Rubbish! Not to piss in someone’s Cheerios but that’s just magical thinking.

One way to translate this phrase so that it actually makes logical sense to those that don’t think ‘magically’. Which by the way, is far more precise, and real, is to refer to this misdirected and wholly unclear misinformation as ‘Physiological Contact’ that a couple has.  The moment that you refer to this, there is an automatic desire to be as specific as humanly possible with where the physiological contact exists, as well as how much physiological pressure, compression, tension, and force is being applied. Specificity! It’s the new ‘cool’. 

Like for instance – “I feel a lot of physiological contact from your upper torso to mine. As well as from your forearm around my back, and while there is contact in both places, there is an acceptable amount of physiological pressure from your hand, forearm, and torso that I like.” See ? Much clearer than “You have great connection!”.

MORE REMINDERS

Physiological Control

January 31, 2017 No Comments

Control is a really hard thing to get. It takes a while to have precise, or precision, control over exact foot placement, which is insanely important. It takes time to build up the necessary minute control that one needs to have over one’s body. A millimeter here, a millimeter there, cumulatively, can make all the difference between a dance that sucks (for both parties) and one that is absolutely fabulous. Precision control is where all the toys are at.

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Wine & Tango

March 18, 2017 No Comments

Stop and think about something for a moment: Wine is alcohol (duh). Alcohol is a depressant, not a stimulant, it lowers our inhibitions, and ability for rational thought. It allows for us to do things while under it’s effects (inebriation) that we wouldn’t normally do. Like for instance, ‘drunk dial the ex’, or taken to the extreme – driving while intoxicated (tsk, tsk, tsk). Typically the average ‘wine’ drinker never gets beyond the tipsy stage….they can ‘hold their liquor’ as it were.

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More Classes

March 11, 2017 No Comments

At some point along the curve of your tango life, continuing to take classes seems like a really stupid idea. You’ve learned everything you need to know to get around the floor. Practice isn’t really that important any longer. And going to Milongas is really the important part, so who needs to practice ?

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Discomfort

April 30, 2017 No Comments

Far too often we experience ‘discomfort’ when dancing. Most of the time we discard it and just accept it as the price we have to pay in order to dance with X, or so that we don’t have to sit through yet another milonga tanda, etc. Sometimes we feel that discomfort, and sometimes we don’t but in general it’s there, most of the time.

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Magical Improvement

February 25, 2017 No Comments

“She’s not magically going to improve just because you ‘show’ her what she’s supposed to do at that moment.” To make this non gender specific, because this axiom applies to both genders, and both roles. As well as teachers and students. Some teachers know this truth, some teachers learn it the hard way. Clarity: The – “supposed to do” part above. This idea frequently occurs where you have a male Lead that has an expectation of X being followed properly, where X is Traveling Ochos, Volcada, Milonguero Turn, etc. And when it doesn’t they stop their dancing and then show the Follower what was intended. And here’s the magical part, they keep showing them, hoping that it will change the Follower’s behavior and frequently it doesn’t.

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Wood Floors

February 11, 2018 No Comments

The toy of choice for most dancers is a ‘Sprung’ floor! That’s a work of art, science, and pure magic. Sprung floors are to dancers, what honey is to bees.  A ‘Sprung’ floor ? What’s that ? A Sprung floor is a dance floor that easily absorbs shocks, giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best available for dance and indoor sports and physical education. They enhance performance and greatly reduce injuries.

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Getting Into The Encuentro

November 3, 2018 No Comments

This is a FIVE step process, that you will want to follow religiously, which does not necessarily depend on where you live. If you’re an American dancer and want to break into the scene in Europe, then this is a post for you. If you’re already living in Europe then you have a slightly different pathway, but the suggestions are exactly the same.

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Tango Cities

February 18, 2017 No Comments

Today’s Tango Thought covers a labor of Tantalus … where is Tango danced and in what cities ? What follows is by no means an exhaustive list of places where tango is danced, it only scratches the surface.

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