The Tango-L mailing list archive

Digest from 27 Feb 2000 to 28 Feb 2000

Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango          <TANGO-L  @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Date:     Mon, 28 Feb 2000 03:00:06 -0500
Sender: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango          <TANGO-L  @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
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Subject:  TANGO-L Digest - 27 Feb 2000 to 28 Feb 2000 (#2000-56)
There is one message totalling 59 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Tango as meditation





Date:    Fri, 25 Feb 2000 19:43:03 -0800
From:    Kate Withey <withey  @SFO.COM>
Subject: Tango as meditation

<Hola! -- I've been off the list for some time, but I'm back.>

I do this strange combination of things one night a week: I go to a
group meditation & Buddhist dharma talk, then I go from there to a
milonga.  The meditation people who don't understand what tango's really
about think this is utterly incongruous, but the dancers generally get
it.  I dance well at that milonga: I am more present, more centered,
more grounded, more *there*.  I'm less likely to be insecure, nervous,
or tense.  I'm OK with where I am, where my dancing is, or even with not
dancing if it's that kind of night.

The more I do this, I realize how much tango is like meditation, & how
much I can get out of my tango if I approach it as a meditation
practice.  Effects (I won't say "objectives") of meditation are improved
focus, increased "present moment awareness", more equanimity, &
acceptance of things as they actually are (not as you want them to be).
The meditation I do (Vipassana) doesn't involve any external image or
mantra, but is about being in your body, focusing on your breathing, &
observing -- without reaction or judgment -- the sensations & feelings
that come up.

Tango at its best is about being 100% in the present, completely aware,
totally focused on my partner & the music.  It's also about being
relaxed & non-judgmental: not attached to the future (anticipating) or
the past (obsessing about the "mistake" I made 10 steps ago).  Getting
out of my head & into my body.  Being a follower who prefers to dance
close, I dance a lot with my eyes closed, which increases the meditative
feeling.  (Leaders, even if they're so good that they don't have to
consciously think or plan, still have to keep their eyes open, focusing
on the external as well as the internal.)

I recently had a private tango lesson that whose main points were almost
exactly those of the dharma talks: you are limited only by your negative
thoughts about your self or your dancing; you can choose to stop playing
that "tape" & simply *be* in the present moment, which is actually the
only moment you have to act or change in anyway.  Etc.

This sort of thing may be true about the serious pursuit of *any* sport,
but not having done anything else so deeply, I've found it in tango.  It
seems to me there have been occasional parallels between tango & sundry
martial arts drawn on the list, but I haven't seen anything about
meditation.  Anyone else experienced this one?

Kate Withey :)
San Francisco

                  "Great dancers are not great because of
                   their technique; they're great because
                   of their passion."   - Martha Graham





End of TANGO-L Digest - 27 Feb 2000 to 28 Feb 2000 (#2000-56)
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