This is how you dance the tango

One of my favourite tango blogs is Tango and Chaos in Buenos Aires. It’s about a journey, as all tango is. The author, Rick McGarrey, first went to Buenos Aires in November 2001 for a five-week holiday, so he was there for the upheavals of December 2001 which had such profound effects on Argentina. These events are described in his blog, alongside his discover of ‘his’ tango and the milongas and milogueros of Buenos Aires. Go and read if you want to know more about what makes Buenos Aires and tango what they are today.

I read parts of it again today after musing about the various things tango means to those who love it. In a section on The Soul of the Tango, McGarrey quotes from a song whose title is, “Asi se Baila el Tango”. It means, “This is how you dance the tango”:

What do the rich people know?
What do they know about tango?
What do they know about the pulse, the rhythm?
Here is how you dance the tango,
Painting pictures with your feet,
With the blood rising in your face to the music…
With your eyes closed to hear better…
All mixing in each partner’s breath.

~ by magickwords on Monday, 6 July 2009.

2 Responses to “This is how you dance the tango”

  1. Hey and thank you for this article!

    There are indeed many different ways of learning how to dance, but my question is: why pay for them? If you really want to learn how to dance, then the only thing you should invest into it is your time.

    I honestly recommend you to think about this matter for a bit to come to your own opinion. I also add an article, which talks about the easy ways how to learn dancing for free in the 21 Century.

    Seriously, read this here: http://fr.ee/article/how-to-get-free-dance-lessons

  2. To be honest, Martin, if anyone wants to learn to dance tango properly (and what’s the point otherwise), they should be prepared to seek out good teachers and pay them for their work.

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