Tango is an extraordinarily skilled hunter, capable of looking deep into each of us, and figuring out the most reliable way to draw us in.
Once she’s captured us, she has many ways to leave us incapable of ever escaping her all-enveloping embrace. But I think with each of us, there was a singular weakness she used to ensnare us in the first place. With me, it was my thirst for understanding …
Continue reading When a thirst for understanding turns into a deluge!One of the challenges in tango is that it’s really hard to be happy where we are. We always want to be at the next level, whatever that may mean to each of us. Even for me, an avowed ‘journey not the destination’ guy, it’s tough.
Tango is also never a straight line. It’s the very definition of two steps forward, one step back – and sometimes feels like the other way around …
Continue reading Feeling like my tango has finally levelled-up – after a very long plateauIt’s always a bit of a culture shock, returning to London tango after BsAs; all the more so when timings meant I couldn’t make my usual favourite milongas.
The two milongas I did get to really brought home to me how much of a role is played by sheer chance when it comes to our tango experiences – and how that’s particularly true in London …
Continue reading There’s a lot of chance in London tango – but not enough leaders taking a chanceWhen I returned from a month in BsAs last year, I said that I had learned four lessons. Reconnecting with the essence of tango (‘this person, this music, this moment’). Having milongas be a more rounded social experience, rather than dancing every tanda. Fewer plans, more spontaneity. Spending even more time listening to even more tango music.
Happily, I felt like each of those lessons stayed with me. When reflecting on what I’d learned this time, two big things of course stood out …
Update: My first return to a favourite London milonga turned out to give me a better perspective on this.
Continue reading How did Buenos Aires change me this year?My first visit, I almost immediately understood how people come here for a fortnight and end up staying for ten years. My second visit, I actually got as far as semi-serious discussions about moving here. This time, I’ve felt that pull more strongly than ever. I really didn’t want to leave.
There are a zillion reasons not to do it, ranging from practical issues around property to being so far away from London friends …
Continue reading Returning home before I was ready, and really feeling the temptation to emigrate
journey of a trainee tanguero 