Tango

Tango On Maui 

At my first Tango class ~ July 2, 2006 on Maui~ I became a Tango Addict…. My life was Tango 24/7-Dancing & practicing, listening the Tango music. Privates, classes, workshops, Milongas (venues for the Tango Social Dance). Everything changed: my dress, hair, ATTITUDE, my sensuality…. My sense of self.

My Dream of dancing in Buenos Aires, the birthplace of Tango, manifested in 2017 when my Life Partner, Geo and I were there for a month.   Geo is a veteran Tango dancer and in love with it as much as I am.   Listening to live orchestras, dancing in the halls of Tango history, meeting older generation Milongueros (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milonguero) was intoxicating for me. Dance all night from midnight to dawn, a few hours’ sleep, then classes, or touring the city and back at night to another Tango Dance Hall. Tango Heaven!!!

During that month, staying at  Tango Oasis Hotel situated conveniently to the different venues and life of the city, I met other Tangueros (Tango dancers) from all over the world… Beirut, Istanbul, Croatia, Russia, Germany, Asia, Italy, Australia, NZ, the list goes on and on. I believe Tango to be a Peace Bridge of cultures, countries, genders, ideologies. Tango is its own language without words. The music is the interpreter without judgement, and for 10-12 minutes ( the length of a 3 song tanda) all differences are erased, and the dance is the connection.

You can go anywhere in the world where there is Tango and feel you are part of a world community

Living on the island of Maui, we are fortunate to have many international Tango teachers visiting, offering their experience, expertise, knowledge, technicality, musicality, love of Tango and friendship.

Maui has an ever-growing Tango community with weekly Milongas, classes, and practicas (practice classes).

Visit www.mauitango.org to be on our mailing list; view calendar of events, classes, local & visiting teacher schedules

Facebook:   Maui Tango

February 05, 2007, I received an email from a Tango website and found it a fascinating topic to discuss since Tango holds so many mysteries: how do you define something elusive ……. Tango had become that Emergent essence in my life.

Subject: RcE: [ATOF] What makes a tango a tango

My response:

Aloha from Maui…

For me, Tango is a Sensually Stimulating and Passionately Powerful dance, elusive in its definition…

Tango expresses a story, that of human drama, its pathos, its passions, its longings. The essence of Tango embodies a yearning, whether for love, for the intimacy of connection, or a sense of deep separation and loss of love or loss of someone or something…it is in the strings of the violins and the drawn-out elongated sounds of the bandoneon that stretch the human being’s emotions to tug at the strings of one’s heart and core…

What makes a Tango a Tango are the 2 dancers conveying and connecting with one another in an energy exchange of emotional expression in their musical interpretation of the story.  The partners’ whirling energy displays a multitude of emotions and you become mesmerized and drawn into their expressive outpourings.  Tango comes from the inside out… it touches something deep inside each of the partners and is expressed through the music…and touches those witnessing their dance…

The partners’ chemistry is electric. They are in the act of foreplay as they dance with an attitude and sense of seduction and resistance; sometimes their dance is like that of deeply passionate, intimate love making.  You witness this experience through their body language: the embrace, the facial expressions; how they execute the steps, the 2 bodies merge, become fluid, 2 becomes 1…as has been said about Tango…1 body, 4 legs…..

Tango is a Tango not only with dancers. Watch a bandoneon musician; their expression; they FEEL the music, it is in their heart, in their blood and they pour it out through their facial expressions and how they play the instrument… It comes from deep within their core, their heart and soul.

Tango is a Tango, like a rose is a rose…. unique, mysterious, magical, and exquisite in its unfolding…

Tango On……Gylian

I’d love to hear your thoughts on “What Makes a Tango a Tango”