The look and feel

“It’s not how it looks, but how it feels.”

Over dinner tonight, this phrase popped into my head suddenly.

I guess it may have something to do with the conversation I had with a friend after the milonga on the previous night?

Basically he was commenting on the quality of the performances he witnessed at a milonga. While the Asian performers were impeccable in their execution and timing, the Argentinian couple which followed the first performance committed some errors here and there. Nevertheless he still preferred the number by the Argentinian couple because they danced with feelings and had more emotional “content”.

Very often, and especially in the early phase of our Tango journey, we are “tricked” into trying to copy either our favourite teachers or simply do things according to the general fashion. However, from what I can see, oftentimes people end up having just the exterior form without the real essence – which arguably one can’t learn except through private classes, but that’s a topic for another day. I think this is probably most evident in the Tango embrace.

Basically, no matter how good you imagine you will appear when you move, if you are not leading/following in the proper way, the dance will feel awful and will probably in fact look awful no matter how hard you try to work on your “styling”. Food for thought over the next meal, I hope. 😉