"Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves"

--Pierre Tielhard de Chardin

Dear Tango Friends,

     The theme of Tango From The Heart is "Tango Unity."  We are thankful that tango has come into our lives. Tango is a great unifying force.  People of diverse backgrounds, beliefs, professions and cultures come together to do tango and to share the one thing that we all as human beings have in common: LOVE. 

     A few years ago Teo was very sick for a while.  One thing about being sick surprised him. "I noticed that all of my concerns about differences of opinion immediately disappeared.  When my life was in jeopardy, it was clear to me that all that really mattered was the love of family and friends."   

    Tango, danced from the heart has the quality of unifying us all.  When we are dancing from the heart we don't really care what somebody does for a living, or what kind of car they drive, the color of their skin or what beliefs they hold.  Those petty differences fade in the radiance of the loving human being that you are embracing. At the core, we are the same, we ARE this radiance!

     The tango community is a big loving family.  In this family, everyone has their own quirks and personalities.  We accept that there are differences.  But love transcends all and makes these differences insignificant.  So let us all embrace and merge in a heartfelt tango together!

Wishing you many heartfelt tangos,

Teo and Marsha 

***

Spring Giddiness

By Mevlana Jalal al-din Rumi -- Persian Poet

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.

I would love to kiss you.
The price of kissing is your life.
Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,
What a bargain, let's buy it.

Daylight, full of small dancing particles
and the one great turning, our souls
are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.
Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?

All day and night, music,
a quiet, bright
reedsong. If it
fades, we fade.

Excerpt from The Essential Rumi, translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, 1995. 

***

Eden Again

by Gladys Sofia Acosta

Eyes rest on golden green again 
Feet rooted in our healed mother earth again 
We walk as one, arms around each other, helping each other 
along the way: energized, eyes gleaming, capable, powerful again 
We know that we belong again: yielding - we allow 
ourselves to reconnect - to remember innocence 
and pure light again. 
Gaze calm and deep. Smiles soft. 
We are the dream again, we are love again 
Many hearts united as one throbbing heart again 
Our hand entwined in planetary circle, 
the eternal cycle complete again.

Tango:  When Two Become One

Solo Tango in Buenos Aires

By Cherie Magnus

"The tango is man and woman in search of each other. It is the search for an embrace, a way to be together, when the man feels that he is a male and the woman feels that she is a female, without machismo. She likes to be led; he likes to lead…The music arouses and torments, the dance is coupling the two people defenseless against the world and powerless to change things."
--Juan Carlos Copes, dancer and choreographer


     It’s just before dawn, and our small group of Argentines and Americans are tired and filled with reverie after a night of tango. We’re drooped over cafés con leche on an old wooden table in a run-down nineteenth-century coffee shop. The large party over by the dark windows also look like they’ve been up all night having a good time. The men are wearing jackets, the women décolletage, all somewhat portly and of a certain age.
 
     Suddenly one of the men stands up and begins to sing, loudly, proudly, passionately. Heads nod with approval. A woman in gold beads joins in. 
Several others, our table included, brighten with the music and begin to clap along. I don’t understand the words, but I know it is Tango--love, life, disappointment, desire, joy and sadness.

     Marcelo can not resist the siren call of the emotional song, even after dancing all night. He’s an Argentine. He looks at me purposefully, and we tango on the cracked black and white marble floor around the men having breakfast with their newspapers on their way to work. 
It’s a normal morning in Buenos Aires.

     What is tango, anyway? I had danced all my life but I really didn’t know the answer to that question. I knew Tango meant more than a dance, certainly more than a (slow slow quick quick slow) ballroom exhibition, a campy movie moment, or a Broadway show. Because I wanted to experience the legendary dancers’ dance and all that Tango meant, I made a pilgrimage to Buenos Aires. (“Pilgrimage” is commonly used by tango dancers to explain why they travel to Argentina to dance: it can be a religious experience.)

     Knowing no one in Argentina and no Spanish, I was lucky enough to hook up with a tour of dancers who I found on the Internet. But it didn’t matter, I would have gone anyway. Tango is addictive and I already was a junkie after only three months of tango dance classes in L.A.

     Tango permeates the air of Buenos Aires--tango art and history, the dance of politics, the music of extinct German bandoneons, a 24 hour Tango TV channel, dancers on the streets, tango clubs two per block, curios and postcards, altars to Carlos Gardel. The city could just as easily be called Tango Aires. For a tanguera wanna-be like me and the other American women I met on the trip, it was paradise.

     Buenos Aires is often called the Paris of South America, perhaps because a lot of the city’s architecture emulates La Belle Epoque and if you squint your eyes it is possible you could be in Paris: the French windows, balconies, wrought iron, sculptures of large buxom women over doorways. Elegant cupolas pop up on rooftops all over the city’s skyline, stamping the city as somewhat European and indefinably Buenos Aires.

     But the Argentines are not sitting for hours in sidewalk cafés discussing and arguing and philosophizing like the French so love. Despite the city’s mild and sunny weather, Buenos Aires has few outdoor cafes in which to have a cafe con leche and people-watch, to observe that the Argentines are slim, stunningly beautiful, well-dressed, and have perfect posture (due perhaps to their dance-charged culture.) Instead of sitting and talking, the people of Buenos Aires are dancing. They go to practicas and even milongas (tango clubs) by day, and fill the dance halls from midnight till dawn every night of the week.


You can dance in Buenos Aires from after lunch until five in the morning. In the afternoon, the tables in the Confiteria Ideal--an elegant Belle Epoque hall of marble and mirrors on the second floor above a bakery and tea room--are littered with the cell phones of businessmen and of housewives, and with frosty ice buckets of bottles of sparkling sidra, the Argentine apple-cider champagne. People come here after work, or instead of work, or just to watch the action. The ballroom is beautiful, the service is terrible, there may or may not be running water in the ladies’ room. But only the dancing matters.

     During my stay, I didn’t shop, sightsee or sleep more than an occasional nap. I lived on cafés con leche, little croissants called medialunas, chicken empanadas , and vino tinto, all on the run. At midnight I would wrap my feet and pad my toes before stuffing them into spike-heeled pointy-toed tango shoes, and then hobble down the hall to the elevator. I suffered until blessed numbness set in an hour later. Then once the music began, I would float on air across the hard cement and tile floors of the tango halls. After one milonga closed, I went to another one, and when it closed, I had breakfast. Then I soaked my bloody feet in the huge lavender bathtub of my room at the Hotel Continental, throwing in as much salt as I could beg from the kitchen. I fell into bed each day at 6:00 a.m., smelling of men’s cologne. I was deliriously happy.

     Why is this city dancing? Tango was born a hundred years ago in Buenos Aires, its direct lineage a bit mysterious. The name may be derived from “tangle,” as the couples’ legs seem to indeed. Tango, by its nature of leading and following, could only have originated in a country of overtly macho, strong men and responsive women. 

     There are no real “steps” in Argentine tango, but a walk forward, back and side. It is improvised. The man leads with his mind and body, and the woman follows with hers. She does have the choice of adding adornments and embellishments, but the control and responsibility are the man’s. The couple dance as one in a tight embrace, cheek to cheek, chest to chest, but their legs do different things.

     I had to learn not to avert my eyes from a man’s direct gaze if I wanted to dance at the Buenos Aires milongas. It wasn’t easy for me at first to stare at a man from across the room, too forward for women in the U.S. But it is considered rude in Argentina for a man to approach a woman’s table without permission, and so a woman gives her permission silently with her eyes. Often that’s all that passes between a man and a woman before meeting on the dance floor, simply a look that says, let’s dance together. 

     Then after the man opens his arms and the woman walks into them, they hold each other wordlessly for a moment before beginning to dance. One of my teachers there said, “The way a woman walks to me when I ask her to dance tells me if it will be a good tango or not. And at the moment when I first embrace her, I know all I need to know.”

     Argentine Eduardo Arquimbau confided, “I decided when I was young that I had to be a good dancer so that women would dance with me.” The pioneering dancer, choreographer and international stage star who gave our American group a Master class, continued, “I look at a woman in the street and compliment her and she won’t even return my gaze, but at a milonga I can ask her to dance with my eyes. Then I can hold her in a deep embrace, our breath mingling, our faces touching.”

     American women, myself included, flock in droves to the romantic allure of the tango and the macho men who dance it in milongas all over the world. The deep embrace, which is the norm in Buenos Aires, both seduces and frightens us. We are so thrilled to be held in a close embrace and led strongly around the dance floor in a dance of beauty and passion, that sometimes we confuse the dancer with the dance. It is easy for many of us to fall in love with the dancer. However the sensuous communication and intimacy of the Tango is traditionally over once you leave the floor. Argentines know this, but Americans can be disoriented and befuddled after a sexually-charged dance. 

     I saw how attractive are strong men who know where they are going and what they want and who never doubt themselves--even if they are old with missing teeth (often due to dance hall brawls in their youth), or are young and skinny boys just out of their teens.

     American men are different, a bit unsure of their place in the world today and what women expect from them. It's a cultural thing. Perhaps we American women have brought it on ourselves with our race to equality.

     All of this naturally in both cultures, translates to the dance floor--and perhaps the bedroom.
 
     It’s possible that American women don't really want a romantic relationship with a macho man, but many are starving to give up control--at least for the time it takes to dance two or three tangos. And to be held so close that your breath combines and your legs tangle and you dance as one... well--some of us lust for that in our lives, not just for ten minutes of Tango Heaven. On my trip there were a lot of tears shed by my American traveling companions in the Ladies' Rooms of the tango halls. And I admit, even though I knew better, to having a crush on one of the teaching assistants and being disappointed that all he did was dance with me.
It's more comfortable to have our personal space, to keep a lack of commitment that prevents our being hurt, to not press our breasts against the chest of a stranger who we may never see again and whose name is unknown.

     It takes courage for Americans to be close physically, and to embrace a stranger like a lover for whom we have no expectations. Holding someone "at arm's length" is a lot easier, after all. It's just not Tango.

     Juan Bruno, another Master teacher I studied with, described the physiology of Tango as “the brain sending a message to your feet through your heart.” And el corazon, the dominant phrase of tango song lyrics, is also the soul of Tango as well as the heart of its dancers.
I learned that Tango is music, a mystique, a way of life, a people, not only a dance. My dancing improved after dancing twelve hours a day with strong leaders, and now that I’m back home again, I’m haunting the milongas of Los Angeles looking for the Tango Heaven I found in Buenos Aires. And if I also find tremendous pleasure from a man’s deep embrace with no strings attached, well, who can blame me?

     However, along with all of its other qualities, a tango can also be just a dance. At a milonga I remind myself of that each time a man takes me in his arms to dance, and before I go home, alone.
     "Tango is fulfillment… like in a dream, absolute communication, intimacy, romanticism, fusion of two people in one, true love that lasts only as long as the music plays."
--Sergio, a dancer

Cherie Magnus is an American tanguera living, dancing and writing in Buenos Aires. This is an excerpt from her soon-to-be-published book, The Church of Tango: a Passionate Memoir, reprinted by the permission of the author.

***
You Have To Be Slow 
To Be Quick

By Teo and Marsha Bartek

Running Away From Stillness

     Tango is not just fast movements and forms on the floor.  If you do that, you miss what is real—the contrast, the slow ochos with flirtation, the standing still where nothing is happening and everything is happening.  It is an opportunity missed to be in the moment, instead of doing in the moment.  And that experience of being in the moment with your partner is fertile and fulfilling in itself. 

For stillness is dancing too.  The late Carlos Gavito in Un Tal Gavito, says that when he stands still, he and his partner experience tango within themselves.  “This last dance was a dance of intentions, a dance of a silent language of movements that don’t exist.” In Gavito’s tango, stillness is a part of the dance, equal to the movement.  He doesn’t move randomly.  He moves only when guided from within to express outwardly what he is feeling.

Always moving, is running away from the stillness, running away from the intimacy, running away from the silence.

There is even silence in fast movement.  Witness Roberto Reis in CITA 2004 Master Performances, Volume 1.  He is stillness in motion.  It is mesmerizing to watch him dance tango. The I Ching says, “Avoid excessive haste and avoid excessive hesitation.”  In The Tango Lesson, Pablo Veron said to Sally Potter: 

                                “You have to give up all the ideas you  ever had about what it means to be strong on stage.  You’re confusing strength with tension.  You have to be calm to be strong.  You have to be slow to be quick.  Everything else is from the past, and you have to throw it all away.”

Your Strong Tango Identity

     This is where we get into your unique tango character…your strong tango identity.  Gavito has it. Roberto Reis and Pablo Veron have it.  They dance from their unique character. All singers, actors, comedians and dancers assume a character, an alter ego, when they perform.  

     Find the person within you who is calm in action, powerful, and magnetic.  And stay with that inner self when dancing tango.  It will transform you!  This tango character would never let him or herself get caught up in unconscious, random movement without identity.  This quote from Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle sums it up nicely, “Doing one thing at a time means to be total in what you do.”

Your Intention and Motivation is Supreme

     Your intention and motivation in tango is supreme and will rule your dance.  When you ask a woman to dance, or accept a man’s invitation to dance what do you intend for that interaction?

     Be without ego.  Eckhart Tolle says, “Whenever you live through the ego, you always reduce the present moment to a means to an end.”  Tango is not a means to an end.  Tango is the fulfillment of itself.

     When approaching someone for tango, have an intention of a silent conversation with that man or woman for the duration of the dance.  Be open to the person as a unique being allowing him or her the freedom to express his or herself fully.

     We are human.  We have expectations.  Our egos get in the way sometimes.  We are not perfect.  But once in a while we let our guard down and something unexpected and exhilarating happens.  We find ourselves in a tango trance, dancing in ecstasy with a man or woman who is attuned to the same depths of feeling.

Getting into the Tango Zone

     We have all experienced this at one time or another.  Athletes call it being in the “zone.”  Surfers live for this experience.  But in tango, this experience is very special because you share the experience with another living, breathing human being.  It is something to treasure and cherish. 

     Sometimes it doesn’t happen.  We’re "off".  We’re having a bad night.  Or we are full of thoughts about the past, or clinging to some expectation, causing us to miss the moment.  No big deal.  We’ll live to tango another night!

Preparing for the Tango Experience 

     Here are some things we can do to prepare ourselves for the experience and increase the overall fulfillment we get from tango:

Centering:  When we approach a new partner, we should take the time to balance ourselves and become centered.  Take a deep breath and relax into the embrace, letting go of all tension, and feeling the other person.  Take the time to feel the closeness and intimacy with your partner.  Tap into that special chemistry between man and woman, the dynamic tension between the sexes. It has a powerful unifying force and makes the tango delicious and satisfying on all levels.

Imagination: If you have difficulty achieving a state of silence, balance, and centeredness, here is a simple technique we can use to become quiet and grounded.  We can imagine a beam of light coming up from the center of the Earth, through the center of our body, leaving through the center of our crown.  The mind has a powerful effect on the body. This technique will help connect and strengthen your body giving you the stability to relax and feel secure. You can rely on this imaginary light beam while dancing.

     Then imagine a beam of light from your solar-plexus and heart going to the solar-plexus and heart of your partner, establishing an invisible connection with him or her.  Also send a feeling of acceptance, appreciation, love, and gratitude to your partner honoring him or her as a precious human being.  He or she will feel this and will respond.

Feel the Physical:  Then take a moment to feel the physical presence of your partner.  Feel his or her weight.  Feel which leg is supporting his of her weight, or if the weight is balanced evenly.   It is most important to be aware of the connection with your partner.  Where is the dynamic tension, the man pushing and the women resisting.  This is what makes the tango happen!

Constant Attention:  Make sure, at all times, that tension is present and in the awareness of both partners.  We keep our attention focused on just one thing, our partner.  Treasure this connection above all else!  The steps, the rhythm, the cadence of the dance, come from this connection.  They accommodate it.  We adjust our movements and our foot placements to preserve this dynamic connection.  For, when it is lost, the tango is lost—the dance degenerates to simply a lot of movement, rushing, and haste.

     Ballet dancers practice every step slowly and with great deliberateness before they start doing the choreography at full speed.

Slow Tango in a Meditative State
  
     Here is an exercise you can do at home to slow down your tango and dance with more connections and intention:

     Put on some meditative music.  We usually practice to the Tao of Peace by Dan Evenson and Li Xianting, produced by Sounding of the Planet.  You can reach them at 1-800-93peace.

     Next, get centered and connected to your partner as described above.  Assume your powerful silent tango identity.  Take the time to feel the intimacy and closeness with your partner, without moving.  This may feel awkward to you at first.  You may even feel the urge to start moving.  Don’t.  Stay with the intimacy for at least ten seconds.  You are uncomfortable because you are unfamiliar with such a close state of intimacy.  Our social programming is so strong. 

     But with practice, we will overcome it.  Once this state becomes familiar to you, it will no longer feel uncomfortable.  On the contrary, you will enjoy it immensely!

Tap into the Natural Chemistry Between Man and Woman

     Men: project feeling and your male energy toward the woman in front of you.  Women: project your feminine energy toward the man walking toward you. This is more than the simple physical connection described above.  The physical connection is there, but this emotional and sometimes spiritual connection brings a fuller dimension to your tango.  It brings grace, elegance, and pleasure.

     Then, practice your tango steps slowly with intention, concentration, and focus.  Feel the dynamic tension, the precious connection with another human being.  Feel where your weight is.  Feel the places where you are losing balance, and call forth the strength of your body to hold your balance and preserve the connection.

Resist the Urge to Rush

You may feel the urge to rush to the next step too quickly because you are losing your balance. Resist that urge!  Use your physical strength to balance yourself.  Doing this, you will gain strength.    You don’t want to hastily “fall” from one step to another.  You would just stay weak in the areas that need strengthening.

     Spend at least 20 minutes a day doing this exercise, and over time, it will transform your tango.  You will learn to slow down and feel the music.  You’ll be aware of your partner and you will be moving in silence.  If you can't get together with a partner daily, do the exercise by yourself.

     By practicing this frequently, you will know your tango movements inside and out.  The physical steps will become second nature to you.  Then, you will be free to be conscious of other things, like the emotional and spiritual connection with your partner.

     This will make it easier for you to connect with your partner emotionally and spiritually. Then you will have a much more satisfying and fulfilling tango experience.

***

Buenos Aires Scene: Observations of Janis Kenyon 
School of the Milongueros, Buenos Aires

Invitation to The Dance

     Dancers arrive in Buenos Aires to go to the milongas. Those who come for
the first time have a lot learn about the codes and customs. During the
past six years, I've experienced the various ways a woman can be invited to
dance.

1. Verbal invitation at the woman's table.
This is probably the easiest and most acceptable form for tourists since it achieves the desired results--they get to dance. What they aren't aware of is that the men who go directly to a woman's table to invite her to dance do so because (1) she is a tourist and (2) she will accept his invitation.

    What the women don't know is that these local dancers only dance with tourists because they aren't good dancers. These men will continue to invite the same women to dance for hours. If the women never decline, they won't have the opportunity to dance with others. If you are willing to dance with bad dancers, the good dancers will never invite you. Ignore the
man who comes to your table and he won't bother you again. You don't have to say anything. He will get the message. However, if you don't care how he dances, you can accept.

2. Invitation with a nod (called the cabeceo)
This is the most common way of inviting a woman to dance. A man makes eye contact with a woman from his table. If she wants to dance with him, she indicates with a nod in response. If not, she merely looks away and no one knows that she has rejected him. There is a mutual agreement between two people. The man knows whether or not she wants to dance and proceeds accordingly.

3. Invitation from across the room -- bailas?
This is another form which is used by many of the better dancers. After catching the attention of the woman he wants to invite, a man will often smile and move his lips--bailas?-- that is to say, do you want to dance? You have to read his lips. A woman can respond with a smile or other facial expression or movement of the head. If she doesn't want to dance, she
merely looks in another direction.

4. And then there are the milongueros -- VAMOS!
They are the best dancers and carefully select with whom they want to dance. They wait for the orchestra they enjoy most. They may not dance a complete tanda. All eyes are on these men who dance very little, but very well. It's all about being patient and knowing which orchestra is their favorite. It happens in a split second and the invitation is subtle. They don't ask a woman, because they know women are waiting to dance with them. Their
invitation is done by the movement of the lips -- vamos! There's no movement of the head. When they're ready to dance, a woman is glad that she is one of the chosen. The milongueros have to see a woman dancing before they will invite her. A milonguero wants to dance well or not at all.

***
Announcements:

1. Click Here: Tango From The Heart Close-Embrace Lead-Follow Intensive in Gainesville, Florida on August 13-14, 2005:

Teo and Marsha teach close-embrace “Break Through To A New Level of Tango” weekend in Gainesville, FL. every month.  The following is a link to the information about our upcoming tango intensive in July. The intensive includes two full days of dancing and practicing close embrace tango and raising your skill level. Classes are given in a beautiful. relaxed setting with nothing to distract you from perfecting your tango abilities. Classes are strictly limited to only twelve students. There is lots of one-on-one instruction.  It is the next best thing to private lessons.

2. Click Here: Make Your Relationship Romantic Relationship-Building Workshop in Gainesville, FL on August 5-7, 2005

Our new relationship-building classes are called Make Your Relationship Romantic.  These weekend workshops focus on the tango as a tool to bring more fulfillment to a relationship.  They are designed to make it possible for you to:

• Feel the passion in your relationship

• Experience a deep and satisfying relationship with your partner

• Expand your emotional capacity for intimacy, which transforms all of your human relationships-with family, friends, and co-workers

3. Click Here: Attract Your Ideal Man Seminar in Gainesville, FL on August 27-28, 2005

Single women come to our leading-edge seminar Attract Your Ideal Man. This weekend seminar focuses on a woman's ability to attract a quality man into her life. Many women do things that are hindering them. But every woman has the power to attract her ideal man. You can have great success with men by learning a simple set of skills that most women don't know and every woman would love to learn. Learn to:
Attract your ideal man and have the romantic life you want to live
Get exactly what you want in a man
Meet and date a lot of men, until you find the one who is right for you
Have a man to love, who will love you in return

6.Contributors:  If you have an article you would like to submit for publication in Tango From The Heart please let us know.  We welcome your submissions. If your article fits with the theme of Tango From The Heart we will consider it for publication in a future issue. You may email your articles to teo77@hotmail.com.

5. Spread the Word:  Please send the link to this Online Ezine to your friends who might be interested.  All they have to do is send us an email with the words, "subscribe".  We will add them to our email list. The email address to subscribe to Tango From The Heart is teo77@hotmail.com.

6. Link To Us:  If you have a website related to tango we would like to exchange links with you.  The more we all work together and link together the easier it will be for people interested in tango to find us on the web.  For information on exchanging links please click here. 

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Copyright 2005, Theodore Bartek
All Rights Reserved