Zero Percent Recall - The Postscript

It's the weekend again at the best milonga in town. As they say, "the joint is rockin'" and the "music is hoppin'". My favourite Di Sarli starts playing - Man Yung and I get up to do a little test drive on the 'ronda.

But something's up with Man Yung. Missed cadences. Weird moments of pushing n' pulling. Strange flappy up and down leading arms. It's a miracle that I can keep my balance and dance so well!

"What's wrong with you?" Man Yung asks. "You're so heavy and your wrists are all loose. I can't lead you at all!"

HEY, WAIT A MOMENT. I'm pretty sure my dancing is grade A++ excellent tonight. A short recap:

- I'm not dancing in outrageously (or even moderately) high Comme Il Fauts: CHECK
- I'm not thinking about doing adornments: CHECK
- I'm not thinking about NOT doing adornments: CHECK
- I'm not even thinking about Wal-Mart (Yippee! We've already got enough toilet paper to last for the next six months!): CHECK
- Stiletto heels are on the floor and not hovering in pre-gouging/stomping mid-air positions: CHECK
- Smooth long back steps: CHECK
- Nice round giros: CHECK
- Strong responsive frame: CHECK
- SLOWER THAN THE MAN! SLOWER THAN THE MAN! SLOWER THAN THE MAN!: CHECK

I look at Man Yung suspiciously. "Hey man, from my quick assessment, I'm dancing pretty damn good. What are you complaining about?"

"Nice checklist you have there," said Man Yung. "You are obviously quite busy with your doctorate thesis on 'how well you are dancing' ........ rather than ACTUALLY DANCING."

I should have known better. In IreneandManYung World, the sun is always shining, the whisky flows freely, Man Yung always knows best..... and for Irene the Tango follower, it is always LOSE-LOSE!*

* As Man Yung always says: "You have to learn how to LOSE before you can WIN."**
** By that logic, I'm definitely a WINNER!

Zero Percent Recall

The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber by Louis Cha.
By the way, Man Yung is actually ancient enough to have bought the
first editions of all of Louis Cha's novels when they just came out!

Here's Man Yung's recollection of a part of the plot he remembers from Louis Cha's famous Wuxia (Martial arts and Chivalry) novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber:

The hero protagonist Zhang Wuji and his sifu (kung fu teacher) Zhang Sanfeng, the mythical creator of Tai Chi Chuan, were surrounded by their mortal enemies. Zhang Sanfeng, moreover, was gravely wounded. Neither Zhang Wuji or any other of the disciples of Zhang Sanfeng had sufficient power or skill to withstand the enemy onslaught. What were they to do?

Even though Zhang Wuji was young and inexperienced not yet ready, Zhang Sanfeng had no choice but to teach him the highest level of martial arts - the newly invented Tai Chi Chuan - so that they could at least have a chance of holding back the enemy. Thus, Zhang Sanfeng immediately imparted his knowledge and Zhang Wuji started to train intensively.

After a few hours, Zhang Sanfeng asked Zhang Wuji, "How is your training coming along?"

Zhang Wuji replied, "Well, master - I recall about eighty percent of what you taught me."

Zhang Sanfeng nodded his head sagely. "Good, good, you are making progress, keep on going."

A little later, Zhang Sanfeng asked Zhang Wuji, "How is your training coming along now?"

Zhang Wuji replied, "I find that even though I am training so hard, I can only recall about forty percent!"

Zhang Sanfeng nodded his head again. "Good, good, all is well, you are doing better than I have anticipated - keep on going."

Still a little later, Zhang Sanfeng asked Zhang Wuji, "How is your training coming along now?"

Zhang Wuji remarked in utter surprise, "Sifu, I find that I can't recall anything that you taught me at all!"

Zhang Sanfeng nodded his head and smiled. "You are ready to face the enemy - now go!"

The training process enabled Zhang Wuji to attain the martial arts skills he needed to defeat (or in colloquial terms, "beat the crap out of") the enemy and save the day.

Before you dismiss this snippet as typical Irene and Man Yung chinese kung fu looney-bin fantasy, there's something to be relished about Zero Percent Recall in Tango*.

When we started to learn Tango, it was a big deal for us to be able to remember and regurgitate at least ten steps, and then twenty, and then thirty, and then forty. "If we can only recall one hundred steps [or one thousand, for the truly ambitious], we've got it made in Tango!" we would naively think.

But now, 43800 hours and 200,000 km later on in our tango journey, the point is rather NOT TO RECALL STEPS.

We want to make it clear that this is not to be confused with "Deliberately not knowing/dancing any steps", because this breeds the type of leader who can't navigate and change his course to deal with any situation on the dancefloor. And not knowing any "steps" at all is akin to having a vocabulary restricted to only words like "a"/"and"/"but"/"the" - doesn't make for riveting conversation and will certainly not be sufficient to let you talk yourself out of a bind at customs or in a hostage situation!

Going back to the concept of "Not Recalling" - it will not do to wedge in steps to "fit" the music with an intellectual shoehorn, or to finish a step pattern when the music just "doesn't go" with it. The dance should flow from the music organically. "Thinking", "Performing", "Remembering", "Recalling", "Trying", "Doing" or any other conscious effort is but another barrier between the music and the dance.

For the leader, this means that no step is slave to "pattern" and every move is followed by infinite possibilities. Nothing is categorized into "Fantasy" or "Milonguero" or "Salon" or "Nuevo". No need to remember what comes next, because the dance IS the music. It is everything and nothing all at the same time.

It is by no means easy to attain this state - it takes a lot of time, a lot of practice, the right teachers and above all a mind that is open and receptive to this way of approaching the dance. And yes, it means knowing how to do a lot of steps and acquiring a substantial vocabulary in the dance - and then forgetting it all and letting it come out as a natural response to the music. It's difficult to express this concept, but we've seen it in the flesh in the example of Osvaldo Cartery. It looks like he is doing the simplest of things to the music, but the simplicity is deceptive. Just like the kung fu masters in the Wuxia novel - in Tango, Osvaldo can "wound with a falling blossom, kill with a broken twig". There are no cul-de-sacs or one-way-streets in his dancing - just vast open vistas, and just music.

Osvaldo y Coca dancing Poema at Circulo Apolo.

*For one, wouldn't it be nice if all those venerable "Tango Veterans" who started learning Tango in the mid-nineties could forget all that choreography they have ingrained in their Tango Soul and start to dance real Argentine Tango, rather choreography plus some even more choreography of the sternum stabbing, shin gouging nuevo kind just to keep "hip and up-to-date"?

And wouldn't it be doubly nice if we couldn't recall anymore the recent sight of a whole room of such "Vets" girating away contra the line of dance to disco-fied electronic Tango like it was 1999?

Katzentango: A Cautionary Tale

Once upon a time we had no cats.

“We will not get a cat,” said Man Yung. “Hear me - NO CATS!”

Then, on a cold morning on a Thanksgiving weekend, we found a tiny white and grey kitty abandoned underneath the car.

“That cat is NOT coming home with us!” said Man Yung.

Kitty mewed plaintively and blinked its big eyes.

Kitty came home with us.

“That cat is not NOT ALLOWED outside of the kitchen,” said Man Yung.

We built all these barriers made out of cardboard boxes so that kitty couldn’t crawl out of the kitchen.

We came home one evening and saw that the tiny four-inch high kitty had jumped into one of the boxes. It was only time before she would jump out of the boxes and right into the living room.

“OK, FINE,” said Man Yung. “But that cat is not going into the bedroom. NO WAY.”

That incessant scratching on the bedroom door frame at night was wrecking the paint job and keeping us awake.

Kitty got instant bedroom access.

“I DRAW THE LINE RIGHT HERE,” said Man Yung. “The cat IS NOT ALLOWED ON THE BED.”

But kitty's breakfast cannot wait. And there's no better way to get our attention but to pounce onto the pillow and swat our slumbering heads.

And that was not the end of the story. Before long, kitty was shredding our sofa, stealing our pickles, yodeling while we showered, chewing our beanie babies, scarfing down the tuna, influencing our fashion choices, alienating extended family members with allergies, popping up in our dreams speaking in Esperanto - and yes, inviting kitty friends to stay! Because as every kitty within a five kilometre radius knows, Irene and Man Yung are suckers.

We love our kitties.

Now, read the story above, but substitute "kitty" and "cat" with "Tango". You will get Irene and Man Yung's secret tango history in a nutshell. Kind of.

Except for the first part. I remember Man Yung distinctly saying:

"WE WILL NOT DANCE TANGO! I REFUSE TO WEAR SKINTIGHT SEE-THROUGH FISHNET SHIRTS AND TIGHT LEATHER PANTS!!"

Luckily for Man Yung, dressing like Bruno is not requisite tangowear.

And they all lived happily ever after.