Improved by Tango?

A Barrio Milonga in La Boca - the sweet old couple in the front has been together and dancing tango for over sixty years!  They are in love and very happy - and still dancing every Saturday night.

Sometimes Man Yung wishes we never took up Tango...that is, when we we want to kill each other over a disagreement about steps!  However, for me anyway (oh look, Man Yung is still muttering to himself that if we didn't dance Tango, we would never argue - ha ha, good luck!), I think Tango has vastly improved our lives and I'm glad that we are dancing Tango.  We get more exercise, we are happier, we are more social, we have made great friends, we are more mentally balanced, we are less stressed...

When we see examples of miserable people in real life, we always think that their lives could be improved if they took up Tango.

We have a neighbour in his late fifties who lives alone.  He seems like a friendly, normal guy - but we have never seen him with any friends over, nor does he ever date.  He doesn't have to work anymore, but apart from visiting his mother at the retirement home nearby three times a day, he doesn't go out except to shop for groceries.  He only eats healthy food, mostly vegetables with little oil, little salt, no sugar.  He also worked out religiously - but all that healthy living didn't help because he got very very sick for a while.  Thankfully, he has recovered, but life is still monotonous because when we talk to him, he says the highlight of his day is seeing his mother and all the other old people at the retirement home. 

I know someone in my profession who is stressed out of her mind with work.  At the office she is constantly freaking out - yelling, slamming down the phone, throwing things, storming out of the office because she can't take it anymore.  However, she can't just leave her work behind, even when she is home she is talking to her clients and replying to emails.  If she is able to sleep, she jolts awake because she has just remembered something urgent that she has forgotten to do in the office, or she had a nightmare about something going terribly wrong with work.  To compensate for the stress, she takes jet vacations and cruises every two months - however she never quite lets go and by the time she stops thinking about work she has to come back to it.  Instead of being refreshed, she is exhausted by her vacations and it doesn't take half a day before she is yelling and throwing things again.

There's a couple who is obsessed with keeping up with the Joneses.  Every time we see them, she's got new luxury handbags and shoes that cost thousands of dollars, and he's got the latest trendy electronic gadgets - and they want everyone to know about it.  They also want everyone to know where they have been eating - their Instagram and Facebook pages are filled with photos of upscale food from upscale places.  They are constantly "upgrading" to new houses and new cars but they are never satisfied.  When they aren't feeling high anymore from all the status symbols they have acquired, there's always more shopping that they can do - but I don't think that it helps.

A friend of mine hasn't exercised since high school.  She isn't fat but she is frail.  All day she stares into a computer screen and types and she whines about back pain and arm pain and wrist pain.  She is always going to the doctor and even though she is only forty-five she carries around a large rectangular pillbox with sections and labels which remind her which cocktail of medications she should take at what time to alleviate her heart problems, her stomach problems, her intestine problems etc. I tell her, "Instead of taking all that medicine, why don't you go out regularly for a walk?  Take up some gentle exercise like Tai Chi (or Tango)?" but she complains that she never has time.  As far as I know, all she does after leaving work is go straight home and sit in front of the TV for hours.

"See, Man Yung?  Wouldn't all their lives improve if they danced Tango?  People who are stressed  will feel more relaxed.  People who are obsessively materialistic would gain a better perspective on their lives.  Lonely people will get to meet others and feel the warmth of the embrace.  And my friend would finally get some exercise and heal that body that has been disintegrating from disuse!" 

"Ah, Irene, the world would be a better place if everyone danced Tango - that is, everyone except you!  Your reluctance to dance nothing but boring traditional steps is holding me back from achieving Tango superstardom.  I want to do triple spinning leaping back-kicking colgada enganche ganchos!*  Now we never do anything but WALK, and I want to fly! Look at how GREAT we were in 2006.  Waaaaaaaaaaah!"

* "Hey Man Yung, if you were doing your triple spinning leaping back-kicking colgada enganche ganchos, maybe YOUR world would be a better place - but it would be the APOCALYPSE for the dance floor!"

Miscellany

We went to have dim sum with a friend today.  Within minutes of sitting down, two acquaintances of Man Yung also showed up at the same restaurant and came over to say hello.  One even sat down to chat with Man Yung - AND REFUSED TO LEAVE, even though our friend and I are hinting strongly "GO AWAY!" - like trying to order food with the waitress, looking bored and checking our email on our smartphones, giving him the evil eye, etc.  FORTY-FIVE MINUTES later the guy finally leaves to join his wife who had been waiting completely alone at their table with a huge black cloud emitting thunderbolts over her head. 

"Can I help it that my conversation is so interesting and amusing?" said Man Yung when we complained to him that he didn't do anything to get rid of the guy.

When we left the restaurant we bumped into another acquaintance of Man Yung.   We quickly whisked Man Yung away before he could be engaged in another witty conversation.

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We went to Koreatown to buy some chinese herbs.  We found a store in Koreatown last month selling better quality and cheaper medicinal herbs than those we have found in Chinese stores.

We go straight to the store that we went to before - and got large quantities of Cassia Seeds (good for eyesight and to reduce Yang energy), Wu Jia Pi (increase energy and strengthen joints) and Magnoliavine berries (also good for eyesight and to strengthen heart, lungs and kidneys) at very reasonable prices.  We decided to walk around Koreatown to see if there were more stores selling herbs. We drive by once or twice a week after going to a milonga and it always seems that there are lots of herbalist and health stores in Koreatown that we haven't checked out yet.

We look up and down, and discovered that the six other stores in Koreatown were all "Natural Health Food" stores selling pills promising to heal every kind of ailment known or unknown to humankind.   Strange how the first herbalist store we ever stepped foot in in Koreatown and the store right next door to it were the only two selling herbs in the whole of Koreatown... and the rest were all selling snake oil.  We are lucky that in many areas of our lives, even in relatively unimportant ones like this, we end up straight to the point and not in some kind of runaround!

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During our evening walk in the park, we heard the Canada Geese flapping in the pond and honking at each other.  One goose would give the "Let's fly this way!" command... and then another goose on the other side would give the "Let's fly that way!" command... and then the first goose would look pissed and honk louder, and then the whole gaggle of geese would look confused.  A few geese would start to take off, but they would stop, and a few others would try to take off, but the lack of coordination meant that all of them stayed put.

"See, see!" said Man Yung.  "It's just like Tango, you have to have ONE PERSON to give the command and all the others* have to FOLLOW.  It is NOT a DEMOCRACY.  If everyone is trying to lead at the same time the dancing won't get anywhere!"

* Meaning "Irene".

"Can't I just say my opinion? I just want to be heard!" I said.

"No!"  said Man Yung.

"OK then, I will follow...for now.  But by my body language and my aggressive auto-adornation you will know that I secretly resent the dictatorship of Chairman Mao.  One day by golly you will have a revolt on your hands!"**

** Your socks will all have "mysterious" holes in them, your coffee will taste salty instead of sweet, your steak will totally be overcooked, all your favourite CDs would "disappear", you won't be able to find your towel when you emerge dripping wet from the shower..... Mwwwwwaaahahahahaha!!!!

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Osvaldo and Coca are in Italy on a five week tour!  Many many videos have been posted of their performances on Youtube.  We talked to them before they left on their tour and they were very excited even though as they are getting older it gets more difficult for them to travel.   They have always enjoyed the warm welcome of their hosts and students in Italy and were looking forward to seeing all those familiar friendly and enthusiastic faces in Italy again.   No doubt they are having a very good time!

Here's one of their magnificent performances - dancing to D'Arienzo's "Color Cielo":

Signs that you are dancing the Best Tango in the Universe

1.  You swirl your feet for an obligatory 20 seconds at the beginning of any music in a creative, inventive, artistic - heck, even 'original' and 'individualistic' - manner.   Sure, every couple doing your style of dancing is doing the same thing, but the way you do it is somehow a million times more special!

2.  You then "walk" in "close embrace" for another obligatory 20 seconds.  This shows that you are passionate about the two cornerstones of Tango, being "The Embrace" and "The Walk".   Doesn't matter that you quickly abandon both of them because a) you can't do exciting figures if you don't separate and b) you don't want to bore the audience and the judges doing nothin' but walkin'!

3.  Not only do you totally separate, you are hanging on to your partners by the tips of your fingernails for the rest of the Tango - you are so carried away with the thrill of the music (and by the thrill of executing big fast spins and enormous movements with all those jutting elbows and knees and kicking heels that would probably kill all the little old milongueros within five feet of you on a crowded Buenos Aires dance floor).

4.  In fact, you are so thrilled by all those eye-popping movements you will do them irregardless of compas or music or both.  Haven't you heard?  It is sooooooooooo 2004 to fit your Tango to the music, and heck, isn't it more interesting when you don't?

5.  You've got them all fooled into thinking you are improvising, and thousands will flock to take lessons from you on HOW TO DANCE TANGO SOCIALLY.  Come on, do you really believe that all those intricate step sequences and giros can be spontaneously generated by lead and follow, and all those fancy beat-skipping logic-defying adornments can be done just because the leader is giving the follower enough time to do them?  Here's the secret: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE... YER CHOREOGRAPHY.

6.   You dance in a style with a long and ancient pedigree - nope, not "Fino" and not "Portalea", and not even "Villa Urquiza", because if you look closely and compare, none of the old style milongueros danced remotely like you.  However, what you are dancing is something right out of a Miguel Zotto stage show, and that's several...years old already, right?


Actually, we think that this "Tango de Salon" by Miguel Zotto and Milena Plebs is a very good piece of dancing - but we are not going to forget that this was choreographed for the STAGE and this dancing is an adaptation of some of what Miguel Zotto had seen in the milongas for STAGE PERFORMANCE purposes.  They call it "Tango de Salon" but really it is a FANTASY of "Tango de Salon" and not completely suitable for social dancing.  Take note: Most of the competitors in the contemporary Tango de Salon or Tango de Pista competitions are dancing in a style almost identical to this these days (except the competitors unabashedly dance even more 'open' than Zotto and Plebs!), but just because they have named it something that sounds like you can do it in milonga, doesn't mean you can really execute this kind of dancing in a milonga and not make yourself into a total dance floor a-hole.

7.  Hey look!  Even what you wear is exactly something right out of a Miguel Zotto stage show -  in that part where the dancers pretend they are in a real milonga.  Of course, not really a real milonga, because you can't fit more than six couples dancing like that in a real milonga before everyone will start getting into everyone else's way.

8.  Didn't you hear?  They now call what you are dancing "Tango de Pista" so that all those tango skeptics out there would stop questioning whether the stuff you are dancing is truly suitable for a real-life dance floor situation (it is not).

9. This is true - you will encounter people who admire your straight-backed, bloodless, emotionless, cool as a cucumber, technical, by-the-rule-book dancing so much they will be moved to tears and couldn't stop gushing about your "embrace" and your "elegance" and your "musicality" and your "passion" etc.  This makes us roll our eyes and contemplate that you can slap a label onto anything and there's always someone out there who will believe it.

10.  Look, they hand out trophies for the way you dance!  A sure-fire sign that you are dancing the Best Tango in the Universe!