5 Good Reasons to Learn the Tango

Tango is the epitome of grace, elegance, 
sensuality and pure nostalgia. 

Tango is a dance for two, the dance ‘par excellence’ of close embrace. Learning tango requires little skills, yet devotion, a good musicality and a lean body can be a bonus. Saying that everyone who can walk can dance the tango is, however, not what I believe.

Yet, there are a zillion of good reasons to learn to dance the #tango.

Much has been written and said on why. I have been a tango dancer for 9 years now, travelled to Argentina for tango 15 times in 7 years. I am even moving to Buenos Aires from Brussels in a little while.

Here are my 5 reasons to learn the tango.  

Tango Photography by Peter Forret

           

A bloody good excuse to travel (1): once you have started dancing, you will want to improve your dancing skills and you may want to do it fast. You will develop a taste for your favourite teachers by having watched their videos on you-tube, or because you followed one of their workshops during a major tango event.  Or you just heard a lot of good stuff about them.

The world is one great village and tango teachers these days travel a lot. And so might you as long as your wallet allows you . Travelling Europe ( or the United States ) is  relatively easy, fast and cheap, whilst a flight across the ocean might require some decent preparation. There are plenty of tango festivals, marathons, encounters. You might not know what & where to choose first.

Discover your female side (2) & Start your Shoe Collection (3)

Girls, pay attention ! Here comes the good news.  Turn to tango and become a real woman !

Oups, does this sound too harsh?  Trust me, I have been there too. There is life before and there is life after tango.

I remember a scene in the Gretaflora store in Palermo. I was sitting on the floor, picking small pieces of leather and putting them together to compose my next tango shoe collection. This was when I  was still the detangosetrata tango shoe importer for Belgium.

A German girl was trying on some shoes. One could easily tell she was a beginner: her clothes were dull and she could barely stand on high heels. No wonder she  left with a pair of  low-heels grey shoes.

You will want to compete on & off the floor not only by your technique and your beautiful smile.

It is a hard world out there  at the milonga. Men tend to judge your skills by the shoes you wear . And chances are high that the sexier your looks,  the more successful you will be.

A Swedish tango friend once said : “ If I cannot have many men, I might as well have many shoes.” So guess how many pairs she brought back home from #BuenosAires…

High heels, sexy clothes, a little bit of make-up and some fine matching jewelry…  (and save yourself some time to jump under the shower first): I guarantee you, this does the trick !

PS: Yes guys, this goes for all of you too. Nothing worse then being picked by a man who smells like he had ran out of fresh underwear  a week before.

Find your perfect match (4) !

No, I am just kidding. If indeed this IS the reason why you consider tango, then let me disappoint you from the start.  Undoubtedly you will meet a lot of other dancers and some you may find unresistingly attractive. Be prepared ! A warned man is worth two ! ( and a warned woman three ! ).

Tango is a true reflection of the world outside of the dance floor. We dancers show up elegant. You can like it or not, but tango is all about seduction.  First comes the cabeceo, then the music, then the dance.  And then, once in a while, the perfect connection.

Take this as precious, valuable advice. Enjoy it while the music lasts.  Few are the tango-born couples that survive, yet plenty the friends you will make in tango.

With no exception it happens to every beginning dancer. Heartbroken cause the ‘dance’ did not last. But afterwards a life lesson wiser and a ton stronger because tango did not kill you !  

Mens sana in corpore sano (5)

No more need for expensive medication! Dancing tango will make you feel instantly good about yourself !

Milongas usually are a relaxing environment where you meet friends and strangers at their best.  Once you have mastered the basic steps of tango, you can and you should allow yourself to surrender. Enjoy the music, let your emotional or work related stress go. You will learn a lot about yourself, your body, and you will learn to listen to the other.

You will find tango is the perfect physical exercise and it brightens up your spirits. There is absolutely no need to be frustrated, anxious nor jealous. Life ain’t black  or white, neither is tango.

This reminds me of another beautiful story. I was still a beginner and on Mondays I used to go to the now closed ‘Los Romanticos’ at Saint Catherine’s. The place had a lot of charm, but the floor was a   disaster. Yet the guaranteed presence of  a bunch of latinos and the cosy atmosphere made me want to go there.

Beyond all expectations I happened to be invited by an older italo-frenchman who was living in Ecuador. In Brussels for business  he would not skip his tango. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a talented, devoted and most charming dancer. I still recall him as my first tango connection. It is precisely this connection that made him reveal his secret.  Four years earlier he had been diagnosed with #cancer . He was convinced that dancing tango had cured him, completely. Though I was only a beginner, missing the practice and technique to be at his level, I believed him. Now that I am maybe were he was then, I have no doubt he was telling me the truth. ( read also: The Thruth about Cancer )

My tango is my cure against Alzheimer, aching muscles and sleepless nights. Whenever  I am bored, I go to tango ! I only wish there were more people dancing tango..

See you on the floor !