Students first thinking of taking tango classes are often enticed in by a simple phrase: if you can walk, you can tango! This would convince even the most nervous of students to try a class.
And every word of it is true! Tango – in its essence – is simply a walk. A beautiful, elegant, refined walk, yes, but just a walk.
But then you take your first tango step with your partner and you make an immediate discovery. You’ve forgotten how to walk!
It’s kind of like that feeling you have when giving someone your telephone number … and suddenly your mind goes blank!
So yes, the tango walk is not the easiest skill to accomplish in tango but it is an important one and a rewarding one. And it requires quite a bit of dedication.
So last week, in our Saturday tango workshops, we cast other movements in tango aside to focus on our “caminata” and of course the wonderful tango embrace, an intrinsic part of the tango walk. Like the walk, giving someone a hug in every day life is a natural thing, but in tango it becomes something of an art.
It was amazing to see how in 2 hours so many different concepts and angles were explored. And yet we felt we had barely scratched the surface.
The response we had to the workshop was enthusiastic with many requests for the workshop to become a regular feature in our timetable. We are looking forward to developing the themes in Part II of the workshop this Saturday.
Don’t worry if you missed Part I and don’t worry if you don’t have a partner – we’ll be rotating partners throughout the class.
