1523  The Varieties of Tango Experience

Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 20:27:39 -0700
From: Jonathan Thornton <jnt@NOYAU.COM>
Subject: The Varieties of Tango Experience

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 Judy Stockinger <judytango@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> Perhaps the "crowded floor transcendent tango" is like the "dormila"
> that Astrid has previously mentioned in her postings, while the "open
> space transcendent tango" is more like the creative flow experience?

When I read Darrell's post for some reason the title of William James'
book THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE came to as a way to keep in
mind the diversity of individuals and of our individual experience. I
think it very clear that on this list the discussion is about THE
VARIETIES OF TANGO EXPERIENCE. And I think most of us appreciate the
varied experiences that partners, times, places, and music bring us though
we may have strong preferences and aversions for some of those varieties.

> I believe both types of transcendence can be experienced individually
> apart from the partner's experience. Of course, the partner may reply
> when queried that is was "special for them, too". But does "special"
> necessarily mean "transcendent" or the way we are talking about
> transcendence here?

I have sometimes thought of transcendent dancing as a new territory. I've
pictured it very large and filled with forests, glens, clearings, streams,
etc to be explored. This is another image for the richness I've found.
Transcendent dancing is not a single uniform state, and I think I've only
experienced a tiny tiny area. This sense of having discovered a large
beautiful country but not being able to explore as far into as I would
like is the motivation behind much of my thinking on this topic.

So, I agree with Judy, there are many different experiences that we talk
about as transcendent and many varieties of transcendent tangos.

peace,
Jonathan Thornton