4354  Define Tango Moment

Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 13:23:23 -0400
From: "Nussbaum, Martin" <mnussbau@law.nyc.gov>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Define Tango Moment
To: "'tango-l@mit.edu'" <tango-l@mit.edu>
<1A48EE91A5DFFC4BB2FC91C122470E310319EE11@lawman-ex01.lawlan.nycnet>

Tine asked for a one-liner definition of tango moment. Okay, but its a
run-on sentence:

Twice as powerful as being "in the zone" in sports, since it is
emotionally shared with another person, a tango moment is that moment during
a dance when both partners experience a transporting, zen-like sensation of
being fully harmonious in their interpretation of the music, moving as one,
and acutely aware that they are blessed to be in this moment, at this place,
with this person, with this music.

If they still dont get it, say that to a tango addict, its only real
competition is a phenomenal erotic encounter of the highest tantric caliber,
a mediocre one wouldnt compare.

Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 18:19:23 +0000 (GMT)
From: Alberto Gesualdi <clambat2001@yahoo.com.ar>
Subject: [Tango-L] Define Tango Moment = To
To: tango-l@mit.edu

I will borrow the comment of the Italian writer Italo Calvino for his book Ti con zero / T sub zero . To is the mathematical expression for the departure of a series T1,T2,T3 . Calvino says

" ogni secondo, ogni frazione di tempo, diventa un universo".

i.e. " each second, each fraction of time, becomes an universe" .


warm regards
alberto gesualdi
buenos aires

"Nussbaum, Martin" <mnussbau@law.nyc.gov> escribi?:
Tine asked for a one-liner definition of tango moment. Okay, but its a
run-on sentence:

Twice as powerful as being "in the zone" in sports, since it is
emotionally shared with another person, a tango moment is that moment during
a dance when both partners experience a transporting, zen-like sensation of
being fully harmonious in their interpretation of the music, moving as one,
and acutely aware that they are blessed to be in this moment, at this place,
with this person, with this music.

If they still dont get it, say that to a tango addict, its only real
competition is a phenomenal erotic encounter of the highest tantric caliber,
a mediocre one wouldnt compare.



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Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:12:01 -0400
From: tanguerochino@netscape.net (Tanguero Chino)
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Define Tango Moment
To: tango-l@mit.edu ("'tango-l@mit.edu'")


Tine asked for definitions of Tango Moment:

To me, it is the few seconds after a dance, or a tanda.


Instead of definition, here are 3 descriptions:

Tango Moment is the few seconds after that last note, when the two
partners remain in the embrace, savouring what they have just
experienced.

Tango Moment is hearing the contented sigh of your partner at the
end of a dance.

Tango Moment is that light squeeze of the hands, and the knowing
looks in the eyes before the partners start walking off the dance
floor.


Oh! How I long for a Tango Moment right now.....





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Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 20:32:18 -0400
From: "TangoDC.com" <spatz@tangoDC.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Define Tango Moment
To: tango-L@mit.edu

In addition to Huck's citation of "Silentium," we might also consider
Whitman's short poem "When I heard the learn'd astronomer"
(https://www.bartleby.com/142/180.html), if we're going to seek
inspiration for remaining inarticulate.

But in homage to Whitman's practice, I'm going to do just the opposite.
My apologies in advance if this isn't as short as you'd like it, but I'm
not one to find profundity in a bumper sticker, unless it's on a car at
the bottom of a very deep lake.

The "flow state" (aka, "the zone") may be pretty close to the "tango
trance" or "tango moment"; but as others have pointed out, the situation
is fundamentally different because it's a collaboration. Team sports and
ensemble performances involve collaboration too, of course; not to
mention combat; but in tango, the individual's mental state potentially
achieves a harmony not only with a partner, but with the music above,
the floor below, and the horizontal space occupied by other couples.

To me, a "tango moment" must involve this last component, because I'm a
leader and constantly aware of the couples around me. I consciously try
to dance in such a way as to create space for myself (and for others,
when I can do that too), and I adjust the embrace, when my partner's
willing, throughout the dance to achieve this end. (I'm not of the
school that says, no matter what, you have to stick to one type of
embrace for an entire song. I sometimes do that; and sometimes the music
tells me otherwise. I try to teach my students how to change embraces,
in the event that the music tells them something similar, or in case the
first embrace they try isn't working as well as they'd like. There's no
reason to suck for a whole song just because you're not brilliant at
breakfast, as it were.)

Sometimes the social relationship between couples isn't conducive to
tango moments, I find. It doesn't really matter whose fault that is; I'm
sure it has been mine as often as it has been others'. By the same
token, I've seen a couple in a trance beside me, while I'm nowhere
close. And on that note, I've had women weeping over my shoulder, while
I'm just coasting along in a merely civilized, entirely un-Zenlike,
non-Michael Jordan kind of mood. (I've also had "cologne moments," but
those are distinguished by a particular sniffle.) So I can only conclude
that the conditions have to be right, but that those conditions are
hardly universal, and that sometimes a good connection brings different
results even within the context of one embrace.

Part of the thing, however, involves a degree of self-hypnosis. Also
indulgence. I've often been embarrassed by the overeager, nigh-desperate
look of affected ecstasy on some faces at a milonga-- the look some
people have of basking in the light of the moon, because they know it
shines over Paris too... But affectation always gets on my nerves. That,
and I really think the tango trance is somewhat over-rated, and tends to
distract a fair number of people from being more creative more often.

That's because, in my experience, the "tango moment" is also a moment of
limited artistry. It most often occurs in close embrace, which naturally
makes certain moves possible and others impossible. And it most often
occurs while I'm dancing to Di Sarli, or to an orchestra with a
similarly unified phonic texture and a stately expression of rhythm. But
in any case, I find the tango trance, when it happens, to be a joy
purchased at the cost of wider expressive freedom.

I'm not saying it ain't worth it; I'm just trying to be honest about
something besides its rewards, which have already been praised. To me,
it demands a sacrifice. That could be a reflection of my abilities, or
it could be the thing's nature. I was in a tango trance last night for a
handful of songs, and found the above to be accurate.

As an afterthought, I do notice that no one has addressed (perhaps
rightly) the topic of sexual arousal during the dance-- which is what I
and others sometimes jestingly refer to as "one of Those tango moments."
I'm out on a limb here, but I suspect this happens to certain men more
than it does to others. It hasn't happened to me while dancing for a
long time, and I wasn't able to know what the "trance" is until it
wasn't even an issue, because I was probably more distracted by it than
any of my partners were, if they were even aware of it. Perhaps that's
how I first began changing the embrace mid-song. At any rate, I continue
changing the embrace for other reasons, but this one came to mind while
I was thinking about the trance, and how it's really a connection in the
Upper body.

***

As an extension of this topic, I'd like to relate the following.

The more I think about it, the more I'm persuaded (I said it involved
self-hypnosis) that there's a slight difference between the tango Moment
and the tango Trance. The moment is an intenser-than-usual connection,
with a lot of unified movement, resulting from non-verbal communication
between masses. It's lead-and-follow par excellence. It's not just
sublime: it's subliminal. The communication is going on under the
threshold of full consciousness, but within the range of motor reflex.
You might call it Synchronized Reflex. Pluto and Charon, orbiting each
other, unconcerned about which one is the planet and which one the moon.

The "trance," however, is that, and then some really weird shit on Top
of that. I've had moments of seeming clairvoyance-- times when I knew
music precisely, without having heard it before (or remembering having
ever heard it); times when I've danced for whole songs without realizing
my eyes were closed, and without bumping into anything, including
columns in the middle of the dance floor. I also had the odd sensation
that I was underwater, that my spine was in perfect alignment, and that
my center of gravity was larger, more secure, and more indefinite. It
was entirely unlike deja vu, hallucination, or intoxication. Such
trances have been rare (and I don't know if my partners registered
anything besides it having been a particularly good dance). Perhaps
three or so instances in two years. They compare to other, similarly
rare occurrences elsewhere. I'm tempted to say that this is the actual
"zone" spoken of by athletes (who often confess they have notions of
clairvoyance), and that the other stuff, the "tango moment," is nothing
more than the average dance carried to a special, heightened mood.

On the other hand, my girlfriend has often told me that the tango's
twisting motions, involving dissociation between the upper and lower
body, release endorphins along the spinal column. I don't know if that's
true, and I'm no chiropractor, but she seems to be happy with the
influence it's had on my dance. It is possible, after all, that we're
just massaging our joints, liking it, and mystifying the dots we fail to
connect.

Those are my thoughts anyway. I hope to have more, without losing my
skepticism.

Jake Spatz
Washington, DC

"Questions are never indiscreet; answers sometimes are."
-- Oscar Wilde