1509 Tanscendent Tangos
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 09:55:42 -0600
From: Tom Stermitz <Stermitz@RAGTIME.ORG>
Subject: Tanscendent Tangos
Giving a transcendent experience to your partner makes it easier to
find it for yourself.
Both partners enable this experience, and either partner can make the
other slide over the edge into the trance. However, it is probably
easier for women to find it, and easier for men to give it to women,
than the opposite.
The follower's role in tango is intuitive. She closes her eyes and
she makes herself available, (the Spanish word is entregarse, meaning
"give oneself up to"). She is saying, "Here I am, I'm ready for this
dance to transcend".
The leader's role involves a lot of external noise and it is easy for
men to stay in the analytical mental space, planning steps, worrying
about collisions, taking care of the woman's movements.
Ironically, a more crowded floor makes it easier for the man to find
the intuitive experience, especially when everybody else on the floor
is in a nice groove. Your interactions with everyone around you
become a steady, rhythmic pattern, rather than the occasional
disruption of a less crowded floor.
This suggests that if the man wants to take the woman to a sublime
experience, it is completely within his power. The great milongueros
can make it happen almost whenever, wherever, with whomever they
want. When it is really good, he sits her down, her backbone is
liquid and knees weak as he walks her back to her table.
Music is one of the channels for creating transcendent experiences.
Another channel for transcendence is using the power of traditional,
even exaggerated, archetypes of masculine and feminine. The masculine
component of tango demands strong, bold, confident leading. The
feminine gives herself up to the dance, but not with inert
submission, like a rag doll. It is also bold and confident..."I'm
ready; I can receive and handle whatever you send my way."
I would also suggest there is a sexual component.
--
Tom Stermitz
https://www.tango.org/
stermitz@tango.org
303-388-2560
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 10:57:04 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Tanscendent Tangos
Tom Stermitz wrote:
>[A] more crowded floor makes it easier for the man to find
>the intuitive experience, especially when everybody else on
>the floor is in a nice groove. Your interactions with everyone
>around you become a steady, rhythmic pattern, rather than the
>occasional disruption of a less crowded floor.
Absolutely. Tom's comments also point to why a good dj is part of the
experience. The selection of music greatly affects the ability to connect
to the music and the quality of dancing surrounding the couple.
Transcendent tangos,
Steve
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 11:37:12 -0600
From: Brian Dunn <Brian@DANCEOFTHEHEART.COM>
Subject: Re: Tanscendent Tangos
Tom S. wrote:
>>>
Both partners enable this experience...
The follower's role in tango is intuitive. She closes her eyes and
she makes herself available...
The leader's role involves a lot of external noise and it is easy for
men to stay in the analytical mental space, planning steps, worrying
about collisions, taking care of the woman's movements.
<<<
For me this makes sense most clearly as a sequence of events and states, all
of which have to be transitioned successfully to get to the transcendent
state. Sometimes the transitions happen very fast, when things work right.
Most tangos get stuck somewhere on the sequence for one reason or another.
The leader may get bumped, may feel uncomfortably on display, may be
distracted by his attempts to impress or control his follower, may not feel
inspired by the music. The follower may feel uncared for or unsafe, may
feel the leader's on an ego trip and isn't listening to her, or may just
feel the leader's lack of inspiration. Either partner may be distracted by
bad breath/body odor/sweatiness/sore feet/etc. But if the leader
successfully navigates the rocky shoals of distraction that Tom describes,
and if the follower succeeds in suspending her personal boundaries in
surrendering, then the next stage of the voyage can begin...
>>>
Ironically, a more crowded floor makes it easier for the man to find
the intuitive experience, especially when everybody else on the floor
is in a nice groove.
<<<
My experiences occurred in both open and crowded conditions, but mostly in
relatively open conditions where crowding was not a navigational factor for
me. I think this has less to do with whether open vs. crowded makes trances
more likely, and more to do with the fact that almost all of the dancing in
Colorado is on uncrowded floors.
But Tom's comment combines two points which might be better understood as
separate issues, and separate skills. On the one hand, there is floor
density, and the skill of handling it with grace. On the other, there is
participating in a common trance state with other dancers on the floor, and
the skill of how to do that repeatedly. The first is an individual skill
for a given leader to develop, and can be done in relative isolation -
Daniel Trenner used to set up chairs as an obstacle course and have couples
dance alone through the chairs, then rearrange the chairs or take a
different path through them. The second is a group skill that requires a
"community spirit" oriented to transcendence, to getting into a zone
together.
These are not necessarily related - people can get into a zone together
without crowding, and crowding does not necessarily make people get into a
zone together (but if crowding did produce trances, LA gridlock would be
continuous nirvana - not my experience!) It does certainly make sense that
those who are comfortable in crowds are more likely to get into the zone in
a crowd. It also makes sense that those who are good at getting into a zone
are more likely to do so regardless of the crowding level. Beyond that, we
get into issues of personal preference, around which sub-communities
naturally form (as we occasionally observe on this forum ;> ).
Is there an "optimum crowding density" for a particular group at a
particular moment, at which the group trance is most likely to form? It
would seem so. I expect this optimum crowding level will vary with the
group's skill level, among MANY other factors. But it seems safe to say
that there is no SINGLE crowding density that is most likely to produce a
trance for EVERY group of dancers.
WHAT WE NEED IS: the "adaptive transcendent dance floor", that monitors the
group size, group trance level and average skill level, and resizes itself
to create the optimum density for trances on a moment-to-moment basis.
Anyone know where I can get development funding? ;>
>>>
Music is one of the channels for creating transcendent experiences...Another
channel for transcendence is using the power of traditional,
even exaggerated, archetypes of masculine and feminine.
<<<
For me, this is the heart of it. In the pheromone furnace of attraction
burned in all our genes, the follower surrenders to the leader, the leader
surrenders to the music and to his care for her...in all this surrendering,
the two egos disappear, The Dance happens until the music ends, and we can
experience our masculine and feminine essences dancing a tango together, and
really turn up the heat on our life force. All the spiritual traditions
collect ways to turn up the heat as a way of powering the drive to
transcendence. Not many of them artfully use the power of sexual attraction
to do so (tantra being a notable exception). For those so inclined, tango
has a lot to offer in this respect.
Warm fuzzy transcendent tangos to all,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, Colorado USA
1(303)938-0716
https://www.danceoftheheart.com
==============================
"...after that tango, we are no longer strangers..."
--- Robert Heinlein, "The Number of the Beast"
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 10:54:26 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Tanscendent Tangos
Brian writes:
>WHAT WE NEED IS: the "adaptive transcendent dance floor", that monitors the
>group size, group trance level and average skill level, and resizes itself
>to create the optimum density for trances on a moment-to-moment basis.
>Anyone know where I can get development funding? ;>
I can use some funding for my electronic-DJ too ;o)
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
*****************
"The Power's Off"
"Do you smell gas?"
"I Think I Can Make It"
"I told you I was sick"
"It'll Support My Weight"
"This Fuse Is Plenty Long"
"There Ain't No Gas Line Here"
"I've Done This a Million Times"
"I Know It's Lightning Outside"
"I knew this was going to happen to me"
"Sure, The Water Is Deep Enough To Dive"
"The Train Never Comes Down These Tracks"
"I'm Just Gonna Take Me a Wizz Over Here By the Electric Fence"
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 13:29:43 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Tanscendent Tangos
My apologies if these went out twice. I'm having a little trouble here...
I've had many transcendent Tango dances. I like to use the word "magic" to describe my experience. My partners are in on it too, sometimes w/o me, ha! Lots of them close their eyes & are transported to another realm. Kinda like other activites, sometimes with eyes open though ;o) I haven't had this experience on a crowded floor though.
r
PS: I'm including a very resonate posting that luda sent on 12/Nov/02...below
PPS: I love the sound of the Color Tango & Los Reyes & El Arranque tracks I have. I'll dance to them live someday ;o)
*****************************
Jonathan wrote:
"Tango is a substitute for intimacy" hmmmm, well, it
certainly can be
substituted for intimacy, BUT can intimacy be
substituted for tango?"
I don't think tango can be substituted for intimacy,
although many folks try, as they do with sex and
marriage. It's just not the same thing. Of course
intimacy can, and should, be practiced within the
tango experience, as with sex and marriage, but only a
few folks manage to pull it off. Especially in tango,
as we've been discussing here on this list recently.
Maybe because intimacy is not for the faint of heart.
It's just so damned risky! :)
And, yes, I think intimacy can be substituted for
tango. But why? You can have both. And it's actually
more fun that way. :) However, if people dance tango,
or get married, in hopes of finding intimacy, they're
not likely to find it. It's like reading a book: you
only get out of it what you bring to it. If people
arrive on the tango scene without knowing how to
create intimacy, they're not likely to find it on the
dance floor. Or very rarely. Their dancing will remain
sterile, as Astrid suggests, "a lot of noise
signifying nothing".
Luda
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 21:36:40 -0600
From: Darrell Sanchez <darsan@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: Tanscendent Tangos
Tom Stermitz wrote:
"Ironically, a more crowded floor makes it easier for the man to find
the intuitive experience, especially when everybody else on the floor
is in a nice groove. Your interactions with everyone around you
become a steady, rhythmic pattern, rather than the occasional
disruption of a less crowded floor."
I think we need to be careful about turning personal experiences and
preferences into generalized assumptions, which is how these comments strike
me. For me, intuitive dancing and transcendent tangos are not dependent
upon the number of people on the floor with me. It is more a factor of my
own state combined with the music and the one with whom I am dancing. There
seems to me here an implication that intuitive and transcendent dancing is
dependent on limited space and close quarters. Personally, I enjoy more
space while dancing. Freedom of movement actually helps to drive and
inspire my intuition. When I am matched and met by a follower who is also
contributing to the dance in her own way I find myself experiencing an
intimacy that by far exceeds the container of the ordinary dance not matter
how many others are dancing. In fact, in my experience, a too crowded
floor can actually, but not always, hinder the transcendence.
Respectfully,
Darrell Sanchez
Boulder, CO
