Limerick Tango

More than anything Tango is a language. It is not, like other dances, the repitition of certain steps to a certain rhythm. It is not something you do it is something that you say. And so when you start learning it you should place upon yourself the same expectations you would when learning French, for example. After your first hour of French lessons you don’t expect to be able to say much more than “My name is”, “I am so old” and “I live here” in a poor accent.

We are always told to walk before we try to run, well we spent plenty of time tottering before we could even stand.

Edit:
This language thing is catching.

One of the hidden difficulties of tango is learning as a couple. Every couple I have seen start taking tango lessons, be it boyfriend and girlfriend or husband and wife, has always had greater difficulty than the individual who started at the same time as them.

Pourquoi?

Because the couple think “But we know each other, we should be able to do this”. Yes they may be no stranger to each other but they are a stranger to tango. It is this presumption that familiarity will get them through the difficult bits that causes so many couples to drop out.

Couples, mix, change partners, avoid each other as much as you can for most of the class and when you rejoin work with your partner in the same manner that you worked with those strange to you.