Tango is a magical dance for many reasons, one of them being the embrace.
We know that tango is a dance of embrace. It’s the same embrace you use in real life, with some technical and postural adjustments to move and flow better with your partner, but the truth is, when you dance tango, you’re embraced from start to finish.
When you start learning to dance tango, one of the most difficult parts to master is the embrace. And it’s not difficult technically or mechanically; from those perspectives, it’s quite simple. It’s challenging on a sensory and emotional level. Why?
Because the embrace isn’t something you offer to just anyone.
In your life, you hug people you know and love. Your parents, siblings, friends, your significant other, etc.
You don’t hug strangers.
Culturally, we’re taught not to hug strangers and even to avoid physical contact with them.
But tango presents a paradox: embracing a stranger as if you love them.
In other words, it asks you to surrender in an embrace with someone you don’t know. And this is where the most difficult part of mastering tango appears.
Because embracing a stranger involves many things. One of these is that your personal and intimate space is invaded, which can seem intimidating if you’re not accustomed to it.
However, tango invites you to embrace, to that encounter with the other, a physical and emotional encounter.
Ultimately, mastering this dance is about being able to do it through the embrace.
And the question that many students ask is, “How do I overcome that threshold to surrender in an embrace and feel comfortable?”
Well, there’s no concrete answer. And no one can tell you how. It’s something you have to discover and develop within yourself.
I can tell you that somehow reaching that embrace depends on your own self-confidence.
Because, in the end, you’re facing a fear and the only way to overcome it is by going through it, and going through it means going to see what happens.
And for that, you need to have confidence in yourself.
Tango invites you to have confidence in yourself because true confidence is when you’re not afraid in a situation. And if you are, you also have the courage to move forward.
Tango is a dance that fosters self-confidence, as dancing it correctly requires overcoming fear and facing situations with assurance. True confidence is shown when you’re not afraid to confront challenges.
It’s one of the few things that no one can teach you because only you, in your journey, can come to know it.
Guillermo Brizuela
Copyright 2024
