The Most Sensual Dance Ever : TANGO

The last topic from this blog is the most sensual dance. When we do this dance we get unusual feeling like enjoy it and something pull us into this dance. Let’s talk about it ^^

Tango is earthy and dramatic. Although walking movements dominate, Tango walks, having a "stalking" or "sneaking" character, are unlike the walks of other ballroom dancers. Movements are sometimes slow and slithery, and other times sharp and stacatto, such as a quick foot flick or a sharp head snap to promenade position. Tango has the same counter clockwise flow of movement around the dance floor, but with a lesser sense of urgency in comparison to the smoother and more continuous ballroom dancers. American Style Tango, especially at highly-developed skill levels, makes great use of open and alternate dance positions to further showcase Tango's dramatic nature.

Tango History

Tango (the dance with the stop "Baille Con Carte") is one of the most fascinating of all dances. Originating in Spain or Morocco, the Tango was introduced to the New World by the Spanish settlers, eventually coming back to Spain with Black and Creole influences.

In the early 19th Century, the Tango was a solo dance performed by the woman. The Andalusian Tango was later done by one or two couples walking together using castanets. The dance was soon considered immoral with its flirting music!

Ballroom Tango originated in the lower class of Buenos Aires, especially in the "Bario de las Ranas". Clothing was dictated by full skirts for the woman and gauchos with high boots and spurs for the man.

The story of Tango as told is that it started with the gauchos of Argentina. They wore chaps that had hardened from the foam and sweat of the horses body. Hence to gauchos walked with knees flexed. They would go to the crowded night clubs and ask the local girls to dance. Since the gaucho hadn't showered, the lady would dance in the crook of the man's right arm, holding her head back. Her right hand was held low on his left hip, close to his pocket, looking for a payment for dancing with him. The man danced in a curving fashion because the floor was small with round tables, so he danced around and between them.

The dance spread throughout Europe in the 1900's. Originally popularized in New York in the winter of 1910 - 1911, Rudolph Valentino then made the Tango a hit in 1921.

As time elapsed and the music became more subdued, the dance was finally considered respectable even in Argentina.

Styles vary in Tango: Argentine, French, Gaucho and International. Still, Tango has become one of our American 'Standards' regardless of its origin. The Americanized version is a combination of the best parts of each. The principals involved are the same for any good dancing. First, the dance must fit the music. Second, it must contain the basic characteristic that sets it apart from other dances. Third, it must be comfortable and pleasing to do.

Phrasing is an important part of Tango. Most Tango music phrased to 16 or 32 beats of music. Tango music is like a story. It contains paragraphs (Major phrases); sentences (Minor phrases); and the period at the end of the sentence is the Tango close.

For exhibition dancing, a Tango dancer must develop a strong connection with the music, the dance and the audience. The audience can only feel this connection if the performer feels and projects this feeling. So it is when dancing for your own pleasure -- and your partner's!

"The Tango is the easiest dance. If you make a mistake and get tangled up, you just Tango on." (Al Pacino in "The Scent of a Woman.") Movies that featured Tango dancing include "The Scent of a Woman", Madonna's "Evita" and "True Lies" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.

There is sexy, and there is not sexy.
Charlize Theron is sexy.
Josh Hartnett, who has had his 15 minutes of fame, is not.
The little black dress is sexy.
Harem pants, are not.
The lindy, the waltz, the electric slide, the watusi, the hokey pokey, the hustle and macarena are not sexy.
Tango, is sexy.
It is fitting that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, one of the sexiest couples in the world (before Brad Pitt started to look like Edward Norton), danced the tango (of sorts) in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Seething with raw sensuality, one feels almost voyeuristic observing the interworkings of their relationship as it totters playfully and dangerously between unbridled passion and contempt.
Tango is certainly passionate, to say the least. In just over 3 minutes, one can observe several years (or months if particularly volatile) of a relationship that often exists between a man and a woman. He pursues her, she feigns interest. He does not give up, and she relents. He treats her poorly, she tries to leave but is no match for the physical and emotional control he has over her. It’s all there: desire, passion, jealousy, anger, betrayal, suspicion. All you need is a mother-in-law and it’s a marriage.
While Camp Brangelina are certainly pleasant to the eyes, for more tango dancing and less foreplay, Antonio Banderas’ performance of tango in Take the Lead is captivating. If anybody could make the hokey pokey sexy, it would be Antonio Banderas.
As far back as 1921, one of Hollywood’s first and most famous sex-symbols, Rudolph Valentino danced the tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Since that time, Hollywood has considered tango to be the epitome of sexuality set to dance, and over the years notables such as Robert Duvall, Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Madonna, Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd, Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and even Arnold Schwarzeneggar took to the dance floor to perform tango.
In his 50s, Al Pacino demonstrated that you don’t have to have the youth and beauty of Banderas or Pitt to be sexy when he danced the tango in Scent of a Woman, his only role to earn him an Oscar.

Buenos Aires, City of Tango

Certain cities are synonymous with certain things. While people travel to Paris for the Eiffel Tower, New York for the Statue of Liberty, Venice for the gondolas or Las Vegas for all three, there is only one destination where people go to experience tango: Buenos Aires, Argentina.
While you can see tango performed in locations throughout the world (it is insanely popular in Finland), you must come to Buenos Aires for the tango experience. Observing tango performed out of doors in the warm summer months in Plaza Dorrego of San Telmo, the crumbling facades that line the square is a perfect backdrop for showcasing tango.
The emotions displayed in tango are inherently part of the Argentine culture. Decades of despair, deprivation and despotic governments have produced an Argentine that displays sensuality and passion with an undercurrent of melancholy.
As foreigners in this exotic land, we can discuss great restaurants and comment on our observances of cultural aspects of life here, but understanding tango is more involved than learning the dance itself.

The distinction between sensual and sexual

  

Many people I speak to don't seem to be aware of this, and I was wondering how that was "wired" into your being...? I presume your partner is not threatened by your tango exploits, precisely because of this distinction? Whether I have been in a relationship or single, the experience of this distinction is ever present. Your observation of your own experience in this matter would be most appreciated.

This will be my fourth draft on this topic. It's such a difficult thing to write about and feel like I'm conveying what I mean to convey. I've tried twice before, here and here. And I still don't think I've done the topic justice.

I have told people this frequently, but until they experience it for themselves, it won't make any sense. Tango, the music and the dance, is both intimate and universal. Tango asks us our secrets, but not our name. We can reveal so much, certainly at times more than we intend to, that there is almost an understanding that crossing lines without invitation puts the freedom to express ourselves at risk.

Ninety-nine percent of the time the overtly sexual aspect is simply not relevant whereas the sensual aspect is absolutely everything. Does that make sense? I suspect that the fact that I'm married makes my situation different than if I were single. (And you are correct in assuming my non-tango dancing husband is very supportive of my dancing, and thankfully not threatened by it.) There is nothing to prove to me - I'm not looking for more than the dance. I've been told that takes some of the pressure off. Maybe that's the case and it changes things. It's really hard for me to know from my side of the embrace.

To me, in this dance we are constantly communicating with one another. There is a line that, once it's crossed - when the feeling goes from sensual to sexual, creates a very different conversation.

And this is only my experience, which is limited of course to where I dance, how long I've been dancing, and with whom I dance. My tango world is quite small, and maybe naive.

MOVIE TIME!!!

That's all

Thank You ^^

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