The Tango Connection
Yesterday we spent the afternoon with our subject here in Buenos Aires, Maria Eugenia Cuyas.
Maria Eugenia Cuyas
Maria is a tango therapist, helping others with the power of touch and connection. Tango is so much more than a dance – it is all about “connection” and after seeing Maria in action,
teaching other therapists, I can understand that concept and “see” it.
Since I don’t understand Spanish, I needed to rely on my other senses to feel and “get” the story. Erin did the interviews with Maria and a couple of her students and did a great job asking the questions, not only speaking and translating Spanish but also tuning into the particular dialect of the Portenos (Buenos Aires natives).
I think what really helped both of us was to go out the evening before with an ex-pat friend and his girlfriend to a “milonga” – a tango hall. But, before we got to the milonga, he took us to his tango class for a lesson. Erin, being a dancer all her young life was a natural and caught on quickly. Me, on the other hand, I did my best just trying to understand the concept of couples dancing. I had come of age at a time when dancing usually meant doing your own “free spirit” gyrations to the music and it didn’t even matter if you had a partner or not.
After the lesson, I knew just enough to give me the courage to get up on the dance floor of the milonga. But what I quickly realized was that everyone on the dance floor was so connected to one another, they took no notice of what anyone else was doing. It was an amazing thing to watch – the faces, the hands, the bodies connected to one another through the dance. It was nothing like the theatrics that I had seen a few years ago on my first trip to Buenos Aires when I went to a tango show. I watched with joy and awe as dozens of partners, lost in their own connections to one another, glide around the floor in their own entangled worlds.
After that evening, I had a much better understanding of how tango could be used in therapy. It’s all about trust and connecting with another. And even though the dance, tango has become synonymous with Argentina –
You got it. “[It is] nothing like the theatrics that I had seen a few years ago on my first trip to Buenos Aires when I went to a tango show.” I had no interest in tango, the dance, for the first three years I lived in Buenos Aires — seeing the shows, not getting it at all. Then I tried it, and now I’m addicted — to the feeling.
This short video is a wonderful example of “real” tango. Of course the shows are real, too, but they are shows. These two women dancing are moving totally improv — pretty easy as a solo girating body, nearly impossible when embracing someone closely — even though, also, it is so damn simple.
It’s really just walking. But boy is “just” a challenge.
Bienvenidos a tango!!!
Thanks Gail, Erin and by so cute Etham meeting.
And thanks for your comments essentially as sensitive, that allowed them to discover, which for me is the essence of tango … two bodies in absolute connection, generating freely improvised movements and creative, as if they were one … that is the tango that I want and try to convey in my classes.
Hugs.
Graciela Mercatante.
Gracias Gail, Erin y Etham por tan lindo encuentro.
Y gracias fundamentalmente por su observación tan sensible, aquella que les permitió descubrir, lo que para mí es la esencia del tango…dos cuerpos en absoluta conexión, generando movimientos improvisados de manera libre y creativa, como si fueran uno solo… ese es el tango que deseo e intento trasmitir en mis clases.
Abrazos.
Graciela Mercatante