Tango, On My List
Dancing was something that was totally alien to me, until a couple of years ago. Even after two years of learning Tango off & on, it still feels alien.
Not that I do not enjoy it; on the contrary, I love it. But, I am a slow bloomer so to speak. It does take me time to understand, and learn the basics of anything.
Catrina Inglese & Pino Trozzola demonstrating the giro.
Every one of you is a teacher, to me.
Apart from being a slow learner, I am also very picky when it comes to deciding on whom to learn from; blame that on my shyness, ego, or whatever. But, I need to be around teachers that I can relate to, talk to, have fun with, and teachers who’re as easy going, if not more, as I am.
Being around such awesome teachers, automatically makes me feel more interested into whatever they’re teaching, advising, and imparting; no matter the subject. Awesome people like that are ever hard to come by, meet with, and get to know.
But, patience has thought me that they do exist, and finding them is half the battle won - or in my case, half the thing marked off of that bucket list.
Almost thrown out of my list.
As I mention here, I tend to slow down to make sure that I want to do certain things, or keep wanting to do them or learn them. And, Tango is where I saw myself slowing down. To know for sure if I wanted to continue or not. I often went to some locally hosted Milongas, to see if I could belong; or rather have the confidence, and care for living within this circle of people I was observing.
To be brutally honest, I didn’t feel like being associated with them. Not that I have anything against any of them - I saw them as teachers. With that said, all those local Milongas, I ventured into, felt unreal to me. I had almost given up, on continuing to learn Tango. At this point, I was realising that the only fun I had had while learning it, was when I had initially started learning it from Nico & Malou, back in 2014.
After that class had ended, abruptly so, I never again learned to have fun while dancing. I saw most of them obsessed with learning it to better themselves, learning for making it perfect, making agendas out of it, making it a business, or making a ‘peacock’ out of themselves. I never witnessed any of them making Tango their own. I hadn’t seen anyone enjoy it, like we all did when I had started learning it initially.
Enter The Last Tango Teachers.
That’s until very recently, when I started taking private lessons from a lovely new friend. Suddenly, I was having fun again. Suddenly, I knew that taking lessons from her would be awesome. And, suddenly I saw myself asking a few others I love, and dance with, if I was doing anything wrong.
I knew from that first private class, that I could actually, now be able to cross Tango off of my list; all that while making a great friend, and feeling closer to friends already made.
Awesome Teachers Needed.
Originally, today’s post was supposed to be on a completely different topic. But, I have just returned from having some Tango fun. On my way back home, I found myself thinking about people, our perceptions, biases, etc. I found myself thinking, and agreeing that people around you matter; all of them teaching you things, whether you’re aware of them, or not. All of them matter; Much, much more than you think they do. They often will do things, for you; they’ll help you, and do these things for you, without you or them even knowing that they’re.
So, here’s a big hearty thank you to all those awesome teachers, who’ve helped me cross of Tango, off of my list.
