Quotes on Argentine Tango
“Tango specifically is irresistible to me because it represents the intersection of opposing forces. To name a few: sensual and mathematical, simple and complex, curving and linear, up and down, inward and outward, speaking and listening, motion and stillness, control and release. The challenge and the reward of tango is to hold these opposites together at once in your own being. It is a partnered form, which is in itself another experience of the union of opposites. It’s beautiful and lends itself very elegantly to universal metaphors, both spiritual and interpersonal. I have been transformed a million times through tango. It is an art form in which it is very easy for me to experience constant personal evolution.”
- Sharna Fabiano, from an interview with Dance Place:
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“The unique pressures of this extraordinary city [Buenos Aires], in this extraordinary moment of its history, formed the evolving Tango, and made it into something more than just a dance. The Tango became an expression of a fundamental human need:
The Hunger of the Soul for Contact with Another Soul.”
- Christine Denniston, The Meaning of Tango: The Story of the Argentinian Dance
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“But it all becomes simple if the dancer remembers that the essence of good technique is to keep the two hearts perfectly together at all times throughout the dance, and that the purpose of this is to give the most satisfying dance to both partners, both emotionally and creatively. Good technique is designed to create an emotional connection, and also to create a framework that gives the maximum possible choreographic freedom.”
- Christine Denniston, The Meaning of Tango: The Story of the Argentinian Dance
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“Beyond the erotic mystique, tango’s fusion of physics, artistry, and passion provocatively illustrates the dialogue of our daily lives. Tango is spontaneous and unchoreographed. Two people can move as a fluid unit . . . New meaning and strength are breathed into the ideas of cooperation, receptiveness, surrendering and yielding.”
- Jeanette Potts, M.D., Tango: Lessons for Life
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“Tango is different from any other social dance I have ever experienced. Choreographically it offers wider and richer possibilities. And on the emotional level it offers an investigation of the nature of human relationships, of the meaning of intimacy, and of what it is to be human and a social creature in a world that is often lonely and isolating. The great choreographic possibilities of Tango spring from the intimate connection between the two people dancing it.”
- Christine Denniston, The Meaning of Tango: The Story of the Argentinian Dance
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“Tango . . . is often misunderstood. How can something so sensuous and provocative (at one time, it was even forbidden) be a source of spiritual inspiration and innocent pleasure? But tango is many things to many people. Those who know it intimately explore and define their interpretations differently. Although tango has form and technique, it is also free and interpretive. Paradoxically, it requires discipline in order for dancers to achieve liberation. A French urologist and jazz aficionado I once met told me, ‘It is the profound knowledge of the rules and the structure that allow you to break free.’”
- Jeanette Potts, M.D., Tango: Lessons for Life
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“ ‘It’s pure tango, that’s all. I just have enormous respect for the dance. I take it as a kind of catharsis. This is a very passionate thing. I go to the milonga,’ he said, sticking his arm out, feigning dancing, ‘and I listen to my wife’s heartbeat while I dance.’ “
- Brian Winter, Long After Midnight at the Niño Bien: A Yanqui’s Missteps in Argentina
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“If you’ve never been the last on the floor the night of a good milonga, your heart and mind dancing as if you were really alive, you must look for the opportunity to end the night that way soon. Tango will have new meaning for you.”
- Keith Elshaw
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“Tango is about music and movement and connection and soul. Let that be the measure.”
- Gregory Phillips
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“Tango dancers have the opportunity to become, in a sense, intuitive experts in body chemistry and body language. The tango connection, or embrace, is a way to develop tremendous sensitivity to the movement and language or the body as we synchronize with each partner. If our objective is the most comfortable and expressive dance possible, it’s in our best interest to pay close attention to the subtle gestures of our partner’s body, how he or she takes a particular step or simply the position of his or her shoulders. Noticing these details, often unconsciously, helps us to establish a better sensual connection, or better chemistry with that person. This highly tuned sensitivity and ability to adapt and synchronize is a defining characteristic of the very greatest tango dancers in the world. If, in addition to becoming sensitive, we deliberately apply positive intentions like enthusiasm, generosity, and sweetness to our dances with others, the tango becomes exceptional, even transformational.”
- Sharna Fabiano
