I offer the following as a work in process.

The longer I dance Argentine tango, the more I think of it as self-exploration disguised as a dance.

There is much more to it than that, of course. There is fun, learning, and work. There are chances to travel, meet amazing people, make friends, meet lovers, and engage in a truly global culture and lifestyle.

Yet, at its core, for me, is self-exploration.

Tango is my laboratory, a microcosm of the world I inhabit. It is a place to experiment with different aspects of myself, take chances, make messes, hopefully clean up messes.

During my time dancing, I have collected a few non-English words that I would like to share and discuss. These are my takes on the words. Each word, individually and collectively, expresses my fundamental philosophy of dancing Argentine tango.

I will start with the one that first drew my attention some years ago: duende.

Duende is a Spanish word that means elf or sprite. These creatures tend to be mischievous. However, playwrite Federico Garcia Lorca expanded on this idea in his essay “Theory and Play of the Duende”. I will leave the reader to search for the full work. In my opinion, it is well worth the read for anyone interested in art and culture and one’s inner drive for life.

Lorca more or less dismissed the concept of desiring inspiration from on high (which he termed angelic inspiration) and reliance on external worldly muses. Instead, he said that “the duende has to be roused from the furthest habitations of the blood”. For Lorca, duende represented the true spirit of Spain which inhabited flamenco dance and music, the art of Goya.

I feel that as a concept, duende is that ultimate internal personal life force. It is often covered by habit, time, conditioning, doubt, angst. I suggest that reaching, expressing – inhabiting? - duende requires going through all of that “stuff” to get to the core of it all. Perhaps it is what I was writing about in my own book of “Bone Tree” poems.

This will bring us to mugre, another Spanish word that which literally means dirt. Getting to duende is indeed a dirty business. Jungian shadow work. Mugre fits in this philosophy much like the progression of a martial artist moving from white belt to black belt. The white belt is that of the beginner or initiate. The belt is clean, unsullied. Over time, use causes the belt to darken with the dirt and grime of experience.

Tango is an improvised dance. Improvisation opens the door for miscues or “mistakes”. In tango , we often say, “tango has no mistakes, only new steps”.

These missed steps, to me, fit very nicely with the idea of wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is the Japanese concept of appreciating all things for their flaws and impermanence. It is deeper than a sterile stoic approach and it is not nihilistic in the least. In wabi-sabi, the imperfections are beautiful. Impermanence teaches us that we must pay attention to the moment to seek those brief, beautiful moments and experiences.

Let us now turn to kintsugi, the Japanese art of pottery repair. This is a method of repair that seeks not only to make a broken thing whole, but also to emphasize the lines of brokenness as something of beauty. Its literal meaning is “golden seams”. The gold infused into the glue holding the pieces together highlight the connections of the pieces.

Back to the dance.

Argentine tango is, in many ways, a dance like any other dance. Two people, arranged as couples, go onto the floor and dance amidst other couples.

Yet, when two people come together who have developed and deeply expressed their internal force for life (duende), are more interested in authentic movement than in perfect technique (mugre), seeking beauty in the small mistakes during the few minutes they will dance together (wabi-sabi), and support each other to not only repair those mistakes but to use their awareness of those missteps to create something new and beautiful, you can see their connections as palpable and resonant (kintsugi).

Dance is perhaps the most human of art forms. For me, the art form of Argentine tango is akin to sculpture. The Argentine tango dancer is a sculptor of themselves. They are the block which they will carve. The dance can help to chip away that which is unnecessary to find that which is core to the human experience.

Certainly, there is much technique to be learned to dance tango well. Its interpersonal geometry, close embrace, and frequent small spaces in which it is danced require training for the dancers to be safe, comfortable and musical.

But the most important – and most difficult – work, is that of reducing the noise of extra technique, achieve the subtlety of reducing the energy needed to communicate lead and follow ideas with your partner, and ultimately finding the core fire of your personal life force that you wish to share with and seek within your dance partner.

5JUL23

Notes and definitions:

“Theory and Play of the Duende : and, Imagination, Inspiration, Evasion”, Federico Garcia Lorca, 1928

Duende: (Spanish) sprite, or a heightened state of emotion, expression and authenticity, often connected with flamenco.

Mugre: (Spanish) dirt

Wabi-sabi: (Japanese) An aesthetic or world view characterized by finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, or simplicity.

Kintsugi: (Japanese) “golden seams”, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum