Tango and Romanticism

When people comment on someone’s tango dancing as doing gymnastics or acrobatics, they are referring to a lack of romanticism in the dance. Gymnastics is an athletic exercise involving skilled physical movements to develop muscles and bodily strength. Acrobatics is a circus show of physical feats, such as flipping in the air, balancing on one hand while doing the splits, and bending the body 180 degrees backwards. These exercises are designed to show what human bodies are capable of for sportive and entertaining purposes. They are physically challenging and difficult to do, and are not intended to be romantic and comfortable.

Tango, on the other hand, is an art form that displays the gracefulness and beauty of the body as it moves in rhythm to music. It emphasizes the artistic aspects of the movement such as sentiment, musicality and aesthetics, rather than the physical aspects of the movement such as strength, speed and tricks. What matters in tango is how soulful, musical, graceful, elegant, beautiful and not how physically challenging, difficult and thrilling the movement is. Tango is created to be romantic and comfortable. It involves feelings, emotions, longings, tenderness, sensuality and romanticism. It serves the need for intimacy between the opposite sexes, and is suggestive of a passionate, exciting, fulfilling, and idealized romance. In the soul of tango is romanticism, which distinguishes tango from gymnastics and acrobatics.

If we take romanticism away from tango, what's left is a sport or show. Unfortunately, in a culture where games instead of classics, sports instead of arts, and technologies instead of humanity are the main influence, that is what tango increasingly becomes. People, especially young people brought up in this culture exhibit a lack of depth and lasting quality. They focus too much on flashy forms rather than substances, and constantly seek changes and novelty. To retain tango’s classic, simple, romantic and elegant style, we have work to do. One of which is to reflect more romanticism in our dancing and teaching, for example, slowing down, being simple, going deeper, showing more feelings, and focusing more on gracefulness and elegance. Technologies and fashions may be out-of-date, but never will romanticism. It resides in the humanity. We only need to awake it.