Marriage Counseling and Argentine Tango: If Your Marriage Is Falling Apart, Can Tango Help?
From the get-go, it’s easy to see how Argentine tango as dance may be a vehicle for repairing marital breakdowns. The dance’s sensual nature and its need for close physical contact can be the first step in bringing couples together into a loving embrace that lasts even after they’ve left the dance floor.
The physical contact that may be absent in the home or in the bedroom can be safely and respectfully re-established through tango, as the dance becomes a space in which trust and cooperation are encouraged.
Let's Speak Tango! Tango as a Living and Breathing Language
Those who have been frequenting practicas and milongas often possess intrinsic understanding that subtle cues, certain steps, each movement of the hand or positioning of the foot articulate a specific message that both leader and follower wish to convey.
But for those who are just beginning to explore the dance, learning tango may be akin to learning another language. To the beginner, one might wonder:
How does one communicate in tango when barely any words are spoken between partners?
The Mystery of the Cabeceo: Secret Power or Secret Offense?
It is often said that the eyes are the windows to one's soul. One simple look can convey so much intention and emotion even without words.
In the realm of Argentine tango, a simple look is elevated to such a degree that it has become part of traditional tango etiquette. On the dance floor, particularly in milongas, to maintain eye contact with someone is generally understood as an invitation to dance.
Leader and Follower: Why Those Words Make Us Shrink
Argentine tango is a passionate and elaborate display of masculinity and femininity.
Today, most tango circles no longer refer to one partner as either the man or the woman. Rather, the terms “leader” and “follower” have more commonly been used to define the roles in tango. While this is a more inclusive and less gendered way of referring to either partner, it has the potential to encourage passivity among those called followers and put undue pressure on those called leaders.
Thus, many tangueros and tangueras have begun to consider alternative terms to define tango roles.
Can Argentine Tango Reduce Employee Turnover in Small Businesses?
Employee turnover is a costly and time-consuming occurrence, especially with small businesses.
One can reduce employee turnover rates by exercising the principles of Argentine tango when it comes to improving communications, adapting and improvising, clearly defining roles and structure, and exercising mutual respect in the office.
With these in place, a harmonious and creative working environment can be achieved, making it a win for both management and employees.
The Transformative Power of Tango: Physical, Mental Health, and Educational Benefits
Tango facilitates a safe environment for connection and communication while encouraging physical exercise, promoting STEM learning, and helping to manage the stress epidemic.
Tango, for one, is far from the monotony of the treadmill, making it a more sustainable form of exercise and ideal for weight management across generations. It provides a total body workout – enhancing cardiovascular conditioning, increasing flexibility, and building muscle strength and tone, not to mention stronger bones and reduced risk of osteoporosis.
Tango and Memory - How Tango Can Help You Keep Your Brain Awake
Tango is indeed a graceful and playful dance between two people. However, tango and medicine also work together.
Tango can cure symptoms of disorders like dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
When it comes to tango and preventing aging, we can experience a wide range of benefits from the dance. These include increased motor skills, enhanced quality of life, and even stronger relationships with our partners. Visit our page to learn more interesting facts about tango and how you can add it to your lifestyle.
Why Women Love Dancing and Why Specifically Tango
More often than not, a woman’s inherent feminine energy looks for a partner who can provide her with security. As tango can sometimes be a mirror for life and relationships, a woman then finds the comfort and security she desires in a tanda. With a competent partner, she shares in a strong but gentle embrace that will not break — at least, until the tanda is over.
Aesthetically speaking, tango is a beautiful dance. Not only is this evident in how tangueros and tangueras dress, but in the movements themselves.
Elegance and sophistication are exhibited by both partners. Thus, for tango to be beautiful, the dancers must also feel beautiful — which is what many women tend to feel, whether they lead or follow.
Is Tango an Addiction? - Argentine Tango debates
Many Tango dancers fancy themselves as Tango addicts. In fact, one student in her late 70s claims to be a "Tango addict" who would travel for two hours back-and-forth to be able to dance for just one hour.
There's the lawyer from London who retired from her job to shift careers as a Tango teacher, a journalist who plotted a travelogue on Argentina just so she could dance the Tango for two whole weeks, and one who contemplated canceling Christmas because it conflicted with a certain Amsterdam festival.
There is also a slew of other self-proclaimed Tango addicts who fly to Buenos Aires to immerse themselves in the home of Argentine Tango.
Being a leader is fulfilling, but not everyone is cut out for the role. Many want to become leaders and try to be one, but they end up unsuccessful as they lack the skills and intellect necessary for smart leadership.
The team (in the case of Argentine Tango - the couple) needs to fully understand the overarching strategy. WHERE are we going and WHAT are we trying to achieve. Then the HOW becomes the tactic, a small step that is easy to execute once understood and agreed upon the common goal.
Argentine Tango translates into Smart-Leadership-Applied because the dance teaches many lessons that can help aspiring leaders know how to make their team align with their goals.
How the Argentine Tango Connects To Spirituality
To think that the Argentine Tango has a spiritual implication might seem strange for those not in the know. However, for those in the know, there is indeed an immediately clear connection between the two.
Spirituality is something that’s often debated and commonly misunderstood. Many people confuse spirituality with religion and so bring pre–existing beliefs about the impact of religion to discussions about spirituality. Though all religions emphasize spirituality as being an important part of faith, it’s possible to be ‘spiritual’ without necessarily being a part of an organized religious community.
Spirituality is more of an individual practice and has to do with having a sense of peace and purpose. It also relates to the process of developing beliefs around the meaning of life and connection with others.
Mindfulness, Meditation and Tango Dancing
Although it is common knowledge that dancing has mood-enhancing benefits, increases serotonin and cognitive functions, and reduces stress levels – this is particularly true for the combination of Tango music and partnered dancing.
It delicately reveals personal emotional and physical challenges while cultivating intense awareness that has a therapeutic effect and improves people’s emotional state (Bongard & Kreutz, 2009).
“Tango contains highly addictive ingredients, such as pain, pleasure, passion, excitement, connection, freedom, torment, and bliss. In seven out of ten cases, it takes over a person's life.” Naomi Hotta, Tango Buenos Aires Festival and Dance World Cup Finalist
The Relationship Between Tango and Mathematical Models
There is a long-established relationship between musical expression and mathematics, and Tango is no exception.
The sensual side, Tango’s closed embrace, is physically intimate and deeply personal, appealing to analytical and divergent thinkers.
“There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres” – Pythagoras."
Since you continuously hear your Argentine Tango teacher mention the words L- shaped, oscillate, out of the circle, and 90-degree angle, you’ll know that logic, symmetry, permutations, and topology are also present both in conscious and in an intuitive way when dancing Tango.
Who Are ‘Seniors’ and Why Age Doesn’t Matter in Tango
For the tango, age is merely a number that does not, in any way, restrict anyone from participating in this dance. If anything, the nature of Argentine tango can evoke feelings of liberation for those who may feel confined to certain stereotypes and perceptions like seniors.
This is because Argentine tango, in principle, has never been about the technicality of movement or the memorization of patterns or steps.
By its nature and conception, Argentine tango is a dance that encourages improvisation, operating more on the connection between both dancers and their willingness to exchange energies while on the dance floor.
Femininity and Argentine Tango - Clichés of Feminism
Social inequality, the injustice that feminism is working to change, has led to many negative female stereotypes and clichés. One way to combat these inaccurate and limiting ideals of femininity is to reclaim them through something powerful, beautiful, and expressive — like the Argentine Tango.
Discussing feminity is not easy even today. Stereotypes and clichés of
feminism may still require some clarification or examination. One thing
is sure though - dancing can be very powerful in allowing, and even
calling, for self-expression. And Argentine Tango, a passionate, elegant, and often sensual dance can definitely help in reclaiming femininity.