Do Less and Let the Music Shine
It’s an Argentine Tango sort of evening. I have the great good fortune of learning this sublime dance from, and dancing it with, a champion dancer named Lee Santos – an Army man and a boxer who then became a dancer, which he has been for 4 decades. Who said dancing wasn’t manly?
Without question the Argentine Tango is the most difficult dance I’ve ever learned. It’s improvisational, poetic, structured and free-form, slow and fast, push-pull, hard and soft, deliberate and cheeky, sultry and defiant, angry and gentle, feminine and masculine all at once.
We most often see videos of more up tempo Tangos, but then I stumbled upon this slow version of the Tango and thought it was fabulous. Most would dance much more quickly to this beat, but these two, Murat and Michelle, put a different spin on it. A slow spin. Watch his hand on her back. He adds humor, like it’s a game (and it is) and my what trust the woman has to have to stay slow. It’s all about the musicality and letting it speak to you…
…like the Pointer Sisters and the lyrics to Slow Hand…the song version of a slow Argentine Tango if you ask me (I wish I could attach a song and a video, but not yet on G+).
Here are Murat and Michelle…and the lyrics to Slow Hand. I’m tellin’ ya…
Off to dance!
THE POINTER SISTERS
“Slow Hand”
As the midnight moon
Was drifting through
The lazy sway of the trees
I saw the look in your eyes
Looking into mine
Seeing what you wanted to see
Darlin’ don’t say a word
‘cos I already heard
What your body’s saying to mine
I’m tired of fast moves
I’ve got a slow groove
On my mind
I want a man with a slow hand
I want a lover with an easy touch
I want somebody who will spend some time
Not come and go in a heated rush
I want somebody who will understand
When it comes to love
I want a slow hand
On shadowed ground
With no one around
And a blanket of stars in our eyes
We are drifting free
Like two lost leaves
On the crazy wind of the night
Darlin’ don’t say a word
‘Cos I already heard
What your body’s saying to mine
If I want it all night
You say it’s alright
Ooooooh, we got the time
‘Cos I got a man with a slow hand
I got a lover with an easy touch
I’ve found somebody who will spend some time
Not come and go in a heated rush
I’ve found somebody who will understand
When it comes to love
I want a slow hand
If I want it all night
Please, say it’s alright
It’s not a fast move
But a slow groove
On my mind
‘Cos I got a man with a slow hand
I got a lover with an easy touch
I’ve found somebody who will spend some time
Not come and go in a heated rush
I’ve found somebody who will understand
I’ve found a lover
With a slow hand
Oooooh, a lover with a slow hand
And I get all excited
With his easy touch
I’ve found somebody
Who will spend the night
Not come and go in a heated rush
November 13, 2012 at 12:07 am
He is a smooth operator 🙂
November 13, 2012 at 12:12 am
Isn’t he though Chris Polli? Isn’t he….
November 13, 2012 at 3:38 am
Giselle Minoli I played both videos, pointer sisters and the one above, turned the sound down on the one, up for the other. I see what you mean, they went very well together. It seems like a very challenging dance to master, I wish you the best of luck and perhaps when you are ready, you could share a video of you dancing. 🙂
November 13, 2012 at 4:18 am
Oh yes the Tango is all about the music Christy Sandhoff. You miss the beat and all is lost. Of course it’s about the dance, but you get there through listening to the music.
Terry McNeil I made a video last year sometime and then I screwed some steps up at the end. I actually really liked it but I had just gotten my iPhone and didn’t really know how to shoot a good video myself and so instead of turning it “landscape” I had someone shoot it vertical and they were at a distance and so even though the dance was nice there was much feeling lost.
I have a video cam and I should use that next time. The thing is that I never want to stop to tape something.
Here us a video of a man many consider to be “The Master,” Juan Carlos Copes. Very powerful presence: Juan Carlos Copes Maria Nieves tango Tango
November 13, 2012 at 8:00 am
Would love to see your video Giselle Minoli, when you have one and are ready. A beautiful and very difficult-appearing dance.
November 13, 2012 at 10:31 am
Me, too, Walter H Groth. Me, too! How are you???
November 13, 2012 at 1:20 pm
This brought some tears to my eyes! Reminded me of my stepfather, who was from Buenos Aires, and learned to dance it the “hard way” (as he would say it). He usually kept silent about his early life, but no one picks up the kind of dirty, street tango he knew without, well, hanging out in some places which is probably best not shared with mothers, spouses and children! 🙂 When he and my mom would hit the dance floor, it was quite enthralling. No frills dancer, was he, nothing of the ballroom stuff. Just, oh I don’t know, deep passion?
November 15, 2012 at 6:58 am
This one makes me tense, the heel kicks between the goal posts make me nervous, although, I didn’t see it in this version. Very sultry and sexy dance though.
November 15, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Yes, but you see, Gary Stockton it is all about trust…on both sides. The Tango, for me, represents the ultimate dance of respect. Perhaps if all men and women learned it when they were young, we would understand one another better. I seriously recommend it to every couple (of every kind!).
November 15, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Giselle Minoli ahhh what a romantic you are. If your theory were right we would see the largest amount of iner-gender understanding in Argentina…alas I know this is not the case, my stepdad not withstanding….
November 15, 2012 at 4:15 pm
Yes, well, there’s a lot of other “stuff” the Argentineans have to deal with. Someone told me yesterday it is the biggest center for plastic surgery in the world. I am a romantic, but not, perhaps, in that sense. And the Europeans and American couples who do dance the Tango do indeed seem to have a wonderful understanding of one another. What I am romantic about is that I think partner dancing is powerful. During the War(s) it was the way a lot of couples, like my parents, spent their weekend evenings. They were not sitting in front of the television. And it was not all sports all the time. Groups of people would go out dancing together.
Then the ballrooms started closing. Television took over people’s lives. Certain other “sports” caught the attention of the next generation and, soon enough, “dancing” (according to the friends of my older brother growing up) was for sissies.
And there you have it…almost in a nutshell. Okay, so I am a romantic. I thought that was a good thing. 🙂
November 18, 2012 at 11:11 pm
I love tango but never had the chance to learn it properly. You’re lucky yes.
November 20, 2012 at 4:30 pm
Hello, Marie Hélène Visconti Oh but do I understand very well what you mean. I’ve had an interesting experience with it and in fact have changed my entire definition of what it means to do something well from learning it. Honestly, I don’t think I could have done that when I was in my 20s or 30s even. It takes a very long time just to learn the steps, but what is the most difficult thing is the trust between partners.
I’m sad to say this, but I think American women have a difficult time because they have to take the lead in their lives so much…so much juggling and multi-tasking is required of us that the basic premise of the dance – to be lead – is very challenging after a long day of work when all I, personally, have to do is lead everyone else.
But this lesson is key to the dance and one I am grateful for. It is a couple of hours in my week when I can let someone else take charge and I am completely grateful for that. Perhaps the lesson for me is a spiritual and emotional one, beyond of course the blessings of the dance itself???
November 20, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Matthew Graybosch your comment is very interesting to me. I have a theory about the traditional “sex” trade and infidelity and pornography and all the rest of it, which is that it has nothing to do with sex at all…the complaint that men are not by nature monogamous and blah, blah, blah (who said women were?) but that it is much more what you point to…that it is easier to surrender to a stranger, someone who you will not see the next day, someone with whom a shared environment is controlled, within the fantasy world. But…to surrender to someone you, as you so well say, “cherish” (what a wonderful word), know well, live with, have something at stake with, are committed to, go through the ups and downs of life with…to surrender under these circumstances is, to me, the most sexual, sensual and erotic of encounters.
Sadly, in America now, the genders “separate” out so much…the boys go off and do their “manly” things, the girls go off and do their “womanly” things and rarely the twain shall meet.
On the dance floor, certainly in a dance like the Tango, there is a meeting, of everything, really, soul, spirit, mind, heart, body, emotion.
It’s very powerful and I wish that more couples would be interested in exploring it.