Tango as JABD

What I seek is communication of the embodied feeling in the music with my partner. That doesn’t happen very often. I grow sleepy dreaming of the elusive heart of tango.

I am still mulling the concept of translation that came to me when I was writing about Borges--the notion that the tango danced in the US is not Argentine tango in it’s native form but rather a translation of it and often not a very good translation of it. I think I’m on to something here. And the notion of how to translate the tango seems like something workable. I think the tango is often translated into a JABD (just another ballroom dance) because that is what is kinda sorta understood what dancing is here in North America. Perhaps it is a particularly difficult JABD but what is missing is the feeling for the music and the feeling in the embrace that is transmitted heart to heart. It’s a very real question how to translate that. It’s possible it can’t be translated. I just don’t know.

Is there a way to introduce new students to the heart and spirit of the music? And then introduce them to the feeling that can be transmitted in the embrace? Perhaps not.