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Workshop at Esalen Institute: October 2011
— with Debbie Edwards & Stephen Bauer — |
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Workshop
at Esalen: "Argentine Tango as Path & Practice"
Born along the banks of Río de la Plata more than a century ago, Argentine Tango in its social form is completely improvised — two bodies, intimately connected, co-creating a unique and spontaneous expression in time and space.
Often described as a dance with "four legs, two heads, and one heart," the inner experience of Tango has much in common with the practice of yoga, meditation, and similar forms of body work & movement.
Tango also embodies a unique relational aspect that can offer us a powerful life metaphor:
- As an exceptional invitation to blend mind/body/spirit with breath/gravity/time.
- As a telling example of how we can deepen trust, communication and communion with our partners and with our neighbors, both on and off the dance floor.
- As a mode of ongoing practice that, deeply engaged, brings us ever closer toward a centering wisdom that transcends and transforms our everyday realities into an experience with the eternal.
Taken together, these many qualities of Argentine Tango can help amplify and enrich our opportunities for discovery across a range of disciplines and fields of interest — pointing the way toward a lifetime resonant with potential and fulfillment.
Click here for more about Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California —
including its many workshops & programs, celebrated gardens & grounds,
mineral hot springs, and rich history on the vanguard of alternative education,
self discovery, and investigating human potential.
OnApproach + Accessibility
In this special Tuesday night workshop at Esalen, participants will join experienced social dancers Debbie Edwards + Stephen Bauer as they guide and facilitate an investigation of body awareness, balance, flow, energy, clarity, responsiveness, trust, and attention — all through the remarkable lens of Argentine Tango.Based in Ojai, California, Debbie + Stephen have been dancing, studying and practicing Tango as an improvised social form since 1998. Over the years, they have also introduced well over a thousand beginners to the pleasures and potential of Argentine Tango, then encouraged, supported and mentored these newer dancers as they seek to embark on their own journeys of discovery and insight.
Debbie + Stephen's approach to the dance blends the qualities of mindfulness with a deep understanding of tango's core principles, allowing newcomers to readily find, feel and engage the creative possibilities of this dynamic communal art form, and to embrace Tango as a fresh and powerful way of becoming ever more open and present in the world we all share.
More Things to know about this Workshop at Esalen ...
- Everyone is welcome — guests, students, staff members & friends ...
This free workshop is open to all members of the Esalen community as a special offering of the Movement & Activity Program.
- No prior dance experience or movement background is necessary to enjoy the workshop.
Social tango is based entirely on walking, and so it should be readily accessible to anyone of ordinary health and everyday physical skills.
- No partner is required — individuals, couples and groups are all welcome to attend.
In order to maximize everyone's experience and learning opportunity, we will invite participants to rotate partners and change roles throughout the evening.
- On footwear — choose hard-soled shoes that slide easily ... or come dance in your socks.
Tango can involve pivoting movements, so to maximize your enjoyment, please bring shoes with hard soles that will slide easily on a wood floor ... and if you don't seem to have a likely pair, then bring along an older pair of socks.
The best shoe choices are comfortable with a narrow profile that stay securely on your feet (with straps or laces). And while heels are common for women in tango, flat shoes - or socks - will also work well for this workshop.
Click here to Download a printable flyer for "Argentine
Tango as Path & Practice" (.pdf - 207 kb)
Background
on Argentine Tango
Sensibility and Practice of Tango
Part of tango's fascination is surely its reputation for sensuality and passion — qualities which emerged early on, first as a creation of marginalized immigrants and laborers in the rough dance halls and clubs of the Río de la Plata in the late 19th Century, and later as an exotic import to the salons of Europe in the early 20th Century.
Today, that legacy continues in the intimate mind/body/spirit connection between partners that's still the foundation of a successful dance. As the Argentines are fond of saying,
"Tango is a dance with four legs, two heads, and one heart ..."
In the land of its origin, tango is also widely seen as an evocative synthesis of feeling, philosophy and culture that comes very close to expressing the collective soul and imagination of its people.
Non-Argentines who embrace the possibility of tango quickly discover a river that not only runs deep and strong with tradition, but one that is still defining its banks, and still adding new branches and fresh tributaries, all while contributing its rich current to a wider sea where all forms of dance share and blend their waters.
Improvisation and Creativity in Tango
The other aspect that dancers find both compelling and challenging is tango's improvisational nature, which has several implications:
- There are no "steps" or patterns to memorize or execute — dancing tango is more like having a conversation or taking a journey ... the outcome is always in doubt, dancers work without a script or net, and no one ever dances the same tango twice.
- Dancers interpret the music, but are not "married" to the music — dancers are free to step or move on the beat, between the beat, around the beat, against the beat ... or any combination thereof, at any moment, and different again from one moment the next.
- The partners do not "do the same thing" — they don't (necessarily) "mirror" or echo each other, or any other dancer or couple in the room ... instead the individual partners in tango create what are essentially two different but nevertheless highly integrated and coordinated dances, then offer these to each other in order to blend and create a third, more elusive entity: Our dance.
- And the partners somehow manage to do all of this together, at the same time, in the same moment — something which demands a kind of trust, openness, awareness, and courage that goes well beyond the basics of good technique.
Add all this up, and you have the basis for a very provocative and challenging mode of expression — a rich "kinetic language" with pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, syntax — which blossoms into an art form as the dancers begin to access and communicate ever deeper layers of feeling through ever greater levels of skill, experience, sensitivity and insight.
More Resources ... and Further Thoughts on Shoes
For more about tango's improvisational nature and the intimate mind/body/spirit connections that come into play, try Sharna Fabiano's excellent articles "The Essential Tango" and "Tango: A Deeper Look" — or delve into a few of Richard Powers' many thoughtful essays on the nature and background of improvised "freestyle" social dances like tango.
For additional links about tango online — including advice for new dancers, a CBC radio documentary on tango's music, history & culture, and Tango on film & video — please visit our Resources page ...
Regarding the best kind of shoes to bring for dancing tango:
Since many tango elements involve a pivot of some kind, choose shoes with leather or other hard soles that slide easily and won't leave marks on a fine hardwood floor. Shoes with softer or rubber soles that tend to "grip" the floor will make dancing much harder than it should be, and are usually a poor choice.
In all situations, shoes with laces or secure straps are recommended for tango. It's best to avoid gym shoes, loafers, mules, boots, clogs, loose sandals, flip-flops, and other similar footwear that is loose and/or clunky.
Although heels are customary for women, flat shoes are perfectly fine too. And, regardless of gender, if you don't have ready access to shoes that seem promising, know that you can also participate and enjoy this workshop at Esalen by dancing with us in a pair of socks.
And if you have a particular question about tango or this workshop, feel free to write Stephen before the 16th, or look for Debbie + Stephen at Esalen during the week of the 17th ...
More About Stephen + Deb
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Debbie + Stephen have been studying Argentine tango and dancing socially for more than ten years, and have been teaching and hosting tango gatherings in Ojai since 2004. Their earliest instructors were Brian Griffin & Fay Villanueva in Santa Barbara. Since then they have had the benefit of many hundreds of tango classes, seminars, workshops, and private lessons — studying with more than 90 teachers and world-class tango dancers, in styles ranging from the classic "salon tango" of Nito & Elba García, to the edgy "nuevo tango" investigations of Andrés Amarilla + Meredith Klein.
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Stephen + Deb are frequently asked to demonstrate, perform and present tango — at Ojai Day, Santa Barbara's French Festival, Ojai Valley Athletic Club, Nordhoff High School's "Celebrate Dance!"; at fundraisers for the Ojai Retreat, Goleta Valley Community Center, Theater 150, Besant Hill School; and at weddings and private parties. They have attended a number of major tango festivals, and whenever they travel, they aim to seek out and dance with local tangueros — with memorable outings in the Bay Area, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Boston, Santa Fe, Paris, Vienna, and Buenos Aires. And since summer 2009, they have offered periodic workshops and events in Nevada City + Grass Valley, such as the Argentine Tango EXPLORATORIUM. |
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