I am well aware that a lot of what goes on in tango class is psychological development. I’m talking about biomechanics but the real challenge for the students is believing in themselves. Believing they can move their bodies fearlessly, believing they can balance, believing they can sense another person well, believing they’re sexy, believing they can DANCE … whatever.
Every once in a while, there’s a conversation about this.
Mostly not.
Mostly because I’m not qualified or trained. But I do think it’s the main work that needs to be done.
When a student isn’t intimidated by tango and expects themselves to do it, they learn with astounding speed. When the “difficulty” has been impressed upon them, or if the world has thwarted them a lot in the past, it’s a lot slower. The teaching is the same…
What I like about tango as a form of psychotherapy is that if you want to dance you have to face many of your personal limits. And you don’t get to talk about it, you just have to fix it.
