The Tango Instructor

Last night Laura Wolf and I took a tango lesson at her health club on 43rd Street. Four couples, taught by an Argentine pair who struggled charmingly to express themselves in English. He had trouble with words like “elbow” and keeping one’s arms “level.” Nevertheless, he managed to get across very clearly, I think, the basic outer and inner truths of his subject. 

“The tango, it is not about one-two-three-four, like that; it is a conversation. The man, he is driving the woman, he is the driver. He say, we go this way now. The woman say, Maybe, but not right now. She go like this, like this, then she follow. Then the man say, now we go here. They are talking with the body. The man must feel the woman balance. The man lean back just a little, not lean like this, but like this. Always he has his balance, but he is ready to move any way. He is like a tree. On this step he go down like this, his leg down, his other leg just bend but he no lean, he go down the woman. Down the woman. They say that a great man dancer, doing the tango, he always in balance, so with his one leg he go like this—they say with his toe he write his name. In the tango the man drive the woman. I have to tell the lady some bad news. In the tango, the man in charge. The woman no go ahead. She wait. See where he go. Then she go too.” ~ Journal, May 17, 1996