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Dancing "In the Moment"
Sharna Fabiano writes: in tango and meditation, tango and yoga, tango and family relationships, and even tango and business management, observing and reacting "in the moment" takes top priority.
Sharna's The Essential Tango - Dancing "In the Moment".
Jonathan Thornton (Eugene, Oregon): "I don't think he was thinking of dancing, but his thoughts on music speak
to me of the best dance. Does this poetry speak to anyone else?"
from THE DRY SALVAGES
(No. 3 of 'Four Quartets')
T.S. Eliot ( 1888-1965 )
Men's curiosity searches past and future
And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint;
No occupation either, but something given
And taken, in a lifetime's death in love,
Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
Why do tango communities find it so hard to recruit and retain men? Perhaps
here's a clue. A recent (short) piece in the New York Times about tango in
movies managed to include all of the following:
torrid ... smoldered ... sexually charged ... sultry ... entwined limbs ...
sexual heat ... provocative ... feverish ... erotic ... destructive ... scantily
dressed ... menacing partners
Reading this sort of thing, men who might make fine social dancers may
dismiss tango as a bit too ... hot. So we lose those potential recruits.
Meanwhile, men drawn to the flame tend to drop out a short time later when
they confront the reality of tango as a social dance.
Maybe we need to re-focus our marketing - more emphasis on the (spiced)
meat, and less on the sizzle.
Lynn
NYC
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