探哥是一种感觉

舞步只是用来表达感情的工具，正如词语是用以表达思想的工具。探戈不是舞步，而是对感情的表达。正如有人著名地说过的那样，“探戈是一种舞出来的感觉。”感觉是很难定义的，它可以是从心情，感受，情绪，梦想，激情，欣快到灵感的任何东西。简单地说，我们在探戈中感受到的是一种心境。虽然它难以言表，但在这心境中我们变得最活跃，最有创意，最雄辩，也最满足。如何进入这种心境是一个谜。它不能靠意志或努力达到。它不会每时每刻发生。当我们刻意寻找它时却找不到。但每个人都曾经验过它。我们沉迷于探戈主要因为我们都有过这样的感觉。

探戈能把我们带进这种感觉可能跟音乐有关。好的音乐是跳舞跳得尽兴的必要条件。它是将我们的潜力（创造力，想象力，能力，流畅性等）充分发挥出来不可或缺的激素。好的探戈音乐具有清晰的节奏和丰富的感情，不仅优美而适于跳舞，而且能制造气氛，激发情绪，提高士气，产生灵感，把我们带进那种心境。当我们记得一个音乐迷人，士气高昂的舞会，我们所记的是那种感觉，而不是步子。

当然，那种感觉不是单靠音乐产生的，拥抱也起着重要的作用。探戈之所以与众不同是因为拥抱。探戈的拥抱不象新手认为的那样只是一个框架或相互搀扶。它是使两人合为一体的连接，是沟通两颗心的交流，是抚慰灵魂的柔情，亲昵和舒适。它能满足深藏在人性中的需要，給我们一种相归属，相依连，相成全的感觉。它将我们带回到最早的记忆，我们儿时的摇篮，母亲乳房的滋养和慰籍，父亲怀抱的支持和保护，家庭的安全与温暖。探戈反映我们对“家”的向往。它提醒我们，不是当我们独自一人，而是当我们在一起时，我们才是最好的。最终，我们是在彼此中找到自己的“家”，因为我们属于彼此，需要彼此，成全彼此。我们跳探戈是为了与对方成为一体，从而使自己完整。没有拥抱，探戈就不是探戈，而只是一个普通的舞蹈了。

如果拥抱如此重要，那么舞伴也一样。同一个不会拥抱的舞伴跳舞是找不到感觉的。只重视步子的探戈教学法培养出来的正是这样不专业的舞者，他们回避拥抱，向后仰身，将自己与舞伴分开，把着舞伴就如同把着台购物车，在跳舞时不投入感情。这样的人完全不理解跳探戈是怎么回事。跳探戈就象是将婴儿小心翼翼地抱在怀里，哼着摇篮曲摇他/她入睡；或安息在父母怀中，听着赞美歌，被轻轻摇入梦乡。探戈是我们在舞蹈中体验到并与舞伴分享的那种温馨，安全，舒适，和亲密的感觉。的确，探戈优美的音乐，舒适的拥抱和节奏性的摆动有一种催眠作用，使我们深深坠入冥想或梦境，其感觉是如此惬意，以至于舞曲结束时我们仍不愿醒来。人们需要知道步子才能跳探戈，但步子的目的是为了方便拥抱，让两人得以在运动中保持一体。探戈就好象现实生活中的伴侣关系，虽然面临各种挑战，但两人团结一致，紧密相连，互相支持，不可分割。它需要爱心，信任，和委身。如果你能从这个角度看探戈，我向你保证，你会体验一种完全不同的舞蹈，浪漫，感性，梦幻，诗意，并难以置信的令人满足。

Tango Is a Feeling

Steps are tools used to dance feelings, just like words are tools used to convey thoughts. Tango is not found in the steps, but in the heart. As someone famously put it, “Tango is a feeling that is danced.” It is difficult to define feeling, which could be anything from emotion, sentiment, mood, dream, excitation, euphoria, to duende. Simply put, what we experience in tango is a state of mind. As ineffable as it is, we are most exuberant, creative, eloquent, and satisfied when we are in that state of mind. How this state of mind comes into being is a mystery. It may not come by will or effort. It may not come always. It may not come at all even when we try hard to find it. But everyone has experienced it at some point. We are addicted to tango mainly because we have experienced that feeling.

The reason tango can lead us to that feeling may have something to do with the music. Good music is essential to a fulfilled tango experience. It is an inspiration indispensable for bringing our potentials (originality, imagination, ability, and fluency) into full play. Good music, marked by a clear rhythm and rich sentiment, is not only beautiful and easy to dance to; it also generates a mood, stirs up emotions, lifts the spirit, inspires creativity, and leads us to that state of mind. When we remember a milonga where the music is enchanting and morale is high, what we remember is the feeling and not the steps.

The feeling, of course, is not generated by music alone. The embrace also plays an important role. Tango is unique because of its embrace. Unlike what novices may think, tango embrace is not just a frame or hold. It is the connection that makes us one, the communication that links up our hearts, the tenderness, intimacy and comfort that satisfy our soul. It serves the needs that lie deeply in our humanity, giving us a sense of belonging, connection and completion. It takes us back to our earliest memories, to the cradle of our infancy, the nourishment and comfort of our mother’s chest, the support and protection of our father’s arms, and the warmth and safety of our home. Tango reflects our longing for “home.” It reminds us that we are better not when we are alone, but when we are together. In the end, we find home in each other, because we belong to, need, and complete each other. We dance to be one with each other, thus make ourselves whole. Without the embrace, tango is not tango but another ordinary dance.

If the embrace is important, so is the partner. We cannot find the feeling dancing tango with a partner who doesn’t know how to embrace. The problem of a tango pedagogy focusing on steps is that it produces just such amateurs. They shy away from the embrace, lean backward, detach themselves from their partner, grab their partner like a shopping cart, and are not emotionally engaged. Such people completely miss the point of dancing tango. Dancing tango is like holding a baby tenderly in your arms, singing a lullaby, and swaying him/her to sleep; or resting safely in your parent’s arms, listening to the hymn, and being swayed to dream. Tango is the warm, safe, comfy, and intimate feeling that we experience and share with our partner in the dance. Indeed, the beautiful music, comfortable embrace and rhythmic motion of tango have a hypnotic effect, causing us fall deeply into a state of meditation or dreaming, so heavenly that we don’t want to wake up when the tanda ends. One needs to know the steps to dance tango, but the whole point of steps is to facilitate the embrace so that we may remain one in motion. Tango resembles the relationship in real life where we face all kinds of challenges but keep on united, connected, supportive and inseparable. It requires love, trust, and surrender. If you see tango from this perspective, I guarantee you that you will experience a totally different dance—romantic, sensual, dreamy, poetic, soulful, and incredibly satisfying.